Weekend in Photos

We had a wonderful weekend at the cottage with all of our friends. Blueberry Lakes, the cottages we rented, were spectacular. It was sooooo cold. But we kept warm by the fire and in the hot tub.
Matthew and I visited St. Jovite & Mont Tremblant for a few hours on Saturday but I spent most of the weekend reading good books and relaxing by the fireplace.

here's a few photos:

the cottage


here's the rec room complete with a pool table.


The living room and fireplace.




So many pairs of Bluntstone boots in the heated porch!



On Saturday we had lunch in St. Jovite.



Then we went to visit Mont Tremblant. It was like a winter Disneyland.







It was also freakin' cold!







Hanging out with friends.



Matthew got a new sweater-Giant Tiger to the rescue for the ugly sweater party.



This is how I spent most of the weekend.



or doing this-hot tubbing is wonderful in -30 temperatures. I could give Lady Gaga a run for her money!



We had a great weekend. The cold continues today in Ottawa. I hope you are warm wherever you are.

xoxo
K

P.S: New Gossip Girl tonight!

5 For Friday

It’s been a busy week but what week isn’t right?!

Here’s today’s 5 for Friday:

1. Today is January 21st. A number of years ago a wonderful woman was born! That woman was is my mother. Today is her birthday. She took the day off to go to the gym, get her nails done and do some shopping. Not hard to tell the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree huh?! LOL.

Happy birthday Mom!

I hope it’s a wonderful one. I wish I were there to celebrate with you!

This week I’ve happened upon a number of neat websites and tools on the internet. Here’s a few things you might want to check out:

2. Listening to a Paperclipping RoundTable episode I was turned onto www.shuttercal.com. It’s an awesome website that you can use to upload your photos and chronicle your year. It’s awesome for Project 365. The best part is it’s FREE.

3. Sneaks have been abounding all week due to CHA. Maya road had some awesome posts on their blog this week-stamps, chipboard albums- love it all.

4. I decided to begin a new feature next week linked up from “What I Wore Wednesday” from the Pleated Poppy. Lisa Leonard inspires me with her style on a weekly basis in her “WIWW” posts so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a post like that once in a while. And it gives me the opportunity to ‘dress up’ too.

5. I’m thinking about doing “Layout a Day” with Lain Ehmann for February. It’s only 28 days. I can scrapbook something every day right? Wait! I’ve tried this before haven’t I? Well, third time’s the charm right?!

Have a great weekend! M & I are heading to Mont Tremblant this weekend for some winter fun with our friends.

xoxo
K

Currently I am

listening to: Paperclipping Round Table Episodes & ‘Forget you’ by Cee Lo Green
eating: lots of ‘bird food’ a.k.a salads and green stuff like that
drinking: breakfast smoothies. LOVE.
wearing: cords and a warm sweater
feeling: moody this week
weather: freezing. This city is soooooo cold.
wanting: a day to scrapbook and read guilt-free
needing: a relaxing stretch.
thinking: about going to the cottage this weekend
enjoying: my current book selection
wondering: why I’m so grumpy this week

xoxo
K

I have been a lazy blogger...

...lately. I don’t have any *good* excuses for that either. Here’s what’s happened in the last week:

*We went to M’s Aunt’s and Uncles house last week for the season premiere of Republic of Doyle

*Our friends Allison & Paul came to visit, buy a house and hang out in Ottawa for a week.

*We went to Haveli (amazing Indian) for dinner.

*We ate dinner at the Brookstreet Hotel & saw two of the Calgary Flames hockey players checking into their hotel.

*Then we went to watch the Calgary Flames vs. the Ottawa Sens. We left after the 2nd period. Sens lost: 3-2. Shocker.

*We had a dinner party with a bunch of friends. It was a lot of fun.

*I made a mini-album that I’m teaching to a group of kids at school next week.

*I started a new book, The Kite Runner. Plowing through it because it’s so good.

*Our car battery wouldn’t start Monday morning. A.k.a “It’s too cold in this stupid city!”

Looks like we had a busy week. Tomorrow's Wednesday and we're mid-way through the week. Yeah! This weekend we are heading to Mont Tremblant for some cottage fun with friends.

xoxo
K

P.S: I'll have pictures of my mini-album to post later in the week.

01/11/11

What a great date! Here’s some Tuesday ramblings...

Got my Studio Calico January kit “Who’s Who” yesterday. Excited to sit down and play with it. I was skeptical initially of the contents when I saw them online but in person they are just lovely.

Jillibean Soups new line “Spotted Owl Soup” debuted on their blog today! I love the blues and the owls. So cute!

Last night M & I played Dance Central. It was awesome. I discovered that hip hop dancing is not my forte but it’s sure fun to pretend.

I’ve decided to join the Project 12 movement. For more information you can go here.
I think it’s a nice way of chronicling the year. I think that this year I’m going to focus on sorting my pictures into ‘monthly pages’ a.k.a the Project 12 pages and photos I really want to scrap and tell their story separately. There’s no need to scrapbook every event and Project 12 will ensure that I cover our life without scrapping a page about every single little thing we do.

