Fun photo

A couple of weeks ago after my photography class started, I wanted to use my new tutu (it's so cute and polka dotted and I made it!), so I set all the settings on my camera and had Adam take photos of me. For some reason my camera was taking really blue photos (I've reset it now and it seems to be better), but I edited it a little (can you believe that...remember when I was posting sideways photos because I didn't know how to turn them around??) and it's a little better.



Tomorrow I'll post some photos that I took of Sarah (and she took of me in my tutu again :)) with my new camera. I love it.

Have a great evening!!

Sorry!

I can't find the cord for my camera, so I didn't even take the photos of my stuff. I have scrapped a little on a banner that I'm making to teach at the store, so I'll have more stuff to post when I find the cord.

I went to the store to get the fabric for the skirt and didn't find exactly what I was looking for (I did end up buying one fabric) and then fell in love with all the Amy Butler heavy weight fabric. I was trying to decide what could be made with it, and I was thinking an apron and a baby sling. So we'll see if I can find a free pattern for a baby sling and then I might attempt it.

I'm taking Colin for x-rays after school/work tomorrow and then going to yoga, so I definitely wont' be posting anything tomorrow.

Hugs ~ Cate

6 more random things

Maybe it's because it's way too late, but those random things about me seem lame, but since I've already posted them I'll leave them and post better ones.

1. I'd say 80% of my clothes come from American Eagle Outfitters. The other 20% are mostly Roxy, Billabong, Gap and Lululemon. Almost all of them I've bought on sale.

2. Sarah McLachlan has been my favourite singer for over ten years. And the Barenaked Ladies have been my favourite band for over 15 years. I'm sad that Steven left the band, but am excited to see what he does on his own and what the band will do without him.

3. I'm addicted to the Bubble Bazinga widget on my dashboard. My high score is 187500 and that had me in the top 1000 players at first. Now I'm number 1139.

4. I'm also addicted to the Flickr Interestingness widget. I've favourited a ton of photos from it.

5. I've been up for almost three hours and still don't feel tired. I think I'm going to start watching a movie to see if that will put me to sleep. I haven't left my bed except to get my laptop though. :)

6. In that three hours I think I've gone pee at least three times and have actually gotten Colin and his friend to go to sleep. It's normal that they try to stay up all night, so I'm happy that they're sleeping.

6 Random Things About Me

Heather tagged me forever ago (January 21st actually...Colin's 15th birthday) and I'm finally getting to it now. Chloe woke me up barking over an hour ago when some cats were fighting outside. One of them was my parents cat, Belle, and Chloe barked until I got up and let her in. Now Chloe's happily snoring away and I'm wide awake. So what better time to do 6 random things about me??

1. I was born in Germany (West Germany actually...but that doesn't exist anymore...I think that's kind of cool). I am a Canadian citizen. I don't have a passport...because I lost my "Registration of Birth Abroad" card. So I now have to get a "Landed Immigrants" card so that I can get a passport. I think that's stupid when I'm a Canadian citizen and do have a Canadian military birth certificate. So I'm procrastinating, but Adam and I are going to Florida in November and so I really have to think about getting one soon.

2. Every time I hear the Our Lady Peace song "Innocent" I think of being at the Tsunami Relief Concert a few years ago in Vancouver with Tracey, who lived in the Maldives at the time and experienced the Tsunami. Raine Maida was at the concert with his wife Chantal Kreviazuk and he played the piano and sang that song and the whole crowd sang the chorus with him (We are, we are all innocent, we are all innocent, we are, we are, we are all innocent, we are all innocent, we are , we are all...). And then it reminds me of how much I get sad that our news never covers things around the world (I don't think a 30 second news "story" counts as covering it) unless it affects "Westerners". How are they now? Have they rebuilt already? Will it take years to rebuild? Do they still need us to donate money?

3. I watched a documentary called Sharkwater the other day and it made me feel good about not liking fish. Not necessarily because they're bad for you (which they are starting to be because of all the mercury in the water), but because of the way some kinds of fish are caught. There's lots of "waste" caught and killed (not necessarily on purpose) and I don't like that. I think that eating free range meat (because they're treated better) or kosher (because it's supposed to be killed "painlessly) is better.

