Mad Scrappers Win Again!

Wow! What a busy busy exciting weekend. Friday night and Saturday I spent at Leica's Saskatchewan Scraps event with special guest and amazing Canadian scrapbooking genius Vicki Boutin.
I AM a  long time admirer of Vicki's work and I was over the (new) moon to be asked by Leica if I would like to be Vicki's classroom assistant for the event. (ok so there was some jumping up and down and hand clapping going on at that moment).
Jenn & I also got to chaperon Vicki on Friday afternoon before the big event.
Which meant having to be organized for the whole weekend before going to meet her!
We were meant to show Vicki some of Saskatoon. It didn't happen.
I escorted them both to an early afternoon showing of...New Moon! I let the two enthusiasts sit together. Otherwise I would have felt a bit like a gooseberry!
Every Saskatchewan Scraps event there's the challenge to decorate your table. So far, our group has won. Every. Single. Time! We were a little worried this time. Another team had enlisted that mischievous minx, Saucy to help them steal our crown. We didn't need to worry. With excuses of being WAY too busy the other team pulled out at the 11th hour. Although I am sure they will rise to the challenge next time.

This time we went as the Mad Scrappers Tea Party. We all dressed up, madly, mad mad hats I painted a rabbit hole to go at the end of the table and made a 3 tiered  paper cake. Sadly I have no table pictures. You'll have to visit my table mates Jenn, Kari and Tammi.

Being Vicki's classroom assistant I didn't get to spend anytime scrap booking. No, none at all. I didn't even pack anything. Instead my pictures of the weekend are from inside the classroom.
Here's the very lovely lady herself  with the very first layout in the very first class of the weekend.

Here's Jenn, Tammi and Kari in that class.

Making the second layout. Which required blowing paint bubbles!

Of course, you know who was there, helping Jenn practice her blowing technique!

 I got to meet some ladies who stop by KAGS Life that I didn't know.

I also got to see what goes on at the back of the class when the teacher isn't looking!

Vicki is such a fun teacher and everyone had a great time. This class was a sell out. I had booked to be in it before I knew I wouldn't get a chance to sit down, so someone in here got my spot! They can thank me later.

Here's the two lovely ladies who made this weekend such a blast - Vicki & Leica!

Leica, Vicki, Cary and Linda plus another couple of ladies that I got to know over the weekend.

Every class got to put their names in the pot (or in our case the Starbucks bag) for loads of fab prizes from Vicki. Here's Sheryl excited to hear her name called after a very exhausting 3 hour class!

and a couple of Mad Hatters for you. Ms Delilah.

and Ms. CraftyCrow

Tammi on the other hand was seen wandering around with a red fur bandanna and red sparkly nipples muttering about sumthin' sumthin'!
Vicki was brewing a bug and we were both extremely tired by the end of the classes. Hopefully Vicki will soon be well and everyone who attended will catch up on their sleep!

New Moon Weekend

It was a big weekend around these parts. A HUGE weekend for scrapbookers, A HUGE weekend for Christmas anticipcator's and a HUGE weekend for Twilight Saga fans.

Saskatoon's un-crowned biggest Twilight fan managed to sneak Little Ed out for some mad mad fun!
Friday and Saturday saw the big Saskatchewan Scraps event, that the lovely Leica organizes. (there'll be a run down of that tomorrow). Leica persuaded the vivacious Vicki Boutin to come join in the fun! Vicki is also a huge Twilight fan and the three of us ( four including Little Ed) went to see New Moon together on Friday - before scrapbooking the night away.

Let's just say that Little Ed was never very far away ALL weekend long!

This afternoon we ventured downtown for the annual Santa Parade. We seem to have found a great spot from which we can cheer on the parade.

Some of us get VERY excited & impatient waiting for the parade to start

 

did you see who's in her pocket? Look closer

Even Santa brought along his good luck charm - Mrs Claus - for the parade. The Claus family wear Little Ed's favourite colour - red!

This evening I escorted Jenn to another New Moon showing. Daisy came to supervise me, Saucy & her beautiful daughter Loopy came along to help take care of Jenn. Saucy bought something special along for Little Ed. You better check with her to find out what it was!

In the name of Rob

You may (or may not have)noticed that a certain young vampire has took quite a bit of room up on this blog through the summer. He took up even more room over at my friend's blog.

