Jessica July 9th 2001- November 28th 2009

I just got this from Jessica's group: 

" It is with a broken heart and great sorrow to inform you that Jessica has passed away this evening. After a very brave, strong battle, she has sadly lost the war. She gracefully passed away in her mother's arms surrounded by her loving family, she wouldn't have had it any other way. She is at peace and has received her beautiful wings. Our beautiful little girl has taught us so much and will continue to through out our entire lives. She is dancing and laughing in heaven where she is in good hands and in great company.
Thank you all for your continuous thoughts and prayers, she always knew how much she was loved. "

 I made this little video in honor of this amazingly brave little girl. With lots of love Dear Jessica wherever you are.

Dear Jessica

A while ago my friend Dawn told me about her little niece Jessica. I think it was 2 years ago when Jessica was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. For the last 2 years she (and her family) have been living in hospitals going through so many procedures and chemotherapy. 
I joined Jessica's facebook group and what amazed me the most was that no matter where she was or what she was going through she is always smiling ... always. She's such an amazing and brave little girl and every time I feel down because of life and stuff I just think about her and I smile, because I know she would be smiling.
Last night the doctors told her parents she only has a few hours to live. I think she is sedated so she is in no pain at all.
I started making a video for her that I wanted to give her in person but unfortunately I finished it today. I'm sad to think that I didn't have the honor to meet such an amazing little girl, but wherever you are now, dear Jessica, I just want to tell you that your smile will make me stronger whenever I need to be, that whenever I feel the need to complain or get angry or loose my patience I will think of how brave you were and I will smile too. Even I never met you in person I feel I know you and I will keep you in my thoughts.

So happy

So many things have happened over the last few days. First we had a great Halloween. This was really Kris's first one as the other two he was very little and didn't really got it but this year, oh boy, did he EVER got it.  He kept running form house to house saying "candy, candy" ! and I had to keep reminding him that he was supposed to say "trick or treat"and "thank you" ... hmmm very hard for him to remember once all that candy was in front of him.

Here's a very quick layout I made to send to the grandparents (Kris is the little elephant)

Also, another great thing, well two, I got featured on the "Hand Made Gift Guide" blog aaannddd on Two Peas ... oh so happy!

What else? oh yeah, Laureen, from Bobs and Lolo  called me and wants to talk to me about a future project ... ok over excitement!

Starting a new business is not easy, specially when you are a SAHM. There's always things to do around the house, etc etc and I never, in a million years would've thought I was going to open my own business. Well I did, a few months ago. It is so much work but so rewarding. Right now I'm starting to see how all the hard work is slowly starting to get transformed into future projects and that makes me very happy.

Thank you everybody for all your support and encouragement!

Some of my favorite things...

As Kris grows up he is more and more interested on many different things and he's also starting to have some "favorite" things. For example, he loves this red car from the move "Cars". He can't go to bed if he doesn't have it with him. Also he is very interested in trains. Every time he sees one he gets super excited. He loves the  "zoom zoom zoom, we're going to the moon ... " song and laughs when I pick him up at the end of the song to give him a ride to the moon =) one of our favorite things to do when we go to the library for story time.
Also he looooves to take pictures. I guess he gets that from daddy who's always taking pictures. He loves to use my camera and takes pictures of everything around him. But I guess his ultimate favorite thing is ice cream. He's a super picky eater but as soon as he hears the word ice cream his whole face lights up and he would even eat chicken only to get a bowl of ice cream for dessert.
I made this little layout to remember all the important things in his life right now. All this will change as he grows up and all this little things that he loves right now will become just memories of his childhood.
I love you my sweet pea and I love to see you getting more interested in so many different things.

credits: photo by Chad Galloway. Papers and stickers by Crystal Wilkerson. 

Trying some "totally rad" photoshop actions

I made this template the other day just to try some Photoshop actions I found on a pretty cool site. I've never used actions on pictures before so I wanted to try them and they were giving a free trial set. It turned out nice so I'm sharing it here. I might use them again :)

credits -  Crystal Wilkerson: Little Miss Chloe/A kit for Kate papers and Doodled journaling brushes, Totally Rad actions and 1942 font. 

Family

aaah family, it is so nice to see the family specially when they are so far away. This time it was Chad's family we got to see. Last week we drove (yes drove) from Vancouver BC to Moose Jaw SK. For those of you who don't know it is 1,655 km (1,028 miles) or 19 hours plus stops. All that with a 2 year old... good times. We did it in 2 days and it was amazing and scary. Amazing because crossing Alberta (Banff) it is the most beautiful thing someone can do in their life. It's unbelievable. Specially at this time of year when the trees are starting to turn yellow and the mountains are covered with snow. Scary because of the snow. We hit a storm the first day and we couldn't make it to Calgary as we had planned so we had to stop at Golden BC. It was snowing a lot. The second day we had another storm just a few hours away from Moose Jaw and this one was really bad and super scary. The road was completely turned into an ice rink. We saw 3 big trucks on the ditch and several cars on the side, but we made it safe and sound. We were in Moose Jaw only for 2 days to celebrate Chad's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. It was so good to see all the family again and get to meet the newest addition to the Galloway family: Cohen our first nephew.  After those 2 days of family craziness we had to come back to Vancouver and make the trip all over again but we are happy that we got to see all of them and spend some time together even when it was so short.
Family is very special for me, being Mexican I grew up surrounded by my (very large) family. Since I moved to Canada it's been very hard for me to adapt to a life without them so every chance we get to see them it is a true joy.
Ok, now the story behind this picture. Camille (Chad's sister in law and second from R to L in the back) came up with the idea of us getting our picture taken at this shop in downtown MJ as our present for grandma and grandpa Wenaus. We had so much fun doing it, from getting dressed to the picture taken by a (I'm not kidding) 16 year old kid (super cute). Anyway, we got the photo, 1 big one for the grandparents and 1 small for each Galloway brother and family :)
Yesterday I was trying my scanner for a new project I have and I scanned the picture as a test. I just couldn't resist opening it on Photo shop and playing with it. I had a lot of things to do so I made this layout super quickly but I really like it so here it is. The 3 Galloway brothers and the families on a Thanksgiving weekend.

Jenny.

this is the original picture and yes this is how the cropped it at the place (with the top part)

this is what I did :)

credits: Rhonna Farrer (Vintage Label Papers), Holly McCaig (Vintage overlays), 1942 report Font and Texas Hero Font.

I love Fall

I love October, it is probably my favorite month. I love how the air is fresh and crisp and the trees start changing colors. I love the sunny evenings and the smell in the air of the fireplaces in the houses around. I don't like rain so much but that makes me appreciate the few sunny days that we have even more. But talking about Fall, I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving day again! well at least in Canada :) I love that celebration. We don't have it Mexico so I really enjoy it here. Because our families are so far and we can't enjoy it with them we usually get together with our friends and cook a big dinner. Besides editing I love cooking. Being in the kitchen and making something from scratch is the most rewarding thing, and the best part: sharing it with the people I love. So I am ready for Thanksgiving and I always use the Thanksgiving dinner menu planning from Rouxbe
Rouxbe is an online cooking school. I've learned so much about cooking thanks to them and now they are my number 1 cooking resource. I pretty much don't use my cooking books anymore, everything I make comes from the Rouxbe site, especially my Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. If you have a chance, take a look at their site, it is great and the videos are fantastic and so easy to follow. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving (if you are in Canada) and a great Fall season :)