Cut 'n Paste

Pretty music for your weekend...

I am enjoying being home this week. At work we are designing like mad and I am pretty excited about what we have coming up.

Rick was called out of town on Sunday to investigate a police shooting in the North of our province. He came home on Wed. night, and I'm happy to have him back home as life is always more exciting when we are together.

As we head into the weekend, here is a music video for one of my favorite music groups, All Angels. I am a sucker for beautiful choral music, and this group is pure ear candy. (Although I will say, for the record, that my husband does not share my admiration for their version of this song - he says they ruined it.)

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!

Winter Cheer Giveaway #1

Hi Friends! I hope you each enjoyed the first weekend of December!

I am really happy to come to you today with the first giveaway of my annual Winter Cheer giveaways. If you've been a reader over the past 3 years, you may remember that throughout the month of December I host several blog giveaways to celebrate the holiday season. This is my special little gift to you! I can't even tell you how much you each brighten my life and this is one of the ways I show my appreciation!

Today's giveaway is a duo of CDs, one of holiday music, and one of popera. Up for grabs is one copy of Andrea Bocelli's My Christmas and one copy of Susan Boyles I Dreamed a Dream.
 
All you need to do is leave a comment here telling me your favorite holiday song. That's it. Simple, eh?

Here's the fine print: only one comment per person please, and the draw is open to everyone no matter where you live. I will happily pay shipping to your corner of the world! Draw will close Friday, Dec 10 at 6 AM and I will post the winner by Monday, Dec. 13.

I'm still here!!

I've been home from CHA for a little over a week and have been enjoying my summer...perhaps a little too much☺ Rick is on holiday again this week and so is continuing to fix up some things around the house while I am immersed in work stuff, visa/passport things and trying to enjoy these last few weeks of summer.  

To all those who stopped by the Melissa Frances booth to check out the new product, say 'hi' and catch up, thank you. I appreciate so much the friendships I've made through this industry and value that you took the time to visit!

In the meantime, here is a catchy and cute summer song to enjoy. (What I'd give to be as adorable as these two girls!) and:
 Thanks for your patience!

I Am A Girl - The Girls With Glasses Theme Song from The Girls With Glasses on Vimeo.

What a weekend & Winter Cheer Giveaway #4

Rick and I got home yesterday night after a really fun 2 days in Seattle. It was so incredibly enjoyable....everything from the concert, to the shopping to the eating and spending time with my parents was just what we'd hoped. The weekend started with Rick and I heading out Sat mid-morning and driving down from home to Seattle with a brief stop at an outlet mall to hit the Sony outlet (for him) and the Restoration Hardware outlet (for me!). From there we drove right through to a mall that houses a few of our favorite restaurants where we were going to meet my parents for an early dinner before the concert. I've got to say, I hardly ever willingly choose to go to malls around the Christmas season. I'm one of those who tends to Christmas shop all year long, so come December there is no rush to find that perfect gift. As such, I was completely amazed at the crazy amount of people at the mall. We were lucky to even find a parking stall in the lot! After parking we headed through the mall only to discover that our chosen restaurant (P.F. Chang's) had a 2.5 hour wait for a table. Not exactly what we'd been anticipating! A quick change of plans had us eating at the Cheesecake Factory (which had been on the agenda as our lunch destination the next day) as their wait was only 30 minutes. Due to the wait for dinner, we chose to drive with my parents directly from mall to the Michael W. Smith concert. The concert was beautiful, such melodious music with a 65 piece orchestra. What a treat and a great way to celebrate the reason for the season. From the concert we headed to the hotel that my mom found on-line. It was really, really nice. My hubby's favorite part was the 42 inch plasma TVs in each room. Gotta love that! Sunday saw us leaving the hotel and doing some shopping before heading to P.F. Chang's for lunch (after Saturday's mix-up, we booked a lunch reservation). Yummy food! It was a wonderful mini-holiday and it made it very special to share it with my parents. We had a lot of laughs and my dad said that it needed to be the beginning of a new seasonal tradition.

I thought I'd share a few things I found on the trip with you. Unfortunately we didn't do any antiquing, but I did find 2 crafts stores and brought home 4 stamps. The scallop oval in the middle is by Paper Source, the other three are by Impress Rubber Stamps. I can't wait to use them!

