Trip to Lethbridge and Sunshine in the mountains

So, I promised pictures from the weekend and I've got a few good ones for you.

The group of us eating at Coco Pazzos, where they have really yummy food. Lots of pastas and delicious pizzas cooked in their stone oven.



and Brad and I... can you tell I was sitting by a hot tub before this?



And, since the sunshine has been avoiding Lake Louise, I thought I'd update you with a state of the garden report. I was just outside, and my radishes are poking up out of the ground! Not a huge feat for most, but in Lake Louise, little steps are pretty big in the gardening world.

And now, I just thought I'd share a little glimpse of summer hidden in my flowers....

Home again and cool video

We just got home from a great weekend of visiting, shopping, water slides, good food and good movies.... and no, we did not go camping. Lucky us, because it rained all week long! I don't melt in the rain, but that would not have been fun.

So, instead, the campers (my mom and dad, and brother and his wife, and Brad and I) went to Foremost to visit my sister-in-law's parents and had a great little visit and then we headed into Lethbridge for some shopping and a movie with my in-laws. Quite nice. I have some great action shots on the waterslide at the hotel I'll have to show you all.

Most of our group went and saw the new Indiana Jones, but I went to Made of Honour with a few others..... I know, I know, Indy was supposed to be so great, but honestly, most of the people that went weren't too impressed, so I was okay hangin' out with McDreamy for a few hours. It was pretty good, just a light movie: cute and funny.

I love getting together with family and visiting. We're all so close and get along so well, it's just rare that we're all together. Very nice.

Then, when I got home, I saw a piece of the American Country Music Awards. Wow! I really like Taylor Swift. Great singer, seems really down to earth and fun, plus she writes all her own stuff and she's so young. Then I saw her perform. Probably one of the coolest performances at an awards show, ever. Course, I don't watch many award shows truth be told, but I loved this. It's not real long, but you should watch it all.



Does that not make you want to be a singer? I'm trying to think of a way that I could incorporate that little routine into my work.... somehow, I don't think it's gonna happen :)

Maybe at the next retreat, we can have rain pouring from the ceiling to dance in.... something to think about.

Things to check out...

Just thought I'd give you a heads up that Canadian Scrapbooker has a very cool new website and is launching a new magazine, Canadian Scrapbooker Basics. Lots of exciting things happening over there. Stop in and check it all out (including their cool contests) at www.canadianscrapbooker.com

Also, Luxe Designs is doing a ton of giveaways on their blog at the moment. Check it out and maybe you can take home some of their new product. I love the new jotters, personally. Can't wait to get my hands on them... not that I need more....

So, after a lovely short week of work, I'm heading off for the weekend on an adventure that has yet to be determined. We were supposed to go camping and hiking but the weather is not cooperating, so who knows where we'll end up, or what we'll do. Brad and I both have the weekend off, and so do all our fellow campers, so I'm sure fun will ensue. Whatever the weekend brings, I will take pictures and let you know how it turns out.

Enjoy the weekend!

Fresh Face and some inspiration

I love that my family is so creative. We have quilters, scrapbookers, painters, singers, musicians, actors, writers, wood workers, a little bit of everything. It makes life so interesting to be surrounded by such inspiring creativity.

My cousin Katelyn is a fantastic scrapbooker. I wish I had gotten started as early as she has. She's thirteen and is in scrapbooking 4-H. How cool is that? I raised steers and she gets to scrapbook... hummph....

Have a peak at some of her projects.





Cute paint can, eh? She cut out a bunch of little flowers and glued them to a bunny sketch that she drew and used brads for the eyes and nose.



This was two heart stamps that she inked with a cherry red ink and then added some red glitter.





This was an altoids tin that she covered with red and silver handmade paper and stamped on, with a fun little heart inside.



And lastly, a luggage tag that she stamped with purple ink and then spread silver glitter on top in fast up and down strokes.

Great, right?! Last time we scrapbooked together, she came up with this great little gift bag that could've been a wall hanging, it was so cool. All inky with wire bent into words... very cool.

Thanks Katelyn, for sending me some of your stuff to show.

Now, if that wasn't inspiration enough, here's a link to the Basic Grey May newsletter. I love their stuff, and this newsletter has some neat projects and ideas. Have a look and if you like it, it's pretty easy to sign up for, just visit the Basic Grey website.

Second Annual Girls Getaway

So, everyone knows it's hard to get together with your friends and spend some quality time catching up, right? Well, some girlfriends of mine from high school decided to remedy that last year, when we went on the first girls getaway. We packed up and headed to Kalispell, Montana for the weekend and visited, shopped, perused the town, and relaxed leaving our husbands, kids, jobs, school, and stresses behind.

Well, it was so fun, we've decided to make it an annual excursion. This year, we went to Great Falls. A little bigger, more stores (yikes), more nightlife, and just as much fun!

We piled into Sam's truck (actually, it's Sam's husband's businesses truck... remember that letter of permission from your husband next year, Sam.... crazy American border guy) and headed for the border.

