a little of my life

and a dream comes to an end.

as some of you have found out over at the My Minds Eye Blog, that after 5 years and over 500 projects, I have parted ways with the company who  produce awesome papers and great embellishments, have a fantastic design team and a wonderful crew of people at the helm.I love them all dearly and I will miss hanging out with them and seeing all the new releases before everyone else. I might still do the odd project for them when they need extras. It was a dream come true to work for one of my favourite manufacturers, but it was a dream that became a reality and I will treasure that for a very long time as I am always humbled that they and their fans have enjoyed seeing my work for so many years.

My Minds Eye have always been a major part of my scrapbooking life - they were the first papers I ever bought in 2003 and I suspect they will be the last papers I ever use. They were the first manufacturer that I worked with. I've had my work shown at CHA in their booth for years and years and on their blog since it started. I've had projects in every newsletter and I've done retail and magazine projects for them and recently some TV projects. We've had laughs and giggles, sorrows and hurts along the way but on the whole it has been an amazing adventure.

I tried to do a count the other day of how many layouts, cards and projects I have completed as part of the My Minds Eye crew and had to stop when I got to over 500... with at least 250 of those were layouts. Just in the last six months I completed 7 altered/home decor projects, 29 cards, 1 mini album, 2 double layouts and 31 single layouts - a total of 70 projects... in 2011, I did 110 projects - just insane amount of work when you see it laid out like that. you can see more of my work over at my resume site www.lovelifescrapbook.com

so on that note, I thought I'd share my favourite pieces over the years - I hope you like them too. I've had to split them into categories because to just pick 10 was so hard.

so here are my favourite cards: 

my favourite Home Decor projects - you can see more about the Halloween one on this post over on the MME blog.
My favourite Mini-Albums 

and my favourite stamping layouts - i adore the stamps that come out and I use them a lot. 

and finally my favourite layouts that aren't already in the stamping bit. this was so hard because i could easily have picked 50. 
and these are my favourite non-design team layouts throughout the years - not always the best design but layouts that mean a lot to me and sometimes the fact that MME's were just perfect for it was that added bonus factor. 

It is kinda of a sad day but one with a lot of happy memories.  I have spent the last week reminiscing and looking at all the layouts (on screen as most are still in Canada) and remembering life's moments and acknowledging that to grow, sometimes the path needs to take a different route.

I'll be using My Minds Eye products in my layouts as long as i am scrapbooking so i am looking forward to the new releases next month. Thank you to all of you that have been so encouraging and supportive during my time on the My Minds eye Design team - it's been an awesome ride!

fun bits

In other news , Kickstarter is full of awesome projects - $10 helps a dream come true. Lotsof things catching out interest recently but mainly that the trailer for the monsters Inc came out and we already want to see it many times.

Otherwise, hope you are having fun and I will leave you with lily's self portrait.

end of another journey.

I had to take the tough decision to close Twisted Sketches - after an amazing 3 year run and over 260 sketches. I had the priviledge to work with some amazing people, to see awesome artwork and be part of people's creative adventure.

Go and check out the last sketches and if you want, the entire 3 years worh of sketches are available as a download from the last post.

I also had a layout up on the My Minds Eye Blog recently all about twine - I had fun making it.

Scrapbook Stuff going on...

I had a few posts up at My Minds Eye and i especially liked these two... the fathers day frame and my Proud to be British layout.

and I had some cards shown on the MME slot with Teresa Collins on Ideal World TV.  It was sweet to see. that makes it three times I've had work on TV - the other times were as part of the Treasured Memories profile on Edmonton TV.

Twisted Sketches is THREE years old this week.  it has been an amazing journey.

 

Sad stuff ...

I had to take the hard decision to close down Scrapbook Calls and Contests. I just don't have the money, time or energy to keep it going and get it back to where it should be.  I have been blessed to be part of it for 5 of it's 9 year history and thankful it made a difference to many in the industry.

I've had a lot of nasty emails and comments over my opinions on Facebook and my personal views and the scrapbook industry and a bunch of other things. It is sad to see that people reduce themselves to needing to validate themselves by putting others down. I suspect its only going to get worse over the next few months as more announcements are made and decisions taken. 

 

getting better... maybe

look not a whole month and another post - must mean I am getting better at posting - was there really a time i posted every day ? can i blame facebook for taking over that bit?  warning this is a bit long and photo heavy...

anyways its been busy on every front - happy, sad and frustrating on every side but its been good too.
major things this month:

Lily got a local school place - which was awesome news in our house after the battle to get her even in the school system.Does make me feel sad that she will be old enough for school soon.

Fay earned her first stripe at TKD. She was bouncing off the ceiling for days as she loves it and wants to do well at it. which means we follow the mess that is Aaron Cook's place on the uk olympic team. He should be on it but isn't due to politics. sucks.

Fay is really enjoying learning to play guitar but is frustrated it requires practice. we're grateful to friends who've lent us a 3/4 guitar for her to play.

Ian got a new phone (galaxy note - free with a 2 year contract!!) that Fay commandeers every night to read books. I suspect a kindle might be part of her birthday present. This does mean though that i've got his blackberry - its strange to have a cell phone again after many years.

We had fun at the local water park (Edmontonians will scoff at its tiny-ness) but the kids enjoyed it even if we went in the torrential rain (it was half term so the rain was expected)

We got our photos back from Vision Photo Studio where we used a groupon coupon to get some family shots done.  They turned out ok and I got printing rights for the photos so happy about that.

We've been watching a lot of baseball - cringing at poor BlueJays and wondering what happened to the RedSox... and we've been following the Stanley Cup - rooting for LA Kings to win but it was awesome to follow Will Wheaton (la kings fan) and Kevin Smith (NJ devils fan) on twitter.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee happened this month and it was an awesome event - some of you might have seen the layouts i made about it over on the MME blog...the girls has good events at school - once they explained that the Queen is the Queen of Canada too.

and Fay had World Book day at her school where they could go in costume! Fay picked Tintin and thankfully work come to the rescue with the clothes and Lily kindly lent Fay her doggy as we couldn't find a pure white one in time. a lot of hair gel wax went on but she looked awesome.

We had a very good Half Term - Starting with seeing a good friend who we haven't seen for 3 ish years. Lily has a little baby last time. i think the girls getting so much older was a tad freaky to acknowledge given us grownups don't seem to change much - except maybe for the odd beard or two. We've known this grown up nearly 11 years now... scary.

and then we had a BBQ with this crew - the Adults we've known nearly 13 years.

and then we had a lovely day at the Grandparents feeding the ducks and hanging out.

Other good things: 

Fay is hereby know as "loophole Girl" ... superhero power: "Teacher Bafflement". She has figured out how to make the project assignment she gets fit into what she wants to do. that and the fact she adores wikipedia and quite often comes out with facts that the teacher doesn't know.  She's now part of the ICT club and the Drama club on top of brownies and tkd and guitar club, this girl  is busy but thankfully is a homebody too.

Lily is know to be known as "Obvious" girl because you would be taking about something say how cricket (the game) is scored and Lily will come out with the fact crickets are a kind of grasshopper. It is awesome to see how her mind works and what she decides to share with us - me who she referred to as her "DNA" the other day. She also thinks its silly that not all grown ups have teddy bears of their own to hug.

 

Sad things that happened:

a ton of stuff i cannot share publicly as they are friends but to those who are hurting, we send our love and wish we could help more than is possible right now. The lost babies, the lost adults - they will not be forgotten and their memories will be cherished.

Other things that happened but not directly related to us except for they were big news in our house...

Neil Gaiman's university speech was very cool to listen too, The successful launch and re entry of SpaceX's Dragon rocket, the horribleness that was the closure of 38 studios, If i had time i want to take part in this art projects all done on index cards,  and if i had money i want this guy to do portraits of my favs - nick scurfield is awesome,  I wish i could think like this guy and turn sinople punches into some of the best cards i have ever seen, a second coming of Hobbes that made me nearly cry, and been listening to lots of TED talks that have just been released.

We've been enjoying life in Southsea, making friends with both children and grownups, working and living - basically putting down roots again. and it doesnt really get any better than that except maybe for homemade Apricot flan.

hope you are all having fun - I am going to try and update this blog more and more as my life evolves. I suspect not all of you will follow along with me int he future but I am thankfull you have been on the journey so far with me.