It's Spring Break

It's been a fun, and busy week around here.  For starters we celebrated this girl's 9th birthday on Tuesday.

She's one of those people who won't let anyone forget it's her big day.  She starts reminding us about it at least 2 weeks prior to the day, and everything up until the big day revolves around it.  Here's an example.  Eden (her younger sister): "Théa is today Monday? Théa: "Well my birthday is tomorrow, and it's Tuesday, so what do you think?"  Umm "Whaaaa?  That makes absolutely zero sense.  That's my girl though, loves to be celebrated.  She chose to have the family go to Smitty's for supper that evening.  Here a few few pix:

Her big sis is totally in love with Justin Beiber, and  although Théa's not a huge fan, Isabelle thought it would be appropriate if she had him close to her heart every night :)  Look how thrilled she is, lol.

She was stoked to get the new Much Music Dance 2011 cd.   I love the expression on her face

And her very first pair of jeggings  (although only the top is visible in this shot)  They're cute too - purple.

She makes us so happy.  She's funny, smart, and curious about everything.  She loves to dance, play piano, and sing.  I can't wait to see where life takes this one.  I pray that Psalm 37:4 "Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart" will be true for her all the days of her life.

On the scrappy front.  I spent a little while playing with the gorgeous March Kit from Scrapbook Nook yesterday afternoon.  This kit is so fabulous, I just want to lock myself up in my craft room and scrap every little itty bitty piece of it.  *sigh*  I made this layout of Isabelle with a friend in front of our old house on the first day of school.

Here's a card I made on Sunday for a dear friend who had surgery last week.  Inside was a gift certificate for Blockbuster to help the five weeks of bed rest pass a little more quickly.

We're heading off tothis mountain in a few hours for a week of skiing.

I'll likely not be posting anything new, but will be around the blog-ous-phere from time to time.

Have a wonderful Spring Break all,

♥S. Pin It

Sketch Challenge

Every Sunday Creative Scrappers posts a new sketch challenge, with a prize for whoever wins.  There's always a fun sketch and a ton of inspiration from their DT, and GDT.  For the first time ever I've decided to submit a layout for consideration.  I was desperate to dig into the truck load of goodies I received from My Mind's Eye earlier in the week, but looking at all of it was somewhat overwhelming.  I needed help to get me started, that's where CS comes in.  Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

The pic is of Eden the morning of my birthday breakfast at The Pancake House, my all time fave place to go in the city for my favorite meal of the day.  As soon as the server placed her food in front of her, she just couldn't help but take a like of the scrumptious mountain of whip cream.  I love that she's still young and carefree enough not to care what others watching may have thought of her. 

That's about all the scrapping I think I'll be able to squeeze into this week, as Friday we leave for our week away in Steamboat, CO for Spring Break.

Happy Monday all.  I hope your week is off to a great start.

♥ S. Pin It

Radmon thoughts on Friday

The sun is shining, the house is quiet, and I'm feeling like I should be doing a hundred things.  The time change this past Sunday sure sent my body into a tailspin.  I've been sluggish and yawning all week long.  I don't remember it ever affecting me like this before.  Have you been feeling it too?

I started this morning by cracking open a new devotional I received as a gift last weekend.  It's called 10-Minute Time Outs for Busy Women by Grace Fox.  Really great little devotional.  It helps you start your day with scripture, a thought for the day, and a little quiet time with Jesus.  Beginning my day in that way never disappoints.  No matter what the day holds I feel better grounded knowing that I've given back to Him some of what He's given to me.  I try to not take my days on this earth for granted, and a 10 minute time out, in my opinion is a great way to say thanks back, and allow Jesus time and stillness to speak to me should he  so choose.

In scrappy news, yesterday afternoon I received my huge prize pack from My Mind's Eye by courier.  It was jam packed with every little piece of the recently released Stella & Rose: Hazel and Mebel collection.  I'm really hoping I get some time this weekend to scrap.

Tonight is promising to be a quiet night at home.  The girls want to have friends over, so we'll do that for supper, then hopefully a movie and popcorn.  I've decided I'm going to rent Life As We Know It (with Katherine Heigl, and Josh Duhamel), for D and I.  I've heard it's pretty good.   I think I'll also pick up disc 2 of Modern Family - Season One.  I think that show is hysterical.  If you've never seen an episode, you really should look one up online.

