Sweetest Little Baby Face

Could this face be any sweeter?

This adorable little tot is Renee, the beautiful daughter of our friends Marcela and Chris. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with this sweetheart last night, and the kids absolutely adore her. Her big sister Chloe is equally as sweet and equally revered - by our girls in particular. The evening exploded into a fun costume party with a plethora of princesses and one scurvy pirate.

I have a few more pics to add later, but this is my favourite. And with a subject so pretty, can you blame me?

A peek at my Aperture Assignment

I've started the first assignment for my ScrapAbility Photography 201 class.

This class is geared to those of us who want to finally take our cameras off of Auto, and explore the manual settings. So far, so good, although I would have to admit that compared to how quickly I am used to shooting in Auto, it is definitely slower going. I guess a learning curve is expected, though!

Here is (a small part of) my ribbon collection, shot at f4.5. I shot these at a variety of aperture settings, and I think I might be getting the hang of it. This is my favourite pic of the group. More to come!

The Next Chapter for Scrapalicious

It's an exciting time for the wonderful scrapbooking store based in Mississauga, Ontario - Scrapalicious.ca. The unveiling of ShopScrapalicious.com, the new online version of Scrapalicious, just happened this week, and it's such a fantastic thing. If you are not close enough to drop by the store in person, you just have to check it out. Click here!

I'm so excited for Lancia, Mike and the entire crew at Scrapalicious as they embark on this exciting new venture. Congratulations!

If There's a Pot of Gold...

...at the end of the rainbow, then someone living in this neighbourhood must have a huge cauldron of wealth right in their backyard.

Doesn't this rainbow look close enough to touch?

This is the view we had when we came out of a birthday party a few nights back. It had just stopped raining as the kids were heading out the door and they were all in absolute awe of this rainbow. It was 8:30 at night but the sky was completely illuminated.

Natural beauty like this is sure multiplied when it is shared with a group of curious and fascinated children!

Sweeter than His Ice Cream Cake!

Isn't he sweet!

Our girls were invited to this little guy's 4th birthday party and I took some photos for the family. I think this one is my favourite. Look at those eyes the size of saucers. Isn't he the sweetest? I could just eat him up! We all had a fantastic time.

Scrapalicious June/July DT Kit Creations

Well, here they are - four layouts from my Scrapalicious.ca June/July Design Team kit. I really enjoyed working with the beautiful scalloped and die-cut papers from the Narratives' Honeydew collection by Creative Imaginations. These papers are so lovely to look at whole, that - I didn't realize it until I was done - I didn't cut a single piece of the patterned paper! It was just too beautiful to take a cutter to. I loved the phrase sticker sheets as well, they were so much fun! So, here they are.

First, I layered a Hambly transparency over this page and added a big title using BG, Pressed Petals and K & Co. alphas together with a Prima flower. Prism cs, EK letter stickers, AL stamp and a smidge of Daisy D's pp round it out.
The pic is of my bff, Cathryn, who is one of the most colourful personalities you could ever meet! It was totally cool to scrap her.
Here's my dude who just turned 7. I think he's too cute for words, but then again, I may be a bit biased!
The lime green was such fun to scrap with, and I added some AC Thickers for the title in lime also (white E for Evan). Arrows are more AC, mini letters are more EK, a MAMBI chipboard circle and some misc ribbon pull it all together. Journaling around the ouside lists all of his loves at this age.
Mmmmmm, this photo makes me long for a vacation. This was the view from a room a few years ago on our Mexican holiday.

I had fun digging out the old crimping tool for this one! Check out the crimped aqua cs! Prism cs, HS letters and more EK stickers, CI big brads in the corners, AL buttons, Li'l Davis flocked chipboard and the cute little boat is by Fancy Pants.
Finally, these are pics that my girls have been after me to scrap for a while now! They just love their gymnastics class. And their antics are so cute!

Chipboard brackets and stars are Fancy Pants, more AC Thickers and Pressed Petals alphas, HS paint, and EK letter stickers.

All of these should be in the Scrapalicious Icing Crew DT gallery shortly. Check it out! And thanks for looking!

When You're Young at Heart...

...it shows, regardless of how many birthdays you have.

It's my brother Chris' birthday, and I think he is still as young at heart as he was 10 years ago. Maybe younger! This photo is quite typical of his playful spirit. Taken a few years ago when he was visiting us from out west, he had just finished a quite lengthy game of frisbee with Evan, when they both jumped on the swings. It was certainly a fun afternoon for all!

