BPS classes, priorities and Catimini

I'm taking some classes from Bi PictureScrapbooking.com  I know, big surprise huh?  I actually can't remember a time when I wasn't taking at least one class.  I just finished Library of Memories with Stacy Julian for the second time and Daily dose, both were VERY cool!  I took a class about using and making kits in October and they made some improvements and invited the alumni to retake the class, so I'm taking that now.  The improvements turned the class from good to fabulous and I'm really enjoying it.  Last week we were to make our own kit from some piece of inspiration.  I used a poncho I bought Juliet for next winter from Catimini...

I absolutely love these colours.  The photos aren't great, but you get the idea.  We are traveling a lot this summer so I wanted a kit that I could take with me everywhere and just be able to have everything on hand to just scrap!

 

I'm also taking a Baker's Dozen with Stacy's sister Darci and it's the coolest class ever!  It's just fun and I'm getting lots of simple pages done.  Here'sa LO that I did about Matthieu the other morning.  It didn't take very long at all!

Speaking of Matthieu, he was so sick!  Or so he says, you know how men get when they are sick.  He came home from work last night, not a minute early or anything and he says 'I feel like I'm going to die!!  I need to go to bed...  but I'm just going to eat supper first.'  ;)  He stayed in bed until about 7 this morning when he got up and dressed and went to work.  Meanwhile, he could barely say hello to us and couldn't handle the kids and their 'noise'.  He didn't last long and was back home in bed before too long.  He went back over to the office as soon as he felt better, around 6pm.  Sheesh!!

'Les soldes' started yesterday.  In France and in many European countries, they only have sales twice a year, around July and January and they usually last about 6 weeks.  I avoided the crowds yesterday, but I have been putting off buying some well needed things so I went today and the crowds weren't too bad.  I bought myself 3 pairs of shoes at 50% and 30% off, new sunglasses at 30% off all of which I really needed, I had no sandals and my sunglasses were getting really bent.  Then I hit Catimini!  I LOVE this store, I mean their stuff is fantastic, fabulous colour combinations (remember the poncho from up above) and great quality.  The boys all have winter coats from there.  Wool coats.  I can pop them in the washer and everything!  SO the boy collection is very cool, but the girl collection... sigh.  I'm in love!  I would not even allow myself to look at the girl side of the store before Juliet was born so that I wouldn't get disappointed.  Anyway, I got the boys a few things, but I had a blast in the girl section!!!

Under a rock?

No, I've just been busy as usual.  And besides taking care of my kids it's my favourite kind of busy... SCRAPBOOKING!!!  The summer CHA show is coming up soon and I made 3 layouts for the Flair Designs booth.  They were due Friday and I didn't get a chance to start them until after the baptism.  I can't even show you yet, but check back the end of July, I'll post them after the show.  I mailed them Friday morning and took Juliet and Anthony to the peds for check-ups and did a bunch of errands that ate up my morning, then Helen came over and we had a great relaxing visit.  Saturday, was the end of the year party at Jacques' school and then we all went out to lunch, I stayed up late catching up on the week's ironning. Yesterday, I folded and folded and folded :P  then Helen had us all out for Tom's birthday, that was a lot of fun.  I'll put some pix at the bottom of this post.

Baptism...
There are a few more photos in an album on the left, there, the ones from the church were taken by Méry, Vincent's (Juliet's godfather's) wife. Oh and the cute ones of her and Vincent are Méry's too. We had the party on Saturday night because there were so many that had long drives home Sunday afternoon and the service wasn't over until 1:30 and we didn't even get to MIL's until 2.  The service was really nice, the priest was great, you know the kind that makes you want to go to church.  We had a lot of fun and of course the kids enjoy getting together.  I will say that it is hard enough cooking for 26 people, but it's no fun doing it in someone else's kitchen, but it all worked out fine.

Child of God

Welcome to the christian community little one.

Baptism preps, lucky day and more SAG

We are having the party tonight for Juliet's baptism since the actual ceremony won't be over until about 1:30 tomorrow and we have lots of guests that have 5 hour drives to get home and kids that need to be in school the next day.  Matthieu took Philippe and Jacques to the market this morning before work for fresh fish and veggies.  He just took Philippe and Anthony to the grocery store for a short list of things.  I've been getting food ready for tonight.  We are having it at MIL's house because it's bigger and she has room to feed all 28 of us.  The decorations are all made and just need to be put up once we get there.  We'll pick up the flowers and 'la piece montée' (a pile of cream puff pastries stuck together with yummy candy sugar) on the way.

