Firestation visit

Today I took the girls on a field trip. The local firestation had some tours arranged through the holidays. As the girls have always loved fire trucks and stations, I thought it would be a fun time for them.

Here are some pictures from our visit.

Coming to a close

the season that is... after Christmas and boxing day, it often feels like a great weight is off my shoulders. The hype and preparation leading up to Christmas always seems so exhausting but definitely worth it. I hope everyone had a fabulous time with family. We were definitely missing ours this year but spent a nice quiet weekend letting the girls enjoy everyone of their gifts. (It may take me a week to get the livingroom back to normal)

Here are some pictures for those who we were unable to see through the holidays:

Laura was quite excited to get this gift and Jenna was giving it a thumbs up too!

Laura completed her own shopping again this year at the school's christmas store. This is something her school sets up every year. The families provide donations to the school and the student's bring a $0.50 donation to the local food bank then walk through the gym and find items they want to purchase for their immediate family members. These gifts have been very interesting through the years. You truly never know what you are going to get.

This year she got a mickey mouse coffee cup, a scraf for me and a little pablo doll for Jenna. She is always more excited about these gifts and watching you open them than any other gift under the tree. Its so neat to see. She stops everything she's doing, and just watchs to see your reaction. As you can see from these pictures, she got the perfect gift for Jenna this year.

2 days to go

until Christmas. The girls have been climbing the walls, literally, climbing the walls. They are both trying really hard to be good but they are so excited and eager and enthusiatic. Which of course makes it pretty much impossible to be good - although, they are.

I have been trying to keep them busy (and out of the house). In doing so, I've been taking advantage of the outings around the city. On Saturday we went to the Bushplane museum for a movie. After the movie, they did a craft, had a snack and then toured the museum. Great use for an afternoon at this time of year. The local paper was there. Here are some pictures of the event:
http://www.soonews.ca/viewarticle.php?id=23725
Take a look at the bottom right pictures...yep, that's us in the far right ones. Glad I wasn't yelling at them when the pictures were being taken, eh?

Yesterday we went to a christmas movie at the library. Again, popcorn with the movie and some sprite. Any one who knows my girls knows that is a perfect combination - they were thrilled. Again, it was a good turn out but got them out and doing something fun.

UHU sample

I received a sample of a new glue stick (not really new but new to me) by UHU a few weeks ago. My last few weeks have been a little chaotic but I was able to complete a few layouts. I also will be trying it on a mini album to see how it holds up on chipboard (hopefully in the next week).

I wanted to try the sample with some old pictures. I find these pictures tend to really give adhesives a work out as they have a tendency to roll and bend. The UHU worked fabulously! No warping or globing and the pictures stayed put.

Then I thought I would give it an even better workout with some chipboard. So for the chipboard paisley pieces on this layout I coated the back of the edging and applied the patterned paper. Then I used the UHU to stick the chipboard to the page. Again, no problem with sticking or transfer.

It even stuck to the ribbon/ twine and the acrylic piece at the bottom of the layout went down just as easy. I did find the acrylic showed the adhesive through though so make sure you're only using it underneath your papers.

Wow!

What a busy two weeks! It has been such a crazy time! Here are some pictures of Laura's bowling birthday party:



First we went bowling. Two lanes, bumper pads in the gutters and everyone scoring over 100 points. Truly a fun time!






Of course, presents!





Then there was pizza and cake. Grandma out did herself again with Laura's cake - the girls were all in awe!







Followed by loot bags and fairy wings.

Visiting uncle

Uncle Todd came up for a short visit this past weekend. The girls had such a great time - they loved having him around and were sorry to see him go. (Jenna was napping at the time and when she woke up was quite upset she wouldn't be seeing him for a few months)

He definitely picked a good weekend to visit though. Here is what we woke up to this morning:







Yep, SNOW, and lots of it! The girls were thrilled but I was happy Todd had been able to get up before the roads started getting bad. I imagine he is happy too when he sees these pictures.

