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...

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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!

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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

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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!

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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!

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'Almost 8' birthday fun..

Noah is a Labour Day baby, which means the poor kid usually has to celebrate his birthday right around the time school starts. It kind of sucks. This year, I got it together with my neighbour to have a combined pool birthday party this week with her son, who happens to be Noah's best friend, and who also has a September birthday. She did loot bags, I did the food, and it was probably the easiest party I've ever thrown. The kids had a blast swimming and playing some fun pool games ( even though it was a tad chilly) and we had the added bonus of built in babysitters with the lifeguards being there to watch them.

A fabulous idea, if I do say so myself! ;p

I'm posting a few photos here, but I'm kind of limited as I don't really want to put pics of other people's kids on the blog, so these will have to do.

The birthday boy, floating with a friend.

Noah adores the outdoor shower. It's probably one of his favorite things about the pool. ;p

We played 'bobbing for apples', the pool version.

The cake. I used to be a great cake baker, but over the years, I've slacked on doing the Martha thing, and it shows!

a sweet handmade card from best friend's 4 year old sister. Awwww.

Lots of Bionicles were acquired, which made this almost 8 year old pretty darned happy. :)

Have a safe and wonderful Labour Day weekend. We're probably not going to be doing much 'labouring' except for a bit of much needed yard work, and hopefully just hanging out in the hammock and enjoying the last few hours of summer vacation. How did it go by so fast?

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a very lazy Saturday

Spent today doing not much of anything. Which kind of feels good, since we've been going, going, going here all summer. We went to a 'garden' party last night at friends, with kids in tow, got home way too late, and then had to get up way too early to drive dh to the airport for a business trip. So I'm wiped, and so are the kids.. they didn't really appreciate being dragged out of bed at 7am, and once home from the airport, Noah went back to bed until 1pm! I've been kind of sittin' around all day in the heat, doing a little bit of scrapping, and just relaxing. :) I'll probably head to the pool after supper for a swim, in the hopes that it will refresh me and I won't have to retire at 8pm tonight. ;p

Here's a layout I did today while the little guy slept, and dude #1 was at a playdate. So happy to have completed a page, b/c I've been feeling rather mojo-less these past weeks. Getting my DT box from AC kind of helped that along, the new lines are incredible, and I can't decide which one I like best. This layout uses the travel line, with some travel stickers by Martha Stewart thrown in. It's a bad stitch, it really is very straight and lines up nicely irl, but I was way too lazy today to rescan it. *yawn*.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Summer's almost over, and I'm kind of depressed about it..

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