this just in...

HOT OFF THE UPS TRUCK!

***more goodies for Gimli***

NEW RELEASE...

~ALYSSA'S GARDEN~

by

Cloud 9 Design

12 x 12 double sided patterned papers, 12 x 12 sparkle and luster papers, rain dots, transparency pads, quote card packages...

( very yummy )

...and still expecting one more large order tomorrow...

( it's beginning to look a lot like christmas around here!!! )

:O)

the day after....

PAINTBALL.

yesterday afternoon i went with Mike, Dave and a bunch of other friends to

paintball paradise to shoot off an automatic paintball weapon charged with CO2, 200 rounds of paintballs that shoot 250 feet per second, roll around in a dim lit filthy paint oozing man stinking 'search and destroy' room with nothing but coveralls and a face mask for protection....

what the hell was i thinking?

hahaha....

all in all it was something fun to try, and the adrenaline rush was awesome.

trust me, i say adrenaline because you are doing everything in your power to stay hidden behind those barrels and bunkers because you do NOT want to get shot!

it hurts pretty darn good ESPECIALLY when you somehow manage to get shot

THREE TIMES in the freakin' hands!

how does that happen??? in the hands?

those ones really hurt and actually drew some blood...the one i took in the knuckle was probably the worst...it felt like someone slammed a car door on it!

anyhow, i will proudly show off a FEW of my battle scars that I'm sure will be really nice shades of purple and blue just in time for my Gimli Getaway weekend coming up in 5 DAYS!!

these really hurt and are super sore and tender today...

but will i ever play again???

only if i bring some kind of gloves next time!!

( my poor knuckle bone is gone it's so swollen!!! )

( this was my last hit of the day...right inside the calf muscle...dang! it's already going purple!! )

...and this one on the outside of the leg is soooo swollen today...i know, what a suck!

...and thanks to dave not stopping shooting after i yell "HIT" when he got me in the hand, he still takes another shoot at my baby back ribs!!! hahahaha!

I'LL GET YOU BACK MALINOWSKI....

...yep, good times!!

i don't want to show you ALL my hits, but these ones were the worse ones...it will be interesting to see what colors i turn over the next few days!!!

hahahaha....

...friday night was my pot luck crop with 7 fun gals and lots of great food!!

i actually got two layouts done myself that night which doesn't happen very often at classes at home, trust me!

my good friend Lori ( a mom from dance ) had given me a card last weekend and i instantly LOVED the design on the front of it....darn, i shoulda taken a picture of it...oh well.

it had these flowers on it that the flower parts were cut out of fabrics and the stems were sticted onto the paper....well, I really wanted to try it on a layout since i love to stitch so much lately...here's what I made....of course, I just HAD TO do a layout using the new

Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock to use as a sample for Gimli!!!

~ giggle ~

...and this one was something i wanted to try using lots of photos in various sizes from one event...i love the painted and glazed chipboard title ( i used Glossy Accents ) and how it turned out!!!

...well, I am off to get some 'welcome bag' stuffing done for Gimli, finish cutting some class supplies and then later this afternoon,

Miss Courtney and I will be watching

TWILIGHT again.....

and how's you're weekend going???

:O)

YUMMY!

...here's a sneek peek of the

NEW BAZZILL SWISS DOT

cardstock that has arrived just in time

for the Gimli Getaway!!!

it has an embossed (raised ) dot pattern over the front of the sheet!

TEXTURE!!!

~ oh the possibilities ~

( retail .99 each )

LOVE IT ALL!!!

...can't believe it's only

8 MORE SLEEPS!!!

DON'T FORGET YOUR BATHING SUITS TO TAKE TIME AND ENJOY

THE INDOOR HEATED POOL AND HOT TUB!!!

...this looks VERY welcoming right now especially with all this rotten weather we've been having the last few days....

:O)

Hmmmmm.....

...not too much to say today...

feeling like i'm losing my fight with my cold though, BAH.

