Life

Happy Birthday Claire!

Happy 4th Birthday to our sweet girl!

Gotta love this :)

1234....

Speaking of 4, I can't believe my little girl is turning 4 tomorrow. Ahhh, time flies!! We're planning a day at the Vancouver Aquarium; then in the late afternoon, a small barbeque at a local park. The forecast calls for nice sunny (but not too hot) weather. Fun times!

Anyway, I think celebrity cameo appearances in Sesame Street are such a hoot! Check these out:

Norah Jones & Elmo... too funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c3fvqNlFvc

Andrea Bocelli & Elmo.... soooo sweet! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgUnYzXU-Fo

Robert de Niro & Elmo... classic! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgUnYzXU-Fo

Butterfly Love

It's no surprise that I love to use flowers as embellishments in my scrapbook projects and cards. However, a very close second would be butterflies!

Here's a layout I completed using papers and cardstock from POTP's April kit. I used chipboard butterfly shapes from Scenic Route. I completely inked the chipboard with red ink. Then I stamped a background stamp image with black Versafine ink (my favourite black ink!).

I started working on this accordion album last year, but kept putting it aside. I finally completed last week. Yay! The front cover features a butterfly transparency from My Minds Eye and Heidi Swapp ghost butterfly shapes. I painted the backs of the ghost shapes with cream acrylic paint and then stamped a script text background stamp with StazOn ink on top. Then I applied Stickles around the edges and finished off with some Heidi Swapp bling.

The pics are just random baby photos of Claire. I wanted to highlight her special relationships with me, Vince and her grandparents. What makes it extra special is that it includes journaling from Daddy.

And lastly, I finished this card last night for the POTP blog. I've had this set of gorgeous butterfly stamps ("Flitter") by Fontwerks for a couple of months now and haven't touched it. It's so pretty I only wanted to admire it! lol! Anyway, I decided to finally open it and play around with heat embossing. I stamped the image on black cardstock with Versamark, sprinkled with white embossing powder and ran my heat gun over the image to set it. When it was a bit dry, I dabbed some brown StazOn over the image with a piece of foam to give the butterflies a slightly distressed and grungy look. Going for that shabby chic effect. lol!

Joining the bandwagon..finally...

The Wii. I have been wanting this console for a while now, at least a year. And I'm pretty sure we were the only family I know that didn't have at least one of the 3 newest game consoles. And this is totally ironic because Vince and I are tech geeks by profession. He's a programmer, I'm in systems support. At work, we talk among our colleagues about the latest and greatest in technology. So I've been coveting the Wii. The Xbox360 and PS3 not so much, maybe because I'm not an avid gamer now as I used to be. And maybe because my old Xbox and all the games are just gathering dust.

Anyway, we saw an ad in the Superstore flyer the other day -- $399 Wii bundle, includes the console, Wii Fit and Wii Play. Cool! On impulse, I said to Vince, "Let's just buy it." Lol! I think he was shocked to hear that from me, because when it comes to big-ticket purchases, I'm a little prudent. So we went to the Superstore close to home. Sold Out. Then we drove to another location which we thought wasn't too busy. The Wii Fit was sold out (no surprise), but they had the console available. the store also had a special going that for every $200 purchase in the store, you get a $25 gift card. So woohoo! We bought the console, plus Wii Play (which includes another Wii mote).

After putting Claire to bed, Vince and I started playing. Tennis. Bowling. Laser hockey. Table Tennis. Oh the fun we had!

Yesterday, during my lunch break, I picked up Rayman Raving Rabbids from EB Games, a crazy funny party game featuring evil bunnies. Lol! When we got home, we introduced Claire to the world of the Wii. And we played until Claire finally said, "Mommy, I'm getting hungry." Oh yeah, it was time for me to make dinner. I seriously could have played longer but you know, Mommy has to set a good example. We don't want the kid getting addicted to video games now, right? ;)

Summer Reading and Summer Movies

I am reading this… (during my daily commute to and from work)

So far, it’s ok. It started out well, but now I’m beginning to get really annoyed with one of the main characters. Nevertheless, I’m determined to finish this book.

