Last day of November...

which means that Christmas is just around the corner!

Thankfully, I've finished all my Christmas shopping and I'm going to try to stay out of the stores until after the New Year. Gotta save my $$ for the cruise!!

Speaking of which--it's approaching fast too. Bought both Greg and I some new 'swimming costumes' (as my British friend says). We still have excursions to book, but even if we don't get that done, I'm not to concerned about it. I booked the one I really wanted.

Lots of stuff planned over the next few weekends -- Greg's office Christmas Party, dinner with friends, and maybe a 'last minute' Vicki Boutin class at the Nook if it works out.

Outdoor decorations are up. Indoor is going up this weekend. I love this time of year!

Countdown...

to the cruise! Only 1 month, 2 weeks and 5 days before we leave for our cruise! I'm really getting excited. We've started to book our excursions. We're going to have a great time.

The trip to Colorado was excellent! My friends at the Coffee Shop are awesome and we always have such a great time when we're together. I'm really looking forward to next year in Michigan!

Saskatoon was also nice, but way too short. Didn't get a chance to see everyone I wanted to. Did get all my Christmas shopping done for everyone there tho! That was nice. It's all wrapped and put away from prying eyes.

My secondment has been approved (verbally). I'll be starting the new job on November 19th! Only 10 working days left!!! :-)

Only 2 more sleeps...

Until I leave for Colorado.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. The ladies I'll be meeting up with are awesome! We try and get together every year. This is my 7th one.

From there I'll be going to Saskatoon to see my family. That will be good too. There's been a few new additions since I was there last. I'll have an opportunity to see my cousin's daughter.

Nothing new about the possible job opportunity. It's still in the works, but it looks promising. Found out another co-worker was also offered an opportunity in the same office. We'll be able to travel together, which will be great!

We also have a new addition to our family. We recently 'adopted' a kitten. Her name is Nookie! She's the Scrapping Nook's mascot, as this is where I found her. She's just a baby now (12 oz), but she's full of energy and absolutely adorable. The other cats aren't too keen on her, but the dogs love her! Sasha treats her like one of her own.

Busy Fall...

This fall is going to be busy - but exciting - for me.

In October, I'm going to Colorado for the annual get together with my friends from the Coffee Shop. From there, I head to Saskatoon for a few days to visit with my family.

Then it's the cruise at Christmas!! I can hardly wait for that!

There is also a possibility of another job opportunity in the works. If it happens, it will require a couple days of travel to Toronto a week, but that's ok. I'm willing to do that. I hope this works. It will be a chance to learn a few more things and get to work with some great people. So keep your fingers crossed for me that this works out!

Caribbean, Here We Come!!

Greg and I have decided to take a cruise this Christmas, so today I booked it.

We're going to the Southern Caribbean on a 8 night cruise. Our ports of call are:

San Juan, Puerto Rico (departure)
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
St. Johns, Antigua
Philipsburg, St. Maarten
Castries, St. Lucia
Bridgetown, Barbados

I am SOOOOOO looking forward to this.

I may have to put myself on another spending freeze so I can save some $$. Oh who am I kidding? That's what credit is for!! ;-) Just don't tell Greg! LOL

Summer's almost over!

Well it's the last week of summer. Next week all the kids go back to school. I don't have any, of course, so this has no real impact on me, except that the September long weekend means the end of summer.

Greg and I have been busy trying to get our bedroom renovations done. The furniture has all been painted, so now I'm just adding the wallpaper, new hardware and distressing it all. I think it will look great when it's all done.

On Sunday we're going for dinner with some friends we havn't seen in a long time. We'll be having dinner at a local winery. Should be a great time.

Last Friday, Kim and I went and had a 'preview' of Vicki Boutin's garage sale. She had TONS of stuff. I managed to pick up a thing or two -- or 3 bags full!!

With all the renovations, I havn't been doing too much scrapping the last week or so. I have a mini book kit that I'm finishing up for Greg's God daughter. Her birthday is in September, so I need to get it done.

We've booked our trip to Saskatoon in October. I'll be going to Colorado first, to meet up with all my awesome friends from the Coffee Shop (online board). I'll then fly to Saskatoon to spend a few days with my parents while Greg is attending a conference.

I'm trying to convince Greg to go on a cruise for Christmas. I think I have him almost convinced, but I'll have to work at it a little more...

