A little 'bout the Oscars, a little 'bout the snow and a few LO's , too!

OK, I seriously have to talk about the snow thing first. When will it stop??? Yesterday (I kid you not) I went outside, looked up at the sky and shouted, "GIVE ME A BREAK, we've had enough already". I am seriously starting to get the snow blues. There has been steady snow on the ground up here since the end of September/begining of October. We get these spurts of beautiful weather - sun shiny, snow melty weather - then we go right back into the snow. It has been snowing on and off for 3 days now. Not the heavy, blizzardy snow, but the light, fluffy snow that's supposed to be so beautiful, but when you've seen it for months on end it's just really disgusting. I wish I were a snow person. You know, one of those people who thrive on the cold snowy thing that is winter. One that straps on the old snowshoes and heads out with a whistle and a smile. Yeah - I'm definitely NOT one of those people. I hate those people. (OK, so not hate, but the do really disgust me! LOL) I'm sure my regular blog readers are really, seriously tired of hearing about this every few weeks, but really, how do you think I feel having to LIVE with it? ;D

I have only one thing to say about last nights Oscars: HOW DID CARS NOT WIN???? *sigh* Other than that, Ellen did great and Reese Witherspoon, Helen Mirren and Camryn Diaz looked awesome! My top 3 beauties. OH, and of course, George Clooney was drool worthy yet again!

Here are my 2 newest LO's. Both are using the new kits Lena Brandenburg just released at TDS - Teal Berry Trend and Fuschia Berry Fun. Gorgeous kits, aren't they?



The rest of the credits for these LO's can be seen here




Until next time...Love and (((HUGS))) to everyone!!!

OOOPS...I did it again! ; D

I seriously didn't mean to do another colour themed kit...really, I didn't! Intention or not...here it is:



I'll give you a little peek at the Alpha I'm working on to go with this one!



Look for the EP early next week!

Grab the PP here:
Download heLineBetweenBlackAndWhitePP.ZIP

A HUGE apology!

*blushing, blushing, blushing* Soooooooooooo, when I did the element pack for the Feeling A Little Blue Kit, I was in such a hurry to get it out there that I didn't do a "test run" first. Let's just say that I have more than learned my little lesson! The ribbons and frame were definitely not up to par on this one - way too small. They have all been revamped and resized and I'm happy to say, there have been a few changes made to some of the elements. Here's a peek at the new and improved EP!



Grab it here:
Download FeelingALittleBlueEP.ZIP

***If you ever feel that any of my work is sub-par, etc. Please let me know!!

It's Elemental!

Here it is...the element pack. This pack contains: 3 ribbons, 1 Alpha, 5 Brads, 3 Metal Hearts, 1 Metal Heart Chain, 5 Flowers, 2 Pins, 1 Staple, 1 Tinted Glass Frame. I hope you enjoy!! Here's a peek!


Please leave a little love if you grab this pack! Grab it here:

