summer evening dreamer

She is growing so much, thinking so much, and as always full of dreams. Sometimes I just have to stand back and watch her in amazement, my beautiful angel. This year she will begin grade four, turn ten and go through all of the changes and growth that go along with another year older. Friends will make her laugh and break her sensitive little heart and it is all a part of her journey. Sometimes the hardest part as a mama is letting go, standing back and letting that journey unfold.

love is beautiful...

and these two are totally in love and so wonderful to hang out with.
The day was freezing...seriously frigid Winnipeg cold. I was rolling around on the ground in my ski pants to get the right angles for their engagement pics, and Maureen and Shayne were incredible; smiling, laughing and striking a pose as if they were as warm as could be. In between locations we would all run for the car and crank the heat to try to get warm before doing it all over again.What a blast!
Thanks for such a fun day guys :)

Just popping in to share some of these engagement photos I have been editing in my down time out here. Getting super excited for their wedding coming up this summer! Same great fun I hope with MUCH warmer conditions LOL

peace and hugs from a far

onward!!!

We headed out in the wee hours this morning with our kind friend Cees. Destination: Rotterdam airport to catch our flight over to Italy. This is a new adventure for both Cam and I; it's somewhere neither of us has been before and always have wanted to visit. I feel like we are living one big dream come true.

The kids are still happy and having a wonderful time with both sets of grandparents. We got to talk to them on skype last night and those little faces were so perfectly perfect... *sigh*

Knowing they are all happy as can be makes me happy and able to completely enjoy being out here. That is the thing about being mama; no matter where I am or what I am doing my three little angels are always on my mind.

We will be staying with friends here in Rome. Going to see as much as we can and sure to have some RAD adventures!

here is a big "whoo hoo!" for Pizza, pasta, gelati, being tourist-ie, friends, fountains and ruins, and I don't even know what else yet; look out Italy here we cooooooome!!!

getting messy

It is out last day in Holland and I am having some seriously Happy-messy-playtime this morning, getting ready to teach a private class tonight for a great group of ladies. Should be a good time, we are going to be doing some really fun stuff with fabric, crumpled chipboard, and watercolor paper!

I just have to say that it feels fabulous to get my hands dirty and be creating a bit today. I am always so inspired when I teach at events I just want to pull up a chair and join the creative good times.

get messy and a little creative today, even just a little, I promise it will make you smile :)

Happy day!!!

happy as a clam at the sea

After a very happy weekend of teaching with the world's very absolute best and cutest assistant (pictured below) *wink*

we took a nice long walk down to Noordwijkerhout, still here in the Netherlands.

Neither of us has been at the Sea before so we gathered shells for the girls as the sun set and went to the "Pannekoeken Haus" for some super yummy Crepes. When in the world do we have time just to stroll along and enjoy the beauty of the world together?! WEll, we do go for a walk as a family almost every day but being out with three little girls is very different from this kind of time just Cam and I. Such a treat.

So many beautiful gardens and flowers in bloom for us to admire. WE are going to try and get some bulbs for this awesome purple one to take back home to Nana ( who happens to be an amazing gardener!)

I have this thing about cool signs and I take way too many pictures of them. It is a funny little obsession but it's just my thing, they catch my eye no matter where I am :)
Love this dutch signpost s'cool!

and the sign for the round-abouts...we don't have these and I would be super confused driving on them but RAD anyways!

I will have to download the photos from my classes and add some later; as usual I met some truly amazing people who really touched my heart, it is not a surprise to me anymore the way I am touched by my students and how amazing their lives and stories are, but it is just as special. Thank-you all for being willing to trust me and try new things, for listening and believing in the importance of telling our best stories and for being willing to open up and share them with me throughout our days together. Bless you all and I hope to see you again in the future!

Time to try and call my little ones and then get some shut-eye for now, but no holiday would be complete without a good self portrait.

goodnight friends

super cool

been seeing this everytime we get on the elevator

Here!

Cam and I are officially official Netherland-visiting-super-duper-Jet-lagged-people and happy as can be. We came out here with one day to relax and switch time zones before the teaching begins. So, today I took Cam on the train to Delft where my friend Yvonne had shown Kristie and I the finer points of this great little dutch town on my last visit out. What a fantastic day! It rained...a lot...and there was a good amount of time where we were soaked and freezing but as sweet as we both happen to be, lucky for us we are not made of sugar so we held up just wonderfully.

no melting Canadians in sight.

We had a blast eating melt in your mouth Poffertjes and drinking Chocomel mmmmmm!, tasting fresh warm stroop waffles and checking out all kinds of cute little shops. Everytime we sat down too long anywhere that was comfy and warm though we were both nodding off LOL. I'm sure we were quite the sight!

Today Lovin':

-the sidewalk bricks with moss growing up in between;

-bikes EVERYWHERE...it's just so happy;

-water-so much of it;

-cool old buildings;

-taking the train cuz it's something we rarely get to do;

-my new big rainbow umbrella what a cool find;

-skype- makes me feel not so far from those cute little faces I love so much.

T.T.F.N.

(ta-ta for now!)

notes from the air

1. we are high and dry.... thanks to both of our mom's and our own really RAWKIN' washing machine we have managed to wash through all of the clothes that were in boxes waiting for someone to grow into them and everything else that was attacked by the nasty bad angry hot water tank before we left. oh goodness it was honestly something like 20 loads in the end I think. Whew!!!

Good news is that our house smells like wonderful fresh hanging laundry.
As for the angry hot water tank; it has been fired and in it's place stands a shiny new well behaved model.

done. end of story.

2. It is official: we are off and flying on our June Europe adventure.
and as you can above see I am a total die hard airplane-window-cloud-photo-taker ( along with my friend B, lol you know who you are!) No matter how many times I fly I am always taken by the beauty and bigness of creation. the super blue of the blue sky and those amazing fluffy cotton ball clouds; I just turn into a little girl in awe every single time. The best part is #3.......

3. Someone needs to pinch me because I seriously can't believe that I actually have this adorable boy of mine on the way to Europe with me!!!

4. RAWK ON WORLD here we come! :)

I'm wading.....

in wet basement clean up today
........sigh
not so much how I planned for this day to go.
Many many other thing I need to be doing with less than a week to go before a big trip, including happy mommy time.
But alas,
Our hot water tank exploded last night and so cam and I are spending the day enjoying the results of that.
Call it spring cleaning, call it time together, call it what you want but it is not a good thing right now.
Rusty staining yucky water EVERYWHERE!!!

Thank Goodness for my mom taking the littles so that we can wade efficiently at least

well, worse things are going on in the world right?!
Just bear with me please, looks like I won't get sneek peeks of my other class up untill tomorrow

till next time
hope you're high and dry and feelin' fine

after thought: any Winnipeg folks who know where to get the best deal on a new hot water tank pleeez fill us in K?! thaaaank-youuu

Sketch day!

Good Morning!

I did a sketch for the sweet folks over at the Scrapbookers Clubhouse and today is the day to play along. Just thought I would share it with you all here so you can join in if you like :)

Make sure to leave me a link to your page if you do give it a try... always fun for me to see how everyone does their own thing!

It was so much fun to dig out some of Bella's old baby photos to scrap.

Look at that chubby little face!!! And her teetering new walk, WOW time flies!

I just wanna reach in and squish her and kiss those little cheekies

textures, photos, answers and a smile

You've got questions and I've got answers!

First of all I want to say thanks for the compliments on my spring photos. I have a lot to learn but I am always happy to share what I do know.

It sure is fun to play a bit and take a great moment that is an alright photo and make it into something that you just adore, something that really brings the feeling of that moment to life for you.

Here is the photo that I took of my girls on their outdoor adventure as it looked straight from the camera.

First I brightened the area where my girls are; to draw the eye to the "subject"

This is one of the textures that was applied over top of it to get the nice textured look in the sky. It is from a pack by Micheal Smith- aka:ASH a totally talented photographer with amazing textures that you can purchase here. The final result of my play time is the photo in my last post.

And you can find some good "how to" tips for applying textures here

Note: I don't know this guy , this is Not an ad, I am just really honestly impressed with what he does :)

2. My SAG album track.

I am getting so so excited about this next trip

YES

[you need your photos with you]

and I just got the address to the forums for the event so I will put together a list of photos and the sizes that you may want, and post it there.

{Do Not Stress About This PLEASE!}

let me repeat

NO STRESS!!!

I am pretty "free" as a teacher, There will be No hard and fast rules, I want you to walk away feeling like your creation is your own and you LOVE it. So if I have used a 5x7 photo and you love BIG pics and you want to use a 7x10"

GO FOR IT!

and if you want to throw in 6 small wallets instead then

RAWK ON!

The important thing is that you get your stories told and have some fun learning a few cool techniques along the way. The idea of this album is to tell the stories of your BEST BEST BESTEST memories.

For me, I narrowed that down to best summer memories just to give me a focus. You can keep it broad or choose a focus but

Start looking through your pictures now, choose 25 memories to record in this album,

and begin writing down the stories that go with them.

I will See you in the forums SAG friends :)

3. Randoms
Jewelry today: silver sparkly plastic star earrings and a star wrist band

around the house: organizing things into buckets. baskets and big strainers. Letting the dishes pile up.

drinking: a butter caramel iced capp from Tim's

healthy snack: apples and vanilla yogurt

activity with the girls: making finger food for supper and eating it outside while picking "beautiful" daisy-lions

Working on: -some new digital brushes for a guest designer thingie ( RAH RAH RAH...this is totally new Go me!!!)

-a fun assignment layout for October CK

-some photo shoots

-and a cool sketch layout for something special ( come back tomorrow to see!)