It's been a while...

Since I posted. I've been tagged a couple of times, so I figured I should get on it!

I was off on vacation last week. Busy doing a whole lot of nothing! It was the best!

The week before, I had to write my exam for my ITIL Masters. It was 2 - half days of 3 hours of writing! It was very intense and I'm not sure I even passed. The failure rate for these exams is 60%, so it's not looking good! I was certaily glad for a weeks vacation after that!

This weekend I'm going to spend painting furniture. We just finished renovating our bedroom. The walls are painted a dark green. It's a lot darker then I thought, but the furniture is all being painted an off-white, and the bed linens are medium tones, so I think it'll be OK.

I've been a bit of a scrapping nut lately! I've done quite a few pages. I hope I can keep the momentum going.

An emotional week

This past week has been a very emotional week for me.

I found out late in the week that someone I had worked with for almost 15 years had died from complications related to lukiemia. He was a really good person and leaves behind a wife and 3 children.

When trying to contact a mutual friend, I found out that she too is battling cancer - Thyroid Cancer. Her prognosis is good, but it was still very upsetting.

I found out on Tuesday that a dear friend - Jan- was admitted into the hospital and was seriously sick. Sadly, Jan passed away on July 14th.

July 14th is also the day a my dear friend Debi got married. She also is friends with Jan, so it was a bittersweet day.

The wedding was beautiful, as was the bride. The reception aftwards was great. We all had a wonderful time.

Thanks to Valene for being my 'date'.

Wishing Debi, Randy and their son Dryden many blessings!!

I've been published!!!!

Kinda, sorta!

I submitted this layout for Basic Grey's online gallery and it was accepted! I'm so excited. I've never submitted anything before, so this is a big thing for me!

I'm hoping this inspires me to get more stuff done...and maybe submit again!

Wow!!!

On Saturday, the Scrapping Nook had their garage sale. I brought a whole lot of stuff to sell. I wasn't sure how well I did considering I still had a big box full of stuff to bring home with me, but I managed to sell over $200.00!!! I'm impressed!

It certainly felt good to purge some of my stuff... and make room for more stuff!

I heard that there is some great stuff that will be released at CHA in July! I guess I'll have to make more room!! ;-)

Fun! Fun! Fun!

CKC this past weekend was a blast! I had an awesome time with Kim, Jen, Deanna and Tina.

We arrived at CKC around 10am and began shopping right away! I didn't really think I would find much that I would want, but I was wrong! There was plenty of good stuff - and stuff I found out later that I missed!

We went to Buffallo House for lunch where Trace and her sister joined us. Then it was back to the convention centre for more shopping. Tina and Jen both won door prizes. Tina gave me hers in exchange for 1/2 of the box of chipboard I bought.

Tina also won 2 submission prizes -- for a card she submitted and a LO for CK. Congratulations, Tina! Judy V. won for her submission to Simple Scrapbooks. Congratulations Judy!

After a crazy day of shopping, we went to Walden Galleria for dinner, where we stood in line for an hour or more to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. It was worth the wait. The food was excellent as was the company! Vicki Boutin was able to join us -- and there's never a dull moment when she's around!

By the time we were done dinner, there wasn't much time for shopping, but we got a little bit done in the mall and then we headed over to Target, where we had 20 minutes to shop. I think we all managed to find something!

We managed to cross back into Canada without incident -- or duty charges! It probably helped that the guy working the boot was a former student of Deanna's!!

Anyways, all in all it was a fabulous day! Thanks ladies for making it so enjoyable!

Now it's time for the Scrapping Nook's Garage Sale this Saturday! I've delivered all my stuff, but I think I may manage to find some more!

It was about time...

to post a picture of myself on my blog.

I didn't have any decent pictures, so I had my good friend, Kim take some of me last Sunday. She did some creative photo editing (removed the extra large bags under my eyes) and sent me a few. I'll be getting the rest on Saturday.

I personally thing she did a awesome job! Thanks Kimmie! You're the bestest!

On another note, there are only two more sleeps until CKC!!! I'm so excited! I went to the bank today to get my shopping money. I know it's going to be a blast hanging out with Kim, Tina, Deanna and Jen -- and whoever else we 'bump' into while we are there.

It's Spring!

I think it's finally here! Spring!

