I did it!! I ran a half marathon!

HOORAY!!! I ran my very first race ever today!!! I was so excited to be back in Toronto running with over 16,000 people! It was unbelievable....an experience I'll never forget :)

I just wanted to say thank you to my husband and little girl for being so very patient and supportive when mommy had to run or was tired from running LOL!!! Without your support I would not have been able to train and compete in this awesome event!

For those of you who don't know me very well I had hurt my knee quite badly back in November and spent several months recovering, so this race was such a huge accomplishment to me~there were times I didn't think I would be able to run this race. Thanks for letting me share this with you, WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!!! Here are some pics for you to see:

This is us at about 7am (UP AT 5!!!!) waiting in our corral, we were purple. We were closer to the back and I still couldn't believe how many people there were.....I was so overwhelmed by it all~butterflies like crazy in my stomach!


The marathon started at 7:30 but because we were in a later corral we didn't actually start until 9 minutes after the starting gun....but I was checking my watch getting nervous for the race to begin, music was blaring and people were warming up. They were jumping up and down, doing some weird stride things....I just took everything in, being the newbie LOL!!


I tried really hard to get a good picture of just how many people were in front of me (don't forget how many were behind us too) but it just didn't work out. This was the best shot I could get, the sun hadn't risen yet and I had a hard time focusing. I think you can kind of make out the heads of all the runners.....it just went on and on......
OK, this pic isn't pretty but this one is for posterity~I DID IT!! I just asked some random lady who was a fellow runner just to snap a quick picture and she was nice enough to take one :) so be kind!!! LOL!!!

It's a little after 9:30pm now and I'm very tired and fighting a very yucky cold, I'm off to bed to get some rest and get ready for the long drive home! Talk to you all soon!!!

New Blog look!

Hi everyone, I was getting tired of my blog background....time for something new. Diamonds are a girl's best friend~and my birthstone too!!!! Hope you guys like it!

OK, so my craft room isn't put back together just yet....

but LOOK at what I did tonight!!! I had one of those 3 legged brown veneer tables that I've had FOREVER. I wanted to re-use it so I gave it a face lift with some Krylon spray paint and a bit of melamine on the top. I was kind of stumped for a few days on what else to do with it and then it came to me. I wanted to make her table look like a tutu!!! The very helpful lady at the fabric store explained to me that I couldn't use a glue gun on this material, it would melt. So I sat, and thought and came up with a solution~STAPLES! Here are pictures of the transformation :)STEP ONE: paint your table, gather supplies~check!
STEP TWO: make sure your stapler is FULL and get busy!!
STEP THREE: don't freak out when the top looks awful~remember you can trim all that!
STEP FOUR: Get your beautiful satin ribbon out and hide those staples!!!
STEP FIVE: My favourite part: Get your CRICUT out, some vinyl and GET CUTTING!!! I used Storybook for everything.
STEP SIX: Stand back, admire your pretty little table, pat yourself on the back for not having to learn how to sew tonight. Phew!
STEP SEVEN: FIND A CUTE LITTLE LAMP FOR THAT TABLE, or.........maybe I can alter one???!!

HOpe you all enjoy my little project, I sure had a blast making it :)

Got everything put away....

in one room at least :) I got a few things up on the wall. The flower lights, the little flowers, a picture....I'm planning to do more but ran out of time. I have some really nice shadow boxes that I would like to fill with 3-d butterfly's. Maybe I can get to that this week sometime. I also want to do TONS of vinyl stuff on her walls, i will post pics of that too!!
Looks like everything will fit for now....until Christmas that is! Hope you enjoy the pics. If you forgot what it looked like before:This is before I had a chance to organize~everything was thrown in here so I could paint the other room :)



AND NOW.......there is a place for everything

I'm not done yet....