An accomplished musician, singer, actor, and even a bit of a dancer, Chris is quite the talented guy. In fact, I think he received a disproportionate number of talent genes in the on-stage department in our family (seeing as when it comes to singing, I received no talent genes!)

That said, I guess it's a good thing that I'm typing - and not singing - Happy Birthday Chris. Have a wonderful weekend!

Don't You Just Love Summer?

Seeing as this is only my fifth month as a blogger, I haven't yet spent a winter looking for topics to post about. I'd venture a guess, though, that it is much easier to find cool things to post about in the warmth of summertime. Take something simple like a backyard pool - what a blast!
The kids have simple fun in our pool every weekend, and I haven't yet tired of the photo ops it offers. It seems every weekend this summer has been another adventure, a huge opportunity for family togetherness and fun. So prepare yourself now - my winter posts may not be nearly as exciting!
We spent Saturday afternoon at a local butterfly conservatory, which the kids talked about for the rest of the weekend. They all loved the beautiful and colourful butterflies, and raced after them, pointing out the most colourful ones, wanting me to capture them in pictures.
They also stared for a long time at the hatchery. I think they were waiting impatiently for a butterfly to emerge! It made for a wonderful afternoon. I did capture a few interesting shots, but found the most beautiful butterflies a bit elusive. Oh well - I think we'll be back!

I'm So Excited...

...and I just can't hide it!

I recently received the news that I was selected to be the Guest Designer for the month of August 2007 at The Scrapping Nook. I'm thrilled to be joining their fantastic team for the month. It will be great fun! You can check out the great gals on their current DT here.

Way back in 2005, I googled the word "scrapbooking", and my entire life changed. My passion for this wonderful hobby exploded, I found like-minded crafters online, and I went to my first crop. And guess where it took place? At The Nook. I did my first heat embossing and set my first eyelet at their crop table. And I met the fantastic group of gals pictured here. I'm headed to another Nook crop in a few weeks, and many of the same gals will be present.

Situated between St Catharine's and Niagara Falls, if you haven't been to The Nook, you have to go! Say "Hi" to Patti and Elia and the staff for me - they are truly some of the nicest people you could ever meet. Or visit them online here.

Thanks so much to The Scrapping Nook for this fantastic opportunity!

Our Canada Day rocked!...and rolled!

Hey, Mr. DJ put a record on,
I wanna dance with my baby!

Music...
Makes the people...
Come together...
Yeah!

I believe that we have the world's youngest Madonna worshipper living in our home! While most kids her age spend time watching Strawberry Shortcake videos, Alicia's favourite DVD is Madonna live in concert from London at the Live8 concert a few years back. She knows a lot of the lyrics and the dance moves too.

Here she is, Canada Day morning, in her Canada t-shirt, ready to celebrate.

Isn't she the sweetest rocker ever?!

After spending the afternoon at a local park enjoying a magic show, some rides, games, prizes and good food, we took a long walk through the neighbourhood while Evan rollerbladed along side of us. He's certainly getting great use out of the rollerblades he got for his birthday. I almost couldn't keep up!

In addition to relaxing in the yard, singing O Canada! (in both English and French) and lighting a few sparklers before bedtime, we also spent some time with family over the weekend, did a bit of shopping, and went to a local splash pad.

And after everyone else was in bed, I stayed up late (later than any human being should, according to my sweet hubby) and scrapbooked into the wee hours of the morning.

Have I mentioned that I love long weekends?

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful holiday as well, and wish those to the south celebrating their holiday today all the best.

Cheers!

Sneaking a Peek

It's time to celebrate!

Not only are we celebrating Canada Day today, which - in our house - is an all day celebration, but I'm also happy for another great reason.

I scrapped this weekend. Wahoo! It feels so good.

So, here is a tiny peek at what I have created so far with my Scrapalicious June/July Design Team kit.

There will be more to come, but until then, enjoy! And Happy Canada Day!

Soccer Insanity

Am I really a scrapbooker? Sometimes I wonder. I feel like I haven't set up my supplies and scrapped in ages. Life just gets in the way! I am craving a bit of time to play with paper - I'm hoping it comes this weekend!

School's officially out for the summer, and now it's soccer season!

We are back and forth to the soccer field a few times a week, since all three kids are participating this year.

It's the girls' first season, and I had forgotten how cute it is to watch 4 year olds play soccer for the first time. The most common thing we seem to be shouting is "No! The other way!"

The kids are also busy trying hard to ride their bikes; the girls are on their first two-wheeled bikes, with training wheels, of course, and Evan is going to give it a try without training wheels. Evan is also big into the rollerblades he got for his birthday.

