Whirlwind Edmonton Trip

I had big plans to get a lot done this past weekend, but instead I took a last minute trip to Edmonton. My Mom had a stroke last Wednesday and had to be hospitalized, so by Thursday I was unexpectedly on a flight out west. In my haste I forgot to pack mittens and a hat, so fortunately it was only about -24 there!

By the time I landed late Thursday (the wee hours of Friday morning, actually) it was too late to go to the hospital, so we went over on Friday morning. Mom had finally been moved from the ER to a room. Although she still has a way to go, I was relieved that she looked healthier than I expected.

By lunch time Mom was given the OK to each pureed food. She didn't have the strength to feed herself so I had to feed her, but she was hungry and ate well. By Saturday she was sitting up and feeding herself, and on Sunday morning she was able to go out into the hall in a wheelchair.

My niece and nephews spend a lot of time at the hospital over the weekend, and kept their Grannie entertained with drawings and puppet shows featuring their many stuffed animals. Our kids sent hand-made cards and photos - it's sure good to have card-makers in the family! :-P

Mom still has a long way to go and will be in the hospital and undergoing physiotherapy for a while yet, but fortunately the prognosis looks good. I arrived home late Sunday night, just in time to get ready for the work week. If I missed seeing you while I was in Edmonton, I'm hoping my next trip will have more notice.

I'll keep you up to date on how Mom is doing, so please check back for that, as well as for the January pages that I haven't yet posted. Please keep my Mom in your thoughts and prayers. We are all praying for her to get stronger and be able to go home soon.

Adventures in Scrapbooking!

January 2012 was a fantastic month for scrapbooking and I've been meaning to post about the fantastic events I attended for a while now. Here I am with Sue, Jen and Lori at Crop & Create Markham. We spent a wonderful time cropping and laughing during the coldest weekend of the winter!
We even decided to stay and extra night and carouse a bit since we really didn't like the idea of packing up in the freezing cold - and it was well worth it! They kept the bar open for us and we laughed our heads off with Vicki, Kelly, Catherine, Leica, the event staff and so many other great ladies!
The first weekend in January my cousin Tessa was in town, so we met up with her family and my cousin Sharon's family for a shopping trip and then headed back to our house where all of the kids decided they wanted to scrapbook. A great - and very creative - time was had by all!

The weekend after Crop & Create my friend Linda had invited a group of wonderful ladies up to her cottage for the weekend. Linda is so sweet and a fantastic hostess - she included my cousin Sharon, who just moved back to Canada from Northern Ireland and who Linda had not yet met!

In the photo above, Linda and Sharon chat over the family's cottage history album. At left we have Sharon scrapping up a storm. We each created seven layouts over the weekend, which is fantastically productive, despite a little wine consumption! :-}


We wrapped up the weekend with a demo pocket album led by Leanne. It is absolutely adorable and Vera even managed to finish hers completely during the weekend - photos and all! I really need to unpack mine and get some photos into it. Thanks so much, Leanne!



Here are a few of us at breakfast on Sunday morning. It was a beautiful location for a fun filled weekend - right on Lake Huron and stunning as can be. Thanks so much, Linda for a fantastic time!



As you can see, January was an event-filled month! No wonder I've been so exhausted! :-} Up next - the layouts I created at the above events. Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned!

A Few Layout Peeks

OK, time to play catch up! I'm happy to say that I've maintained taking a photo a day for the month of January and up to today. Hooray! We've been on the go as usual lately and my laptop was causing problems over the past few weeks but I think that is solved now, so I should be pack to posting more regularly now! :-}
I have 10 pages and one two-page spread to post. At Crop & Create Markham I created three layouts in Becky Fleck's class and two 2-pagers with Kelly Goree. The following weekend at Linda's beautiful cottage I created seven layouts! Here is a peek at a few pages from the weekend at Linda's.

I also started a family quilt album in Sarah Hodgkinson's class, which I haven't finished but look forward to making into a family reunion album. One of the pages from Becky's class matched this album perfectly, so I made it the album cover. This week I hope to get everything photographed and posted, so please check back soon. Thanks for checking in and have a fantastic week!