thankful

i've been busy sorting through my piles of unfinished work. funny how these were at the bottom!

we had a beautiful fall here in Edmonton. and awesome weather for picture taking! i was very fortunate to have taken so many photos of the kids in the weather. we even managed to get in some family photos! yup, those are rare opportunities....


sometimes planning falls through. i had wanted to take photos of us at one particular spot. but it was being used. we tried to take a quick trip for supper and then return...but the light was too poor. darn those early autumn sunsets!! so we tried again the next weekend. but the fountain i had hoped to use for part of the backdrop was turned off!! so we went to my next favourite spot.

i got Kris and the kids posing while i adjusted the lens and set up the timer mode, having the camera sit on a bench... while i was doing this someone was running by and stopped to offer to take our photo for us. without thinking i said, "oh no. but thanks anyway! i just want to try out the timer...." with my luck, she was probably a pro photographer...and we would have had an a amazing photo of us...by a pro...for nothing! lol. or she would have taken the photo and ran off with our camera?! we'll never know....

BUT, we love how our photo turned out anyway. maybe it was best for the kids that no person was behind the lens. the smiles came out so genuine. you'll see this on the first layout!

AND, i fell in love with Basic Grey Ambrosia line too. i had to put together a little project for our mom's group and chose one of the patterned papers for it. and of course bought an extra sheet of the other patterns. and then a set of rub-ons. and the page of die-cut stickers. and the alphas... then later wished i had added the chipboard shapes to my stash... {can we say 'addict'?} one of the classes offered at the store later on used the papers on a black background. so i scrap-lifted the idea of the black background. it really made the colours 'pop' i think!

one of the papers was filled with rows of butterflies. love them! i used my detail scissors and cut out several. then curled the wings to add dimension.

and i love black glitter on black paper.

posed photos are fine. but i think my faves are those impromptu shots. and nothing was more unplanned than this photo....Kiara had fallen, Aidan helped her up and gave her a reassuring hug in the end. and my camera was fast enough to catch the whole scene...yay!!

i've seen so many layouts with the ripped paper frames. finally took the time to add one to my own layout. i love the result. so i'll definitely be trying this one again.

two punches i've been using a lot lately:

1. stampin' up spiral punch

2. fiskars threading water border punch

is it okay to say....i just can't help myself!?!



the christmas layouts i posted earlier used basic grey papers too. i did the one using white paper background...since it was a winter theme...

then i tried one using a patterned background.

two very different looks.

the solid colour background definitely gives a crispness to the page.

what are your favourite products these days?