To Whom It May Concern



 

(I have a few impatient friends that would be glad to fill in the blank for me)

 

 

So......I know.....it's been awhile.  And all of you type A++'s are just antsy waiting for me to post again.  Don't you have something better to do with your lives but wait for me -- you're type A- friend???  Well....you are all in for a treat because I have just spent the ENTIRE AFTERNOON downloading photos onto this post (it takes a long time somedays) to share with you.

 

Our summer started with A LOT of baseball.  Both Daria & Carter went to Provincials in July with their teams.  All was good though because we love baseball AND we love our kids, so the two go great together.

We experienced a rain/hail/wind storm on July 2nd that blew trees down, tipped over our play structure and sent our barbeque on a tour around our back deck.  As we watched from the window in the middle of the night, it didn't occur to us to head to the basement.  In the morning, our neighbour's yard was practically destroyed.  YIKES!!!  We went later to help them clean some of it up.

 

We spent a weekend in the city with all the "girls" in our Hildebrand family.  So much fun to watch them all growing up so quickly (sniffle sniffle).

We surprised my Mom with a 60th Birthday Party with 25 of her closest friends & family.  She had NO IDEA, which was awesome because we totally thought she would have figured it out.

 

Our family worked like dogs on the hottest days this summer to build 3 new bins on our yard.  Most of the kids helped and we recruited some amazing friends to help as well.

We went camping about 4 times (2 more times than last summer).  Yeah!!!  Actually, the camper is still set up in the backyard and being used by friends again this weekend.  Love it.

We went on our annual Peace Garden tour with my family.  Always a wonderful day walking together, swimming & eating......and always ice cream for dessert.

At the end of August, we spent a day at the Corn & Apple Festival in Morden.  Ron's mom celebrated her birthday the same weekend, so Ron gave her the ultimate gift........sharing a ride with her on the "Spin Out".  She was so excited and all the grandchildren (& their friends) watched as their cool grandma rode their favourite ride.

Asha enjoyed the big Pirate Ship for the first time too.

Carter got to ride his motorbike A LOT with friends of our's from New York.  Their family lives just down the rode and the boys spent hours on the fields between their house and our's.  We will miss them!

We finished combining our fields of "hailed out" wheat & canola (see description of storm above).  Daria even learned how to drive this year (I may be out of a job soon).

And then it was back to school.  All 3 kids go to different schools this year. That's going to be different.......but positive & exciting!

Asha - Grade 3

 

Carter - Grade 7

Daria - Grade 9

 

Come back soon (don't count the days though, Lisa-s)!!!!!

 

{from the farm},

j.

 



a week from today

.... the kids will be starting school.
yesterday, asha & I had a little "back to school" photo shoot with her new clothes.

(no New York Fashion deals yet)
just a week left to do all the fun summer stuff we have forgotten to do.

gotta get my thinking cap on.

{from the farm},

j.

Good Morning Grade Sevens.......

This morning (or afternoon; I'm not really sure of the timetable yet), my daughter is presenting my blog to her classmates in her Speaker's Club class. Her assignment was to choose a website and present 5 interesting topics about the website. She chose my blog (pretty cool, considering they are so many websites to choose from). So......I'm going to be chatting to THEM today in this post.

Hey Gr. 7ers & Mrs. Taylor -

Hope you are having a fantastic day and enjoying all the fun you are having in Speaker's Club. By now, Daria has talked about some of the features that you can see here on my blog. This is a space where I can kind-of "sell my scrapbooking style" to some of the scrapbooking companies that are out there in the industry. Through this blog, I have been able to meet (well, not meet face-to-face) a ton of people and it's even landed me a few Design Team jobs. Presently, I am on 2 different design teams and I've been able to discover friends from the United States, Germany, Singapore, UK & many more countries.

So.......I wanted to share a scrapbooking layout with all of you this morning. It's one that I created a while ago (and I've probably even shared it on my blog before), but it's a good one for your class to see.

Mud:
Sorry, Adam & Daria................I just had to do it!!!!!! This photo was taken last Christmas when Daria received a chocolate mask in her stocking at her grandparents. Somehow, Daria talked Adam in trying the mask and, of course, I quickly snapped a photo of them. Sooooooo glad I did!!!!!

(hey guys........don't give Adam a hard time today about this..........it made his skin silky soft.......don't knock it 'til you try it)!!!!!!!!!

I wish I had a goofy layout of Brianna & Daria as well, but I'll have to save something for next time.

Hope you all have a great day...................and good luck on all your speeches.

snickering {from the farm},
j.

moving on

So......one of my all-time favourite companies.................American Crafts............ is having a challenge this week over on their blog.

Here is the layout I created:
American Crafts supplies used: Dear Lizzy pattern paper, Dear Lizzy floral ribbon, Thickers & Remarks Accents stickers.