My (coughs) friend is totally Robsessed & has been since the moment her eyes laid upon him in Twilight.
After watching the movie here, she went home and began to read the whole Twilight saga, whilst learning all should could about this young actor spending MANY many hours trawling the internet. During the early days of this Robsession, food parcels were delivered to her home, making sure her children were fed.

The fever was bad, real bad.

Let's call this friend Jenn. It's a very good name and actually it's her real name. It's ok. She's out of the closet now and will happily admit to her teenage crush.

Jenn, signed up to Twitter, just so she could keep a closer eye on the actor Robert Pattinson who played Edward Cullen in the movie, Twilight.

Jenn discovered that I have a cousin in Vancouver. You know, where the Twilight movies are filmed. When I let slip that my cousins girlfriend has a connection with the Twilight cast, she made friends with said cousin on Facebook. Yes, she did.

Every morning without fail, Jenn, settles down with a freshly brewed coffee to stalk, I mean surf, the internet in what has become known as the Robrounds. She reads all the news articles and gossip that may have arisen over the previous 24 hours.

This week sees the release of the second movie in the saga, New Moon. As the publicity for the movie increases, so does Jenn's fever.

Months ago we started planning a trip to our local  movie theatre for the premiere of New Moon. Then, disaster struck. Leica's Saskatchewan Scraps event was planned for the same weekend. What to do what to do what to do. Advance sales for the movie were good. Thursday became the first night but it's SOLD OUT!

Jenn has to wait until Sunday. Not good enough.

This poor delusional Robsessed girl will be a mess. She'll not be able to scrapbook a single page. In Vicki Boutin's class she'll be seeing Robnana Nut Muffins instead of brads and adhesive.
We'll probably have to spoon feed her meals for she'll have lost full control of her muscles. Let's not even mention any control in the bladder department.

What's a girl to do.

I'll tell you what a girl and good friend does. She nominates said friend for a local radio competition C95 are looking for Saskatoon's most Twilight obsessed...person. That good friend makes sure she mentions ALL of the incriminating evidence and backs it up with photographs. LOTS of photographs.

I can't imagine there's anyone else in this here city willing to do this.

Please, please please in the name of all that is Rob, let Jenn win this competition.
** We have a picture up on Dave's blog - why not stop by and leave a comment in Jenn's favour. I'm sure she's appreciate it!

Promises, promises

I'm back - and hopefully there'll be no more disappearing - for a while anyway.
It's amazing how just a little tiny tweak in medication dose can make SUCH a big difference.
I'm not talking about the hives here either.
A while back my blood work showed that I was taking too much thyroxine (I have an under active thyroid) so my doctor suggested lowering the dose. I was very reluctant to try but everything else was working well so I thought I'd best show willing and accept the change.
Ha!
With all the blood work I've been having recently we discovered sooner rather than later that I needed MORE! So I'm back up and running again and very happy to be here.

It's funny how you just don't realize you've slipped a bit until you come back to normal (whatever normal is - & I don't think I've ever been there!).
With all this medication going on I thought it would be fun to take a picture of the daily dispenser.

Isn't it pretty, all those lovely colours? Like a mini candy store.

See that big orange one? That's potassium. Something else the blood work revealed. I had very VERY low potassium levels. So low that my doctor chased me down on a Sunday & asked me to go to her surgery to pick up a prescription. STAT.
Last week I was taking two of those - but there wasn't room for the evening one in the box!
See the green one? That's a night time one that makes me very DR.ow..s yyy. All the time I was loading this box up I kept saying to myself, don't take this one in the morning....then what did I do? Uh - huh. Just in time I realized what I had done & removed it very quickly into the spittoon, uh sink. 

The green one now. stays. separate.
No more news on the hive situation. For now I have to keep taking the anti-histamines morning & night.

Could it have been the change in thyroxine levels? Could it have been the potassium thing? Could it be red food dye, advil, butter flavouring, whipping cream, cake mixes, timmies coffee, nutmeg, cinnamon, stamp ink, or just plain old fresh air.
Will the mystery ever be solved?

Vote now.

Emergency Catch Up

This week has seen some relief from the hives and swollen parts that I have been suffering. It probably has something to do with the meds that I have been floating around on since my emergency visit to our local hospital.