I spent the whole day outside yesterday weeding my 'garden'. I put 'garden' in quotes, because it's not much of one. I'm not a gardener. I can't tell a flower from a weed. I basically go through and toss out anything I don't like and leave what I do like. I'll be glad when it's done tho!

The forecast for the Niagara Region looks good for this week. High 20's for tomorrow and Thursday! I should have booked this week as vacation!

Creatively, I havn't done much. I have this 1200 piece puzzle I've been busy working on. I'm anxious to get it finished because I need the space for other stuff!

I have 2 circle journals to finish up and get mailed out and I also need to alter my letter for the Nook.

Tonight I'm going to a Ninabrook class at the Nook. It's a wedding theme, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm hoping it will motivate me to get started on my wedding album.

Well, I guess I should go back to pretending to work... ;-)

Admitting Defeat....

before it's even over.

I can stop shopping for a month, no problem, but this losing weight business is TOUGH!

Especially when you have the crappy week that I had last week and will most likely have this week, too. I just eat when I'm stressed. Or drink. Or both. Ok -- both!

I weighed in this morning and I'm 2.5 lbs. I'm going the wrong direction.

Guess I'm going to have to try harder at sticking with the program this week!

Time for a Name Change...

Since my April challenge is over, it was time to change the title of my blog, so it's now 'Janice's Ramblings'.

I'll have to get my friend Kim to take some decent pics of me that I can upload. And maybe one day I'll even load up some pictures of projects that I've completed.

Of course that assumes I complete anything, any time soon!

It's Over!!!!

My April challenge is officially over!!!!

I'm so excited to be able to go scrapbook shopping again!

However, I'm going to try and be good and not get too carried away!

I even managed to trim down some of my 'wish list' items.

I'm going shopping with Kimmie and Holly on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to that!

Thanks again to everyone who supported through this challenge! I couldn't have made it without you!!

Just ONE more sleep!!!

And I will have successfully completed my April Challenge!

Wow! I've even amazed myself. I'm not sure that I thought I could do it, but I did!

Everybody at the Scrapping Nook forum were great and very supportive. Even Kimmie who kept sending my links of some great LSS sales!

Thanks to everyone who sent me RAKs throughout the month to keep me on target! You are all amazing people and I'm so glad to have you as friends!

Now...what to buy at the Nook tomorrow....???

I'm almost there!!!

Only 4 more sleeps and then I can shop again!!!!

Yesterday I stopped at the Nook to pick up my MR pre-order. There was a lot of new stuff out on the table that still needed to be priced and put out. Tara made a comment to me about how hard it must be to see all that stuff and not be able to buy anything.

Normally that would be the case, but as it turns out, probably 90% of what was on the table -- I already had!! There were a couple of things I had my eye on tho and I'm hoping those things will still be around after the PJ crop this weekend.

Eight Days to Go!

and then I can start shopping again!!!

Woo Hoo!

I already have a list started of things I want to get.

However, not to defeat the whole purpose of this month's challenge, I'm going to try and put myself on a monthly scrapbook budget starting in May.

This of course would exclude monthly kits and classes.

I'm just trying to decide what my allowance will be -- what is a 'reasonable' amount? Suggestions are welcome!

The only exception will be CKC. Gotta 'treat' myself once in a while!

I've also got another personal challenge I've started. To lose 15 lbs in 10 weeks. This will be a challenge, since I've lost most of my weight already and it's the last 15 I need to lose which is always the hardest.

Scrap more -- eat less! That's my new motto! LOL And excercise more...

It's starting to get tough...

The Scrapping Nook has posted a bunch of new stuff to their online store -- www.thescrappingnook.ca

I was dumb enough to go take a look. They have a LOT of great stuff and I, of course, want it ALL!!!

I've put a bunch of stuff in my cart and hopefully some of it will still be available in May.

Only 12 days to go....

It's gonna be a loooonnnnnngggggg 12 days!!!

I Survived!!!

Went to the Nook today to pick up my pre-order stuff and my initial.

I even walked around the store to see what was 'new'. Fortunately for me, most of the new stuff was already in my pre-order, so I wasn't 'tempted' to buy anything!!

A major hurdle crossed without incident!!! Woo Hoo!!

Great Mail Day...