Zandy's, a great little Peters-esque drive through. V. good fries and shakes, and it was like $3 for each of us.



The whole group, in our favourite resaurant in Great Falls, Jaker's.



We got a free dessert from Jaker's so we thought we'd split one between the five of us.... it was enormous! It could've been measured in pounds. It was literally a foot tall! This is what's left, after we all tried our hardest:



Crazy Americans... we thought this sign was too funny, and we just happened to have a pregnant lady along, so we threw her in the photo for good measure. Come on guys, why wouldn't you leave your kids here? Just like a coat check, your kid will be shoved in a closet and if you lose your ticket, you'll have to leave them overnight.



The truck loaded up on the way home. Yep, we resorted to tubs to store everything.



Excellent trip ladies! Can't wait for next year!

Sunday Special

Happy Mother's Day, again, to my fabulous moms!

Me and my ma, Maureen, hiking in Waterton:



And my mother-in-law, Gay, with me, before Brad and my wedding:



And a little shout out to all my nearly-mom, sister-in-law, Brandi, and all you other moms out there.

After a busy Saturday, I got a chance for some me time.... time to do some scrapbooking, look through some magazines, and have a relaxing Sunday.

I spent some time cutting out sayings and layouts and things that I liked from some promotional stuff we got at the Scrapbook Eh! Wholesale event and put them on this handy ring for future reference. This way, I don't have to store a huge stack of catalogues.


Hope all you mothers out there had a great day!!

Are you sick of retreat pics, yet?

In case you're not.... my mom sent some more...

Lucky, lucky Lindyl, who went home with a ton of prizes. This one was the super cute altered paint can full of spa goodies from Mountain Memories Scrapbooking:



Two hams, and absolute dolls, Katharina and Allison:



A shot of one of the lovely, yummy desserts:



Okay, I know, you've had enough. I'll lay off of them for awhile (unless I get some more good ones...)

Hope you all had a great weekend! Back to work tomorrow.

Productive Day at Home

What a day! I got tons of stuff done, which is good, because I've been neglecting some of the day to day stuff around here with all the commotion in our lives lately.

Who would've thought a good Saturday would be a day spent cleaning house, doing laundry, picking up, throwing out, sorting, and who can remember what else? Very productive.

So, here I am at 11 o'clock, signing in as I get ready to curl up with a good book.

Just thought I'd show you a few more picss from the retreat:

A class picture



A few shots of the ladies cropping away





Another partial group shot... I wish we would have gotten a complete shot.... next time!



And a little project I've been working on...









This was a project that I started with Leica Forrest at Scrapbook Eh! and finished up at home. The products are all Luxe and Scenic Route and the pics are some very rare shots of the Malacko cousins together. There are still a few missing, but I really like them, because that side of Brad's family rarely seem to get together.

That's all for now!

Wow, it's been eventful around here!

Hope you're all well and not covered in snow as we are here in the mountains!

We had power outages all night at home and all morning at work because we got tons of heavy, wet snow.

It's amazing how helpless everyone turns without power. No computers, no email, no work, basically.... we're reading and taking notes with a pen and paper? What?!

Oh well, powers back on and things are running smoothly, aside from the thundering 'mini avalanches' sliding off my roof.

So, "where have you been?" you may be wondering...

After the retreat, I switched into a new position at work. I'm now working on a new project writing text on Banff's culture and creating a website for the National Historic Sites in Alberta and BC. A very cool job, but unfortunately, I haven't gotten to dig into it much yet. I've been training my replacement, helping out all the new staff (because for some reason EVERYONE is changing positions) and generally rearranging chairs on the Titanic. Ha! Well, now that that's over, I can relax and enjoy my new job.

And, because my motto is never really work, work, work, I took a trip down to Great Falls with a bunch of girlfriends last weekend. Our second annual girls weekend in the States. We had so much fun! Seriously... cheap shopping? great friends? good food? What could be better?

We had tons of laughs and I literally had to buy a tupperware tub to get my purchases home in.... blush....

A highlight? Getting ID'd when buying a video game for my husband!! I'd even mentioned quite a few times about how I was looking for something for my hubby.... I don't know how old he thought we needed to be to get married up in Canada. Oh well, it was kind of nice to be asked if I was 17!!! If you're interested, I just switched to Loreal face cream and it's apparently working wonders :)

Okay, well, more to come this weekend... I have all kinds of updates and neat things to show you all, so check back in.

For now, I'll leave you with some photos of the beautiful ladies at the retreat compliments of Rose.

The retreat and my weekend away

Here's a group picture which includes most of our scrapbookers for the retreat, taken by the fabulous Allison Orthner.

If you want to see it again, check out the Canadian Scrapbooker fall edition.



I just got back from a great weekend away with the girls, and I'm still exhausted, but it was so much fun. Five girls, 3 days, and the American dollar on par.... Great Falls may never be the same again!

I'll try and get some pics up from the weekend as well as the retreat later tonight.