And Sew On

A Week in the Life

I love Ali Edwards "Week in the Life" project-- documenting an average week, taking photos of the everyday moments, and writing down the nitty gritty details. I did one two years ago, and I just loved it. (Update: Just looked at it again and it was THREE years ago!) I was looking back on that album recently and thought that I really should do another one. So, this past week I took my camera with me wherever I went. Sometimes I did posed shots, and sometimes just random details. I'll put this together in a album sometime soon, but I thought I'd share my initial impressions here:

Sunday

Baby Clark's baptism. The girls were looking forward all week to "seeing baby Clark at church", and Clark was such a little angel, sleeping through the whole experience. I love the photo of my sister and my Nanny with Clark. She just loves her great-grands!

Monday 

A morning out in The Beach: walking down the boardwalk with the stroller, both girls with their babydolls. Going to the park, then the bakery for an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, and then the cheese shop for some parmesan and Canadian brie.

Tuesday

Practicing their bike-riding skills on the street, Audrey reading at the island while eating her cereal (this gave me a major flash forward of what the coming years will be like), Lily pushing her little shopping cart in her pjs at 3 in the afternoon. (She likes to get into pjs very early. As a matter of fact, I think this was the second pair. She got yogourt on the first set!)

Wednesday

Peaches still in the grocery stores in September, and it's a good thing because the girls absolutely love them. Company came for dinner and I made two chicken pot pies.

Thursday

Millie is 9 now, and she is starting to act like a senior dog. She wants her place on the couch, no matter what, and gets pretty annoyed when someone else is sitting there! Folding laundry on the counter while the kids played with play-doh, and afternoon cuddles with Lily while Audrey was at school.

Friday

Another walk in the morning: the library, pumpkins at the grocery store, and browsing for books while I bought a gift for a friend. We made Audrey's birthday party invitations, too. The afternoon was rainy and I took some shots of Lily as we walked home from pre-school. Dinner at Campagnolo with my girlfriends.

Saturday 

Breakfast at the island, Audrey still wearing her ponytail from the day before. Matching pj's. Quick walk in the neighbourhood, as I had  (and continue to have) a sore neck. A $15 bouquet from our favourite little florist, freshly made apple fritters with cinnamon sugar, and Audrey's portrait of me in my new autumn hat.

That's it! It felt good to have my camera out more. I was relying too much on my iphone this summer. Don't get me wrong-- I love Instagram!-- but nothing beats a real photo.

Scrapbook and Cards Today - Fall 2011

The new issue of Scrapbook and Cards Today premieres today-- and it's a beauty! You can pick it up at your LSS, or download the whole thing for free right here.

 I thought I would share some of my favourites from the issue. First off, the cover, by Kelly Goree:

I love the that the design is so seasonal, and yet there are unusual colours for fall-- namely pink and leaf green. It is autumnal, without screaming autumn. Love that.

SCT also announced their 2012 PageMaps Calendar. Yes, I am Miss April again. :) Woo hoo! You can pre-order the catologue beginning Oct. 14th!

I loved Lisa Dickinson's "Easy, Detailed, Expert" article. Her "Expert" layout being my absolute fave:

I was really drawn to Davinie Fiero's layout in "From the Heart", about journaling your authentic life. I love it when I say, "Hey, that's a great layout!", not, hey, "That's a great two page layout!":

  

Kimber McGray always astounds me with her seemingly unending supply of great techniques. The woman is a machine. How cute is this penny slider card?

 

There are full instructions and step-out photos in the magazine.

Finally, here is my little contribution to the Three Designer Challenge:

A collage of photos from Audrey's first day of school, and some fun with the special bobby pins you can use with the I-Top:

So there you have it! A little taste of the fall issue-- it's awesome, it's new, and it's available right here! ;)

 

Autumn is Awesome!

It's my week on the Write.Click.Scrapbook collective! My week is all about autumn-- my favourite season. I'll admit, I was so busy getting ready to post over there, that I didn't post here yesterday to let you know about day one! Day one was beautiful autumn photos-- and today is beautiful autumn layouts!

Have a look here!

 

Today I...

