Brazil, A Love Story and Surgery!!

I've been soooooooo long overdue for a life update on here!!!  It's not for lack of wanting to do it though!!!!  The past month has been AMAZING and it will take some time to cover it all, but I just have to finally start!!!

So... most of my extended family went to BRAZIL for just over 2 weeks and what an "ADVENTURE" it was!!! Between my brother's wedding (more on that later) and meeting my sponsored children (more on that later), eating Brazilian food and fun site seeing, it was simply more than I had ever hoped and imagined!!!!!

Here are some highlights from the trip... our tour bus broke down one day and we were stuck at this restaurant with this park.  Before I knew it, we were ALL on the playground having fun!! My dad turned 80 while we were in Brazil, but he still acts like he's in his 30's!!!

I also got to meet a Facebook friend who is a fellow scrapbooker and photographer in Brazil!!!  Her name is Cristina Tronco and we swapped Scrapbooking magazines that we are both published in and then she was our tour guide around Porto Alegre for the day!!!!  How fun is that????!!!!!

And Brazil is not complete without going to a professional soccer game!!  We had soooo much fun cheering on the local Gremio team... we got 2 goals on video and they won!!!

So the real reason we went to Brazil was for my brother Mark's wedding to a beautiful Brazilian girl named Clara!!  

Their love story is one for the record books!!  Long story short, my brother has never married and instead put his passions into helping others... he has been to Brazil to help with the kids at the Chain of Love Homes at least 15 times and planned on semi-retiring there soon.  The past couple of visits, some friends kept insisting that he meet "Clara" their aunt and kept telling Clara about this great guy ("Marky" they call him) from Canada.  Neither of them were interested in meeting each other AT ALL!!!  In fact, one year Clara actually planned to be out of town when Mark was visiting just to avoid meeting him!!  

Well one day when Mark was back in Brazil, they finally both reluctantly agreed to come for dinner at the family's home!!  Within minutes of arriving, however, the family dog was hit by a car and seriously hurt!!  Mark and Clara were both suddenly swinging into action re: helping this dog... as a hunter, Mark recognized the signs of an animal about to die and was debating putting the dog down quickly to alleviate suffering.  Taking a dog to the vet in Brazil is exceedingly costly, but finally Clara offered to do that just in case there was a chance at survival.  So somewhere in between the dog getting injured and deciding what to do with it, a spark between them ignited and shortly thereafter, they were dating!! (NOTE:  the dog did survive, but not without serious long-lasting injuries she still suffers from today.)

So March 31, 2012, I had the privilege of being their wedding photographer!!!!!! What an experience on all levels!!!  Seeing my brother so happy and meeting a whole new set of relatives and getting to capture it all in photos was surreal!!!

A couple of my favourite photos are these ones right after their kiss during the ceremony...

So here's my new extended Brazilian family including my two new "bouncing" nephews!!!

I have thousands of photos from that day, but these will do for now :)  Meanwhile we got to stay right at the Chain of Love Homes campus where we have sponsored kids for years!!!

  Six years ago my family was there and it was soooooo awesome to return and see how all the kids have grown and changed!!!  At any given time there are about 90 rescued street kids that Chain is providing homes and education for... and their stories of rescue and horrific situations that they came from are utterly heart wrenching... it made us want to bring them all back home with us!!!  We sponsor two kids... a boy and a girl... Taira (AKA "Patrick") who I will share more about another time...

And Janaina who I will also share more about at another time.

YES, I'll definitely share more about how a HUGE chunk of my heart is back in Brazil with these kids and several others, but for now, I need to take care of this....

Two weeks ago (shortly after returning from Brazil), I had knee surgery in Banff!!!  After 20 years of dealing with a detached ACL, I finally had it repaired!!!  I had to very strategically schedule it in between major events and upcoming trips (Mexico in July and Hawaii in Nov) to allow for full recovery.  I thought by now I'd be back dancing in the streets, but alas, I guess I'm older than I thought and looks like it will take a little more time.  And because we fried our laptop while in Brazil, I have not had much opportunity to be online while putting my knee up!!

So much more to come and many more photos and many more stories!!!  Another day though!!!

Crop For Mexico Results!!!

So it was a most splendiferous day I must say!!! In March we did our second "Crop For Mexico" at Grace Baptist and the support for this fundraiser still brings tears to my eyes :)  Take a look at this BEAUTIFUL group of women who came out to give their generous support to help build a home for a needy family in Mexico this summer!!!  Want to know how much we raised??????  I'll tell you, but first this...

The talented Christy Riopel designed and taught this stunning canvas class for us... what I absolutely LOVE about Christy (besides the fact that she is simply a beautiful person with a beautiful heart), is that she can guide EVERYONE from beginner through expert into creating their OWN version of art with enough guidance to clearly show you the steps and techniques, but enough freedom to let you make it your own!!!  So needless to say, I'm loving my new canvas!!!

