Bits of Scrap

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-23T16:02:00.006-06:00

The beauty yesterday was breath-taking! Everywhere I looked, it was a winter wonderland! Even weeds were beautiful.

On another topic, our house was being shingled yesterday as well.

I can see the end of the contruction crew's job there and the beginning of our work. Hopefully right after New Years we can start working on the inside. I can hardly wait! I know it will be a lot of work, but so worth it in the end. I walk around in the house and picture how it will all be. Such a new experience for us.

The house has a SHAPE!

2010-12-08T17:37:00.003-06:00

This is a side view of the front of the house...the front porch!

The back of the house.

The front of the house from the north-west corner.

Front of the house and garage from the north-east corner.

This is getting REALLY exciting! The house has a SHAPE! The front middle section of the house roof will have two dormer windows on it. Totally just for looks! A ranch-style house needs dormers, I think!

December 6,2010

2010-12-07T17:08:00.005-06:00

The house has been progressing quite nicely the last week or so. The walls are almost all up on the house. It is starting to look a little bit bigger....when it was just the basement, it looked really small. Now I picture where all my cabinets will be and it seems to be a lot of cabinets. But that will be sooo nice!

It still seems unreal that this is our house! we had been dreaming of building for so many years and now its really happening!

November 24,2010

2010-11-24T17:24:00.002-06:00

The floor joists were put onto our basement today.

The first picture is my future scrapbooking room in the basement. The second picture is my future kitchen on the main floor.

November 15, 2010

2010-11-24T16:57:00.004-06:00

The house is slowing getting closer to ready for the construction crew to come and build. Just not quite sure if this is an indoor swimming pool? It was a bit of a problem getting the sump hole dug because the water kept filling the hole before we got a few shovels full of dirt out. That was some tough digging.

The garage floor is done too. It will sure feel good to have an attached garage on the house. To not have to walk outside to unload groceries will be a new thing for me. But I am sure looking forward to it.

The New House!

2010-11-07T15:56:00.005-06:00

Well, I guess it's not a new HOUSE yet, but it is the beginning of it.

The basement was dug on October 25th, 2010. I had to drive past on my way to work that morning just to see if they were working there already. My stomach did a little flip just to think that this was really happening...this is really our basement that was being dug.

These pictures are all not in the right order, but I'm sure you can figure out which way they go.

The move to Chris and Joel's basement happened quite smoothly, other than that it was an AWFUL lot of work. But I guess after living in the same house for just over 25 years, what can we expect?

We are all settled in now and waiting for the house to be roughed up, which is supposed to start happening at the beginning of next week, MAYBE at the end of this week. I can hardly wait to see the actual house taking shape.

I'll try to keep posting pictures for those of you that are interested in the progress.

An exciting day

2010-01-27T08:46:00.000-06:00

I got to meet Alan Jackson this past Saturday at one of his concerts! I was so nervous and excited to finally get to meet my favorite singer of all time. It still hardly seems real, I'm just glad that I have a picture of us together as proof that it happened.

I started drawing this picture of him and his wife a few years ago and finally finished drawing it a few days before the concert.

We had to drive 6 hours to the concert but it sure was worth it. He put on a great concert again. The opening act was George Canyon, who was also good, but I didn't notice much of his part. It was before I got to meet AJ and my mind was on that.

Busy day

2009-12-19T17:40:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a busy day for me. Lots of baking, a wedding reception and cooking soup. I think I have almost all my Christmas baking done, although I will probably think of something else that I really want to make. I don't know who will eat everything, but I'm sure there'll be takers. I have made a goody tray for friends from Winnipegfor many years so I'll do that again this year. These are a few of the things that I made today. White Chocolate Bark, Oreo cookies, Peppermint meltaways and Monster cookies. I also made Coconut Bars but haven't dipped them in chocolate yet.

My shopping is as good as done!!!! And I feel great about that! The malls and stores these days drive me crazy. I even have all the stocking stuffers done. Just a few more groceries a day or so before Christmas and I'm good.

Hmmmm, what to have for CHristmas dinner? I bought a Butterball turkey so that's one thing. Mashed potatoes, stuffing and another kind of meat???? I'm leaning towards meatballs. I have to work Christmas eve till 4:00 and then the Christmas program in the evening, so that doesn't give me a lot of time to get anything ready. What kind of dessert is good? Maybe a trifle? I will have to think about this.