One fish, one great big tragedy

I love fish. Really. An aquarium to me is a little piece of heaven - it's peaceful, stress reducing, beautiful. I can easily get lost in thoughts of nothing while staring into our little tank. The boys love their fish. They say "good morning" to them and "Night, night" to them. When they remember, they beg to feed them. Needless to say, our goldfish (yeah, we actually have the one fish I said I'd never own) are an integral part of our family! Even the kitty's love 'em. As a matter of fact, Lucy (grey fur-baby) spends hours sitting staring longingly into their tank - I've got pictures to prove it! LOL Now, onto the tragedy. A few weeks ago we woke for the day only to come out and find our beloved blackie (a black fantail) tangled in the plant. I'm not sure whether the actual entanglement led to his passing or if he was just sick (which he SO wasn't the night before)and landed in the plant. Whichever it was, it was totally earth shattering for two little boys. Being the ever-sensible mommy that I am (stop laughing), I took this opportunity to explain the circle of life to the boys, hoping that it would help them understand death. Then I carefully netted Blackie and took him into the bathroom where I....flushed him. I can not even begin to tell you the hilarity that has ensued since the dreadful flushing. We've been asked to pull up the toilet and call a plumber to get Blackie out. Liam often runs in and lifts the lid to see if Blackie has mysteriously come to life and had his sonar senses kick in to guide him back up the pipes and into our bowl. We have daily strains of, "I miss Blackie" with all the tears and emotion that follows. This, however, is not the tragedy. Nope. The tragedy happend yesterday morning. I woke up, walked into the living room and found Spotsie (white fantail with orange blob on it's head) suctioned to the filter. Glenn and I whispered about replacing it before the boys noticed so that we wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath of Spotsie's demise. Then we decided to just slip it out of the tank and hope the boys wouldn't notice. Then, sanity returned and I owned up. I told the boys that Spostie had gotten sick and died. There was a little lip quiver, an almost watering of the eyes...then...the tragedy...Liam looked at me and said, "Mommy, can we get a new Blackie AND a new Spotsie?", I gave him my most comforting look and said, "yes", and.....ready for the tragedy....Liam looked at me, smiled, turned to his brother and said, "Conor, we get to get 2 new fishies." Both boys cheered, smiled and went about their business. Now, if that's not tragic, I don't know what is!

OK, so Amazing Race Super-star started last night. I love the Amazing Race. I love to hate the contestants that back-stab their way through the show. I was excited about the Super-star edition. Then, I tuned in. OMG - did they have to bring back 1/2 of the teams I absolutely HATED???????? Rob and Amber? Hellooooooooooooooo - isn't their 15 minutes of fame expired to the point of no return? How obnoxious can one human be? And now it would seem that the mousey little Amber has been snared into the land of obnoxious humans. Yucko! And seriously...Team Guido??? UGH! Thank God for the Kentucky sweeties! At least I have a team to root for.

I've been doing a little picture fine tuning lately, too. Here's my mother's graduation photo:

Here's the picture after I've "tweaked" it. Pretty good, HUH?


Ok...the natives are getting a bit restless here. I guess that's my call to leave you. (((HUGS))) and love to everyone!

Are you blue?

I've got another little freebie for you! It's a little paper pack called "Feeling A Little Blue". It contains 8 wonderfully textured and patterned papers and 8 solids. The element pack will be coming soon! I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know if you use any of my blogbies (blog freebies) to scrap with! Leave a little love if you pick this one up!



You can download the paper pack
here.

Download SusanMcGarveyBluesolids.ZIP
Download SusanMcGarveyBlue.ZIP (patterned)

Surprise!

I've been wanting to change my little blog for a long time now, soooooo, today I did it! Don't you love my new look? I picked nice, springy colors in hopes that it will make some of the blasted snow outside my house melt away to oblivion! A girl has to have her dreams!

Thank you to everyone who left me messages and comments about my new kit. I would really love to see when you use some of my designs - so please email me at liacondesigns@gmail.com and point me in your direction! I'm working on another kit right now and thinking of "re-releasing" a couple of kits I gave away about a year ago...listen to me - re-releasing. LOL You'd think I had done this a million times! Actually, sharing my "designs" is a bit intimidating and causes me a bit of anxiety - I know I like what I do, but will anyone else. I guess that's all part of sharing a bit of yourself. I will say that designing elements and papers gives me a whole new respect for all the talented and wonderful designers out there - it's really putting a piece of yourself "out there" for praise *yay!* or ridicule *booo, hisss*.