After last weekend's golf tournament, Evan has decided that he wants to give golf a try, so that is high on the priority list too. Stephen is going to try to get him to the driving range a few times before the summer is out.

Another thing coming soon for me is my next photography class through ScrapAbility. It's time to take my Nikon off of Auto and play. Wahoo! I can't wait. I'll squeeze in the time somehow!


So we are hopping! It's fun, but crazy and hectic. I hope to grab a moment to scrap about it sometime soon. Maybe even tonight!

Going, going...gone!

What a great way to celebrate that last day of school! Not only did Evan say good-bye to class for the summer yesterday, but he said good-bye to his very first lost tooth!
The excitement happened about half an hour before the last bell rang before summer vacation. I guess Evan didn't want to leave the school year behind without joining most of his friends - many who lost their first tooth quite a while ago.


Congrats on that very first lost tooth, dude!


The girls also said good-bye this week to their gymnastics class. They love the antics they get into at the gym, and it certainly helps them burn off some energy.


Their teacher, Beth, is so patient with them, particularly when they call her "Beck", which no amount of correcting them will change. They're both convinced that "Beck" is actually her name. She takes it all in good stride though!


So now it's goodbye gymnastics, hello soccer season!

Holly & Connie's Excellent Adventure!

A little while ago, I posted a cool story of how Connie and I, who have known each other through scrapping boards for years now, figured out that we lived a few blocks apart for a while as kids, then worked at the same McDonald's restaurant in high school. Check out the original story here.

Well, we finally met in person last week when Connie and her boys travelled to Ontario to visit her sister and family. We crammed so much into that short afternoon that my head is still spinning. We ate a delicious lunch, then drove around the city to shop at 2 different scrapbook stores, all while talking a mile a minute, and comparing notes and names of who we remembered from our McDonald's days. Then we headed back to her sister's beautiful home, where I met some of the family.

Connie's adorable boys are regularly featured in her scrapbook pages, which you probably have seen around, as she designs for Scraptivity and is a contributor to Canadian Scrapbooker magazine. And the boys are even more cute in person.

It was a whirlwind visit, but I'm so glad we squeezed it in. We did remember to grab one quick photo op. Here we are after a bit of shopping at Scrapalicious. Connie is now home safe and sound, and I can't wait until my next trip to Edmonton, where we can hook up again!

A Heartwarming Story of Health and Heroes

This past Saturday, Stephen, the kids and I were lucky enough to attend a golf tournament for a little boy, Trevor, who has Hurler Syndrome, a disease in the MPS family.

Trevor needed a bone marrow transplant 10 years ago to stop both physical and mental deterioration that would - without treatment - eventually kill him. Since no one in his family was a match, he had to turn to the Canadian Blood Services Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry, and was lucky enough to find an exact match. Trevor is now 11 years old, and very healthy, 10 years post-transplant.
It's wonderful to see him at this age, seeing that MPS kids, untreated, are not expected to reach their 10th birthday.

The golf tournament celebrated Trevor's decade of good health, and also recognized his unrelated, then-anonymous bone marrow donor from 10 years ago.

That donor is my hero, my husband Stephen!

The photos above show Stephen with Trevor at the first tee, as well the two of them with Trevor's dad Kenny. Below is Stephen with Trevor's mom Maureen.

We have become close to the family after Trevor made it past the 2 year post-transplant wait that CBS enforces, before they allow unrelated donors and recipients to share personal information. It's nice that we live so close together (just over an hour apart), seeing as the registry is national, so a bone marrow recipient could live anywhere in Canada.



Like the rest of our family, I am so proud of both Stephen and Trevor. They truly are my heroes!

If you are interested in reading more about Hurler Syndrome and MPS, click here.

For information on Canada's Unrelated Bone Marrow Registry, see this page, or for other information about Canadian Blood Services, look here.

A Splash of Random Tidbits!

The new addition to our backyard this weekend was a BIG hit!

The kids splashed, laughed and were LOUD pretty much all weekend! The weather was wonderful, so we were able to hang out in the pool until well past dinner time.
The girls actually outlasted their brother on Sunday. It can be hard sometimes to believe that these two are twins. They're not identical, and sure have unique personalities! It's less obvious, though, until a photo like this that there is such a huge difference in their height. They definitely don't have identical hair, either!
They are very best friends, though, and get along perfectly (most of the time!)

One of the things I love most about summer is the time we spend outdoors. This past weekend couldn't have been more perfect. These are the weekends that kids' memories are made of.

I feel a scrapbook page (or two) coming on!

Father's Day Fun!

