Welcome to the Rebel World...

Well, after a few months of research and dreaming, I finally got my new camera tonight, the Canon Rebel XT! For someone who has never had a decent camera before, it's pretty freakin' sweet. I was aiming for the Xti originally, but in the end the price was a bit too high (especially since I'm still hoping to go on a trip soon), so I decided to go down a model. The Xti was maybe a bit too out of my league anyway, and although I contemplated the Nikon D40, when I held the Canon I knew it was the one for me :)

It's still really amazing though, the quality is great, I'll be playing with it for a long, long time. Even within 20 mins, I managed to take a really great shot of Eko (you can even see the drool on his whisker!), and a pretty grizzly one of Dan, haha. Another great part is that the store where I bought it from said that I can come in and take a free one hour photography lesson with them whenever I feel ready, which is super cool, I'm definitely going to take advantage of that.




I signed up to Flickr today, and I have a feeling I'm soon going to get addicted to it, à la Etsy. So many inspiring photos on there, I aboslutely love photography, if I'm lucky it's a hobby I'll be able to really get into. Tomorrow night I'm going to Sara's baby shower to see little Judah, he's 4 weeks old already, it's crazy to think...time flies by (sometimes in a good way sometimes in a bad way, but that's another story.)

Well that's all for now, expect to see LOTS of photos soon!

Quarter of a century...

Isn't there a song with that line in it? I dunno, I keep thinking there is. Anyhoo, just wanted to update real quick, since I've been slacking mucho this week, I guess I haven't had tonnes to say or show (I had to get some pics developed for my mini-book before being able to start it, but I did that today so I should have lots to show off soon!) I'm at my parents place right now, we're here until tomorrow, then we're heading to Fredericton to see Dan's mom/friends. Should be good, Sussex has been nice, I needed a long weekend for sure! 4 days off, ahhh...

Oh! For my birthday my mom got me the March Paper Posies scrapbook kit! I was so excited, it's awesome, there's some really cool stuff in there! I'll be sure to talk about it more detail when I get home, haha. I've only used one sticker from it so far, so it's still in its original yumminess state :)

Well I hope everyone is enjoying their Easter weekend, and that their weather is being nicer to them than ours has been to us here (seriously though, when will this winter end?)

Before I go, here's a quick layout I did today with my mom (we always try to scrap together when I come home), about my Muse (aka Dan) and his love for felines:



That's all, I'll be sure to be a better blogger this week!

I am Lovin' me some Pillows...

Ok, so besides the millions of scrapbooking items I see on Etsy that I love, like this, and these, and these, I've also found tons of cool pillows that I might buy once money isn't so tight (haha, yeah right, whenever that'll be...) I have a dark brown suede couch, which I like, and there are 4 pillows that go with it, two 16X16s and two 14X14, butright now they are all brown as well (read: boring), so I want to buy some really bright, cool patterned covers for them; I think they would really pop on the couch and make it more fun and interesting. Anyway, here are a few that I've found:








I LOVE the birdcage one, and the trees too...so many to choose from! I'm really diggin' the Etsy thing, but I'm trying not to buy too much on it (so far only the 2 chipboard albums), because I know that it could get really out of hand, really fast, haha. I might eventually buy some art, because there are some really cool girls on there and their art is amazing (I picture buying alot of it for an eventual-hopefully-nursery.)

Anyhoo, pizza's here! Night all.

Mini-Book

Well I got my first mini book done tonight and I LOVE it. It's just what I want it to be: messy, full of flaws, but still fun, funky, bright and personal. I decided to do a "Random 08" book (I got the idea from Kristina Contes and her blog, her minis are just amazing). Anyway, it's basically just a bunch of random pages about random things, but I think that this will be fun (and funny) to look back on later in life...maybe my kids will even get a kick out of it, seeing how crazy and foolish their Mama was (and how much she wanted them). I wanted it to be fun and bright, so I used lots of Love, Elsie, K&Co papers, Hello Kitty stickers, flowers, buttons, anything with some colour. I also got to use my old Troll name stamp from the early 90s, I love it! Anyway, here it is:




Here are a few pictures of it put together as well (I love how the bookrings allow you to add as many pages as you want, or to switch the order of the pages up whenever you want. I might attempt to do a few more "Random" pages in 08, and they can all go into this album.)









I ordered another one off of Etsy last night, a 4X6 one (I want different sizes for all of them, they'll be more distinguishable that way.) I like the idea of a 4X6 'cause then I can have one page with just a photo and the other can be the journaling/title/whatever.

Well I guess that's all, I'm just proud of my creation :) I think that tonight we are going to go out for some appetizers/drinks and then play some mini golf with Heather and Scott, but it's storming out right now, so we'll see what happens. It's St Patty's night (well, the night to go out anyway since it's on Monday), so to all the Irish out there, have fun!

How I passed my afternoon...

Here's a page I did today...I bought the cool cherry and skull PP by Creative Imaginations when I was in Sussex in February, and I wasn't really sure how I was going to use it, but then I thought that maybe this picture of my friend Anna would go well. Her attitude in the picture goes perfectly I think. I'm not sure I love the entire layout though; the title isn't great and I'm not sure if I like those letter stickers for this page in particular, and it's all kinda crowded and I'm not digging the vellum, but it's done and too late...I just hate when something starts off so well ands then heads downhill, haha. Overall it's decent though.

(I've also discovered that I kinda hate scrapping 12X12 now, too big or something, I think that I'm going to permanenly convert to 8.5X11/mini books soon, maybe with an occasional 12X12 page to go with my 12X12 albums, like my wedding or Spain. Either that or I'll continue scrapping 12X12, but will leave lots of white space on one side to make up for it.)