Lens on my camera: 28-135mm...feeling like getting the wider angle today, tomorrow it might be the 50mm 1.8 Those are the only two I have so it is pretty much a 50/50 chance I'll be using one of them :)

well there you have it
Anymore random questions? Leave em here

FUN STUFF!!!

spring adventures

I am so so happy to finally feel that wonderful warm breeze of spring here in Winnipeg. The girls love it too. It just makes us want to get out there and breathe it all in. We have been doing lots of eating out on the front step and going for walks and at very very least opening tons of windows. We found a great park to walk and explore with my sweet mom yesterday after school. What an awesome way to blow through the after-school-4:00-crazies!

Emy walked with me most of the time and the little two just RAN and RAN! lol

I think my mom ended up with everyone's snacks, toys and water bottles near the end of our adventure, and even a toddler to carry despite my insistence that they were each responsible to carry their own stuff....guess she is just nicer than me :) But that is what Gramies are for aren't they?

I love this shot below; my 4 best girls so happy and carefree together

Happy Friday and a big ol' CHEERS to spring adventures outside!!!

woo hoo Zoo Picturama!!!

I finally cleared off enough of my hard drive to load my big 8 gig memory card. The pictures on it are total treasures. I love the way photos can take you back to the best of times. You can almost feel the warm air and the sun beating down and sometimes you are just about magically transported to the most perfect moments. Our Mothers Day afternoon at the zoo was pretty much perfect. A beautiful sunny day and it was so so good just to be all together outside.

A few highlights:

-the big show we got from this gorgeous peacock, the kids loved him

- The funniest monkeys who gave us quite a show and had all of our attention for at least 15 minutes ( which is pretty good for an un-napped toddler!)

-Watching them feed fruit to the bears; this one below is going for the apple in the water

- Emy spinning in the park with total glee until she felt like she could fly ( AH.... the joy and freedom of childhood!)

-The pretty pink flamingos; pink is a pretty loved colour at our house so those guys were a big hit

- Bella finding the cutest little pink hand print on the wall and declaring "HEEYYYY It's my hand mama!!!!!!"

Whoo hoo Zoo!!!

Here's to many more warm sunny happy days outside together as we head into summer

check out my article!

Come on over and download my article from Creating Keepsakes May issue for some fun ways YOU can make your own cool flowers. From painted office clips and little beads, to fabric scraps, no-sew thread, and cardboard squares. Hopefully your spring layouts, or any layouts will be filled with all kinds of imaginative happy blooms!!!

Get my painted stems ( see below) and check out some fresh faces with some great ideas as well.

YIPEE for flowers,

for the new life that comes with the spring,

YIPEE for my very first article, and for it being online so that everyone can have it :)

A virtual bouquet to you my friends!

sneek peek

hey there

Just sharing a little peek at the album track I will be teaching at Scrapaganza; in Holland June 6th-8th, and in England June 13th-15th

Check out some of the yummy papers below.

It is gonna be an amazing full day of hands on do -it-yourself techniques; watercolor, fabrics, tapes, buttons, tissue paper you name it!

This class will not only get one full 12x12 album completed but teach you all kinds of fun techniques that you can take with you to the rest of your scrap projects!

Still a few spaces left if you wanna join in, the more the merrier I say :)

WHOOT for hands on crafty fun in Europe!!!!

if you have any questions, leave em here

Happy Birthday

To one of the greatest people in our life!!!

because nothing looks better to me...

Than HOME!

There is no grass any greener than right here!!!

and that is the truth ( even though technically our grass IS still brownish...but you know)

I am finally back, safe and sound, and with all of my favorite people

LIFE IS GOOD

so so good

Happy mothers day!!!

Happy Mothers Day wishes to all of you incredible amazing and inspiring mothers.
I was going to list a number of my friends, family and other mothers who truly touch me with their devotion to their families, their strength and their amazing beauty. But I just kept going and going and this post was on the way to taking up 4 or 5 pages! So my friends- you know who you are, you make me a better mom and a better me by the way that you "mother" by the way that you live, and I am so glad there is a day to honor and celebrate this. I can't imagine life for even one second without all of the beautiful "mothers" in my life.

Me,
well as you can see thanks to photo booth, I am much happier today;
Back at the airport enjoying my own lovely Mothers Day breakfast....an incredibly delish LARGE, yep seriously- large, TCBY old fashioned vanilla frozen yogurt, and some pink lemonade :)
It's not adorable drippy p-nut butter toast and eggs being spilled all over my lap but it will have to do for now.
I have a date for this afternoon with some wonderful little people and one amazing big one. We have decided to go right from the airport in Winnipeg over to the zoo for a happy afternoon adventure together, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

since I have to sit here for a couple of hours please Bless me in the comments with notes on the amazing mothers in your life. Tell me how they inspire you, how they make a difference. Let's get a whole heart warming tribute to moms going on here OK?!

Happy Day to you all!