Five for Friday

1. Well, it was a week ago that we left the DR Congo to fly home and I feel like I'm somewhat getting back into the swing of things. I started feeling sick on the flight from Brussels to Montreal and then worse from Montreal to Winnipeg. Konrad & I chatted for most of that flight, but at one point, after we'd been silent for a while, I asked him: "Are we going backwards?"

"Like, in time?" he asked.

"No," I said. "We've landed right? And the plane is backing up?"

"No, Leigh, we're still in the air."

Oh.

So, I'm guessing I was a little out of it there. LOL!

I am feeling better physically though and I seem to be getting over the jet lag. The last two nights, I've managed to stay up until 10:30pm before going to bed and this morning, I woke up to Cameron's alarm and couldn't remember waking up during the night. Success!

My appetite is back, too. I was pretty happy about losing 7.5 lbs while in the Congo (it's my Congolese weight loss program) and I'm hoping I'll keep it off.


2. Even though I wasn't feeling the greatest, it was nice to come home and see this on our dining room window, made by my Sage:

3. I got some exciting news while I was in the Congo, which made it a little easier to keep it quiet, being so far away, and often without wifi....... I was chosen as a World Card Making Day 2012 Winner! You can see the announcement on the Paper Crafts Connection Blog here. I had sent in six cards for the five categories (love, friend, thank you, festive and birthday) and it was my birthday card that got chosen. That means that I'll be sharing the five other cards here on my blog soon. ;)


4. While I was away, my nephew, Luke and his wife, Laura, moved into the new house that they've been building this year. We want to take them supper next week to check out their new digs and bring them a gift as well, so I made them this card to go along with it. I used this week's Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink: Creating Focal Point Sentiments with Stamps & Dies. I used my PTI modern alphabet uppercase dies to cut out "happiness" and then used the negative on my card, backed with some patterned paper.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (rustic cream), stamps (peace, love, joy), button, twine and dies (modern alphabet uppercase, love lives here). The patterned paper is all My Mind's Eye.


5. I also decided to use this same technique to create a layout, documenting our 12 hour road trip from Kinshasa to Kikwit.

I used Papertrey Ink cardstock (aqua mist), stamps (road trip) and dies (modern alphabet uppercase and numbers, double ended banner, tag sale #5). I also used Heidi Swapp and Simple Stories patterned paper and some Pink Paislee chipboard arrows.

Here's a close up of the title treatment & journaling:

I wanted a little bus embellishment but couldn't find any in my stash, so I decided to make one. I used my SU! scalloped border punch to cut out the bottom (and then trimmed out the middle one by hand), rounded the top corners and used a hole punch to punch out the windows. When I showed my layout to Sage, she said: "I love your game controller!" LOL! When she showed it to Austin this morning, though, he said he could tell it was a bus. :)

I love these chipboard arrows.... too bad only four of these kind came in the pack!

Well, our forecast is for a snowstorm this weekend, so I plan to stay warm and dry inside, preferably in my scrap area with my little heater cranked up to high.

Thanks for looking!