Club HM Keychains!

Here is a project I have just received, it is awesome due largely to the fact that I am at heart; a person who loves to recycle. I don't like to waste things, so here we go.

I originally purchased some clear plastic keychains for wedding favours a couple of years ago, thinking I would fill them with pictures of Jordan and I, but awkward - who would actually keep a photo of a different couple on their keys after the wedding???

 I was kind of sad after realizing this, but packed them away in my craft room and moved on with planning the rest of our wedding. I came across them while in my sewing room recently and decided to use them for something else...

This is what they look like in Studio

This is them in poster form before getting cut apart to fit into the keychains.

This is them once they have been sealed into the keychains!







I love getting personalized gifts and I love Do it yourself projects - just yesterday I hung drywall I had measured myself! I know what you're probably thinking and YES, I measured twice and cut once.... The pieces were perfect and awesome by the way!

but I wanted a Club HM keychain for those who join Club HM (and for myself)!

If you join Club HM, I will give you one of these gorgeous keychains with your Club HM packet!

Give me a call if you're interested!

The new BEAST

A little while ago we decided to take the plunge and finally go in and check out a new car. Although our old car was a beauty and ran like a dream the entire 8 years we had her (we were both sad to see her go) we were ready for the next step.


This is our old beauty. We went on our first date with her, on our first road trip together, even had a couple of kissing sessions with her. She was also the first car I drove after getting my license, and she has been a loyal and although she took premium very efficient car.






The next step turned out to be what we like to call "The sexy beast" mostly because I like it. We have decided this is not her true name however, because in my experience every car I have named in the past gets into an accident. So no true name, just a small moniker for the time being because she is beautiful and intelligent!

She has handsfree calling and such, but I won't read like a ford advertisement, I'll just show you pictures!

 Isn't she just a beauty? I love driving her it's so much fun!

Zumba

I started doing Zumba a little while ago (two-three weeks) and I absolutely love it! I can't get enough and it's fun even though it sometimes kicks your butt a little bit!

I sweat it out with a bunch of friendly ladies twice a week, but even that doesn't seem enough, so I want to check out my gym's zumba class but unfortunately it only happens twice a week there and in the evenings. Not a lot of us work out in the evenings I don't think....

I know I function better by working out in the morning, but I will have to check it out nonetheless!

I wanted to load photos for this, but I don't own the zumba logo and I didn't want to get in trouble for using it. So I'll just say if there's a zumba class going on somewhere around you, go check it out. It's a booty-shaking blast!!!!!

Photography

I am taking a photography class at SAIT along with a couple of my friendly Heritage Makers Consultants - we had our first class on Thursday and I have been out and about taking pictures and playing with the settings on my Pentax SLR.

I hadn't really given white balance much thought or most of the settings on the camera to be honest... I am an auto kind of girl trying out settings for the first time. My first digital cameras (I've had two) were point and shoot. I always agonized on lighting problems and blaming it on the environment when I could have made a quick little adjustment and BAM! Instant white balance for the environment I'm shooting in.

My eyes were opened to all of the possibilities. I started to think back to indoor church pictures I took and cringed thinking about how they wouldn't have ended up in the discard pile if I had known about candle light white balance!







Not that I don't take wonderful pictures!

 These are earlier pictures of our cat Chester. He found a nice sun-patch, I found a great model. I think he looks like a lion!

 Wild flowers in Yellowknife two years ago.

My husband Jordan at the grand canyon last year - my first time there!

A butterfly and beetle on flowers at Canadian Village in Montreal - kind of like Heritage Park

All of these pictures were taken by a Sony Cybershot Point and shoot auto, so I don't think that digital point and shoot auto features are half bad, although I do admit that fiddling around with settings might have boosted my creativity a little bit.

Our Wedding Album!

I have been really excited to receive this project because I put a lot of effort into making it look the way I wanted it. The first wedding album I did was for an example and also so that I could show everyone my wedding photos-because they kept asking! I ended up picking a random wedding template and dropping in my photos (it took a matter of minutes) and publishing it so I had something to show everyone. There are gaps though. Certain parts of my wedding experience were not included!

When I decided to go ahead with another wedding album detailing not only the ceremony and part of the reception, but the entire experience, I wasn't expecting to fall in love with my wedding pictures again. I know I've only been married about seven months, but I had started nit-picking my photos because my face was red, or the panel in the back of my dress decided to slide, or even editing out the photos that have the character of my best friends and myself in them because they were "non-traditional" well I say PHOOEY on that! I'M non-traditional! The experience of the wedding and the fun that was indeed, had BY ALL is clear in all of the photos and I wanted to include as many as I wanted!

Besides, I think in some ways we are all non-traditional. Who says every wedding album has to be clean lines and beige with tan? Well nobody really says that, but  that's what we've come to expect for colour schemes. You might love beige with tan, and that's fine, but my life and my wedding were and are FULL of colour and I wanted it to look that way.



