Goodies and Heroes and Pub Requests, Oh My!

Jane, from Scrapbooking and Beyond, requested a layout today! Woot! It's so great to be published and the paycheck is helping pay off my camera, so I'm thrilled! And to my french speaking readers: the page that will be pubbed is in french, how cool is that?! Good to know art jumps over the language barrier!


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Okay, I know a lot of you will be shocked. I know a lot wont agree. But here it is... I've never liked the NBC show Heroes. Neither has DH. We started watching because of the hype. Plus, it helped that the actor playing Peter is Milo Ventimiglia, who will always and forever be Jess from Gilmore Girls in my heart. We didn't really enjoy it, but we figured we should keep watching. It was bound to get better, right? I mean, everyone and their mother was talking about this show and how great it was!! Then after a while of still not liking it, we were stuck. We were bored, but we wanted to know what would happen. We are now into the 3rd season and nothing of note has happened. So, yesterday after watching the first 2 episodes of the season, we did what we should have done a loooooooooong time ago. We pushed the delete button on our PVR for the other episodes and we will not be watching again! I am actually relieved. It felt like a chore to watch, and really, who needs that? When the show finally ends, we'll just read the short and sweet recap and it'll be enough for us! If you like this show, by all means, enjoy it! But for us, it's a not-so-sad goodbye! ;)


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On Monday, my goodie box from CARDS for the month of September finally arrived. I think they had something going on in their warehouse and all shipments were delayed. But I was tired of stalking the mailbox, lol! Plus, I hadn't seen the mag, so I didn't know what my card looked like in there. It wasn't photographed super well, not quite bright enough, but it still looks nice. Here's the card, this is the pic I took of it before I sent it in.

And here is the contents of my goodie box. It's like Xmas in October, super fun to see what's in there!

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And finally, here are 2 layouts.

I just finished this one, I absolutely loved this diving skeleton at the Botanical Garden!



And I made this one a few months ago. This is Sean sliding down a small hill Keith made for him on Xmas Eve last year.

Aaaaaaaaargh!

Yesterday, I went in downtown Montreal to take part in a discussion group for Ipsos Descaries. For an hour and a half, 9 of us discussed some potential birth control commercials. 75$ pay. Pretty good!

However, I came home to see SYTYCD Canada hadn't taped. Noooooooooooooooo! Not sure why, perhaps I was taping more than 2 things at once with my PVR? I'll check today. Luckily, Much Music replays the episodes, but only on Friday, so I have to be patient. In the meantime, how about I show you my favourite dance from last week? Nico and Arassay. Sigh... Can I take Nico and put him in my living room and have him dance all day? Shirtless, of course?! ;) Fast Forward to 1:55 to skip directly to the dance.

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Here is a layout I was hoping would be picked for the Xmas calls, no luck. I absolutely love it, isn't Kira the cutest ever?!?!?!

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A few weeks ago, I was the winner of a random draw on the Simple Studios Blog. Here's what I won. Gotta love free goodies!! This kit is by Making Memories.

What a great day!

Seriously, there's no better way to wake up! I woke up to the sound of Sean calling out "Mommy! Mommy!" I could tell he was in Kira's room. They started laughing together, so I took my time getting up. Suddenly, here's what I hear: "I wove you, Kiwa!" To which Kira responds: "I 'ove you!" Seriously, that totally made my day and I wasn't even out of the bed yet!!!

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Then, a bit later, we were playing in the kids' playroom. Out of the blue, Kira (who up to now kept counting 'one, two, one!') started 'un, deux. trois, quatre, cinq, six!' Yup, up to 6 in french! By the end of the day, she was counting to 10 in english, to 7 in french. I am in awe of this girl! She's not even 2 yet!

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I friend of my mom's picked up our car today b/c our break lights don't work (again, ugh!) so he's gonna look at the electrical part of our car. When he left, Sean asked me very seriously "His name is Mr Fix-It?" He cracks me up!