DT reveal at Scrapping Turtle

Here is the rest of my reveal for Scrapping Turtle. Hannah sent me the Fancy Pants Dancing Girl line to play with. Fun line, lots of doodles and funky patterns. Here are the layouts I came up with:
With a line called Dancing Girl, how could I resist completing a layout with one of my girls dancing? These are some pictures from last year I took of Laura. That girl does love dress up and dancing!! I made this layout with all those 'extra' tags you get on a sheet. Fancy Pants has wonderful journalling tags but I do find there are more than I often need. So, for this layout I decided to use those tags up in a non traditional way.

Summer wishes

It is getting so cool here. We had a few nice days last week but it has definitely returned to some seasonaly weather today. So, I thought I would share some new layouts I created.

These are all pictures taken of Laura when we were visiting mom and dad in Belleville this summer. Shorts, t-shirts and swimming - oh how I missed those days (we just didn't get enough of it this year).




Laura has always been a big writer/ reader. She's still so young but she loves workbooks of ever kind, even during the summer. I wanted to capture this quirky trait of hers.

Well...

We are starting a rocking crop weekend tomorrow at the Scrapping Turtle! Make sure you stop by for some fun challenges and of course, great prizes!

See you there!

Thought I'd share

some of the recent layouts I've completed.

These were pictures we took when we went up to Hiawatha Falls in early October. It was such a beautiful day we took full advantage and went hiking on the trails.

Of course, we had to take in the playground too.

Winning pink!

This is my winning layout for the "pink" challenge. This challenge was completed in support of Breast Cancer month (October). Here is the layout I did:

Skating videos

Thought I'd share a video of Laura skating too. This was at her first lesson. I still can't believe how determined she is!

and here's one of Jenna. Nothing ever phases this girl

Skating lessons started

Well, as many of you know we tried Laura in skating lessons 2 years ago (she was almost 4 at the time) and it did not work out. Unbelievable understatement! She cried, screamed and clung to me like something I couldn't believe. This year we thought about it again and I would have to say I was quite apprehensive of the idea but when living in Northern Ontario, it is an important thing to know how to do.

So, we talked to her and she decided she would like to give it a try. (I'm not sure if it is her maturing, the fact that Jenna was also joining, that her friends at school talk about skating or if she was just sick of hearing us talk about it.) Monday was their first class. We decided to go with a much smaller CANskate program. This one is at one of the pads at the John Rhodes centre rather than the large ice pad at the Essar Centre. There were about 1/10 of the kids there, the noise level was lower, there were adult teachers as well as young instructors, and more instructors per group. Needless to say, it worked! She loved her first day and has indicated she cannot wait to go back.

Here are some pictures of their first lessons. Jenna first, using her support. You can see she's getting quite comfortable with standing on the skates though, even letting go.

And Laura, I still can't believe this is the same girl!

Reveal day!

Well, really its sneak peak to my November reveal at The Scrapping Turtle. I was given the beautiful Dancing Girl line by Fancy Pants. Here's my first layout:

The rest of my reveal will be posted on the 15th. Don't forget to take a look at the turtle for the reveals of the other DT members.

Halloween pictures

Thought I would share some pictures of the girls last night. It rained here, poured actually (I went out as a drowned rat). The girls didn't seem to mind however. They were so excited, all day! The one real problem I see with a Saturday Halloween. Of course, in our house, the last weekend in October is also inventory day for dad so he wasn't home to help during the day or even in the evening. A few days before while I was talking to him about it, Laura overheard us and declared this would be "the worst Halloween ever!". Of course, she thought we would forego trick or treating so I could be home to hand out candy. She was relieved to find out this wasn't the case and I compromised by leaving a bowl of candy on the front porch for the children coming to our house while I took them around the neighbourhood. Jenna was a bear (thanks to grandma's sewing skills) and Laura is a Marisposa butterfly. You can see how excited they are in these pictures. (Jenna's head isn't on yet though cause it was just too hot in the house.)

can you say ham?????

