Merry Christmas!

Christmas kit...

I wasn't a huge fan of all the pages I produced this month for my DT, but here they are nonetheless...

Letter to Santa

I took a Scrapmode challenge to do a layout featuring a letter to Santa...

My second little angel

Here's a super-quickie of a page that I put together lickety-split!

Fuzzy photos

I just posted a challenge on the Scrapbook Quebec site to make a layout using "botched" photos, or photos you woulnd't normally scrap...here's what I got...
The paper and buttons are both Scrapmode!

I really, really, really dislike snow.

'nuf said

My Diva inspired layout...

Well, I never submitted it cause I was too lazy to scan it, but here is a layout inspired from a "My Sketch World" sketch...I really like how it turned out, and I gotta say that I LOVED the Hambly rub-ons!

Happy Halloween!

It's the day after Halloween, and Ella is finally coming down from a sugar high...thank goodness! The Gooch is still too young for candy, but that didn't stop him from trying to mooch stuff from his big sister or his cousins...

Halloween morning started ok, Ella was dressed as a witch (sorry, correction, a "scary, scary witch"--her words) and we were on our way to the preschool Halloween party. On the way, Ella mentions that she fine to be a "scary, scary witch" for this morning, but as for trick-or-treating, she has now decided she wants to be a dinosaur. SAY WHAT? Since when? She's been set on this "scary, scary witch" idea for almost two months. Great, where in heaven's name am I gonna find a dinosaur costume on Halloween? Ella pipes in here "Don't worry mama, Auntie Tami has a dinosaur costume". Quick call to Auntie Tami and PHEW! we're good.

The Gooch, cooperative as ever, never complained once about his costume!

So here's Ella before the school party (obviously not so impressed with her costume choice)


And here she is ready to trick or treat...


The Gooch as my "little stinker" (how CUTE is HE?)


And the gang ready to go out and get high on sugar...

Back in the swing of things....

Alrighty then, so I am FINALLY back to being me--no injuries, no illness, just plain me! We got back from Cuba last Sunday and I'm only now back to myself. We had a GREAT time in Cuba--great weather, great friends, BUT we decided to take a little trip off the resort to an old coffee plantation (among other things, including snorkeling in a freshwater cave--VERY creepy!) Obviously we weren't thinking clearly (probably too much rum) because we decided to eat lunch there. Yup, BIIIIGGG mistake. The four of us got what I like to call "Castro's Revenge" and were sick like dogs for almost a WEEK! Thank goodness it was one day before coming home and not at the beginning of the week cause that would have sucked big time! Anyhoo, spent the last day and a half of the trip mostly in the bathroom, then had a 3:15 am flight home from Varadero, arrived at my mom's around 8am to see the kids. Fast forward about two hours, and the Gooch is on my lap, when suddenly, he sticks his finger in my eye. Now, normally, this would have just hurt a little bit and I would have been fine, HOWEVER, I had just finished saying to my mom that the Gooch's finger nails needed to be trimmed, so the seemingly innocent poke in the eye turned into a SCRATCHED CORNEA! Yup, had a pirate patch and everything! My eye is better now, after 5 days of gooey antibiotics and the patch, then two days of "incognito" sunglasses.

All in all, a great, relaxing vacation, wouldn't ya say? Can't wait till the next one...

Ta Da!

Well, I'm finishing some last minute packing, but I still found the time to squeeze in a few pages on a Friday night (almost 6 to be exact, but since 3 are for my DT for November, and one is a double page that I still can't figure out how to scan and glue together as a 12x24 LO), I'll only post two layouts for now....made with the *NEW* Scrapmode papers!

Loved working with the "Rockstar" line:


And also liked using the "Passion" line, but for something cutesie for Ella-Boo:


Anyway, I'm off for a week of beach and mojitos, and sun and mojitos, and music and mojitos, and snorkeling, and did I mention...MOJITOS! Adios mi amigos! Hasta luego!

Some of Ella's work...

So, I let Ella take charge of the camera for a bit (her new favourite thing to do), and here are the results... I have to say that at first I was really only impressed with the first shot, but decided to scrap all three cause they remind me that although life isn't perfect, it sure can be fun and filled with love!

Breast Cancer awareness month

As a challenge on SQ, I did a page all in pink to salute breast cancer awareness and survival (well, except for the tiny touches of black in the writing and title).

My grams had breast cancer, my great-aunt had breast cancer, my aunt had a lumpectomy and my mom has had a lumpectomy, so let me tell ya, I check my boobs ALOT! As should every woman! So, as soon as you're done reading this, go feel yourself up!

Some new stuff

I had a pretty productive night on Friday, created three (and a half) pages in 4 hours while chatting and enjoying some pizza with other scrappers...

Here's what I got:

This is from a pagemaps sketch (it was a challenge at the crop) and I love my little goochie in this (although the hubbie thinks he looks more like an old russian cleaning lady than a bad a** biker boy---oh well, he's allowed to think that, he's half russian after all!)


