2007 in Review

As 2007 comes to a close and I ponder the usual upcoming resolutions and the many memories built over the past year, I am reminded of how blessed and lucky I am.

Our family started 2007 on the heels of a miscarriage, together with the loss of my husband's grandmother - both in the same week. As I took the Christmas Eve photos here (left) back in December of 2006, I remember my bittersweet feelings of a celebration tarnished by loss, and the melancholy notions of what 2007 might bring. But I truly feel that I was tremendously blessed in 2007.
While our family did not grow in size, we most definitely grew in an abundance of love. New friendships blossomed. Through something unexpected as this blog, I have connected with so many - in particular, scrapbookers. And as a scrapbooker, I joined a Design Team for the first time, and added wonderfully creative artists to my circle of friends.

The images above, two of my 2006 favourites, are now part of treasured layouts I created this year, and were amongst the three layouts I had published in Canadian Scrapbooker this month. On the third page is the image below, one of my favourites of 2007, which I shot for a photography class assignment.

Our kids, who are my favourite - and usually willing - photography subjects, grew so much this year too. It is amazing to watch children learn and find their way in the world, and capturing their progress and joy brings me much happiness.

As a photography student, I have learned so very much this year. I have so much gratitude for my fellow students and teachers, in particular Patti from whom I took two Scrapability photography classes, but also Michelle and Kimmie whose blogs I love to peek at and whose images I completely adore.

We end this year in a joyful place, both through the grace of God and the support of our loved ones. I am pleased with many of the images of 2007 I've captured in the lives of family and friends, and I've narrowed down my favourites to the slides below, which I hope to document in a mini-album early in 2008. I would love your feedback, comments, ideas or suggestions for improvement. I've given each image a name to make them easier to identify in comments.

Please take a look and enjoy! Happy New Year. Click here for larger images.

A Blessed and Happy Christmas...

...from our home to yours, with love and best wishes.























(photo by Sears)

Home for the Holidays

It's one of my favourite times of the year!

We are all finished with work and school and Christmas family time has started. It's a busy time around our house, since we are not quite finished with all of the wrapping and our cards just went into the mail a few days ago! But amidst the bustle of activity, we always take time to be together.
Making a gingerbread house with Daddy is a Christmas tradition, and the kids do more of the work each year. Cookie baking is another annual event. While I do the more precise work after the kids are in bed, decorating gingerbread cookies is the kids' task.
The kids are happy that my mom is visiting for the holidays. While she doesn't necessarily know the rules to the games they want to play, since they have often made up their own, she is a good sport and plays along regardless. Watching them interact is as much fun as watching as any holiday movie - something else they do together.
Being outdoors is another fun winter activity, and the kids are thrilled that there has been so much snow this year. Our yard is one of their favourite places, and despite the lack of slope, they love to take out the sled and have sled rides. It's only a few days until Christmas, and we're all looking forward to spending it together.

Scrap Divas' Secret Santa Party

I had a great time at the Scrap Divas' & More Secret Santa Christmas Gift Exchange at Milestone's restaurant in Burlington last week. The food was great, the company was awesome and the gift exchange was a blast! Thanks so much to Leanne for introducing me to this fantastic group of scrapbookers and to Nancie for organizing.

Merry Christmas gals, and see you at our next scrapbooking event!

Christmas isn't Christmas....

...around our house without a Christmas party to mingle with family and friends. With how busy each of our lives are, it's wonderful to see all those we wish we saw more of all year. We had a fantastic time at this year's event. As the official shutter bug, I admit that I failed miserably at capturing all of the photo opportunities all night - I sort of lost track of the camera as the evening went on! But the conversation was great, and the company was the finest. It's now become a tradition for Evan to play Christmas carols on the piano, and I look forward to seeing that continue far into the future.

I hope you enjoy this quick peek at what I did manage to capture!

Worth Its Wait in Gold?

Thanks so much to all of you who commented on my 150th blog post for a chance to win a heart-related RAK.

I'm happy to report that my friend Patti's husband Ron is recovering well from his heart surgery. I'm also pleased to report that my daughter has helped me to select a winner for the RAK, pictured here.

So thanks to all of you for your patience while I pulled this RAK together.