NEW GOODIES

have been arriving to fatten up the store with new products that will

be available at the Gimli Getaway, Gone Scrappin 2 event ( NEXT WEEK----AAgggghh!! )

here's a preview of some new eye candy arriving:

-cosmo cricket

-fancy pants

-graphic 45

-pink paislee

-sassafras

-dream street

-kaiser craft

-gcd studio

-american craft THICKERS -oh yah!

-maya road chipboard

-some new prima goodies, ink spots, adhesives, letter stickers, epoxy stickers by cloud nine, rubons, prima mini acrylic stamps, rhinestones, chipboard, cardstock

AND

a big selection of the

new BAZZILL Swiss Dot cardstock in many colors!!

AND NEW STUFF ARRIVING again soon!!

...last night was a really fun

Monday Night Sketches class at home...

the gals always leave with 3 complete 12 x 12 layouts and here's a few pictures of two of them...

( sorry tara...i thought i took a picture of the other one too...-ooops! )

Last night's class featured using

BUBBLE WRAP

on your layouts!!!

here's my samples I did:

LAYOUT 1:

-painting bubble wrap

LAYOUT 2:
-using bleach on bubble wrap...
i love this one....i also painted Heidi Swapp clear ghost letters in my title and stapled them onto the cardstock...so fun!

..and of course some hand stitching and buttons on the bottom...
by the end of the night, i don't think a few of the ladies ( ahem, Mary and Tracy ..hahhha ) wanted to stitch, but I made them ( at Nerf gunpoint - HA ) and I think they were quite happy that they did do the stitching afterall...
it just adds a total artistic feel to a layout...i love stitching!!






..the third layout we used BINGO DABBERS on bubble wrap to embellish!
FUN!!!!

...and i will leave you with a couple more pic's of my handsome little man from sunday afternoon's photoshoot at the tea!!!
( hee hee hee...the others are in the above layout already!! )
:O)

2:48A.M

...and I'm wide awake.

what the ???

i have so much on my mind that it's keeping me up so i may as well blog and be ahead of my

'to do' list tomorrow....

SSSOOOOOOOO....

saturday night....linda and i took courtney, rachel and carson to go see

TWILIGHT

in the movie theatre before it gets kicked out...

yes, we had already bought the movie, but i wanted our first time seeing the

hot topic movie on big screen!!

O-M-G!

is it wrong for me to love edward????

hahahahaha......

we loved the movie and we were all surprised at how 'family friendly' it was...being vampires and all...it was really REALLY more of a 'cool love story'.

I loved it!

( the girls are obsessed now! )

...friday night we ended up staying in and rented 'City of Ember' - more for courtney because her classroom just finished reading the book...it was pretty different too!

AND TODAY

was courtney's dance schools

Scottish Tea at the Holiday Inn...

this is a small light little afternoon tea for the girls to be presented with their awards from their dance exams from February and also do a little performance...i really wish i knew how to upload VIDEO off my camera because i'd be able to show you the cool choreography dance her group did today...they just learned it yesterday for the tea!!

...little absorbant sponges those highland dancers...

alex, courtney and kailey

finale...sorry courtney's head is cut out!!

...and my little man just looked so dang cute and grown up today for some reason...

i took him and did a little 'photo shoot' out in the sunlit hallway...i love how soft natural light effects the photo...

i wanted to try some passive, relaxed and no 'forced' smile pictures of tyler...kinda the pre-grown up serious look....

i LOVE how they turned out!

...and this last one takes the cake!

what a moment in time caught in a split second...i adore this photo!

...i hope you had a lovely weekend too...

:O)

( 3:01am...time to try to sleep...)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

...gotcher green on??

:O)

...the kids and i are clad in our green shirts today and it looks like the

"luck 'o the Irish"

is upon courtney today because we just had a phone call that her dance lesson was cancelled

for tonight!!!