I really need to get my butt in gear with a packing list for our upcoming ski trip to Steamboat Colorado next Friday.  This will be our second year going, the kids, and hubby love it.  Me?  I'd take a sunny vacation over mountains any day.  That said, however, simply being together, and seeing everyone have so much fun makes it easy to say yes to a 22 hour bus ride, more snow, no sleeping in, continued lunch making, and the daily workout of skiing.  On the plus side the view out there is spectacular, the people are super friendly, and time to just chill, play games, sit around in the hot tub, and laugh in the evenings is so valued.  Off to start my list.  I'll leave you with a few cards I made a couple of weeks ago.  I gave them out as Thank Yous to the women who helped me lead worship last weekend and the Woman's Retreat.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful weekend

♥S.

made with Sassafraslass papers, Jillibean sprout, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Cosmo Cricket & Bazzill papers, and misc ribbon.

Webster's Pages papers, Jenni Bowlin journal sticker, Martha Stewart punch, misc twin, and bling, Simply Sweet stamp.

Fancy Pants papers, Creative Memories alphas, Maya Road mist, Basic Grey button, misc: flowers, ribbon, and twine.

Pin It

My weekend away

Last weekend I had the opportunity to get out of the city, away from the kids, and hubby, the phone, and computer, the cooking and cleaning, and all the other things that beg for my attention on any given weekend.  I joined 50 + other women at a retreat at a beautiful camp South-east of the city.   Although the weekend  provided plenty of time to catch up with friends, even more importantly it was a time out, to re-focus my relationship with Jesus.  The speaker this year Grace Fox, a fairly well known Canadian speaker and author.  She spoke a lot about our desire to be used by God, to know his plan for our lives, as he proclaims to have for us in Jeremiah 29:11.  What she reminded us of, was that although we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus sharing the truth of salvation through Him, we must not neglect our first love.  There is nothing greater than to know, and be known by the One who created us, the One who knit us together in our mother's womb, and knows our innermost being.  If we neglect to spend time resting in, and learning more about that relationship, we limit our capacity to be used by Him, and we run the risk of not being aware of all the opportunities around us to engage in loving people, and pointing them towards the love of the Father who wants to be in relationship with them.  I was reminded of the importance of nurturing that relationship this past weekend.  Through some other insights I was also gently reminded that not all of us are called to great and  mighty things at every chapter in our lives.  Sometimes the greatest mission we have is to be effective right were we are.  What's that saying, "loom where you're planted"?  Right.  Although there are many days where it certainly doesn't feel like much, I am coming to see that my being a patient, loving, and present mother, who provides for, is there for, and loves, with an unconditional love each of my girls is my highest calling at this chapter in my life.  How close I keep my relationship with God, and how much I see my own worth in Him, can greatly affect the type of mother I am to my girls.  It may not sound glamorous, but it's a mission I choose to accept and fulfill to the best of my ability.  Praise God that he is merciful, patient, and loving with me, as there are many days where I lose focus and behave in such a way as to say that "I am the belly button of the world, and all else is secondary".  I'm not proud to admit it, but it's true.  Brutal honesty.  The weekend was lovely.  In addition to Grace's wonderful sessions, I enjoyed time leading worship with these lovely ladies...

sledding, like a big kid down this toboggan run with some 'big kid' friends

and Zumba-ing with the ever so charming Eddi

All in all, a wonderful weekend away to refresh and recharge, and re-focus on what's most important in my life.  John 15 was a key passage for the weekend and continues to run through my mind.   I encourage you to have a peek at it, you never know what nugget of truth or inspiration may be waiting for you.

Thanks for stopping by today,

♥S. Pin It

March Kit

Just had to post these eye candy pix for those who love all things scrappy.  This kit club has been the best thing for my scrappy cravings.  Scrapping with kits makes it so easy as everything you get in the kit is chosen to coordinate with everything included, there are even a ton of inspirational layouts, cards, altered items, etc posted in the gallery to get your creative juices flowing.  All you need to do is supply the pix.  There are different membership options provided.  Each kit is chalk full of the latest, and greatest scrappy goodness.  Here is a look at the March kit full of Crate and MME that's enroute to me as I type.  Enjoy the eye candy.  I'll be back soon with pix and some highlights of the Woman's Retreat I was on this past weekend.  It was so much fun, looking forward to sharing it with you. 
Have a great Monday all,
♥S

Pin It

A Layout

I'm about to leave on a Woman's Retreat for the weekend.  Really looking forward to it, only sad that the weather is suppose to get really bad by this evening.  Winds are suppose to pick up to about 80 kms/hr, with snow.  Really hoping the woman drive safe, or better yet, are able to get out of the city and to the camp before the roads get too bad.
 
I've been missing the message board over at My Scrapbook Nook.  But was super excited to see this posted earlier this week.  These lines are both so gorgeous, I can't wait to see them in person.  I'm especially excited about the Stella and Rose paper by My Mind's Eye, they never disappoint.   Well I'm off to finish packing and get on the road.  I'll leave you with a layout I created last Friday during my scrappy date with Ange.  It was made using the Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 papers from The Nook November kit.  Have a wonderful weekend all.