I couldn't resist using The Nook collection from Chatterbox as the patterned paper for this RAK, seeing as that's the name of Patti's store. Make sense? :-) The heart album is Creative Imaginations Bare Elements, and some chipboard scrolls from Maya Road are included, simply because I love how they form a heart shape when you place them side by side. I've thrown in some Queen & Co. heart shaped jewels and some of their awesome felt ribbon. Other supplies include ribbon and a rub-on alphabet from MME, flowers from Prima, some decorative glass micro spheres and a yard of sheer ribbon.

And for the moment you've been waiting for.....congratulations to JanetZ - you've won! Please PM or e-mail your postal address to me, and I'll get your goodies off to you. I hope you think they were worth the wait!

Thanks again to all of you who commented on my post, and to the rest of you who visit here regularly. I'm so grateful to be a part of your day.

Bowlerama!

The kids had a blast bowling at a birthday party last weekend. Evan really wanted to show the girls what he knew and "teach" them how to bowl. They are now at the age where they are conscious of their score and want to do well, so were very excited when one of them scored a strike!

It was a lot of fun. Here is a peek at some of the antics from the day.

Shovel Love!

Well, I think it goes without saying that winter is not my favourite season.

I'm definitely a summer loving gal! But kids love the snow, so out we go to play - or to "work" as Evan puts it when he heads out to help with the shoveling.

In honour of the snowy weather we're having today, I thought I would post a winter layout. Since my scrapping time has been so minimal lately, and since this is my first winter as a blogger and I have a ton of layouts I've never added to a blog post, here is a fun older one about Evan's "shovel love". This was inspired by the DW2006 calendar.

I'll be really happy if he loves shoveling this much once he's a teenager, and his efforts with a shovel put a bigger dent in the job. Wishing you all warmth!

Thirsty?

We got a real kick from the name of a bottle of wine we received at our Christmas party last weekend. It's called Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush! While the name is quite humorous, the cause it funds is a serious one - sales from this wine help support the Ontario SPCA.

Thanks to Carole & Vic and Gina & Randy for dropping by our party and giving us this little smile.

Loss of a Treasure Box

OK, so I'll admit it. I'm a scrapbooking kit junkie.

I love getting that pizza box in the mail, opening it up and peeking at the beautiful scrapping products inside. No time to scrap shop? Have to head to a crop, and haven't had time to pull some page kits together? Grab a pizza box and a few photos and go! When I first started scrapping, it was kit clubs that opened my eyes to the quality products out there. I've joined a few, these past three years, and one of my current favourites is scrapologie.

At the beginning of December, scrapologie's monthly kit subscribers received their newsletter with a sad surprise inside - that December will be their last subscription-based kit. Although Ranjini will continue to host an online store with lovely vintage-inspired kits available on occasion, there will be no monthly subscription option. The message board overflowed with best wishes for Ranjini mixed with a touch of sadness at the loss of that beautiful monthly treasure box. My sentiments, exactly.

On a positive note, though, this has inspired me to sort all of my still intact monthly kits - at last count, 23 untouched or mostly untouched beautiful pizza boxes - yikes! Now, I can actually find what I have. It was no small task. Overall, I guess one less pizza box a month to my house is not such a bad thing!

Once I catch my breath from all that sorting, I'll be posting the news as to the winner of my heart RAK, and a photo of the goodies too! Stay tuned!

Speaking of Class Projects

My post about CSC4K and the classes I took there reminded me of a few class projects from earlier in the year that I absolutely love but haven't posted yet. Here's a canvas I made during one of the Divine Design classes at The Scrapping Nook. It was taught by Vicki Boutin and featured beautiful product from Daisy D's. I used a favourite photo from our wedding on this one. (Wedding photo by Jimmy Schwen).
At Divine Deisgn, we also altered this floral decor item created with thread spools. This class was taught by Judi Van Valkinburgh, and her original said Bloom, but I decided to use my name instead. Jennifer Backler taught a class that day too, and I will post my layout from her class soon (OK, how about when I finish the journaling!)


Divine Design was a great day of classes held at one of my favourite LSS, The Scrapping Nook. If you are passing through the Niagara region, you have to stop by. They are as nice as pie there, and they have a great passion for scrapbooking (and a very nice pool boy too!)

Almost a Shutout!

Our little dude is in hockey again this year, and we are pleased to be sponsoring his hockey team's jerseys for the first time. Hooray! Check out our logo, shown here on the goalie jersey. Cool, or what? I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. We love supporting kids' sports teams in our community, and hopefully will be able to do more of it in future years.

