It's HERE!!!

It's here....VICKI WEEKEND!!! I'm going away this weekend today at 1:00 to be exact to hang with some of my best girls, meet the famous Canadian Scrapper Vicki Boutin, take her classes, scrapbook, eat yummy food, drink wobbly pops, and sleep uninterrupted!!! Oh Blessed me :)

tick tock tick tock...is it 1:00 yet? Did I mention that I have been up since 3:00 am with excitement butterflies? I feel exactly like I used to when I was little on Christmas Eve. My sister Krissy and I would sleep in my room together and wake up super early in excitment and then pass the time playing in my room. I wish she was here now to help me pass the time :)

A little bit of green paint

I had some fun with some green paint on the weekend :) We have a little computer area in our kitchen. We wall mounted an i mac on the wall and use the half wall in the kitchen as a computer station. We have used color blocking to punch up the decor in two spots already. We have a chocolate brown feature wall, and also a color block of green to highlight some shelves. So I thought...mmmm...this would be cool and will help further distinguish this special area. I like it, I really really like it :) Do you?

Project 52 BLOG-Project 6

Have you checked out the Bad Girls Project 52 Blog yet? Each week they post a new project and the idea is to create something with their project as the jumping point. I made this hanging heart last night. It reads: I AM

Its part of a series of projects, ATC's, LO's that focus on Self Esteem and Body Image.

The concept of I AM is to think in terms of I AM....I AM BEAUTIFUL...I AM SMART...I AM FUNNY...I AM A BAD GIRL...I AM A MOM...I AM A FRIEND etc....

3 Sisters

The Playlist

Number 1: Barbie House
Number 2: Bank
Number 3: Cabbage Patch Camp
Number 4:Cabbage Patch Boat

This is what my sisters and I would drum up while hanging out on a Saturday afternoon. Our playlist, always read out loud as NUMBER ONE, NUMBER TWO and so on. We were an imaginative bunch and would create elaborate make believe worlds to play in. We didn't need to buy dolls that could poop and pee. We maked believe that ours did! After skillfully negotiating which game we would play, we put our hands on top of one another and throw them in the air yelling SISTERS!!!

Flash forward through adulthood and here the three of us stand this past summer. Krissy on the right is the youngest at 28, the mother of 2. Jamie is on the right, 30 and engaged. I am in the middle and am the oldest at 32 and the mother of 2 children.

I now view my little sister, Krissy, as my BIG SISTER. Every since having my first child I have been frantically calling her for advice on motherhood and parenting. When my second baby Kasey came along I called Krissy frantically asking her how to get the baby to stop crying...and she replied: "Katie you do know that you have had a baby more recently than I have right???" (her children are older than mine) To which I answered: "Yes but I forgot everything!!!".

Now I am going to do something really crazy here and ADMIT to something. Before I had children and I was a working career woman, I thought that Krissy had it soooo easy as a stay at home mom. I thought that because she could wear her pj's to "work" and sneak in Oprah that her "job" was a breeze. I really did, and couldn't understand why she would be stressed out. BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!! I admitted to this to her recently :)

I also had the pleasure of admitting that SHE WAS RIGHT a couple of years ago after Kayleigh was born. You see Krissy and I had this HUGE, and I do mean HUGE argument. At the time of the argument I was once again childless, working, and an ignorant idiot LOL. I was convinced that I loved my wiener dog as much and the same way that she loved her children. She of course did not believe that the love was the same. We really fought it out over this one. Needless to say about 2 weeks after Kayleigh was born my sister had the pleasure of telling me..."I TOLD YOU SO" :)

My baby sister has truly become my big sister, I look up to her and rely on her to guide me. In fact it was only last week that I was hounding her for advice on how to lower my grocery bill and plan a weeks menu. I'm telling you she is a wise wise woman :)