This was a quick page inspired by The JoCool...love what she does with over-sized photos and HAD to try it. Gotta say I love the result! Thanks Jo!


And this is my Ella Bella taking a running leap off the diving board into the lake at Camp Wa-Thi-Ane. I loved her fearlessness!

peek-a-boo

A quick little page of the gooch trying to get to the camera...

Some random stuff...

I had a pretty busy weekend, starting on Friday by being the "duty mom" at Ella's preschool. I honestly don't know how preschool and daycare workers do this all day, 5 days a week. I was there for three and a half hours and was EXHAUSTED!!!! So once again, I tip my hat to all those out there who are given the responsibility of caring for and educating the very young...

Afterwards, Ella wanted to follow in her cousins' footsteps and get a haircut so that she could donate her hair to Locks of Love (www.locksoflove.org) As it turns out, her hair didn't meet the minimum requirement for her to have it donated to make a wig, however, we'll be sending it anyway and the organazation will sell it to offset some of their costs, which is fine by me. Kudos to them and what they do for kids as well.

So here is Ella before the cut (what's up with the pose?)


And the after shot (please excuse the goofiness to her face, she LOVES to do this whenever I try to take a pic of her). For Ella, the best part of the whole experience was the lollipop--go figure!


Then we shipped off the kids to my sisters for the night--yup, the WHOLE night (hip hip HOORAY!) while the hubby and I had a night with two other grown-ups. We met downtown for supper then went to a movie. I haven't seen a movie in the theater for almost two years I think... We went and saw "Across the Universe" and if anyone is a Beatles fan, you're gonna love it. I was into it right from the opening scene. You can check it the trailer from YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ6d3m-GFyw

Unfortunately, I had to work both Saturday and Sunday, so that sucked, and when I got home on Sunday, I discovered that The Gooch was likely starting a cold. Well, he woke up this morning and it's croup...poor baby. So the Gooch is miserable, and there's nothing I can do for him *sniff* Hopefully he gets better in the next couple of days and we won't need a trip to the pediatrician's office.

I'm also hoping to find some time to scrap this week. I've got all kinds of ideas in my head and no time lately to let it all come pouring out...

HEY! Check this out!

Check out the Fall 2007 Inspiration Challenges on the Canadian Scrapbooker site...
(yay me!) Next step, the ACTUAL magazine...I hope....

just because...

A little pic of the Gooch, just because! He makes me so incredibly happy, and I ain't "lion"...get it? lion? lying? I know, really bad, I can hear the groans, but I laughed...

The first day...

So preshool has restarted (insert a giant HOORAY!!! here) and mom and Ella are equally excited! She's been asking for a while now when school starts up again, so it was great to finally be able to tell her that "YES, today is THE DAY!" She had already chosen her own outfit: a skirt, which is really out of character for her, but, "just go with it" has been my motto lately, and I'm stickin' to it! She actually matched, which was nice, and she put on a jacket as well, which I think made her look six instead of three, so I had a little moment of sadness realizing that my baby girl is growing up...

She was a little surprised (and maybe a little disappointed?) that the teacher she had last year had moved on to other things, and that she would have a new teacher. But, knowing Ella, she'll just go with the flow and be fine by, oh, tomorrow.

Here's a couple of pics.

She was off and RUNNING as soon as she had her back pack on...


But I did make her turn around at one point and let me take a pic (I AM a scrapbooker after all!)... This is where I think she looks considerably older that she is :( *sniff*

A year already? How did that happen?

We celebrated The Gooch's first birthday this weekend...I'm still in denial that he's already a year old. I feel like I just brought him home from the hospital last week! We ended up having a beautiful day, with lots of sun and may be a touch too much heat (and humidity!) but for late August, it was a welcome change from rain and cold. We also had the Gooch's baptism that morning, so he had a pretty eventful day. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the day (the last few stragglers left around 8:30 pm---that's family for ya!) Of course I had made too much food, but because some of the guests stayed, we put it out again for supper and the majority of it got eaten---yay! Here are a few pics from the cake part, which is always the best part for a first birthday party. And I have to say that altough The Gooch has never had anything sweet before, he didn't really dig in to his cake very much. He mostly played with the icing...

We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

We decided to take a trip to Granby Zoo last Friday (my last hurrah before I started back at work!) and we had such a GREAT time! The kids were awesome the whole day (we had my two rugrats as well as my two nieces, along with my mom, my sis, my mother and father in laws as well...Steve was home, very sick poor guy...) At the end of a rather long day, I asked Ella what her favourite part was---was it the gorillas (they were my fave) or the elephants, or the birds that landed on our heads, or the snake she petted, or the blue-tongued skink she petted, or the shark that I petted? Was it the baby giraffe? or the monkeys acting silly? Nope. It was the plastic tiger teeter-totter at the park....hmmm, 50 bucks well spent I see... Oh well, had fun taking pics of all of it, and here are four of my favourites.

