Kiki Halbert Designs

Sunday, April 29, 2007

I've been working on some bright papers for a new give-away! So get your sunglasses out and scrap away! If you like it, and snag them, please leave me a comment. Thanks!

Here it is folks...the final product. Thanks for all the suggestions - very creative!

Saturday, April 28, 2007


Name it and win it!! I've done up this bright eclectic paper pack for the spring, but I can't come up with a name! So if you think you have the perfect name, and want it for free, then post a comment with your best name, and I'll pick a winner tomorrow morning!

Thanks for playing!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Wow! Today's been a trip!

That's the only way to describe it because I feel like it's been an emotional rollercoaster all day! Today started great! My wonderful hubby baked FRESH buttermilk biscuits for me for breakfast this morning, which I had with some nice strawberry jam. Then when I got to work, everyone seemed to be in a cheery mood, and the floor was much cooler than the sauna I walked into yesterday, that was my office.

So, no meetings scheduled. However, my boss called me into a private impromptu meeting which led to the first wave..."oh no, what have I done now". :)

Turns out it wasn't about me. It was about a co-worker who is paid more than $20K more than me a year, and she is surfing the internet during regular hours, and can't even produce a work breakdown or estimate project plan. So, do we take the internet away, or is it critical to her job. I guess I've become my boss' sounding board more or less. So we talk about that. And she tells me that she wants me to deliver my part of the project on Friday which is no problem, because it's done.

Onto hill number 2. Hubby calls and says that there's been an offer made on the building, and the potential buyer has no intention of moving in, so we have less worries. BUT they are coming to inspect the place, tomorrow, at 6:00 p.m. When am I supposed to have dinner?

Onto hill number 3. We have a dinner invitation at the neighbours on Thursday night. Yay!

Onto hill number 4. We have an after lunch meeting with the supervisors, who at one point in the meeting deem to call themselves professionals, and imply that my boss and I are not. And everything wrong with the project has nothing to do with the one gal. And the other gal is supervising my staff informally on the sidelines, and telling me how to do my job. Oh, yay!

Hill number 5, and it's the last one, for now. :) - I get an email from a client who has accumulated some feedback (solicited I'm sure) from students I taught last week, and has sent the comments to everyone and their dog, without consulting me first. Thank goodness my boss went to bat for me and called her supervisor to complain. With no reply. ugh.
Hill number 6 - there is new legislation soon that will allow hubby to sponsor his daughter to immigrate to Canada, even if his ex-wife is not helping the process by not allowing for a medical check or completing paperwork. Yay! Originally, if she had refused, that was his one chance to be able to sponsor her, ever. Now, the door is open for the future.

Onto the final good news for the night...I'm going to have some new stuff in store this week, and I'm now the Head CT person for Scrap2Basics.net - an amazing boutique with talent. It's too bad that this little site doesn't get the recognition it should! There are some amazing people there, like Pamela Gibson, Monica Larsen and Sus Designs. People need to know about this site. They have an amazing Mega Kit this month that HAS to be seen.
And the most amazing part of my day....I got to finally have a good long chat with Row! She's been sorely missed, and I'm glad to have her back to laugh with and carry on like schoolgirls. She's a dear dear friend. The kind you find only a few times in your life.

And for my stuff...well here's a little preview of things to come very shortly! The first is a page from a special request at 3Scrapateers.com - it's called Oh Baby Ba-BEE!


Wedding season is just around the corner, and if you've got a bride-to-be who's not using purple, then why not blue? Next is a page from the Wedding in Bloom - Blue kit.


And finally, an element pack to accompany the Mayan Coast Paper Pack will be hitting the store soon, as well as two different alpha packs.
So get ready, it will be a busy week at 3Scrapateers.com

Thursday, April 19, 2007

IT'S HERE!!! We are one step closer to permanent residency! Hubby's FBI certificate FINALLY arrived in the mail today!! Needless to say, I'm ecstatic!

On another note, we have someone coming to visit the apartment on Saturday, so there goes my relaxing plans for Friday night....cleaning time. But if I have it planned just right, then I'll actually have 3 of my new element packs in store and I'll have a chance to do some more designing for a couple of hours. I really want to get my Baseball kit done! And I have a Baby Shower kit to do as well.

I've had a chance to do some layouts lately, and I've been invited to be Tracy Rivera's guest CT member for 4 weeks, starting this week! I'm really excited about that. She has great kits, and I'm really anxious to start scrapping the pics of my grandmother and her family - great heritage pics!

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Where is spring? Today was the warmest day of the week - for a high of 7C....oh yay! Not.

Today we visited Mom and took down her temporary garage, even though there is a forecast for snow/rain all week. Yuck. But it needed to be done, and she certainly can't do it herself. So my hubby and I worked outdoors to get it down, and fortunately it wasn't too hard. But it was really nice to have a pleasant visit with Mom.

She shared some amazing photos with me, that her sister sent her of her parents, who have both passed away...my grandfather passed away 4 years ago, and my grandmother late spring last year. It's a sad time of year for my mom right now, because I'm sure she's missing her mom. So I'm going to do something special with the pictures she got. I'm going to make her an album of the pictures. Some are absolutely priceless, like the one of my grandmother as a young girl, and pictures of my mom as a baby with my glamorous grandmother. I really miss her.

