Marimba Magic

Since Evan really enjoyed being at piano camp last summer, and this year he was old enough to attend marimba camp, we thought we would give it a try. He loved it! In just a week at camp he learned a lot about percussion instruments, and at the recital on Friday, he was able to give a quick description of the marimba he was playing. The campers were secret agents and they played Mission Impossible.

Fortunately, he didn`t come away from his week at camp wanting to play the drums! :-)

Animal Lover

Evan is such an animal lover. On Father`s Day we were visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, and Stephen`s brother Justin and his wife Rosa brought along their new puppy Tonka (an English bulldog, NOT a boxer - grin! See my post - here for that story). We were meeting Tonka for the first time, and Evan was completely taken with her. He is quite the little animal lover, that`s for sure. It`s been a while since I posted a layout, so I`m really happy to have a page to post. Can you tell that Evan would love to have a dog?

Maybe someday, Evan. For now, visits with Tonka will have to do!

Congratulations Zandra & Ray

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to attend a special party celebrating the 40th wedding anniversary of my cousin Zandra and her husband Ray. The party was held at my cousin Tara and her husband Mark`s beautiful home, and was hosted by cousins Alyson and her husband Anthony, along with Tara and Mark. We all had a wonderful time.

Unfortunately my Mom, who had travelled all the way here from Edmonton, and had come weeks early specifically to attend this party, ended up staying home with a case of shingles. Not fun! She`s far better now, though, and will be enjoying visiting with family in Montreal soon enough.

Isn`t this a lovely shot of Zandra and Ray? Still totally in love after 40 years. Congratulations!

Being Idolized

We've been Idol-ized! Evan and I were lucky enough to attend the Canadian Idol results show last night. We had a fantastic time. I have to say, CTV sure put everything together well and made it so easy to have a fantastic time at this very kid-friendly event. If you ever have an opportunity to attend a show, it is certainly entertaining and fun.
The pre-show was quick but fun with Ben Mulroney cracking jokes and making Evan laugh. There was no photography allowed during the performance, however as the show ended I managed to catch a quick shot of Katherine saying her goodbyes. Evan's favourite, Mookie and my gal, Amberly are still in the running.

The full experience included a t-shirt for Evan, a colour headshot of your favourite Idol, poster making prior to the show, autographs from Ben and the judges, and - lucky us - a quick photo op as we exited the building at the exact moment that Jaydee Bixby was being escorted to his car. It was a great evening for Evan, who had a blast, and probably will be talking about it for ages.

As for me - I'm a bit more stressed since I didn't spend the night working towards the scrappy deadlines I have looming, but tomorrow is another day! :-)

A Scrapbooker's Son

OK, I know you don't believe me, but I'm going to say it anyway. On the morning I took this photo, my son chose his own clothes and dressed himself. Really. I was quite impressed when I saw that he was wearing this GAP shirt, considering that one of my goals for the day was to take photos of that new gap from his missing front tooth.

We had a little Mom and son time that day while Stephen took the girls shopping, so we went to the park, and Evan was totally co-operative, letting me take quite a few photos. He's totally a scrapbooker's kid!

So with this photo, I plan to create a page for one of the Summer of '69 challenges over at The Scrapping Nook. One of the latest challenges is to let your photo tell the story, and not use any journaling. I think this photo works perfectly for that. Read more about the Summer of '69 challenges here.

Have a great weekend! I hope (aka NEED!) to get quite a bit of scrapping done.

More great Scrapalicious stuff

I've been feeling a bit euphoric lately.

Maybe it has to do with my latest Scrapalicious DT kit and the yummy product it's made up of, including Basic Grey's new Euphoria. I'm also thrilled with this beautiful Chatterbox release called artsy.licious. Add some stunning rhinestones from Prima, and it's no surprise I'm smiling.

I can't wait to start creating with this beautiful kit - but wait I'll have to! Despite that I haven't been posting many creations lately, I am actually scrapping away - and have enough on my plate to keep me busy until late July. I wish I could show it all off, and I will - once I can! :-)

What that means is that I won't be getting to this kit for a few weeks. Really - I can't wait. So until then, please stay tuned!

Definitely no Winter Blues here!

Earlier in the year, I had a great time participating in the Scrap Away Your Winter Blues challenge over at Scraptivity. The contest consisted of 12 layouts with a different requirements for each. It really forced participants to think outside of the box!

I love the layouts I created during this challenge, and also really enjoyed looking at everyone else's take on each technique. With so many great layouts and so much to see in the gallery during the challenge, winning the contest was icing on an already wonderful cake! Thank you so much to Scraptivity - Barb, Rebecca and everyone involved in making this challenge happen.