( she literally did a little irish jig when i told her the 'sad' news...hahahaha! - until i told her she still had to do some practising though.....)

YAY...a night home and dinner all together!!

well, things are definitely going better here...

my cousins memorial service was yesterday and now she and her beautiful PINK urn have been put to rest...it was nice to see all my other family and extended cousins that i haven't seen in a very long time!!

i am still going to my grandparents every night to administer my grandpa's eye drops following his surgery, and still have two more weeks of it to go...but I am trying to look positively at the running around every night as it's 'tea time' with them instead of more running around....sometimes, you just have to change perspective to get yourself out of a run, ya know??

anyway....

i thought I'd share some photos with you from our trip last summer from our extra 3 day trip over to

IRELAND....

what a better way to celebrate St. Paddie's day!!!

...downtown Dublin...lot to see!

...Wicklow Gap and mountains...

...some ruins on our way to the Monastic site...

St. Kevin's tower at the Monastic site, Wicklow


...when we arrived and proceeded onto the grounds, i saw this painter off in his own quiet little solitude off to the side...i 'touristly' snuck up behind him ( you know...pretending I'm just walking about, checking out the sites...) ahem, and then stole his photo in time!!! I think it's a piece of art itself!

hahahaha!!

...one of my FAVORITE pictures in Ireland...the kids dipping their feet and exploring in the Irish Sea, in Bray....just such a REAL moment of them oblivious to their surroundings...just in the moment of their discoveries and exploring!!

...sigh...

AND

here's Grandma and Grandpa 2 days ago!!

i told them i needed a new photo to post for our family and friends so they can see how well

they are doing!!

( don't mind grandpa's red and bloody left eye- surgery! )

Hugs to all and I hope you have some fortune in today's mysitcal Irish Holiday!!

:O)

takin' a day...

my emotional stress load, this week especailly, has been a roller coaster ride.

up and down.

with all the happenings in my family...

( grandma's stroke, grandpa's surgery and all the continued running about after surgery, my cousin ellen's passing and coping with now 'unfixable' issues and of course keeping up with my own family's schedules...)

has just been overwhelming!

so, for the first time ever ( if you can believe it! )

Me, Myself, and I, decided last night while at my hall crop that I just

NEED A DAY.

a day to absorb, to catch up mentally and emotionally, a day to unwind a bit, and a day to have with my family.

most of you know me well enough to know that my life is always on the fast track, flying by the seat of my pants, one event after the other, cram as much as i can in a day...but i am not afraid to admit that for as much as you may think 'kim can do it all'...i AM only human and it does catch up with me too sometimes and i feel down and overwhelmed....these days happen to us all and i find no shame in sharing my defeats this week with my friends and admitting "surrender" for just one day!!

i refer to 'the first time ever' because today courtney had a dance competition, and i just felt for my sanity's sake, that it was one i needed to miss.

otherwise, it would have been yet one more day full of stress and anxiety and i really didn't think i could deal with that today.

so...

i just made me a hot cup of herbal ginger peach tea, and made miss courtney a cup of candy cane hot chocolate and we are chillin' in out jammies still and it's already 12:13pm!!!

she has a room that needed some desperate TLC and i have more than enough to liesurely accomplish myself around here!

...or not...

here's to a much needed mental recovery ME DAY!!!

( no guilt, no regret, no cares )

Hugs.

:O)

~sigh~

well, they say that bad news comes in THREES...so lets hope that our family has no more bad news for a while!!

most of you know that a week and a half ago, my grandma had a 'mini stroke'. she is recovering very well so far and has been home from the hospital since monday....she's pretty much back to her spunky lil' self!

and sadly on tuesday, my cousin ellen passed away after a fight for her life battling breast cancer over the last few years. after a check up at her doctors a few short weeks ago, her doctor told her that the cancer had returned, this time in her back. she went through two painful mastectomy's and with the new results, she did not want to go through anymore treatment.

i hope she is at peace now.

