This is where I used to scrap...

Yet another installment in the renovation story. I'm afraid I've been so stressed by all that has been going to even want to write about it. There have been days where I've waited in vain for Sub-contractors to arrive, after being told by our contractor to expect them. Days being confined to the house with one or both kids, who just need a trip to the park. There have been delays and poor communication all around, leaving both my husband and I with a bad taste in our mouths.

I won't go into detail, because I'm glad to hopefully have the worst of it behind us. The drywall is up, plastered, primed and partially painted. I have now wiped most surfaces in our playroom down on 3 separate occasions, and hope to god that the next person who decides they need to sand drywall, or break concrete has enough decency to hang up some plastic, or else get down on their hands and knees with the pregnant woman to clean floors and toys once they are done.

Today, a light at the end of the tunnel; a tiled floor! It was beautiful to have someone come today who made relatively little noise, and was able to complete a huge part of the job without any issues ( unless you count running out of epoxy mid job, then waiting for more than an hour for the contractor to show up with more).

Tomorrow,  We're expecting the contractor to come and make some adjustments to our shower base so that they can cover up the fact that the wrong type of base was ordered in the first place. ( I'll be taking some photos before hand just to cover our butts in the event we have water issues later).

 Then the shower can be tiled, and everything grouted on Monday! Whoohoo!!

So here are some of the shots before primer, paint and tile:

 

The first photo is looking through the craft room into the bathroom. The second photo is inside the bathroom. The washer and dryer will be on Ethan's left, the toilet and laundry basket shelf in the alcove behind Parker. The half walls you see in the left hand corner are the shower stall.  The vanity, sink, drying racks, and cupboard will be where I'm standing to take the picture.

hopefully, I'll have pictures of the tile soon, and then we're just waiting for the cabinets to arrive on October 21st.

TWO YEARS AGO...

This little imp finally made his arrival. Right on due date, after several false alarms and trips to the hospital.

He's proven to be quite the little character, still keeping us on our toes.  Today, at two years old, He:

• loves the colour orange : "odejage"
• loves firetrucks "pie-er truck"
• favorite animals are elephants "ehh-pant"
• despite his little Bostonian accent (we're not from Boston) has quite the extensive vocabulary.
• loves cuddles and giving "berbets"-Zerberts.
• will drag a chair to the counter to "help" in the kitchen saying "help you! help you!" and insists on having his plastic "odjage knife" from ikea.
• favorite show is the Firetruck Rocket episode of Little Einsteins, followed closely by any Super Why episode.
• He knows many of his letters, especially "E" and "S"and points them out constantly saying "E mama! E!"
• loves Playdoh and his firetruck playdoh tool.
• favorite story book is Snoozers by Sandra Boynton
• loves his stuffed ( identical) Lambs named Gordon and Other One Gordon "aw-one Gornon"
• makes me play Raffi's Twinkle Twinkle little star on repeat in the car  for an entire drive (and we wonder why I have such a short fuse when driving).
• loves his big brother, and driving him crazy 
• likes to announce things that are loud "acoom keener loud!"
• confuses the word "popcorn" for "lawn mower" ( ??)
• loves snacks and his sippy of water.
• has no clue what "Parker don't touch" or "no" means...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKEROO!

oh sugar sugar...

Today I'm going to vent. I apologize in advance, but I just need to get some things off my chest before I explode. If you've come to see scrapbook pages, just scroll down for the latest, and skip the blah blah blah...ok?


Yesterday I spent half the day at the hospital downtown for blood tests, meetings with doctors and nutritionists. I got training on how to prick my fingers and use a meter to test my blood sugar levels. I got pamphlets on how to balance my meal plans, a chart to monitor proteins in my urine 4 times a day, a chart to record my blood sugar 4 times a day, a chart to write down every single thing I put into my mouth ( with measures). I also have a chart to record baby movements twice a day. Problem is I still don't fully believe I have gestational diabetes.

I didn't know I was going to take this so hard. I know it's a temporary thing, and that I'm lucky that I can control things with diet alone right now. But I can't shake this horrible feeling of having being given a sentence.

Why me? We eat fairly healthy in our household. We have our share of treats, but the focus is always on whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables. The main packaged goods we tend to get at the grocery store would be crackers, cereal and pasta; other than that we tend to stick to the outside of the aisles.
other than the 15 pounds I put from the time I quit smoking 4 and a half years ago and through 2 pregnancies, I haven't ever had issue with my weight.  As far as I know there isn't any history of diabetes in my family, and although I'm not terribly active, I don't think my poor gym attendance is solely to blame for this.

So no one can really tell me why I now have to listen to all these directives and log what seems to be every minute moment of my day. Why in 2 weeks I have to go weigh in, pee in a cup, have more blood taken, and be scrutinized again by a team of professionals.

If stress is a factor in high blood sugar levels, this may just give me something to blame it on.

So while I'm struggling with the inconveniences of renovations all over my house, trying to prepare for Parker's second birthday party tomorrow morning: I'm trying to figure out when to pee, when to bleed, and how if at all possible to fit chocolate cake trimmings into a meal plan that doesn't seem to allow for any wiggle room.

I'd just like someone to write down exactly what I should eat and when I should eat it- that'd take any control I have left away, and then I could just follow blindly until this is all over.

The good news is I shouldn't have to bother with all this stuff forever. Only nine weeks left until the official due date.

