Every Last Ounce!

Can you believe it is September already? We have been busy squeezing in every last ounce of summer. While Stephen and I enjoyed our time alone while the kids were at camp, we sure missed them, so now we're taking off as much time as we can and enjoying the summer warmth in the pool every chance we get!
When we drove to camp to pick the kids up, Sierra was waiting for us and came home with us to visit for a while. The kids have been having such a fantastic time with her. We took a day off this week and spend the whole day at the beach. We couldn't have asked for a better day. The sky was clear, the water was warm, the waves were soft . . . it was perfect!
Once upon a time we had a little boy with shortly cropped hair. No more! Evan has decided that he wants to wear his hair long. I tried taking him for a trim to keep the ends healthy, but he wasn't having any of it! His hair is so light from the sun this year. It reminds me a lot of photos of Stephen when he was little.
Sierra's little brother Kristian is once again in the Rising Star competition at the CNE. This year he has sung his way into the Finals this Sunday. He is such a talented young man, and we're so proud of him. Here are the links to his Youtube page and his Facebook fan page. Be sure to check him out!

Savouring Summer

I'll be posting a slide show of the rest of my Montreal photos soon, but in the interim, here is a little look at what else we've been enjoying this summer.

Evan was so excited to have his sisters joining him this year at camp for the first time. Here's a shot of them as we arrived at camp, ready to get started. I had the girls' hair braided to make it easy for them, and I love the way it looks! I'm already missing them, but I know they're learning and having fun!
After dropping off the kids, Stephen and I had our own little mini-vacation up at Lake Joseph. We had a beautifully relaxing time. The rain stayed away, the weather was just right and the food was excellent. We lay on the dock and read, went for a cruise to look at local cottages, and just spent time together.
Chris, Howard and Mom arrived at our house the week before our trip to Montreal. They toured our new house, went sight-seeing and spent some time here with us and the kids. We had Stephen's family and Indra over for a BBQ and wonderful visit one night that week. We then drove together to Montreal.
Since things were so hectic back around the time of the girls' birthday, we decided to wait to have their "birthday" party until the weather was nice. The theme was High School Musical, and the kids enjoyed a visit from "Gabriella" along with songs, games, food and fun. So perfect for a group of 7 year old girls!
Do you recognize this beautiful young woman? Kristen was the sweet little flower girl at our wedding, the one with her broken arm in a cast. We spent some wonderful time with friends this summer, including pool parties at Kristen's parents' home as well as at our friends Doug and Nicole's new house.
If there's been a consistent theme at our house this summer, it's been nature. The girls love frogs! They find them in the pool or on the BBQ;they love to play with them! When company comes, the girls show off the critters they find. Rob and Elise have visited with us (and frogs), as have Adam and his daughter Emma.

While we'll be sorry to see this summer end, I'm happy that we've managed to cram it full of wonderful people and things. We still have time left, but it sure is getting darker earlier now, a certain sign that our summer is coming to an end.

Like so many of us, my summer has been so busy that there's been little time for scrapbooking. But now that the kids are happily away at camp, I'm hoping I can squeeze some in before Labour Day.

I'll be back soon with my full Montreal slide show, as well as - hopefully - a few scrappy projects! Thanks for checking in with us. :-}

A Peek at our Summer Vacation

Every summer I look forward to packing up the kids and heading to Montreal for a reunion with my Mom's side of the family. This year, my Mom and my brothers Chris and Howard flew together to Toronto to visit us for a week, then made the drive to Montreal with me. Here we are at the party.
My grandparents had 11 children and I still find it amazing that there are only 15 grandchildren. Here are the nine of us that were there that day. Isabel, second from the left, traveled all the way from Texas. Isabel's two sisters, our Austrian twin cousins and our two youngest cousins are the only ones missing.
Eight of my grandparent's children are still living, and here are seven of them. Uncle Roy lives in Montreal, but unfortunately was taking cousin Theresa to the train station that day and didn't make it here for photos. Oldest to youngest (left to right) are Hilary, Ilma, Romie, Mannie, Julian, Juliet and Marion.
The gang's all here! This is the group of us at Ian and Ann's cottage that afternoon. Almost all of us are my grandparents' descendants, along with spouses and my cousin Zandra and her husband. We all took so many photos that day, but this one holds a ton of meaning. I hope there are even more of us next year!