Now here's what I'm sure many of you are wondering about....what do I have up my sleeve for the Winter Cheer Giveaway #4. Hmmmmm, well I knew that I wanted it to be big, crafty, and fun. I also  know that many of you come and visit me because of my job at Melissa Frances, a crafting product line. Sooo...after talking to Melissa, it's my pleasure to announce that Melissa Frances is sponsoring Giveaway #4!!!

The winner of this draw will receive a whopping $150 worth of Melissa Frances scrapbooking products. We're talking scrapbooking paper, acrylic stamps, and embellishments galore. What an awesome Christmas gift to one lucky winner!

So cross your fingers (and your toes). Giveaway open to those with Canadian/US mailing addresses (Thanks for your understanding). Please leave a comment to be entered in the draw for the prize.  I'll accept comments until 12 Noon on Friday (PST). Then, we'll do the draw and select the winner.

 

We have a winner, and other assorted things

Sorry for the delay in getting the winner posted from the Winter Cheer Giveaway #2. Yesterday I was anxiously waiting for a friends results from some medical tests, so decided to try and distract myself by going antique shopping in the States. Miraculously although she was never far from my mind, it did help. It's been ages since I've taken a day to hunt for treasures. I've stopped for a few moments the odd time when picking up my mail (there is an antique shop right by my US post office box). But as for spending a whole day? That hasn't happened since before Silver Bella. So yesterday I headed off to my favorite haunts, seeking treasures to add to my collections. By the time I came home I'd bought the following:

• I had found 11 silver glass ornaments with just the perfect amount of tarnish on them
• 2 glittered houses (I really want to make something like these ones that Linda made which were shown in the Melissa Frances Dec/Jan newsletter)
• a spelling primer from 1892
• the most perfect portrait (approximately 9x6) of 2 sisters taken in 1902  (I paid too much for it, but they looked so lonely and in need of someone to take them home. I felt positive that my studio would be a much happier place for them than the antique mall)
• a new doll head (yes, it is an illness, lol!)
• Oh, and I found the mother-load...a huge tray of mother of pearl buttons and another one of rhinestone buttons. I left an offer for the dealer with the antique shop and they called me back this morning with a counter offer which I've accepted. It's one of those things where all being said, it's a lot of money to buy them, but it's still a good deal....you know what I mean? It's like buying a house that is valued for 5 million for 1 million. It's still a lot of money, but it's a good deal...I'll show them to you when I bring them home sometime next week.

I got home around 7pm and after hearing no news from my friend spent the rest of the evening incredibly worried (she'd told me the day before that no news meant bad news, and to please give her space)...so hopefully you understand why I didn't post the draw. I had horrible luck trying to fall asleep, last time I looked at the clock it was 4:32 AM and my mind was still worrying. Fast forward to this morning, and Rick wakes me up and tells me that my friend is on the phone. She was all apologetic and told me that she was so worn out the day before that after getting good news she'd gone right to bed. (Poor thing, she'd been incredibly worried and not slept much in the preceding days). I was SO relieved. What an answer to prayer. We needed a Christmas miracle, and this certainly filled the bill!

So now to the question that most of you are wondering about...who is the winner of Winter Cheer Giveaway #2?

I'll be emailing you shortly sweet girl!

To finish up, here's my holiday music pick for today. It's from the Celtic Woman Christmas television special which is airing several times throughout the holiday season on PBS. I find the choreography a bit too staged, but my-oh-my, those gals can sing. It's a beautiful holiday album. Enjoy!

This and That

I have a few things to share with you today.

First, Amber suggested that I do a tutorial on the little florets I made for my 'Noel' banner and several others indicated an interest in this too. I'll try to get one posted here sometime in the next week.

Second, I thought I'd share two of my recent purchases with you. I am a serious shoe person. I LOVE funky, colorful and sexy shoes. Anyways, I needed some new winter boots as my old ones were about 8 years old. So I found some awesome ones by my new favorite shoe company Privo. I bought my first pair of Privo's before we left for Europe. They are amazingly comfortable shoes and I heartily recommend them. I was excited to find out that the boots were on sale at my local shoe shop, so I ran in to try them on and left with a smile on my face and the boots in shopping bag! My second purchase is the adorable pumps pictured here made by Indigo Shoes. They look like the perfect holiday party shoes, and they were very comfy. I first saw them when I was at the shoe shop to buy my boots. They didn't have my size, so they special ordered them. I ran in this morning to try them on and was so excited because they'd been put on sale for 50% off!! Yeay! So they came home with me too!