 Isn't it beautiful? Doesn't this picture make you want to pick it up and thumb through it?

 As you can see, there is a fair bit of journalling as well. I wanted to narrate the story a little bit. By the way, this was all from scratch ;) 100% chosen and laid out by me - Fun!











 I love these two pages... They are the group pictures taken in the park in downtown Saskatoon. I just love the one of my older sister and I walking and talking together.

 These are photos of all the speeches that took place.

 Last but nor least, the wonderful party afterwards...there are more pages to this album (36 pages in all) but I wanted to keep those for another occasion. Possibly come to my digicrop or host a party and you'll get the chance to see the rest :) 

Which brings me to the last subject of this post: If you can customize and personalize your photo albums and other scrapbooking projects, WHY AREN'T YOU?????


Contact me to get started on a project of your own!

Digicrop Night!

On this Wednesday night, from 7:00 - 9:00 pm, I am having a digicrop/Studio night at my home.

What is a digicrop/Studio night?
It is a chance to have questions answered about studio, to gain help from your consultant (me) and also an opportunity to have a bit of fun and possibly meet others who are (like you) working towards publishing something.

It is also a chance to come over to my house and see what we're all about, get a quick studio demo and get yourself an account.

You do need to RSVP for this to get the address :)

You can e-mail me at anna@lifestorystars.com
or phone me at (403) 830-1710

Be sure to bring your laptop - or you can borrow mine! Make sure to let me know as I only have the one laptop.

Easter!

Easter when I was growing up consisted of waking up to a house filled with criss-crossing trails of yarn. Sometimes frustratingly taking you back and forth through the house but eventually ending in a sweet basket of treats and toys....


















These two are from the house in Yellowknife, and the banister was the pivotal point, going up and down the stairs untangling was a pain!

This one below is from the house in Leslieville. As you can see, my yarn has led me to the tiny cubby hole behind the dishwasher. I'm not even sure how I got it out or how Mom got it in there, but that's a true attempt at hiding if you ask me!

I see projects like the ones below in the Heritage Makers Idea Book and I get excited for when my husband and I have kids what I'll be able to dream up for their Easter baskets. I will definitely be using the yarn and bunny tradition though!

Maybe making my own pretty bunny labels and such - there are so many possibilities!

My Dad's Wedding Weekend

This past weekend my father got married in Yellowknife. I was able to fly up and spend time with my family as well as a little sight seeing.

I was excited to have time beforehand to make my dress, so I decided to take the plunge. I bought fabric, the pattern, zipper, thread, and lining as well as fusible interfacing. I read the pattern wrong so I ended up having to go back for tulle for the underskirt and although I ended up not buying enough tulle, the dress was exceptionally comfy (due largely to my new dressform I got for Christmas from my  mother in law - Thanks Phyllis!)

I won't show you too many pictures of the making of the dress because -

1. it was a headache since I'm not that experienced at sewing. I know just enough to make it incredibly frustrating when something goes wrong or I make a mistake.... I am an experienced seam ripper though - with infinite patience for that. Good combination.

2. I want to get to my dad's wedding and all the fun we had!

So here are the pictures, I know the last two are a little blurry, but I have others at the wedding that my husband took to make up for it!

 I ended up re-sewing the zipper because the first time I did it; it made a weird curve and rather than live with an uncomfortable dress that I was not at all proud of, I decided to re-do it. It turned out great and although there are a few bumpy parts, I love it.

















 My sister and I were Best Men (or Best Daughters) in my father's wedding and we got the little boutonnieres at a shop in Yellowknife. We didn't plan on being opposites (Theresa wore a matte dress with a shiny shrug and I wore a shiny dress with a matte shrug) but we did plan on the black!

My dad and his new wife cutting their amazing chocolate wedding cake!


















My husband and I (I promise he's not drunk here, he was just mid-blink) and seeing as it's the ONLY picture of the two of us, I can't really be picky.

Yup, this is me.











Left to right: Me in my amazing warm coat,  my sister Theresa and her husband Ben.

The grand send off!

 

 

 The pictures below are from our trip to the snow castle. They build this castle each year out on the frozen lake and hang art, have parties and generally make it look insane inside with all the gorgeous carvings. I'm still not entirely sure HOW they do it, but this is the first time I remember going in it. I might have done it when I was little (1-6 years old) when I lived in Yellowknife, but I cannot remember.

 Jordan in one of the ornately and beautifully carved hallways and doorways that you have to crouch to get through - including windows cut from the lake ice itself!













 Pretty amazing huh? The sheer amount of activities to do up there are crazy too. Snowshoeing is one of my favourites; we went out on skidoo, we actually went to the snow castle twice, and there are always brunches, lunches and parties to go to regardless of whether there's a wedding going on or not.

We had a blast, but I missed my sister and all my family I got to spend time with up there as soon as I left. It has been a hectic week getting back into the swing of things here just in time for Easter! Happy Easter everyone!