Finally, I have those kits in store. Phew! Lots of work went on this week!

Enjoy them at 3Scrapateers.com!!

I thought I'd post just a few things as teasers for you. These little gems will be going into store soon, so keep your eyes open for them!

These will be available as separate purchases.

These complimentary mini-kits were inspired by Japanese designs and photos from a friend, Gemma.

Ahhh, the joys of spring. We had our first spring thunderstorm here today. But I had a bright smile on my face all day. I decided on my summer vacation time and got a preview of my summer vacation in an email today. I have a feeling that I'll need to make a beach kit soon. :)

On another note, I've had a request for a baseball kit, so I'll be doing a mini kit soon. Hope your Monday was as good as mine, and that you have a great week!

Well it's been a busy day! I've finally finished two kits and got them into the store. The first is Mayan Coast. I was inspired by blue waters and Aztec gold. It's a steal at $2.50!

Next comes Pigskin Party. This was a special request kit that I had real fun making! It was a challenge for me, since I don't have children and although I scrap my neice and nephews, they aren't into sports yet. It's $2.75 in store.

You can get them both at 3Scrapateers.com -click here to get to the store.

And now for the freebie I've done up special, continuing on a spring theme.

Download here

I'd love to see your layouts with it, and please post comments if you enjoyed the freebie.

Well we had someone in today, a potential buyer, to look at the apartment. We actually got it into shape enough to show it, but again, there goes my weekend spent on cleaning and showing. At least my Saturday.

My neice Anna and Mom showed up later, which was a real treat. Anna loves my cat Whiskey now, although at first she wouldn't go anywhere close to him. She made us a beautiful drawing while we had tea, popcorn and suishi! LOL

Thursday night I made about 120 pieces of suishi for my co-workers. DH came to work for lunch too. I played some Japanese music on the computer and we had a Japanese lunch at work. I've been inspired to do Japanese a lot lately. When you visit my store next week, you'll see a new kit there, with a Japanese theme.

Thursday night was also the 3Scrapateers Meet the New Designer's Chat. It went very well. I gave away a fun freebie, and got to know quite a few!

Friday night we cleaned up a bit, and just took it easy. So I worked on the Japanese kit, a paper pack and some contributions to kits for 3Scrapateers.com - I know you'll love them!

Oh, and I've been invited to be the special guest at a chat on Saturday, March 31st at 9:00 EST. I'll link you up later, and hopefully you can attend too!

Some mouldy photos from our bedroom - having to do with all the idiocy we've been dealing with the past week.

These were behind our heads, behind the bed.

The bedroom window.

The bedroom closet

Oh, and the corner right near my side of the bed (one foot away).

Now for some good news. The contractor got a hold of me today, and is coming for his first inspection/work on Wednesday morning. They WILL be opening the walls, and I WILL be having the city inspector on site to make sure that things are dealt with properly, that is to say, the mouldy walls and if they find mould on any studs behind the walls, the room will be sealed.

That is not to say that I know what will happen to the bedroom for the time during the period of work. If they can work in 3.5 feet of space, then power to them. If not, we get temporarily relocated to sleeping somewhere else, but it sure as heck won't be the living room couch, or the kitchen floor. So someone had better be prepared for that one, because it's not my fiscal responsibility.

More good news - hmmmm. I've got a few new kits in the works, including a Japanese kit, a Moroccan kit, and a football kit. Look for them at the store soon.

AND.....how could I forget!!!! I'll be having a sale very soon....keep your eye out for that one!

Well, got some more phone calls from the landlord's wife. First saying that the contractor will be coming sometime this week, but probably won't call first. I don't think so. We are entitled to notice. So I called back, informed the landlady (if she can be called a lady) and told her that I want to be here for the original inspection, and that I have a city inspector who wants to be present during the work. Well that pissed her off I'm sure. It was just hidden under the surface you know. So again I explained that we'd probably have to be vacated from the apartment during the work in the bedroom. So she says, well just move the bed. The bed right now is actually against my dresser - to the point where I have to move the bed to open the drawers, and there is only 3.5 feet at the end of the bed to the wall. So, hmmm....where should I move the bed when they do their work? The kitchen? So I'm probably going to have to be moved. This did not bode well.

