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.

Some Summery Layouts

After posting so many Christmas layouts, I thought I would throw in a few warm weather pages in hopes that it brings us beautiful sunshine for the upcoming week. The two pages here are layouts I created last summer up at Uncle Danny's cottage. I posted little peeks and a bit of the story behind each of them in this post. The first layout is about Vanessa's first time riding a bigger bike that used to be Evan's. She was so excited!


This next layout, as its title implies, is about Stephen's affection for our dog, Merlin.

I really had to talk Stephen into getting a dog. He was apprehensive about whether a dog fit into our lifestyle. He didn't like the idea of being limited by having to be home in time for to feed the dog everyday and let him outside. He hated the thought of not being able to impulsively take weekend trips or overnight family outings because of the dog. He also was worried about dog hair in the house and having his favourite shoes chewed!


As it turned out, who lets the dog up on the furniture, picks him up and calls him "my lap dog", cuddles with him and even lets him up on the bed? Based on this layout, I'm sure you can guess!

A Few More Layout Peeks

I hope all of my Canadian family and friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend filled with colourful falling leaves, fragrant food, fall fairs and the love of family and friends. It was my plan to photograph layouts for uploading this weekend but it didn't happen, so I will have to get to it this week. So all I have are more peeks to share.

These glimpses are of more pages I created up at Uncle Danny's in August. The first is about Vanessa and how long she has wanted to inherit Evan's old yellow bike. It's been truly ridden into the ground and she has a shiny new bike of her own, but something about growing into her big brother's bike is a milestone for her.

The second layout is about Stephen's love for our pup, Merlin. He didn't want to get a dog, and only relented because I formed a persuasive enough argument about how great it would be for the kids. Now he is completely smitten!

I hope to spend a bit of time in my scrapbook room this week so should manage to get the layouts fully photographed and uploaded by then. After all - it's Scrapfest Oshawa this weekend! Woo hoo - I am so excited! Amanda is here from Saskatchewan and staying with Sue this week so that she can travel with her to the crop. Also coming are Jen, Leanne and her sister Kim, and my cousin Sharon. We are going to rock that crop, aren't we, ladies! I'm so looking forward to it.

Have a great week! Stay tuned and I'll post some layouts soon!

100 Photos of Summer

The weather here has been incredibly hot and sunny, and we have managed to take full advantage of the warmth with busy days and restful nights (or the occasional nap on our pup Merlin!) The kids and I have managed to visit many of our loved ones, and I even took them to their first drum corps show, which they LOVED! :-}

The kids all did piano exams towards the end of the school year, and all of them did well. In keeping with the drum corps theme mentioned above, Evan has started drum lessons and is enjoying them a lot. He is looking forward to playing drums in the band at school next year. The rest of the family - we've been (mostly) taking the drumming practice in stride!

I haven't managed to do very much scrapbooking, but I did spend one short night of chatting and hanging out with my sweet pal Sue, the night before this scary event happened. I'm glad I was able to help her out at during such a rough patch, and I'm thrilled that Gary is now improving more and more each day.

We've managed to spend quite a bit of time outdoors - yes, some of it has even been spent riding bikes in our pyjamas! :-} I'm taking part in the second annual 100 photos of Summer challenge at Scrapping Nook once again, and the photos in this post will be part of my entry. I posted about last year's entry here.  I'm hoping to be able to add more as the season moves along.

Soccer has been a big part of our summer this year. I'm sure I'll have more soccer photos to post, as I've literally taken hundreds of them!  I'm looking for a variety of shots to fulfill the photo challenges, so I hope you'll enjoy this little peek into what we've been up to. I also hope your summer is turning out to be as much fun as ours!

T is for Technology!

When you combine a new Macbook Pro, a (somewhat) new look and feel to blogger, a (similarly somewhat) new look and feel to photobucket and the crazy schedule of three kids and a business, what do you get?  Nothing, that's what!  Nothing on my blog, that is, for more than two months!  Man, that's quite the hiatus for me - a longer break than I've ever taken from blogging. 

All of the technology changes have made a quick post less than quick, so even posting something short and sweet has been a bit daunting

But it's been a good hiatus for our family - a bit hectic, but filled with sunshine, swimming, recitals, visits with cousins, as well as great report cards and piano exam marks!

Sadly, it's been filled with very little scrapbooking.  In my last post I mentioned skypebooking with Leanne over the NSD weekend.  Here is a little peek at one of the layouts I created that night.  It is from an awesome Kelly Goree class kit I purchased at Scrapfest, and it still needs journaling, but it's a cute tribute to our lovable pup, Merlin.

I've also started the Scrapping Nook's 100 Photos of Summer challenge once again this year.  I had so much fun doing it last year so I hope I can capture as many of the images this time around.  Stay tuned and I will add a few of those shots here.