Our Middle sister Jamie lives and works in Toronto. She lives in a stylish condo, dresses like she walked out of the pages of a magazine spread, and is ambitious. She once told me she wanted to be like me that she tried to follow me. We both worked at Arby's in high school, she went to Queen's University like me, she even lived with Ryan and I for a while. The funny things is that now the tables are turned and I admire her and the life that she has carved out for herself. I had always thought that I would be the corporate career climbing girl. That I would live in a condo in the big city. That I would be picking out pretty dresses and shoes for weekend parties and martinis. Now here she is working for a large and prominent company. She works very very hard, and is always striving more. She gets to do really cool things at work because she works in marketing, and networks with the coolest personalities. I look at my sister Jamie's life now, like a window display at Macy's...I am on the outside peering in. I write this as a compliment to you Jamie. I want you to know how proud I am of you, your work, your life, of you and Jeff. Proud of how you have not lost yourself and are still the caring, sweet sister I have always loved.

3 sisters, 3 cities, 3 lives linked forever by this bond called sisterhood. I love you guys!!! Let's together for a game of Cabbage Patch Kids Boat soon!

Back to blog land

Oooops it seems I took a little blog break :) I'm going away this weekend to a scrapbook retreat and I find that the week or two leading up to one I go on a creative hiatus wanting to save all my creative ideas for the retreat. Let's be honest I don't have much to talk about here if it isn't scrap talk LOL :) Have I mentioned how hard it is for me to make conversation with people that don't have children and don't scrapbook :) LOL Seriously!!! I guess I need to branch out a bit.

I did finish my ATC's for the second SWAP at Bad Girls. It was a technique swap and I did a packing tape transfer. The ATS's read: "DIETING IS FOR WUSSIES"



I was going for a dreamy look...not quite loving them but WHATEVER :)

Another Wilna Project

Another super cute project from Wilna's Heart Class :)

Took me no time at all, bonus :)

My Utopia

I was sitting in an ice fishing hut a week ago with my Brother in Law. Yes you heard that right I was in an ice fishing hut. While sitting around a cold hole in the ice, eating chewy chocolate chip cookies we started talking about the economic woes in North America. Now I am the first to admit that I am rather ignorant when it comes to the happenings of the world outside of my little bubble in Barhaven. I don't read or watch the news and sadly am often informed of news events through Perezhilton.com. If its not about vampires or scrapbooking I am not likely to read it. During our conversation in the surprisingly warm fish hut my BIL told me that I couldn't live in an Utopia. Now I have to say he did not say it with menace or harm intended and it wasn't taken that way. But the word did stick with me all week and I turned it over in my mind many times.

I do live in my own little Utopia and I like it.

I have two beautiful, healthy children. I am married to my soul mate whom I met at age 16. I have the most wonderful family, 2 Super Sisters, my Marmie and Daddy. I have been blessed with the most awesome friends. I live in a cozy cute home, in a neighborhood prefect or us. I get to stay home and raise my children. I create almost every day. My husband has a very good job that allows for our lifestyle and saving for the future. I live in Canada. Yes over the years I have come to thank God for living in this beautiful country.

I don't take any of these blessings for granted. I thank God EVERY day for them. I know that our soldiers are dying, coming home broken. That there are families being granted 3 hour reprieves from bombing so that they can go buy ESSENTIAL supplies while I worry about whether I will have 3 hours to scrapbook tonight. I know that SIXTEEN THOUSAND CHILDREN in Ottawa depend on the food bank. I know that there are sick children and saddened Mommies and Daddies. I know that my Utopia could shatter at anytime.

I do not how many points the DOW dropped. I have no idea what the DOW is. I don't understand the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. I don't know who to vote for.

In University I took a Women's Studies class (don't get me started on how much I hated it) and we used to have discussion sessions in small groups with a TA. I referred to them as the WOE IS ME GROUP...."Woe is me..I am a woman." My TA told me that my opinions didn't matter because I came from a PRIVILEGED background. Yes she is right I am privileged. I also have known tragedy in the loss of a friend to a disease and suicide. I have fought the demons of an eating disorder and watched it tear at my family. A family that fought valiantly back. I have held my husband as he lost both parents in less than a span of a year.

I am thankful for my Utopia. And I plan on enjoying it as long as I can.

And I am also going to try to watch the news and read the newspaper from time to time, if not for anything else but to be even more thankful.

PS. the photo was taken by the talented Marlene .

