Hanging Out at the Local "Haunt"

I was lucky enough a short time ago to spend an afternoon with the gang from Scrapalicious hanging out at Emma's Back Porch, a waterfront restaurant that is well known for being haunted. Seriously! We had a fantastic time sharing fun and great food, but didn't manage to see any ghosts. And it wasn't for lack of trying. We even tried to capture one in a photo - no luck!
I feel so lucky to be able to work with such a fantastic group of people. Along with being a ton of fun and knowledgeable too, Mike and Lancia are wonderful store owners who always love taking good care of their customers. The talent amongst the store staff and designers is fantastic. Virginia leads the design team with an incredible eye for detail and always has great suggestions and ideas.

Virginia has also been published so much lately that I can't keep track! Look for her numerous times in the latest idea book from Memory Makers, and in the July 2008 issue of Paper Trends.

I drove to this event with my talented friend and designer Mary and we had a blast! I wish we would have known the story about the haunting earlier in the day, since I may have spent more time ghost hunting if I had. Look for the story about this restaurant's history here.

Thanks Mike, Lancia and everyone at Scrapalicious for a fantastic time!

Scraptivity's Divalicious Challenge

As an additional challenge over at Scraptivity as this month's GDT, I posted a Divalicious challenge. The idea behind the challenge is simply to post good ideas for song titles or lyrics that can be used as a layout title. I use songs in my scrapbooking so often, and posted a few examples as inspiration for the other scrappers, including this older layout of mine from before I started blogging. Check out the challenge here.

I loved the girls in these Easter dresses. Vanessa is 2 in this photo, and has grown so much since then. I can't believe how big the girls are now! Time certainly does fly.

I will be doing a draw from all of the challenge thread entries for this cool and hard to find white Sharpie paint marker, so if you haven't already, put on your thinking caps and post a few songs or lyrics of your own. You could be the winner!

For info on this month's main GDT challenge, see this post.

Our Newest Niece

I love this photo of Alicia checking out her newest cousin - granted her newest cousin hasn't officially arrived yet! Between Stephen and I, we have only 3 siblings, and all 3 have 2008 babies! Both of my brothers had babies this year, and now Stephen's brother Justin and his wife Rosa will be having a baby girl in October.

This photo is from Rosa's baby shower. Can you tell that we all can't wait for this new little addition to arrive?

Scraptivity's GDT Scraplift Challenge

Every month, the Design Team at Scraptivity hosts a Guest Design Team scraplift challenge. For this challenge, the Design Team selects a layout from the GDT's gallery, and each of them create their own version of the layout as a scraplift. As this month's GDT, I'm have a lot of fun seeing the various interpretations of my 3x Blessed layout, which is the layout the DT selected to lift. To see their scraplift version of this layout, or to find out how you, too, can play along and have a chance at a prize, take a peek at this thread.

This layout they selected is one of my older ones, created back in 2006. These photos of the kids are from when each of them is 2 years old. Aren't they tiny and sweet? As the title states, I truly am 3x Blessed!

Getting in Gear

Have you seen the new Ambrosia collection from Basic Grey? Honestly, this paper looks good enough to eat! Seriously, I'm really looking forward to using it, along with this awesome Gears album from Maya Road, in my September DT kit from Scrapalicious. Toss in some ribbon and some AC Thickers, and I'm really in gear!

So be sure to check back to see for an all-boy mini album creation, coming up later this month!

Girls' Night Out

It wasn't long ago that I created this post about the fact that Sue and I have "known" each other for years on scrapbooking message boards, but had never met in person.

They say ask and you shall receive! I was lucky enough to have dinner last weekend with Sue, along with her husband Gary, my friend Lori, and her husband Dan. We had a ton of fun, a little drink and a some great food - and the guys totally took it in stride when we started talking about scrapbooking!

It was sure timely that Sue happened to be in the area this weekend, and I know that we will manage to get together again sometime in the future. I had a fantastic time, so thanks, Sue, Lori and hubbies!

I'm looking forward to digging into the July Scrap Pack I won during a challenge on the message board at Sue's awesome kit club, Just Cre8. I have time set aside towards the end of this month, as I'm heading to Wenonah again with Leanne and the gang. I'm looking forward to it tremendously, but don't know when I will find the time to get ready for it. The packing, the organizing, the trying not to forget anything - and making sure it will all fit in the car. Whew! It's exhausting. Wish me luck!

Scraptivity's September GDT Challenge

A fun part of being the Guest Design Team Member over at Scraptivity this month is that I get to create some challenges for the gals there to participate in for a small prize. Since the S! kit this month included these cool metal number from Tim Holtz, I thought - why not a number title challenge?
I like using numbers as my title, and when it was time to show some examples of this from my own work, I realized that I have tons of layouts with numeral titles. I have quite a few layouts from before I started blogging, so I used one from early 2006 as an example, here at left. I remember how much I loved this Daisy D's paper when it first came out - still do, actually! This is a Sears photo from the girls 3rd birthday. They've sure grown since then.

So why not check out the September GDT Challenge over on the S! board this month, and squeeze in the time to create a numbered layout of your own. Who knows, you could be the winner!