Yesterday was a rather lucky day as friday the 13ths usually are for me. 
*Juliet got her first tooth!
*we had two sweet girls join us for lunch
*I got a rockin' parking spot both time I went for school pick up, nice and big and well located.  The fair is in town and that takes up the largest parking lot so there is NO where to park
*I somehow avoided getting a parking ticket though most of the cars parked on the same street had one
*I got most of my to-do list done

Here's a bit more about SAG...  just up to Saturday at lunch...

Breakfast at the hotel was yummy, nothing reheated from the night before at least like at the hotel from other years.  Juliet even had some banana.I left at 8:30 for my class with Vicki Boutin, while Jacques and Anthony had fun fetching things from the buffet. 

 

Vicki’s class was a lot of fun, with a lot of cool techniques.  We transferred foil onto chipboard and tacky tape and I went right out and bought the glue, tape and foil!!  We also used a VERY pretty stamp set and I almpst bought one for myself, but I just don’t stamp enough to justify a big set.  Again, the LO is not finished, but most of the technique-y stuff is done and I have the photos ready, so it should be just sticking things down now.  I sat with Edna again.

 

I had about 2 hours until my next class and we planned to go to the pool.  It was a great time, but we didn’t stay long.  Juliet can only stay 30 mins and the boys were getting rowdy.  I went back to the room with Juliet to dress her and feed her while Matthieu finished up the boys’ showers.  A few minutes after we got to the room Anthony arrived by himself.  At first I thought the others were right behind, that he had run ahead up the stairs, but then they weren’t coming so I questioned him.  It turns out that he was washed and dressed first and he told Matthieu that he was going back to the room but since M had the other two still in the shower he couldn’t go after Anthony.  We don’t know how he made it back to the room.  It was a long and complicated way and there are 4 towers of rooms but he found the right tower, the right floor and the right room!!  Thank God!!  He still was in major trouble, but it could have been sooooo much worse.

 

I went to Karen’s class while they all had a well deserved nap (especially Daddy!)  Her class was very ‘structural’ and the project is a fun interactive ‘toy’ you hang on the wall.  Very very cool, very very unfinished :P  It’s 2 magnetic boards that we’ll decorate and a 2 page LO that will be hung on them with bulldog clips.  The left page has a slinky in a tin that sticks (magnetic ;) ) anywhere, closed up in the tin or open as a slinky.  The right side has four flaps that stick open or closed.  When you open them a flower box pops open. Very fun!!  I can’t wait to finish it and put it in the boys’ room, but there’s still a lot of work until then.

Ok, so here are a few photos, the pool ones are in M's camera and I'm too busy to find that today ;)  First is Vicki, then her LO at my workstation, then miss J sporting her very fisrt bikini.  Man, I had a hard time finding a baby girl bathing suit that wasn't just bottoms!! and then I had to fight Matthieu to leave the top on!!  What is wrong with this country? ;) Last photos are of Karen's flower pot and slinky. 

SAG day 1

Scrap-a-Ganza was a lot of fun, but now I'm back to reality and up to my eyeballs in christening preparations for this weekend!  Here's a rundown of last Friday, hopefully I'll get the other days up in the not so distant future :D  All the photos are at the end because that's quicker ;)  All of the indoor ones are terrible.  Oh and I'll add one of Jacques from his end of the year show that was last night.  He was a louse, don't ask!! ;)

 

There were a few hiccups on the way there but all went smoothly compared to other years.  I forgot my purse and we realised it quite soon as Juliet’s soother was in it.  A quick call to Eric and we found out that it was safe in the apartment and not outside.  I thought I might have laid it down when I was feeding the cats.  It was no real problem except for the soother, but Matthieu stopped at a tea room for breakfast that just happened to have a pharmacie next door.  They didn’t have her kind in rubber (she hates the silicone ones) so I bought her a couple that were similar to hers and she found one she liked! Phew!

