Serious Play

Valentine's Roses

So, today's Valentine's gift to my daughters is a rose and a love note.

 

To my dear daughters,

I love you for teaching me how to love.

I love you for going easy on me as you passed through the stages of childhood.

I love you for testing the boundaries so that I knew which ones to strengthen.

I love you for making me proud.

I love you for all the questions you have asked as you try to figure out life.

I love you for every time you have been brave.

I love you for making me smile.

I love you for allowing me a fair share of photo opp moments.

I love you for never making me stay up late wondering where you are.

I love you for trusting me.

I love you for all the notes and gifts you have delivered to me over the years.

I love you for entertaining me with dances and puppet shows and plays.

I love you for trying things that I may have pushed you into.

I love you for being adventuresome.

I love you for all the hugs and texts and tears.

I love you for all the times that you pushed back.

I love you for never breaking our trust.

I love you for crawling into my bed to share popcorn and a movie.

I love you for sharing clothes and shoes and scarves with me.

I love you for setting goals and working towards them.

I love you for making breakfast in bed.

I love you for the responsible young ladies that you are.

I love you for taking a stand of faith.

I love you.

 

Love, Mama



Note: mini vases are from Ikea


 

My Baby is 18

So, 18 years ago, I brought my first child into this world.

She appeared so tiny and so frail. She was kind of gangly and thin. Oh, but those eyes...they pierced my heart, they studied and followed and took everything in.

Those same eyes are exploring a whole new world as she started University this week!

Happy 18th Birthday Lou!

Layout :: First Job

So, here is another layout using neon colours!

 

I do apologize for the terrible photo of this layout. I probably took about 20 shots and spent over 30 minutes trying to edit various ones to get the right colouring. I don't know if it was the lighting (although I took the shots over a period of a day and in different locations) or if it is just that neons are tricky colours for my camera to make sense of??

Anyway, as you can see here, the background paper looks like it has a pink hue, but I used a white page. And, imagine the pink and green triangles as the typical neon colour, even though they look weird here.

If anyone has suggestions as to how they go about photographing their layouts for posting to a blog, I'd be all ears. Often it takes me longer to edit the shots than it does to create the layout!

 

 

 

Celebrate Layout

So, I am playing catch up on a lot of recent happenings. 

 

Summer has me outdoors, but I still hear the call of my papers and photos. Every once in a while I steel away to my craft room for some scrappin.

This one is of my daughter's graduation back a month ago. I still love looking back on these photos. It isn't difficult to choose one (or two or three) to scrap. I love them all.

 

I started with a little sunburst using a variety of pastel coloured papers.

 

I kept the embellishments simple...a few flags and mini banner, a doily, some lacy tape and a few rhinestones.

 

Such a wonderful day spent together. Memories were gathered that I will tuck away and bring out when I see this photo again!

 

 

Class of 2012

So, my oldest daughter graduated from high school last weekend.

 

Hard to believe we are here already. Just this week she was remarking how she remembers coming to school for her first day of kindergarten. She has attended the same school for all her schooling, except grade 9 in which I homeschooled her. Having had nothing but a positive experience, this ending is bitter sweet. Wanting to grow up, but wanting to hold on to what has been so good.

Now, it is on to bigger and better things...she is off to university in the fall, enroled in Commerce. At this point, she is not convinced that she will like Accounting, but is taking the next step anyway. This is when it gets tough being a parent. I am no more sure than her of what to expect. It is very possible that despite my encouragement to go ahead, she may not like it at all!

Since I work at the same school as my girls have been attending all these years, we have been fortunate to travel to and from school together. Some of our very best conversations have happened in the car. Now we will be short one passenger, as this one will be taking the c-train to university.

Lucky for me she will still be in the same city though, and under my roof...for now.

 

Soccer Gold Medalists

So, my daughter won a medal today.

 

Jess has been playing on her high school soccer team for several years now. It is a co-ed team that requires 3 girls to be on the field at all times. She has been the only one to commit for 3 years running.

 

 

They have won many games over the years. They have made it to the finals in all 3 years, but never won the gold.

Today, they celebrate with smiles and medals...

 

...and only two days before graduation.

 

Way to go Babe! So proud of you!

 

 

Love Layout

So, I am in love with pink and gold glitter.

 

I created this layout of my girls for Valentine's Day.

 

Taping off the rays with green painter's tape allowed me to use my OA Sprinklers with accuracy. Following that, I spread a little glitter over the rays.

 

 

The word "love" I drew by hand with a paintbrush dipped in glue and then I sprinkled the wet glue with gold glitter.

 

Each of the embellishments were stamps and punches that I had on hand.

 

These days, it is rare to capture a shot of my girls but this particular day I happened to get them both together.

 

A Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

Jersey Day

So, today was 'Jersey Day' at school.

 

The girls were ever so proud to sport their favourite hockey team jerseys...our Calgary Flames!

Now, there are mixed feelings out there when it comes to sport teams, I know.

And we haven't had a stellar team in a few years.

But in this house (and pretty much this entire city), we cheer on the Flames every season, in the hopes of being a part of something very big. There is just something about cheering on your team that builds community and a fair bit of unity. And my girls have jumped right in (not by any doing of their father, I'm sure)!

So, here is to a solid and entertaining season of hockey...

 

 

 

Big Deal LO

So, my daughter Ashley reached a goal this week and it was a big deal.

 

A while back, she decided to lose some weight. Ashley had endured a difficult time in her early junior high years (kids can be so mean) and slipped into a pattern of helping herself to comfort food.

After two years of homeschooling and a successful transition back into high school, she set a goal to lose 20 lbs. I am so proud of her efforts. She did not starve herself or go on a trendy crash diet. Instead, she learned about metabolism and the effects of sugar on one's system. She set herself up on an exercise routine and motivated herself to lose the weight for all the right reasons.

We had a deal that when she had reached her goal I would take her to lululemon to buy an outfit. Well, the other day, with tears of joy in her eyes, she announced that she had met her goal! That very night we went shopping and this is the outfit that she chose.

 

Way to go, Babe! This is a Big Deal!

Be proud of what you have accomplished...I sure am. xoxo

 

 

 

The Beauty of Fall LO

So, up until last week, we have been enjoying an extended Fall.

 

I dread the cold that comes along with Winter, so we had been making the best of every moment outdoors that we could. Here, we had been out geocaching in Canmore.

I treasure these moments that we have with our two girls together. The oldest one is wanting to move out at the end of this school year to go away to college. This could be our last months of living as a family of four!

Also, with two teenaged girls together in the same house, there are sparks that fly at moments. So, seeing the two of them together and smiling is a good thing for a mother's heart.