Here is a quick peek at the prize goodies that recently came in the mail. Stephen somehow thinks that now I won't have to buy any more scrapbooking supplies for the next year or so! Yes, I know it's quite the haul, but please tell me - where do men get these crazy ideas? :-)

You can see the layouts I created for this challenge here.

Surfer Dude!

We are so completely thrilled and proud of our little surfer dude!

Evan spent the first part of his summer vacation experiencing summer camp for the first time. We were fortunate in that he was able to attend the same camp as his cousin Kristian, and that made the transition so completely easy for him. Despite a case of strep throat and about a million inflamed bug bites, he had a fantastic time at camp. Yahoo!

(special thanks to camp staffer Dave G. for this awesome photo!)

Bag Lady

I'm totally in love with my new Amy Butler tote!

It's not only beautiful, but it's the quintessential scrapbooking bag. It's big enough to hold an Iris case or your favourite kit club box, as well as all of the scrapbooking essentials, along with your wallet and whatever you typically carry in a purse. It's so perfect to take to an evening crop; it's the only bag you need to bring. I'm thrilled to finally own one.

If you're not familiar with the amazing designs of Amy Butler, who created the beautiful fabric as well as the tote bag for K and Co., check out her lovely creations here.

I had an opportunity to buy this bag about 3 or 4 months ago when I saw it online for the first time.

I put it into my shopping cart and hesitated for a few minutes, thinking over my purchase. When I decided to go for it and went back to my computer to complete the transaction, the bags were sold out. I was so disappointed!

Well, fast forward to present day. A week or so ago I walked into Scrapalicious and there they were! Three beautiful, brand new Amy Butler totes. Well, this time, I didn't hesitate. I snapped one up faster than you can say "functional, as well as beautiful!"

If you've had your heart set on owning one of these beauties, hurry! Head to Scrapalicious before they are all sold out.

Boxer Shorts

Meet Tonka, the sweet, playful little puppy that my brother-in-law Justin and his wife Rosa just added to their family. We met Tonka for the first time on Father's Day, and while it was a short visit, the kids had a great time with her. Evan, in particular, spent a fair bit of time playing with her, and I took some cute photos of them getting to know each other.

Well, back at home, I printed off the photos of Evan's quick meeting with Tonka and began scrapping. I laid out the photos, tossed around some ideas in my head - and then a great title struck me - Boxer Shorts! A quick (short) meeting with the new puppy (boxer) - get it?

It was perfect!

So I started playing with title placement on my layout when Stephen came along. "What's up?" he asked. I was so excited about my perfect title. I just loved it. I proudly told him about it. I could tell instantly that he wasn't as impressed as I was.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Ummm, well....Tonka's a bulldog" was his answer.

Ooooooops. I guess I really don't know much about dogs!

Do any of you scrappers out there happen to have photos of a short meeting with a cute boxer puppy that you need to scrap? Feel free to use my title. It's back to the drawing board for me!

Fun in the Sprinkler

Next in the series of pictures I've taken for The Scrapping Nook's Photo Orienteering Challenge is this photo of the kids playing in the sprinkler over the Canada Day long weekend. This photo is for the current week's topic, which is "wet". You can get more information about this challenge by checking out this link.

I'm glad we had great weather over the long weekend. It was the first time we pulled out the sprinkler so far this summer, as it was the first day this year to be warm enough. The kids had a wonderful time.

To those of you who celebrate the 4th of July, here's wishing you a wonderful, fun-filled and safe time with your family and friends.

Photo Orienteering Challenge

As part of the Summer of '69 Challenge over at The Scrapping Nook, I've been participating in a Photo Orienteering Challenge. Every week, Patti and Elia will be posting a new item for us to photograph. I'll be posting some of my photos for this challenge, and here is the first one. The topic for this week was "feet". I took a photo of our daughters during a break at one of their soccer games.


Have some fun this summer, work on your photography and play along! You can find the details here.

Happy Canada Day!

Wow, 2008 is half way over already! I can barely believe that the first part of the year has flown this quickly, much less that it is Canada Day once again.

Today was probably the quietest Canada Day we have had in a lot of years. Grandma and Grandpa went to the local Ribfest on the weekend and took the kids along, which is what we often do on Canada Day. So since the kids had already been, we decided not to go. I didn't even do much in the photography department today, so here is a peek at a patriotic tot from a few years back. How lucky we are to be living in such a wonderful country. We make a big deal of Canada Day in our house, because we want to ensure that the kids know and appreciate how very blessed we are to be making our home in a country that is abundant and free. Wishing a blessed and happy Canada Day to you and yours!

Coincidentally, back when I went to my first CM party, I brought Canada Day photos and made my first page ever on that topic. Little did I know back then how big a part of my life this hobby would become.