Scanning these pictures makes me think of her more, and how much I wish I had visited her more often in her last days. When we knew the end was only a day or so away, everyone said it was the last chance for a visit, but I decided not to visit. I remember vividly being with my grandfather in his last days, when he was barely conscious, holding his hand at the side of his bed, praying desperately that he not be in pain and that he survive his cancer, and he passed the next day, while I was driving to their apartment. I remember seeing him before the funeral home employees took him and it's a memory that will haunt me. I didn't want my memories of my grandmother to be tainted by the same type of surrounding and circumstances. I wanted to remember her more vital, her quirky sense of humour, her smile.

My brother and Mom went to see her and they felt that her passing was imminent because she was so frail and sick. But the next day she seemed to revive and was more herself, but she passed that day. In some ways I regret not visiting her that day. It saddens me that the last time I saw her was in the hospital and not in my aunt's home, where we could have tea together.

I miss them terribly, and that's why it is so important to me to get this album right. If you have any suggestions for some wonderful heritage kits, please post them in the comments.

Thanks.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Today was the dreaded allergist appointment. Suffice to say, I was not thrilled because of the prospect of having a severe reaction while being tested. I was referred to the allergist due to my food allergies which have cropped up over the years, from about the time of 21 or so. Turns out I have Oral Allergy Syndrome. To read about it, click here.

Now, while I now know what the problem is, I'm not entirely pleased with the diagnosis, because it is not black and white. This means that it is very likely that I will develop more food allergies in the future to various cross-pollenating foods, like apples, pears and cucumber. What's even more thrilling (not) is that I'm one of the rare individuals who has severe reactions to these foods, namely anaphylactic shock. The good news...as long as the foods have the proteins cooked out of them, and are basically, then, mush, I can eat them safely. Sigh.

Well that's the start to my week. Bloody Caesar anyone? Oh, that's right. Can't have one because of the raw celery. I'll just stick with the spicy Clamato then.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Well, it's almost the end of a long, long weekend. It was nice to not have to leave the apartment unless we want to for 4 whole days. Got lots done for designing, got the use of my camera a bit, and did a few layouts.

I've worked on some alpha packs for Mayan Coast, and an element pack for the same paper pack. It will be in store soon. Plus, I've got a new kit coming into store soon, so look for it. It's called Wedding in Bloom, and hopefully I'll actually get around to scrapping my own wedding photos using this kit. My theme was purple tulips, and this was a special request for the same theme, so I just had to do it. :)



And to celebrate my time off, and a new logo created for me by Gemma Clarke, I decided to make a cute kit for all the boys who are just waiting to start baseball!!! Plus there are some tags there that can be used for any heritage kit, because they are a little classier.




You can download it here. And please be a nice digiscrapper and leave me comments on it. Thanks.

Have a great week, and keep your eyes out for the new designs coming to 3Scrapateers.com from Kiki Scraps Designs.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

So finally the construction is over. The mould is gone. The walls are filled, but now we have to paint. Fun. All the same, I'm glad it's finally over!

It's going to be a nice long long weekend. I don't go back to work until Tuesday now, but my landlord called and said he'd like to have people in to see the apartment, with less than 24 hours notice. I can't wait until he sells this place, because quite frankly I'm just really really sick of him. He tries to pull stuff like increasing the rent by $75 a month, one week before rent is due, wakes me and my husband up on a Saturday morning to shovel a little bit of snow off the lawn, and fertilize the grass - and now it's snowed....! He doesn't have a clue what he's doing! But boy he's got nerve.

I finally got a new camera, which I'm anxious to use so that I can use the kits I have to the fullest! Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit of time this weekend to play with it, and do some scrapping for a change. Especially wedding shots from 2 years ago.

Well I know it's a holiday for most, so have a great one!!

Monday, April 02, 2007



Well, it's been a busy weekend - productive, inspiring, tiring. I got a lot done this weekend and am really looking forward to my extra long weekend on Thursday.
A few new things hit the store this week. I did them up special for a bunch of gals that I chatted with on Saturday. These folks have all adoped from Asia and are scrapbooking for their children. I think it's a wonderful idea and I applaude all of them! Here's what they received at the chat, for having me as their first guest designer.

And of course there is another companion mini-kit, Panda Play.

Both are available exclusively at 3Scrapateers.com
On a sad note, one of the original members of my CT bowed out today. Chrystina, who many of you know as lilaclady is a great gal, and it was a pleasure to have her on my team and she'll be missed. She's enthusiastic and has a passion for life and her children and it shows in her scrapbooking. All the best to you in everything you to Chrystina! I'll miss having you on the team.
And finally, for today that is...I've heard that some of you actually like my designs. :) So I decided to do up a blinkie for those of you that might like to have it. You never know....if I spot it in your signature at 3Scrapateers or Digishoptalk, you might just get an invitation to guest for me on my creative team.

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