We had a fantastic day and the rain held out until well after dinner. Overall, we were in Montreal for almost a week and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Each generation had a chance to spend time together as well as with the elders and youngsters. Chris spent a day with Theresa learning some long-held family culinary secrets, so I'm looking forward to seeing him whip up some traditional Guyanese dishes for our next reunion! :-}

My Mom's cousin Georgie from Connecticut and his daughter Lisa and hubby Greg spent a few days with us, and while they were gone before the reunion day, their ukulele playing inspired so many of us to break out in song! The kids always love a day at the pool, and they even talked my brothers and I into the water for some volleyball games (which - of course - the kids won!)

You can probably tell from the photos that this trip is always special and it means so much to spend time with my Mom's family every summer. I'm working on a slide show of photos of the trip, so stay tuned for that shortly!

I hope you are having a great summer too!

A Few New Layouts

When I say that these are new pages, I'm speaking relatively, since I created these pages back during the National Scrapboook Day weekend, and just haven't had a moment to post them yet. In fact, I'm holding this layout (sans journaling) in my NSD post! I had just bought the Bloomers the week I made this page, and was so anxious to use them. I used Maya Mist and ink to colour the alabaster laquered paper, then distressed the edges.
This photo was taken back when the girls were in kindergarten. Vanessa lost a tooth that day at school, and when I arrived to pick them up that night, she wanted a photo, but wanted her sister in it too. So sweet! If you look closely, the Prima swirl extends onto the photo and wraps around the little tooth in her hand.
The photo on this page is very special. It is the only photo I have of my great-grandmother on my father's side. My cousin sent it to me when I was creating my Mom's 80th birthday scrapbook, and I've been meaning to scrapbook it ever since. My great-grandmother's name was Eftina, and the family resemblance I see in this photo to my aunts and grandmother (and even myself) is quite amazing. We don't have a date for this photo, but it is likely from the early 1900s.
Journaling on this page tells how much I wish I knew more of my Dad's family when I was growing up. Eftina died before I was born. My grandmother lived away when I was growing up and died when I was 12. I barely remember meeting her. I wish I had had more of a chance to know that side of my family.

Swatches Class with Donna Downey

Taking a class from Donna Downey was a fantastic experience, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to upload my photos and blog about it!

It was early June-ish when Sue and I took Donna's Swatches class, and it made me wish I was registered for the entire weekend of classes! The techniques we learned were completely new to us, and I really see them changing the way I use products and supplies when I create.
Along with having a fantastic sense of humour and - of course - an amazing degree of creative talent, Donna has a wonderful teaching style. I loved her interspersed product tips, anecdotes and advise. Sue also posted on her blog about this class and included lots of photos, so take a look here.

In this photo, Donna holds one of her finished Swatches as she discusses technique with us. Donna also taught a number of other classes while she was here, including an apron and inspiration journal. I would have loved to attended all of her classes. Looking through her personal inspiration journal was an amazing experience. If you have an opportunity to take a class from Donna, jump at it! You will thoroughly enjoy it and you'll learn a ton.

After class, we had a chance to chat with some awesome gals I met at Scrapfest, Karen and Dorrie. Then Jennifer met us for a yummy lunch at Red Lobster. It was great to see everyone.
I'm not finished framing my canvases yet but once I have, I will post them here. Donna has now discontinued this class, so we were very lucky to be the final students to have a chance to take it. I've now developed a love for gesso, pastels and molding paste! I can't wait to play with them some more.