So it's obvious that if they are to work in the bedroom, we'll need to be in a hotel. And again, LL not too happy, but as I said, not having a bed to sleep on, or access to the bedroom certainly doesn't constitute peaceable enjoyment of the premises, which I'm entitled to, and I'm not financially responsible for temporary vacancy. She said that she's going to find out what their rights are as owners....well let's see, you have a right to make sure my apartment doesn't make me sick, is habitable, and when it isn't, you have the right to pay for my hotel, my breakfast, lunch and dinner, and make sure the work gets done quickly.

Pisses me off. So she called back and said she informed the contractor that there will be a city inspector onsite, and that she wants representation there too, during the original evaluation, and that she'll translate for my husband. I don't think so. So I'll be off one day for that, then who knows about the work being done on the apartment. This is just way too out of hand.

This just in.... lol

Okay, so the latest scoop is this. After the big fight with the landlord's bitchy wife, who tells me they will have to send a letter to the contruction company, I get an email this morning telling me that they got a hold of the contractor and have given them my number to find arrange a time to fix the problem. Did I get a call today? Nope. Not from them anyhow.

Instead I got a hold of a city building inspector! Yay! He says it sounds like the landlord is trying to get away with murder and do the bare minimum so he can sell the building. When I told him about the mould, and say that I'd like him to inspect once the work is done, he pipes up "No! I am going to be there when the work takes place so that we know they've done it right! Mould has to be removed with a very specific procedure!" Yay! Someone finally in my corner!!! So when I explained about the LL telling me that it will be the construction company that does the work, and that I have 0% confidence that they have informed them of the mould problem, the inspector says "I know the guys at the company. I'll call them to make sure that they are indeed the ones who are contracted to do the work and that they know about the mould, and I'll get back to you." A silver lining! A knight in shining armour! Okay, I exagerate, but I feel like I've been fighting the stress of my health concerns now, my future health concerns, fighting against the red tape that is my only recourse, and fighting the feelings that if I didn't insist we live in this tiny apartment during the immigration process to save money, we wouldn't be in this predicament. Finally, I'm starting to feel better about the situation.

On to more positivity, I had the wonderful privilege of doing some RAKs for folks on DST these past few days. I wanted people to write 3 dreams in the present tense, or write them like they've already happened...and let me tell you, they came up with some doozies. I was brought to tears at work reading them. It was like I paid myself a random act of kindness by having people write their dreams, because they brought me real perspective. So for those that might have participate who read this...thank you.

In return - I gave each person their own copy of Dream Board to scrap those 3 dreams. Look was Tenessa did with her's...

I have received so much support from my fellow digiscrappers! I particularly wanted to thank some new friends, like Pamela Gibson, an amazing designer who sells here at Scrap2Basics.





She gave me a GC to perk me up...want to see what I picked up?

Thanks again Patricia!!!

Okay, quite honestly I'm really sick, tired and exhausted from this whole ordeal. Basically a building inspector came over and said yes, there is water behind the wall, and it needs to be dealt with. So now the landlord has to go to the construction company and tell them to fix it in the next 15 days because that's the expiry of their guarantee. So not only am I stuck here, but we are stuck living like this for possible 15 days or more, knowing the drywall is going to be cut out, then replaced, and then painted.

So then I called the landlord and was explicit about how they need to have mould removal specialists so that my allergies are not affected (as they have been for the past few days). Well his wife called back, all nasty, and basically shot legal-ese at me for 5-10 minutes saying that it wasn't their problem. Beg to differ hon. I called the Rental Board. Anyhow, get the work done, and get this over with, and get the place sold and get out of my site.

I can't wait for this place to sell now and have the new landlord. That might give me an out.



On the plus side.....a layout using my kit below, Dream Board, is being published in Scrapbooking Memories. The layout is by the talented Rowena Grall (who's a CT member), who used the kit to create her own dream board - the cover of Scrapbooking Memories. Well she didn't make the cover, but they are publishing the layout! So dream boards work folks!

Way to go Row! So proud of you!

Well after not being able to sleep too well on the bed in the middle of the floor, we finally did get some sleep last night and had to bring in the truck for service we had scheduled last week.

Now the landlord is sending a housing inspector who specializes in water damage. Looks like there are other water leakage on the street. There are currently four trucks for disaster cleanup - like one my mom had for her flood.

The good news - we found an apartment where we can move in April 1st if we want to and it is within our budget although it is $300 more per month. But it's a two-bedroom, which is what we want.

