Soccer Season comes to a Close

The kids are back in school now and our household is finally back to a bit more of a normal routine as homework and activities start again. I'll have to get my back to school photos edited soon - I'm so far behind that I have barely uploaded photos from the tail end of summer yet. I'm also still editing soccer photos from the summer for distribution to the rest of the girls' soccer team.

While it took up most of our Friday and Sunday nights and four of our weekends over the summer, our girls had a fantastic experience playing All Star soccer this summer.

The coaching was fantastic, the team was such a wonderful, close group of girls, and the team did so well for its first year out.

The final tournament was a bit of a bittersweet event. The team made it to finals and played very hard, winning the silver.

They were hoping for gold, and that disappointment, coupled with saying goodbye to their teammates for the year made it a bit of a tearful final moment. Many of the players had their coaches and teammates sign soccer balls as a momento. The green ball is ours.


Since our town and thus our soccer league are small enough that we must combine two years of players - our 9 year olds played U10 this year - the team's players will be split next year as the 10 year olds move up to U12. Will we see a group this close again? I'm not certain, but I'm sure glad our girls had the opportunity to have this experience. Thanks so much to Coach Michael and Coach Gavin for an amazing summer!

Summer Captured

I'm so pleased that Scrapping Nook is hosting their Summer Photo Challenge once again this year. I enjoyed it so much last year. Having a list of photos to take really helps me to think outside of the box and I end up with great shots that I may not have thought of taking otherwise.

These are a few of my favourite shots from this summer. To see all of the photos I posted for this challenge, see my thread here. You can also look at last year's photos here.

9/11 Memorial

While my brother Chris and I were in New York last month, we were fortunate enough to visit the 9/11 memorial site. It was a very moving experience. I can't imagine how emotional a visit to the site would be for families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragic event.

Like so many of us today, I am very conscious of and grateful for all of the wonderful things I have in my life.

I hope you are able to take a moment today to reflect on how truly fortunate we are to live in the abundant, safe and prosperous country we call home.

Here's Lookin' at You, New York!

It's long overdue, I know, but here is a quick peek at my trip to NY in August.  It was a wonderful whirlwind few days filled with sightseeing, scrap shopping, a Broadway (and a drum corps) show, celebrity sightings, tons of walking, VERY little sleep and of course, being in the audience to see Brene Brown on the Katie Couric show.

My brother Chris met me in New York and while he got his fill of about a hundred (OK, maybe just four) Broadway shows, I hit the Manhattan must-see scrapbook shops, The Ink Pad and Tinsel Trading Company.  I would have LOVED a chance to attend some of the classes at The Ink Pad - they have quite the fantastic line up.

Our celebrity sightings included Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Kristin Davis, James Earl Jones and (best for last....) John Stamos.  Chris and I took in the musical Once together.  I also managed to see DCI quarter finals in the theatre near Union Square, which was a great, nostalgic experience.

Of course, the real reason for the trip was being in the audience for Brene Brown's appearance on the Katie show, which should be airing sometime in the next few weeks.  Chris took a shot of me in the lineup to get in.  A few ladies and I were interviewed on camera before the show, but I'm not sure what they will end up using.

Look for me if you're watching Katie in September.

In other news:

• Back to school went very smoothly at our house, and since I'm still at my Project 365 - I've never made it this far into the year so woo hoo - I have back to school photos of the kids to post sometime soon. They are still on the camera and I haven't uploaded them yet, but I hope I can get to them soon.
• I'm really excited about Scrapfest Oshawa coming in less than a month! 
• Here's to Sue's cookie dough recipe, which I'm sure will leave us feeling like we don't need any dinner! :} 
• I'm also lucky enough to be heading out on a photo walk with Lee Currie in October.  Hooray!
• I have a layout coming out in Canadian Scrapbooker's winter 2012 issue - toot! :-}
• Scrapping Nook's 100 Photos of Summer deadline is fast approaching and I still have a TON of photos to upload. 
• And, believe it or not, I have at least a dozen scrapbook pages and part of my New York trip Smash album scrapped that I haven't had a chance to post yet.   I'm hoping to get something photographed and posted soon.  Stay tuned!

I hope the back to school transition went as smoothly at your house as it did at ours.  Fall weather is here reminding us that summer is truly over, much to our chagrin.

Thanks for checking in and have a fantastic fall!

My State of Mind...

Can you guess where I'm headed next week? :-}

I'm lucky enough to be going to New York to see Brene Brown interviewed for the new Katie Couric show that will air in September.  Are you a Brene fan?  Want to come too?  I'm still looking for a taker for the second seat, so drop me a line!  My brother Chris is meeting me in New York, but can't come to the taping since they're having an all-female audience.

