And the world's worst blogger award goes to...

Me.

I've come to the conclusion that I totally suck at blogging. I'm sure anyone who reads this thinks so too. It's been crazy hectic here the past few weeks, and I haven't had any energy left over to sit down and actually try to string together a coherent sentence here. ;p

Anyways, since the last time I posted, we've had our (Canadian) Thanksgiving last weekend ( I cooked a wicked good meal if I do say so myself!) high school visits for next year, lots of homework to help with, scrapping assignments finished up, the new hockey season starting, and a ton of other stuff going on. Yeah, I'm tired. I've been trying to keep up with my CZ and Elizabeth class stuff, and I've already fallen woefully behind, but you know what? I'm not stressing about it. Really, I'm not. I knew it would be a huge undertaking for me, so I'm going to do what I can, and the rest will be stored away for whenever.I just wish I could sit here on a daily basis and scrap while the elves worked their magic.



The kids and dh are going on their annual Scout camp weekend today, and I'll be blissfully on my own for the entire weekend. Tomorrow am, I'm driving to the big city of Plattsburgh, NY with my bff to visit the brand new TARGET, and we're both very excited about that. Heck, it's 45 minutes away, but totally worth the trip. The only bummer is that I won't be able to buy anything since I won't be staying the requisite 48 hours, but I will definitely be scoping it out for later next month when I go for my Xmas shopping weekend. It will be hard to resist the urge to try and smuggle stuff across the border though. I may drive down in some throw away clothes, just in case. ;p



I've decided to ditch the photo blog and just use my Flickr account for the photo-a-day thing. Not that I've uploaded anything since the 1st, but I've been taking my pics everyday ( more or less), and once I have time, I'll upload them there. The thought of having to update 2 blogs was just too much pressure. ;p

I'll leave you with a photo taken last Thanksgiving weekend of my Bobby and the dog- he just adores her. :)













And a VERY quick 5 minute layout I did this week:




Have a great weekend!

Read more...

fun stuff...

My friend Nathalie has started a photo-a-day challenge for October over on the Scrapbook Centrale website, and a bunch of us there have decided to join her. I've always adored looking at these on other people's blogs, but have never tried it myself- it's always seemed a bit daunting, and a lot of work too. I hope that I'll be able to keep up the pace, especially now that it's getting darker way earlier and I won't have much opportunity to shoot after work with the light gone. I almost never use a flash ( don't like the look of flash photos), so that's out of the question for me. I'll probably do this before I go to work, so I'll have to get organized to allow for some extra time in the am, haha! I'm going to open up a new blog just for the photos in a bit and link it here, because I don't think Blogger has the photo album feature that Typepad does. One of the perks of paying for your blog, I guess. ;p Anyways, feel free to join in on this with us- the more the merrier I say! If you do decide to play along, leave me a comment here and I'll link you up on the side bar. Should be fun to see what we all come up with.

And check this out- Simple Scrapbooks finally has a brand new look! Be sure and check out Angie & the new Simple blog, and it's sister blog, Simple Studio. The CK website has also had a complete overhaul, and you can find it here.

I'll leave you with a layout I did the other day, using some of the beautiful new Moda Bella line from American Crafts. The pic really reminded me of the old Tiger Beat/TeenBeat mag posters, and so I got my inspiration from that for the title. Or maybe it's that 70's -looking beaded necklace he wore all summer?

Read more...

5 things on a dreary Monday morning.

1.Canada Geese have been flying over my house non-stop this weekend. This always makes me sad, because it means that winter is just around the corner. Have I mentioned I'm not really a winter person? Ugh, the thought...



2.This necklace from this very talented lady.









I want it soooo badly. Isn't it beautiful? :) I'll be buying it soon, just waiting to get through the very costly month of September. Grad trips, licence renewal, Cub & Scout fees, school fees... the list goes on and on and on.. Where's that lotto win when you need it?



3. I'm loving the inspiration from this class at BPS, although I've done nothing for it yet, because of this below....


4. Purging and cleaning and giving away tons of scrap stuff. It feels so good and very freeing, but man, it is a long, arduous process! I have 'before' photos , and believe me, they're scary. And I know my friend Barb probably hates me b/c I chickened out on posting them. ;p


5.I've decided once and for all to call for the mammogram I've been putting off forever. I'm scared silly about it, but I have to do it. I know my Mom will be watching over me, and that thought comforts me. Please say a prayer for me that my boobs are lump free!





Happy Monday everyone! I'm off to chuck out more paper...

Read more...

Back in the saddle again...