Open House on October 31!

2009-10-30T08:07:00.000-05:00

The Open House is happening tomorrow at the Winkler Library Meeting room. It starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. Of, course, if you come earlier the selection of my used stamp sets will be a lot better. I have about 40 sets to sell, as well as a lot of paper. There will also be Door Prizes, so come and join the fun. And of course, food to snack on while you look around.

Close To My Heart is having a huge Stamp sale in November as well, buy two, get one free. This sale will be on at the Open House, as I will be placing the order in November!

This Open House is a Fundraiser for Operation Smile - an organization of volunteer medical personnel that go around the globe fixing children's cleft lip and cleft pallette. I have a personal interest in this organization, my cousin has gone on many a mission trip with them. I will hopefully be showing videos of this at the Open House.

I hope each one of you can make it out and bring a friend or two!

Hoping to see you there.

2009-10-15T20:17:00.000-05:00

I am getting ready for an Open House for October 31 (Halloween) at the Winkler Library Meeting Room. One display that I'll have is for a Christmas Card Workshop. These are the five different cards we'll be making, two of each for a total of ten cards. I'm not sure when I'll have the workshop, hopefully beginning to middle of November. The cards all use the new Jingle paper. On this card, I used the Martha Stewart leaf punch.

All the cards use the CTMH stamp set Holiday Trinkets. It is a beautiful set.

The colors for the cards are Juniper and Tulip.

I will have quite a few door prizes at the Open House. I made two boxes of tags for prizes. Each box contains 48 tags to use or your CHristmas gifts.

My Cricut was very busy cutting all the scalloped circles. It did a great job though!

The two boxes have four diferent kinds of tags. Each box has different ones. I can't decide which are my favorite, but I sure had fun making all of them.

I put some plastic covers on the boxes and wrapped them up pretty with a gold ribbon. I hope whoever gets these, will love using them.

More details about my Open House will follow in a while. I hope all of you will be able to attend.

See you soon!

Missing.....

2009-09-22T22:50:00.000-05:00

I have been missing from this blog for far too long. I realize that the summer has just passed me by hardly without me realizing it. The weather is still beautiful here. No frost yet, which is a good thing, as I have only picked about a dozen tomatoes so far.

I really want to keep my blog more up to date with my Close to my Heart stuff. Now that winter is near, I hope to have more time to do some workshops again. I will keep you updated with my plans.

James and I had a big project this summer. We decorated a wedding cake for my cousin's daughter. It was a lot more work than I had expected , not so much the decorating but the baking. It was a huge cake, probably stood about 3 feet tall.

I hope to be back soon with some pictures of my scrapbooking and cards that I have made.

Happy Fall!

April 18, 2009

2009-04-18T21:14:00.000-05:00

Thursday, January 29

2009-01-29T17:20:00.000-06:00

Knitting this sweater was a bigger project than I thought. The pattern is from Berroco.I was a little out of the loop already with knitting so many colors. But it is finally done and I can hardly wait to give it to the little girl I made it for! I hope she'll like it.
I took this picture in our backyard today. Well, we don't really have a back yard but I was standing right behind our house to take this picture. It is my brother-in-law's horse. I just thought it was pretty and I love horses, at least to look at and take pictures of. I used to do a lot of riding but not anymore. I think I'm too old for that.

I guess we won't be having a picnic outside anytime soon! I am amazed at the drift on our patio table. I sure hope the table will be able to hold the weight all right. I think it's because of the corner behind the house that we get such huge drifts there.

I am enjoying my new job a lot. The day always goes by so fast. Today I got really tired though. I did some baking from scratch, a BIGGGG batch of date oatmeal cookies. I also topped cream cookies with marshmallow. The last cookies didn't look so good, as the marshmallow was getting a little hard! I have a lot to learn yet. I also washed a lot of dishes and for that you really have to bend over the sink. I find it really hard on my back. But in a few weeks, we'll be in the new kitchen and we'll have a dishwasher!!!YIPPEE!!! That will be so exciting with all the room we'll have there. The bakery and the deli is all together now and in the new part, we'll be more seperate. We'll each have more room than we have together now.

I'm off to find something for supper. I have no idea who is all at home for supper. So far, it's just me.