Also upcoming for me and the kids - we're attending a drum corps show later this week.  Can't wait!  It will be a first for the kids, and I'm sure they'll love it, particularly now that Evan is taking drum lessons - yes, you read that correctly!  More on that to follow too, hopefully in less than two months! :-} 

In the interim, thanks for checking in here after such a long time, and I hope you're having a spectacular summer! 

Getting to Know You

I can't say they're best of friends yet, but they do seem to enjoy checking each other out! Merlin is almost a year old now, and he's tolerated the addition of our little Smokey quite well.

I've been having fun doing Project 365 this year. So far so good - I'll post more here whenever I can.

I still plan to post photos of my scrappy weekends in the next few days, so check back soon!

Cropping and Creating

I'm packed and ready to head out for a weekend of scrappy fun with Sue, Lori and Jen at Crop and Create this weekend, and I'm so excited! I haven't been to a crop far tooooo long! I'm also looking forward to seeing Virginia there, and if you're also on your way later today, let me know and we can visit too!

I'll admit, it was a bit of a late night last night getting organized - but look at how light I managed to pack! Yay me! I've never packed this light for a crop before. I'm hoping it's a bi-product of my OLW this year - Simplify, which, by the way, is also Virginia's word this year - don't great minds think alike? :-}

When you consider that a big part of what you are looking at in this photo is my camera bag, iPod speaker and laptop, there's really not all that much there! I packed three projects, quite a few photos, and I'm taking three classes while I'm there, so I managed to keep myself focused on only what I'm sure I'll need. Hopefully I'll come home with everything I brought finished!

Oh, and in case you were wondering - no, Merlin isn't cropping with us! He's staying home, and was just hanging out with me while I finished packing :-}

So check back next week and hopefully I will have some project to share. Have a great weekend!

Slow Down for a Moment

We interrupt your regularly scheduled holiday hectic-ness for a little fireside puppy love! Love is what this season is all about, after all! Aren't they cute?

OK, you may now return to your regularly scheduled Christmas shopping, baking and general craziness.

Never a Dull Moment...

Seeing as our life is not already busy enough . . . yes, we have adopted a kitten! How could we resist? This little guy and his five siblings were abandoned in a garbage dumpster outside our kids' school a few weeks ago. The kids chose him and named him Smokey before I even agreed to bringing him home!

So far he seems none the worse for wear and he has acclimatized well to his new home. The vet checked him out and he appears to be in good health and has doubled his weight in the past two weeks - a good sign. Merlin is very loving towards the kitten, but seeing as he doesn't seem to know his own strength, we have to keep meetings somewhat controlled for now.

Above, Stephen encourages Smokey as Merlin approaches. Hopefully they'll be best of friends soon enough!

Back to School for Another Year

Now that summer is over for another year, it's time for back to school. This summer flew by so quickly, it's amazing! It was a summer of the best weather we've had in years, we did so much, visited so much and had so much fun! Now the kids are excited about the school year, and I love the routine it provides!

Our new family member, Merlin, has fit in like a glove! The kids are stepping up and taking responsibility for his daily needs, which is a great experience for them. I walk out to the bus stop with them every morning, and they love bringing Merlin along to show off to their friends on the bus.

The kids love their teachers this year (and so do I)! Last week we fell easily into the school routine - can you see the bus in the distance? This week our activities start - piano, dance, hockey. . . no scrapping for me this week. But I do have projects and photos to post, hopefully soon!

On the subject of scrapbooking, I'm sad to say that Scrapalicious has decided to close its doors. For the past six years, Scrapalicious has been a wonderful community of fantastic people, and saying goodbye to the store is like losing an old friend. I'm happy for Lancia and Mike in their decision to move on to other chapters in their lives, but the hole left by Scrapalicious will be hard to fill for so many wonderful people! Hopefully we'll still find ways to crop and visit together!

If you're looking for a great deal on scrappy products, tools, store fixtures, or even just want to see Lancia, Mike, Pam, Debbie or Virginia, head to Scrapalcious before the end of September.

Making the Most of Summer

After a very rainy spring, we are having beautiful weather this summer, allowing us to spend a ton of time outdoors doing what we love. The kids are quite tanned after many hours in the pool. They just love water fights. The dog - not so much! He's definitely not going to be a swimmer.


The girls are honing their soccer skills at soccer camp this year, which has been a ton of fun. There are a number of good friends from school in our soccer league this year, so I'm not sure what the girls are enjoying more - the games or the after-game play time.


We just got back from our annual Montreal trip, where we had a fantastic time with many aunts, uncles and cousins. More about that will follow in a separate post - hopefully soon!

Enjoy your summer!

Worth 1000 Words

Things have been busy around our house as all of the kids' activities have their year-end events and the school year comes to an end. To add to the pandemonium of the season, we've added a new member to our family.

Meet Merlin. Hopefully the pictures tell the story, because I'm too swamped to post much more! Cheers!