We actually made great time driving for once, the kids were great and there were no traffic jams after the initial bit of commuters to Luxembourg .  Past trips taught us to leave lots of time for traffic jams! We only stopped for breakfast and then for me to feed Juliet while the boys stretched their legs with a soccer ball.  We made it there around 1pm-ish and checked in and tried to register but the SAG desk wasn’t set up yet, even though it was less than 90mins until the first classes started. 

We headed to the seaside town of Noordwijk aan zee for lunch at a restaurant with veeeeeeerrrrry sloooooooooooow service!  I just made it back in time to beg to jump the now looooong registration line, register and get to Donna’s class.  That started to feel more like previous SAG stress!

Donna is fabulous and the class was a lot of fun!  A great project, but it’s not finished yet, it shouldn’t take much though.  It’s a complete album, a year in the life.  A 2 page spread per month to highlight one year.  I've included a pic of one of her spreads below.  Lot’s of fun stuff, painting, stamps etc.  I sat next to a Brazilian living in Amsterdam, Edna (sounds much prettier in Portuguese).  Donna was very helpful and she was very interested in different cultures and languages, so there was lots of fun conversation about cultural differences.  Her girls had arrived the day before and after not seeing her for 2 weeks they stayed to be her helpers, didn't see much of Cole.  When she heard that I was Canadian she let me touch the beaver on her Roots bag that she bought so that when she went to France the French would think she was Canadian ;)

I was there until about 8 with a break to feed Juilet.  While I was in class the family went back to the beach and then went to the bounce house that was set up in the hotel.  After class we all drove back to Noordwijk aan zee for supper at a seafood restaurant.  VERY good!!  They really know how to do fish there, we ate really well all weekend.  Then, we stopped for some yummy ice cream for Anthony, Philippe and me!  Matthieu and Jacques don’t like ice cream!! 

Once we got back to the hotel, Juliet and I ran into Mellie who was waiting for the elevator, just a quick hello and a half a hug (my hands were more than full!) before Juliet and I got off at our floor, but I was taking her class on Sunday.

 

to be continued...

Busy.  Mostly good busy :D

We had some visitors!!  First Matt's (BIL) parents were here for a day and we had a great time with them and we're so glad that they could fit us into their European tour :D 

They got us warmed up for my parents' visit!!!  They came on a spur of the moment (or as 'spur' as you can get with a transatlantic trip!) and stayed for just a week, but it was a fabulous week!  By chance they were here for Anthony's birthday party and Juliet starting solids.  Jacques lost a tooth and Philippe showed off his potty skills.  So it was a great taste of the excitement of everyday life chez les Vincens...  We didn't do any of the tourist stuff, but we did hit mom's favourite stores and there was even a lightning trip to IKEA, back just in the nick of time to pick up the boys from school for lunch.   

Since they left (about 10 or so days ago) I've been flying around.  It's mostly everyday stuff, but with 4 kids, that's busy enough, but add in christening preps, Flair deadlines, a weekend trip to Orleans and another weekend away coming up leads to me feeling like I'm going 100km/h on a hamster wheel as my friend Charlotte puts it.  She's running too these days, but on a wheel that measures in miles. ;)  Plus, Amber has made an amazing improvement in her photography and is coaching me so any bit of time with half decent light, I'm shooting in RAW baby!  I'm waiting on a book by Scott Kelby and more free time to really get in to it however.

We are going to Scrap-a-Ganza this weekend so I've been getting photos prepped for that! Donna D. wants 240 photos!!  20/month for a year.  Thank goodness for Stacy Julian and her Library of Memories or I'd never have gottten that done! I'm hoping to finish at least some of the classes this time so i won't add considerably to the 3 baskets that are already labelled 'unfinished SAG projects'!  Amber isn't going this year and I've been missing our back and forth emails from other years as we prepped pix, finalised packing lists and vented about crashing computers and tempormental printers.  I'm taking classes from Donna D, CD Muskosky, Mellie, Karen Burniston, Vicki Boutin and Bazzill, so hopefully I won't miss her too too badly.  I wanted to take a class from a dutch teacher as well, the amazing Lida De Witte, but she's only teaching it twice, both time don't suit my schedule as I promised Matthieu that I wouldn't be too busy and that I'd leave Saturday pm free to go to the beach.

I'm going back to thay hamster wheel and hopefully to bed soon!