Long weekend plans..

 It's (Canadian) Thanksgiving here this weekend, so I'm going to be busy, busy with the kids off tomorrow and Monday. I'm hoping to go apple picking tomorrow with them if it doesn't rain. And I'm cooking a ginormous traditional turkey dinner for us which we'll have on Monday, since I have to work over the weekend. I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and usually go all out with way too much food. This year it's  the usual turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, & brocolli/cauliflower casserole for the main course,  with homemade pumpkin pie and a cheesecake of some sort for dessert. Here's to another 5 pounds gained... my mouth is watering just typing it out! And the weather is decidedly fall-ish and perfect. The leaves are coming down at a rapid pace now, and I need to get out and take some photos before they're gone.

I've been busy with assignments, but here's one I can show you of my 4th Grader. He had some issues last year, which made us think we needed to hold him back, but so far this year, he's doing fantastic, and I'm so happy and relieved that I needed to do a layout about it.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, and if it isn't one where you live, hope it's great all the same!

xox

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Introducing..

my new baby. She's sleek, and Danish to boot. :) The real thing. Check out the stainless legs!


 Beautiful, isn't she?  I love her. (and I'm not sure why she's a she and not a he... but it's like that.)

I think I've already mentioned here or on FB how I've been obsessed with checking Craigslist every 5 minutes or so for the last month and a half, right? It paid off!  I spotted this one evening early last week, and I assumed it would be sold already when I emailed the guy, but I got lucky. Drove out to very east end Montreal the other night and met a very lovely guy who is as credenza obsessed as I am, go figure. We struck a nice deal, and he delivered this to me the next night, free of charge, and even lovingly helped me set it up properly. I am so lucky to always come into contact with really nice people. I'm a trusting sort, and my instinct very rarely lets me down, thankfully.
The top is haphazardly decorated with an old lamp, photo, my ipod, and Stonehenge puzzle of Bobby's. Wish I had a better decorator gene. Suggestions? And I'm on the lookout for a big abstract canvas to hang above. I have an idea of what it should look like, so maybe I'll paint one myself, if I can't find what I'm looking for... a good way to put the Fine Arts BA to use, lol..

I'm off to finish up some assignments, and tomorrow, working for the weekend. Enjoy the cool fall weather-  I think snow is around the corner. It is chilly out there!

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Leaving well enough alone.

I made this layout back in July or so, and after much fussing and frustration with it, put it aside in the  'to be finished at a much later date' pile. I guess it looked better in my head, and I couldn't quite translate what I wanted onto paper. So it sat there for 2 months, untouched.

Then a few weeks ago, I saw Moon's awesome layout here on the American Craft blog, loved what she did with all the stickers and rub-ons, and decided to try it on my layout, since she'd used the same Teen line on her's. I ripped off the green/teal background on my layout, stuck down the stickers and rub-ons, and it now looks like this:

 I'm thinking I should have really left well enough alone. Way too busy for my taste, and none of the cool factor that Moon's page has. Scraplifting just doesn't work for me that well, I guess. ;p But my son, god love him, adores this page, sticker sneeze and all, and that's what counts, right? What the heck, I may even go all out and add a few more stickers to really fill up that page. ;p
 Definitely NOT one of my favourites.

Have a wonderful Monday- it's Indian summer here today and I'm heading outside to take full advantage of this beautiful day. :)

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Cards for Kate & a challenge to you...

Many of you probably already read Jennifer McGuire's blog and know about this card drive for Kate, but for those who don't, you can read about it here. I can't imagine the grief and stress this family must be going through having to deal with something so terrifying. Imagine if it were your son or daughter. I can't.

I think this idea of sending cards of encouragement, good wishes and positive thoughts is fantastic, and I'm sure their spirits will be uplifted when they start receiving them. Please consider taking a few minutes out of your day to make a card for Kate or her family. Also, if you have anything you'd like to donate as a prize, ( scrap related or other) then feel free to email Jennifer- I'm sure anything will be appreciated! There are some sweet prizes being given out, as an added incentive to send in those cards. :)

Here are a few cards I've made for Kate-  are they cutesy & girly enough? I hope she likes them!

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Credenza love

I haven't been very bloggy lately. I'm sorry.


