Good vibes for dad and the end of Got Sketch 2

First things first.
My dad is having knee replacement surgery tomorrow. It should be a fairly routine procedure but pre-existing health conditions could make it a bit more serious. He's only have a spinal, not a general anesthetic (my stomach is flipping just thinking about it) so essentially he'll be "awake" through the entire thing. He should be in hospital about five days or so and then he'll be recovering at home. He's in good spirits although a close childhood friend of his is in the final days of his life so he's having a hard time with that.

Please send him lots and lots of healing vibes! He's such a sweetie - I hope it's not too painful for him...

The picture is of him with my nephew Hayden - the two of them are attached at the hip!

Today also marks the last day of Got Sketch 2. I've thoroughly enjoyed the class and I'm sad that it's over. Apparently there will be a Got Sketch 3 in the New Year and I'll likely join that!
Here are my final 3 layouts. I still have 2 left to do - maybe I'll work on those on my Vicki Boutin weekend - who knows.

Here are two layouts using sketch 5

And Sketch 6. I love the story behind this one...

I used pictures from our grand entrance and also our "kids bouquet and garter toss"we threw a stuffed bride and groom to the girls and boys so that they wouldn't catch the bouquet and garter. I practiced with my niece for days, she was SO determined to catch the bride. When I threw it, it landed on the ground and she was the first to have her hands on it but then another little girl swiped it from her. she was DEVASTATED (hence the tears). In the end the other little girl gave the "bride" back to its rightful owner!

Well, I'm off for my final Got Sketch chat.

I have a few more pre-class assignments to finish tomorrow night for my Design Your Life class and I'll post those when they are done!

'night lovelies

Sunday - post 3 - Hello Saturday, you make me happy

Ok - Hello post 3! You are all about my happy Saturday!

I was out VERY late Friday night with the girls that I used to work with - the Dream Team (minus Francine, she was sick). We went for an amazing Thai dinner to this little restaurant in Quebec and then back to Ginette's for a glass of wine and lots of chatter! It was so great to spend time with them again. I am happy when I'm with them, they are good eggs and they make me laugh.

Driving home wasn't too fun - it was rainy and dark and I was a REALLY bad accident - both cars looked like crumpled up pieces of paper. Fortunately everyone seemed to be ok and fortunately it was only 2 minutes from home for me!

We had a slow start to our day and then made our way shopping...Denis will become a Godfather to Tanya and Keith's baby Kyle today. He/we is/are so excited. I know he'll make a wonderful Godfather. First order of business, baptism gift. We went to our favourite store in the market - Mon Cadeau. I love purchasing baby gifts there. This was our first time venturing there since Little Pea so there was a bit of a lump in my throat the entire time but we got through.

We had seen an idea online for a basket with baptism goodies in it so we stole that idea and went with it!

We picked up a gorgeous picture frame (that you can write details on about the baptism) and a coin bank that also comes with a pen to write details about the baptism. We also picked him up a little stuffed bear that has a blankie attached but you can hide the blankie in the bear's belly.

To complete the basket we picked up a SUPERSOFT blanket at Costco (go figure) and an adorable sleeper.

The basket itself was purchased at Michaels.

The completed gift looks like this

We had a quick stop at Tallcrest (and I mean quick because there was no parking so D waited in the car for most of it)...where I was able to buy 2, yes 2 new pairs of shoes and order a third! When your feet are so big they need their own postal code, you snap up anything you can find! I was super happy that one pair was even on clearance.

I am so excited about my new pair of heels...when I put them on a few women in the store were like "wow, those look amazing" - so naturally I had to get them. And the good news is that D is STILL taller than me when I wear them!

We had a fun photo shoot when we got home with them - I was feeling sassy!

At Costco we mostly picked up "grown up" stuff like laundry and dish soap with a few vegetables thrown in but I did get these...

Chairs! Two of them - folding - for my studio! Poor Steph no longer has to sit on a dining room chair AND as long as we can make room on the tables, that means there is now room for two friends' bums to come and play!

We hadn't eaten all day and by this point we were STARVING so we shared yummy fajitas at Lonestar while planning out our next month! Next week is mom Turpin's birthday, the following weekend is Thanksgiving and the weekend after that is our 6 year "dating" anniversary. And yes, we still celebrate! AND... the weekend after that is the Vicki Boutin retreat in Smiths Falls with Lynn and Janet and maybe even a mystery guest (depending on her calendar)!

October is shaping up to be one great month!

Ok so back to our day...

Quick stop at Michael's for the basket and then a stop for something I have been craving for a few weeks. The reason I have been craving it is because so many people seem to be talking about "it" on their blogs. Particularly American bloggers (probably because Timmies isn't as big for them as it is here)...

The "it" I was craving was a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. I am VERY happy to say she didn't disappoint. It was fall goodness in a cup. It was like I was drinking in the colourful leaves, crisp air and all things Thanksgiving in that one cup.

As if that wasn't enough, I got the greatest little saying on my cup...

Isn't that the truth - one word (or in our case one virtual smile) can change your life in ways you never imagined and suddenly that "happily ever after" is your reality.

Our day didn't end there! We came home, unpacked and had some fun with the camera. I much prefer my "feet" shots to my head shots but what can you do? I posting them, for fun, even though I was looking pretty rough! The funny this is I really liked my hair in the car about a half hour before these were taken. But then, I unloaded the car and ran up and down the stairs a few dozen times (or so it seemed) and suddenly my hair wasn't looking too hot.

Very serious

And trying to be sassy but really just pumped up on pumkin spice loveliness...

In the 50 or so shots D took I looked like I was stoned in about 48 of them. So this shot was my attempt at keeping my eyes open...

And a few self portraits with my camera and our new Ikea mirror...

Here she is - the new Ikea mirror to fill up some space in the front entrance...

My evening had a few unexpected surprises. Good surprises. Great surprises...

My plan was to work on submitting some of my layouts to magazines. I worked on that but also had a great chat with Steph AND with the lovely Chris and Cawi all pumped up on ROCKSTAR, champagne and goodness knows what else. It's pretty funny to speak to a few girls who are hyped up on Rockstar when you are sober (my latte buzz had worn off by this point). Cawi *tried* to read me my numerology report. Hilarious. I sure wanted to be with them last night.

When I hung up with them it was late. REALLY late. Note to self: if you want to have any sort of credibility, do not submit your work in the middle of the night when you are feeling a bit sleepy and out of it. I think I had to write about a dozen e-mails or so. I think I got about 3 of them right on the first try. In most of them I forgot to add the picture, until I finally developed a "system" and started by adding the picture. I was VERY proud of myself that I had remember only to realise that I hit send without adding page details such as products used. I really should have just quit but I didn't and I somehow managed to get the submissions done. I'm going to try and get a few more pages done this week before the deadlines are here.

I feel like I'm SO behind in my creating. I still have 2 assignments to finish from Got Sketch PLUS my new class starts this week AND I want to work on layouts for submission. I have a feeling I'm going to be in the studio a lot this week and I can't wait!

Well, I need to get ready.

Have a great Sunday lovelies.

I'll try to post pictures of a few layouts I did at Navcan later...

Sunday - post 2 - NAVCAN

Ok so last weekend I finally got the chance to head to NavCan. It was a wonderful weekend and I now realise I didn't take nearly enough pictures. Perhaps next time I'll bring Denis along just to be the official photographer!!!

Here are a few random shots



Not quite sure what Rach was doing here...but I couldn't resist!
The lovely Stephanie...

Steph's wicked Bad Girls layout!
The flowers were GORGEOUS...

The fountain - water's warm - jump right in - right Katie???

There were hydrangeas everywhere! Love them!


Ode to Katie

ok - next post! I'm feeling a bit ADHD in my blogging today!!!

