Mouse!

Yep, after surviving the Russian Olympic Mice that hounded me in Lake Louise, swearing that no mouse would ever get into my lovely, mouse-free home in Edmonton, one snuck in. There have been a lot of door issues of late, and I'm assuming it literally just walked in, saw all of our crap and thought it stumbled across mouse heaven. 

He was wrong. 

It's been suggested that he may have actually been the same rodent who first eluded me in Lake Louise, but he didn't seem to have patchy hair.... 

I had traps set everywhere. Three kinds of traps. Five gallon pails with a bit of water in the bottom and a handy ramp so they could quietly fall to their death. 

I used barley, peanut butter, almond butter, chocolate syrup, cheese, cheese whiz, raisins, anything I could think of to lure that sucker in, but nothing worked. 

For weeks he scurried around infecting everything in my house and leading me to gut my kitchen, bleach every surface possible and toss anything that may have been contaminated.

My kitchen was a disaster.

My husband wasn't home for much of this infestation, and when he was, I'd love to say he was helpful... but he was definitely the epitome of Canadiana. Picture a Mountie, holding a hockey stick, preparing to slap shot it into the wall if it appeared. Canadian, eh?! 

Helpful? Nay.

I was on my own.

I caught nothing but a three and a half year old. 

Luckily, I caught her with a sticky trap....

So, I called in the pros. I'm not real proud of it. I would have been the first to die on Hunger Games based on my trapping abilities, but when he was caught, I still hummed 'Eye of the Tiger' for the next week.

Now, my house is mouse free. The kitchen is put back together and I got a spring cleaning like none other done. I guess it worked out.

If you ever run into a mouse who refuses to be trapped, apparently chocolate icing is the trick.... who knew.

What our life looks like lately...

Brad has been busy with work. Teaching courses, training days, hanging off helicopters, just your average stuff.

Emma is growing every day! She is smiley and likes to giggle and laugh and loves to watch her sister. 

We made some rhubarb cake the other day to make it feel spring-y-er (yep, that's a word). It was yummy, but it's still wintry outside.

 Gracie is also ready for warmer weather, perhaps by the time the warm weather hits, she'll have her goggles on properly.

I've got a lovely, springy view in front of my kitchen window and if I look quick, with the sun shining in, it makes me feel like there isn't still snow in my yard.

PS. Thanks Curtis, Brandi and family for the tulips! They are beautiful.

Quick Layouts

I made two quick layouts a few weeks ago with an older line of Basic Gray papers. 

I'm sure Brad will love the use of pink on his layout, but he's got two girls now, so he's got to get used to it sometime. Our lint trap is hardly ever grey anymore after laundry!

A few patterned papers, a few quick stickers and elements, a title and done!

Both of these took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

Spring Walks

We go on lots of them. Rubber boots, winter boots, winter coats, sweaters, mitts, no mitts, it's impossible to dress for them, but once we get everyone organized and get out the door, watch out world! 

New pink rubber boots.

Good boy.

Too cool for school.

Gracie can't resist the thin ice. Who can, really?

My view.

Buddies.

 Rubber boots and runners today.

Watercolour Butterflies

I loved the butterfly stickers from My Mind's Eye in last month's kit from Treasured Memories, but I wanted more of them, so I made some of my own. 

In the layout above, the actual stickers are the striped butterfly and the notepaper butterfly. I made the watercolour butterflies using the negative space from the sticker sheet and some ink mists.

Here's one of the negative spots from the sticker paper. I cut it away from the rest of the sheet, peeled it off and stuck it to a piece of heavy cardstock.

I gave it a few spritz' with some glimmer mist and Lindy's mist and then a spritz of water to blend the colours together, then I let it dry a bit.  

You have to let the mist dry a bit so it doesn't bleed when you remove the sticker, but the faster you remove it, the more likely it is that you'll get a second use out of the negative, before the adhesive is too wet and loses it's tackiness.

Once you have your butterflies, cut them out, fold them in half and curl the wings a bit, and you've got your butterflies.

TM layouts Part 2

Since all of my projects last month were of Emma sleeping, I had to change it up this month. I even have a layout with a picture of Brad and I on it, with no kids.... gasp. Rarely am I in a picture, as I'm always behind the camera, and it's extremely rare to take a picture that isn't capturing what Gracie or Emma are doing lately.

Love this one. It was my favourite. I'll do a how to post soon for the watercolour butterflies. Cute and easy, my go-to style now.

Our Life

One day, we jump in puddles, the next, we shovel snow. At least Gracie enjoys this crazy weather.

Sisters. Gotta love 'em. Saying good morning to each other.

Emma's new toy, the Jolly Jumper, or as she thinks of it, the Chew and Drool.

Waking up happy.

"These fools put my cape on backwards!"

March Treasured Memories Layouts

Here are three of the layouts I made for TM this month. I got a great kit full of My Mind's Eye goodness so I got to work and created 5 layouts with these bright, spring-y colours. Maybe I can trick myself into believing it's spring. I've got three projects to share here today.

This one is so simple, but I still love it. A piece of cardstock, a few journaling cards, some banners, stickers, and a pen to doodle with, and you're set. Throw in some funny photostrips of my crazy, wonderful family and you're set.

Gracie and her baby, 'Aunt Harriet' are the focal point on this layout. Just a sweet picture of a stage in her life recorded.

Can you tell I love this washi tape from Glitz Designs? I've used on all of my layouts nearly since I got it. Fun stuff. You can see it on the arrows and across the middle of the layout.

And, you couldn't see the glitter outline very well in the picture of the layout, so I thought I'd share a close-up. This really makes elements stand out if they're getting lost on a project. Unfortunately, the pictures don't do it justice, but let me tell you, it looks cool! ;)

 And another layout of Gracie and her little Bestie, Berlyn. They have so much fun together.

This layout is my recycling layout. I used the strips at the bottom of the papers that show you what pattern is on the back of the paper for most of the strips. Also, the sticker of the butterfly and the 'So Happy Together' pink sticker are pieces of other stickers that I wasn't using, so I took them apart or trimmed them up to get something that would work for this project. 

Be creative with your stash!

More Trip Layouts

Here are a few two page layouts that I made about our trip to Europe last fall. 

The first is our trip to the Valencia Aquarium in Spain. It was such a special stop because Gracie loved the dolphin show!

If you can read the journaling, you'll see that the people watching the show were soon watching her because she was clapping and cheering so hard.

I love this line from Glitz Designs. Perfect for our trip. I made this layout using a simple grid, so I could use tons of photos and keep it from from looking cluttery. 

The next is a look at Barcelona's architecture. I wanted to seperate the pictures into areas of the city, so they're grouped a little differently. I have three groupings of photos on each 12 x 12 page which make a visual triangle. 

These layouts use the Portfolio collection from Pink Paislee. I like the pale, washed out colours as a background for the older buildings and bright blue skies.

Hope you enjoy! 

Family Fun

It was so nice to spend some time with family this Easter. 

Here's a few pictures of the four generations on my mom's side of the family:

Grandma Sackett with her Great Grand Daughters from my mom's family. Note the cute matching dresses!

Great Grandma with Emma, who's not even her newest Great Grand Daughter... Evelyn is 3 weeks younger.

And here are the newbies with their moms, showing off their new Easter bonnets from Great Grandma. Just try getting all four of us to look at the right camera, when there are two going at the same time....

 Cousins, Gracie and Jada: