Hi there! Today I am sharing a unique holiday layout! Unique because we spent the holidays in warm and sunny Australia!! We spent some time with relatives so we got a little "Christmas spirit," but otherwise we spent time in our tank tops in the hot, sunny weather!

I made the layouts quite simple by using bright cardstock and some coordinating patterned papers (Echo Park) from a 6x6 paper pad. I added a little bit of washi tape here-and-there as well as some cute chipboard elements.

Up until a week ago our family consisted of: Me, my husband Ian, our son Phoenix, our cat Whiskers and our dog Kitara. We were happy, our hearts were full, the animals thrived but I suppose something was missing (little did I know). I love visiting my friend Jessica for so many reasons (we laugh/cry/make cards/bitch about husbands, lol) but another reason I love her house is her preference for weiner…

DOGS!! Dachshunds, to be more specific! I didn’t know how much I loved those little wiener dogs until I was around Jess’s dogs for a weekend. Her one dog, Otis, stole my heart and I became “known” in our little There She Goes family as a wiener-lover. Ahhh… So be it… Harmless fun until Meredith (who does a lot of behind-the-scenes work at TSG) started to send me links to dog rescues with Dachshunds. Well isn’t that perfect!! I talked it over with hubby and we decided that we had room in our hearts/house for a dog that needs a leg-up..

Enter Best Friends Animal Society. One look at the “Chiweenie” named Cabernet and I was a goner.


If you don’t know Best Friends, they’re an amazing organization. They have rescued every kind of animal imaginable and take good care of them until someone takes them to their “forever home.” They are based in Utah, but they will fly your pet to you and all you have to pay for is the charge for the cargo. We picked her up a week ago and she is settling in wonderfully!



So yes, she’s a Chiweenie, which is a Chihuahua/Dachshund cross. I had all kinds of nightmares before picking her up that she would be more CHI than WEENIE, but she has a very lovely temperament. She’s up-beat like a puppy should be, but she’s not yappy, or mean, or aggressive, she’s just a sweet little girl!
I made a layout featuring her and have shared it on the TSG Blog. Please stop by there to see the full page. And PLEASE, if you’re at all curious about Best Friends Animal Society click the link and peruse all of the poor animals that need a loving home!

Two years plus a month since our wedding and I’m still working on my wedding srapbook.

Oh well.. Apparently I’m ahead of the game (according to a bunch of customers at my LSS).

Here’s a layout I did with the current Pencil Lines Sketch:

My parents lived next door to a couple who had sheep. We had a sort of Scottish theme at our wedding..

Scots.. Sheep… We thought it would be fun.

Sheep are skittish though, so we asked the neighbours if they could, with the help of their trained sheep dogs, wrangle the sheep into making an appearance in a few of our photos. They were good sports and we got a couple of cute shots.

On all of the layouts in my wedding album I’ve tried to include at least one butterfly. Butterflies were a huge component in the decor (99% hand-made by me of course) so I thought it would be fun to continue the theme in the album.. This butterfly is die cut from vellum and embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder.

I did the banner at the top by first gluing the twine down to the paper where I wanted it, then I free-hand cut the triangles out and adhere them with glue dots on top of the twine.

That’s about it! All patterned papers and stickers are from Cosmo Cricket. Letter stickers are Basic Grey.

Thanks for stopping by!

Last year on our Spring Break vacation we visited a butterfly garden. I did not expect to love it as much as I did, I was not prepared for the sheer amount of butterflies that fluttered around! You weren’t allowed to pick them up, but if they just happened to land on you, you could enjoy them up-close for as long as they stayed there.. It was awesome and I got a lot of great shots (after I warmed up my lens under the hand dryer first…)

Today this layout is featured at the TSG blog for a feature called “Stampbook Saturday.” I took a new stamp set called Hibiscus that arrived 2 days ago and inked it up with white pigment ink and created a custom background:

I don’t know what it is about white pigment ink on kraft.. It’s so crisp! I figured these tropical blossoms went well with the butterflies in my layout.