We had a fantastic Fathers' Day weekend, with great weather all weekend, lots of family, a few friends and a ton of fun. Of course, Fathers' Day wouldn't be complete without a BBQ dinner with Daddy and Grandpa.

I love the boys' family resemblance in this photo.

We had a wonderful weekend, spent mostly outdoors. Non-stop and exhausting, but wonderful. Hope yours was great, too.

This weekend's Honey Do list!

This weekend, my list was more of a Honeydew list - aka the Honeydew collection from Narratives by Creative Imaginations.

I'm thrilled to be working with this line as my DT kit from Scrapalicious for June/July. It's so perfect for summer, and SO many other things. My mind is all a whirl!

Stay tuned for some creations with this fabby stuff - coming soon!

Scrapalicious Icing Crew Crop

The Scrapalicious Icing Crew crop this week was doubly fantastic for me. I had a great time, and - guess what? - I actually completed a page too! Wahoo!

Scrapping with Jen, Mary, Angie and Virginia is always a blast. Lancia and Mike were hanging out with us for part of the time, too. It's so great to be with folks who love chatting about scrapping as much as I do. And hey - we ate well, too!

I've been working on this LO of Emily & Adam's wedding for 2 crops now, and I finally finished it. I hope the title worked as I wanted it to - it says Hearts United (highlighting their initials E & A in the word Hearts).

One more thing - at the crop, I picked up my June DT kit, so you know what that means - sneakie peekie coming soon!

Pensive Princesses

June is such a busy month! Our winter and spring activities are not quite wrapped up yet, school is still in, but summer activites are already started. It seems like we are tripping over recitals, games and performances a few times a week.

One event this week was the girls' summer ballet recital. It was adorable. Their group dance was performed to Walking On Sunshine. They did a bit of ballet and a taste of jazz too. At the end they posed with their class for one last photo.

Saying goodbye to their little friends for the summer left them a little sad, but they looked sweet nonetheless. See you in September!

A Definite Summer Sign

Swimming hair and a happy smirk. Our weekend ROCKED!

Despite a storm on Friday night, the rest of the weekend's weather was beautiful! How was your weekend?

I'm looking forward this week to an Icing Crew crop at Scrapalicious. I had such a great time at the last one, however I do hope to be a bit more productive this time (I need to do less chatting and more scrapping!) I have to bring back the LO I worked on last month, since it still isn't finished!

I'll post a sneak peek of my June DT kit as soon as I can. Stay tuned!

A Few Summer Layouts, Too!

When these a2z essentials papers came out, they just screamed summer to me. These are not new LOs (I've been hungry to scrap, but I've been soooooo busy - my scrapping supplies are getting lonely!), but these LOs epitomize summer in my mind. So, in keeping with the theme of my last post on the meaning of summer, here are two summery LOs.

I participated in a 2006 2peas challenge using the AL Designing With 2006 Calendar.
These two LOs were inspired by various days in that calendar. The first LO suggested "vary the rub ons in your title", and the lower was based on "create a sun on your LO".

I have the 2007 calendar, but unfortunately I have simply not had the time to keep up with participating this year. Still love the calendar, though, and the challenge is bigger than ever.

I think I've become a tiny bit better since then at photographing my LOs at a decent 90 degree angle! I wasn't up to digging out these LOs and re-taking the pics, so you'll have to pretend with me that they're straight!

I hope these LOs got you into the mood for your sunhat, a patio chair and a tiny umbrella in your drink!

Signs of Summer Challenge

I was totally inspired last week when I read the blogger's challenge on the 2peas pub board. The challenge was to blog a list of your favourite things about summer. OK, so it took me a week to get to it, but I did it!

Here's what I love about summer!

- Warmth. Living where it is cold almost 8 months of the year leaves me really looking forward to warm weather!
- Colour. I love flowers, but since I can't seem to keep them alive at all, I have to settle for our perennials and a few planters (all I need to do is water these once in a while).
- BBQ season & eating outside on the patio
- swimming in outdoor pools
- laying in the sun and reading a book
- taking the kids to the splash pad
- playing on the swings with the kids
- fresh flowers in the house
- slushy drinks
- iced cappuccinos from Tim Hortons (I usually have to share these with the kids!)
- bike rides
- roller blading
- walks through the woods or to the park
- bare legs, sandals and painted toenails (on me and on the girls!)
- taking the kids on rides at the Ex or summer fairs
- popsicles
- daylight until very late in the evening
- heading to friends' cottages
- outdoor lighting (great for photography)!
- coconut smelling sunscreen - mmmmmmmm!

