The Party of the year....

We finally got it done.. Jonathan had his 5th birthday party yesterday and it was a huge hit. When the boys turn FIVE we invite ALL their friends... it's a tradition James started... long story! Anyways, for Jonathan we had a Carnival sort of theme.. a rented Bouncy Castle, a cotton candy machine and a popcorn machine... yum! Add to that the duck fishing game, the decorate a cupcake station, face painting, and hmmm oh yes, prizes - it was a fun day for all....

I made the lion cake, and am happy to report, it may be my best one yet....

I've been trying to post that since Monday... so I will continue on with Tuesday... we are getting ready to leave for Paris on Sunday - it's quite the trip and we are all incredibly excited. Of course there is a ton of organizing to do, both at home and work before I go... so I spend a few hours today putting up some of my upcoming classes at Bizzy B's for October and November.

I even managed to include some photo's - I think that the Card Organizer is one of my favourites so far this season... and so easy! I had someone take the class a few weeks ago, and she's been back in to make FOUR more.. so I guess it was a success. Here is a photo... not the best shot, and I've made some changes to the actual design, BUT, you get the idea.

There is another class that goes really nicely with this one... we make 12 different cards. For the holidays it's mostly Christmas and Winter but the rest of the time we do an assortment, with Birthday, Thank You , Get Well, and that sort of thing. Great to give as a gift, equally
great to KEEP!! You'll always have handmade cards and you'll even be able to find them when you need them!

Want the calendar template? Just DOWNLOAD the pdf here.

Photo FREEDOM!

Have you read Photo Freedom: A Big Picture Approach to Organizing and Scrapbooking Your Photographs ? I just started last night, and it's amazing. I had intended to get a good night sleep, but I was so excited about the possibilities in this book, I was up until 2am!

Smart, well thought out, easy to implement ideas for getting yourself and your photo's organized. The whole time I was reading, I found myself nodding my head as Stacy "talked" to me... do I have too many photos (I sure do), do I spend hours looking for that ONE particular photo I NEED to scrap (OMG, I spend DAYS sometimes), do I feel overwhelmed - Um, yep of course! and on she goes, but step by step, you get walked through her sensible and really achievable storage and sorting sytem - designed to give you PHOTO Freedom (and it helps with the memorabilia too).

I love Stacy's writing style and her scrapbooking attitude. I heard her speak at a CKU convention a few years ago, read her first book, Big Picture Scrapbooking and was hooked.


I really enjoy her approach, and I actually don't feel swamped and behind anymore... now that I
don't scrap every photo, and I definitely don't scrap in order! Take a look at her book.. and you'll see what I mean.

It's been a Scrappy Weekend...

This was supposed to be Jonathan's birthday weekend... but Hurricane Ike put a hold on all that.
We postponed the bouncy castle and all the games, phoned all the guests, and didn't bake the cake we're going with a LION theme this year... (see photo) I'll do that next weekend!


I also had the extreme pleasure of having a fantastic weekend with my friend Katharina from Calgary who was here visiting for the weekend.

She was doing promo's for the latest book release Canadian Scrapbooker Basic Vol. 1 and visited some store in the area: A Scrapbookers Dream in Bolton, Bizzy B's Stamp & Scrap in Toronto, Scrapbooks By Design, and the Scrapping Turtle in St. Jacob's (still have to get there one of these days).

Now I am off to watch So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Play with my new stamps from Kelly Panacci's Birthday Line (LOVE IT)! I'll post the results tomorrow. Yes, I'm gonna blog every day I think!