Sunday - post 1

Hi kids!



I've decided to do a few separate posts today because I have a wide variety of things to post about!



Post 1 is short and sweet



It's a picture I took of Denis last week holding the 1600 feet of wire, YES, you read that correctly, 1600 feet. It is being installed for networking or something "hi tech" at our place. He is standing in his new office so that is the paint colour...


ok - that's enough of the "boy" stuff for this blog - let's move onto "girly" things and NAVCAN!

Design Your Life

I've decided to take another class. I've enjoyed my Got Sketch class - in many ways it's forcing me, I mean giving me a reason to create! (i have to figure out how to do the strike out thing - maybe that's a typepad feature).

My new class is going to be somewhat "advanced" compared to Got Sketch (or at least I'm hoping so given the price difference)!!!

I'm taking a class called Design Your Life with Cathy Zielske. Cathy has a graphic design background so it sounds like she'll be teaching us "design concepts." I'm hoping to learn a LOT. There is going to be a lot of work involved but I'm all for pushing my creativity to the next level. Who knows, I may even get a bit dirty and not rush to wash it off.

There is already preliminary class work to do, including printing a few GIANT pictures. That should be interesting. Serves me right - I've been complaining for the past 3 years that I've only had 4x6 pictures to work with so now we're pulling out the big guns!

You know how I know I'll like the class? The first order of business was to go shopping! I can do that. I'm an EXPERT shopper. I sent my "wish list" over to Jenn at the Scrapbox, hopefully she can hook me up.

Tonight was a relatively productive night. I had a few layouts to finish up. Denis went out to Henrys and bought a light box for taking pictures of my pages. It looks like this:

Unfortunately I can't show my pages on here because I plan to submit them. I'm going to go for it. Try it out. I've never submitted anything before. It would be SO COOL if something panned out. Ironically enough the pages I can't post are my favourites. Hopefully your first peak will be on the pages of a glossy magazine!

Well, just finishing the last few minutes of Grey's Anatomy and then off to bed.

Tomorrow I'm going for Thai with my former team - the DREAM TEAM. I can't wait. I miss seeing them everyday so it will be fun to catch up.

Tomorrow is also game day - GO BLUE.

Happy almost Friday.

night lovelies,

me

Just 'cuz I'm trying to stay current...