More Photo Orienteering

There's not much time left in the Summer of '69 challenge over at The Scrapping Nook. Like making the most of summer, I've tried to make the most of this challenge, but haven't had the time to do as much as I would have liked. Here are a few shots I entered into the Photo Orienteering challenge - this one is for the topic "eyes".
While in downtown Toronto, I took the opportunity to interpret the challenge topic "neighbourhood". Although the CN Tower is only in my geographic neighbourhood in the broadest sense of the word, I couldn't resist snapping a shot of it for this category. It's been a while, but I once worked at the CN Tower, and am still in touch with some of the great folks I met there.

So the CN Tower is in my neighbourhood in a nostalgic sort of way, too. Speaking of nostalgia, it will be with a twinge of sadness that I watch the Summer of '69 challenge come to a close. The gals at The Nook always make me laugh, even if I never can figure out Where in the World Bryan Adams is! ;-)

Thanks for a summer of scrappy fun, Patti & Elia!

The View from Here

This is my favourite view, right here. My family.

As another September 11th arrives and the world inevitably recalls the tragic events of 2001, I am more acutely aware than usual today of how blessed and lucky I am. Our children are an ongoing source of joy, peace and a touch of craziness in our lives, every single day. So much of what I do, I do for these little people, and I wouldn't have it any other way!
The life that my husband and I have built together with our families and beautiful children continues to grow in love and joy every day. We have a business that keeps food on our table and a roof over our heads, we have access to the best of medical care, and we take good care of ourselves and each other. We live in a country of spacious beauty and freedom. How very blessed and lucky we are!
As we all go about our daily routines today, I hope that each of us is a wee bit more in touch with our blessings. In particular, to those of my friends who celebrate their birthday today, please remember that this date marked the joyous celebration of your birth, before it marked anything else. And to those of you who make visiting this blog part of your daily routine, thank you, and God bless.

Canadian Scrapbooker Fall 2008

I know that school just started and it's not yet time to think about Halloween, but the though of it has crossed my mind - simply because one of my favourite Halloween layouts was just published in the fall 2008 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker. This photo is from our girls' first Halloween, and they are posing with my Mom, who was visiting that year.
In the same issue of Canadian Scrapbooker is this layout which I created during the Scrap Away the Winter Blues contest at Scraptivity. I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the contest's winner, and in addition to $400 in scrapbooking product, part of the prize was having a layout featured in Canadian Scrapbooker. I love how this layout shows Alicia's fun side, showing off the stickers she stuck to the bottom of her ballet shoes.

P.S. For those of you who are wondering, my recent toot is about something else, yet to come. ;-)

Coming Soon to Scrapalicious

I'm so happy! I've marked my calendar and will be heading to Scrapalicious with my friend Lori to take in this upcoming class with the awesome Vicki Boutin and Layle Koncar. If you are close by and want to learn new techniques while sharing great conversation and so much laughter that your belly aches, you simply MUST register for this class. These ladies are a blast! Book soon - it will sell out.

Get more details on Virginia's blog here.

Scraptivity's September Kit Reveal

I'm pleased to be the Guest Design Team member at Scraptivity for September 2008. This month's kit is made up of home themed papers from Heidi Grace and Daisy Bucket, as well as Core'dinations cardstock, chipboard houses from Scenic Route and metal embellishments from Tim Holtz. Many of the S! designers used this kit for family portraits, as I did here. See the S! September kit gallery here.
I've always loved this photo of the girls, which is now about 3 years old. I thought the pinks and florals in these Daisy Bucket papers were perfect to bring out the pinks in their swimsuits, so I couldn't resist using this favourite picture with this kit. For my title, I added these Groovy Alphabet stamps by Gelatins, which were in a previous Scraptivity kit, as well as chipboard alphas from Making Memories.

I hope to add another layout or two before the month is over.

Scrapalicious Designs Revealed

It was wonderful scrapping with the beautiful Artsylicious products from Chatterbox and the Euphoria collection from Basic Grey. In Forever and Always I also used double sided stickers designed for flocking or glitter, Maya Road ribbon, Prima flowers, Autumn Leaves buttons, K & Co. sticker, Making Memories letter stickers and the elusive Fiskars Threading Water punch. Photo by Jimmy Schwen.
I'm lucky enough to have a fantastic group of cousins that place a high priority on ensuring that our kids all have a chance to play together and get to know each other despite the distance that separates our home. Last month we took a trip up to Mount Tremblant together and had a great time. There were 21 of us all together, 12 kids and 9 adults, so the grown ups were outnumbered! This all Basic Grey layout celebrates kids!
I love Prima's beautiful adhesive rhinestones that I used on my layout Four. They add so much to a layout that it really doesn't need too much more. On this page, which celebrates our twin girls' fourth birthday, the paper is Chatterbox Artsylicious. Also included are Prima flowers, MM spiral notepaper and alphas, Basic Grey paper trim and Doodlebug ribbon. Birthday photo by Sears.

Wow - it's great to finally post some layouts!

A New Year

It's that time of year again, and I cannot believe it. Look at these fresh faces ready for fun and learning! Can you believe it's September already?

A new school year signifies another summer come and gone. I managed to get the kids off to school on time today, but in other aspects of life - for example blogging 5 recent layouts, including Scrapalicious pages and my Scraptivity GDT kit reveal - I am a bit behind.

Overall, we had a busy and wonderful summer! I'm behind because we really crammed a lot into the month of August, so I have LOTS to blog about. Once I catch my breath from the start of the new school year, I will have multiple posts to add soon.

So check back later in the week to see the layouts I mentioned above, and I wish everyone a wonderful and productive September!