it's official!!! claudia's long awaited CD is finally available on iTunes!!! can i say that i am just a little bit proud??? i am sure there is some way to link you directly, but just head over to iTunes and search claudia norris or love, claudia to listen and/or purchase her music ... monday was a very exciting mail day around here as many packages arrived with all kinds of goodies including ... naturally this made her very happy! and especially for tonight's launch we created these little bags holding the cds and a few extras ... and we put... Continue reading

you gotta love living in edmonton ... last week we had one of those freakish spring snowstorms with temps of -14 degrees celsius ... and yesterday when i stepped out on the deck in the 25 degree weather i spied this! spring has FINALLY sprung for real here ... thank goodness ... it has been a long, long winter ... started in october so that makes it about 7 months ... we deserve a little sunshine and some of that fresh spring green colour that i love so much!! it will be so nice to have some warmer temps for... Continue reading

it's that time again - the first of the month one little word blog hop!!! for those of you that aren't familiar with this, each year i pick a word (for 2013 it's BALANCE), i take ali edwards' class over at big picture classes and she gives us monthly prompts and then a group of us blog about the previous month's project and hop around to each other's blogs ... fun, fun, fun ... especially if you're a scrapbooker!! my april started off a bit rough, lots of tears in some awkward situations, but i survived ... i think the... Continue reading

it's high time that i show you part two of my wonderful trip that claudia and i took in february (you can find part 1 here) ... after london, we took the Eurostar through the Chunnel (which i was totally scared of doing, due to my claustrophobia ... but you're only underground for about 20 minutes and the train travels really fast and through so many tunnels before then, that you don't even realize you're in the chunnel ... my fears were totally unfounded!) ... and once you hit the france side it's pretty much overground ... if i lived... Continue reading

claudia's first CD, love, Claudia is finally scheduled to be released on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at Roast Coffehouse, 10359-104 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ... she is so excited to be performing acoustic versions of all the songs from her CD, as well as other new originals and some covers ... Roast is an all-ages coffeehouse so anyone and everyone is welcome! come buy a CD, grab a coffee and listen to some great music ... if you want to hear her music you can find her here on YouTube ... or visit her here on facebook ... and her... Continue reading

my sweet little boy... is growing up... happy birthday jack!!! you make me very proud ... (most days!!!) ... i am so glad that you challenge me each and every day ... you make me smile and i love your wicked sense of humour ... but most of all i admire your dogged determination ... it will take you far ... so honoured to be your mom ... have a fabulous day/week of celebrations!! love you with all my heart, mom Continue reading

the new dove beauty campaign has generated some varying views on whether this message is positive or not...take a look for yourself... personally, this video touched me, and i think as women we tend to be very hard on ourselves ... regardless of whether this "experiment"/campaign is rigged or not scientifically sound, as some bloggers are suggesting, i think the overall message is that we should love ourselves, see our true, inner and outer beauty and believe in ourselves ... that is a good message in my books ... if people really want to criticize anything they should be more... Continue reading

standing ... boxes deep in scrapbook supplies purging ... said scrap supplies reorganizing ... you know it ... scrap supplies!!! thinking ... i should never buy another single scrapbook supply ever again ... but we know that can never really happen!! eating ... leftover carrot-coconut-lemongrass soup that i made for a potluck birthday lunch for a dear friend wearing ... my fluffy white housecoat ... yes i know what time it is ... please don't judge!! looking ... at snow outside my window and ... hoping ... that it will all melt really soon and we'll see some green grass... Continue reading

welcome!! if you just came from kelly's blog you are in the right place for our one little word blog hop for april!!! and for my regular readers you probably know the drill by now ... i will be talking about my OLW assignment that i did, or in the case of this month, did not complete for the month of march ... ali's prompt for march was to take ACTION ... we were supposed to identify one task related to our word to complete within the month ... things started out well ... i had signed up for two... Continue reading

i pinned these absolutely beautiful impressionist-type painted eggs last year from a creative mint, a fellow canadian blogger and amazing stylist and i really wanted to try my hand at making them ... so yesterday claudia and i decided to boil up some eggs to create our own version of these painted pretties ... our colour palette was inspired by another pinterest project i tried last easter ... spray painted thrift shop candles ... i dug out the various things we needed to complete the project ... supplies for painted easter eggs: hard boiled eggs acrylic craft paint in various... Continue reading

yes i have been MIA this month ... we've had some personal issues that have affected our family and in order to try and maintain some semblance of balance in my life, i really prioritized these past few weeks ... now that doesn't mean my blog isn't important, but i really wasn't in the mood to be writing blog posts ... but i've had a few relaxing and very fun days on the slopes with my hubbie, my kids and some of their friends and that combined with a few days of sunshine and some warmer temps and i am... Continue reading

i am not officially part of the blog hop this month for the OLW class because i forgot to email our wonderful leader Lee in time :( being home for less than 2 weeks of an already short month is my excuse!! so...if you've managed to find your way over from the class message board, thanks so much for making the effort...to the rest of my blog readers, as always, i appreciate you being here... the february assignment for ali's one little word class was to create a vision board...i was so excited because i totally loved the activity when... Continue reading

