January 9. Twenty. Twelve.

A lot of people loathe Mondays. I adore Mondays. It's like a tiny little new year every seven days. A day to start over. To set goals. To make lists. To get things accomplished. So today, I am making a list of all the things to do tomorrow and this coming week. A select few of these items on my list are:

1. Head back to the gym. Holiday's over. Literally. And my butt is screaming with excitement at the thought of not having to spend all day cooped up in such tight pants. :0)

2. Keep purging my paperwork at work and at home! This excites me very, very, very much!

3. Eat a whole week of homemade, not store bought, lunches and dinners. And super healthy ones too!

4. Start my new library book - Creep. Highly recommended by a bestie of mine. Can't wait for that to happen.


5. Get intimately acquainted with my new camera lens.

6. Put the finishing touches on some Christmas gifts for my family's "may never happen" Christmas get-together. Looks like it might happen this Saturday. Or not. Who knows. Time will tell!

7. Send back a Christmas present that I bought and then changed my mind.

That's it! I hope everyone has a super duper great week!

Twenty. Twelve.

I love the fact that it is now 2012. I love the way that sounds. Twenty-twelve. It just rolls right off the tongue, no? I was never a fan of the linguistic characteristics of twenty-eleven. 5 syllables. Too many if you ask me! AND.....Twenty twelve is an even number. TOTALLY plays to the neurotic side of me. And to top it all off, it's a leap year. Yeah! So surely, all-in-all, this MUST be a good year then don't you think. Out with old and in with the new!

A little spark of creativity...........

Long time no blog. Whatever. Life's too short for regrets, and I could come up with a million excuses as to why I let my blog go, but it is what it is, right? So I will zoom right in on some fun stuff!

I had a little bout of creativity yesterday. I went to a crop at the new Nook and hung with some of my favourite girls like Elia, Janice, Karen T., Karen M. and Jen B. I actually got something accomplished. I can't say how fun it is to go to a crop and be on the other side of the counter! Fun, fun fun!!!!!!!!!! I worked on three layouts. One of my favourite niece (who is growing up faster that I can hardly believe!) and two of my adorable, sweet and ever so handsome great-nephew Austin. He too is growing leaps and bounds. Except he's still too little to leap or bound.

I went away with this same group of girls about 8 weeks after my Dad died and we had a great time.....just what I needed to help see me through some really bad times. It's amazing isn't it, what the love of friends can get you through. So thanks girls..........for everything you do!!!!

These are a few of my favourite things...........

Happy belated Easter to everyone!



Easter has always been one of my most favourite times of the year. It is so steeped in tradition in my family. Sunrise church service, a HUGE brunch that mom used to make for everyone that came out to church, watching the Ten Commandments (MOSES....MOSES...MOSES) with my Dad...and on and on and on. I really felt overwhelmed with how I/our family was going to cope without having my Mom with us this year. Truth told, I don't think we did too well. But we muddled through, and if you exclude the fact that I was so distraught at once point that I almost hyperventilated, you could say that we did okay. And Mamma, if you are looking down at me from the Heavens, I apologize for using paper plates for Easter dinner. But in my defense, they were DESIGNER square paper plates that cost a small fortune and looked adorable!!!!

Anyway, on with the show. Literally. I have some stuff to show y'all that I absolutely fell in love with over the weekend. We are faced with the challenge of "going through my Mom's things". Everybody and their brother warned me that this would be the hardest part of dealing with my Mom's passing; I however, found it to be the exact opposite. I could shut myself in my Mom and Dad's room forever and pour through her stuff. Rummage around in her cedar chest. Fan through her papers and notes and list that she's made. Leaf through her dog-eared magazines. It makes me feel so close to her. I can recall so many things about her that I have forgotten through the years or am starting to forget because they happened so long ago. I am flooded with memories of things we did with her as children. Of places that she's visited -- with or without me. Of things that she cherished and valued. Of the love that she had for each and every one of us. I am also reminded how much she hated to purge her clothes, those lists and magazines that I mentioned and so much more. MAN SHE HAD A LOT, LOT, LOT of stuff!!!!

