What we did on our Summer Vacation

Hello, folks! Anyone still around? I really miss blogging, but I think Facebook has almost made it obsolete. The last time I posted using this blogging platform, everything looked different. So this post is almost an experiment to see if I still know how to use Blogger! :)

We spent a week in PEI this summer, and it was wonderful. In the evenings after the gorgeous sunset, we spent our time in the cottage and I was able to scrap 11 pages!

 

Above is the cottage we stayed at. We absolutely loved staying here, and definitely see us coming out here again in the future. Here are the layouts I created on the trip.

 

Looking forward to the Scraptiv!ty Reunion crop coming up at Scrapfest in Richmond Hill in September. We are attending Scrapfest as a group and celebrating the kit club and message board that most of us met through! It will be amazing to see some of the amazing and talented ladies that I first started scrapbooking with so many years ago.

 

I also hope to add more details to this blog once the kids are back in school. See you soon!

Throwback Thursday

I've been going back through my old draft posts and found a few cute ones that I don't want to lose. So even though they're old, I'm going to add them in here as Throwback Thursday posts! Funny thing is, back when these photos were taken (circa 2010), there was no such thing as Throwback Thursday!
These photos are from around spring of 2010, back when the girls were still in dance. They switched to gymnastics a few years later. One of the things I love about this photo is the silly face that Alicia is making! Her dance teacher was very strict, though - a little too strict, I think - and it squashed her spirit to the point that she really stopped enjoying dance. It's too bad for experiences like that, but it's part of making these young ladies who they are today.

Peek at Remembrance Day Layout

I've been working on some layouts of Evan in his first year of Air Cadets. I don't have these ready to post in time for Remembrance Day as I was hoping, but at least here is a sneak peek!

As seen in Canadian Scrapbooker Fall 2013

Can you believe it's back to school time already?  Our kids went back today and they were all so excited about it.

To me, back to school season has always been a time for getting routines re-established.  Lists are a big part of the routine at our house.  That's part of the reason I was so excited to create a layout for the Leave Your Legacy article by Sue Sykes for the Fall 2013 Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  Sue's article this month is all about Top 10 lists

This layout itemizes all of those wonderful things I love about this time of year.

The journaling, which is hidden beneath the large, focal photo, describes why each of the items illustrated is meaningful to our family.  It's too long to include here, but here's a quick snapshot.

1 - We love going to the CNE.  It really signifies the change from summer to autumn for us.
2 - Back to school.  I'm so glad our kids love this as much as I do.
3 - The splendour of the autumn colours.
4 - Picking a pumpkin to carve for Halloween.  It's good family fun!
5 - Decorating the house for Thanksgiving - inside and out.  It's part of how we recognize this special occasion at our house.
6 -  We try to hit as many of the local fall fairs around our area that we can.  We love the family time together it affords us!
7 - Halloween: the costumes, the fun with friends and the scavenger hunts.  (The candy - not so much!)
8 - Remembrance Day. It's so important to take part in activities that commemorate our veterans so we try to participate every year.
9. Yard work is a family affair around our house.  It's fun to see the kids contribute too!
10. We try to celebrate the start of the new school year with a Labour Day bonfire and fireworks. Having family and friends over to roast marshmallows and make s'mores adds to the fun.   Occasionally I manage to get a good fireworks shot too, which is a bonus!

If you haven't already, pick up a copy of Canadian Scrapbooker for more great Top 10 lists, and other fantastic layouts. 

I hope that you had a wonderful Labour Day long weekend and that the school year got off to a good start for you and your family.  Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Defined!

We always have the most wonderful time at Uncle Danny's place on Pigeon Lake, and I'm so glad we were able to squeeze in a trip again this summer. We just got back, and it reminded me that I'm yet to post a layout I created about one of our visits there a few summers ago. The image on the page is one of my favourites!

This page is a scraplift of a layout I saw a while back on Two Peas in a Bucket. If this is your layout (or if you know who the original artist is), please leave a comment so I can give credit to the original designer.

I hope your summer was as much fun as ours was!

Anniversary Present - A Little Peek

I'm so excited to be registered for Scrapfest Oshawa! Scrapbooking is so much more fun when it's coupled with socializing, chatting and eating (maybe drinking too!) :-} At last year's Scrafest Oshawa, I took this class and was so thrilled with what I created.


Here's a peek at the album I made for our anniversary last year with the pages I stenciled and misted. It's one of my favourite projects ever. More to follow soon, so stay tuned!

Canadian Scrapbooker Fall 2013 Sneak Peek

Don't you love back-to-school season! It always reminds me of fresh starts, growth and progress. It's one of the things many things I love about fall.

Since the Leave Your Legacy topic for the Fall 2013 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine featured Top 10 lists, I couldn't resist titling my layout Top 10 Reasons I Love Fall. Have fun with this little look at what's to come when the magazine hits news stands September 1st. I'll post the full layout sometime soon.

Best Beach Ever!