Kay, back to how much money we raised...  but first one more quick thing... while at the Crop For Mexico event, I was working on a layout for my "Life's BIG Little Lessons" article for the summer issue in Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine (simply the BEST magazine evah!!!) with my story from last year's trip to build a home in Mexico so here's a sneak peek of the layout that is now one of my most favourite (so watch for it in the next issue!)...

Okay, back to the Crop For Mexico Fundraising results... it's actually a neat "God Story"... so last year we raised exactly $7001 and I absolutely loved that extra $1 that put us there as it represented how important each and every $1 is!!!  So this year when all was said and done and my family was helping me count the $, the total came to $8997!!!!  I was ecstatic at the amount but kept thinking, if only we had a few more dollars to put us over $9000!!!  I even debated throwing in an extra $5 of my own money, but decided that I wanted to be true to the actual amount as we had last year and so I left it but for some reason didn't feel like I should announce it yet so I didn't.  No reason why, just felt that way.

So the next week I went to get the mail and lo and behold there was a card from Jennifer Reynard who had volunteered her time to help with the garage sale part of the event and inside was a $5 bill!!!  She had helped take a few extra supplies to the thrift store after the event and inside a binder her son had found the money!!!  She felt strongly that it needed to go towards the event as someone had donated the binder and so here is now our final total...

$9002

So that means not only did we raise enough to build one complete home ($6000), but half of the second one!!!!!  I am so overwhelmed with gratitude and am so anxious to introduce you to BOTH the families that will receive a new life because of the generosity of these women!!!  And it will be sheer joy for me to introduce the families to you as I will for sure take the top photo of all of you with me to show them!!!

So from the bottom of my heart... thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! 

Made In Canada!!!!!

Check THIS out!!!!  Crop and Cruise was the featured "Made In Canada" company in the Spring Issue of Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine!!!!!!!  

I LOVE this picture of my hubby and partner in crime who is sooooo supportive of all I do!!!  And the inside pages of the article simply make me giddy with such FUN photos (a special thanks to Sandy Holmquist for contributing the top left photo of the girls in the ocean!) and an extra special layout from my good friend and loudest cheerleader Lynne Mizera!!!

A HUGE thanks to CS magazine for this special feature and I love that so many of our readers are planning on joining us in HAWAII in November!!!!  If you ever wanted to connect in person with other like-minded Canadian scrapbookers from all over the country, we invite YOU to join us on this adventure!!!!  

Check out all the Hot Tropical HAWAIIAN details at

www.CropandCruise.com

You had me at ALOHA!!!!

Shopping can change lives!!!

Who doesn't love to shop???!!!  Did you know that this Saturday, March 10, your shopping can change the life of an entire family?  Before I get into that... check THIS out...

See this beautiful mixed media canvas designed by the talented Christy Riopel????  YOU can create it along with this "Family" layout sponsored by Quick Quotes...

AND a card AND some of my best photo tips ALL in ONE fantastic class this Saturday, March 10 from 1-3pm!!!!  And the best part????  100% of your $45 class fee goes towards building a new home for a needy family in Mexico!!!!  

PLUS... check this out...

Here is just a sneak peek at some of the yummy goodies you can win or buy on Saturday too which brings me back to SHOPPING!!!!  We are hosting a "Garage Sale" of crafting goodies from 1pm - 4pm and 100% of your spending goes towards building a home for a needy family in Mexico!!!  How FUN is that???!!!  Bring your friend, your children, your neighbours!!  Your shopping and crafting will change a family's life FOREVER!!  We did it last year and we want to do it again!!!

And if you can come crop, create, play and shop the entire day away, with 3 homemade meals, make & takes and helpful guys to carry all your stuff... we still have 5 spots left...

To register or for more information, please click HERE or send an email to gbcscrappers@hotmail.com.

TV Segments & Life Update

Man time flies!!!  It's all good though!!!  Exciting things on the horizon!!!  But first, here are a few peeks at the TV segments we did at Scrapbooker's Paradise following our trip to CHA!!  Due to some technical difficulties, I don't have all the segments we did... in fact, my favourite one promoting our Crop and Cruise HAWAII is currently "stuck" on my PVR... need to task my "gorgeous gadget guy" on that one to see what can be done about that!!!  Meanwhile, though, here are a few snippets from that morning that I DID manage to capture on my computer!!!







This is always a super fun time of the year as products we saw at CHA begin to arrive in the stores and yes, even in our Canadian stores!!  I know Scrapbooker's Paradise has already sold out of much of their first CHA orders... YES it's that fabulous!!!! And if you really want to experience some of the new products, be sure to join us at Camp Croppin' in April and/or other awesome upcoming events (see links on right).

