In honour of my scrappy anniversary....

...I'm issuing a challenge with a prize at My Scrap Shoppe.

It was seven years ago tomorrow that I started scrapping. So my challenge is this...

Create a layout using 7 ___________(fill in the blank.)
It can be seven photos, seven buttons, seven letters in your title, seven pieces of patterned paper, etc. You choose.

(Details to enter for my prize are here if you'd like to play along.)

And here's my layout for the challenge-- I used seven flowers.



I hope you'll play along!

And, by the way, if you're interested in more challenges (& prizes!), check this out:



Have a great weekend!

Some sneaks & layouts

First the sneaks...

These are from two layouts that I made with the MSS May kit, which is fabulous, by the way. I've actually made five layouts with the kit so far. (Look for the layouts to be posted here on May 1st.)






And now, the layouts...

I wanted to share two layouts that I made at SSD a couple of weekends ago.

I made them with some We R Memory Keepers patterned paper that I bought as a kit at Winners in January. I got a whole bunch of paper, some gold rub-on letters and some chipboard stickers for $5! I passed the rub-ons and stickers on to Sage and then made these two layouts with the paper.



I made this layout using a challenge for the day to hide something on your layout. In this case, I made a large pocket and tucked in copies of the poems my kids performed at the Festival of the Arts and the certificates they received.



In addition to the WRMK pp, I used some Bazzill cardstock, Basic Grey brads and Pink Paislee letter stickers.

For this next layout, I used a sketch that I found online at Page Maps.







For this layout, I used the WRMK pp, some October Afternoon letter stickers that I got at the SSD scrappy garage sale, some Prima flowers and some Basic Grey and MME brads.

Thanks for looking!

A week in the life: Saturday

At 8:15am, we picked up Austin's best friend, Soren, and headed to Carman for the 2010 Premier Taekwondo Championships.



Waiting to compete for patterns.



Mr. Mayert and Mr. Drummond, third degree dans from our club, competing in patterns.



Austin and Soren doing their patterns.



Austin grabbed my camera and took some pictures of me while I was doing my pattern. (Thanks, Buddy!) How it works: you compete against another person from your division and then the three judges declare a winner. From there, you compete again and if you win twice, you win gold. So, my first match, I won.



And my second match, as well. :)



My first gold medal at a tae kwon do tournament. Actually, now that I think about it, that might be my first gold medal ever.



After patterns, I competed in board breaking. (No pictures, unfortunately.) I had two boards to break: I broke the first one with a back spin kick (just like I did here) and attempted to break my second board with a step-behind-sidekick, but unfortunately wasn't successful. There were two other women in my division. The first one broke both of her boards and the other only one, like me. However, the kick I used to break my board was more difficult/challenging than hers, so I won the silver medal.

For the black belt board breaking, I got to scorekeep, which was a fun learning experience.

Onto the sparring...

After seeing my would-be competition (young, fast and good!), I was SO thankful that I'd decided against sparring in this tournament. Once I was done my patterns and board breaking, I felt so happy and relaxed that I was finished competing for the day.

Of course, that left time for me to focus on cheering on my favourite blue belt:



Here, he's wearing the blue helmet.



And here, he's wearing the white helmet and the red circle on his chest protector. Even though he didn't take home a medal, I can't even begin to tell you how proud I was of him! He sparred so well-- the best I've ever seen him spar!

And I also got to cheer on some of my friends. Holly (in blue, then in red), from my club...





And Evelyn (in red), my friend from the Carman/Treherne branch, who won the gold medal for her division:



Austin ended up leaving once he was done, with Soren and his parents. I stayed to watch Holly and Ev compete and was also able to do some timekeeping for a couple of matches, which was fun.

I made it home to Morden at five, picked up Austin and then we went to a bar-b-q at some friends' from church-- a thank you to Cameron who helped them move their sister into her new house that afternoon.

We didn't stay very late. I walked home with the kids, did the baths, jammies routine and let them watch Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel while I scrapbooked at the dining room table.



And that is my week in the life for April 2010.

Thanks for looking!

