Happy Birthday, Julia!

Our little girl is now a beautiful young lady. Happy thirteenth birthday, Julia! We love you very much and hope you have a great day today.

Layout credits: Papers from "Mango Shakes" paper pack by Jesse Edwards, frames from "Stitched Up Frames No. 2" and "Dirty Photo Frames Curled-n-Flat" by Katie Pertiet. Tag from "Curled Journaling Spots" by Katie Pertiet. All materials from www.designerdigitals.com.

Chantastic

"Chantastic" ... that's what they're calling Patrick Chan these days.

I spent most of last weekend glued to the TV as CBC Country Canada was broadcasting the entire Canadian Figure Skating Championships, "entire" meaning all performances, not just those of the medal contenders. Todd's parents, Marilyn and John, were visiting and happily (or maybe just politely) joined me for some of that time. Obviously, they failed in passing on an appreciation of the sport to their son, though Todd did suffer through a few performances with me.

The men's event was incredibly exciting, and 17-year-old Patrick Chan, the rising star of Canadian figure skating, brought down the house with his long program set to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. You can see the YouTube video of Chan's program here. The audience was up on their feet cheering at least 20 seconds before the end of his program. Jeffrey Buttle, one of my very favourite skaters, also had a beautiful performance, even if it earned him only a silver medal.

The other big news was 17-year-old Kevin Reynold's quad-triple-triple jump, which you can also view on YouTube here. (Only the clip of the jump is included, as the rest of his program was not so memorable.) He is only the second person to ever do this, the first being Evgeny Plushenko. These guys aren't even old enough to buy a drink in a bar yet! The future of Canadian figure skating looks very bright.

Sunday Craft Update - January 20

I've been working on my new socks, using my Christmas yarn from Laura, and I've finished the first. I've started the second sock, as I'm determined not to fall prey to "one-sock syndrome" that many sock knitters suffer when they get bored with the pattern or yarn after finishing the first sock. Coincidentally, there is currently a photography challenge on the Designer Digitals message board involving photographing something orange. So this photo does double duty.

Layout credits: Papers are from the "Mango Shakes" pack by Jesse Edwards and alphabet (recoloured) is from "Iced Delights - Dot Alphas" by Katie Pertiet, both from www.designerdigitals.com.

Happy Birthday Oliver!

My nephew Oliver is celebrating his third birthday today. To be precise, he celebrated yesterday, as it's now early morning the day after in Singapore. I made a new layout for the occasion. Happy Birthday, Oliver! We all miss you here in Canada!

Layout credits: Paper, tags and photo turns from "Summer Colors" kit by Dana Zarling. Frame from "Dirty Photo Frames Curled-n-Flat" kit, title from "Messy Stamped Alpha No. 2" and stamp from "Greeting Dots Brushes-n-Stamps", all by Katie Pertiet. All products from www.designerdigitals.com. Photo from Joe and Jill's Website.

The Word for 2008

This week's dare at the Circle of Scrapping Friends blog is to do a layout on a word for 2008, based on an idea from Ali Edwards's blog. Well, 2007 had its highlights but there were definitely times when I'd taken on way too much. So my goal for 2008 is to maintain a better balance in my life. Let's see if I can make this happen!

Layout credits: Paper from "Little Black Dress" paper pack by Kellie Mize. Flower brush from "Garden Brushes-n-Stamps 2" by Jesse Edwards. Flourish brush from "On the Edge Flourishes No. 3" by Katie Pertiet. All materials from www.designerdigitals.com. Font is Steelfish from www.dafont.com.

First Layout of the Year

During our vacation, I took lots of photos with the new camera that Todd had given me for Christmas, so naturally this means more scrapbook layouts! Here's the first one of the year, featuring Kate, Todd, Julia, Rob and Emma on the slopes of Morin Heights and Tremblant.

Layout credits: Papers from "Winter Wonderland" paper pack by Katie Pertiet and "Watercolor Wonder 2" paper pack by Dana Zarling. Template from "Text Bytes - Shaped Text Templates No. 4" by Pattie Knox. Grunge overlay by Katie Pertiet. All materials from www.designerdigitals.com.

A Blue Square, Finally

The weather was milder today and we had another day of excellent skiing at Tremblant. That's really Kate in the photo, under all the layers. Todd has been trying very hard to make a skier out of me, but Kate is even worse. Today, after accompanying me on green circle (easy) runs most of yesterday and all of this morning, she declared at lunchtime that she would no longer ski with me unless I attempted at least one blue square (intermediate) run.

So after lunch at the summit, which included a small glass of red wine that Todd insisted on giving me (not sure if this is good for skiing, but it does wonders for the nerves), I agreed to try a blue square trail. We went down the Tobaggan run on the Versant Sud side because Todd claimed the scenery was gorgeous. I was too terrified most of the time to notice, but I did make it all the way down, with only one minor spill.

Very proud of myself. But that's enough skiing for this vacation. Todd will probably ski again tomorrow (on the black diamond trails this time, without his family members slowing him down) but Kate, Julia and I plan to do the three S's, as Kate calls them: swimming, shopping and snacking. Then it's off to the airport and back home!

Brrr!

It was -30 degrees Celsius at Tremblant when we got up at 8am this morning. Todd hit the slopes not too long afterwards but the rest of us waited until it was a balmier -22 before venturing outside. Fortunately, it was sunny and there was no wind, so we ended up having a terrific day of skiing.

This photo is actually from a couple of days ago, when my cousin Rob took us all to Morin Heights. That's Rob's and Beryl's daughter, Emma, on the left, with Julia and Kate. The snow conditions and temperature were absolutely perfect for our first ski day of the season.

New Year, New Hair

Happy New Year from Montreal! We've been having a terrific vacation so far and enjoying the time with family.

Here's a quick recap of the highlights so far. On Friday evening, I took the girls to see The Nutcracker, leaving Todd at home in an act of mercy. To be honest, I can't understand the annual enthusiasm for this work, but we did enjoy the performance, especially as our neighbours' kids were in the show, one in the role of Klara.

The next day, we left for Toronto and watched High School Musical on Ice. OK, I'll admit that I like High School Musical and I love ice shows, no matter how cheesy. Kate and Julia loved it too, and Todd ... well, he took his Blackberry out only a few times over the two hours. We stayed overnight in Toronto and managed to squeeze in a haircut for Julia before our flight to Montreal. Here's a photo of Julia with her new softly layered do. What do you think of the new look?

We spent a night at my parents' house and had an excellent dim-sum with my cousin Teresa and her family the next day. Then we continued on to my cousin Beryl's house, to stay with her, her husband Rob and their kids Emma, Amanda and Olivia. They spoiled us terribly with good food and drink and sent us on our way to Tremblant where we are now.