While we're there, we're also seeing the musical Once on Broadway, as well as DCI prelims through Fathom Events in the theatre right in Manhattan!  That's sure a lot crammed into one short and unexpected trip.  I'm so excited!

image credit

(Don't know what DCI and Drum Corps are?  This video is a few years old, but it's a fantastic and informative clip.  The theatre showing is mentioned starting at about 3:10).

Since this has all come together very last minute, I'm sure I'll be packing into the wee hours the night before we leave.  I'm planning on doing a Smashbook style mini album on the trip, so I have to get scrap shopping!

Oh, and if you're a travel buff and/or have been to Manhattan - restaurant, sightseeing and scrapbook store recommendations are totally welcome! Tinsel Trading Company and The Ink Pad are already on the list!

Have a fantastic long weekend!  Details about the trip (and hopefully some nice NY photos) to follow 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! 

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

In honour of National Scrapbook Day, I thought it was time I got caught up and posted a blog post! It's been a few weeks since Scrapfest, which was a total blast, and I can't believe that I just posting about it now!

We had a great group of ladies at our table, starting with Leanne and her neighbour Nancy, my cousin Sharon, as well as part of the old gang from Scrapalicious - Lancia, Virginia, Suzanne and Clare, and between classes, Jennifer and Sue joined us here and there too.

Sue was taking photos most of the show at the Canadian Scrapbooker booth, so we stopped by in a bunch of different groups and has our photos taken.  Here I am with Leanne, Sharon and Nancy.




 Here's the Scrapalicious gang that was at our table, along with a few of the other ladies at the table next to us.  It was so much fun being together and reminiscing about our favourite LSS!

Leanne and I took a beeswax mixed media canvas class with Christy Riopel and had so much fun playing with wax.  Every finished canvas in the class looked different. Mine is pictured at left. Leanne's looked completely fantastic too.

Every Scrapfest has a theme, and this year's layout contest had to have a tropical vacation theme.  I entered this page into the contest.  I was lucky enough to place second overall in the People's Choice award, but also won the best photo of the crop, as selected by the Canadian Scrapbooker judges.  The photo here is from our recent cruise on the Allure of the Seas, and depicts Stephen and the kids heading back to the ship after a day at port.

I started one more layout during the crop which still needs journaling so I will only post a peek of it now. This page is from our Bahamas trip in the fall.








I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog at all, and while I've been away both blogger and photobucket (which is where I store my online photos) made major changes to their interfaces. I'm completely lost in trying to create a blog post - so I'm trusting that this one will be formatted something like my former posts! If it looks wacky, and the photos and matching text don't line up at all, now you'll know why!

Yesterday for National Scrapbook Day I skypebooked with Leanne and managed to get two layouts almost finished - everything but the journaling. Hopefully I'll get those finalized soon and can get them posted here. I hope you had a fantastic National Scrapbook Day weekend!

Layouts from our Weekend at Linda’s

I've finally uploaded more photos of layouts I created back in January when we were lucky enough to spend a weekend up at Linda's cottage. It was beautiful and inspired all of us to get creating! I printed two photos that represented Evan's eternal love for Lego. The top photo shows him with his Black Friday buys.
I enjoyed creating this masculine page using the amazing Blissful line from one of my newer favourite manufacturers, Authentique. The materials for this layout were included in the September 2011 kit bundle I bought from Up The Street Scrapbooking. For the title, I wanted to use the current V+3 symbol to represent a heart. I cut the V and the 3 from some American Crafts brown Chit Chat Thickers to create the heart in the title.

I used a sketch from the 2012 Page Maps Sketch calendar for this layout, which focuses on the wonderful friends and inspiring scrapbookers I met though the spending a year on the Just Cre8 Cre8ive Crew. Journaling talks about what a wonderful experience it was designing with this "gr8" group!


Even though the site folded in 2009, we still continue to stay in touch and I am still so inspired by the talent and energy I found in his group of amazing friends. I still try to see these ladies at least a few times a year. This photo was taken at a National Scrapbook Day crop at my house a few years back. We'll have to do that again sometime soon, won't we ladies!


I started this layout at the Crop & Create Markham back in January at a class delivered by Becky Fleck, and finished it afterwards. I really loved the vibrant colours of the papers as well as the rolled die-cut flowers, so wanted to do something special with this page.


I decided to use this layout to document my feelings about simplify - my One Little Word for 2012. The journaling here talks about my plans for using this word to guide my year.


The photo on this layout is of the title page of the Me: The Abridged Version album which I created last year based on the Big Picture Classes' workshop by Cathy Zielske.



Life is moving at the speed of sound lately, so I haven't been able to spend much time documenting memories and scrapbooking. I've been working on compiling a slide show of the Allure of the Seas Western Caribbean cruise we took in February, and it made me realize that I still hadn't finished a slideshow of our trip prior to that, the Bahamas. So I'm hoping to get some of that done soon.

I'm so excited, though, to have the opportunity to scrap at Scrapfest! I'll be cropping with Sharon, Leanne and Nancy, and am looking forward to seeing Sue, Jen, Virginia, Lancia, hopefully Lori, and so many others!