Sunday, January 18,2009

2009-01-18T10:47:00.000-06:00

I get a kick watching our little grandson playing Rock Band. But then again, I get a thrill out of watching him do anything!

I knit this sweater for a co-worker. It is the same pattern as the green one. She loved it.

Have you ever heard of Raclette? We had this for supper last Sunday. It works kind of the same as a fondue but this is with a lot of different kinds of meat, cheeses and vegetables. Everyone fries and bakes their own thing. There are little frying pans underneath the elements. I got a Raclette from our kids for Christmas and we love using it. It is the perfect thing for "Food and Fellowship."

Saturday, January 10

2009-01-10T08:26:00.000-06:00

I have been getting quite a few scrapbook pages done. My stack of 700 pictures is getting smaller!!!!
Of course, my most scrapbooked subject is our oldest grandson. I have not started the youngest grandson's pages yet.

I hope to really soon, but I need to get the pictures done that I have already printed.

Some of these pages are still missing the journaling. Which is something that I procrastinate with quite a bit.

Some pages are done really simple. I really love the Becky Higgins style of scrapbooking and I LOVE working with sketches.

I hope to someday get enough creativity to actually make my own sketches.

I have a binder ready for sketches, it just needs to be done.

These pictures are only from a year ago, but I have so many from longer ago than that. I scrapbook in no particular order. I just organize my pictures in folded pieces of paper, and write on the paper what the subject is. I have done some where I have looked for a layout in a book or magazine and then written down which layout I want to use with the pictures. I have even gone so far as written down which paper I want to use. This all takes so much time, but the actual making of the pages is a lot faster!

Using the paper packages and My Stickease from Close To My Heart also saves quite a bit of time when I scrapbook.

Of course, most of the product I use is Close To My Heart. I almost feel like a traitor when I use other supplies, except when I know that CTMH doesn't have the same thing.

On a totally different topic, this is the sweater I knit for a girl that I used to work with. She saw me knitting a scarf with this same yarn and loved the color. Seeing as her birthday was coming up soon, I knit a cropped cardigan for her. I hope to give it to her today, and I really hope she likes it, enough to wear it at least a few times!

This week monday I found out that a girl I still work with is having a birthday this coming monday, so I got to work knitting a sweater for her! Same pattern, but a dark purple color. I really like purple on her so that's the color she's getting. I hope to have that one done by the next time I will see her, which is next week Wednesday! Wish me luck!

I should go and bake some cookies. I bought some Macadamia nuts so I want to make the Macadamia white chocolate chip cookies. They are so YUMMY!!!! I start work at 1 today, so I have some time to bake them. Should I eat some for you too?LOL!

Okay, enough of my rambling for today. Off I go!

Another Diaper bag!

2009-01-07T17:32:00.001-06:00

This diaper bag is the same as the other one I posted a while ago, but with different color of material. Which one is my favorite....Hard to say. I wanted more of the blue fabric but it is unavailable now. Sigh! I have enough fabric for about 3 more of these, so if anyone is interested, let me know and I can make one for you. I charge $45 CAD each plus s/h.

I took this picture of our oldest grandson at his 2nd birthday party last week. He is such an adorable child. A little cowboy through and through, but I guess he doesn't have much choice, as his dad and grandpa are both cowboys, too! Not my DH, OH NO!!!! It's the other one.

I LOVE this picture! I hope you enjoy it too.

I hope you all had a merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T09:59:00.001-06:00

Here's a few of my favorite pictures of our oldest grandson. He loves licking the beaters when we make pudding or whipped cream. He usually ends up quite dirty!

This is a picture of the wreath on our front door. It is beautiful with the fresh snow on it. The wind has blown most of the new snow around and created drifts all over the yard. We didn't get the storm that was forcast though. Maybe we will yet. I hope so. I love snow storms, when we are all at home safe and sound. Build a fire in the fireplace and we can stay cozy and warm.

The kids are busy playing with the Wii that we got them for Christmas. I love giving them gifts that they enjoy so much. I know it will keep them busy for a long time to come, and it is also something that we can enjoy together as a family. They bought another controller and nunchuck yesterday, so now two people can play at the same time.

I got an Ipod Nano from DH for Christmas. I wanted one for in the car so I don't have to keep changing cd's all the time. I just have a cassette adapter in there, so it plays through the car stereo. I also used it at work yesterday, as it was sooo slow there.

