...my first win!...

...I am so excited to announce that I won the two peas back to school challenge I entered!! I am so excited!! beyond excited!! I have been jumping around all day!

Its my first big win for scrapbooking, and I am so excited it was for two peas!!

I just wanted to thank everyone for the lovely comments here and on two peas... and I will for sure take a pic of my prize pack when it arrives!

You can have a look here if you want.

I am off to Shanghai tomorrow to visit my parents, still trying to decided what to pack! I hate packing!

...back to basics...

... I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! I was so happy I really got the creative kick this weekend and zoomed through a few projects!

After a few attempts and fails, I am finally happy with how my piece for the two peas back to school challenge turned out. The challenge was to alter an item used for organization or record keeping inspired by the back to school theme.

I have had this receipt keeper kicking around unused for a while and since I am currently working towards better financial management I thought it was a good idea to alter it and make it something I would want to carry around and use!

The original had this great organizing pocket, spending tracking pad, two sticky note pads all held closed by the brown elastic. I took it all apart with a craft knife to make it easier to re-paper the inside. I labeled the pockets with days of the week to make it easier to organize my receipts and enter into my spreadsheet at the end of the week. When I re-assembled it I decided to leave the second sticky note pad out and add the studying boy rub-on instead I figured I could keep the other as a "refill" when the first one runs out.

I am now considering making more right from scratch! So working on sourcing some more materials I will need and a something other than modge podge for the protective coating... any suggestions?

P.s. thanks to my man Luke for taking the photos and getting his creative juices flowing...love the set up!

in case your wondering here some of the supplies I used :

Cosmo cricket- the boyfriend -paper

October Afternoon - report card -rubons and stickers

7 Gypsies - number gaffer tape

...drinks anyone???

...I am so excited to be able to show you guys my latest project, our new bar!! I think Luke thought I was crazy when I saw this metal office cabinet for sale in the classifieds for $150HKD ($19USD) and talked him into going to get it.

...Can't you just see its inner beauty and potential??...well I could...There were 3 available and I had planned to take two, however the second one would not fit in our car and only by millimeters!! Needless to say I was sad! But it wasn't meant to be, because now that she...yes a she, haven't picked a name yet though...is finished and sitting in our dinning room she makes a great statement on her own!

...after what felt like hours in the tropical heat peeling paint, I gave her some sexy legs from ikea and brightened her up with some colourful felt to make it softer on our bar ware.

Luke and I are in LOVE with the finished results and can't stop making cute cocktails to sit on top! I think Luke is coming around to trusting my design ideas and my desire to make our place great for way cheap!!

I am so excited about all the other project plans fluttering around in my head now... plans for this weekend??? building our own dinning table out of wood I have found laying around!

...pack your bags...

...So its time! time for our shop's kit club to start another year~! And since everyone...but me...was traveling over the summer we choose Little Yellow Bicycles pack your bags collection! We had our crop session last Thursday and here is what I created....

...it was a perfect opportunity for me to finally scrap some photos of a trip Luke and I took to the USA back in 2006...can you believe this is the first time I have scrapped this trip??... and it got me excited about my upcoming trips to Shanghai and Cambodia!

I am really starting to get the hang of photo editing in Lightroom 3 and love how these photos went from just ok to great! My past few layouts I have used photos that at first were crap and after a bit of tweaking I have fallen in love with them! This has really made me feel like I have a whole heap of new photo's full of scrap potential!

I also entered this layout into LYB contest over at Two Peas. This is my first manufactures contest I have entered and plan to do more! Can't wait!

...excited about life...

...and its about time! I have been in a total slump these past few months. I think its because I have been so overwhelmed by changes that have happened in my life recently and reaching goals I have set for myself that i have been essentially frozen in fear. Fear of failing to succeed in what I want to do. So what have I done instead???...nothing!! I have not been productive in the least.

Luke bought this turtle Chia pet at a dollar shop a few weeks ago. The other day he says "Chia look like he is just so excited about life"!! I had to laugh...he really does!

So its time I get excited about life, take action and just do things...life is about making mistakes. If you don't work hard you don't deserve success!

...falling for you...

... So did you think I was going to slack again???... i think some of you did...

I have been busy working away at the shop getting the September kits ready and creating some inspiration pieces for the kit members...sneak peak coming soon!

Heres my newest creation Falling for you. Its made with Basic Greys gorgeous Kioshi line.

It is a sample layout for my class on Saturday "Come Play with Basic Grey" we are doing fun stuff with the Kioshi and Max and Whiskers line.

These photos of Luke and I are from our first year together. Originally I thought they were unscrapable but as I slowly get a grasp on photo editing I have found that unscrapable photos can turn out to be your fun favourites.