 

Day three after the end of my show, and I'm starting to get back into a rhythm. It feels as though Q and I were so focused on just getting me to the end of "The Marvelous Wonderettes" (i.e. sleep, steaming, not talking much during the day) that we put off a lot of stuff! Now we are busy getting back to everyday life:

Some details of the day:

• Set my alarm for 6:45 so that I could sign the girls up for municipal swimming lessons. This is always an ordeal, so I made sure to have my laptop on and course numbers ready to go. I lucked out and got both girls in morning classes, one after the other, and get this-- I don't have to get in the pool for the first time ever! Bleachers, here I come!
• Lily woke up with me and ate some of her cheerios while I signed up for the classes. She immediately wanted to put on her bathing suit. I told her she had to wait until at least Audrey was awake. She then demanded a cuddle on the couch. (The first of 4 or 5 such request all morning.)
• Audrey got up ten minutes later and wanted Shreddies. 
• Started getting out the winter clothes from last year and figuring out what still fits, etc.
• Forced Audrey to help me tidy for 15 minutes. She was not impressed. The two complaints were: "This is boring" and "I'm tired". Lily, on the other hand, tidies all the time. Guess which one takes after me?
• Peaches and pears for snack.
• Cheesy noodles and more peaches and pears for lunch.
• I walked Lily to school, and Q walked Audrey. I picked Audrey up after school, and Q picked up Lily. They both want me to do it, so this is the compromise. I love that both schools are just a 5 minute walk away, albeit in opposite directions.
• Hummus and whole wheat tortilla for snack.
• Chatter, book-reading, stroller-pushing, etc.
• Leftover chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.
• Babysitter at 5:30 so Q and I can go to an early movie.
• Quick burger for us, a glass of wine on a patio as it started to get chillier, then the movie "Contagion".
• Home by 9:15, paid the babysitter and watched him walk three doors home. (It's a good thing we pay well, because we don't have cable or good teenager food in our house!)
• Moved Lily from the bedroom rug to her bed for the third time this week.
• Checking e-mail, a sleepy dog wanting to share the couch, but afraid of the laptop cord on the floor in front of her. As always, if I say, "You can do it, Millie. You're a big dog.", she gets the courage to jump over it.
• Making lists of things to do tomorrow-- post office, training for a new endeavor, more re-arranging of wardrobes.
• Soon heading upstairs to scrap before (hopefully) going to bed at a reasonable hour!

Night all!

Winners!!!

The Scrap Giveaway:

"congrats on the design teams! I'm excited for a scrap retreat I'm going to in October... I hope to be super productive!"

Commenter name: Monica

The Stamper Giveaway:

"Wow, Congratulations to you!!! Also thank you for the giveaway! I'm got several projects on the go....I'm waiting for my Becky Higgins Project Life Core kit to come in so I can get everything ready to start for the New Year! And I just watched a video with Jennifer McGuire using the new SC/Hero Arts Stamps and the new Mister Hueys Shine, so this is def. on my list of things to try!"

Commenter name: Danielle

Congratulations Monica and Danielle! E-mail me your addresses and I will get your prizes off to you ASAP!

Being-a-Good-Sport Karma

Yesterday, I was writing about a design team call that I didn't get, and how important it is to put yourself out there for things. Rejection sucks, but limiting your possibilities sucks more!

Well, just a few hours later I got not ONE but TWO pieces of scrap good news! Firstly, I have been chosen to join the design team at My Scrapbook Nook!

I knew I was a finalist-- but there were 40 amazing finalists, and only 10 spots to join some of the current Nook girls.  That's not great odds, and I really didn't think I was going to get it. Then around 2pm they posted the list! I was thrilled to see my name there-- my very first kit team. Join me in congratulating these amazing ladies on also making the team:

Anna Sigga- Iceland
Carol Monson- USA
Danni Reid-USA
Deanna Misner- USA
Gina Rodgers-Australia
Hilde L Aaslund- Norway
Jaz Lee- Singapore
Jessy Christopher-Malaysia
Katarina Damm-Blomberg- Finland
Kim Moreno-USA
Leah Killian-USA
LG Belarmino- Phillipeans
Lilith Eeckles- Belgium
Marinette LEFEVRE- France
Nicole Nowosad- Canada
Pamella Brown-USA
Shelleye McDaniel-USA
Stacey Michaud- USA

That's a pretty rocking group!