I am very excited about tomorrow - we have signed Liam up for Tae Kwon Do - I'm hoping it will teach him discipline and self-respect and give him a whole new perspective on why it is not ok to use your hands for harm. I'm not sure if it's all going to work - they usually don't take kids until they are at least 4, but after going and meeting the Grand Master today, we decided to give him a couple of lessons to see if they instructors think he's ready and then, if they approve, we'll put him in on a trial basis for a month. I just think it's going to do wonderful things for him! He was very excited while we were there and he got to see what was happening. I always knew that people took marshal arts very seriously, but I guess I didn't "get it". They bow when they enter and leave the building and there is no loud talking or anything while in the building. The instructor here is quite well respected in the world of Tae Kwon Do, so I'm very hopeful that Liam will LOVE it!

Can you believe that enough time has passed that Glenn and I realized that we actually have to start deciding where we want to send Liam for school and get him on the waiting list? So many decisions! French Immersion or regular school. Convenient schooling (not such a hot school) or inconvenient (ok...so convenient for me - LOL). Do we want him to go to a more rural school or one here in the city. And, do we go and "interview" the school? Things have changed so much, even since I was teaching. This is such an important decision to make and I really don't want to screw this up - this will be his outlook on what school is - will he love it or hate it. It's very intimidating, actually. Anyway - we are going to go this week and look at a couple of schools and put his name on the waiting list and hope that he gets into the one we really want him to attend.

I still can't believe that my little boy will be in kindergarten in 1 1/2 years. He's almost 4!!! He actually holds big boy conversations now!!! I'm so sad! LOL

Well, that's all for today - Love and (((HUGS))) to everyone!

Freebie Time!

It's been a while since I worked on making a kit, but I really felt creative this week and I've come up with a kit I really love! Here's a little peek at what's included - please feel free to grab it, but leave me some love, too! ;P



Grab it here.

Snow, snow, go away!

I hate snow. It amazes me now that I can actually remeber a time in my life when I thought snow was magical. The beauty of everything covered in a soft, white blanket - it was inspirational! Yeah...that was BMTFSJ (Before moving to Fort St. John). It was before the snow came in September and didn't want to leave until April...or May...or June. It was before I had experienced a winter where the windchill is lower than I knew temperature could go! OK, I'll admit that every now and then I still see the beauty of the snow - it is pretty in the trees and when the hoar frost is covering everything it can touch. Those days are few and FAR between! Right now, I'm really, truly sick of it. Seriously. It is freezing cold and snowy again and I have a burning desire to be anywhere but trapped in the house, yet there's nowhere to go, nothing to do and even if there was it would mean bundling the boys up in 3 layers, boots, hats, scarves, mits and listening to them whine the whole time they're in the car because it's too hot in the car. Plus, I then have to maneuver my way to my car - which is best done on ice skates lately since the ice is about 4 inches thick with a 2 inch layer of snow on top! I can honestly say that I am sick of seeing my beautiful red walls. No wonder I want to change the color of rooms so often - I get stir crazy staring at the same thing day after day!

OK, now that we've got that off my chest - (yes, we - me and the imaginary voices in my head! LOL) - let's move to another whiney topic (since I seem to be on a roll)...

So the potty training and celebration lasted a week. Yes, it's true, my son has decided that he doesn't like using the potty. 8 days of dry bum - pooping in the toilet - the WHOLE shabang. I'm shattered! I don't really know what my next step is supposed to be. I'm trying the "ask him every 20 minutes" technique, but seriously - doesn't that just annoy him more? I know it would me! I feel like waving the white flag and facing the fact that indeed my son WILL be in diapers in Kindergarten. (OK, I know this won't happen but it sure does feel like it will right now)

OK, let's get scrappy...

First of all, I want to show off my first attempt at really "fixing" an old photo. I'm very proud of what I did with this picture! There were lots of scratches that were very tiny and the picture itself was very dull. I know my "fix" isn't perfect, but it's pretty good!



And here's a scrap page I did with it:



Here are a couple of LO's I've done recently:



And, have you SEEN Lena Brandenburg's newest element pack? They are simply FAB!


That's it for me today! ((HUGS)) and love to everyone!

And the 3rd time is a charm!

