Cool, I got props from the Guru.

This week I felt pretty proud of this: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/11/gratitude.html

I received a private message from Ali Edwards asking if she could post my layout on her blog. She was doing a post on translation in the creative language and how people translated her templates into their own creation. And my Gratitute page of Gillian was chosen among 6 others to illustrate her point. (for those of you who don't know who Ali Edwards is, she is a guru in the scrapbooking world - so to get props from her is pretty cool!).

Now its the weekend, I hope to pull out the camera and take lots of pics of the girls. I'd like to set up a little studio in our living room, since it's the best place to take indoor photos. We have 2 stories of windows (great for light, bad for heating bills!) which is perfect, I just have to figure out how to rig a backdrop. I tried nailing a black sheet to the ceiling once before:

Here is the black sheet.. worked ok, but not perfect.
But you can see how great the light is, especially for catch lights.

I found the sheet too small, it picked up the dust like crazy (it was basically black felt) and it fell down easily. I think I've come up with a plan to be able to put up whatever backdrop I want, and it be relatively secure (as secure as it's going to get with two little girls running around!). I'll work on it tomorrow, if I get a chance to do some shopping, but it essentially is going to be a small curtain rod fastened to the end of the ceiling with fabric hanging from it. I wonder what Eric will think of my plan!! :)

**update**
It's funny, just before I went to post this I took a peek at Jen's blog and she also wrote about her home studio today!! Too funny!! Great minds think alike! (Jen I'm off to get me a G&T!!)

Getting Artsy!

I have been seeing many layouts at DD where the artist uses paintbrush stokes to create a clipping mask. Clipping masks really revolutionized my digital scrapping and I've never turned back (ie: trying to resize a photo so that it fits properly in a frame). So I saw this layout by Carol: Harry and Me which I thought was so cool and this layout by bjwtville (sorry I don't know your real name!!) Listen Up which was equally cool in her use of creating a clipping mask with Dripped Stains. Being so inspired I had to try it and I came up with this:

It was a fun one to put together. Now I just have to figure out how to "paint" in Photoshop, so it will actually look like natural brush strokes. If anyone knows how do this, please leave me a comment!

My dad saw an add for the Henry's Show in Ottawa. I'm going to try and go, maybe even on the Friday. I'm sure I'll be able to test drive a bunch of cameras and really figure out what would be best! I'm excited. I hope Dad wants to go with me..

Thanks for the photo Beth

When Beth came over for dinner last weekend, she brought her Cannon Rebel XSi for me to try. It was definitely a beautiful camera, and took some beautiful shots. Well she did, not me! But she was kind enough to leave me the RAW files to play with, and this is what I did:

Beth sure took a stunning photo of Gillian, and it was fun to play with it. Isn't she cute? :) Boy I can't wait to get my hands on a new SLR (hint, hint - b'day coming up!). Now don't get me wrong, I really like my Canon S5IS, but the XSi's depth of field is so much greater than mine, there is virtually no noise (the above photo was taken at ISO 800!! I can't believe it), and it's much faster. So I've been researching what to get and there is no question that I will get one, it's just when!! And you thought I took lots of photos before... just wait!

I also put this simple layout together tonight:

The premise of the page is that Gillian give lots of hugs! As soon as you pick her up she will grab your face and smooch in for a hug. If you ask her for a kiss, she'll plan on too, but it's the hugs she does without asking. It's just so cute!

I'm off to Toronto for the CSTD Trade show... I'm hoping to gets lots of good info for work and I'll visit my cousin Richard while I'm there. Be back Friday night!

Stories in Hand.

I may do this:

I'll sign up and see what it's all about, it's free so why not eh?. (may help my blog posts!!)

A layout I love...

I did this today and I'm so happy with how it turned out!


I did it for Tara and Kayleigh's Creative Inspiration Blog Wednesday challenge.

And then I did this one yesterday:

I love this picture because it's Gillian puckering up for a kiss, but it's her way of communicating to me to kiss the baby. She usually makes the smacking noise before you make contact with her, it's priceless!

I've really got my mojo going! It's fun!

Never Say Never....

The rest of the week was busy at work, and a VERY late Wednesday night game... more like Thursday morning, by the time we got off the ice, meant not much blogging this week. Eric also had a golf tourney Thursday with dinner, then his hockey end of season party Friday, so I was on my own with the girls. Thursday night I basically went to bed as the same time as them... fun! Friday I made it a little later, but wasn't really in the mood to write or scrapbook. What I did do however, was have another go at the photo I had tried to scan for my Mum, but couldn't get an image from. I looked at the negative a little closer and noticed that there was some detail in my grandparents faces. So I fiddled with my scanner, adjusted a few things and got this:

So it makes me think what did I do?? But it also makes me think - Never say never when it comes to this stuff, there may always be a possibility!

