Twelve

Twelve pounds down ... seventeen to go. I am getting there - I am doing this. Had a great Weight Watchers meeting this week. Worlds collided - there was a hockey mom there, and a girl from work (and turned out they knew each other), and we had a great pre-meeting chat (ok, more like a Catholic confession of eating sins) with another girl with whom I sit because, well, she wears a Sens jersey sometimes. Lol. Came out of the meeting feeling energized and motivated. Guess that's the point of the meetings!

In other news - work, sleep, work, sleep. Here's the other layout I completed a couple of nights ago ... simple, simple, simple:


Sorry about the wonky scan. That dog just loooooves the boy. He's the only one that she's really affectionate with. Every morning when he comes down she's all over him (and she's much bigger now than in these pictures). In the evenings, he lies down on the floor with her and she puts her head on his back or tummy and falls asleep. So sweet.

Gotta go make lunches ... Happy Thursday, everyone!

A Layout!

I spent an hour in my scraproom last night doing some clean-up and finishing up a couple of layouts that I had on the go. Here's one of them:


I really wish I had more time to spend in there. There are so many pictures begging to be scrapped, so many supplies begging to be organized (and, oh yeah, used). It's amazing how many supplies I've forgotten I own.

I went through all my scrap mags and made a garage sale pile ... I'm only keeping the special edition ones, the ones with timeless tips on design and photography ... I've realized that the scrapbooking industry is so focussed on creating trends that become outdated within months. While I can get page design inspiration no matter the trendy technique being used, I really don't need four feet of shelf space being taken up by mags from 2004.

So I'm thinking I'm going to sell the scrap mags for 50 cents each, or 3 for $1. Unbelievable, when you think each mag is worth an average of $10 or so (by "worth", I mean that's what I paid for it). But I personally wouldn't buy an old used scrap mag for anything over a dollar each and I'm not even sure if they will move if I price them at a dollar. What would you pay for old (say, 2004 to 2008) scrap mags?

We haven't started on Project Scrap Room in a Closet yet. Last night we came close to deciding to make the whole room into a scrap room, so long as we could still make the pull-out couch work. The logic was that it's actually a guest room only about 2 to 5 days a year. However, there is no way I can fit proper scrap furniture in there and still keep the couch. So back to the Project Scrap Room in a Closet plan. On the bright side, I found a really cool mag on scraproom organization in my stash (who knew?) with lots of good ideas!

In the meantime, I'm going to continue going through my supplies and tools and paring down where I can. I know there are tons of things I'll never use ... I just need to find the courage to part with them!

Happy Monday everyone!

Eleven

A few thoughts about the number eleven today. The first is a gratuitous boast - it's the number of pounds I have lost so far on Weight Watchers. I am really proud of my resolve and I feel **so** much better now that I am eating healthily, making choices about what I consume and staying well hydrated. On the downside (the wee, tiny, inconsequential downside), my pants are getting too loose and I don't seem to have the next size down in my closet anymore. Darned de-cluttering obsession. I don't want to buy anything new, because I still have 18 pounds to go and am saving all my $$ for a big, big shopping spree when I hit goal ...

The second "number eleven" thought has to do with the size I scrap in. As many of you know, I'm an 8.5x11 scrapper, but 99% of the time, I'm actually a 17x11 scrapper, since I do double page layouts. I spend oodles of time surfing the net trying to find some layout ideas for those 2-pagers, but my scrapping size is definitely the poor cousin of the scrapping world. Most page sketch sites have a token 8.5x11 section with 3 or 4 one-page sketches and that's it. One of my best finds so far has been the Scrapbooks Etc. magazine site, because they have a fairly large number of 8.5x11 page sketches, but of course they're only single page. So here's my challenge to the scrapping world: someone out there could be my new best friend if they started posting 2-page 8.5x11 layout sketches! And while we're at it, here's my challenge to scrap stores everywhere: carry 8.5x11 cardstock - the good stuff, Bazzill and such - and you could be my new best friend too!!!

What were you doing at eleven o'clock yesterday? Like most of Canada, you were probably watching Barack Obama's visit on tv ... I wasn't feeling very well yesterday (I think I caught Barb's low-grade virus via internet ... what ... you've heard of computer viruses, no?) so I had one of those rare stay-home-sick days. I spent the morning on the couch watching coverage of the Obama visit (and the afternoon in bed sleeping, with the coverage on for company). Obama is such a charismatic man. I think everyone he met here, with the exception of our Gov Gen, really faded in the background in comparison. Ok, I specifically mean our Prime Minister. What a contrast... My favorite picture of the visit has got to be this one, where he's buying himself a Beavertail. Or an Obamatail. Can you imagine how this has impacted the life of the teenage girl serving at the counter. Just - wow.

I can think of at least eleven things I'd rather be doing than going to work today, but I won't bore you with them, as they are fairly predictable and include mundane things like staying in bed and scrapping. Alas, it's off to work I go - all set to do 2 days of work in one, and clean up the messes caused by not going in yesterday (and not answering every single email I got on my blackberry).