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And in honor of my dear brother Richard and my niece Evangeline, who still read my blog from the other side of Canada, here is a picture we took this summer. Enjoy! :)

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And here's a page I was hoping would be picked-up for the winter calls, but wasn't. Bits and pieces of Xmas around our house last year!

A toot and some pictures!

YAY, another toot! CARDS idea book has requested a card for their March 2009 issue. I love CARDS! I love the goodie box, it's like Xmas anytime of year! It's a card I made with my design team kit that I showed you in a previous post. And don't scroll down to try to see it, I removed it! ;)

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On another note, the kids and I went to my cousin Nadyne's today. Rebeka is only a few months younger than Kira. Kira kept calling her Beka, it was so cute! The kids had a lot of fun. We played in the backyard, which is huge and full of leaves. Of course, I had my camera with me so I took some shots (200+ shots!) Here are a few.


This is Rebeka. It's not the best picture of her, but she was so happy to be allowed to eat Kira's Fruit Loops, I just had to share! I hope her mom doesn't mind me posting this!
Future photographer/scrapbooker?!
Kira loved this boat, she kept ringing the bell.She doesn't smile much right now b/c she has a big cold (her 3rd in 6 weeks, tough times for her), but she is still adorable! Plus, it's nice to have a nice background instead of my mish-mash living room/dining room!

This is in our driveway back home. We were playing hide and seek and I snapped this picture when he finally found me!

My 2 sweeties together, love 'em!

And here is my picture-a-day for today! I love taking pictures of Sean lying down on the ground. I stand over him and voila, perfect pic every time! I can't wait for Kira to be able to stand still so that I can do this with her!

Don't forget to look at my Slide show on the right. I have all my picture-a-day pictures there, although I didn't show them all in my posts!

Scheme 7 Revealed on Scrap Schemes!

How exciting is this? My first reveal as part of the Scrap Schemes Design Team! Scrap Schemes is not a store, it's a challenge blog. Instead of just using sketches as inspiration, we use everyday things. Click here to see what our inspiration was this week! You'll be able to see my layout as well as what all the other great girls did! I'm posting my layout here as well so that you can read the journaling by clicking on it. Be sure to create your own layout or project based on this scheme and link it on the blog, you'll have a chance to win some goodies!
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Winter calls are over, so I can start posting all my Winter layouts! I thought I'd give you a taste of what's coming!

Here is another layout I did a while ago. Not my usual style at all, but I love the results!

I'm still awake, so I might as well update!

Okay, let's start with So You Think You Can Dance Canada . You didn't think I was going to forget to show you my favourite dances of the week, did you?! I'm a little late, but here they are.

Before I begin, let me tell you my favourite of all the Top 20 is Nico. I loved him in his Montreal audition, and he's been my favourite ever since (but he's not in either of my favourite dances this week. It happens!)

Okay, first off, here is a contemporary dance (I know, shocker!) with Lisa and Vincent. Amazing! Fast-forward to 2:10 to skip right to the dance.


And next is the Jive with Allie and Danny. This is awesome, so cool to watch! Fast-forward to 2:20 to skip right to the dance.



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Yesterday, we went to the Botanical Garden to see The Magic of Lanterns and The Great Pumpkin Ball. We got there at 3PM, walked around, visited the Halloween Maze, went to see the pumpkins, had dinner and saw the beautiful lanterns! And after all that, the kids still had energy when we got home! :) I'd show you pictures of our day, but we took over 300 so you'll have to give me a few days to go through them!

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Today, as Sean often does, he gave us new names. Sean was Spider-Man, Kira was Sand-Man, Keith was Hulk and I was Venom. Keith pointed out something to me: both guys in the household are superheroes while the girls are villains... What does that mean?!?! ;)

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On a sad note, I have finish the Twilight series. Sigh. I hate it when I read something good and then I'm done. What am I gonna do with my time now? Anybody have any good reading to suggest?

