ABCs of me

Today, a completely non-digiscrap post, just for fun!
I was reading my digi friend La'Shawn's blog and she did her ABCs and I thought I'd give it a go too.
Here it goes:

A. Age: 32

B. Bed size: queen (shared with my hubby who's 6'6" and sometimes our doggie)

C. Chore you dislike: I don't like doing the dishes too much, it hurts my back and I hate touching wet food

D. Dogs: love them, I'm a huge dog person, and we have an adorable long-haired dachshund (which we call a mouldy wiener) named Schatzie (which means sweetheart in German)

E. Essential start to your day: it used to be music to wake me up, now I"d say a good shower, a good breakfast and a big hug from my son Cédric

F. Favourite colour: teal (with dark shades of purple very close second)

G. Gold or silver: gold

H. Height: 5'9" (and a bit)

I. Instruments you play(ed): none really, I took a year of piano lessons and played the recorder in school, I do love to sing though

J. Job title: technically I'm qualified as a French as a Second Language teacher, practically my job title is Mom

K. Kids: one adorable little boy

L. Live: I live in Timmins, Ontario (Canada), but I've lived in 10 cities (and even more houses), I was born in Saskatchewan to French parents, raised all over France and I moved to Ottawa at 20 on my own and have lived there 7 year, then a short 8 months in Kingston, On, and then moved to Timmins (hubby's home town)

M. Mom's name: Danielle

N. Nicknames: this is kind of a sore subject for me, my full name is Marie-France and everyone wants to shorten it to Marie, which I hate, my cousin nicknamed me Marif which is my pseudonym all over scrapland and I like, but most people don't want to use it for some reason, hubby calls me Bub (pronounced like "tub" I guess, it's a weird derivation on Baby, and it's what I call him too), my son calls me Maman (this one I love) and my SIL and BIL (and their son) call me Marf which I do NOT love, my SIL doesn't speak French and tried to find a nickname for me, I would have prefered MF but she thought Marf was funny and sadly it stuck

O. Overnight hospital stays: only the few days after Cédric was born (4 nights)

P. Pet peeves: hearing the noise it makes when people eat, toys or pencils that are not in proper "rainbow" order (I re-order everything so the colours are in the right order), and many more

Q. Quote from a movie: the first one that comes to mind is "you shut your mouth when you're talking to me" (from Wedding Crashers), but there are many others

R. (this one was blank, I chose my own) Recreational activities: digiscrap of course, yoga, long hot baths, reading, and watching TV and movies

S. Siblings: one older sister Anne-Laure (coucou Nenaure ;) )

T. Time you wake up: between 6:30 and 7am on week days and around 8am on week-ends

U. Underwear: that's a funny one, first I always wear some (no going commando for me) and they are simple cotton ones

V. Vegetables you don't like: cooked cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and any other fart smelling cabbage (I like them raw though)

W. What makes you run late: not much, I tend to be really early, now that I have a son to get ready too, I am just about right on time

X. X-rays: I've had sooooo many when I was a teenager (my knees, my hands mostly, my back...) because my ligaments are too long and loose, and also lungs, throat, teeth of course, but never for anything serious (like because of an accident)

Y. Yummy food you make: I bake pretty decently so chocolate chip cookies, pear pie with marzipan, pina-colada-banana cake, ...

Z. Zoo animal favourites: that's a hard one, I love animals in general, anything furry and cuddly looking, I'll go with polar bear cubs, and La'Shawn, if you're reading, you didn't answer this one, but I know... pandas, right?

Well, there you go, hope you enjoyed reading!

New releases and a FREEBIE, woohoo!

Happy Friday everyone!
I have two gorgeous kits to show you today and a gift for you, yay!

First, take a look at Technographic by Artgal Style. It's a beautiful technology themed kit with a beautiful colour scheme:


I scrapped my new laptop with it:


Now take a look at the happiest spring kit around. Welcome Spring by Stacey's Scraps is full of gorgeous elements, lots of them are unique doodles, you won't see anywhere else. Check out the doodled flowers, I LOVE them:


And I scrapped Cédric playing house in his uncle's backyard:


And then I thought my page was pretty cute and maybe you'd want it, sooooo ... I asked Stacey if I could make it a free quickpage for you and she said yes! Here's the QP preview, linked to 4shared for you to download:


Please leave me a little love if you grab it ;)
Happy Scrapping!

Layouts, new releases and then some...

I'll start with the blabla, scroll down for scrappy stuff ;)
Hubby is at the ultimate redneck course to get his hunting license. He wants to be able to join his dad and brother once in a while when they go (mostly for birds I think, I really don't think he could kill a deer or a moose...). I'm not thrilled as he's gone for the evening and all day tomorrow, and I don't really love the concept...
I'm also really tired as we had to cut Cédric's hair today and that's emotionally and physically draining. He hates it, he moves, screams and cries, so it's a long and painful process and I ended cutting myself twice (but thank goodness I didn't cut him). The last two times we tried to take him to a hairdresser, they refused to do it because he moved too much, so I guess I'm adding hairdresser to my resume...
The only thing that makes it better is that tomorrow is the cheat day of our diet, so I'm having chocolate filled pastries for breakfast, McDonald's for lunch, an Indian mango curry for supper (with naans, mmmm) and Haagen Dazs cookie dough ice-cream for our tv-time snack! Can't wait!!