There were so many things that Mom had tucked away that I had totally forgotten even existed. So I brought a few things home and wanted to share them here. And I am, for the time being, going to forget the fact that my sister muttered under her breath that she thought I would be a likely candidate for the tv show Hoarders!!!

First up in my bevy of beautiful items are these two small leather-bound photo albums. They are the size of small novels. The pictures in them all date back to the late 1800s. Most being from around 1881 - 1895. They were from my Grandpa Shain's side of the family (my mom's dad's side).





Then there is my Mom's SCRAPBOOK!!!!!!! See Mom.......I knew you had it in you all along!!! Isn't it just the most fabbie thing you have EVER seen!!!!! Most of the pages are still empty, but that doesn't bother me in the least. I am going to paste all of her school photos etc. in there. Maybe I will use contact cement too, just to keep in authentic. Just kidding!!! I really do love it though!



I managed to unearth my Grandma Thompson's Recipe tin too. She had oodles of recipe boxes, and this one is mainly filled with newspaper recipes, cooking tips from the paper etc. Mostly I love the tin!!! I am tin freak and just about peed my pants with excitement when Sheri and I happened upon this old beauty.



And then I found this old box filled to the rim with pictures, wedding invites, and memorabilia that belonged to my Auntie Bea. Oh how I LOVED my Auntie Bea. She was my Grandma Alice's sister. My Mom's auntie. And she was so kind and loving and sweet to my sister and I. She had no children of her own, and doted on us and my Mom as a result. She bought Sheri and I Canada Savings Bonds when we were little for our education, which she valued dearly. She was a grade school teacher in Beeton, Ontario. She died when we were very little, but I remember her so fondly!!! I never met my Uncle Harold but heard nothing but wonderful things about him too. I was so happy to find this box of family history.







And my MOST CHERISHED item that we found was my Grandma Alice's Diary. It's a 5 year diary too, which is just wonderful!!! My mom was adopted by her blood aunt (Alice--my mom's birthmom's sister) and Alice's husband Gerald. Mom was SO LUCKY to have been adopted by two of the world's most caring and compassionate people ever. They doted on her and the sun rose and set on her. When I read my Grandma Alice's diary it just totally reinforces how much those three loved each other and cherished their little family and each other. Some of the notes in there totally crack me up and some make my heart swell with love and pride. And it also reinforces that all the time (and money) I spend pursuing my wonderful hobby is SO WORTHWHILE. To look back and be able to get right inside their day-to-day lives is just incredible!!





That's it for now!! If you made it this far, thanks SO MUCH for reading! I know I yak a lot. My Grade 3/4 teacher, Mrs. Whalen, pointed that out several times in EACH AND EVERY report card she ever gave me. Patti talks too much. Patti is disruptive to the rest of the class. WHATEVER MRS. WHALEN!!!!! My mamma gave me my gift of gab, and I am happy to have it!!!

Cheers all!

Not much is new........

other than I have desperately been trying to bring some order to my scrappy place so that I can feel inspired to cut into some of the mammoth piles of paper etc. that I have. I am happy to say that I have a brand new scrappy space (well one that I share with a TV/spare bedroom) and that my things are finally organized! And it only took 8 years!!!! And I even had enough energy afterward to do two quick layouts. Thought I might share them here.

LIFE IS SUCH..........

that I am back here! I have oodles to say, but no desire to type it all out today. Suffice it to say that the later part of 2009 brought BIG changes to my life and I hope that 2010 will be the start of a much better year for me. I hope to pick up my blog a bit over the next few weeks, as, like I said, I have lots to say. Lots to type. Lots to get out. But my head isn't in the right space quite yet.

I hope all of my friends that come across my blog have a wonderful, peaceful and prosperous new year. HAPPY twenty ten!!!

There is no way in the World........

that I can keep up two blogs......so we've moved!

Check it out at www.thescrappingnook.blogspot.com

Lots of fun, contests, etc. And I will try my very best to keep it more up to date! :0)