picking...up the mail on my way home from a meeting and noticed that lots of the snow had melted from the sidewalk... hoping...that spring is just around the corner eating...too many decadent-over the top, peanut butter, rice krispie brownies listening...to my inner voice to find balance catching up...in the office after my wonderful trip with claudia craving...those raspberry lemon tarts we had in paris wishing...for a little sunshine creating...a new vision board for my OLW class wearing...my favourite new scarf from anthropology drinking...lots of ice water purging...scrapbook supplies...again!! buying...too many of those gorgeous new scrap supplies!! watching...the new normal and... Continue reading

i have been back for about a week from the most fantastic trip with my darling daughter claudia and have been slowly tackling the 1800+ photos the two of us took with our cameras and iphones...so i apologize that i have ignored my blog for most of this month...i contemplated blogging from the road but have realized that technology just doesn't love me as i ran into major glitches with my iphone and ipad! mark & i decided that we would celebrate our children's graduations & entry into adulthood with a trip abroad...so claudia chose london and paris...we made it... Continue reading

welcome to another year of one little word blog hops on the first of each month!! first a big shout out to Lee Currie who will be hosting us this year, i am thrilled that she has taken the torch from Margie so we can continue this monthly tradition, because it sure keeps me motivated to complete my assignments on time!!...i am so excited that we have such a long blog roll once again this month and happy to be hopping with lots of my OLW classmates...you should have arrived here from the wonderful mrs. wookie... i am also glad... Continue reading

last year i included a here i am instagram portion in my five post each month and i wanted to continue this along with a monthly update of "my currents"...these lists are still a recurring trend with quite a few of my favourite bloggers, and as you know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...thanks for inspiring me Elise, Amy and Ali... this i my wrap up for january... remembering...my day walking around san jose del cabo with my three favourite people eating...homemade raspberry muffins preparing...for a very special trip ordering...tempura salmon tataki at my favourite neighbourhood sushi restaurant feeling...quite... Continue reading

a while back and way before i picked my one little word for 2013, someone suggested i check out the TEDtalk by Shawn Achor and the happy secret to better work and i really liked what he had to say, but had kind of forgotten about it over the hustle and bustle of the holidays...so this past week while i was trying to "balance" my creative space (read: clean up!) i found my little post-it note with his advice...my blog is the perfect place to keep these random bits of information i want to save and i also get to... Continue reading

i am still quite smitten with pinterest and i think i'm not alone in this diversion and if you're like me, you pin and pin and then pin some more...a lot of my pins involve food, crafts and of course scrapbooking...and i've decided that i want to actually cook some of those recipes, make some of the projects and scraplift or be more inspired by those layouts from other scrapbookers...so every now and then, when i have time or i'm in the mood (no specifics for my more balanced life- hee hee), but hopefully, at least once a month, i'd... Continue reading

welcome to one of the new regular monthly posts i have planned for 2013...back in october claudia and i participated in the worldwide photo walk and i loved the idea of going for a walk and capturing some of what i experienced through my camera, so i plan on having a bit of a different theme for my walk each month...but i don't want to put too many conditions around this activity, so that it still remains fun and doesn't become a chore...it is afterall my year of balance and i think part of that is letting go of my... Continue reading

wanted to share our reading list for the up-coming year of book club...i absolutely love the 11 girls that have gotten together on the 2nd thursday of every month for the past 19 years!!! some months it's been the highlight for me...a night of good discussion, regardless of whether we liked the book or not, some wine, great nibblies, and the comfort of knowing that these women are there no matter what...i really believe that i could call any of them at the drop of a hat and they would be there...although we only see each other once a month,... Continue reading

my hubbie just told me not to drink and blog!! but i am determined to get this blog post posted on the twelfth!! we just finished a delicious bottle of amarone and some take out italian from our favourite mom & pop place...tasty tomato..."mama" had a new salad on the menu with walnuts, goat cheese, cranberries, romaine and a light vinaigrette...that, combined with her chicken limone = yum-o for me! but i digress...i wanted to do a little recap of twelve - the year long scrapbooking class i took last year...on 12.12.12. Stacy Julian held a live event from Maui... Continue reading

happy 2013!!! this will mark the last OLW blog hop to close off the year of 2012 and for me the word of celebrate...it is a word that became way more than i had anticipated and therefore, i don´t really want to say goodbye but rather as the French say, au revoir...till i see you again...i know i´ll continue to have lots to celebrate this year and this word will resonate for a long time to come...here are my final pages in my album... i added another page protector so i could include my celebrate layout as the very last... Continue reading

i have been wanting to freshen up prairie girl for awhile now, and originally i thought it should be done on the first of the year, but i think this is a fun way to end my year of celebrate and head into the new year all shiny and new! just to share a few of our holiday celebration highlights...christmas morning... we had my brother's family for dinner that night...this was the first time we have all been together on the 25th! so it was fun to set a festive table...and those recycled candles from easter made another appearance!! the... Continue reading