Now scrappy stuff. I have two layouts from challenges to show.
The first one was for a challenge Vicki hosted, to scrap something weather related. I had this gorgeous pic of the sun peaking through the clouds (kind of like the front of a religious pamphlet, don't you think, a glimpse at the presence of God...). I scrapped it with her kit Coming Home:


Then I did the mystery challenge at Scrapable, for which we had to journal about someone else than our kids (I'm afraid I'm guilty of that, scrapping mostly about my little man...). So I did one about my aunt:


Journaling says: since I was young, people tell me that I'm like my aunt, as much in looks as in facial expressions and personality. I couldn't be more proud. Full of life and humour, sweet with the ones she loves, bright and so much more... I can only hope to keep being like her and age as gracefully.

New releases today? Of course!
Artgal Style has a beautiful music themed kit out:


And A Work In Progress Designs by Vicki released a new Calendar Collection installment, the April Bundle (take a look at these flairs!!):


Thanks for reading and looking, and I'd love a little comment if you have time :)
Happy scrapping!

10 years!! (and layouts)

Today is the 10th anniversary of the day my hubby and I started dating.
Since then:
- I've gotten 3 university degrees (a bachelor of arts with double concentration in second language teaching and linguistics, a bachelor in education to teach French as a second language in high school and a masters of arts in education),
- he's changes jobs 3 times including a major career change (from network administrator to financial advisor),
- we've moved 3 times (Ottawa, Kingston and Timmins),
- we got engaged and then married (in the south of France),
- we had a son who's now 3,
- and we've traveled quite a bit too (we've been 5 times to France, 3 times to Florida and twice to the Dominican Republic)!

Ten years go by sooooo fast! Here's a recent enough pic of the two of us (at our friends' wedding in the Dominican Republic):

Dave, if you're reading this, I love you!

Now, let's move on to scrappy stuff!
Today is Friday, so there are new releases at Scrap That Idea.
Artgal Style has a great new kit called Happy Go Lucky. Such a fun kit!


Vicki has a new kit out too, called Happy Days. Such an original colour scheme, gorgeous!


And I used Vicki's kit Boys Will Be Boys for a Scrapable lift challenge. I scraplifted my talented scrappy friend Amy! with it:

Thanks for looking, happy scrapping!

Four Leaf Clover - a freebie collab

As usual, the Scrap That Idea designers are offering an exclusive collab for any $5 purchase. This month, it's called Four Leaf Clover and the colours are soft hues of green, brown and beige:

I used it to participate in the template challenge at Scrapable (template by Meagan's creations) with old photos of my son when he was itty bitty:

Remember that a $5 purchase will also put your name in the running for a $100 gift certificate until Monday night.
Thanks for looking and happy scrapping.

New movie themed kit

Artgal Style has a new kit out today with really gorgeous rich colours and a movie theme. It's called In 3d!
Take a look at the preview (linked to the store):

I didn't really have any photo that worked for it (which is weird because I LOVE movies). So I thought I'd do something about my favourite movie... only to realize that I cannot choose a favourite! So I narrowed it down to my favourite Disney movie, which is Aladdin hands down. So here's my layout with this fun kit:

Happy Scrapping!

New desktop

As always, I completed the desktop challenge at Scrapable as quickly as possible. I love that challenge and can't understand how I ever lived without a new desktop every month, lol.
For this one I used Vicki's new kit Cloudy Day. It weather themed and the weather here is depressing, but the colours of the kit cheer me up!
Take a look at the kit preview (linked to the store) and my desktop:

Fun kit, right?
Happy scrapping!

Gorgeous new Scrap That Idea collab

There's a new collab at Scrap That Idea and it's gorgeous! It has a spring theme to bring hope to those like me who are still freezing under a few feet of snow, lol. The collab is called What Spring Brings, take a look:

The preview is beautiful and yet doesn't do justice to the gorgeous papers and elements.
Take a look at my layout:

The preview is linked and it's only $4, go get it!
And while I'm here, I didn't take time to show you the releases from last Friday, so I'll show you now while they are still on sale!
First, Stacey's Scraps has a new set of CU templates called Boo Boo. It has everything you need to scrap photos of your children's booboos, colds, casts, stitches, hospital visits,... Take a look at the preview (linked to the store):

And my layouts:

As you can see, the best part is that the files are .psd (and separate pngs) so you can recolour to match any other kit you want to use! I used her kit Dreaming of a White Christmas in the first layout, about my son sticking his tongue on the metal of the bus window by -30 and staying stuck, and her kit Doodled for the second layout of my two men with a big bad cold.

And finally, here's Artgal Style's latest kit. It's called Glamour Girl, take a look (linked to the kit in store):

And here's my layout:

That's it for tonight. Happy scrapping!