It wasn't anything material,
It wasn't anything that cost money,
instead Jim gave me the gift of time to spend with my friends with NO KIDS. Lot's of non guilty fun. seriously. it was the best thing that could have happened. I have been gone so much this year, that it has been hard to just hang with no kids and really enjoy the valuable thing about friendships. What I am talking about is this past weekend I had 4 different events:
- Friday: splurge
- Saturday: scrapbook Saturday
- Sunday: charm party
- Monday: Girl's Night Out at Kara's
I was hoping to go to one, so I asked Jim which one would he want me to choose so we could decide what our weekend would look like. Instead he said," You have barely seen your friend's without kids this year, I think you should go to all of them, catch up and have a good time, we have all of December to do things since you are not traveling this month."
I seriously was EXCITED! I haven't been that giddy for so long. Don't get me wrong, I see these women lot's all through the year at playdates, events, etc. but it is rarely just to hang, scrapbook, visit, have socials...so this was just fabulous.
So I have to share. Please don't hate me.
Friday I scrapbooked with Ineke, Tracy, Jenn, Kim, Nicole, Pam for a smidge . We had fun food, laughed lot's and I completed 5 layouts!
Saturday I scrapbooked ALL DAY at Scrapbook Saturday. This is an event that the Close to My Heart sales rep, Karen Welch-Smith puts on once a month. We potlucked yummy foods and visited, it was GREAT! I completed a whack of projects that I will show this week (I just need to take photos.:) She is seriously an amazing rep if you are looking for stuff. I have her link in the side. She also gives us cool stuff everytime. I made a 2 page layout with what she gave so I will do the journaling and take some photos.
Sunday was the most sought after party in the city, the waiting list grows, the hype is unbelievable.yep you know what I am talking about. The Christmas charm party. This time we had more people and it was PERFECT! I think that the group connection this time was fabulous and that we walked away with stunning bracelets,gifts, also indulged in Saucy cupcakes (which for those of you who was at my Sask Scraps event know they are the BEST.) and we ate yummy food.
These are the scrapbook ornaments I made for everyone. I guess they are my signature thing after all the classes I taught on making them. lol. But every year I just do something a little different everytime.
I loved these little tags, they are stamps from MyStamp Box. cute hey?
I had to borrow this one off of Saucy's site for now, since I didn't take a pic of mine today. sorry. I will try to take pics tomorrow.
Sunday night we watched ...the GAME. Enough said. apparently the last second counts in life. I can't discuss it further because this girl is RiderPride all the way and well we are having moments of silence.
Monday night, I LOVED! a house full of women.the BEST appy's, yummy wine and great company. My longtime friend that I met in grade 6 or 7, threw a wonderful event. It was kinda a trade show if you wanted or just one heck of a good time to visit with a room full of our friends and make some new ones. So the vendors were: Pam-RK jewelery, Polka Dot Piggy- only the most attractive, stylishly functional kids stuff(blankets, bibs, snack bags, magnets, jewelery, breastfeeding aprons) Epicure, Jody had Avon & some of her sweet crafty stuff (cards, baby burp cloths, receiving blankets) Kara had made the coolest treat bags for all of us of some delicious body scrubs and chocolate. It was fun.
The worst part though is that I have had a lingering headache for the last week, so when I got home last night late, on a terrible endorphine high, I couldn't sleep. Now, broken record, I never sleep well, but this time I tried 3 different times. wasn't working so I just didn't sleep. I stayed up all night, had breakie with Jim, got Riley off to school, finished all the laundry, watched Four Christmases (had parts that made me giggle!) and scrapbooked. Then I crashed and had an intense nap with Ireland. so now I feel GREAT! surprisingly, a million times better.
So now this month of December for me is going to be all about family, friends and scrapbooking gifts. I made a fabulous Advent Calendar using the Kaisercraft kit...LOVE IT! Instead of putting candy in it, I wrote little things on paper to enhance our family qualities through discussion, games, songs. Today's paper says:
Let's start this month off by letting each other know what we love about our family, what is your favourite thing we do as a family.
Each day differs depending on the day of the week. I want this to be a family adventure so I planned activities for the weekend, discussions & songs for the week. So here is what it looks like:
This is using Kaisercraft's new Q2 Christmas release. It is very elegant. You will notice that I have no picture in it yet. I have decided that I will put in the Christmas the year before's picture at Christmas. I don't have one as a family from last year so I think I will put Santa photos in when we get them done this year.
and a few close ups of the different areas.

The best part about scrapping this month is I had summer photos I haven't played with this year. LOVE it!
I have sooo many photos from Janna @ Swoon Photography, I'll show you some more all this week.
And I will hopefully get a minute to take photos of the 20+ projects I completed this weekend. tune in. Remember tomorrow is the last day for the Sk Scraps contest. I will draw at midnight! good luck.