Today we went to our friends house for a pool party. They had just build a new pool in their backyard, so they invited a group of their friends over, of all ages and had a party! Abby was excited about it. Before her nap she said - I want to go to the pool party, when I get up. So when she got up we packed her backpack, she got her hat and sunglasses on, and then had to wait because Gillian was still sleeping and Eric was at the Yacht club. It was so cute to see her and how excited she was to go. Of course while there, we couldn't get her out of the pool! She went in on three different occasions. By the time we left she was saying "I'm tired...".

I'll download the pool party pictures tomorrow, in the meantime I did this layout from photos I took at the daycare on Friday! More swimming....

Walk in the woods

This morning was sunny, and forecast to be the only sunny time of the weekend so we went for a walk in the woods. We drove over to the Gatineau Park visitors centre and walked the Sugar Bush trail. It's really not a very exciting trail, but it's short, flat & wide and not rocky. Perfect for Abby to walk, and for Gillan too, but she stayed in the backpack carrier the whole time. It was a nice little walk. Here a the photos. I didn't get too many good ones, because my camera is terrible in low light. Most of them were blurry which is very frustrating!!






After the walk we stopped in at the Chelsea's Market, which is held in a field beside all the soccer fields. It's the place many people go to on Saturday mornings to pick up a few things and meet for a smoothie or a cup of coffee. We bumped into a couple neighbours as well as Phyllis, Savanna, and her Mom. I'm not a huge fan of the market, I think it could be so much more than it actually is, not too many fruits and veggies, and really not too many stalls - probably 15 -20 in all. But it's fun to get out and see the neighbours and the girls love it.

On another note. We watched the Olympic opening ceremonies last night. And all I can say is WOW! It's incredible how much money and effort they put into it. My favourite part was the firework footsteps walking across Beijing and then the 2008 drummers all drumming in unison... just so freakin' cool!

Here is a layout I did today. It's a cute shot of the girls peeking over the raining on the deck, looking for Bender's ball...

Takin' it easy...

Monday was a chill out day. And a well deserved one! We were all going a bit nuts, especially the girls. I stayed home all day with the girls and Eric only ventured out once to go for his run. The girls had great naps, and so did I which I really needed since I almost passed out while making dinner the night before!

We painted, watered the plants (which I only mention because I NEVER water the plants anymore - I have no idea how they are surviving!!), didn't do laundry, and played in the sprinkler (which Gillian has a love/hate relationship with...)

Loves to look at it

Hates to get wet!

Nothing like watering the fowers na-k-ed!

A nice relaxing day all around. We also took advantage of the fact that it was sunny and spent most of the day outside (note Abby's legs - and the mosquito bites!).

Today was back to work for me, Eric still had today off. I was a little freaked out about biking to work because a woman was sexually assaulted on the bike path I take, right along the route I take each day! It's nuts how I can't even feel safe riding in the middle of the day. I really wonder what is wrong with people and the human race - are there just too many of us and that our genetic makeup isn't able to handle the expansion of our-selves, as a result there are more and more nuts out there... just a thought.

Anyway it' wasn't all doom and gloom, because we FINALLY got a new washer and dryer! For the record I will never buy anything from Colonial again. It was a total nightmare trying to get this resolved and they seriously dropped the ball here. And it wasn't only Colonial who messed up, it was also the warranty repair place and Frigidaire! They all screwed up here and we were the ones who suffered! The ironic thing is that the delivery guys had no idea how to install and stack our washer and dryer, which is what happened the first time around - it took 3 visits by 6 different guys to simply stack the machines!! Obviously a high IQ is not required for that job!

I'm just happy I can finally wash my clothes again! I definitely owe my parents and Eric's parents a lot for putting up with us coming over and doing load after load of laundry! Thanks!!

So tonight is my labour day. 3 years ago tonight, Eric and I went over to my parents house to wait out the 12 wait for Abigail to arrive.

Here I am in the triage room - in full force of labour!
And a couple of hours later.
It's amazing her mouth still looks the same,
as do her fingers and eyes!

Tomorrow we'll be celebrating Abby turning 3!

POTD:
Watermelon

Bye for now!