I also had fun playing with the title it just seemed to fit since these photos are from our visit to Niagara Falls!!

I have to thank the great site scrapbook challenges for their fantastic sketch that provided the inspiration for my layout! If you haven't checked them out and played along you should!

PS still working around the site and trying to figure things out...hope to get more kinks out this weekend...hopefully

...Oops!...

Ok.. so I suck... I have not been a very good blogger at all!

But I promise for those of you that do check in... if there are any out there... that I will be a good blogger from now on. Going to keep it so interesting that a day wont go by that you wont think...hmmm I wonder what Jen has to say today.... ok maybe a week...maybe

To start I plan on making some changes around the blog... getting it running like the finely tunned blogging machine that it should be... keeping you up to date with all things scrappy, happy and awesome in my world!

So come back again soon...I promise there will be something new!

...no mitts...

So here is a LO I did last month. I have this thing about dollies right now, I love them! I thought they made great snowflakes. I really wanted to try out a page without using bright and crazy colours as I often do... I think I am pleased with the results.

...handmade love...

Handmade Love is a cool challenge blog that me and some scrapping friends work together as the design team. We work to create fun challenges to push you as a scrapper to try new things. Here is my work being featured on handmade love this week. The challenge this week is to do some hand-stitching on your project. I of course used my HKMC april kit! Cosmo cricket had me in mind when they made this amazing early bird line... watch for more of my work sure to come with it... the hard part is I have more ideas then I do supply of it.

...I am so thankful!!....

One of the reasons I love scrapping so much is it gets us to create and document things we feel now. How awesome will it be to look back on this in 20, 50, 70 years from now and see what your life was like and how you thought and felt. Recently I was challenged to do a page about something I am thankful for. How can you pick just one thing???

Jenna does Hong Kong in 34 hours...

Jenna's ship came and parked at my house! it was so exciting to have Jenna come for a brief whirlwind tour of hong kong... whirlwind because her ship was only here for 34 hours and she had to work 9 of those hours. We had to make sure we adhered to a strict schedule...(anyone that knows us well are probably giggling at that). We whisked all over the place first mongkok for the market, bubble tea and a fun filled lunch at a toilet themed restaurant...
We then went up the peak on the tram, Jenna got in a fight with the escalator and she lost. We must say Hong Kong first aid is no joke! It was like she lost a toe or something...(no worries those who are panicking, it was just a slice on the bottom of her toe). We had dinner at Bubba Gumps restaurant, a Forrest Gump themed restaurant (we are all about the themed restaurants). We then stuck our elbows out to fight the crowds at the look out to see over top of Hong Kong at night...still one of my favorite sights (sorry no good photos were taken...). A quick drink at lankwaifung with Luke, then Jenna had to return to her ship before it turned into a pumpkin.. (well thats what it felt like).

The next day we picked Jenna up bright and fresh (he he) from her all night shift. She got to experience Luke's F1 driving style as we whipped through Hong Kong for a brief tour of our house on our way through Hong Kongs scenic ocean country roads to Sai Kung. We walked a bit through Sai Kung and finally settled on Anthonys Ranch for lunch...even though Sai Kung is famous for its seafood Jenna wasn't too keen to try it. We still had a great lunch including deep fried pickles!! Hong Kong has everything!! I tried to hold Jenna hostage and get her to stay here... but unfortunately she had to go with a promise she will return one day!!

My personality...

So time to start showing some of my work. It has been weird this month because I have been challenged by different places to do similar projects.

First, one of my university assignments for my visual design class is to do a project describing myself. I also had seen the march AAM challenge to do a LO about your personality and I thought "Perfect!" I will work these together.

I had planned to work on this at the scrapping retreat I just went to, and while there we had a challenge to describe different chocolate and use those words and thoughts on a LO about us. Well that works even better! I actually won for best journaling in this challenge! since journaling is a new thing for me this year I was so pleased!

I also thought that this was a great second post for the new blog as it introduces myself a bit more.

...from me with love...

Ok...finally after much request I have finally started a blog! My friends have often told me I should start a blog to tell of my crazy happenings living abroad, it also makes it easier to keep them updated and our phone calls shorter. I also wanted to find a way to share all my creative projects with those who want to take a peek. So alas...from me with love...has arrived.

I must say the thing that has kept me from creating a blog sooner was finding the right name...I knew that my blog would quickly become an obsession, my baby... and you just don't call your baby anything.. umm well some do I guess.. but I don't!! From me with love came to me when I was signing an email the same way I usual do to those I miss and love... thats when I realized it was perfect! my blog is essentially sharing and writing to those out there tuning in to see what I am up to.

So here it is, from me with love.