Today was an awesome mail day. I received my 1:1 card from the card exchange at the Nook, and I also received an awesome package of goodies from Marjorie! She sent me a clipboard to alter, some chipboard flourish and hearts -- as well as a some great stickers! Thanks so much Marjorie! This will go along way in helping me with my challenge!!!

And I found out that I have some stuff waiting for me at the Nook! No worries...it's some pre-order stuff that I did WAY before my challenge started!!! LOL

On Saturday, Kimmie gave me some stamps from Michael's and some dog themed chipboard.

I WILL survive!!!!

Well, it's half way through April and I've still managed to keep my challenge!!! It hasn't been easy tho. There has been plenty of tempation thrown my way, but I ignored it all and have not spent one cent on scrapbooking supplies! I think I might actually be able to do this!!!

Last week was easy because I was on a course all week. It was a pretty intense course and by the end of the day I was too tired to do anything but go home!!

I do have a tentative shopping day planned for the first weekend in May, so look out credit card!!! LOL

One thing I have had to do is stop checking out the SOUP at The Scrapping Nook (sorry Patti and Elia). I just didn't need the temptation. I know I'm probably going to miss out on some awesome deals, but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!!

She says she's my friend....

Kimmie has been trying to 'tempt' me by emailing me about online sales at Scrapbook sites.

Her latest tempation is from www.scrapbookstar.ca where they are having a 20% off sale today. So if you are in need of some amazing scrapbook supplies, go check it out. Think of me while you are there, because I won't be buying ANYTHING!!!! I just hope there's some stuff left over in May!

And the Challenges keep coming!

Yesterday I was out shopping at Winners and came across a Christmas scrapbook album I've been looking for -- and it was on sale for $12!!

However, I told myself I had until December to get the pages done and could buy another album later -- much later.

Then today, I was stupid and checked out the soup at the Nook. It's great soup, but I really don't need any more storage containers. I have plenty! So I passed on this too.

Be sure to check out today's soup, because it's great!!! www.thescrappingnook.ca

Day 3...

It's day 3 of my spending freeze and I've already had a big challenge.

Yesterday, Patti posted an awesome kit at the Nook. The kit ROCKS!

However, I stood my ground and said NO!

If you havn't already, you really need to check out the kit. Go to the online store at www.thescrappingnook.ca and check it out!

Time's Up!

Today was my last day for shopping! So I spent my last $50 at the Scrapping Nook at their awesome 4th Anniversary Sale! Now the challenge begins! And what a challenge it will be.

I'm actually feeling kind of nervous about the whole thing! I've been getting a lot of great support from fellow scrapbookers, but there are those who want me to spend! They want to win the prize! LOL Some have offered (threatened?) to post or send me emails of sales and new products to tempt me.

Bring it on, Ladies!!! LOL

I'll be using this blog to post my struggles throughout the month of April on the various temptations I come across.

I know there's going to be alot of new items at the Nook that will challenge my will power, but I can do it! I can do this! I can do this! I can do this! At least I think I can! LOL

Wish me luck....or not!

Only Three Shopping Days Left...

until my April spending freeze starts. I'm going to try to extend this freeze to include NO SPENDING. PERIOD. So that means I can't buy anything, except the household essentials (groceries, etc). However, no shopping for scrapbook supplies, clothes, books -- anything.

I think I have picked up all the necessary scrapbook supplies I need to get me through the month.

However, the The Scrapping Nook is having a huge anniversary sale on Saturday, so I'll get my final spending in at that party, I'm sure!

And who knows...if it works, maybe I'll go a little longer...

NOT!

Wish me luck!

My April Challenge

I've decided to give myself a personal challenge -- to not spend any money during the month of April on scrapbooking supplies.

I LOVE shopping for scrapbook supplies, so this is going to be a HUGE challenge for me.

I posted a 'game' at The Scrapping Nook forum where participants can pick 5 dates that they think I'm going to cave in and buy something. Should I actually purchase anything, the ones who selected the right date -- or the closest date will get a prize (to be purchased after April 3oth, of course!).

So I thought that I would also create a blog where I can talk about the challenges I faced during the month -- assuming I even make it the whole way through!

I'm not good at blogging either, so that's a whole other challenge.

Anyways...stay tuned -- if you want to see if I pass or fail.

Feel free to try an 'tempt' me into purchasing something as well by posting links here to some really awesome scrapbooking item.