The gorillas...I could have watched this big guy all day...



The elepahnts were amazing too...

and then there were the rhinos, but they just slept...



We managed to get some pics of the kids too (amidst all the craziness of the three cousins running amok), but I think I'll be scrapping some of them at a later date!

Some stuff I've been workin' on...

So I had an oppportunity recently to let my creative juices flow...and for free! Had a great time, and a lot of laughs (definitely looking forward to the next time!) Here's three of six that I managed to complete...

Thanks to Melanie for the great title---I LOVE this page!

Scrapped The Gooch with his cockeyed smile...

And had a chance to catch his goofball side as well...I used the date stamp from Purple Onion Designs (they have great stuff, and very affordable---and they have a sale going on! And no, I'm not being paid to say that...however...lol! Check 'em out at purpleoniondesigns.com)

Doo doo doo, da da da

Ladies and gentlemen (well, mostly ladies I suppose)...Sting! What an awesome time we had at The Police concert last night, my ears are still ringing! They did a great set and although we were behind the stage and mostly looking at Sting's tiny little tush, we had a great time!

Congrats!

Friends of mine just got engaged and asked me to take some pics for them...here are some of my faves...

It's a matter of organization...

I guess everything DOES have it's place...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? UPDATE

So, I did a little research, and it turns out that although the jurassic-looking bug that was on our patio door was very scary to look at, she was harmless, and sadly probably didn't live much longer than that night. She was a female Dobsonfly (or fishfly). They're native to north america, mostly in the states I think, and spend the majority of their life cycle (like 2 or 3 YEARS!) underwater in the larval stage eating minnows and tadpoles, then they come to shore to pupate. Once they emerge, they mate and the female lays eggs, then they die. That's probably why she was pretty slow to move and didn't fly away. Apparently the're pretty rare to see, so maybe we should have caught her, but there was NO WAY I was touching that beast! Well, that has been your science and nature lesson for the week...

Anyone Know a Good Orthodontist?

NO, BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THAT SNAGGLETOOTH? It's unreal how The Gooch's teeth are coming in all haphazard and in no particular order...

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? This *little* guy was on our patio door this past weekend, and it seriously gave me the heebie jeebies. I'm not exagerating when I tell you it was (get out your rulers here...) almost 5 INCHES LONG!!!! You can click on it to get a better look if you feel the need...

Needless to say, Steve and Ella were infatutated with it. It never flew away, or even attempted to crawl away, it just sat there. Steve thinks it was because he was too tired from eating someones's pet! By morning, it was gone (hallelujah!). I'll try to find out what it is and then post the results at a later time...

A little sumthin' "old school" from Scrapmode

Here's a little sumthin I put together last night for the July Scrapmode ad challenge...the paper is waaaaayy old (like from their first line I think) but I liked it and hung on to it...finally found the chance to use it! The word "watermelon" is kinda hard to see in the scan, but is much easier to see in the original...

We go through watermelon here like nobody's business...It's sweet, it's refreshing, it's drippy, and it stains clothes, but we'll sit and eat a quarter of a melon at one meal, then have some more as a snack later! Even The Gooch likes the stuff! But NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, can put away the stuff like Ella...I'm amazed she's never gotten sick from eating too much!

Freestyle Quebec Challenge

Well, I have to admit that I wasn't sure I could pull off this challenge, but I LOVE the result. It was so much fun to slap together a quirky little layout in 15 minutes where anything goes! And I loved the 6X12 format as well...so thanks to the great gals at Freestyle Quebec for the challenge, and their great inspiration!

Happy Canada Day...one day later!

Well, we made it back from our Nation's Capital in one piece, and relatively unscathed (except for The Gooch who got a few bumps and scratches along the way, but still kept on truckin'!) We never attempted Parliament Hill with the two kids (nope, no deathwish THIS weekend thank you very much), but we did see the RCMP Sunset Ride, which was AMAZING, and VERY kid friendly (way to go Canada!) Ella got to sit in a fighter jet, a tank (which took us forever to get her OUT of) and an army utility vehicle. She even had her pic taken by an RCMP photog, so we'll see if anything comes from that... And since we had a Mountie on the inside (Thanks Uncle Bowflex and Auntie RCMP!) Ella was able to meet a horse up close and personal. Man, are those beasts HUGE, and very drooly. And wouldn't ya know it, while we were standing there, the horse decided it was time to um, well, poop. "Poop" really doesn't do it justice though...Ella was fascinated by the whole thing however and asked a MILLION questions. By the end of explaining why the horse just pooped right in the middle of the street, and yes, it did look like hay, and yes, horses do pee as well, our answers were more along the line of "just because" and "I don't know why"...

Both kids got to try on the official uniform as well, so out came my camera lickety-split...I was dreaming up layouts as the camera was clicking away! Very cute, so once again, thanks to our "auntie RCMP".

So, Happy Canada Day everyone...even though it's one day late.