But here are a couple pics of what's been happening at my house :)
The purple-y room is the before pic, I had already started taking all the stuff off the walls so it looks really bare. I had all sorts of 3d butterflies on her walls and those flower lights from ikea. This isn't a big room but it's what I have to work with so we had to think outside of the box.
We went with a loft bed~which we ended up having to cut 8" off the bottom. Who knew 8ft ceilings would be to low?? I was asked to paint the room in pink and green and my little helper picked the colours out herself. We also added a mini chandelier to her bedroom as well, this thing is so sparkly it's crazy! Just love IKEA :) You can also see the TON of toys I have to now organize and find homes for here in her room. No point in pretending my house is always organized, let's face it....painting and moving rooms is messy work! I have the bumps, scrapes and bruises to prove it!LOL!!I totally meant to take pictures of the play room before I started painting but I started last night at 11pm. I was so busy trying to move all the toys into the pink/green room so I could get started and didn't realize until I had the first coat on that I forgot to take pics :( Oh well.
I'm proud to say I put that EXPEDIT together all by myself and got it upright too!! That sucker is REALLY heavy....but doesn't my desk look nice? Definitely room for a little helper :) I will be painting that awful closet door white (will get to that later). I haven't moved my crafting stuff in yet, I still have a lamp, desk chair and expedit drawers to assemble before I bring it all in. Like I said, it's still in progress but I can see the homestretch! I sure could use a nice relaxing bath right now :) :) Calgon take me away LOL!!!!

The painting has begun....

I started yesterday, I had to put 2 layers of primer on the walls (why did I choose such a dark colour in the first place?). ONce that was somewhat dry (I'm an impatient painter) I started with my first coat of paint....paint is in my hair, on my nails, on the bottom of my slippers.....oh, now it's on my keyboard too. Never said I was a tidy painter did I! Once this room is finished it'll be on to paint my craft room, no priming required there!!!

I'm getting closer, yay!!!! Hey!!! anyone want to come and help?! :)

Let's talk Digital....

As in Digital scrapbooking. I just discovered it in the beginning of summer and I am hooked. Partly because it required NO space other than where your computer is. The other bonus is there is no clean up :) Digital scrapping has given me the courage to try making scrapbook layouts and I wanted to share a couple with ya!

I love that if there is a type of paper I want to use but it's not the right colour, I can change it with a click of the button!

I've been able to collect so many digi items for FREE that I just love this new hobby. I will NOT be giving up my paper scrapping though... I love making cards and giving them to people too much!

Who loves digi scrapping? Any tips to share? Send me links to your blogs and I will pop on by :) :)

This pic is quite a few years old, and is one of my first 12x12 pages.....I made all the paper in PSE6 and used a brush from KPertiet(the stitching).

This is one I completed from the Jessica Sprague website. She offers lessons in Photoshop for those who have the program and have no idea what to do with it (that would be me LOL!!).

Can't wait to what other people have made....I could use all the help I can get LOL!!!

I am so excited!!!

I should be in bed right now but wanted to post my exciting news (well exciting to me anyway).

Ever since we have lived in this house I have always wished for a craft room. 5 years later I am finally going to get one!!! YIPEEE!! WOO HOO!!!! HAPPY DANCE!!!!

Each and every time I would like to scrap and make things I have to lug ALL of my scrap stuff into the kitchen where I take over the table. My mess and projects could stay there for days sometimes pushed into a little corner until I had time to finish them. My wonderful hubby finally took pity on me I think and we rearranged rooms in the house so that my little one and I will have a craft room together.

We took a trip to Ikea where I had my heart set on the Expedit with the table that attaches to it. While I was admiring the desk thinking I would sit on one side and my DD would sit on the other.... my DH goes: Why don't you get this table and then you 2 can sit side by side??? I just thought it was the most thoughtful thing he could have said~he knows how special that time is I spend my with DD when we 'craft'. So here is the pic of the table HE picked out and I fell in love with! he has good taste :) Oh, in the picture the bluish areas in the glass table are actually clear, I guess that's just how it photographed.

I can't wait to post pics of the before and afters of 2 rooms that we had to redo so that this could all work :)

Just wanted to share with all of you, especially to those who lug their stuff out like me when they want to scrap. We are dedicated I tell ya!!! Anyone who spends 10 minutes just getting everything out must love it! LOL!!