I can show you this new trailer for the movie coming out November 21st. Chills, I tell ya! Can I just say something, though? The guy playing Edward is not as beautiful as he should be, at least in my opinion (you'll understand if you read the book!) What do you think?

Meet Rhys and Parker!

As you know, two of my best friends recently gave birth. JJ gave birth to Rhys on August 15th and Erin had little Parker on September 29th. Tonight, while I was at the Friday night crop at Scrapbook Centrale, I got to take pictures of the little ones. There are plenty more, but here are 2 that I had time to tweek a little bit. I hope the mommies don't mind me posting these!

Here is Rhys, one of the most quiet babies I have ever seen!


Here is Parker, a little more fussy but oh-so-cute!

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And here is my pic-of-the-day for the challenge at SC. I know I skipped a few days. The pics were taken, I just haven't taken the time to download them yet.

The menu at Starbucks, where we go every Friday night after the crop!

What a beautiful day!

I went to the park this morning, like we do most days. They usually get in the wagon and I pull them. Today, however, Sean decided to go on his Diego tricycle. It's the first time he used it to go all the way to the park. He kept saying "I can do it all by myself!" He was so proud!

The weather was great, sunny with a nice warm wind. The kids had fun in the swings and then a bunch of kids from neibourghing daycares came by. So they were having the time of their lives! Now that Sean can talk, he can finally go up to them and say "Hi, my name is Sean!" And since a lot of these kids speak english too, it works out well!

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I haven't written this here yet. Simple Scrapbooks requested a St. Patty's Day layout for their March/April 2009 issue!!! I am so thrilled! My second time in the mag. The first time around, it was for the "Make the Most of It" column. I almost passed out becasue Donna Downey called me herself!!! This time around, it's for the Readers Gallery, yay!!!

Things are going great for me these days in the publishing world. I think one thing that has helped me is that I now scrap according to the seasons for magazine calls. So this Summer, I was scrapping Winter pictures. And right now, it's all about Spring. I scrap pictures I would've scrapped anyway, but since I *know* I will be submitting them, it gives me an extra push to make it even better. Ever since I started scrapping this way, I've been getting more mag requests. I figure there must be something to it! :)

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We went to Caro's yesterday, spent all day there. Kira had fun on the swing and Sean was thrilled to play with Xavier's Transformers!

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I'm still taking my pictures every day, but I haven't managed to download them in my computer yet. Sorry about that!

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This made me chuckle this morning because I'd bet anything this is the kind of game Kira will come up with in a few years! :D

I'm here!

I've been having a crazy week, which is why I haven't uploaded (or read anyone's blog!) I'll write as soon as things calm down!

Picture-a-day: I didn't forget!

I had quite a busy weekend, which I will tell you about tomorrow, but since I'm working on pictures right now to place an order, I figured I'd share my pics for the 4th and the 5th of October.

This one is of the last book of the Twilight series. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you obviously don't read my blog regularly and you live under a rock! ;) I'm almost done reading it, which is bittersweet: I wanna know what happens but I'll be sad when it ends. Luckily, the movie is not so far off (we still have a date, right Bella?)

You'll have to apologize for the blurriness of this one. I took it at 11PM without a flash, since I hate using my flash. It still looks better blurry than it does with the flash. A few of my DVD boxed sets. They make me happy! :D

Baby-palooza at Scrapbook Centrale!

As you know, cropping on Fridays nights at Scrapbook Centrale has brought some amazing people in my life, girls I consider close friends now. I can't imagine not having them in my life. Erin, Noémi, JJ... Love 'em!

Seven weeks ago, JJ gave birth to daughter Rhys, the cutest thing you have ever seen! She is such a quiet baby, JJ actually still comes to crop on Friday nights. Rhys will fuss when she's hungry and that's it. The rest of the time she sleeps. Amazing!

