Saturday, November 27, 2010

I had a great day today. It's not often that I go and do something that's just for fun. Today I attended a distress ink class at Be Creative in Pitt Meadows. The class ran the full day and was really good value for the money. It was a nice group of ladies, Lisa is a great instructor and I learned some new and very cool techniques to use on my cards, atc's and tags. Of course, it goes without saying that I also dropped some serious coin buying all the new goodies I need.

I thought I was so caught up with my christmas stuff but have now fallen behind again. I am creating cards for family and friends though and have done some of it by production line so it's working quite well. I can't take credit for the design - I saw it in one of the paper crafting mags and fell in love with it. I'm using the design for christmas, but it could be modified for almost any occasion. Just changing the background paper and the colour scheme will make the card look totally different.

The painters are almost finished painting my house and I'm very pleased with the colours and the work they are doing. Next week they start on my kitchen. The kitchen is not a total reno, more of a sprucing up as I did not replace my cupboards, however I'm sure the changes will make a huge difference. I'm excited about it as I can't really visualize how it will look.

I think I'm hooked on digital stamps. They're so affordable and the gratification is as close to instant as you can get. I've bought several from Mo's Digital Pencil - no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer ! I'm really pleased with the results I've achieved so far. I just bought 3 more this weekend. I'm not usually into cute stuff, but these are really cute and I'm sure the finished cards will be very popular.

Well must run. I have a journal spread to do and some cards I'm working on so no time to waste.

Caoi!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

I'm disappointed and mad at myself that I don't update my journal as much as I should. Lately it seems that all I do is eat, work and sleep ! I come home exhausted every night and have no motivation to do anything. Just counting the weeks til we head off to Palm Springs again so I can re-charge my battery.

Work has been crazy - so much to do and so many meetings. Also lots of drama with an employee. It's physically and mentally exhausting to deal with all the goings on. It makes it difficult to get anything done. The work keeps coming and I don't ever seem to make any headway. Who knew I would be this busy?

My house is still a work in progress. The reno was put on hold while I recuperated from my surgery and then my guy got busy with another project which is now finishing up. The plan is he and his crew will be here Monday morning to start working again. He is reasonably confident that he can get everything done fairly quickly. I hope so however he really does have a lot to do. Right now my house is a bit of a disaster area and I'd really like to get things back on track in time for Christmas.

I made a couple of purchases last weekend. I haven't been able to entertain very much the last several months because my diningroom chairs bit the biscuit. I only had 3 chairs and everyone knows you can't have much of a dinner party with only 3 people! So I finally got around to buying 6 new chairs - very plain, parsons style with slipcovers. Not terribly expensive but serviceable as I don't really use my dining room that much. DD assembled them for me and they look great so I'm looking forward to actually using them now. I sure wish I could afford to replace my dining room suite, but I can't!

I also bought myself a bedside table. Good riddance to that horrible MDF thing that masqueraded as a piece of furniture. I bought the bedside table at Jysk as well and it's not bad for the price. At least it's real wood with a beech veneer not that awful MDF that Ikea is selling now. I remember back in the day when Ikea prided itself on well made, solid pine furniture. Not so much anymore! A lot of their stuff is just fancied up particle board these days. What's up with that?

Well must run. I'm all caught up with stock for the store, at least for the time being. However I have tons of cards to make for my own use and then would also like to come up with some new wedding designs for the spring.

Caio!

Sunday, November 07, 2010

Dad had his hip replacement surgery on Oct 25th. When they did the surgery, they discovered that he had a broken hip which would explain why he was in so much pain for so long. Unbelievable! It didn't show up on the exrays so they have no idea how long his hip has been broken. The doc just shook his head. He says if Dad could endure the pain of a broken hip for several months, then his recuperation will be a breeze for him.

I checked in with Dad today and he's home 12 days after his surgery. He's not having any pain to speak of, at least nothing that his regular meds can't handle. He's getting around with a walker and has informed me that in a couple of weeks that all he'll need is a cane! He sounded really good, back to his old self again which is really good to hear. He had only been home a couple of hours and he'd had a beer with my brother and was looking forward to a roast beef dinner. I have much to be thankful for!

Yesterday a co-worker commented to me that it's only 46 days til Christmas. How the heck did that happen and where has the time gone? I'm making my Christmas cards to send to family and friends again this year so have started to work on some designs. I'm also working on more stock for the store. There are only a few weeks til the cards will start going out so I have my work cut out for me. However, on a bright note, I think that I'm ahead of schedule in the card making area so thats a good thing. I don't usually even think about making my own cards til much later in the month.

Work is a zoo and I'm totally swamped. I think someone comes in at night and adds more work to my desk ! This coming week is a short week as I'm out of the office at a meeting all day Wednesday and then Thursday is a stat due to Remembrance Day. Hmmm, maybe the fact that it's a short week is not a bad thing after all!

Well must run. I want to work on some more cards before I go to bed.

Caio!