So for those of you who came to see some good stuff- here it is:

 This week's focus at Practical Scrappers is on ribbon. I had just picked up some new halloween papers and was happy to use them! I also got to use the cute Pumpkin Magic digital stamp courtesy of Robyn's Fetish Digital Stamps.

BIG NEWS!

Practical Scrappers is going through some great changes!
I have been asked by Christine to join the administration team, and am so thrilled about what we've got lined up for October...We're going magazine style!!

Here's the official news:

"Practical Scrappers is going to have a new format beginning in October.  We are seeking project submissions for the following topics and will be featuring some of the great work that comes our way.  These projects will be featured in the first two weeks of October.  Projects should be submitted by October 3rd.  In your email please include a link to your blog, if you have one, and tell us what country or state you live in.

Layouts:  Submissions can be sent to practicalscrapperslayouts@gmail.com
Layouts that use five or more photos
Layouts that use black and white photos
Layouts that use distressing techniques

Cards:  Submissions can be sent to practicalscrapperscards@gmail.com
Cards that use distressing techniques

We also will be running a regular feature showcasing projects that are displayed on our message board.  If you have an awesome project you would like to share, post it on there and it may just show up in our October message board feature".

Be sure to get your projects tips and techniques in to conssidered for publication in our new format!

Colour core cardstock

This week's challenge at Practical Scrappers is to use your white core or colour core cardstock. I have a bit of this in my stash, mainly because I love the colours of Core Dinations cardstock, and buy it to use as regular cardstock on my layouts. I'm not a distress kinda girl- I love the way it looks, but it's just not my usual style. ( which by the way explains my large but rarely used collection of Basic Grey paper).

I would have just taken out my embossing folders and passed some papers through the Texture Boutique as background, but that didn't seem daring enough for me ( even though I never use the folders or the machine).

Published in Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine, Spring 2011, p47.

I pulled out an embossing folder, but left it open and laid my cardstock over it. Holding it firmly in one spot, I used an emery board to file the surface of the paper. When repeated all around the edges of the cardstock, it gives the impression that the whole sheet underwent the same treatment. I also took an idea from the core dinations website, and used a paper crimper on the red paper before trimming it and sanding it. I had originally wanted to use my corrugated crimper, but I think I may have given it away. Thank goodness the crop cupboards at my LSS are fully stocked with tools!

 The digi stamp is from our challenge sponsor this week- Robyn's Fetish. Since I'm not much into making cards, I find it fun to try and incorporate stamps into my layouts. Choo-Choo Charlie is perfect for my train obsessed boys, and may  even get used large scale at our next train themed party.

other materials:
PP:Moxie,  Sassafras Lass
Letters: MLS, American Crafts
pearls: Queen and Co.

This is where I used to scrap...update

Just a little update on the scraproom renovations.
It was a loud long week filled with jackhammers, air nailers, and loads of banging. This meant very short to no naps for the boys and I ( we're trying to catch up this week-end). We finally have the drains in for the bathroom, the floor re-poured, the sub-floor down, the walls and insulation up, and those pesky air ducts boxed in.
The cabinet designer has gone back to the drawing board to accommodate the changes in the bulkhead height, and the higher than anticipated floor. When he asked me if I mainly used the space by myself, and I told him I planned on having friends over on a regular basis, he laughed and asked how tall they all were...

So girls- no growing past 5'8" ok?
We'll drink lots of lattes to stunt our growth...at least vertically :P

 view looking from back "studio" wall towards bath/laundry

This is the view from the laundry into the "studio"

Monday to Wednesday next week, we're expecting the electrician and the plumber (as well as the new plans so we can be sure to get enough plugs and lighting where we need them). The next step will be to finally get the cabinets into production, and get all the drywall up- ughh more dust!

I think the computer area is going to now be located on the longest wall opposite the door. It just makes more sense because of the bulkhead. I've also agreed to drop the counter height down to 34' to give more space between upper and lower cabinets ( and because we've all solemnly vowed not to grow any taller...)

On a different project note, Mark went to get the paint today for Parker's new room. We're hoping he has time to start it tomorrow or Monday. ( today was all used up getting haircuts for both boys, and new indoor shoes for our preschooler...sigh)

The colours even sound bright and fun. Just imagine Morning sunshine ( soft yellow) on the upper half of the walls, white chair rail and Carrot stick ( bright orange) on the lower half. We plan on filling the space with the crib/toddler bed he has for now, and the dark green armoire and night stand. We're also on the lookout for Elephants, giraffes, zebras, monkey's and other fun animals to decorate with.

Have a great week-end

Write in White!

White pens have become a scrapbooking staple; armed with a good one, you can do so much more than just journaling on darker paper. Our designers this week at Practical Scrappers have taken up the challenge, and come up with some great ideas for using white pens. There are some great doodles and accents, hand drawn images for cards, and drawn images using a Cricut. I scratched my head on this one trying to come up with something I haven't tried before. Did you know you can customize your twill ribbon with a Uniball signo? Now you do!

Here's a layout using some older photos of Ethan just before we moved into the new house. Our real estate agent was so great. When we closed on both houses he not only brought us a bottle of wine, but a bucket of Playdoh and an Elmo doll for Ethan. ( It was also Christmas time).

I had a blast with this one!
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
PP: Reminisce
Trim: Pink Paislee, May Arts?
felt: American Crafts
Letters: American Crafts
Glossy Accents
Uniball Signo Pen
Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors