I'm Baaaack!

I think I'll start off with my card, then save the Weekend Update for last so those who don't want to stick around can just quietly bow out! This is another one of my prototype Christmas cards. If you don't know, I have handmade all my Christmas cards since I started stamping, and also make them for my mother. Well, I've sort of set the bar and now everyone wants a hand coloured card! YIKES! And then that friend tells two more friends and then they want a card too so now I am making about 70 cards to meet the demand! That means I'm always looking for something that is not tooooo time consuming....remember I DO have a full time job!


Stamping Bella's Holly in a Jar is one of my 'definite maybe' cards for this year. I love it....it is simple, yet festive and has just a bit of bling. All required elements! I will certainly be making a few of these for my eclectic stash this year! I coloured it with copics and added some glitter, clear glaze pen on the berries and a couple rows of ranger glossy accents to highlight the rims of the jar. The holly leaves and brad is from MM and I bought the package a couple years ago. I likely won't be able to find them again so may have to substitute a leafy punch for my stash cards but who's gonna look at those anyway ;)!

Now for the Weekend Update...just like SNL! Yup, I'm back from my whirlwind weekend in Toronto. Drove up Friday after work (well, i did wangle a deal with my boss to let me leave early) and met Paula at the Hilton. Surprisingly, I found out she was also stuck in the same traffic as I was on the QEW and only about 10 cars behind me. We got our room, changed, walked around a bit and landed ourselves at Red Lobster for dinner. Paula ACTUALLY coloured when we got back to our room, not me, I flopped on the bed and let the work week silently leak outta me. It is my Friday night ritual....do nothing but chill out and let myself detox from the work week.

Got up early the next day to head to the festival. Paula tried to tap into a couple of free wireless sites with her iTouch on the way, but me....I was in my glory with my new iPhone with anywhere anytime access! SO HAPPY! We met Emily and Ryan just outside the entrance and I got my 'exhibitors' tag and headed to our booth. It was a small cozy booth and I saw some familiar faces (you know who you are...love you ladies!) and met some new ones! The booth was all pretty in white and pink with many samples (including many from yours truly) hanging around. Paula and I took turns at the demo table and walked the show when we were not at the table. Just way tooooo much fun. I came home with some new rubber too so by next week I should have some previews of the new release to show you! All I can say is they are soooooooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!! Along with the new release I also spotted some new Lulu's and even a new Bella! And can you believe I forgot to snatch my fav Lulu of the bunch!!!!!!!!!!! Do you know what that means? It means i must place an order! Oh so sad....NOT!

After the show we went for some dinner then I met Mark at hotel #2 because he was running the Toronto Good Life Marathon Sunday morning. Usually I see him off at the start, but for this race the runners were bused up to North York and they ran their way almost down to the lake and then back up to Queens Park so I was only able to see him at the finish. Now the good wife that I am, did get up at some weird early hour to take a pic of our Chatham group before they left the hotel. From left to right is Mark, Heather, Jenni and Mike. I wished them all luck and said I'd see them at the finish. That left me with a good chunk of the morning to chill and relax some more, but before heading to the finish line I got myself a car charger for the iPhone anticipating catching up on blogs on the way home. No such luck, Mark's leg cramped up pretty bad so I was stuck driving home! He still came in at 4 hours, even with injury so that was pretty impressive! Now me, I don't even walk the stairs to my second floor office! The only exercise this bod sees is in my right hand when I'm colorin'...LOL!

So that's it folks, my weekend in a long drawn out nutshell! If you are still with me, don't forget to play along in this weeks challenge....anything flowers or nature and oh my, I have so many ideas but so little time! There are sooooooooooo many stamps that can be worked into this challenge there is no excuse not to play!