Okay, part two of my news is that last night I received a request to guest design for a company I love-- which adds to another guest dt request I received last week! The cool thing about these two opportunities? They are both for teams that I had applied to be on and was rejected. In both cases, I e-mailed the companies after the fact, thanked them for the opportunity, and said that I would love to guest design if the opportunity arose. I'm not sure if that's why they ended up calling me, but I like to think it was good karma. Or rather, being-a-good-sport karma.

So, what fun I have to look forward to in the coming months! I really can't wait to get started.

To celebrate my Being-a-Good-Sport Karma, I'm doing TWO giveaways this weekend! I will have two bundles of scrap goodies to send out-- one for scrappers and one for stampers!

Leave me a comment here by Sunday night (or, at least when I get up Monday morning!), and I will draw two winners. Tell me something you are excited to work on this fall-- a project for scrapping? Something at work? A design project at home? Give me the deets! (oh, and tell me which prize you would prefer!)

Have a great day everyone!

Them's the Breaks

I try to be judicious when it comes to trying out for design teams. You don't want to over-commit yourself, and you have to really love the product you are working with. It's not really a lucrative thing-- except in product-- so I only go out for teams that I really love. Recently, I submitted to the Bella Blvd. call for just that reason, and created four new layouts for the opportunity. It didn't work out-- I didn't get it-- but them's the breaks! I now have four layouts that I love for my albums and the satisfaction of knowing that I took a chance and put myself out there. Rejections sucks, but only for a minute or two. After all, it's only paper and glue. The vast amount of time it is a whole lot of fun. :)

I thought I'd share those four layouts, though. Wanna see? (Click to make the larger.)

"At Three and Four"

I've been meaning to scrap this forever-- I love it when their ages are just a year apart. It cracks me up to see people's faces when I say, "They're three and four." ;) A little misleading, as they are almost two years apart-- but accurate nonetheless!

"This is Baby Clahrk" - My family loves that Lily calls little Clark, "Claaah-rk". I used some Hipstamatic shots for this one. He is seriously the cutest baby boy on the planet.

"Sushi on Queen"

This one I actually did last year as an alternative for SCT, but  it was never published or put on-line, which meant I could use it for the submission.

"It Was our Very First Trip to Centreville"

Centreville is the kids' amusement park on Centre Island. (There are few little islands in Lake Ontario just a 10 minute ferry ride from the bottom of the city.) I haven't been since I was a kid, but the girls just LOVED it! I think we'll get a season's pass next year. I'm proud of myself for handing off the camera and getting myself in the picture once or twice.

 

So, there you go! Four layouts that really mean something to me...that did not get me a job. :) I always remind myself, though, that the kids won't care much about DTs and Pubs when they are big, but they will really care about all the stories I documented from their childhood. Isn't our hobby the best???

Farewell to Pebbles!

Hi all! Well, this is my last layout for the Pebbles DT! I have loved every second of being on this team, but I'm also looking forward to new opportunities ahead!

For this layout I took a photo of Audrey in a new "Paris" t-shirt I bought for her. I never buy t-shirts with cartoon characters or big logos/writing, but I couldn't resist this one. Audrey loves Paris so much--- just like her Mama. :)

For this layout I wanted to showcase all of Pebbles pretty patterns-- and so many wonderful pinks! I stitched them all over to add texture and interest:

It's also new gallery day at Write.Click.Scrapbook-- and this month's theme is "Books". I photographed a few of the kids' favourite bedtime stories with Instagram, then printed them off in a collage and cut them apart. I popped a few up with foam squares to emphasize the idea of a pile:

I love that we have photos of all these books in one place for the girls to see when they are older. 

I have just 10 days left of work, and I have to admit that I feel I am limping to the end. The girls at work say it all sounds good, but my voice feels very, very tired. I'm ready for a few weeks of not singing and feeling back to normal again. I'm also ready for some full time mommying as the girls go back to school and beautiful autumn begins!