I’m working on my OLW. I’ve been running and taking fitness classes at the gym. I found an awesome instructor on Friday. She’s nuts! Hardcore! I’m pumped (hehehe) to head to her class tonight for another Bodypump session.

And because a post is never complete without a photo here’s one for you.



Ahhh the hand held photo. M hates them. I love em. This about sums up our feelings.

Have a happy Tuesday!

xoxo
K

New Technology Rocks

So for Christmas I got two new do-dads for scrapbooking and photographing life!

Mom and Dad bought me an awesome little mini-printer. It's a Canon Selphy and it's amazing. It's tiny-two VHS tapes on top of one another- and I love it. It's been named Sylvia! It prints great pics and at $100 it was an awesome gift! The ink and paper come together in a kit and are quite reasonable as well. It's a great buy for home printing without incurring the costs and space of big, fancy, chunky printers.

Matthew gave me a Fugifilm Instax Mini Polaroid camera. I love it! It's fun and you get serious instant gratification! I love the size of the photos and the fact that people get really excited about seeing them! Now I just have to figure out a way to keep them from taking them! ;)

Here's a layout I did using some photos I captured during a New Year's Eve party with our friends. I used an add-on from Studio Calico'a December Metropolitan release. I loved Decembers release. For the first time I bought the main kit and two add-ons as well in addition to some ink, stamps and mists. I went all out!

Last night I also plowed through some more Studio Calico kit product and created these layouts too.

This one is my "December" layout chronicling all the things we did in December. As you can see it was a busy month. There are a number of pattern papers involved in this design but I like the effect of them all put together. The business of the layout mimics the business of our season.

Then there's this one...I got tired at the end of the night so this one was put together with a bit of kraft cardstock and leftovers from the November Studio Calico kit Napa Valley. Our friends are nuts and on New Year's they made a 'taco' out of Erica and a futon mattress. Too funny! Photos are great though!

Hope you've had a wonderful weekend!

xoxo
K

One Little Word

My word for the year came to me during the first week of December while pondering the reverb 10 prompt:

December 1 – One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you? (Author: Gwen Bell)

While reminiscing on 2010’s word, POSSIBILITY, and planning for 2011 I couldn’t help but reflect on Ali’s comments to this prompt on her own blog. This past year, 2010, she chose a secret word. She chose ‘athlete’. Tonight while driving in the car I was trying to think of a similar word as I’ve slacked in the ‘movement’ department the last couple of months and into my head popped MOVE.

At first I thought “Well, everyone makes a fitness goal”. Then it dawned on me that MOVE means so much more than that making it the perfect word for me. In that moment I committed to my word.

My word for 2011 is MOVE.

Obviously moving more and eating less is on my list and motivated my word initially. That will continue to be a big focus this year for both myself and M.

MOVE also means moving on to the next stage of my life and that hopefully means moving to a new city-presumably home to Newfoundland. Hopefully, ‘move’ will mean moving into a new house as well.

MOVE may also mean it’s time to move on. Maybe it’s time to leave camp, mentally prepared to take the summer of 2011 or 2012 off and spend the time with my husband making new summer memories and traditions.

My word for 2011 is MOVE.

I haven’t decided how I will document it yet. I thought about taking Ali’s class at Big Picture Scrapbooking but reminded myself of a lesson I learned last year. I’m not a big fan of online classes because I never seem to keep up with them. Maybe I will make a mini-album journal with one entry for each month, something simple with typed journaling and a picture of something. I’ve even thought about using Ali’s December Daily templates and just covering the ‘weekday’ spot! We’ll see what comes to mind as I continue to contemplate and work on ‘moving’. Rest assured it will appear here on the blog.

I feel like life is going to significantly change in 2011. I’m not sure I’m ready for all that it will have to offer but I’m damn well going to try and face whatever it is head on.

xoxo
K

2011-5 For Friday

Good evening!

This is the first 5 for Friday for 2011. I would like to dedicate this 5 for Friday to my friends and family in Newfoundland. Here's 5 of my favorite moments from our vacation home...

1. So M's Grandad and I had a lovely date together on the 23rd. We went to Clovelly Golf Club for a lunch buffet. I'm pretty sure he had a good time and I know I did.

2. That night we headed to M's aunt's for her annual tree trimming party. Trying to get a shot of us (Me, M and his bro) is difficult. They are a family who shy away from the camera. I love this because Grandad got in there in the background with the pool cue! So funny! Yes, the photo is fuzzy. Is it the best one of us? Nope. But I love it dearly!

3. This is hilarious. That's M's Dad. He looks like he's praying to the dilapidated star on top of the tree. There were some *ahem* performance issues for the star this year. I love this photo!

4. Then there's this guy-my brother. He made the trek all the way from Whistler, BC to spend Christmas with us. And yes, he grew all that hair. He's a snowboarder-can you tell! We were so happy to have him home!

5. New Year's-enough said. It was great. We visited some friends and hung out and had great chats. Here's a few of the best shots of the night...

me and M.



the boys-don't ask what their doing.



J-my brother in law. He was enjoying himself!