GO COLTS GO!!!

Believe it or not this is the 3rd attempt at posting this blog. The first time I was all but finished when I got called to "come here" and Conor got to the computer and shut it off before I came back to finish. The second time, it was all done (and quite humourously, too!) except to add some pictures and blogger knocked me off. This time, pictures have been added before I post and I'm saving it at every chance I get! So, lets see if I can do this all over again...

ATTENTION: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT TO FOLLOW:
Folks, we have poop in the potty, I repeat, we have poop in the potty!!! Liam is pretty much 100% potty trained. We are on day 5 of completely clean, dry diapers (pull-ups), even in the morning! I am so happy with this kid! The only hurdle now is getting him to wear underwear - I even went and got some special "I went poop in the potty" underwear - they're covered with spiderman and they're boxer briefs, just like daddy's! I honestly think he's scared he may have an accident and he has told me on the few occassions that he's actually worn underwear and ended up having an accident (during potty training) that he does NOT like it when his pants get all stinky. What the heck - he's keeping dry and if it takes him a couple more weeks to give into the underwear - what's so bad about that? Can I just say how thrilled I am that he truly won't be going to kindergarten with diapers! LOL

Jelly Belly's: A confusing food for a 3 year old!
So, Glenn has this little Jelly Belly dispenser that sits on his bedside table. I got it for him for Easter one year (pre-kids) and had hidden it away when Liam came along, but he discovered it and pulled it out. Of course the boys have also discovered it and they LOVE putting pennies in daddy's candy machine and getting a handful of yummy Jelly Belly's. The other day, Glenn gave them each a penny and told them to go get some treats. Didn't have to tell them twice - they flew into the bedroom, where I was folding clothes, and got their treasures and left. A few minutes later I saw Glenn coming around the corner with that look on his face that makes me go, "Uh-oh, this isn't going to be good!". Beside him was Liam who's hand was covering his nose while his mouth was hanging open with drool dripping it's way down his chin. He had tears in his eyes and neither of them were saying anything. Finally, Mr. Panic (Glenn) opened his mouth and said, "Ummm, he's got a jelly bean up his nose and I don't know what to do". At this, Liam burst into sobs and pulled his hand away so that I could see the Jelly Belly sized bump on the side of his left nostril and a pinkish colored drip coming out. I whipped him up to the bed, and as he whizzed under my nose I smelled it - the smell that told me not only was my son silly enough to think a Jelly Belly looked like a nice nose adornment, but also that he had the good fortune of picking the WORST possible flavor - cinnamon! Have I gotten to the part where I tell you that Liam has a cold? No? Well, he does - his nose has been a little faucet for many days now and when his nose turns into a faucet, the tender section of skin between his nose and lips turns into a flaming red, peeling, "I've got 3rd degree sunburn" looking piece of raw flesh. Wonderful! Of course, I go into action - put one finger on the right nostril and tell Liam to blow as hard as he can. What do I get for that action? A large pink snot bubble! (which I'm sure Liam would have found quite hysterical if not for the fact that his nostril was on fire) I put my finger right above the bump and tried to get it to wiggle free - nope. I thought for sure it was going to be another trip to the ER with Liam over yet another silly thing. I finally put my finger beside the bridge of his nose and pushed down hard while running my finger down his nose - the little Jelly Belly came flying out like a rocket! Thank God!

2 questions here:

1) Why is it that the same child who was taken to the emergancy room last winter after deciding it was a good idea to lick the snow off the metal railing on our porch when the temperature was -20 and ended up with his lips, tongue and hand stuck to the rail and lost a little chunk of tongue, decided that it would be a good idea to shove a Jelly Belly up his nose?

AND

2) Why is it that I never think to yell, "GO GET THE CAMERA, THIS IS A PERFECT SCRAPPY MOMENT"?

Darn it!

Speaking of scrappy - here's a few of my most recent LO's. (Credits can be seen here)