I'm slowly finding my way through that beginning of September fog that I'm sure everyone with school-age kids experiences. It's funny how you can get so used to that lovely slow summer routine, however short it may be, and find it so hard to get back to the hectic pace that we crazily maintain all through the fall and winter months. I don't know about you, but I much prefer summer mode, it's just SO much easier and relaxed. There's probably a reason I yell way less in the summer, do you think there's a correlation there? ;)

I'm sure by now you've heard about Cathy Zielske's class, Design your Life, going on over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I signed up last week, because as everyone pretty much knows, I have a ginormous crush on her, and there was no way José I was going to miss out on a Cathy class. It promises to be lots of fun, and I'm hoping to come out of it with a bunch of lovely layouts that I probably would not have done otherwise, because I'm one of those lazy scrappers who does a page a month, give or take a few... in fact, I was so fired up about this class that I went ahead and enrolled in my friend Elizabeth's class too, ( also at BPS ) and which also looks like it's going to be completely amazing, if her book is anything to go by. The class is called Red Letter Days, and there's only a few more days to sign up for it before registration closes and you miss out on some cool stuff, so go for it! The best part is that it's a total steal at only 18$, and you can't beat that.

Here's the page I did as the pre-assignment for Cathy's class. Haven't even started Elizabeth's yet.. I'm hoping tomorrow. This took way longer than it should have, because between work and other stuff, it just kind of got left sitting on my table all week, and I added and subtracted things every once in a while when I passed by. Oh, and I was supposed to use a Kraft background, but the white cardstock voice in my head just kept calling out to me....

Happy 1st day of Fall!

Read more...

Oops!

I knew this blog would fall by the wayside once everything started up again. I promise to try and update more often- right now, I've got nothin... ( can you hear the crickets?) .. just trying to get back into the routine, and find some kind of balance to juggle everything we've got going on here- it's tough after a summer of goofing off! And maybe one day soon I'll scrap again, and have a page or 2 to post here.
Thanks for being patient, and I'll try to have something more interesting to say in my next post, promise. :)

xoxo

Read more...

The longest week ever...

Well, I survived the dreaded back-to-school/work week, but I'm exhausted! I'm off to bed for a good night's sleep, b/c I'm headed to a camping sleepover birthday party in Ontario tomorrow with the kiddos. Let's hope the steamy July-esque weather holds out over the weekend. We had the hottest temps of the entire summer this week.. why does that always happen the minute the kids are in school and the pools are closed?! it was brutal for them in the 90+ degree classrooms.

Check out this cool site. I was contacted by Nic & Suz last week asking me to use this layout for a Hambly spotlight on their blog. Those Aussie girls are all so darned talented... must be something in the water over there, or all that Marmite ( or is it vegemite?) they eat. ;)

Have a great weekend!

Read more...

Beautiful September

I get a bit melancholy at the end of the summer, even though September is always a beautiful month here. It's usually summer-like, sans the vacation part! I'm dearly going to miss the late nights hanging out in the backyard,( not the mosquitos though, ugh!) waking up when I want ( at least the past 3 weeks since swimming lessons finished) spending days and evenings at the pool with the boys, and most of all, not having a set schedule for much of anything. How sweet is that? I'm not a schedule type person, and sometimes I think I'd get more accomplished if I was.... But I do okay I guess, with my adult ADD -like brain. ;p


Tomorrow's the 1st day of school,and 1st day back to work for me. The kids are excited- me, not so much... the whole fall/winter routine is going to get more and more hectic leading up to Christmas. I'm stressed thinking about all the papers/notes /blahblahblah they send home from school everyday, not to mention the homework, and I hope this year I can stay on top of it. Bobby's going into Grade 6 this year, so I'll have a lot to do for 'grad' stuff, and checking out high schools for next year. Yeah, in good old Quebec, high school starts in Grade 7, much to my horror... I've actually thought about moving to a different province, just so I don't have to deal with that until a more normal age, like 16-ish? He just seems WAY too young for that right now. Alot can change in a year though, right? Ack!



So far today, I've baked a peach-blueberry pie, did some laundry, labelled the back-to school stuff, and have supper planned. That's enough labour, don't you think? We're off to the pool for the last outdoor swim of the season, and then it's early bedtime for the whole family. I have no idea how I'm going to get up at 6:30am tomorrow!!



leaving you with my latest layout... I figured my older guy deserved a page, I didn't realize it, but I've been scrapping the young one way more than him lately. I loooove this photo of him, took it in Maine on the beach, and it's so him.

Happy Labour Day.. enjoy the last breath of summer!

Read more...