Today is a day of getting ready for a party this evening with friends, and hopefully some time to relax. I really want to get some knitting done yet today. I'm working on a few projects right now, one is a short sleeved cropped cardigan for one of the girls at work. Her birthday is coming up soon and I really need to get it done. Another project is another cardigan, this one for a little girl, who is the daughter to a girl I work with. I hope to post pictures of both projects when they are done.

Celebrate the rest of the Christmas season and have a happy and safe New Year!

Haven't posted for so long!

2008-10-16T09:33:00.000-05:00

Sorry about that! I have been busy.

Here are some of the layouts I've been working on lately. I am SOOOO far behind.

Today is a busy baking day for us here. Making cheesecakes for the celebration!

Hope you all enjoy your day!

Some Blog Candy!

2008-09-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

Stampin' and Dancin' with Riley ( link is on the left of this post ) is giving away some Yummy blog candy! And she also has very beautiful cards posted as well. Check it out!

Our new grandson!

2008-09-13T10:49:00.001-05:00

Well, here he is, all 10 pounds, 13 ounces of him! But he is so adorable! And the mother is doing great too.We are so proud of her and the way she handles things.The doctor tried three or four times to give her an epidural and it didn't work!
This is a picture of the proud grandma!
He already loves his soother.
Can't wait to see them again today. Our other grandson, Jacob , will be coming for night today. He is so much fun to have around, just a very lovable little boy!

I am glad I made the right color diaper bag. I finished it just before Joel called with the news, and as I was sewing, I was thinking, will I need to make a pink one yet?

Big Job accomplished!

2008-09-12T15:43:00.000-05:00

This is a diaper bag for DD that I have been working on today. I feel SOOOO good that it is done. I think it turned out very well, and I love the fabric.
This is the side pocket.
It has 4 fairly big pockets on the inside as well. They should come in very handy, when you need to take everything but the kitchen sink with you when you have two small children!
This bag was quite a bit of fun sewing.

Some new layouts

2008-09-09T15:18:00.000-05:00

These are some layouts that I've done over the last few days. I am always amazed at how much time I spend doing one page. I am in the process of making some display boards for my parties and open houses. I want to make a display for each new paper pack.I'm making the displays on cardboard stands, with plastic bags to slip the pages and cards into so I can change them when each new catalogue comes out.
I usually make two-page layouts, but this time I only made one page layouts because of the display board. I can't place them on there side by side anyway.
I'll post some cards too once I'm done with them. This paper pack is called Perfect Day. It is new for this catalogue. I really like the new colors and patterns. The patterned paper is now two-sided, with a monochrome pattern on the back.

Misc. photos that I took

2008-09-08T17:59:00.001-05:00

Sunrise at the Ranch.
The work horses at the Circle Square Ranch where we have adult retreats each year.
This is my favorite picture of the Alan Jackson concert. I have an 8x10 framed in my scrapbooking room!
I love the Rockies!
Some boats at the Big Whiteshell.

Agricultural Museum

2008-09-08T10:52:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we took a trip down to Rollag, Minnesota to the museum. We saw a lot of tractors, mostly John Deere. Their special feature this year was John Deere. They have a different feature every year. Henry was thrilled to see a tractor almost like his dad used to have. I told him to sit on it to take a picture. His Dad's was like this except for the steel wheels.

When we left the museum, we went to Detroit Lakes for supper. We met some friends there at Zorba's. It is a great little place to eat, with very yummy pizza.

We were planning on staying the night in Fargo, but there were no rooms available anywhere, so we decided to go home. We got home around midnight. It was a great day, spent together with Henry and james.

My completed concert album

2008-08-08T10:39:00.000-05:00

I am so excited to finally be done with this album. It was a lot of fun to make but also very challenging, as I am not used to scrapbooking 9 x 9 pages. That means adapting all the 12 x 12 layouts to 9 x 9. This concert was amazing! But then I knew it would be. What else can Alan Jackson be but AMAZING!!!! Enjoy the pictures.

Home on the Range

2008-07-22T18:24:00.000-05:00

Present for Grandma, dried Horsey "POOP." Jacob's word.

We went to see Joel and his dad's horses on Sunday night after having supper at Warky's in Morden. Together they own about 40 horses. Most of them are in a pasture close to Morden. We also picked up a bunch of ticks while we were there. I DO NOT LIKE THOSE THINGS!!!