At the bottom of this post, which gives sneaks of a few New York layouts, I snuck in a peek at one scraplift I created while I was up at Uncle Danny's last summer.  This page - which was a travel layout, but about the Bahamas, not New York - is a page I created using a layout in Scrapbook Trends as inspiration. I've lost track of the original designer, but if it's you (or if you know who it is), let me know and I'll give the proper credit.

By the way, if you've never been to the Bahamas, it truly does have one of the very best beaches ever! :-}

Scrapping my New York Trip

Last fall, I posted a few peeks at the pages I created about my trip to New York last summer, which was a wonderful, memorable, quick trip.  I took a bit of a blogging hiatus shortly afterward, and didn't post these, so here they are!  I scrapped most of these up at Uncle Danny's right before Labour Day, so it's funny that I'm posting them around the same time of year.  This page documents my first steps in Central Park.

Once upon a time I used to work for the Le Meridien hotel chain.  It was a wonderful place to work.  One of my colleagues visited New York and stayed at the Parker Meridien, so I researched it as I planned my trip.  How unexpected is it that there is a  burger joint hidden away in a corner of the lobby in this luxurious hotel?  I would never have expected it, but I'm sure glad I found it.  The burgers, fries and shakes are amazing!

Here is my plane as it approaches New York City.  This page is a scraplift of a layout I saw last year in a copy of Scrapbook Trends magazine.  I loved the multiple hanging banners and wanted to make a page just like it.  In the time it's taken me to post this page, I've lost track of the original artist, but if it's you (or you know who I can give credit to) please leave a comment and I will properly thank the original designer.

Since I was alone at the gate on my way home (my brother was flying directly to Edmonton) I brought some scrapbooking supplies with me to keep me busy while I waited to depart. What better thing to scrap about while at an airport than the city you visited!  The Smash album I used was compact and easy to work with on my lap.  I completed two, double-page spreads on my lap at the gate!  It was truly the icing on the cake of a fantastic trip.

A Few More Overdue Layouts

If I'm ever going to get caught up with the layouts I want to post, I'm going to have to get cracking! Here is the layout I mentioned in this post.  The photos here are older photos back when Evan was still playing soccer.

If I wait until I have the journaling complete for many of my layouts, I'll never get them up.  So here is a page I created from a Basic Grey page kit by Kelly Goree, which I showed a peek of here.  This is one of the first pages I created about Merlin.  Basic Grey page kits are sure an easy way to get layouts completed at crops when there is a ton of chatting going on while scrapping!




I posted about this layout here. I had a lot of fun creating this page about the trip Stephen and I took to the Bahamas, just the two of us.  I will get around to journaling on this layout one of these days. 

You can see more about our vacation to the Bahamas here.

Alberta Adventures

Back in this post about our trip to Edmonton, I mentioned that I had so many more pictures to share about our travels throughout Alberta. Here is a little look at all the fun we had.

The kids and I went to Banff with my brother Chris and visited the beautiful Banff Springs Hotel.

The lobby was stunning. The kids thought it looked spectacular and posed for this shot!

While we were there we took a trip to the hot springs. Chris had been there before, but it was a first for me and for the kids.

One of the most fun things for the kids about visiting with Grannie is telling her stories, bringing her pizza, ice tea and cookies and just having fun!  Grannie sure loves seeing the kids, as you can see in her face here!

We took a couple of trips to West Edmonton Mall, including a trip to Galaxyland for rides, games and junk food, another for waterpark fun and - of course - shopping!

We were lucky enough to spend a day with Chris' in-laws in Calgary and enjoyed some time at the beach near their home.

The next day we drove to Drumheller to spend the day at the Royal Tyrrell Museum.  Once again, it was a first for me as well as for the kids, and we absolutely loved it.

The kids each poured a fossil cast and they spent some time learning about fossils.

Here we are with the badlands in the background.  Notice something in the lower left corner of this photo?  The kids thought it was adorable that he popped into the photo with them! :-}

My brother Howard, his wife Trish and their two boys met us in Drumheller and we had dinner together at a local restaurant before heading back to Edmonton.  Here, the kids have fun together posing outside the restaurant with a dinosaur friend. It was definitely a whirlwind trip.  We packed a lot of fun into the week.  Although the sights and shopping were fun, visiting with family was definitely the highlight of the trip.

After our week in Edmonton, we almost needed a rest!  But a few weeks later we took a trip to Montreal to drop the kids off at camp and to visit with my Mom's side of the family on the South Shore.


I'll share a few photos of that visit sometime soon!

Coming Soon to your Mailbox...

I'm looking forward to September 1st, when the fall 2013 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine hits the stands. One of my layouts will be inside, so check your mailbox or local magazine stand then - or I will post a peek in the next little while. Stay tuned! :-}

December Daily Album Christmas 2011

I previously showed a little peek into my very first December Daily album, which I gave to Stephen this past Christmas. The album celebrates the Christmas of 2011, so by now the photos in it are almost two years old, but I finished this album just in time for Christmas 2012. The whole family LOVES this album, and I'm so happy to be sharing highlights of it here.

