Choo Choo

I had aimed to do a Harry Potter themed layout for my aforementioned album every week... But whatever, the point is not to stress myself out, right?

I'm making these layouts in no particular order, it seems, and when the mood struck last week, I was inspired by the news that there will soon be an extension to the theme park and that we will now be able to actually board the Hogwarts express. When I visited Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, I did take a photo with what was only the front of the red steam engine. Hopefully, I'll have to make a second layout to show off the inside some day as I make my way to Diagon Alley (man, I'm a nerd!).

And for the laugh, I asked hubby what my title for this layout should be. I landed on "All Aboard", but he suggested "Choo Choo Mother-blips" (and I have to admit, despite the colourful language, it has a nice ring to it, lol).

PS: as I post this, I realize that I wasn't actually on Platform 9 3/4, as I was in Hogsmeade at the end of the trip... I might have to modify the layout... :(

Typhoon Lagoon

Happy Friday!

I've already shown one layout of us at Typhoon Lagoon this past March, but there were too many awresome photos to stick to just one :D

So here are two layouts I made of that great water-fun-filled day.

The first one was for a template challenge at Gotta Pixel. I scrapped our awesome backpack which had all we needed for the day (which because there were 3 of us and Cedric can't eat anything there and needs all his food and snacks is saying something!). I used Wild Child by Simple Girl Scraps:

Then I did a double page to show all that we did (it was our first time, I was excited!), using Hoola Loola which is Mel Hains Designs'  new awesome kit:

Thanks for looking!

Copycat blogger

By now we all know I have a really hard time keeping my blog active regularly... And I don't really read other blogs that much either except for La'Shawn's, so whenever she posts something fun and urges people to do it to, that's where I take my inspiration...

Today she posted about what made her happy this week, and on this gorgeous day of sunshine, it inspired me! So here it goes:

1. The overall weather change this week makes me happy. We started we snow all day on Monday (JUNE 3rd, fro crying out loud!) but it's been going nowhere but up and today we have sunshine, 25 degrees celsius and a comfortable breeze, yay!

2. My son has been in a general good mood and talking more this week (he's autistic and we're working on increasing speech).

3. I made it to yoga on Wednesday. Nothing like a yoga session to make you happy and I hadn't been in way too long :D

4. The tails and tales program always makes me happy (a reading program for children with delays where therapy dogs come to the library). We spent about 20mn with a gorgeous 150lbs leonberger named Bella and Cédric was very calmed and cuddle a lot with her while listening to a Caillou book.

5. Sunday afternoon movie and supper with hubby while Cédric played with his favourite support worker was great. I really enjoyed Now You See Me!

6. And I finished off the week by walking a sweet black lab from the Humane Society while enjoying the sunshine and letting my mind wander!

If you read this post, say hi, it would be another "piece of happy"!!

PS: this was part of a linky party from Chasing Happy (click the image above for the exact post)

I can't seem to let them go...

This post should come with a nerd alert because I'm referring to the HP books!

So here goes a series of layouts that some will relate to (HP fans), some will not care about (non HP fans) and some will judge me for (...).

The first layout says it all, I am addicted to Harry Potter. And as I have photos from the theme park, I thought I could make an album with them and include all my thoughts, feelings, experiences, ... around the whole series.

There's a possibility there will be a good bunch of pages, and there might be some that come to mind in the future, so I won't do a photobook, I'll go with a binder style album I think. That way if I want to add something to it in the future, I can :D

I'm not really aiming to create a unity either. I have too many layouts in mind to narrow it down to a few kits, it would get repetitive visually. So I bought a few kits last year (5 kits bought plus a freebie and a CT kit, which by fluke but quite appropriately makes a total of 7kits to scrap with, lol). I might add some if it becomes hard to diversify.

I have made a few layouts in the past, and will probably include them (or maybe re-make them, or both... we'll see).

For today, here's my first layout, titled Addicted!

I also need help coming up with a good title. I haven't given it much thought yet, but what I've thought of was not great. On the Picasa gallery, the album is called My "All things Harry Potter" album, lol, for lack of an idea. So anyone out there with great titling skills, or extensive Harry Potter knowledge, I need your help ;)

I {heart} music!!

Today's post is not scrap related!
My scrappy friend La'Shawn is an awesome blogger (check out her blog!!) and she's inspiring me to blog a little more. And I just invited a whole bunch of people to be my friends on Facebook, but it's my scrap Facebook page, which doesn't see much more action than layouts and ads.
So I thought for them and for my blog readers (echo, are you there? probably just La'Shawn and once in a while my sister...), I'd add a touch of personal info, of random thought, ... branch out a little.

First off, one thing to know is that I have a 5-year-old son with autism and I have another blog about that (in two languages, if you please, lol). You can check that out if you'd like to hear about the everyday life and thoughts of an "autism mom": One Day At A Time (or in French if you prefer:  Un jour à la fois).

And now, just random fun stuff. Last week I joined a blog's linky party from Shabby Blogs and it was fun, so here I go again!
This week's isn't up, so it's last week's party and it's a top ten Tuesday about favourite musicians... It sounded like fun so I'm jumping in with absolutely no preparation (which means in a week or so, I'll regret some of my choices and realize I forgot my absolute favourite!).
So here it goes:

In no particular order, here are SOME of my favourite artists, the ones I've really listened to for hours and hours during a significant period of my life (even if I haven't listened to some of them in years). I've linked each name to one of my favourite songs by said bands:

1. Queen
2. Jet
3. The Offspring
4. Green Day
5. U2
6. Jean-Jacques Goldman
7. ABBA
8. Michael Jackson
9. The Beatles
10. The Glee cast (ok, I know this one is a stretch, but I listen to all the albums a lot because I like the variety of both styles and voices).