...and on a much, much less serious note, but still upsetting news for tyler, my poor little guy got some disappointing news tonight at his swim lesson...

he will have to repeat his level again.

he was doing really well, but struggling a bit with breathing technique on his front crawl...otherwise, he passed everything...why the heck red cross will fail a kid on ONE little thing in the report card, who knows? oh well, i guess his insrutctor is just going by the books!

( and making more $$ by making kids repeat lessons!! haha )

next time little buddy!!! we're still proud of all you've accomplished this session!

high 5 little man!

...being the last lesson tonight, he was quickly distracted with his bad news with the pleasure of "free swim"...

DIVING BOARDS and WATERSLIDE!!!

'nite everyone....

:O)

creative play...

( just a quick update for my family who reads my blog...Grandma was released from the hospital yesterday in good condition! She has some follow up appt's to go to but she seems good and in much better spirits now that she's home! )

...so, on saturday i went out to my friend ( and fellow Slice Girl ) Tracy's house to have an all day crop! Yep, it was a fun, fun and super relaxing day I'll tell you! you don't know how much you need a day like that until it is actually happening...ya know?

and i mean ALL DAY...make the most of it when you can! i got there around 11:30am and left at 12:20am...13 hours of girlie fun!

so here's a peek at some of my layouts i did...

yep...what would my layouts be now without some hand cut felt shapes or letters, stitching or buttons somewhere!!! hahaha!

OR PAINT!

...these ones just make me CRAVE summer so bad!

...and this one is done on KI Memories "sheer delights" vinyl diecuts!

So cool...so fun to play with too!

Brat...oops I mean Tracy in her very own scraproom...

lucky duck.

:O)

...thank you sooooo much again for such a super fun day!

Can't wait til we can have another Slice Girl Crop!

HUGS!!!!

...teehee...

this is all my 'stuff' packed up at the door...i can see the layout now...

"KIM WAS HERE"

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

...and on another creative note...

i just thought i'd post a few pic's from last years

Gimli Getaway, Gone Scrappin' event...

just to tease and excite those of you gals who are coming to this years event in april!!

(the cut off date for registration is MARCH 20...there are still about 12 spots left, so if you are still thinking about it or are interested in attending, PLEASE email me at thegriffs@mts.net to get more information! )

ALSO...the Lodge has told me that they will be offering a full breakfast buffet on sunday morning again for $9.99!!! The restaurant opens at 9am and you will be able to order both saturday and sunday off the regular breakfast menu as well.

for those of you who are lighter bite breakfast eaters, I will still be providing everyone with a morning snack both days in our crop room -muffins, danishes, donuts....coffee and tea will be available all weekend )

The chef's have also been busy preparing a daily lunch and dinner menu specials for our group as well, so please feel free to have your meals at your convenience at the lodge if you'd like!

The food there is fabulous and all in great portions...

...I leave you with these pic's from last years getaway...just to bring on the excitement!!

"here we go"...

my ever helpful and supportive mom!

PRIZES...PRIZES...PRIZES...

the cropping room...classes taught in very back of room at separate tables...

...fully loaded...

...optional layout contest winners...

PRIZES!!!

( and those layouts on the wall behind the girls are for the FAVORITE LAYOUT charity contest...this years charity is Cancer Care Manitoba - breast cancer. you donate one dollar per layout to enter ( and enter as many as you'd like! ) and each guest has ONE voting ballot in their welcome bag to vote for on sunday )

...as I mentioned in an email to those attending, last year i had a CHIPBOARD CHALLENGE that everyone loved!!

so....we are doing it again this year!!

Get those creative juices going and make yourself a chipboard album ( any shape, size or theme ) and bring it out to the getaway..it will be displayed all weekend and voted on by all the guests on sunday at noon!! Each guest will have ONE voting ballot in their welcome bag.

There will be 2 PRIZES again for this challenge!

HaveFUN!!!!

:O)

24 Sleeps!!!