Happy weekend everyone!

Whirlwind Weekend

What a busy weekend so far ... but busy-good. Lots of hockey with the boy, whose team is in a tournament this weekend. It started on Friday so I took the day off. We got one win (1-0), one tie (1-1) and one loss (2-3) and came close to moving on to quarter finals as 3 teams in our group were tied in points ... but someone beat our goal differential. Whatever that means. However, the boys played extremely well, each game was a very close game, and best of all, in the last game, which we won, the boy scored the first and only goal of the game and got the game MVP medal. Proud Hockey Mom moment:



Also this weekend, the girl got her braces off!!!! After over 2 years, she can finally bite into an apple ... which is the first thing she did when she got home!


















In between all the weekend excitement I managed to get the groceries done, but the laundry is not yet started, the floors aren't swept, and the furniture's not dusted. Last night we went out for dinner at George's aunt's niece's (yet not his cousin's) house, which was certainly a challenge from a Weight Watchers point of view. Greek food is good. Galactoburrico (a Greek dessert) is sinful and probably a day's worth of points. George and I had our Valentine's dinner out earlier in the week, with a lovely meal at Cyrano's which was delicious and quite successful points-wise (not to mention it was great to just sit together and talk for a couple of hours). (By the way, I am down 7.5 pounds so far!).

So as a result of the whirwhind weekend I did not have a lot of time to dwell on the fact that this Valentine's Day marks 3 years since my Mom passed away, but I carried it in my heart all day. I know the last thing Mom would want is for me to be sad on Valentine's but busy is about the only way I can manage it.

On the scrapping front, I do have a LO done but haven't scanned it yet, and have another one on the go. The husband and I have not completely settled yet on plans for the new scrap closet, but we'll have to get working on that soon because we are anxious to make decisions on new flooring for upstairs, and in the sequence of things the scrap closet decisions need to be made first.

And on a final note, looks like a coaching change is exactly what my Senators needed to get out of their slump and find their work ethic again. Watching them play is no longer painful ... and they are actually on a 4-game winning streak, the first in over a year. Go Sens Go!!!

February Already?

No idea where the last 2 weeks went. I've been missing in action, I guess! Here's a quick update ...

1. Bus strike is over - yay! Yet, no buses to my part of the city til April 6 - boo! Oh well, I'm so used to carpooling now, I'm actually going to miss it when things get back to normal. Though I will enjoy NOT leaving the house at 6:15.

2. The girl has made her university choice - it's going to be the Bachelor of Humanities at Carleton U. She's excited; her eyes get kind of sparkly when she talks about it. She got to spend a few hours there last week, sitting in on a class and meeting with students and profs, and I think that definitely helped her in making her decision. She's got the full entrance scholarship of $4k a year and will be applying for various other scholarships too. So proud of her.

3. The husband and I have decided my current scrap space just isn't working out. Is it a scraproom? Is it a guestroom? Is it a junky eyesore? So we've started exploring alternatives and he's been busy designing me a scrap closet which rivals the Scrapbox for storage and scrapping space. I'm pretty excited about our plans; not to mention the fact that the husband now talks scrapbooking with me on a daily basis and actually surfs sites like twopeas looking at other people's scraprooms. Weird, but fun.

4. Still doing the Weight Watchers thing. Lost 4 pounds so far, but that was all the first week ... last week, nothing lost, even though I was truly good. I blame it on the dinner I ate immediately before weigh-in. Lol. Seriously though, I'm taking it one day at a time and I'm making much better food choices than I have been for the last couple of years. Even if I don't lose weight (but I will!), I'll probably add a couple of years to my life!

5. Still seeing my executive coach ... though she started cutting the apron springs yesterday. Apparently she doesn't work with people intensely for much more than a year ... says I need to integrate all I've learned and continue progress on my own but can still check in a couple of times a year. I've got about 4 sessions left with her and that's it. I can't believe it's been almost a year already. It really has been a transformative experience and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to be a leader and not just a manager. There's a lot of self-reflection required though so it's not for the squeamish.

6. Slept in today for the first time in weeks. Yup, got up at 7:20. Yup, that's sleeping in!!! My alarm rings at 5:00 a.m. these days. In order to get this sleeping-in luxury, I had to blow off hockey practice which was scheduled at 6:30 this morning. We also have an early game tomorrow, at 8:00 a.m. I feel bad about the boy missing practice (he really feels bad too ... lol ... NOT), but we both needed to sleep in today.

7. Am going to try to tackly my giant to-do list this weekend. I have people to call, packages to mail, dry cleaning to pick up, items to return to the store, hockey treasurer things to do, and that's on top of the regular groceries-laundry-cleaning-hockey-visiting my mother-in-law routine that every weekend brings (well, we don't have to worry about hockey today of course). Wish me luck! Oh, and I need to start going through all my scrap supplies and tools today ... need to pare down ... I bet I can eliminate 20-30% of my space-hogging stuff that I will never use.

Happy weekend all!