Celebrating a very dear friend's 40th birthday.  The text reads: For one sweet evening, we were able to be together to celebrate our dear friend's Milestone B'day.  It was a small miracle that Lisa, Bonnah, Pamela, and i could all be there at the same time.  These beautiful women make 40 look fabulous.

♥ S. Pin It

Our last MYC composition recital

For the past eight years our girls have been part of this wonderful music program.  It's amazing how much they learn in one lesson, never mind an entire school year.  One of the requirements they have right from year one is to compose their own individual tune from scratch.  It's been so great to watch them evolve from year one to now.  We spent a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon in a High School Music room being entertained by several students as they joyfully played their pieces for us as, and several other proud parents and family members.  Eden's tune was called What Should I Do?  The name was very appropriate, given that it sounded somewhat disjointed, more like three tunes rolled into one *giggle*.   The teacher had scanned in each student's composition, then added a suitable photo for each one to be displayed by power point on the screen for all of us to see and read along with, while the student played.  Last week at class she confessed to Eden that she was having a hard time coming up with a photo to match the title of her composition.  Sunday as her name was called to take the stage for her turn, was the first chance Eden had to see what photo her teacher ended up choosing.  She thought the huge puzzled expression emoticon was just hilarious.  I wish I had had a video camera with me, and not just a still, so I could have captured her reaction and cute little giggle as she saw her composition on the screen.  She was so amused by it that she couldn't stop looking at it while walking toward the stage, resulting in her taking twice as long to take the stage than any other student.  The whole scene was quite sweet actually.  Oh, and in case you were wondering she did a fab job playing her piece.  We were very proud of her.  Théa's piece was called I'm Singing In The Rain, (and no she hasn't seen the movie) it was a fast paced little number with a very 'grandioso' ending.  She too did wonderfully.  We are so thankful for the wonderful beginning Music For Young Children has given each of our girls.

Eden performing "What Should I Do" at the 2010 MYC Composition Festival.  Unfortunately, Théa's picture was too dark to post.

p.s On the scrappy front: if you love flowers as much as I do you should check out the amazing giveaway my friend Leah is hosting on her blog.  If you leave a comment please tell her I sent you :)

Pin It

Happy Friday

Looking forward to today. 

It's a little bit of a retreat around here, as the usual driving need not be done.  My younger two are playing hooky from school today, and went off to Grandma & Grandpa's last night for a sleepover.  They'll be away all day enjoying all the freedom, fun, and snacks made readily available to them by my in-laws.  My eldest has a day off school today.  What does that mean for me?  Sleeping in - yah! 

There's still a lot of snow and the cold is sticking around for at least another week, so that means some time to scrap today.  My good friend, and fellow scrapbooker, Ange, and her eldest daughter are coming over to spend the day.  I'm looking forward to digging into my November kit from  My Scrapbook Nook.  Yes, I realize it's already March, but my kit managed to take a three month detour after leaving California and arriving at Canada Customs so I just received it recently.  Today, I am looking forward to great conversation, several cups of coffee, my daughter's joy as she spends time with her bff, and getting creative with a little Cosmo Cricket, and Pink Paislee.  Proverbs 27:9 reads "the sweet smell of incense can make you feel good, but true friendship is better still."  I would agree.

Have a wonderful weekend friends.  Thanks for stopping by!

♥S

An older layout I made capturing the hoarfrost on the trees in front of our house one morning.  I'm choosing to remember the bright side of winter and all that comes with it.

Pin It

Wish I were back here...

Family vacation at Beaches Resort in Turks & Caicos, January, 2009

It has been so darn cold here for the last several weeks.  Today the wind was blowing at speeds reaching 70 kms/hr making it feel as bone chilling as -47 degrees celcius outside.  Crazy right?!  If I could, I would retreat to my bedroom, and not emerge until the birds returned, buds began to form on the trees, and grass was visible on the ground.  Alas, that luxury will not be mine as long as I live in the real world.  Growing up, my mother use to question why she ever left Barbados to move to this ridiculously frigid province.  I get it, I really do.  The Caribbean is THE place to be, today and everyday, except for maybe Christmas Eve, and Christmas morning when big fat wet flakes of snow seem somewhat fitting for the holiday.  Other than those two days, however I could go for sand between my toes, the sun kissing my face, and gorgeous, towering  palm trees surrounding aqua blue water *sigh*.  Maybe scrapping some summer photos will make me feel a little warmer inside.  Hope you're keeping warm in your corner of the wold.

Thanks for popping by,

♥S Pin It