So besides the regular "life" stuff of soccer (both my kids are soooooo close to being in Provincials this year!!!), we are getting ready for my brother's wedding in Brazil!!!!  Take a look at my new sister-in-law to be Clara and how happy she and my brother Mark look!!!!

Their's is quite the romantic story... sometime when I have more time, I'll tell you, but all I can say is never say never to love!!!  At 52 years of age, my brother finally found his soul mate :)

And I'm looking forward to again being at the Chain Of Love orphanage while in Brazil (we were there about 5 years ago to visit our sponsored children).  Not exactly sure yet what adventures await, but I'm looking forward to being back in that beautiful country and meeting my new family members (I'm going to be an auntie again with 2 grown sons of Clara's... sooooooo wild!!!)

And... some HUGE changes on the horizon with Brad's job are expected to come over the next few weeks!!  It's been 20 years since Nortel hired him and he is ready for a change and God has graciously led him to a couple of REALLY great opportunities.  The "icing on the cake" would be for him to get laid off, however, instead of just quitting and coincidentally they are doing that TODAY for a few others in his group so we are praying for a phone call for him as well to lay him off!!!  CRAZY eh?

One final thing on my mind... we still have about 8 spots left for our Crop For Mexico fundraising event Saturday, March 10 and I would LOVE to fill them... my heart is sooooooo anxious to partner with others to change the lives of some needy families... we really do have so much to be thankful for living in North America and what a fun way to pay it forward by attending an amazing crop!!!  If you can't make it for the whole day PLEASE come shop at our on-site garage sale of crafting goodies from 1-4pm :)  Be the change you want to see in the world :)

Scrapbook Your Heart Retreat 2012!!

Registration for our annual ScrapbookYour Heart retreat opens

 Feb. 14... VALENTINE's DAY!!!  

This will be our 5th year running this life changing retreat for women and the team is busy getting all the lovely details in place to make it another awesome weekend!!!  Here is our theme...

Click HERE to register starting Feb. 14, 2012 and please note that cabins will only be booked once we have received payment so if you are anxious to get into the coveted Aspen Lodge (with private bathrooms), then register and forward payment ASAP to secure your spot!!  This also means that you don't have to be waiting on your computer at 7am to get in although you can as that is part of the fun :)

AND... for those asking about posting last week's TV segment, due to some technical difficulties with the station, we will need a bit of extra time to figure it out... I did do a "back-up" taping of it on my PVR, but have no idea how to get it from there to my computer to upload so I'm waiting for my engineering hubby to come home (today yeah!!!) from out of the country to help me with that :)

Meanwhile, you have until this Friday to enter to WIN some CHA goodness!!!!  Simply comment on the CHA posts below and on Christy Riopel's blog and we will pick a winner :)

CHA 2012 Overview!!

Here is a super brief overview of my time at CHA in Anaheim last week!!  It was near unto impossible to try to fit in 2 full days and thousands of booths into 60 seconds or less, but I think I squeezed in MOST of my favourites (plus the token Tim Holtz appearance for those of you who insist on seeing what he's up to... and what new gadget he's demoing... and what he's wearing)!!

Others and MORE will be shown on my upcoming...

 TV segment this MONDAY, FEB. 6, 2012

on Breakfast Television starting at 6am through to 9am!!  We will be on-site shooting from the Scrapbooker's Paradise store in Calgary showing and demoing some of our favourite NEW products, tools and companies :)

My Top Picks include:

Tropical Travelogue line from Graphic 45... I could NOT keep my eyes off of this beautiful line and all the eye candy in the booth!!!!  They really do set the bar high for CHA shows!!!  And they're coming to Calgary in April!!!  Can NOT wait!!!  

Bo Bunny is ALWAYS a hit with everyone (including me!) but this year I had trouble picking my favourite NEW line... not because they didn't have good ones, but because they are all a little different... kind of like one for each mood I might be in!!!!!  I like them ALL!!

Basic Grey is also a go-to line and they had some super fun ideas (and some super fun ladies... the top picture we are all "The Allison's"... yup 3 Allison's all with the correct spelling!!) and a photo of their new canvases... pretty cool!!!

Meanwhile, Christy and I ran into Donna Downey... she is HILARIOUS!!!  And don't forget she's coming to Alberta this month (I get to teach with her!!!) and you can take her classes!!!  Check out Cropaganza for more info!!!

Onto some home decor stuff...

Canvas Corp is a company I am anxious to better acquaint myself with (FYI they just bought Tattered Angels and also own 7 Gypsies so watch for this powerhouse of companies to bring out some amazing things!!!)  Of course I just LOVED their beach line!!!