Its been way too long

and I'm sorry. I really have no excuse except to say life has just gotten in my way. Here's a quick update of what's been happening during the last month...

Mom and dad came for a visit in late September.

Jenna turned 3!

I took a trip to Birch Run with the girls and mom and dad. Fun trip and lots of good shopping.

I have been purging some of the girls old clothing. This has been taking up a great deal of my time and energy but its great to have some gone and more going.

I returned to full time status at work. This has been a big relief for me. I find just knowing there is a buffer is making things feel a lot less stressful.

Jenna started swimming lessons - she is LOVING it! Its unbelievable how well she is doing. I am amazed and surprised and so proud of her. She is definitely my little fish. Under water, down the slide, blowing bubbles, jumping in, everything! nothing fazes her.

Laura started gymnastics. This is working out so well for her. She is such a natural and has the wonderfully sleek, long lines that make her look so polished. She is truly loving it. She looks to make sure you are watching and asking questions. She is proud of how well she is doing and it shows.

From the scrappy side:
I have been asked to be the guest designer on My Sketch World. I loaded my interpretation of the sketch on the 1st and have been participating on the site during the month. I have some additional jobs for the remainder of the month and hope I can give credit to the creative dose section. I was so thrill when I was asked and am enjoying my month there immensely.

I have been asked to be a guest designer at Turtle Soup for the month of November. Again, so thrilled with this. Its always nice when people view your creativity in a good light and this always feels like such a surprise when I'm picked. I love this community and hope I'll be able to show some great layouts with the package I get.

I also won a few scrapping prizes over the past two months. A pink paislee kit for a sketch blog and a sassafrass collection pack during a anniversary celebration crop. A few additional ones from some other sites too - LOVE getting happy mail!

Ok, I guess that's the most of it for now. I will post again soon with some fall and birthday pics. Promise!

Here is my reveal of the October sketch at My sketch World.

Have you been playing?

There is a great month long contest at Kaisercraft in September. Great prizes, everyday! Make sure you partake, you never know who the next winner will be.

First day

of grade 1. Thought I would share a picture of Laura on her first day.
We walked her to school, still not sure when I'm going to be able to let her make the trip herself - so I took this one of Laura when Jenna was dropping her off. She did so well, right into the school, no hesitation, no concerns. It certainly helped that we ran into Natalia on the way so they walked onto the school yard together - and on their own. No more walking into the classroom with her, she's a big girl now!

Tomorrow's the big day

back to school. Laura is so ready. She has been chomping at the bit. Grade 1 - hard to believe! She is definitely excited and a little nervous. I hope all goes well for her - I think I'm a more nervous than she is.

August mixer

Here is my version of the August mixer challenge. I liked the line of photos and found this transparency was a perfect fit. I layered the papers like in the sketch and stuck to the blue and orange for colour inspiration.

Thought I'd share

some of the cards I've been making recently. I purchased some new copic markers and have finally sat down to play with them. Can I tell you, I'm in LOVE! So much fun colouring and blending, I feel like I'm headed back to school next week too. Here are some I've made:

and another

which I completed for sketch #6. I took some liberties with this sketch but stayed true to the horizontal line with a focal flower, single picture block and upper left accent. I took these pictures of Jenna napping one day. Not the greatest pics but I love how you can see 'bear' underneath her and the way she totally zones out once asleep.

Busy weekend

I was able to get some serious scrapping done this weekend and just LOVED it! I participated in an online crop at scrapmuse which was fabulous and really gave my creativity a jump start. That along with some awesome news from Mike that I will soon have cabniets in my scrapping area has me on a permanent high.

Here is a layout I created with sketch #5 from Capture these sketches. I love the look of Laura in this picture as well as the angle/ placement of it but have had it for over a year and just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with it. I just got these great papers from my August kit and they seemed the perfect fit.

Thought I'd share some pics

of the girls. I took these when we were camping. Some pictures at the beach:

And some of the girls enjoying smores!