Four days ago, Erin gave birth to her second son, Parker. Well she came to the crop tonight with the little guy to show him to us! OMGosh, he is cute! I got to hold him, and smell him, and kiss him. Sigh, I didn't want to let him go! :) And when I saw him breastfeeding, I totally melted on the spot! To see the little mouth on the skin, to hear the little coos of contentment... Brought back amazing memories. That's what I miss most about the early days/months. The bond we create with our child through breastfeeding.

And for Christmas, Noémi is expecting her third little one! Yup, I'm telling you, it's baby-palooza in our little group! Sometimes I wish it would rub off on me....

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...and then sometimes I don't! Like yesterday, when the kids were upstairs and I was on the first floor. Sean was "reading" a story out loud, like he does sometimes, and I thought it was sweet that he was reading a story to his sister. But then I realized Kira was being way too quiet. When I went upstairs, I saw that she had emptied half the litter box on the floor! She had seen me scoop the litter earlier and tried to do the same!

And today, when she was in the bathroom and I was in the living room with Sean. I figured the worst she could do was unroll the toilet paper. And then I heard : "Mommy wash hands!" I thought she had managed to reach the soap, but nooooo. She had taken my tube of lipstick and had drawn all over the floor! Man, I love that kid, but she's much more a handful than Sean ever was!

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Okay, I think it's time I went to bed, so I will leave you with my pic of the day for the challenge at SC. I had to take a pic of myself for my bio on Scrap Schemes, so I used the timer option on my camera. At some point, Sean jumped in the picture. It was totally not planned, he just wanted to be in the pic with me. Well, this is what I got!!! I love it!

New pic, new thoughts, new layouts...

Day 2 of the Photo-a-day challenge at Scrapbook Centrale. This LeapFrog magnetic alphabet is such a big part of my life. Sean played with it so much, and now Kira can't get enough. She thinks every letter is a "B", but still... ;) Educational toys that kids actually enjoy are the BEST!



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It's that time of the month again. My DT reveal for scrapbook Centrale. We got to play with American Crafts products, I had the bold and vibrant Moda Bella line. I absolutely loved it! Click here to see what the other DT members did with their kits. There is major talent on this DT (the best around, IMHO!), let me tell ya!

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I am halfway through Breaking Dawn, the fourth and last book in the Twilight series. Man, I'm on edge. I simply can't get enough! I was going to talk about that more, but I'm suddenly very tired and I think I'm gonna go to bed. So it'll have to wait until tomorrow's post!

Picture-a-day challenge

Nathalie, who's on the design team with me at Scrapbook Centrale, challenged us to take a picture a day for the month of October. Nothing specific, just anything that catches our eye. I decided I was going to focus of my day-to-day life. You know, the *normal* stuff. As you can see on the right, I have a slideshow for this. The picture for October 1st is peanut butter and Fluff! Why? Because that's what I had for breakfast (who doesn't love Fluffernutters?!) Hopefully at the end of the month, I'll have 31 pictures that represent who I am right now and I can scrap about it. It should be fun! Don't forget: if you read my blog through Google Reader or anything like that, you'll have to go see my actual blog to see these pics! ;)

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Heard today while the kids were jumping on my bed (yes, I let them jump on my bed!)

Sean: Bed is the house, right Mommy?

Me: Right. Um, wait... What?

Sean: Bed is the house. There (pointing at a chair) is grocestring store. There is anoner store. And there is the hostipal! If Kiwa hurt her teef, we bring her to hostipal, right?

Me: Right!

Seriously, he can't get any cuter! I just about fell on my butt laughing when he said "grocestring store" instead of "grocery store"!!!

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Tomorrow, I'll show you my reveal for the DT on Scrapbook Centrale. Until then, have fun!

I'm a Schemer!

Well, I can finally reveal that I have made the design team on the Scrap Scheme blog! I am thrilled to be part of this great team of ladies. Every 2 weeks, there will be a new scheme for us to follow and make a scrapbook layout with. For example, here is how dt members were inspired by polka dots. And here is how they were inspired by a picture frame. I have been trying to expand my scrapbooking challenges, push myself further, and I think this will help me get closer to my goals. I hope you will join us!!!