Lots of Scrapalicious pages

I feel like it's been ages since I posted some layouts. Even though I haven't been posting all that much lately, I have been scrapping. I have quite a few layouts to post yet, but I'm going to start with my latest for Scrapalicious. This page features Basic Grey's Capella and Heidi Swapp Invisibles letter stickers. This layout is all about why I scrapbook - to enable my children to have a vivid history of their childhood; to help them remember.
I love these little Capella die cut tags, and clustered them together with some tiny pics. The word YES above is made with Invisibles stickers misted with chalkboard Glimmer Mist. In the bottom right corner a 7 Gypsies sticker says "What we remember from childhood, we remember forever".
Patterned paper for this layout is a vellum page from Webster's Pages, paired with a sheet of pink cardstock upon which I masked a Tim Holtz pattern with some Maya Mist. In the photo I am pouring birdseed into Vanessa's hand (no easy feat to do while trying to photograph it at the same time!) She loved feeding the birds at the park near Grandma & Grandpa's on Easter morning. Swirls of Prima's E-line pearls represent the birdseed.
Once again I used Heidi Swapp Invisibles letter stickers for the title. This time I inked them with chalk ink, which allowed the resist pattern to show up quite well. I tried misting, painting and inking these stickers, and I found the mist to be quite subtle, and ink to be more vibrant.
My Mom is the star of this page, which is a page I created for Scrapalicious (but a bit late for the Scrapalicious booth at Scrapfest) back in April. I used exclusively Chatterbox product for this page, including the alabaster laquered paper, some lace paper and patterned paper, as well as embellies of cork, chipboard, and transparency.

These are all vintage photos of my Mom that I scanned and printed.
All of these Chatterbox products go so well together, and they are available in sets at great prices at Scrapalicious.








I am lucky enough to have the world's most adorable niece, and I've managed to visit with her twice in the past year and will be able to document her changes and growth with the photos I've taken. Aeden is the daughter of my brother Chris and his wife Lisa. She is not only adorable, but smart too - she has Mommy and Daddy wrapped around her little finger!




I love love LOVE the Maya Road leaf pins I used here and - of course - these gorgeous Webster's Pages Bloomers in various colours. The papers for this layout are from October Afternoon.






Another page using the Basic Grey Capella paper line, Heidi Swapp Invisibles letter stickers and Webster's Pages Bloomers. While Capella was designed to be (and is) a wonderful wedding line, it is also so versatile and can be used for almost any type of page, even a girly layout. Here is our sweet Alicia, always making us laugh. On this page, I inked the title stickers and added a touch of pretty Stickles to "Kind" to add a bit of shimmer.
I loved mixing this line with Bloomers, ribbon, and folded, scalloped paper trim to add a feminine touch.
I had a blast creating this group of pages for Scrapalicious. Stop by the store if you are local and take a peek. This awesome product is available there, and some is listed in the online store too.

I still have pages that I created back at NSD to post sometime soon, as well as the scoop on my Donna Downey class details, so stay tuned!

Meeting Donna Downey

I can't believe that it's been more than a month since I took a class from the awesome Donna Downey and I haven't even posted about it yet. Sue and I thoroughly enjoyed the class and learned a TON! Donna is as adorable and brilliantly creative in person as I expected. Seeing her art up close was amazing!

I promise I'll post more about it soon!

My Little Scrapbook Room....

It was a nice treat on the morning of Canada Day to sit at my computer with my coffee, visit one of my favourite scrappy blog sites - ScrapScene - and see a picture of my scrapbook room featured in a post! :-}

Take a peek at the story here.

Sneak Peek at Scrapalicious Projects

Happy Canada Day, everyone! I hope you had a fantastic day. We spent most of the day with friends and the kids spent hours in the pool.

I managed to get a bit of creative time too, and I've made some projects for Scrapalicious which I will be posting soon. Here's a peek - stay tuned for more!