OMG! This was hysterical! So Mark, one of Matthew's oldest friends, has a broken futon. Well, this information led to stories from a few university experiences of people being 'tacos' wherein they be folded up and carried around in the mattress. Well, our friend Erica lay down on the couch not long after midnight for a little rest and she very quickly became a taco! J was loving every minute of it! Amazing!

It was a busy vacation but it was a good one. Of course these and many more photos have been developed to be scrapbooked to chronicle the end of our year! Gotta love it!

Have a great weekend!

xoxo
K

Happy New Year!

And Happy Blogiversary to me!

It’s been a wild season for us. Our ‘vacation’ in Newfoundland was full of visiting and eating, and more visiting and eating and some more eating. I love going home but I'm exhausted (and still very full) and I’m looking forward to this weekend to recuperate and adjust to school life all over again.

In other news, last year one of my goals or resolutions was to begin-and sustain-a blog. Success! It’s been one year since I began this blog. While my time spent blogging has been short it’s been an invaluable tool for recording life and for that I am very grateful.

That being said, I can’t believe it’s already January 7th. Where did the week go? Where did the season go?

Let’s start with a recap of last year’s goals and resolutions.

Last year I was very ambitious and identified 12 goals-one for each month-for myself surrounding my word for the year ‘possibility’. In September I reviewed my goals and set out to accomplish the last few items.

So here’s the year-end progress report and what I got out of the goals themselves:

Create and maintain a blog: Check-one year anniversary this month!

This has been harder than I thought it would be. But I love the results of putting my work out there for others and going back to see what was going on throughout the year is neat. I don’t journal so this provides some form of therapy for me more often than not.

Run & finish a half-marathon with Matthew: Check!

Our run in May was probably the hardest aerobic activity I’ve ever done. I did enjoy the ‘team building’ of running with my husband though. After that race I felt on top of the world. I can truly call myself a runner now which is something I am very proud to say.

Complete the Ali Edwards course Yesterday & Today: Check!

I’m usually really good at meeting deadlines. Especially where courses are concerned but this course fell by the wayside. I took another course offered by Kelly Purkey in May and didn’t keep up with that one either. So, I’ve decided until I have lots of time to devote to a class I won’t be taking any more of them!
Read 12 'serious' books: Check!

This is one goal I really enjoyed this year. I read a lot of great books this year-more than 12 of them even. I have a stack of about 12-15 more that I want to read in 2011.

Learn to sew using my sewing machine: Check!

I think learning to sew has been cathartic. I had to recognize though that sewing projects are not like scrapbooking pages where they can come together in under an hour. It takes much longer to make a quilt and squeezing that activity into one night is stressful and no fun for anyone! I’m still learning some tricks to my machine and plan to use it more for projects and scrapbook layouts!

Take a photography course: Check!

Lately, I’ve been doing more exploring with the techniques of my camera. It’s been fun tinkering with it. I’ve also learned to step back from the camera and live life. I took less pictures this holiday season because I felt like I just wanted to live it instead. I’m also getting better at using a variety of media-iphone, instax, dslr, hand held camera.

Send in a scrapbooking submission: Check!

I did this. Every so often I choose to have a look at deadlines but really I create for myself not for others. Would it be awesome to have something published? Heck yeah! But do I depend on it? Nope. Also, I want to spend my free time scrapbooking not scanning and sending in layouts and mini albums. Maybe my tune will change if I find more time in my hectic schedule.

Save enough money to look for a home of our own: Check!
We’re on our way! There’s been lots of saving and our bank balance is slowly but surely rising! I’m excited but terrified for this stage of life. I can’t wait to decorate my own house and have a real home of our own. At the same time, the financial burden of a house terrifies me!

Be halfway through my Masters: Check!
After a tumultuous term I have officially finished 6 courses bringing me more than halfway through my M. Ed program. Most of my courses have been good. Some have elicited some tears but they’re all done. I’m working on the next few now.
Attack technology: a.k.a Mac, ipod and the Smartboard: Check!

I think I’ve managed to increase my technological competence this year. I have a few tricks up my sleeve for school this term having to do with the internet and some fun activities and projects for the kids to display their work.

Goals I'm still working on...

Do a layout/day: Well, let’s just say this is a significant amount of work. I made it 7 days in March and 13 days in October but alas it did not fit into my schedule no matter how hard I’ve tried. I don’t feel bad though because I managed to make 88 layouts this past year and 11 mini-albums. While this was a goal, it was a lofty one for me!

Conquer Photoshop: Maybe ‘conquer’ was a really strong word! I’ve learned a few tricks in photoshop through Scoot Kelby’s book but have I conquered it yet? Nope. Does any amateur ever conquer photoshop? I don’t know! This goal is a work in progress.

All in all I think that’s a pretty successful year. I don’t feel bad about not finishing entirely. I did my best and that’s all I can ask of myself. I think it's important to reflect on life and what you got out of your goals, where they led you before embarking on new ones. While most of these goals have been met that doesn't mean their gone for good. Many of those goals are things I've integrated into my life and will continue to work on this year and for many years after.

Enough self-reflection. If you've made it this far-congrats! Stay tuned for this year’s ‘one little word’ and my goals for 2011-they aren’t nearly as intense as 2010’s goals.

xoxo
K