What are yours!! Link me up :D

Artgal Style new kits

Nothing very exciting to report... I have not started my Disney book, nor have I started the Harry Potter themed layouts I've been meaning to make for over a year... I haven't even scrapped that much lately, it seems! But I do have two Artgal Style new releases to show off (from this week and the last) and my May desktop which I really love and scrapped with a non-ct kit :D

So Artgal Style released Get Your Craft On which I used to scrap the dog pillows I sell to help finance the autism service dog we are buying for my son:

 

And this week she released Whimsy, a very sweet, soft kit which I used for one if those everyday photos (my son at his grandparents' house):

 

And here's my desktop. It makes me very happy just looking at it :D

Done with Beautiful Life by Jennifer Labre Designs:

That's it for today!

Recent releases

I said I would blog more, so this is me trying to keep it up :D

We took an amazing 2 weeks in Florida in March, and I've been scrapping some of our photos for my CT layouts. Here are some of them with the gorgeous new releases the designers have created.

My desktop for April was a photo of us at Blizzard Beach, one of the water parks:

 Done with the super fun Jelly Belly by Mel Hains

This one is a photo of one of the AWESOME hugs I often get from my little man, which I got while waiting for the bird show at Animal Kingdom:

Done withe beautiful collection My Mom by Mel Hains Designs:

This is my whole happy family on the gorgeous Prince Charming Regal Carroussel in Magic Kingdom:

Done with an absolutely stunning collection called the Glad Project by Truman Studio:

One of my last layout with Danimoy Designs' products is of me eating a cheese pretzel in Magic Kingdom. They are warm and filled with sweet creamy cheese. If you are in Magic Kingdom, you HAVE to try one! I'm usually gluten free and dairy free, so these are not good for my usual diet, but they're too good not to have one... They sell them at The Launching Pad, right under the Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland :D

Unfortunately, Danimoy Designs has now retired, so you can't get the kit...

The next one is me and hubby, relaxed and happy, pushing the stroller together. My MIL snapped a quick photo from the back while we walked and I thought it was pretty cute :D

It's done with a gorgeous bundle called Just Be You by Simple Girl Scraps:

The collection is available at GottaPixel or GingerScraps (and the pieces are also available seperately).

The last one is of the three of us at Typhoon Lagoon:

It's done with the gorgeous Rain Rain Go Away and the Extra by Artgal Style:

Well there you go, all sorts of Disney layouts!! But I have a ton of photos left, so you'll see more for sure ;)

Have you ever been to Disney? Do you make an album with your photos? We go pretty much every year, so I'm not sure if I should have an album for each Disney trip... What do you think?

iNSD sale :D

Simple Girl Scraps has an awesome sale starting today and all week-end: 50% off at both her stores!!

For your shopping convenience, this is both at her Gingerscrap store and her GottaPixel store :D

Back with random stuff :D

I haven't been on here in way too long and of course, I should be showing lots of scrappy stuff, but I thought it would be fun to come back with a little list that was inspired by my scrappy friend La'Shawn!
She participated in a linky party form Shabby Blogs and I thought it was fun:

So here are 10 random things about me:

1. If you're here you probably know I LOVE digital scrapbooking, but you may not know that it's the only hobby I've ever really stuck with. I used to start lots of things and just drop them really fast (as a kid and as an adult). Digital Scrapbooking is one of only 2 things I've really connected with to the point of wanting to keep doing it.

2. Number 2 is the other hobby I've stuck with and it is YOGA! I love it: it relaxes me, keeps me flexible, grounds me, and so much more.

3. My favourite colour is teal. I could paint my walls teal, buy a teal car, get more teal shirts, ... I love it on everything. Unfortunately, my husband does not like it (finds it sad?!?)...

4. I have a weird obession with rainbows and like placing things in that order, and I can't stand when colours are not in rainbow order (when buying pencils, crayons or markers, the first thing I do when I get home is put them in proper rainbow order, which they rarely are, and ot really bothers me in a kid's book, or a digiscrap item if the order is wrong!).

5. I am a stay-at-home mom but I have a 3 undergrads and a Master's degree (a bachelor of English from France, and from Canada a bachelor of linguistics and language teaching, a teacher's degree to teach French as a second language and a Master's degree in education).

6. I read and watch all sorts of things, but I really love sci-fi and fantasy the most!

7. I have read the Harry Potter series countless times, watched the movies a good deal and I've even listened to 3 different versions of the audiobooks (the British audiobooks, the Amercian audiobooks and right now the French audiobooks).

8. Being from France but having lived in Canada for almost 14 years, I recently realized that, of all things, I miss castles!

9. My favourite meat is duck (especially in my Mom's port sauce recipe).

10. I crack a lot! Many of my joints crack, and not just the occasional "air bubble in the joint" crack, but they crack every time (stuff rubs on stuff I guess...). My right shoulder is probably the worst with 3 to 5 consecutive cracks and you can feel the ribs pop.

That was fun! Hope you enjoyed it too :D

Look who's back!

Well, me I guess, from a long enough absence from this blog...
I guess I haven't been the best CT member for the designers, sorry ladies :(

Today, though, who's back is Simple Girl Scraps. Not that she really went anywhere but the store she was at closed and so she starts the new year with 2 new stores, and awesome ones at that: GingerScraps and GottaPixel!!
And she has sales for the grand opening at both stores:

She'll also be chatting at GP to introduce herself and that's always fun, so join her if you can!

And just to show you a little bit of what's available in stores, here's the newest release Flurrious Fun (a collab with Cornelia Designs) and my LO with it:

That's it for today, but I'll try to be here more often...