Of course, I couldn't resist bringing my camera to capture the moment on the morning that the jerseys were unveiled. I thought the name they put on the team's goalie jersey was quite cool - The Wall. Evan is still at the age where they alternate playing goalie to give each player a chance to try it. Playing goaltender is a big deal to most kids, and Evan is no exception.
Evan loves to play goalie, and had a fantastic game on the day he tended the net. His team was ahead 5-0 with only one minute left in the game, when finally the other team was able to score on him. He was sooo close to a shutout!

Here is a shot of him making one of his saves that day.

Way to go, little hockey dude!

We've Only Just Begun...

Well, it's that time of year again - the season for tons of events on the social calendar. Even though the Christmas parties haven't kicked in yet, we've been out on the town quite a bit lately. Here we are at Greg and Julie's wedding a few weekends ago. It was a wonderful occasion for two special people, and a ton of fun, too!
It was a blast totally surprising Virginia, DT Co-ordinator at Scrapalicious, who had no idea that the function she was heading to was actually her surprise 40th birthday party! She truly thought it was a Christmas party. Next time you see her, ask her about "vodka sunsets"! It's possible that she might remember... ;-)

In the wedding group shot, we are Stephen, Holly, Greg, Julie, Rob, Emily and Adam. Good looking group, don't you think?!

At the birthday party, I am with Lancia, one of the owners of Scrapalicious, and the birthday gal herself (wearing the party hat!) Happy Birthday, Virginia!

If this is the holiday season just warming up, it's looking like it's going to be a lot of fun!

More Snow?

You have got to be kidding me!

If you want a good gauge of when it is going to snow around here, you only need to check my husband's travel calendar. Guaranteed! The first, biggest and worst snowfalls of the past few years have all happened when he has been away. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of shovel love right now!

I totally love the MM tag that says "you have got to be kidding me". When I saw it, I knew I had to use it for this layout of Vanessa. She is about two here, and she's had quite enough of the snow.

This layout features two awesome sets gel-a-tins stamps that I love to pieces and haven't been able to use yet as much as I want to - Weathered Letters and Big Fancy Flakes. I thought the white embossing powder made them look realistically like snow.....just in case there isn't enough around here lately.

OK, see you later - the kids and I will be out shoveling!

In the Dressing Room

Season after season, the girls have been watching Evan skate and play hockey and looked forward to joining in. For their birthdays this year, Nan gave them skates and helmets, so all summer they asked when it was going to be their turn to skate.

Here they are in the dressing room on the morning of their very first skating lesson. How did it go? Well....I think they both expected to be up and skating right away, and were a bit surprised that it was harder than it looks, but they really enjoyed it. I think with a little more practice, they'll be happy little campers! Well, here I go - off to the rink!

Heartless?

Don't be heartless anymore!

Today is the final day to comment on my 150th post for a chance to win a Creative Imaginations Bare Elements Heart mini-album, just like the one pictured here, together with the supplies to alter it for a loved one.

A little while ago I decided to give away a little heart-inspired RAK. I am hoping that by sending a heart out into the world, I will send healthy heart karma to my pal Patti's husband, Ron, who is recovering from heart surgery. Patti is an awesome gal, great scrapper, and an owner of The Scrapping Nook. If you like, you can add your get well wishes for Ron to Patti's blog, here.

So comment here today, and maybe soon you will "have a little heart!"

Details about the lucky winner and a photo of the full RAK will follow in early December. Thanks so much for joining in.

As seen in Canadian Scrapbooker

I was very excited a little while ago when Canadian Scrapbooker asked for three of my layouts for their Winter 2007 issue. The holiday season is such a meaningful time, and Christmas pages are very special to me. This layout of the girls playing piano is from last Christmas and I hadn't even posted it anywhere before submitting it, so here it is for the first time. The starting point for this layout was a monthly kit from Scrapologie, with a little Pressed Petals and K & Co. chipboard and MM letters added.
This layout also has a Christmas theme, and holds special meaning for our family. I also mentioned this page in a previous post. The journaling here tells the story of our first Christmas following the loss of my husband's grandmother just over a year ago. This layout also has a Scrapologie kit at its heart. The over sized chandelier transparency from Hambly Screen Prints is one of my favourite scrapbooking products ever, and the Thickers from American Crafts really make the title stand out.
Evan's obsession with Yu-Gi-Oh! is well known amongst our family and friends, and when I shot this photo for a class assignment, I knew I had to scrap it. The patterned paper here is by Around The Block. I love the stamp from Autumn Leaves. The big chipboard letters are from Li'l Davis, and the crushed velvet are Maya Road. My dude is happy to see this one in print, however chose his "Sponge Bob Marley" t-shirt from Jamaica for Show & Tell last week over showing off his photo in a magazine. Kids!

