In the spotlight: Erika, artist, loving mother and autism advocate....

If you visit my blog, chances are you know Erika Martin!

When I met her through Life Journal last spring, I was just starting to have an interest in stamping and scrapbooking... Seeing her work sure inspired me to just go for it, and I bought my first serious stamps through her...

She is a talented artist and a free spirit, and also a loving mother and autism advocate.

This last days she posted scrapbook pages on her blog : http://stampinmama.typepad.com/) that she made about her son Zach, who is 9 years old and autistic.

Those pages are beautiful (and the pics of Zach are stunning!), but they also tell a story.

They are bursting with emotion and love, and made me cry a river because of course I could hear myself in Erika's words. They highlight so well what life with autism is, the hard times and worries of a mother, and the awe we feel for our kids who never cease to amaze us and teach us something new every day!...♥

Go check them out: http://stampinmama.typepad.com/stampin_mama_a_mama_that_/2008/02/post.html

And http://stampinmama.typepad.com/stampin_mama_a_mama_that_/2008/02/my-heroa-scrapb.html

When I see her pages it makes me want to publish a book of scrapbook pages made about autistic children, and sell that book to raise money for autism! Who knows, maybe we could do this one day?....

Lost in scrapbooking

No, I am not dead and haven't been abducted by aliens...

I am just busy. I don't know where the time goes but this is a disaster!!!

I have been working on little (accordion) scrapbooks-in-a-box for gifts this year and it's taking me forever, argghhh...

It seems I always have more on my plate than I can chew...

I don't think I'll make those next year!!! :-)

Mini recipes-book

So I just sent an e-mail to my friend asking that she doesn't visit that site for the next couple of days (I don't know if she does visit or not, but just to be sure! ;-))

I have been bad because I made the mistake of telling her I was working on a little surprise for her...that was months ago and I thought my little project would be ready in no time, but then life got in the way and also my biggest problem was that I actually had to cook/prepare some dishes just so I could take pics to make my little book!

I considered making it without pics at some point, that would have enabled me to put more recipes also, but I thought it wouldn't be as nice. Somebody suggested I just take pictures from a cookbook but that would be cheating to me...

So this project dragged on and on, even though it was fairly simple to start with, especially since I bought a themed mini-album for that purpose, I added a little rafia tie to close the album and match the rafia I put throughout the booklet.

The cat keeps on coming to try to chew on it so it is perched on top of the bookshelf till it's mailed!!

I was not teasing my internet friend on purpose but I hope I have learned a valuable lesson and will be able to keep it to myself next time I plan on making someone a little surprise!! :-S

Because once I promise someone (or myself) that I'll do something, I do! Only problem is sometimes it takes forever!! :-(

The recipes I put in there are just a few of my favorites, nothing fancy but things I really like (or grew up with) and I thought it would be fun to send some french recipe (one is actually morocan and comes from my husband's Grandma and is a family favorite) to an american girl who likes to cook!! It was actually hard to pic the recipes to start with, because I could only put like 5 of them.

Making the little book was fun though and it made me want to make a Recipes Book for my daughter one day, where I would put recipes from my Mom and my Grandmas, and then when she's grown up she would take it with her in her new household and keep the tradition alive! :-)I don't know when I'll find the time but even if it takes me years, I'll get there... ;-)

So anyway, Happy Birthday Catherine, (since it's her birthday today) and thanks for your patience!! :-) ....

P.S: Since, as always, when you click on the pics they get larger, I recommend that you do so and try some of the recipes yourself!.. ;-D

The scrapbooking contest

There's a cool new scrapbooking store that opened not too far from here and the owner, Sonja, had a contest a few weeks ago.

She had prepared some kits containing each : 1 sheet of decorative paper, 1 sheet of plain cardstock, 1 embellishment, 2 to 4 pics of her kids.

The requirement was to use everything that was in the kit, we were free to add to that...
I was the 1st one to pick up a kit and I was drown to this beautiful pink paper. The cardstock was white and the embellishment in my kit was a little bottle of stickles! (Glitter glue).

This is the pic of the "finished product"!

There were only 8 contestants and one didn't finish for the deadline so we were only 7. The customers of the store voted...and I was number 3!

I was very happy! I won a magazine and a store discount and am planning to buy a heating tool with it! :-) I have been eying it for a while now, I want to learn how to emboss stamps!...

The funny thing is, I was never a glitter kind of girl, but since I used the Stickles I am crazy about it and use them all the time!! This just goes to show that you never know!!....(especially in scrapbooking!!)....