Chatterbox Favourite Photos Album

A ton of time has passed since ScrapFest in Kitchener and I can't believe that I haven't finished posting all of the project I created for Scrapalicious yet! This is an adorable Chatterbox mini album which comes in a variety of colours with flocked covers and embossed pages. Scrapalicious has put a variety of the Chatterbox embellies I used here into a bundle for a fantastic price - they're in felt, cork, chipboard and more.
Be sure to check them out right at the entrance to the store! For the title page of the album I trimmed one of the embossed lace papers and adhered it to a transparency for added strength. I love the way it looks. I made this album into a display album of some of our family's recent favourite photos.

Since the back of the lace papers are plain white, I misted the back of mine with Maya Mist before I adhered it to the transparency, giving it a nice shimmer. Here, Alicia hugs one of her favourite stuffed creatures, a peacock, last Christmas morning.
I used square photos in keeping with this album's shape. I left the pages opposite the photos as well as the overall design relatively simple to show off the lovely embossing on each page. Here's Vanessa at Grandma and Grandpa's on Mother's Day a few years back, wearing more necklaces than anyone can count!

Kids love waterparks, and Evan is no exception. The embellies I used as drops of water here are made of felt and are so much fun.

You should also check out Virginia's mini album here, her post about my Scrapfest projects here, as well as her Scrapfest post.
I printed this photo onto a transparency to give it a punch of vibrant colour and then backed it with alabaster Chatterbox paper. On the reverse side is the journaling about each of the photos in the album, numbered one through 10.

The rub-on phrases here are also Chatterbox.


The back cover says it all - Life is good!

If you're local, you can drop by Scrapalicious and check out this album in person.

I'll be back again soon with more scrappy goodness, including designs from my latest Scrapalicious product, which you can see here. See you soon!.

Good Things

I've had a number of requests to post photos of my scrapbook room, so here is a little look. It's funny . . . every time I photograph my scraproom, it looks so different by the time I post the photos. Here's a peek in from the doorway. Since then, I've totally re-organized the corner bookshelf!
This picture is even older, since I have put up a beautiful Scribblz Art phrase above the hanging layouts and moved the Clip It Up to a cart to the right of the white hutch that you see above. My room is not huge, but I've tried to make use of every inch of space, and tried to keep the decor eclectic and fun!
I will post more detail photos once I've taken more. Here's a shot of the top of my paper shelf right beside the door. This inter-changeable photo frame I made for Scrapalicious is one of my favourite projects ever! It greets me as I enter the room, along with my peace mug and the words "Welcome Home".


Since I've only had a scrapbook room since we moved to this house last October, I have to agree with others I've heard say that having a craft space really does help you to breathe! To me, it's truly like coming home.

Some who've seen this room in person were surprised at how small it is. It's definitely a good thing in a small package! I guess some of the previous photos I posted made it seem larger than it really is. I would love a bigger space, but since this is what I have, I've made it work, and I love it!

I'm going to do a complete photo shoot once I have everything in its place. In the interim, I still have Scrapalicious projects to post, so stay tuned!

More Project 365

Don't you just love summer?

It's my favourite season, and I'm so glad it's here. The kids seem to agree with me too. They are much more willing to head outside and spend time there when the weather is nice. Alicia is a huge nature lover, and our new lifestyle in the country gives her lots to do.
I'm doing my best to keep up with my Project 365 this year. I love capturing our family's memories in photos, both the everyday and special occasions.
Evan is being such a little monkey in this photo. It was wonderful to have our home filled with family members who love him on his birthday. The girls helped me to make one of Evan's favourite - carrot cake with buttercream icing - and he couldn't wait to blow out the candles. 10 of them! Double digits for him this year! So Evan, knowing I wanted to capture him blowing them out, teased me by saying "1....2...." and then blowing the candles out before saying "3"! This shot is seconds later!
The kids are thoroughly enjoying having a pool. Even when it's (what I consider) too cold outside for the water, they are ready to jump in. And I'm totally a sucker for a gap-tooth smile! Doesn't Vanessa rock the toothless look?

I hope you are enjoying your first day of summer!

Happy Father's Day!

I think the photo says it all!

Love at First Sight!

The more I play with these, the more I love them!





















Just thought I'd share that. :-}