Bad Girls Application

The call has been made and unfortunately it wasn't my day :( I would love to share my work with you though as working on this application really pushed my to new creative heights. All though I wasn't chosen I am really happy with the work I did and am excited to keep on creating!

3 Manufactures LO:




I love this picture! Stephanie (Stayfunny) took it for us and I love how the baby looks like a dear caught in the headlights. I used products from the following manufacturers; Prima, Making Memories, Scenic Route, K&Co, Maya Road, American Crafts, KI Memories, and even some vintage trim and junque findings. My favorite thing on this LO is that I left some of the cutout flowers from the Prima paper unpainted.


Your WOW LO:







I used the January Bad Girls kit for this LO. The background paper is Jenni Bowlin and in all honesty I really didn’t like this particular piece of PP. So I thought here’s a challenge Katie…and guess what I love that damn paper now! I then went to town with some mica paint and pale gold iridescent acrylic paint on the GRUNGE BOARD…WOW! The Bad Girl Kit’s make you reach beyond what you ever thought you could do!

Personal LO:






Dear Body it’s me Katie….

I’m sorry that for so long you went unloved and abused…
In my youth I stopped eating, I slept away hiding from the world, and the eyes that I thought judged me. Soon the anxiety and the hunger would become too much and I would overfill myself with food and guilt and then purge myself of all those caloric sins. My own porcelain hell was what I created. I look at these old pictures and I see a ghost of a soul hiding in a body that was foreign to me. For so long I really thought that if you could open up my soul and look inside you would be frightened but what you saw. Years passed and I would enter brief periods of reprieve. I would gain weight, stop obsessing, and act normal. But not having learned to cope with my anxieties I would eventually revert back to my old destructive ways. Years passed and I saw the empty life I was leading and what I could have….my life mate, my family, God…I started to CRAVE LIFE. I let go…I let go of the obsessions and started to live life. Only I didn’t quite know how to deal with food like a normal person. I worked on healing my mind and spirit but my body took a new direction. I gained weight very quickly. I looked in the mirror one day and was completely shocked by the heavy, bloated, fat person that stared back at me. So I stopped looking in the mirror and I carried on. More time passes, life became more and fuller…marriage, children, and friends. I found myself truly feeling FULL for the first time in my life…and then I started a new journey, the last leg in my body’s recovery. I started to eat healthy, to move, to breathe…some days are good, some weeks are not so healthy. But I look in the mirror today and I SEE ME…I am not surprised by my reflection, my outside matches my inside, and I am happy.

PS. this is the way the LO originally looked and then I ripped it apart and did the one above :) LOL



Project:





This project was inspired by Jeni’s Project 52 Mirror. When I saw her post about wanting to inspire her daughter with positive body image, and after having written the journaling for the Dear Body LO I really wanted to make my own piece of art to empower myself.



I immediately thought of using a paper mache dress form (I saw today that a similar project was posted by Pamela Palmairni and just wanted to stress that I completed the project before seeing hers, I guess BG’s think alike J



I wanted it to have an aged look like a real antique. I achieved the look with Glimmer Mists, Crackle Paint, Gesso and Gold Foil.

The message this piece conveys is that if I fall of the wagon and eat something unhealthy…I DESERVE to keep eating healthy and loving myself…that it is not an excuse to go hog wild eating junk food because you slipped. No more black and white thinking. Time to break this cycle.

“I deserve to eat healthy…to love myself…to exercise…to not fill up on junk food”

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Blog world :) and all my scrappy friends :)

Here's Kayleigh's Valentine Frodo :) LOL




Here's a Starbuck's Coffee Album I made last night based on Wilna's Heart Class :) I love her stuff!!!!!

Bad Girls DT Challenge

I have been hard at work scrapping to submit my application to the Bad Girls Design Team. This week they posted a surprise challenge where you had to use products/elements on a LO that represented each letter in the words DESIGN TEAM.

Here's my take :) Check out Stephanie's here :)













D-dress
E-eyelet lace
S-stamp
I-ink
G-gaffer tape
N-Nunn Designs

T-Tim Holtz
E-Emphera
A-Alcohol inks
M-Metal