Can we be friends?
I love the little guys. They are so curious and cute.

Lovely Flowers

2008-07-22T09:24:00.000-05:00

I love the lilies that are blooming in my garden right now. I usually take pictures of them so that I can enjoy them for longer than the few weeks that they bloom.

Don't be scared!!!

2008-07-22T09:15:00.000-05:00

My DS went four-wheeling last week after a heavy rain. He and his friend came back looking like this!!!! After, I learned that they had actually rolled in the mud to make it look like this. But they did get good and stuck! I took one picture of him like this without the flash. It is not a clear picture and it looks REALLY freaky. I don't even want to post it.

What a beautiful day!

2008-07-10T10:05:00.000-05:00

The sun is shining and it is quite warm already. We have had such beautiful weather lately. The forecast is for thundershowers later tonight, so I need to get my doors painted. I also have to finich mudding the entrance. Wow, has that been quite the job. I wish I could do a better job of it. I will have a lot of sanding to do before I paint. I probably used twice as much mud as I would have needed to.

Lots of things to do, so I need to get to work!

July 7, 2008

2008-07-07T13:51:00.000-05:00

I am not the greatest at posting on my blog. Wow, its been months since I last updated this. It has been quite busy with CTMH parties, the regular housework, gardening and then going camping the July long weekend.

My nephew sprayed our lawn for dandelions in spring. Almost all of our grass died, so this past weekend, he tilled almost our whole yard, packed it and reseeded it with grass. This last night we got a beautiful rain, probably close to an inch, so that will help with getting the grass growing. It will be nice to have a green yard again.

I am doing a bit of sewing for my nieces today. My mom wanted me to sew a nice dress for my youngest niece that she could give for a baby gift. (She is already almost two years old by now!!!) So I decided that I would make a dress for the older niece as well. The dresses are the same, except for the color. Once I have them done, I'll try and let you see them.

SCRAPBOOKING!!!!

2008-03-08T17:16:00.000-06:00

I have been doing some scrapbooking for myself lately and I hope to get more done this weekend. I really want to get all my pictures done by summer. YEA RIGHT! But I can dream, right? Here are a few of the layouts i've been working on. Mostly of Jacob, of course! LOL

2008-01-31T15:38:00.000-06:00

Whew! Finally got the scrubs done. It is more work than I thought it was. Now if I can fugure out how to post pictures, I'll show you the six scrubs that I made. Now I have to start sewing James' chef pants. I just cut them so they are ready to sew.

I am working on getting my Bachelor Degree!! With Close To My Heart. They offer a Bachelor, Masters and a PH.D. Degree. It is so much fun. I am learning a lot of new things that I need to apply to my business.

2008-01-21T11:16:00.001-06:00

I am not very computer literate at all! So starting this blog is something very challenging to me. I hope I will keep it up fairly well. I am bad at writing letters though!LOL. When I was starting the blog, I was asked what I wanted to name it. Bits of Scrap came to me right away, thinking of all the scrap paper that I scrapbook with. As I was typing it in, I was thinking, This goes doubly for me. I also LOVE sewing and I have a lot of sewing scraps as well!

This evening we want to start organizing my sewing room and putting up more shelves. I have a little attic room for my sewing and the other end of the attic is my scrapping room. So the whole upstairs is mine!!!!!My computer is also in the sewing room. Although since Christmas, I am wondering whose computer it really is! Our son got the Guitar Hero III and his Puter is not compatable with it so he is using mine till he can afford to buy a different one. Although with the big dreams he has of his new puter I think he will be saving yet for quite a while.

I hope to get some scrapbboking done today, for my own pleasure and my own albums. I have been so busy with getting stuff ready for CTMH parties and Workshops, that I haven't gotten much done. I want to make some Thank You cards for one of our friends from Winnipeg. She is in a wheelchair because of a bad back surgery. She is also not very capable of using her hands, but whenever we do something for them, she always sends us a Thank You card where she writes something in. If she is so faithful with sending out Thank You cards, I thought they probably go through a lot and I wanted to do something special for her. So I decided that I would make her a bunch of cards to use. I hope she will like them.

Well, I think I need to get to work if I want to do something productive today, although starting a blog is a BIG thing for me, right?LOL. Hope to update y'all later.