Since the kids went back to school, ( so far, so good!) I've been happily enjoying my days off alone, and slowly but surely making a dent in the clutter that has invaded my house over the past year. I'm happy to say that I'm winning the battle so far. But when I'm not cleaning and sorting, I've been obsessively checking Craigslist every hour or so for one of these beautiful babies, and dreaming of the day that I find an original one in perfect condition, for under 35$ or less. Hahaha! So far no luck, but I'm patient. How I wish that the one pictured above was a photo of my living room...

You're probably wondering why I'm looking for another credenza after I posted I got this one for free back in the spring. I'm sad to say that it met an unfortunate end in my backyard, due to the copious amounts of rain we had back in June. I had covered it with a tarp, but one particularly gusty and rainy day, it blew off. I didn't notice it until a few days later, and by then the rain had sunk in, (I'm talking non-stop, huricane-like rain) warped it pretty badly, and the (yucky) veneer sides were coming unglued. I wasn't too sad though, since this wasn't a really good piece of furniture. I have my heart set on a real Danish teak credenza, and I'll keep looking for it until I find just the right one. In the meantime, I've made myself this Flickr mosaic to drool over. They're all so lovely that I can't decide which one I love best...kind of like having several children, who you love equally, even though they're all different and unique.





1. Untitled, 2. Jens Risom Credenza, 3. trendy, 4. Credenza, 5. Vintage Union Furniture MCM Credenza, 6. Jens Risom credenza!, 7. Stow Davis Credenza, 8. credenza, 9. Credenza in the morning, 10. cameras on credenza, 11. Untitled, 12. kent coffey dresser + mannequins

I'll be back soon with a challenge and a little give-away to make up for my absence... :)

thanks for reading!
xox

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a new era

begins for my 'baby' today. And I'm still in denial about it!

My first born starts his first day of high school this morning ( Grade 7 in Quebec= high school) and I think I'm more nervous about it than he is. We're very lucky that the school he's attending is the next street over from us, so I don't have to worry about him travelling on a city bus alone, or taking the train into the city like some of his friends will be doing. The thought of that makes me shudder, being the hovering type that I am. I know a mom who is a probably a wreck tonight b/c her son will be taking the train downtown everyday, and my sympathies are with her. I'd be a total basket case in her place. I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't really given my kids a lot of 'freedom' to roam on their own up until now. I don't know if I'll ever stop being such a mother hen- does it ever go away? Anyway, if Bobby is anxious about school, he hasn't let on too much... the only thing that I've noticed in the past week or so is that he's hugging me more than usual, and calling me 'Mommy', which he only does when he's feeling insecure, lol. I'm sure he's going to LOVE being a big wig highschooler, but it's still back to being a little fish in a big sea all over again. And my little guy starts Grade 4 today, a slightly bigger fish in his smaller sea, so he's happy. I'll be looking forward to 3:30 today for a full report.


I wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you for your kind words about my ring in my post a few weeks back. I appreciated the sympathy and your comments dearly ! I'd love to be able to report that I found the diamond, but unfortunately, no such luck- I'm still wearing a diamond-less ring on my finger that looks quite ridiculous, but I haven't got the heart to go get the ring cut off just yet. I'm unable to get it off with soap or cream, so it's staying put for a while. I'm still holding out hope that I might find it.



Here's a layout I did this weekend about my eldest. I was so happy to get a photo of him laughing the other day- a rare occurance, b/c for some insane reason, he's decided he hates his smile and never shows his teeth when I take his photo. Crazy pre-teen hang-ups. :( Call me biased, but I think he's absolutely gorgeous.

Are you loving the star and striped papers on this one? I'm a stripe fanatic, and I totally swooned & squealed when I saw this paper, no lie. My friend Ursula can attest to my insanity. ;p It's part of the new American Crafts collection- this particular line is called 'Junior', and it is utterly fantastic. If you've been hankering for a great BOY line, then you'll want every piece of this, believe me. You can't see it here, but the stars are glazed ( as are many of the other papers) and the quality is fabulous. I'm in love. :) You'll probably be seeing this paper on all of my layouts for the next 6 months or so...









have a fantastic Monday everyone. :)

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End of summer excitement

This weekend we'll be busy with lots of this:








It's baseball playoff time, and both our boys will be playing several games over the course of the weekend. And if that weren't enough fun, I've got a very special friend and her family visiting us for the weekend, so we'll be busy in between games doing the tourist thing downtown, and sampling some fine Montreal cuisine like poutine and smoked meat sandwiches. ;)
I feel a diet will definitely be in my future next week...

Have a great weekend, and I will be back with an update soon!

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