Are you going? Drop me a line and we can plan to scrap together or meet up for lunch or coffee!

A Peek at a Few More Layouts

There are still more layouts I haven't yet posted from my weekend at Linda's and Crop & Create. I have a few to photograph, but should have that done in the next few days. Here's a peek at a page about Evan's love of Lego. I'll have this layout, and the remaining few, posted in the next day or two.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great March Break!

Recent Scrapbook pages

Here's a quick peek at some of the scrapbook pages I created during the two weekends I scrapped in January. The first one is on Bo Bunny Etcetera Watermark paper. The paper is gorgeous - it's so ethereal and dreamy. I used it for a photo from the girls' ballet mock exam.

I also used my favourite new punch on this page - Stampin' Up's Petite Pennant Builder punch for the little banner in the upper right corner.

This one of my favourite dance costumes. I loved the pretty lilac colour, the beadwork and the sweet little tutu. The girls were astronomers in this costume and carried magic wands with little stars on the ends. I decided to carry through the star theme.



Some of the supplies from this page and the one above are from the September 2011 kit bundle from Up The Street Scrapbooking. I love finding a great Canadian scrapbook kit company, and Up The Street is one! I wish I had time for a monthly kit membership, but sadly time is rare around our house the past few years, so I haven't subscribed, but if you're in the market, check them out!




I saw this layout by the ultra talented Danielle Flanders quite a while back on the Studio Calico blog and wanted to lift it immediately. I used photos of each of the members of our family punched into circles and pulled this together rather quickly. To be honest, I'm not sure that it's finished, but here it is as it stands right now.



I've been using up one of my favourite paper pads from K & Company for ages now, and only have a few sheets left. I thought the papers I used on the next two layouts were perfect for Christmas themed pages. It wasn't my original intent to create a 2-pager with these, but part way through I realizes that they worked really well side by side, so ran the strip of Graphic 45 Christmas paper and the pleated ribbon across them both.

The photos here are two of my favourites from Christmas 2010 - one of the kids enjoying a few last Christmas carols before bed on Christmas Eve, and the second is of them eyeing the empty place of cookies Santa left behind on Christmas morning.

I used another favourite new punch from Stampin' Up on these two pages. It's the Large Lace Ribbon Border punch, and it's so easy to work with, it's a dream!

I still have pages from Crop & Create to post, so I will follow up with those as soon as I can. And yes, it's true - we just arrived home last week from a Western Caribbean cruise, and it was absolutely wonderful! I'll hopefully have at least a few photos of that trip to post soon.

Thanks to all those who have e-mailed or Facebook messaged me to check on my Mom's status. She is settled into a rehabilitation hospital now, and her prognosis is quite good. Unfortunately, she won't be able to move back into her apartment, but at 86 years old, it's best that she have nurses nearby more frequently than her old building was able to do. I hope to head out to Edmonton again this spring or summer to visit with her.

Since my last post, I reached a few milestones that came and went without much fanfare - my blog turned 5 years old on March 7th, and I reached 20,000 views as well. I'll have to get some giveaways going one of these days to celebrate! DOn't worry, I'll let you know when!

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the world despite that I haven't been updating very often. Your visits and comments mean a lot to me, and I hope to get back onto the blogging and scrapbooking bandwagon again soon! Cheers!

Whirlwind Edmonton Trip

I had big plans to get a lot done this past weekend, but instead I took a last minute trip to Edmonton. My Mom had a stroke last Wednesday and had to be hospitalized, so by Thursday I was unexpectedly on a flight out west. In my haste I forgot to pack mittens and a hat, so fortunately it was only about -24 there!

By the time I landed late Thursday (the wee hours of Friday morning, actually) it was too late to go to the hospital, so we went over on Friday morning. Mom had finally been moved from the ER to a room. Although she still has a way to go, I was relieved that she looked healthier than I expected.

By lunch time Mom was given the OK to each pureed food. She didn't have the strength to feed herself so I had to feed her, but she was hungry and ate well. By Saturday she was sitting up and feeding herself, and on Sunday morning she was able to go out into the hall in a wheelchair.

My niece and nephews spend a lot of time at the hospital over the weekend, and kept their Grannie entertained with drawings and puppet shows featuring their many stuffed animals. Our kids sent hand-made cards and photos - it's sure good to have card-makers in the family! :-P

Mom still has a long way to go and will be in the hospital and undergoing physiotherapy for a while yet, but fortunately the prognosis looks good. I arrived home late Sunday night, just in time to get ready for the work week. If I missed seeing you while I was in Edmonton, I'm hoping my next trip will have more notice.

I'll keep you up to date on how Mom is doing, so please check back for that, as well as for the January pages that I haven't yet posted. Please keep my Mom in your thoughts and prayers. We are all praying for her to get stronger and be able to go home soon.