My first ever visit to the ER as a patient. It's taken a few days for it all to sink in. My face had swollen up to extraordinary proportions. My lips were so swollen they were purple and fit to burst. I could barely see my eyes were so puffy and my neck & scalp were thick with hives growing on top of each other. This time, my temperature was up and breathing was a little laboured.
When I arrived at the admitting desk, the doors were opened immediately and I was swept in among a flurry of doctors & nurses to the triage area. Before I had a chance to find a comfy spot on the bed an IV needle was being inserted into my hand (another first).
The Good Guy couldn't believe I was demanding he take a picture. Of course I had a camera in my purse. Of course I wanted a picture. I just wasn't brave enough for a picture of my face. That would be a picture befitting today, Halloween.
My stay was just for a few hours to make sure the meds were working. A quick call to the Good Guy to come pick me up & I was out and on my way home before the Friday night rush.
The doctors & nurses at St. Paul's were wonderful and I can't thank them enough for taking care of me.

I'm so glad I was feeling much better the following morning and able to attend Saucy's Halloween Treat Making Mega Session.  We made armpit hair and earwax on a stick, used band-aids and boogers. So much fun!  I didn't take any pictures (I think they would all have been out of focus anyway!) but you can see lots of pictures from the afternoon HERE and HERE . I enjoyed the afternoon visiting with lovely local ladies through the drug haze.
To finish the afternoon off a few friends stopped by for some treats, fries cooked by the Good Guy,

Pimm's and birthday cake.

There was a very special birthday card from someone who's getting a bit too clever with digital elements on her laptop.

and another very appropriate card

and gift wrapped in same themed paper

I know, I know. My birthday wasn't until the next day - but hey, I'm a working Mum now and had a seven and a half hour shift that day!
Maybe I shouldn't have worked with all of Friday nights excitement but I sailed through the day without a hitch and no more swelling or hives appearing!

I wish I had been blogging this last week because I've had a few things to share. This is one of them.
I'm so proud of all of my art class participants this year. They are all working so hard and are turning out some fantastic work. When this session ends we're going to have a mini exhibition to showcase all of their work. Last week with Halloween approaching we looked at the Latin American festival of El Dia de los Muertos which is over two days, November 1st & 2nd and we used it to incorporate a skull and some less scary imagery rather than the witches and ghouls of our Halloween. Can I show you how great these kids are? (These guys are all in Grade 2 & 3)

 

Daisy comes with me these days as a classroom assistant, then she gets to stay in the older class and create her own artwork. She's been a great help settling the little one's in, cleaning up and preparing each new session as the classes all run back to back.

Now go out, have a great Halloween and enjoy the weekend!

My Sixth Sense,

I'm going to tell you a little story. I don't have pictures.

This morning I woke up and saw The Good Guy standing over Doodlebugs bed, just watching while he slept. (remember how Daisy & Doodlebug camp out on our floor? Doodlebug has been camping out a bit more frequently of late). I looked on at this tender moment - not letting on that I was even awake.

I looked at the clock it was just about 6.00am, still a little drowsy myself, (six a.m is the middle of the night to me) & I looked back over toward my boys. The Good Guy had moved away & I was sure I heard him go into the bathroom .
Ten minutes later there's still no sign of The Good Guy, so I stretched my leg to his side of the bed - not there & I couldn't hear him downstairs either.
That's when I realised I hadn't seen the Good Guy. It was someone else. Someone that looks just like him.

Someone I haven't been in the presence of since we left England.

Back there, GG used to visit us lots, checking in on both his Grandchildren, but, since we crossed the ocean in 2004 I've not seen him. I figured it was too far to travel. Until now.

Just when I was thinking of abreviating The Good  Guys name to GG, I realised that GG, was Grandma's name for her husband. GG senior passed away in 1997. Six months before Daisy was born.



The Good Guy was still fast asleep at six this morning. Woken by Doodlebugs coughing he moved rooms at 3:00am & did not stop to look over on his son before leaving the room.

Welcome back GG!

Things to do when you're sick

Doodlebug has been home from school. Nothing to worry about, just the usual round of coughs & sneezes for this time of year, but Doodlebug always manages to get that nasty croupy cough which really knocks him for six.
Today he found my little camera and decided to make a stop action animation. He tried several different media - his guitar lead became a snake slithering across the floor and his new waterbottle with a snow boarder on it turned to create a merry-go-rounder of snowboarders.

Here he is shooting one of his movies earlier today - yes in his pyjamas!

Look at those long legs! Anyhow, he was very intent on his movie making and VERY insistent that his movies were uploaded without delay.
Want to see one of them?



What will this boy think of next?