Tomorrow, we are seeing this…

I’ve heard great reviews about this movie. I think Claire will enjoy it.

This next one will be my date movie with Vince for the summer.

Great reviews from the critics so far. Time to book a babysitter.

How about you? What’s on your summertime reading or movie list?

And the summer so far...

Hi everyone! First of all, huge thanks to everyone who left messages, comments and emails! It's great to hear back from all of you, and I'll be sure to check out your blogs in the next few days.

Our camping trip was a blast! At first I thought we were heading to the Okanagan where Marivic, Jeffrey and Jeffrey's family live. But it turned out they booked us a tent site at Tall Timbers resort up in Watch Lake in the South Cariboo. Lol! The drive from Vancouver was about 5 1/2 hours. Fun times! For a non-camper like me, I had a lot of fun (despite the mosquito bites!). Vince posted more details and pics about our camping trip in his blog.

We were in town for Canada Day so we decided to head out to Harbour Green Park at Coal Harbour in the late afternoon. It was breezy summer afternoon, just a perfect day to spend outside. That night, we watched the Canada Day fireworks in the harbour. Claire didn't like the booming sounds of the fireworks and spent most of the time just cuddling with me.

The other day, I scrapped! Woohoo! The last time I scrapped was back in early May for the NSD crop at Pick of the Patch. Yup, that was a long drought. Lol! I unpacked a few supplies, grabbed some pics random pics and just played. What a great feeling! Here's one of the layouts I finished.

I also put the finishing touches on a mini album that I've been working on and off since last December. It's finally done! (more pics on that project to follow)

My next couple of projects will be with the July kit of POTP -- it's a gorgeous kit!! So bright and happy!

House For Sale. Life On Hold.

Lots of cleaning. Lots of tidying up for house showings and open house. Lots of house hunting everywhere in the lower mainland. Driving around neighbourhoods. Researching schools. Talking to our hardworking realtor Kerry and setting up appointments. Checking MLS. Reading up on real estate. Getting preapproved for mortgage. Other than work and preschool, those were the only things we’ve been doing almost the past 2 months.

Seems like life has been on hold for us. Eek! Poor Claire has had most of her toys put away in storage because of our decluttering. It doesn’t help too that I was ill with a long and nasty bout of the cold.

It’s been a sloooooowwwwwww real estate market so far. In a way, I kind of expected it – with the housing slump in the US (and Canada following of course), mortgage rates increasing, fuel rates skyrocketing and everything essential like food and gas has become very expensive, house buyers are becoming more cautious I suppose. We have seen a TON of homes yet haven’t made a single offer on a place because our place doesn’t have a firm offer yet.  At least, there isn’t pressure on us to sell. If our home doesn’t sell, we can always stay and wait.

Well summer is now here. And I think I’ll change this  transitional “we-have-no-life-while-we-are-in-the-midst-of-selling,buying-and-moving” stage of our lives. Next weekend, we are heading to the Okanagan and seeing Vince’s sister and her fiancé Jeffrey. Woohoo! We are camping, baby!

Another thing too…I really miss blogging. Earlier this month was Claire’s very first ballet recital. Did I blog about that?? ..no..Oh and Mothers Day and Fathers Day too – did I blog about those days??  I don’t even remember now what I did on Mother’s Day but I’m sure it was special. Just goes to show that how blogging and recording memories is so important. I’ll try to update this blog more often, even if it’s just a random post.

And I miss checking my friends’ blogs too. I’m so glad I got to meet up with some special friends last Saturday – went shopping for dresses (fun!!), sushi dinner, saw “Sex and the City” in the theatre, went to Starbucks and just hung out. Just a fun time with girlfriends – I love that! Thanks for a wonderful time, ladies! Muah!

Hello Blog!

Ok, so April just flew by! Last month was just crazy. I don't think I even took a lot of pics last month either. Work was extremely busy for me and Vince. What a blur April was. I remember Claire had her first dentist appointment and she was awesome! But other than that, nothing terribly significant happened. Just a lot of work!