I trimmed all the photos to 4x4 and grouped them together over the stamping. I played with the photo placement before settling on this placement. I love how the photos pop against the kraft… I think this layout does exactly what a layout should do: it instantly takes me back to this trip and the memories come flooding back!

That’s all for today! Have a great weekend.

I hate my baby scrapbooks… They suck…

I started scrapbooking when I was pregnant (10 years ago) and let’s just say I wasn’t very good when I started… I have wanted to re-scrapbook some of my favourite pictures, starting with this one:

I have a bunch of this lovely Pebbles collection that screams happy! I am glad this photo is black and white (a lot of the baby pictures are) because I can pair it with any colour scheme.

I remember that feeling of how surreal it was that one day he’s in my belly and the next day in my arms.. What a trip childbirth is!!

That’s all for today. Take care!

It’s getting close to our 2-year anniversary. It feels like it’s been longer, is that bad? It’s just that we haven’t had an easy road (I didn’t expect it to be), but I thought by now my husband would have a teaching position of some sort, but he’s still on-call (a substitute teacher..) and he doesn’t work a lot. That paired with debt and moving and dealing with a son with ADHD there have been a lot of challenges thrown our way and I consider ourselves relatively successful at this marriage “thing.” So far…

Every time Ian and I hit some sort of milestone I think Oh yah, it’s our (insert memorable moment here) and that reminds me, I need to work on my wedding scrapbook. I have no idea how many photos I am supposed to scrapbook, (I have close to 600) but I only have about 10-12 layouts done and that’s not NEAR enough. I really should try to put some multiple-photo layouts together, eh?

For this layout I used some Technique Tuesday papers from their Perspectives line. They’re not your typical wedding colours, but they just so happened to coordinate beautifully with my photos.

I had a lot of fun using my Silhouette digital cutter to cut out a bunch of shapes. I also intentionally designed the layout so I could do the sewing technique you see above (a line of objects sewn down the middle).. I’ve wanted to try that for a while now.

So.. Happy Anniversary Ian! and to the rest of you:

If you've come here randomly, we, the SRM design team were spoiled again by Cosmo Cricket and we were all gifted with the new Circa 1934 paper crafting kit. The design team was challenged with making projects that focus on family so I chose to make a layout featuring an awesome picture of my brother and my son, who are two peas in a pod. They are SO alike in so many ways it's actually scary... I love it when they spend time together, but their reckless, crazy, crude personalities feed off each other and sometimes it gets a little ridiculous. Like the day this picture was taken:

Phew... This week is going to be unbelievable with not only teaching everyday but then

• taking a Basic Grey Calendar Class tonight 
• teaching a Copic Christmas class Tuesday night
• Conducting Opus One Wednesday night
• Working at Clipper Street Thursday night 
• NIGHT OFF FRIDAY
• Conducting the Provincial Honour Vocal Jazz all day Saturday

Today I wanted to show a couple of projects featuring the "Everyday Boy" sticker sheet. You can also check out the SRM Blog with more projects using this sheet AND to win some stickers of your very own!
I love this set because there are so many ways to cut them up, use on a card, use on a layout, use with other stickers and I'm having lots of fun exploring all of the options! First is a layout:

My "job" with SRM Stickers is to feature cards, primarily, but when I'm scrapbooking (and I'm REALLY trying to do it more) they are so handy to throw onto a layout..

Here's my darling little girl, my sweet baby, my precious beauty:


Yah, that's right! My dog, Kitara. I really do love her SO much, and I have all of these awesome GIRL stickers, so why not use them for my dog layouts????? The sticker set is called "Everyday Girl" and there are tonnes of words and phrases to use on cards or layouts...

I used a couple of stickers from sticker sentiments "Love" as well as some random products.. (October Afternoon papers, OLD prima flower, OLD clear letters and heart shape...)

Email me, or comment on this post with your email, and I'll send you that set so you can get started digi-stamping right away!!