We are back from vacation!

We are back from vacation! Wow, what a trip! We had a wonderful time, put on over 7000 km and are exhausted! Isn't it funny how you are always more tired after returning from Vacation than before you go??

And it is only just beginning... there are berries to be picked, tomatoes and peaches to can, jam to be made, a house to clean, a yard and plants to be tended to, a fence to be built, two more weddings to attend... the list just goes on and on! And somewhere in there, I would like to take some time to craft... hmm.

Well... it is going to be very busy for me in the next little while, but I thought I would leave you with some momentos from our trip!

While on the Queen Charlotte Islands, it was very cold and windy and rainy on the Northern Island (where we went first). My sister happened to bring some wool, so we crocheted some toques. She made a normal-ish toque for her husband... and mine evolved from being for my hubby... to a very feminine, small-ish hat. Cute though! I really love it and will probably wear it quite a bit this winter. Unfortunately we really didn't get to wear them much as we soon had had enough of the cold and went to the Southern Island where it was very nice most of the time!

We ended up staying a day longer in Southern BC than we had originally planned... and had to whirlwind tour home. We arried home about 4pm on Wednesday, proceeded to cut, package and freeze all of the fish we caught, unpack the truck, pack the car, shower, eat supper, stop at WalMart and Staples, and be BACK on the road in about 2 1/2 hours... heading to Saskatchewan!

We arrived in MooseJaw about half an hour before the wedding rehersal and supper. The weekend was a flurry of activity and family gatherings. But what fun we had!

As you (hopefully) know... I (and my entire family) are HUGE fans of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. My Uncle managed to find us each a box of the sold out, limited time offer cereal... FANTUZ FLAKES! Thanks Uncle Ralph!!!! It is already displayed prominently in my scrapbook room!!

There are a MILLION other stories and pictures I would love to share... but unfortunately my peaches are going moldy as I speak. They must be tended to!

It is good to be home!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Last year this was our LAST day of holidays at the Meziadin, and this year it is our FIRST day!!! See you in a few weeks!!!



Last year on this day, we were camping at the Meziadin River... far away from anyone. Kurt was out on the water fishing by the time the sun woke up... I got some beautiful pictures; living the dream. This was our last day of holidays, so we decided to head over to Stewart and Hyder, Alaska for the day. We even went out for Kurt's favourite food, pizza. It had been raining for the last few days, but it was an absolutely gorgeous day. We had to pack up and head home (drive all the nest day...)to be back for work (I had to work on my birthday!), but we basked in that last day of freedom for as long as we could. It was truly lovely and worth every moment.

Here is Kurtis out in the water fishing, and then some glorious pictures from our drive that day. Below are some pictures from Stewart (left) and Hyder, Alaska (right). What a crazy little village! Very neat to visit, though we didn't stay very long. I still need to journal these pages...

Happy Birthday my Love!

And we're OFF!!!! (and only one week left for Challenge #2!!!)

We are leaving for a spectacular holiday (early!) tomorrow morning...and will be gone for THREE weeks!! Woohoo!!! We are heading SOUTH...to the Meziadin River for a few days of salmon fishing, then meeting up with my sister and her husband and heading to the Queen Charlotte Islands!!! Here we hope to: shoot a bunch of little deer, fish for salmon, trap crab and shrimp, mushroom and berry pick, and have an all around fantastic time while filling our coolers! I can't wait!!
I have pre-posted for the next few weeks, so hopefully everything goes off without a hitch.

In other news, Kurt's cousin had a baby girl yesterday! We are so glad she decided to make an appearance before we left on holidays She is absolutely adorable with a perfectly round Benterud face, dark hair and blue eyes,...we'll see how she actually turns out in a little while! Congrats Des, Heidi, Simon and Andrew... we are so excited to get to know little Abigail!! can't wait to see her again at Christmas!

Also, there is only ONE WEEK left in the second Lasting Memories Layout Challenge: "Buttons & Bows." Hopefully you have found some inspiration from all of the great layouts that the Design Team came up with. To see everyone's layouts again, click on my "Lasting Memories Design Team & Schedule" page above. Have fun!! And don't forget to link your layout in Mister Linky over at Lasting Memories for you chance to WIN Top 3!!

ENJOY your summer everyone!!!

Adding Memorabilia to pages... Ideas and Examples

We all like to save memorabilia from important events... some of us are worse then others (hoarders, you know who you are!!). Why not start using those precious time-capsules in your scrapbooks?

Here are some ideas of things you could use to enhance your layouts:

- event tickets

- programs

- scraps of ribbon and material (from an event or otherwise)

- napkins/favours (from a wedding or reception)

- baby hair & hospital bracelets

- badges

- stamps (mailing/post marked)

- newspaper clippings

- letters and awards

- money (foreign coins or bills from travelling)

- postcards

-Famous Autographs

- gift cards and tags

- paper bags

- wrapping paper

- name tags & business cards

- receipts

The possibilities are endless! I even used the crushed pieces of my husbands wedding band!

A scrapbook is a place to keep your memories fresh and tangible, not just a story book to look pretty on your shelf. So start diggin' through those boxes and bring out those little chunks of history for everyone to see!

Here are some examples of things I have used in the past:

When my sister and I travelled in Cambodia, we went to the 'Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.' I wanted to keep the pamphlet so that other people could read about it.

 The background of the left page is actually a paper bag from our trip to Skagway, Alaska. There is also a business card from the "Olde Tyme" photo shop we got our picture taken at.