Go check out their blog and website to get even more inspiration and see for yourself why I LOOOOOOOOVE this company!!!!!! They have a most amazing pattern paper (which I have an addiction for) and the funnnkiest embellies EVER!!!!

p.s. I also used some mSB goodness and some fabulous Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker products on the LO as well.....................just thought I'd mention that. :)

smiles {from the farm},

j.

One + Four + Seven

.........equals three pretty excited kids this morning.
Asha enters the world of "everyday/all day" school in Grade 1.
Carter informed me yesterday that he will be "the oldest kid in his school this year" in Grade 4.
Daria is up for challenges of Grade 7 this year ....................... yikes {is she that old already?!?}

I think I'll keep my mind busy today in the combine.

lovin' the back-to-structure time of year {from the farm},
j.

*Fancy* school layout

Just wanting to share a layout using some fabulous - decorative - transparent - packing tape from this fabulous company.

I just love this stuff. It comes in some great colours and some even better designs!! If used on white cardstock, the design is soooooo striking. Wow!!! You can put the tape anywhere, but watch out -- it's really sticky (just like normal packing tape). Once it's down, no changing its position.

Here, I created a frame with the tape (of course, on an angle) and put my photo inside. I also doodled around the entire frame with my marker. Added some strips of paper, some embellies, hand-journaling and....... Voila!!!!



I added some dimension to the page by creating some flowers. I used pattern paper and some fleece from an old sweatshirt that I cut up -- yeah...I had no felt in my stash {lol}.



enjoy the warm weather today.

{from the farm},
j.

When the kids are at school .....

... Mom has time to play.

Just a quick & easy layout of Asha's first day of school. HAD to use my *new acrylic stamp set that my very good friend, Krista sent me from Ontario (luv ya', girl)!!!!!! Thanks for thinking of me. :)

lovin' this "school" thang {from the farm},

j.

My Little {school} Angel

Well........she's off on her own this morning.

Asha was soooooo excited this morning when she woke up -- it's her very first day of Kindergarten. Carter & Daria were pretty pumped for her as well, as they were both "discussing" who Asha would be sitting with on the bus. They came up with: Daria on the way to school; Carter on the way home. Great compromise.

Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast, 1/2 a mug of hot chocolate {to get her sugared up for the teacher, of course}, her lunch packed with orange slices, grapes, pudding & pepperoni slices, her hair combed, clothes on, new "outside" runners on, & teeth brushed ("in the morning"??). She was all set to go on the 40 minute bus ride to school.

After the kids got on the bus, I looked around and could only see Kayna, our puppy, sitting there staring at me. So, I got the camera out again and snapped some great photos of her. Is this what it's come to? I have to take photo shoots of my DOG now? {lol}.

So.......the house is pretty quiet today. I kept busy during the morning going for a walk, downloading my photos, answering emails, having a shower, running my brother-in-law out to the field & getting supper prepared in the slow-cooker. I fed 4 men at lunch time -- that comes with the harvest season -- and have already chatted with a friend from Alberta who has 3 in school and 2 still at home.

Hopefully, this afternoon we will be combining in the fields. Bright & sunny here, FINALLY!!!

Can't wait to see the kids off the bus & listen to EVERYTHING that happened on Asha's first day of school -- that is, if I don't have to crawl on the bus myself to pick up my tired, sleeping little angel.

Here's some more of my faves from this morning:


{from the farm},
j.

First Day -- FANTASTIC!!!

This morning marked the official FIRST DAY of school for everyone in our school division. The kids were up bright and early to make sure they were ready to go. They are always so cooperative when it comes to me getting their "first day of school" photos. Although the lighting was not great in the house -- it was raining outside -- I managed to grab a few shots of both Carter & Daria. With breakfast eaten, backpacks full (stuffed to the brim for Dare) and smiles on -- they were ready for the day.

Daria was rockin' for the camera this morning. She is such a natural infront of the camera and we always have fun whenever we do a photo shoot. I love so many of the photos I took of her this morning -- it was hard to pick just a few. Dare loves.....no, wait.........LOVES fashion and we have already seen the fashion show that showcases her 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th day outfits. love it!!!! Dare, of course, did the "hip school-girl" thing this morning (complete with purple plaid socks, skater-shoes & a new scarf). She is growing up way too fast for me.

Carter is more conservative when it comes to taking photos. Don't get me wrong -- he likes to goof around, but I find that he moves too fast to pick anything up with my lens that isn't fuzzy. So I have to tell him to stand still and he moves into the "too cool for you" pose. Carter opted for the "NBA-look" this morning and was all ready and packed by 7:30 am -- teeth brushed, water bottle in the backpack, shoes on, waiting for the bus (bus comes at 8). Usually I don't wake him until 7:30, but everyone was up with the birds this morning. A little excited, y' think??

And look who was the saddest of everyone in our family. Kayna (our 1 year old St. Bernard/Gr. Dane cross) was just beside herself with grief as the kids went off to school this morning. Poor, girl!!

Asha, my youngest, starts her First Day of Kindergarten on Monday. Come back then to see those {100 or so??} photos!!!!!!! lol.

smiling {from the farm},

j.