It's been a long, long time...

The last few months have been so busy that I have neglected my blog, but I am back to share.

Here are a few things that have happened since my last post:
- Showed my competitive side and won the Easter Egg hunts at home and at work
- Went on an adventure to the Dominican Republic with a few of my favourite travel partners
- Celebrated Brian's birthday with dinner at Canoe and great seats at Rock of Ages
- Was recognized at work for my 3-year committment to the firm (I'm their longest standing employee and I work my butt off everyday)
- Shopped til I dropped in Buffalo and at CKC with Veronica
- Had a blast at my cousin's wedding
- Spent some down time at the cottage
- Scrapped with the gals at 2SF on more than one occasion :)
- Found out that two of my best friends are pregnant
- Relived my youth at the NKOTB concert at CasinoRama
- Tons of parties, from a housewarming to a bridal tea to RockBand and more!

Here are a few layouts to share...

(based on a sketch from Sketchabilities)

(Basic Grey kit plus a few extra embellishments)

(based on a sketch from Sketchabilities)

Last Reveal with Sketchabilities...

Sadly this will be my last reveal with Sketchabilities. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as part of the Design Team and I am truly thankful for the creativity the sketches have inspired! Be sure to continue to check out the blog for wonderful sketches and layouts! Best wishes to the new team.

For this layout I chose to feature some more casual photos of my family from this past Christmas. Every year we stand in front of the Christmas tree and take a photo, usually when we're dressed up and ready to head out for Christmas Eve mass, but not this time.

Funny how now that the "kids" are adults the Christmas tree is hardly even visible, especially when my brother stands right in front - lol!

Scrapping in Buffalo with Debby Schuh!

On the first weekend of March, Veronica and I headed out to Buffalo for a fun weekend! When we told border security that we were headed into the US to attend a scrapbooking class, the young officer said with a straight face, "I don't believe you." Somehow he came around, and we were on our merry way!

Our first stop was at Hobby Lobby, where I picked up some Thickers for 50% off. Our cashier was very friendly and Veronica was convinced that he would have given us anything in the store for 50% off and I think she was right!!! LOL!

Next we headed over to the Walden Galleria for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Funny enough we did not indulge in any cheesecake, but we opted for some very delicious salads!!! Refueled and ready to go, we hit the mall, stopping in all of our favourite stores and some that just caught our attention!

We then headed over to Joann's - how could we resist when all scrapping supplies were 40% off?! After picking up just a few things, we met up with Veronica's friend, Kelly, and checked into our hotel for the evening, printed out some coupons for the Coach Factory Store and headed over to see what was new! Some of us, who shall remain nameless, may have made a purchase there - lol!

Then it was over to the Olive Garden for dinner, where we definitely ate too much! Why did they ever take the Olive Garden away from us in Canada??? It is delicious!

After a long day's work - haha - it was back to the hotel for some rest. The next morning we headed to The Pancake House for breakfast as it was highly recommended by Kelly. The pancakes were delicious, but it was a lot of food! Good thing we didn't order the Apple Baked Pancake (that was the size of a cake, no word of a lie) or the omlettes (that looked like they were made with a dozen eggs each) that some of the tables around us had ordered! I don't think we would have had a chance of finishing the meal if we had.

We had some extra time before we needed to head over to our class, so we headed to another mall, Michael's and Walmart to see if we could find anything interesting. At the mall, we inadvertendly joined the walking club as none of the stores were opened yet - good way to burn some of those pancake calories.

We were very excited when we finally arrived at Buffalo Stamps & Stuff for our class with Debby Schuh! We arrived early so we could browse the store before the class started. In class, we created a beautiful travel album made from an Anthropolgie bag. Learning from Debby Schuh was a delightful treat! We learned some great new techniques that I'm sure we'll use again and again! Check out Debby's blog to see photos of the album we created. It was a great weekend!

Wishing for warmer weather...

It's the end of the month, which means it's time for a Sketchabilities reveal!

I had fun this month playing with Glimmer Mists to create my background and the colours I used left me hoping for spring weather soon :)

Be sure to check out the Sketchabilities blog to see what the rest of the team created.

More recently...

As promised, here is a look at the full two-page spread from my January layout with Sketchabilities... I even did some journalling on this page - not something I do very often!

This past weekend I was working on my next layout for Sketchabilities and I have some final touches to finish up before the February 28 reveal. Please sure to check back soon to see it!

In the meantime, I'd love to share a what else I've been up to lately. A nasty throat infection kept me from doing anything but sleep at the beginning of February, but the month definitely improved from there.

For Valentine's Day, Brian and I headed up into wine country and we spent the day in Jordan at a wine and cheese tasting seminar at Cave Spring Cellars. Following the seminar, we did some more wine tasting and enjoyed a fantastic dinner at the Inn on the Twenty restaurant, which SURPRISE included even more wine tasting. The wine and cheese pairings seminar was definitely a highlight of the trip and we had a great time tasting the different pairings with the great people at our table and being tricked by the instructor into thinking that a single wine was really three different wines, because of the effect different cheeses had on the flavour.

At dinner, I think our favourite course of the meal was an appetizer that Brian ordered that was referred to as a pulled pork and scallop bruschetta. It sounds like a strange pairing and I must admit that it did not have mush resemblance to traditional bruschetta, but it was defintiely delicious!!!

In celebration of Valentine's Day, my friend Sonia and I spend the day before creating some really cute mini books for our men. All the elements for the minibook were designed by House of 3 and Sonia and I had a great time being creative and putting these together! Next step is to add the photos from each of our Valentine's Days, respectively. I haven't seen her photos yet from her Valentine's Day trip to Ottawa but I'm sure they'll be great! I'll be sure to share some close up picture of our completed books once the photos have been added.

Sketchabilities Reveal

Have you been over to the Sketchabilities blog recently? The design team's recent reveal is definitely not one to be missed. Take a minute to visit and see what the talented designers have created this month - you won't be disappointed!

Here's a peek at what I created... the photograph is of my mom, my brother (beer in hand - lol) and I at my mom's 60th birthday surprise party this past November. I've actually completed a second page to create a 2-page spread - just need to take a photograph so that I can share it!

A New CAR!!!

Yes, that's right! I bought a car and its my first BRAND NEW car!

(Source: www.autorivals.net)

The RAV4 will soon be mine and then I can post a photo with me in the driver's seat.

Unfortunately I have to wait likely until the end of February for my car to be ready. Toyota has been selling a lot of these and when I made my purchase at the beginning of January there were only two left in Canada of the model I wanted. Sadly, I couldn't get my hands on one of those two as they were located up in northern Ontario.

So they're making me, and a lot of other people, a brand new one!

I can't wait!!!