If you haven't picked up this latest issue of Canadian Scrapbooker, grab it quickly, as they are moving fast. It makes a great stocking stuffer for that scrapper in your family, it's Canadian, and it's jam packed full of great stuff.

Beautiful Beach Wedding

I mentioned in this previous post that Stephen and I just spent a wonderful week in Jamaica. Our trip's purpose was to celebrate the marriage of Stephen's brother Justin to his beautiful new wife, Rosa. The lovely wedding was held on the most stunning day of our stay.
Their wedding package included a resort photographer who did a great shoot, but she wouldn't allow me near enough to get good shots at many points of the day. I captured a few that I like. I think that this shot of monarch butterflies being released is my one of my favourites of the day.
It was a bright, sunny day, and I used a fill flash on most of the shots. Sadly, by the time we got to sunset, my external flash battery was so low, and it's reset time was so long that I missed a few great shots before I gave up and switched to my on-board flash. Here's a favourite of the sunset photos.

I've put together a few of the better shots that tell the story of the day into the slide show below. I learned a lot from this shoot, and it sure helps me recognize how much more I have to learn! I welcome any feedback. I hope you enjoy this little peek into Rosa and Justin's special day.

For the full pictorial version of the story, see here.

A Heart, Some Karma, and a little RAK too!

This is my 150th blog post, so I'm throwing a party! Wahoo!

According to sitemeter, a few of you drop by on a regular basis for a visit here. I would love to know you a bit better, and you've been so quiet lately. I don't want to be dancing with myself at my post party! So here's the deal. Add a comment to this post before November 30th, and I'll add your name into a draw for a heart-shaped mini album, with supplies to alter it.

Be sure to tell me who you would alter this heart album for, and why. Not only will you be getting a head start on your Valentine's Day projects, but you'll brighten my day, too!

By the way, I chose a heart-shaped mini-album for this RAK for a specific reason. I have a dear scrapping friend, Patti, who many of you know through The Scrapping Nook. Patti is currently nursing her hubby Ron back to health after a quadruple heart bypass operation. I'm hoping that I will send good karma for Ron's recovery their way by sending my little heart RAK out into the world.

If you know Patti (or even if you don't), you may want to stop by her blog, and add your own prayers or thoughts and good wishes for Ron's speedy recovery.

Thanks a bunch!

Scenic Jamaica

We're home, we're tanned and we're tired! We had a great trip.

Stephen and I were lucky enough to have spent last week in Montego Bay, Jamaica for Stephen's brother's wedding. As you can imagine, I took a ton of photos, and it is taking me a while to get through them all. The weather there was a little less than perfect, and we had a fair bit of rain, but with the fun group of folks we were with, we made the best of it!
I really wanted to try my hand at some sunset photography (the sun rises a bit to early there for me to try sunrise!). Unfortunately, we lost a few sunsets to rain and heavy cloud. Of the shots that I was able to get, I still feel they are a little dark, and am open to suggestions to brighten them up a bit. This is the resort's glass bottom boat at sunset.
As a bonus, Stephen and I celebrated our wedding anniversary while we were in Montego Bay. To mark the occasion, we had a white glove dinner by candlelight at the pier, just the two of us. The service that night was awesome, and the setting so romantic. This is the gazebo that we dined under, shot a few hours before our dinner.
I loved the setting of the resort's Japanese restaurant, Tokyo Joe's, although the menu was an Asian blend and not solely Japanese. This restaurant had probably the most comfortable seating in the resort. I liked the sign at the water's edge that said Sandals, and tried to capture it here as the sun went down on our last night before heading back home.

I am still sorting photos of the trip, including shots of the group we travelled with, and pictures of the wedding itself, and will post a bit more once I get through them all. I think I'm in denial - do you think if I take my time posting all of these tropical photos, I can keep winter from coming?

Wishful thinking, I guess!