A week in the life: Friday

Okay, so today wasn't a great day photo-wise.... I worked again today and didn't bring my camera along. Then after school, we went to play tennis (again!) and again, I forgot my camera. So, no pictures during the day, but I made up for it this evening, when Cameron and I went to a youth fundraiser held at our church. It was a coffee house called Drink Coffee. Hear Good.





Us. A little blurry, but hey, better than nothing. ;)



Brette sang and played her guitar. She did great!



Jordan Janzen also performed. Always a treat.



Levi & Cody as the emcees for the evening.



The dessert I ordered: skor cheesecake. One word: yum.



Jodi King was the headliner of the evening.





We left before the show was over to relieve our babysitter, our niece, Heidi, of her duties before it got too late. But all in all, a very nice evening.

Thanks for looking!

A week in the life: Thursday

Today, I worked...



After school, we went to the tennis courts again, taking advantage of the gorgeous weather. I've worn shorts twice this week, which is unheard of for April! Austin's best friend joined us.



My tulips also seem to be enjoying the nice weather....



And, I forgot to take my camera along to tae kwon do tonight, which is where we went. I got to practise board breaking for our tournament on Saturday. Then we came home, put the kids to bed and watched The Mentalist.

Thanks for looking!

A week in the life: Wednesday

After getting the kids off to school, I volunteered again today as the Morden Festival of the Arts chairperson/secretary.

At lunchtime, Maple Leaf School held a volunteer appreciation luncheon, so I attended that. Delicious food and always fun to catch up with other moms and teachers.



I picked up Austin after lunch and took him to the Festival where he performed two piano pieces: Rag Time and Phantom of the Keys. I was very pleased with how well he did.





The boys played a duet at the festival: Yankee Doodle. They did quite well and I was very proud of them. They are just so adorable when they play together!



After the festival, we picked up Sage from her friend's house and went to Co-op to pick up some groceries.



After supper, I did dishes, a quick tidy of our main floor and then we went to tae kwon do. We worked on patterns and sparring for our tournament on Saturday.

After tae kwon do, we came home. I put the kids to bed and uploaded my photos from today.

Thanks for looking!

A week in the life: Tuesday

Today is our 14th anniversary today. This is the card I made for Cameron.



Our day started off with breakfast, getting ready for school and homework for Austin. He did manage to get it done before we left the house and I was happy with how hard he worked. Just hoping he'll learn not to leave things to the last minute again...



Jonah played piano in the festival today. His song was Dinosaur Stomp and he performed very well.



After his performance, the adjudicator, Tenley Dyck, called the students up on stage to demonstrate some things to them and to give them their evaluations.





Sage was disappointed that she didn't get to play much tennis yesterday, so I promised her a "tennis date" this morning. However, shortly after we arrived at the courts at the high school, a gym class came out carrying tennis racquets. So, we moved our game to the middle school basketball court while we waiting to pick Austin up for lunch.



After picking up Austin for lunch, we went to get Jonah. I tried to take a photo with my timer in the van, à la Ali Edwards and this is what I got. Hmmm.



I spent the afternoon at the Festival of the Arts where I volunteered as secretary/chairperson. After that, I picked up the kids from school and we came home. I helped Austin with homework and sat with Jonah while he practised the piano.
To celebrate our anniversary, Cameron picked up Warky's for supper, which was a nice treat.



A little piano practicing for tomorrow's festival performance. They're playing Yankee Doodle as a duet. I can't tell you how makes I feel inside when they play together and do it well. So. Very. Happy.



Jonah and I went to the rec centre to pick up his uniform for baseball. Looks like he's going to be a cardinal. #10.



The boys love jumping on our neighbour's trampoline with him. I think they're were inventing/playing a game called ninja training.



When we got home, I listened to my messages on my answering machine, to discover that the library had called to tell me that my reserved copy of Creating Keepsakes was in. So I called hustled the boys into the van and we went to pick it up (along with a few other books and magazines.)



And finishing the evening with uploading photos to my computer, updating my blog and a little scrapbooking.

Thanks for looking!