 I first heard about the concept of documenting each December through daily photos in a mini scrapbook album through Ali Edwards December Daily project.  Even though I have been taking daily December photos since 2008, this is the first year that I actually have created an album around the photos.

My first December Daily album is a 6 x 6 mixed media album containing a combination of clear acrylic, chipboard and page protector pages.  The image above shows the front cover, an acrylic page with a transparency layered over it.  You can see below that the pages alternate randomly between page protectors, chipboard pages and clear acrylic sheets.

 I used a tag on the inside cover.  Part of the challenge of using clear acrylic pages is that you must plan both the front and back of each page, since the page is clear and the back of one page shows right through to the next.

 Before starting each of the calendar pages, I added an introduction page.  The image is of the Christmas wreath on our front door.

 The page for December 1st shows the bus stop with a little layer snow that fell just in time for December to begin.  The pages I've shown so far have been acrylic.

 Back then, our cat Smokey was a new arrival and such a sweet tiny kitten.  On this chipboard page for December 5th, Stephen is helping Merlin get to know Smokey.  Aren't the cute??

Below is a double page spread with a page protector on the left and a chipboard page on the right.  I've documented our every day life in December, not just Christmas-related activities.  On the December 7th page, Evan celebrates his first Black Friday haul.  On the right, I took photos at Parents' Day at the girls' dance class.

Decorating our home for Christmas is one of my favourite parts of the holiday season.  I journaled digitally directly on some of the photos for this album.  On the right, the kids visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

One of our traditions during the holidays is making Christmas cookies.  The kids are increasingly taking over the design and creation of our culinary masterpieces.

Even though I included just one page for the days leading up to Christmas, I included more than one page for December 24th and 25th, which were quite rich with activities.  And below is the back cover of the album, which displays our family Christmas photo from that Christmas.  I hope you've enjoyed this little (belated) look at my December Daily project.  Maybe it will give you some ideas for the 2013 Christmas season! 

Summertime in Edmonton

I have a lot of photos from our Edmonton visit in July; too many to post them all, but I do want to share some highlights. We were lucky enough to have a lot of family together at the same time, so I thought I would start with some of the family shots.

First, here I am with Mom and my three. It's too bad that Stephen wasn't able to make the trip and be in the photo with us.

Part way through our visit, my Mom's two sisters, Juliet and Marion, along with Marion's husband Bill, arrived in Edmonton to visit with Mom and all of us too. Left in the next photo are Chris and his wife Lisa, along with daughter Aeden, followed by Marion and Juliet behind Mom's wheelchair.  Marion's husband, Bill, is behind Evan.

When my Mom and her sisters were young, someone somehow coined a funny phrase, referring to them as "three smart girls."  Well, through the years, every time they are together, one of us inevitably brings up the topic, which is a great reminder for us to take a photo of the three of them.  So, here is the "three smart girls" photo from the trip!

Most of the time we were too large a group to visit in Mom's room, so we were downstairs in the lobby area of her building.  We did spend a few afternoon visits upstairs though.  Here, the kids and I visit with Aeden and their Grannie.

This turned out to be the only photo I managed to get of just the six grandchildren together.  Unfortunately, it's not a stellar shot, but they kids do seem to be enjoying one anothers' company.

Below is Chris, Lisa and Aeden with Mom.

And next, Howard, Trish with Grannie along with their two boys, Jared and Nathan.

And finally, here is one of my favourites - Mom with her three kids and her six grandkids.  What a fantastic bunch!  The day this photo was taken, Mom sure had a fantastic time soaking in all of the family togetherness (not to mention the pizza and ice tea!)

I have more photos of some of the sights we saw and things we did, which I will share in a separate post.  Thanks for looking!

As seen in Canadian Scrapbooker

I mentioned a few posts ago that this page was published in the Spring 2013 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker magazine. It's in the Leave your Legacy article by the awesome Sue Sykes on the topic of embracing change. The layout is about the dramatic changes that took place when I decided to move to Toronto. I didn't plan to stay in Ontario at the time, I thought I would work here for a few years and head back west. The decision to stay was an unexpected one.

Did you know that I used to work at the CN Tower?  It was a fantastic place to be, at a very dynamic time in the Tower's history.  I wanted this photo to show present the Tower from an different and interesting angle, to represent the fresh perspective and wonderful segue that job gave me in my life at the time.



If you know me well, you know about my love for photographing sun flares, and this photo of the Tower shot into the bright sunshine is one of my favourites! 

Published on the same two page spread are stunning layouts from my wonderful friends Sue Sykes and Amanda LePage, as well as someone I'm looking forward to meeting at a crop coming up this September, Christa Uttley. I am completely thrilled to be in such amazing company!

If you haven't had a chance to see this magazine yet, Spring 2013 is a wonderful issue, so you should really check it out. A copy is available on back order from Canadian Scrapbooker here. Enjoy!