Anyhoo, here it is:

I've also been checking out Decor8 a lot lately...I found it through another girl's blog (which I found through another girl's blog, which I found through someone else's blog...it's the best way to find cool sites I'm discovering). Anyway, it's a design blog, very cool and modern and fun, and they have all these pictures of *beautiful* rooms. So I'm starting to save all the pictures of rooms that I love for when we move; since this apartment is going to be "permanent" (at least until we move into a house), I want to make it somewhere that I actually want to be, so I'm hoping to be able to decorate a bit more and really get into it. Anyway, I'll probably post a pic here and there of the rooms I'm finding, depending on how I'm feeling I suppose. So, be prepared to oooh and ahhh :)

Well, that's all for now, hope to get some more scrapping done this weekend, so I may be back!

A few quick projects...and rambles

Well, I just wanted to share a few things that I've made/done lately. After checking out some amazing blogs, I was inspired to create a "clothesline" type display in my room for my recent scrap pages, fav pics, and whatever else catches my fancy. It's definitely something that I want to incorporate into my new scrap space when we move. Check it out, I think it turned out pretty cool:

















After making the clothesline, I took some old wooden frames I got at Ikea forever ago, painted them black and put in some cool images/papers, including a postcard I got in Madrid of a Picasso painting I love, some awesome Love Elsie paper, a cool chandelier card (love the bright green and the "be glam" I added underneath it) and a simple message to myself..."create." (I used my new favourite mini letter stamps, I just love them!) Add a few flowers, papers, cool jewelery and voila!















I also decided to try out creating my own mini book, since I'm now obessed with them...basically they are mini scrapbooks that you create yourself, they are super fun because the format is small (whatever you want them to be really) and you can finish multiple pages (or the whole book) in a few sittings. You can also make them about anything you want, they are messier, less formal, don't always include pictures and can be a bit more personal. I have about 6 or 7 that I want to create, mostly ideas from other mini books I've seen, but also a few of my own. So I found an awesome tutorial on Paper Adventure '08 on how to make one out of junk cardboard, keyrings and paper. I made it tonight and I'm so excited with the result...simple, but just what I'm diggin' right now, I can't wait to start filling it with pages...and make more!
































Once I start filling it with pages I'll be sure to update.

Other random thoughts:

-Looks like we are moving on May 1st, which is a month sooner than I had originally thought, but that's ok, I'm kind of looking forward to it, being the kind of person I am, who can never live somewhere for longer than 2 years (going on a year and a half here...)

-I can't wait to get my camera...soooo excited for it! Dan is doing our taxes this weekend so I hope to have it by the end of the month!! Then (I hope) my pictures won't suck so hard, haha.

-I'm still waiting for my chipboard album from Etsy, it's been 2 weeks now, starting to get impatient, how long does it take to ship something from Ontario?!

-Work has been insanely busy, pretty stressful, but I found out today that I should find out within the next few weeks what my benefits will be and when I will be in the Union and all that fun stuff, so that's good, I really hope that I get Permanent, but I'm thinking it will only be a Term position, which is still fine with me, as long as I can take a vacation day!

Well that's all for now. Bonne nuit all.

Hey Judah

Well my friend Sara had her baby on Friday and I was lucky enough to be there to witness it. She called at 7:45am on Friday to tell me that she was going into labour...problem was I had left like 3 minutes beforehand to catch the bus to work! So I get to work and there's an email from Heather telling me that Sara called and that I had to go...and I was sooo panicky! I'm sure I was more nervous than she was, so shaky and just thinking 'ok, what to do, what to do'. I knew I had to leave work, so I got what I could do done and then headed home to find a car (Dan had taken ours to play hockey, and although he was a real jerk about it, saying he couldn't loan me the car because he couldn't find a way home after the game...men...I managed to get my roommate's car from her boyfriend's place) and head to the Valley.

When I got there her contractions were 3 minutes apart and she seemed in good spirits. So focused and relaxed, just how I hope mine will go (if ever.) I felt pretty useless there, I couldn't really help her in any way, kinda felt intrusive, but I wanted to be there for her anyway in case she needed anything. Every time she had a contraction I teared up, I don't know why, she was in pain and I could see it and it hurt me too, so I had to look away (felt ridiculous the whole time too, but oh well.) So I got there at 1pm and stayed with her until about 4pm when she started pushing (she had told me the last time I was visiting that she didn't want me there when she was pushing, but when it was actually happening I don't think she would have noticed that I was there, but I respected her wishes anyway), and by 4:57pm, little Judah David Walker was born. 8 pounds 6 ounces, so not that little actually! It was strange to see him there, hard to believe he was inside of her for 9 months and we were talking about him, but more like a concept than an actual real person. He was a good little baby though, and I stayed with them until about 8pm, then left to give them some bonding time. Sara was, of course, a natural, just a perfect mom already...she was destined to do this, I've said it many times. I can't say I feel the same way about myself, but if I can be half the mother she will be and already is, then I will be ok.

So yeah, that's about it, I'm super happy for her, but I'm also kinda sad 'cause I know that in a way I lost her as a friend...but I understand. I told her that I would go visit her in a few months when Judah's a bit older and they have their routine down a bit more...I'm hoping to have my new camera by then so I will be able to take some better shots than the ones I took while I was there (again, felt foolish for taking such bad pictures, but I saw that she had some good ones up today, so it's alright I guess.)

Here he is, beautiful boy already. So lucky, so fortunate.

Well, I'm going to try to not let my emotions get the better of me this week, but I can't promise anything, so we'll see how it goes. Laters.