The post where she drops all the names

There were SO MANY great aspects of Leica's crop this past weekend that I don't even know where to begin!!! The food was to drool for (compliments of Leica's Mum and Sis!), there were treats everywhere, the loot bag was a mountain of scrapbook lusciousness (is that a word? Well, it is now), the company at my table rocked AND there were famous chicas all over the place! So ladies...I don't give a wit if you don't consider yourself famous. If I have been stalking you, you are famous in my world and I will continue to admire you as such. And tell everyone else to do the same. So there. You can all be modest later, this is my name-dropping post as stated above.
Although I don't have all the photos to prove I was actually there yet.
But courtesy of the sweet April, I do have a few photos of Trisha Ladouceur and I dying laughing after her class "Pint-sized paintables". I did a cute double canvas all aglow with as many colours of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist as I could get my paws on. It was a dirty good time, let me tell ya. I can't remember exactly what we were laughing at here but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with my Dolly Parton sized chest as I hadn't nursed in about 12 hours at that point. Don't you just love my profile...thanks for the great nose Dad. (Insert dry sarcasm here) It's not an attractive photo...I really don't know why I am subjecting myself to staring at it like a bad train wreck but it really shows how hard I was laughing. Like squint your eyes, make three chins, all the teeth showing to the back molars laughing.
And us calming down (just a bit) and looking pretty normal...
I have to tell you how much of a RIOT this girl is...Primadonna, My Minds Eye "It girl", Tattered Angels Design Team Member, Crop and Cruise Instructor, 50% of Fire and Ice Designs, seriously the list goes on and on and what does she say? She puts on this sweet little grin and says "You're so funny, I'm just Trish." Well "Just Trish" I was so thrilled to meet you and take your class! Thank you so much!

Others I loved meeting but have no actual proof of said meeting yet were Jill Hildebrand, Amanda LePage and Corinne Braun. So I will give them their very own blog post later in the week complete with photos. Actually, I never did get a photo with Amanda or Corrine!!! Girls, I'll be stalking you extra hard at the next event...just to give you fair warning. Amanda just happens to be on the Just Cr8 Design Team and I am happily scrapping my way through their 5 week long idols contest. I have low expectations for scoring a lot of points but super HIGH expectations to come out of it with 5 layouts I love and a whole lot more inspiration. Plus, with the deadlines looming it forces me to actually sit down and work which is always good.

Almost 3am, seriously? I need to get to bed. I'll blog my little heart out again soon.

Scrap Hangover

You know how some people say the best cure for a hangover is another beer? Well, that is what I am doing today, sans beer. I attended Leica Forrest's AMAZING crop yesterday...15 straight hours of croppin', stampin', eatin', winnin' goodness! So of course this morning I have a pounding headache and a very sore back and what am I doing? Heading over to JSI to take Trisha Ladouceur's class. Now that's dedication.

I'll name drop and flash some goodies later in the week. (oh get your mind out of the gutter, you know what I mean!)

I have to recover first.

Shout out to Sharon!

Quick, late night post here...just blog hopping to all my faves and I remembered that Sharon from JSI had given me some AMAZING vintage buttons to finish off a layout I did for the Memory Makers Masters competition this year. Well, I of course did not place...BUT it was a huge thrill entering. For real. I'm not just blowing smoke here. There is honestly a huge rush when you do the layouts, get them copied and put them in that box to send away. You're a little euphoric that you actually finished on time (there are quite a lot of steps for that particular competition) and then the high reaches an ultimate peak when you hand it over to the post office person. I DID IT! I don't care that I didn't win. I have 5 LOs I adore. And one of them has
to-die-for vintage buttons. THANKS SHARON!!! xox
***Photo disclaimer*** The flash was not nice to me! This is just one of many, many posts where I will throw in that I NEED a DSLR!

A whole bunch all rolled into one

Has it really been so long? My life has become one big long day of diapers, preschool (different child of course!), classes, housework and keeping up with the hubs and his new out of town schedule. I am not complaining though. It's great to be back in the city! Had a FAB time yesterday at my son's 4th birthday bash. We had quality...not quantity. Due to the Thanksgiving weekend, there were only 10 kids there and 4 of them are under 6 months! So it was only the best buds who all played SO well together! Or should I say got into loud, rowdy trouble together?!? A couple of the party goers were Leica Forrest's boys. So it was wonderful for me to have Leica there because not only is she great at jumping in and lending a hand (I had her helping with lunch before she put her bag down - THANKS LEICA!) but we hadn't seen each other in a long while with the transfer and move and both of our babies being born so I got to meet her little Miss. PLUS she has an amazing camera that she gave me a quick tutorial on and now I WANT ONE. You have no idea how much excellent photography would amp up your scrapbooking until you compare the photos camera to camera. There really is no comparison. So anyway...now I am figuring out how I can weasel a digital SLR out of the hubs when he says I need to learn how to operate our point and shoot first. I KNOW how to operate the point and shoot:
1) Turn camera on
2) Point at the subject
3) Press button
4) Nothing happens
5) Swear under breath and fiddle with the flash setting
6) Point at subject again, completely missing the original picture but still wanting to at least get something for your efforts
7) Press button
8) Series of flashes and whirring followed by the photo blinking onto the screen
9) Notice the red eye reduction wasn't on because of aforementioned flash-fiddling
10) Start again with #5

But I digress...

I also started up my free classes for kids again this week!!! This is super exciting for me because I have hooked up with the Boys and Girls Club. So I will be there every Wednesday night with all my amazing donations from YOU to teach them how to cut, paste and sew their way towards a personal scrapbook (and blissful happiness, right?). On the very first day one of the guys showed up with a whole stack of photos! They are eager to learn and I am eager to teach. More on that in the upcoming weeks!

My blog hopping travels this weekend also led me to this through Leica's blog. And now all my dreams are coming true. I usually lurk around Scrap in Style...which I love but I always had one complaint. Not enough Canadian Content. And really, why would they? They are American...so they cater to the American scrappers. So when I popped into Leica's blog and saw the Just Cre8 stuff I was thrilled! I'm hoping my week allows for some scrap time so I can enter their new challenge. I'll leave you with a fairly new layout...I finally dusted off the sewing machine. I think it was beginning to wonder where I had gone.