I'm anxious to see what the inspector says. In the meantime, there is still mold in the apartment, although the landlord killed it, but it is still an allergen for me. The landlord seems to think that all you have to do is wipe the surface with cleaner. Not exactly Einstein. I'm frustrated and at this point I just want out.

I'm not a happy camper with my landlord right now.

He called yesterday around lunch to tell me that he was he informed my hubby this past fall that he was thinking of selling the building, and he's going to list this Monday, which means a realtor comes in to take pictures. I'm not Martha Stewart, I'm not FlyLady. I am making due with a 600 sq ft apartment with me, hubby, our two cats, and our stuff accumulated since our wedding two years ago while waiting for hubby's immigration to be finalized. It's what we can afford, and we were living comfortably in this cluttered space. But now, I somehow have to make it look spaceous, and cozy. Ain't gonna happen. We give it our best college try.

I tried re-organizing the bedroom closet, and move my wedding dress and other dresses I rarely wear these days and voila! Mold. I have a green wall. I'm highly allergic to mold and my health has been deteriorating in the last few months, with no real explanation, until now. So now, because my landlord is selling, this means he'll HAVE to get the wall ripped apart to replace the moldy wall. Great.

I'm so miffed right now I could eat a whole tub of Cherry Garcia in one sitting!

Update: I'm going to scream, heck I've screamed already. DH decided to pull the bed away from the wall, and we found black mold all in the corner, and on the wall behind the bed. The floor is wet from leakage, and my bed frame is actually rusted from the moisture (it's only 2 years old).Plus DH just discovered that there's a leak in the bathroom as well.What makes me the most angry right now is that we would normally be required to give 3 months notice if we were not renewing our lease, which ends this month. The landlord said nothing until this weekend, probably knowing that I wouldn't renew. Now we are locked into the lease for another year, unless we sublet, and who will sublet this place? I'm so angry!!!!

I'm about to lose my mind!

Well this should have been a lazy weekend, just me and hubby enjoying each other's company, maybe staying in bed late, going for a walk in the neighbourhood, going to Chapter's to see if the new Digital Scrapbooking Magazine is in yet. But that's not going to happen.

Yesterday our landlord called to say he's putting the building up for sale. And that realtors will be here on Monday to take pictures. Pictures. Great. How about pictures of a 600 sq ft apartment where 2 people live with 2 cats, and let's make it look appealing. It's not. It's too small, and we haven't even unpacked our wedding gifts from 2 years ago because I have 1.5 cupboards above the counter, and 1.5 cupboards below. We bought a storage shelf from Ikea to fit our appliances on, and still it's not enough. We have cookbooks too - those need room. The bedroom - well, there's no place for 4 seasons of clothes - so most are in storage in the only little storage spot we have, under the stairs.

I have a feeling that the realtor will take one look and tell the landlord he's better not to have pictures, because it just looks like there's not enough room - and that would be the truth. But I still have to make an effort to hide what we can to make it look like Martha freaking Stewart decorated it herself.

So I've resigned myself to moving around what we can to make it more appealing to the realtor, and we are still going to Chapter's today!

They're here! I've finished my first element pack, Seal the Deal. These are cute wax seals that you can use for your spring layouts using papers like, Spring Reborn.

You can find them exclusively at 3Scrapateers.com by clicking here.

I needed to make my own dream board. What is a dream board? It's a hard copy of photos of what you want for your future. Mine is full of pictures of Prince Edward Island (my summer vacation, where we want to buy property), a picture of a cottage (that we will build on the property), a new car, and a photo of a 5 star resort somewhere in the South Pacific. You use the board to visualize your future.

So if you want to make a dream board, check out Dream Board at 3Scrapateers.com - believe in your dreams and they can happen! They will happen! Here's to your future!

Get it here!

I know that I absolutely loved working on these papers. It's the second paper pack I've made, but I really wanted this pack to be light and airy. Spring is in the air....spring is my favourite time of year. I got married in the spring and will celebrate my second anniversary this spring. But I'm the one giving gifts to you! I hope that you'll enjoy Spring Reborn, and if you do, please leave me a comment and link me up to your layouts.

Download it here




Well, I have to say that I am very pleased with my most popular kit, Asian Harmony. It still seems to be my best seller at 3Scrapateers.com - It was a challenge, but well worth the time it took to make it.