There were NOT a lot of new tools, but a "Stamping Gear" from Inkadoo helped create this beautiful canvas... sure had Christy's creative juices flowing!!!

And although it's not a "Tool", this new to me company (Unikeep) has some super funky ideas for travel albums!!!  Has mine and Christy's creative juices flowing too for our 

Crop and Cruise Scrapbooking Cruise to HAWAII!!!

So this guy had us smiling with this innovative gadget called "Action Wobble Springs"... to see it in action, you need to watch the video, but we thought it was FANTASTIC especially for kids cards and animation!!

Another super HOT thing at CHA is jewelry and my favourite "design-it-do-it-yourself" line was from Vintaj!!!  Check out this hot tropical looking necklace (how can you tell where my mind is)!!!!

And last, but definitely not least, was one of my personal favourites from the whole show...

I know it's still new technology, but the QR codes are beginning to appear everywhere and allow you to instantly visit a companies website, get info, etc. Sizzix, however, has figured out a super great way to bring them into the crafting world through "Talking Tags"... you purchase your own labels that have QR codes that you can record a one minute personal message onto and then you can glue or sew it to a special project or layout and it will be there to listen to for years every time you scan it!!!!  How cool is that????!!!!!  I can just imagine taping my kids' giggles or nana's voice and having it permanently recorded on a special quilt or card or layout or????  Just imagine!!!

Okay, enough from CHA...

Meanwhile, here is some of the trouble... er I mean FUN we got into while in LA!!!  It all started with the "economy car" I rented... my fiery red FIAT car!!!!  They kept asking me if I wanted one with more leg room... um... do I look like I need more leg room????  Besides, I get to play "JLO in LA"!!

I have to say that I mostly managed to stay out of trouble this time, but trouble still followed!!  This time it was Christy!!!!  It all started our first night when we were at a reception for vendors and we were at the bar getting drinks... Christy was trying to order me a drink with no alcohol, but the guy just wasn't getting it!!!  And after we thought he finally understood, he still began to pour Vodka into my Cranberry juice and before she could think about what she was doing, Christy shoved her hand overtop of my glass and he proceeded to pour Vodka all over her!!!  The look on both their faces was PRICELESS!!!  Yup... a true friend takes a "hit of Vodka" for you!!!

Continuing on the theme of drinks... on our flight home, we were just settling into our seats after take-off when suddenly Christy and I heard a "pop" and were suddenly being showered with liquid!!!  We looked up and to our horror the ceiling of the plane was "leaking" a brown liquid all over us (mostly Christy... I had just moved to the aisle seat)!!  This is NOT a good thing on a plane!!  So after a moment of panic, the flight attendant came running to discover that two rows up a mother had given her little boy a baby bottle filled with Coke and it had exploded!!!  Now I've heard of moms giving their little ones, Gravol to keep them calm on a flight, but COKE???  Who does that???!!!!

Anyways, one of the highlights of our time in LA was renting a bus with all the other "Canucks" and touring the town!!!  Below is a collage of our adventures including our "Star Gazing" in Hollywood... we went to the "Chateau Marmont" where numerous stars were in attendance following the SAG awards that night!!  We got to see Glee stars, Modern Family stars, and Jesus!!!!

Alrighty!!  Be sure to watch Breakfast Television on Monday morning for even more fun and eye candy from CHA and meanwhile, enter to WIN some goodies!!!  You can enter on my CHA posts and on Christy Riopel's site as well and we will pick a winner later next week!!

Question #3:  Which of the CHA products above (or in the video) are you most excited about?

CHA Star Gazing!!

So we've arrived in HOT LA (loving it!!) and spent our first full day at CHA ooing and ahhing over each company's displays!!!  Christy forced me to do this make & take... can you guess what it is???

It's quite remarkable how "all out" some of the companies go with their displays... so much eye candy!!  I did manage, however, to not get too distracted by BLING and went in an orderly manner (at least until Christy left me to go demo at the My StampBox booth)... then I went CRAZY!!!

Speaking of CRAZY... the "Canucks" gathered on a bus tour the splendiferous Karen Ellis organized for us and headed out on the town!!!  It was soooooo much fun...

Our driver took us to all the sights... but the most hilarious was in Hollywood where we went to an infamous bar where all the stars go and stood with the Paparazzi (including TMZ guys) as cars with "famous people" came and went!!  We actually got to see some (including Jesus)!!  I will show more and tell more later, but I must say it was ridiculously FUN!!!!  

And we had to go do the walk of stars of course!!  Our bus stopped right in front of Karen's favourite famous person so of course she had to give him a HUGE hug :)

Kay... gotta run as CHA opens again in less than an hour!!!

Question #2:  What star do you think I had Christy take a picture of with me?