Feel free comment on your favourite things about summer. I would love to hear from you!

From the pages of Architectural Digest?

Lately, I have had the song "We Built this City" in my head non-stop. And I must apologise, since now, you probably do too!

But I can't help it. I took a trip yesterday to Evan's school to see the city that his grade one class built. Evan's contribution was this cute little Swiss Chalet.

We had a lot of fun building it together at home, using a kleenex box, kraft paper, chipboard, Aleen's white glue, and outcast scrapping supplies. I couldn't resist letting him use a supercool American Crafts chipboard arrow, to direct the little purple car through the drive thru, though.

It's always nice to stop in and visit Evan in the classroom. He tends to be bursting with pride, and this time was no exception. Love that little serious quirky look on his face while he poses with it. He's my sweetie!

BTW, did you know that We Built this City was voted Worst Record Ever? Another little tidbit of info that you can chew on as you sing this song in your head all afternoon - sorry! {{{grin}}}}

A Little Bit of Nostalgia

In the days before acronyms like CHA, LO, PP and LMAOPIMP were a meaningful part of my vocabulary, I spent my days buried in SPE, SDLC, MLC, DNA, PIT, PDA, and IMEI! If you have any idea what any (or all) of those mean, then you probably shared some time (maybe a LOT of time) with me at Consilium Place. I dropped by for a quick visit there yesterday!

I still find I hard to believe that I let two years pass between my last drive to work and my first trip up to 16 to get a visitor's pass! Wow! And while the building looks very much the same (except maybe the pay parking station!), so much more has changed. The 10th floor was cluttered with so many new faces, and while Robin, Mike G. and I sat in the lobby beside Pumpernickle's, I found it hard to believe how few faces I knew.

That said, I was thrilled to be greeted with wonderful, familiar faces, even on such short notice.

It is always wonderful to see Heidi. I loved seeing Robin's pictures of little Matthew, and it was fantastic to hear that Mike G. is engaged! We did a quick drive-by past Jane, who was in a meeting, and then visited at Michele C.'s cube, where Andrew joined us, and - believe it or not - no-one had to come by and sush us (even though we were a tiny bit loud!)


There were so many more people that I miss, and would loved to have seen this time around. Of course, Candace and Laura Lea, you may be back before my next visit (and hey LL, I KNOW you're reading this - drop me a line!). Crina, Lisa B., Jane and David K., I will plan better next time so that hopefully you won't be out of the office or in meetings. I promise that next time it won't be another 2 years!

Enjoy this photographic trip down memory lane. I think that each of you is in at least one of the photos here. And hey - if any of the pictures don't load, or your browser crashes, I've been told apparently the thing to do is to blame it on Provisioning Re-design!

Peace for Marie

This morning, my Mom's late cousin Stanley's wife, Marie, was laid to rest. It's been a long haul for Marie since Stanley passed away a number of years ago, and now they are united in a better place. I think it's truly been what she has been dreaming about since Stanley left her for Heaven.

Long before she married into our family, Marie was my mother's friend and classmate. This Teddy Bear's Picnic photo of my Mom's class at school is infamous in my family.

My Grannie was an outstanding seamstress, and made my Mom a large teddy bear for this special day. As the story goes, when my mom arrived at school with her fantastically large bear, Marie took one look at it and immediately fell in love. She would have loved to have taken mom's bear home, but settled for swapping bears for the photo instead.

My mom is in the bottom right corner of the photo (holding Marie's small bear), and Marie is third from the left in the front row (holding my mom's large bear)! My Mom loves to tell this story.

Marie and her beloved Stanley are now together in a better place. Peace, Marie.

Another Scavenger Hunt Photo

Here is another photo I submitted for the Scavenger Hunt in my photography class at ScrapAbility.ca. The assignment was to capture a photo that represented what was important to us in life, but without taking a self-portrait. Here is the photo I chose. It had to be a photo that I had taken during the course. This is a photo of my son and brother-in-law in our backyard on a sunny afternoon.

I chose this photo to symbolize me because:
- it displays exuberance and zest for life, which I posses (I think so anyway!)
- it shows the love and support of family being together, which is so important to me
- they are experiencing joy, which is an important part of life to me

- they are enjoying a weekend afternoon outdoors, which I also love
- it is warm and sunny, which is my favourite type of weather
- they are in our backyard, one of the places I love most in the world

I converted this photo to b&w as I took it in full sun at a family gathering, and I wanted to reduce the distracting effect of the shadows and sun spots.

I welcome any feedback or ideas, so feel free to leave a comment. I would love to hear from you!