NAME: Laurie Turpin

1. WHAT TIME DID YOU GET UP THIS MORNING? hmm. which time? I woked up several different times this morning! First time was at 5 I think
2. DIAMONDS OR PEARLS? Diamonds 100%. They are my best friend!
3. WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AT A THEATER? I think it was Mama Mia with the girls - but I'm supposed to go tomorrow
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE T. V. SHOW? One? that's impossible. A few faves are the Hills, Grey's Anatomy, most reality shows.
5. WHAT DID YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST? whole grain cereal with milk, a banana and almonds
6. WHAT IS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? Anne
7. FAVORITE CUISINE? hmmm Italian I think.
8. WHAT FOOD DO YOU DISLIKE? anything TOO exotic - I don't like a lot of meat
9. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? come on - Pink of course!
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CD AT THE MOMENT? Does my blog music count?
11. WHAT KIND OF CAR DO YOU DRIVE? Silver Jeep Liberty that is OFFICIALLLY PAID OFF as of this month!
12. FAVORITE LUNCH? anything that is made!
13. WHAT CHARACTERISTICS IN PEOPLE DO YOU DISLIKE? drama
14. MY FAVORITE PAST-TIME IS: scrapbooking. lots and lots of scrapbooking
15. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD ON VACATION, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? Hmm - I often play this game with Denis. I'd go on a cruise to Australia. I'd cruise, NOT fly
16. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE SINGER(S)? Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Chantal Kreviazuk (all cheese, all the time)
17. FAVORITE BRAND OF CLOTHING? hmmmm - that's a tough one! anything that fits!!!
18. TO WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE? Spain
19. WHAT WAS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY? tough call - i've had many great birthdays - probably 24 in Brussels. Then again, my first birthday dating Denis was quite memorable...
20. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Canadian football, hands down!
21. FURTHEST PLACE YOU ARE SENDING THIS? You tell me…
22. PERSON YOU LEAST EXPECT TO SEND IT BACK TO YOU? No clue
23. PERSON YOU EXPECT TO SEND IT BACK FIRST? Again…
24. GOAL YOU HAVE FOR YOURSELF? To be published in a scrapbooking magazine/publication this year
25. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? November 17
25a. ANY FAMOUS PEOPLE SHARE YOUR BIRTHDAY? a few.
26. HOW MANY WEDDINGS HAVE YOU BEEN IN, INCLUDING YOUR OWN ? in my lifetime? way too many to count! I'd say at least 20 or so
27. ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT PERSON? More of a night person but i'm getting better with mornings!
28. WHAT IS YOUR SHOE SIZE? SKI
29. PETS: nope - not really a pet person
30. ANY NEW AND EXCITING NEWS YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH US? Nope
31. WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE ? A teacher
32. HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? apprehensive, a bit stressed, tired, bloated
33. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CANDY? choc choc chocolate!
34. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLANT OR FLOWER? tulips!
35. WHAT DAY ON THE CALENDAR ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO? hmmm...there are so many exciting days on my calendar!
36. WHERE IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE EVER BEEN FROM HOME? Denmark probably - or Grecce.
37. A SMALL THING YOU REALLY ENJOY? Lazy afternoons in bed snuggling with Denis
38. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK? Tuesdays with Morrie
39. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? Our marriage.
40. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ALBUM? Album?? The minipops!
41. WHAT MAKES YOU CRINGE? Gross stories
42. IF YOU COULD DO ANYTHING, WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Be a stay at home mom
43. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THAT YOU WILL VISIT AGAIN? Espagna baby!
44. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN THAT YOU WILL NEVER VISIT AGAIN? Seville - NEVER. cold rainy crap
44. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? There are so many. Right now Mama Mia and Sex and the City
45. WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG? Egg!
46. HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU MADE SMILE TODAY? Lots - hopefully - i love to smile
47. WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE WORLD, WHAT DO YOU SEE? Beauty and uncertainty. Promise and hope.
48. CATS OR DOGS? Dogs.
49 GOOD OR BAD? Good. Positive thought is a powerful thing.
50. SOMETHING PEOPLE PROBABLY DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU? I overdosed on Flinstone vitamins as a kid!

My first Kit Club

I have put off joining a kit club for years. I'm not sure why really. I guess I was afraid of not liking what was in the kit and feeling like I wasted a bunch of money. As I'm spending more and more time on blogs and message boards I'm finding that kits are all the rage. And frankly, I hate feeling left out so I decided to break down and join a kit club.
I joined Scarlet Lime and this lovely kit arrived on our doorstep yesterday. It's like getting a birthday present once a month. The kit is absolutely GORGEOUS and I cannot get over just how much stuff is in it. I definitely do not regret joining and it'll give me a chance to expand my horizons a bit.
All pictures are courtesy of Scarlet Lime...

I have only one regret about the kit thing...I wish I would have joined Bad Girls too in time for the September kit. I spent the entire weekend drooling over Katie and Rachel's kits. I thought about stealing them after they had gone to bed but didn't think that would be the best way to make a first impression!

Well, I'm off to bed. I've had a lazy night. D on the other hand has been busy at work passing 1600 feet (yes, you read that right) of wire and networking cable or something or other thru the house.

He gets bonus points today for so many reasons

1) He stopped at Future Shop at lunch and not only did he get me the Sex and the City DVD, he got me the special edition

2) He finished work much earlier than I did today so he went grocery shopping

AND

3) he made a DELICIOUS vindaloo veggie and shrimp stir-fry. Am I a lucky girl or what?

He's definitely a sweetie and I'm going to keep him!

night lovelies....