Well, here I am – back home in cold Vancouver. ( Seriously now, is it true that it might snow here this week?? I sure hope that’s just a rumor!)

I really miss the warm southern california weather that I got to experience the last few days. I even have a bit of a sunburn/tan to prove it!

It was a quick trip but I actually saw a lot of places I’ve never seen before. Yesterday I had almost an entire day to myself before catching my 8:30pm flight home, so I decided to take myself on a scenic tour. Thank goodness for the GPS unit my dad loaned me – thanks Dad!!! That little gadget is now on my wishlist, I don’t know how I managed to live without it until now! And to think up until now, I have been using a map book in Vancouver! A MAP book!!!! Haha

I pretty much was able to find my way to wherever I needed to go, with no problems, with this helpful little mechanism. There were several times that I veered off course because I turned too soon or missed an exit, but then the GPS just says “recalculating” and gives another route! Awesome! I did hear “recalculating” a lot for the first little while, hehe.

Anyway, yesterday was my little excursion day. I started off in Simi Valley, then drove to Westlake Village, on through the very twisty (and freaky!) road through the hills to Malibu. It was a beautiful drive through the hills but the road was so crazy, it was like driving through a sort of obstacle course, with sheer drop offs on one side! Yikes!

Malibu was gorgeous and it was a picture perfect day with blue skies and not a cloud in the sky. I pulled over to get some pictures of the famous Malibu beach, then I continued on through Malibu and to Santa Monica.

I was going to go to the pier but once I got close to it, the traffic was unreal. I guess everyone else was thinking of going to the pier too, so I kept driving. A little while later I was at the airport already, only about 5 hours too early! I was not about to go sit at the airport for that long, so I kept driving with no particular destination in mind. I ended up driving through Hawthorne, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and then finally in Redondo Beach. I happened to find a really nice mall there so I wandered around it for a little while, then drove down to see the beach and found a really cool dog park on the way. Too bad Angus and Zoey weren’t with me! Even with all the extra driving I did, I still managed to make it to the airport 2 and a half hours before my flight. 

My big purchase at the mall. mmmmm it was such yummy frozen yogurt!

I know this wasn’t a very exciting post! I’ll post again tomorrow with some new class samples. Thanks for all the lovely comments on my book giveaway post : )  There have been some great suggestions for video tutorials! As soon as I get the next set of classes done, I will start working on the tutorials.

In celebration that Spring is officially here – I’m giving away another copy of my book: Outstanding Mini Albums!

All you need to do is leave a comment here by April 1 and I’ll let random.org choose a winner on April 2. Be sure to check back here to see if you’ve won! : )

I’m working on some video tutorials right now – so my question to you is: what kind of video tutorials would you be interested in? Any special projects or techniques you’d like to see demonstrated?

I’m off to southern California first thing in the morning for a few days, I’m totally looking forward to warmer temperatures than what we have here! Hope you are all enjoying the first week of Spring.

I thought I should post this tutorial I did for Memory Makers back in February (that’s why it has a Valentine’s theme): cute door hangers using old CD’s

The full tutorial is here

This past week I’ve been sick with a bad cold so I haven’t got nearly as much accomplished as I wanted to. 

for Spring to arrive. It can’t get here fast enough as far as I’m concerned. It’s a gorgeous day here but so so cold!

This morning I was at the gym by 6:30 where I watched the sun rise from my spot on the elliptical machine. Beautiful. I got caught up with google reader and my email while I worked out, gotta love having internet on cell phones! Then I came home and got the dogs out of bed, I don’t even think they knew I had been out! They love to sleep in, lol. All I had to do is say the magic word: “walk” and they both jumped up, took a big stretch and they were ready to go. (we actually have 3 magic words in our house: walk, out and treat)

By only 8:00am, I had already done an hour’s workout at the gym, taken the dogs for a walk, fed the dogs and the cats, made oatmeal (not the instant kind, the real stuff), put away all the dishes from the dishwasher, reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned out the cat box and vacuumed. I love mornings like this!

Anyway, it’s going to be a busy day today, here’s to a happy Wednesday for everyone!

Note the stuffed duck behind the pillow. I didn’t even realize Zoey had brought it to bed last night. She sneaks these little stuffed toys in when she can, last time it was a frog. Funny funny girl she is.

My new classes for April are done! I actually got them done on time for once, lol. I really had a ton of fun making these ones and probably cause the paper is just so darn cute!  They are both mini album classes (cause of course that’s really all I make anymore) at Precious Memories

“Happy” mini album in a tree shape

This one is a Summer themed one, in a popsicle shape (mmmm….I love popsicles!) 

Precious Memories has a blog now! Check it out – they have a giveaway going on right now!

Some new stuff that’s been going on here, well not too much, but we did go on a hike a couple weekends ago in Mission to a place called Hoover Lake. Totally out in the middle of nowhere and we only passed 2 other people the 5 hours we were on the hike.  It was an interesting day….  

the trail started out like this:

and then quickly became like this: covered with snow!!!

Did I mention in a lot of places it was more than 2 feet deep?? 

The dogs did really well and walked a far distance on their own, then they got really tired and cold so we turned around at that point and we ended up carrying them both all the way back – which was 4 km!! I planned ahead and figured Angus would not want to walk too far so I brought a baby snuggli for him (I know, laugh all you want), but I’m glad I did! He fit inside it perfectly and I was able to hike back with him strapped to me. We had to put Zoey in one of the backpacks we brought, and she surprised us and sat in it without a fuss, she was cold too so I wrapped her in the extra fleece I brought. We must have looked pretty hilarious hiking back down with these dogs strapped to us, plus we were slipping and tripping in the snow all over the place. I’m so surprised neither of us fell cause we certainly came close to it many times. The dogs were so trusting of us!

We were all very thankful to get back to the car and to get the heater going! 

Here’s a couple other photos from last week:

I walked into the room and found these 2 cuddling together, luckily there was a camera nearby!

Angus and Oscar are completely fascinated with the fish tank….

I’m so happy to announce a whole bunch of winners for various things! Just in case you didn’t get the emails or see these posted at WeScrap, the winners are as follows:

Year in Review Contest: angb (winner of $300 worth of scrapping supplies)

runner up: Tristann (winner of $100 worth of suppling supplies)

And then there are 5 winners chosen randomly for the Technique Classes

Techniques 101: mdaschel

Techniques 102: jacksgrma and gLaDieZz

Techniques 103: mariemalone and northernmemories

If you see your username above, please send me your address so I can have your prizes sent out to you!

Congrats!