Scrapbooking kept me busy too, although at the end of month, I decided to take a temporary leave of absence from POTP. The reason is that Vince and I have decided to sell our tiny townhouse and buy a bigger home. So I have to put all my scrapbooking stuff away and pack them up.

So far, we have looked at homes but haven't made any offers yet. We still need to get our place on the market, but we'll need to do some aesthetic touch-ups like painting and landscaping. Kerry, our realtor is confident she can sell our place. *crossing fingers* I've been checking all these homes online, crunching numbers, checking out mortgage rates, researching neighbourhoods and checking out various schools, access to transportation, etc. So much stuff to think about.

If we buy a home in the next few months and move by the end of summer, that would be the 3rd time we're moving in just 5 years! Talk about experienced movers. But I'm hoping the house that we find will be the last house we move into (or at least for the next 15-20 years), which is why I'm taking a lot of time and making sure we move into the right neighbourhood. We'll see how it goes.

Anyhow, tomorrow is the start of the long weekend. Woohoo! The weather is gorgeous, and maybe I'll get to take some pics outdoors.

Here are some layouts I created last month..

From the April POTP kit:

Last May 4 was National Scrapbooking Day and at POTP, we celebrated it by hosting an online crop. I posted a couple of challenges. One was to use a long title (meaning having a title of at least 6 words - lol!). My sample layout had 10 words.

My other challenge was to scrap about the "man/men in your lives". Here's a layout to celebrate my DH. I rarely scrap about him, so I thought it would be a fun challenge.

Here's a fun one using my stamps to create my own patterns:

And a layout of one of my favourite pics of Claire.

Since I've packed most of my scrapping stuff away, I probably won't be doing much scrapbooking for the next little while until we move. Oh well, I can always take photos :)

Happy weekend!

A Fun Layout to Share

Joanne posted a fun sketch challenge in her blog, so I thought I'd play along. I loved the 9 squares, tictactoe pattern and used that as my main design. I tweaked the sketch a bit (as I usually do) and the final layout is a bit cleaner and more linear than my usual style.

Actually...hmm..now that I think about it, my layout looks totally off than the original sketch. No corner embellishment or corner title and the short journaling is located inside the grid. (Oops! Sorry Jo!) But I'm really quite happy with the result because I used a LOT of older products that have been in my stash for years. Gotta love that! :)

Some (late) Photos to Share

Ok I'm so behind in my posting. But it's never too late to share photos :) Here are a few of my faves starting in the beginning of February...

En route to CHA in the airplane, Sandra introduced me to old-time radio shows in her very cool Ipod Touch. Here we were looking quite goofy, listening to "The Shadow". I had the camera outstretched in my arm and since I obviously could not see through the viewfinder, we weren't exactly centred or in focus. I love this fun snapshot!

Kimberly and I just taking a break at the parkade outside of the convention centre. Kimberly was working the Sassafrass Lass booth throughout the show, so she had a pretty busy schedule. But I'm glad that I got to meet her and Sandra and I got to spend a few minutes with her during her break. Not only is she incredibly talented, she's also an amazing person! So sweet and so down-to-earth. I love ya, Kimberly!

After flying back home from the CHA, the next day, my family and I flew to Hawaii. Vince wrote a complete trip in his blog (with more pics). These days, my hubby seems to be better than me when it comes to blogging (lol!)

Kailua Beach..

On the grounds at the Turtle Bay Resort. This place is awesome, so tranquil and relaxing, located in the North Shore of Oahu. A great place to get away from the hussle and bussle of Waikiki. I love this pic of Claire and Vince (in matching Hawaiian outfits) doing the "hang loose" sighn.

Our amazing (but expensive - yikes!!) view from our room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Unless we win the lottery, I don't think we'll be able to see this type of view in a long, long, long time. (*lol*)

I asked Vince to take this photo of us sipping fancy tropical girly drinks. I had the Lava flow (yum!) and Claire had a banana smoothie.

Here are some of our Easter pics.

My brother John and his daughter Abi dropped by for a little Play-doh party. I love this photo of us (thanks Vince!). Just me and my bro and our kids, playing like kids again.

Thanks for peeking!