Third, here is another one of the collages that I sold at Silver Bella. It totally made me wish that I'd grown up with a sister. I was so happy that it was bought by a set of sisters who came to the show with their mom. I hope they enjoy it.

Fourth, if you're looking for some holiday inspiration, I'd encourage you to visit my friend Rebecca who is doing an excellent series called 'Christmas from the craft room'. Great ideas there.

Finally, a little Christmas music for you. This is a dance remix of a Sarah McLachlan holiday song...it gets me in a great weekend mood. It's a bit long, but fun.

Enjoy your weekend, I'm off to work on some magazine assignments! 

This Christmas season...

With the Holiday season starting up, I wanted to take a moment to wish each of you the following...

So sorry that the photo is blurry! (Song by Michael W Smith from his new Chrsitmas Album).

Edited to add: Since my original post they have disabled embedding for this video, so to listen, please click HERE.

Have a safe weekend and be sure to check back on Monday as I will be posting a give-away!

Happy Thanksgiving and a happy girl

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. I hope that you had a lovely day with family and friends. Are any of you gearing up for Black Friday sales? As I live right on the Canada/USA border, I often go across on Black Friday, but I will be sitting it out this year. There is nothing that we need badly enough to make me brave the crowds. Good luck to those of you go. Let me know what kinds of deals you get and I'll live vicariously through you.

My 'happy girl' news is that my hubby and I were able to snare tickets for the Celine Dion concert in Vancouver in October 2008....looooong way away, eh? It's one of those things were we don't know 100% if we'll be available to go, but I've always wanted to see Celine in concert, so we bit the bullet. I'm pretty happy about it! Hopefully you don't think I'm lame, I know a lot of people are not fans, but I first bought her album when I was in 9th grade, and she's always been my ideal as an amazing singer. The mastery she has over her voice and the dedication she gives to her craft have really made me a fan. So, although I have a looong wait ahead of me for the concert, the news that we got tickets has made me a happy girl.

Happy Monday

Hi everyone. I hope you had a nice weekend. I was feeling a bit under the weather, but feel a lot better now.

Here's a layout for you. This one was featured in the Canadian Scrapbooker magazine a while back. It's one of my favorite layouts. When my Grandma moved into her assisted living home, I was given some of my old baby photos, and had fun scrapping these.

Supplies:
Patterned paper: Melissa Frances
Cardstock: World Win
Ribbon: Making Memories
Rub-ons: Heidi Swapp

Finally, I'm leaving you with another one of my music finds. I'm a chameleon when it comes to music, I love several different genres. But I am partial to pretty melodies and beautiful harmonies. I picked myself up a new CD off amazon over the weekend. I can't wait for it to arrive. The group is new to me. They're called All Angels and they really do sound like angels. After you check out this song, take a listen to the songs they have streaming on the home page on their website. (I especially LOVE the snippet of 'Let me be an channel of your peace' that they have streaming...gorgeous!)

Enjoy!

They say that...

One person's trash is another person's treasure. This week I have been especially blessed with some great finds at my local thrift and antique shops. My best bargain? An old photo album from the 1920-30s.  It has literally hundreds of old photos in it. Lots of beachy ones too...can you say pin-up girls (and guys - wink!)? So, in honor of my recent find, I thought it was time to play another fun game. It's time to guess how much you thought my photo album cost me. I'll leave the contest open until Friday night (unless someone guesses the price exactly.) We'll do it 'Price is Right' style and the winner will be the first person who guesses closest to the price without going over. Winner will receive a packet of scrapbook supplies valued at over $50. So guess away.

In other news, busy, busy, busy around here (just like most of you I'm sure).  Rick and his buddy went down to Seattle for a Mariners game last weekend. Seattle won and Rick got to eat at a Cheesecake Factory, so he was a happy camper. While Rick was out, I watched the first DVD of the series Planet Earth. It's absolutely stunning. Apparently the US Discovery Channel aired portions of the documentary last year. The version I'm watching is the full BBC version. If you're a fan of documentaries (like me!), this series is a must see. I've only watched the first 3 episodes, so I'm totally looking forward to renting the next DVD in the series.  I've been asked about Melissa Frances and whether we were attending Memory Trends. We have made the decision as a company to not attend Memory Trends, nor release new product for the show. You can look forward to an awesome release at CHA Winter in the new year.

As I sign out, I want to leave you with a song from a group I have recently become totally enamored with. They remind me of the bluegrass music I used to listen to with my dad. The group is a trio of talented Canadian musicians called The Wailin' Jennys.

Enjoy!