At another stop in Alaska, they gave everyone a cedar chip to "throw in the fire and make a wish." Of course I kept mine to scrapbook! 

 For the title page of my "Yukon Years" album, I used a post marked stamp from my home town.

 One of my University roommates and I are both obsessed with curling (and football!). One year we volunteered at the "Canada Cup Qualifiers." Of course I had to put our volunteer badge and autographs in my scrapbook!

Ticket stub to prove I was at the game!

My little brother is obsessed with hockey... I made this page for him from our visit to the "Hockey Hall of Fame." I used the pamphlet, stickers, a cut out from the paper bag and some old monogrammed credit cards (which I signed up for simply to get the cool picture!!) 

 Here I used the invitation and tickets from my highschool graduation. 

My Hubby was a Cadet for many years growing up, and he won many distinguished awards. Here are a few newspaper clippings and a badge from his time in the Army Cadets

This layout is actually mostly a collection of memorabilia. My sister and I spent an entire month in Vietnam, but we did not take very any pictures. In order to document our adventures, I used business cards, Vietnamese money, a "smog mask" and postcards from the places we stayed. In the blank space, I will journal our adventures.

And there you have it... it is just that simple to enhance your pages and have something tangible to remember an event by! Have fun coming up with ideas... and let me know what YOU have used in the past to enhance your layouts!

Happy Canada Day!

Today is one of my favourite days of the year! I love being Canadian, and I love to celebrate our beautiful, amazing country with my fellow Canadians.

The following layout if from a family vacation back in 2002. We spent seven weeks camping in our vehicle and driving across Canada. We ended up on Parliament Hill for Canada Day, what a rush! Every Canadian should experience this!

God Bless Canada!

One of my dear University roomies and her husband are coming to spend the entire weekend with us, so I won't be posting anything until next week. I can hardly wait for all of the adventures we will have this weekend! Happy Canada Day!!

Cruisin' to Alaska

As we are coming up on our second anniversary (!), I thought it would be appropriate to post the pictures from our honeymoon. In July of 2008, Kurtis and I went on an Alaskan Cruise. We spent most of the week in our room... not because it was our honey moon, but because Kurtis was deathly ill! He started feeling very tired on the flight to Vancouver, and by the first morning he was dead to the world. We had terrible rainy weather the entire trip, and were surrounded by old Americans playing Bingo and getting drunk. Not really our kind of vaction. Despite these drawbacks, we enjoyued ourselves as best we could by playing minigolf, reading lots of books that we bought in Skagway, and eating delicious food. I think we'll save our next cruise until we are about 85 years old... that or go somewhere that is guaranteed to be hot!

 

I had a lot of fun putting this album together shortly after we returned. I bought some of the paper and cie cuts while we were on the cruise, but most of the stuff is just from my personal collection.

The South East Asian Loop

As some of you know, my sister Lydia and I went on a three month getaway to South East Asia in the winter of 2006. A few posts ago, I showed the first month of photos from touring around Northern Thailand. The following pictures are from our second month.
After racing around for a month, seeing every site possible and running from place to place...we were worn out, and decided we wanted a little more "laid-back" pace, so we started hittting other countries. First, Laos. This was a beautiful little place, and probably the most laid-back place on the face of the earth! We didn't stay for very many days, but met some friends we traveled with for quite some time, and got our Vietnan Visas while seeing the sites. Everyone seemed to think we were twins, and when we insisted that we were only sisters, they insisted right back, that we were "Twins, but (born on) different days."

After spending a day with "Micky and Mi" back in Thailand, we headed over to Cambodia...just for a quick drive through the country to get to Vietnam.  I have never seen a rougher road. Pot holes that I swear could swallow a bus, and at least five vehicles a breast at all times on a one and a half lane dirt road...

And then we hit Vietnam...a completely different experience than any other country we had been in. We left the big city for a small beach village as fast as possible, and then we saw it. The Ocean. The most beautiful sight we had seen in over a month of traveling. We were hooked. From that day on, we decided to just relax and enjoy every minute of the time we had left instead of trying to "see and do" everything. This is where we met up wth Odin and Leanna Hougen from back home, and spent a blissful month relaxing in the sunshine, making friends and exploring Vietnam.

We both took our "padi" diving course, what a rush! I love diving and can't wait to go again one day. We also got a whole bunch of custom-designed clothes and shoes and ended up having to send a huge package home. We spent every single day of our 30 day visa in Vietnam, and wished we could stay for longer.

We then travelled back into Cambodia with some friends we had met and spent the day touring a genocide museum and exploring the local hang outs. Again, we didn't stay long in Cambodia, but headed back for Thailand and the final month of our adventure together...

One Night in Bangkok...

For the Winter months of 2006 (January to April), my sister Lydia and I took a vacation to South-East Asia. We spent the first month touring the sights of Northern Thailand, running from one attraction to another, taking all night busses, sleeping in shacks and walking several miles a day.

 We toured the King's Palace, went on a Boat Tour of Bangkok, explored countless markets both night and day. Saw every Wat (temple) we could find in every town, went to the Golden Triangle, Toured a "Long Neck" village, entered into Myanmar (Burma) for a day and went on a three day treck through the hills of Northern Thailand. White water rafting, elephant riding, Thai food, beautiful scenery and good friends filled every moment of every day.

The above pictures are from the first month of our three month adventure. This was the trip you take once in a lifetime, and neither of us would trade the experience for the world. I will post more pictures of the rest of the trip soon...