4. I bought this awesome soap at yoga called Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap in lavender scent. I seriously think this stuff is magic! I put it in a Bath and Body Works pump so it comes out foamy (I just put about an inch in the bottom of the container and then filled the rest up with water). I use it on my hair and my body. I haven't been using anything else in my hair (no conditioner or other products at all!!) and it doesn't get frizzy anymore. I washed Chloe with it a couple of days ago and she's still super soft. And I wash all my yoga clothes with it. I really love the scent of lavender now too. And it's vegan.

5. Even though I'm not a vegetarian I saw a sticker on someone's water bottle at yoga a few weeks ago that I can't stop thinking about. It said "Wings Are for Flying, Not Frying". I personally don't like eating meat off of bones, so it's appealing to me partly because of that, but I just love the idea of "Wings Are for Flying"...it makes me think that we can do anything we want.

6. I love hot yoga. I love the studio I go to. I love most of the teachers. I like that they all have different styles. Some push you more. Some are super mellow. Some always have insightful things to say that make you think the rest of the day. Some are so dang flexible it makes me excited to see how I will progress (I can't believe what two months has done already!). I didn't think I would like the "meditation" part of it, but I do! I love staying in savasana and feeling the sweat drip down and ignoring it. It really does get easier if you concentrate. I've read about teacher training and am in awe of them. They go to 11 classes a week (two a day Monday-Friday and then one on Saturday with Sunday off). One day I want to try two classes. I just don't know if I want to go in the morning and evening, or two in a row.

I promised Jenn that I'd post some stuff I've made lately this weekend, so look for something on Sunday (if I can find my cord for the camera so I can download the photos that I will hopefully take tomorrow...and I have Photoshop now so hopefully the photos won't be sideways anymore...if I can remember how to rotate them). There's a cute mini album (I think it's cute anyway) and some projects I've made at my Stampin' Up club meetings (I have the best Stampin' Up demonstrator that I'll introduce you to on Sunday) and I really want to sew a skirt tomorrow. I think I might head on down to my favourite local quilt shop (a perfect place for all things Amy Butler...heaven!!!!!) and get some fabric to sew this skirt. They ordered the pattern for me a few weeks ago and I've been dying to make it, but none of the fabric I have has been jumping out to me.

Have a great weekend!!

So, it's January and that time of the year for setting goals, making resolutions and picking a word of the year. It was harder this year for me to think of a word, but I think I'm going to go with 'balance'. I've been going to hot yoga and I figure that's a good word for yoga, but also just for life.

I get weekly email updates from Lululemon and when I was reading the email this evening I saw that they're having a life coach come to the store in Victoria next Tuesday to talk about setting goals. They even have a section on their site where you can record and track your goals. I think that's an awesome idea and how cool that it's right there and easy to use.

I hope you're having a great week! And the photos from the last post were taken with Adam's Nikon fisheye lens as well as this photo from Seattle last May. I LOVE this lens!!!!

Surprise, suprprise!!

I decided to update my blog. I've been trying to decide if I want to continue blogging because I'm horrible at it, but I love reading everyone else's blogs and thought that if one person likes to read mine, then it's worth it.

I've been spending the weekend designing a couple of classes for the store. I'm hoping to have them done by tomorrow night and if I do I'll snap a couple of photos and post them.

The snow is pretty much gone now. There's still big piles in parking lots where they cleared the snow and piled it high. I'm so glad that it's gone. I like the snow for a day or two, but that's about it. :)

And I've started going to yoga classes. I LOVE it! I'm doing Bikram yoga (or hot yoga). I'm humming and hawing about doing the 30 day challenge that starts on January 19th. The idea is that you go to 30 classes in 30 days. So if you want a day off you have to go to two classes on one day. It was a challenge drinking enough water at first, but now I think I have it down. And I can definitely tell that my flexibility has improved since I started going. Adam has even been to a couple of classes with me and enjoys it.

Adam and I went to Seattle again in November (the end of November). We went down to go to a Seattle Seahawks game. The game was way more fun than I thought it would be. And this time we decided to go up the Space Needle. I do not like heights and was not looking forward to the elevator ride, but it wasn't bad at all. And the weather was so nice that I started watching the game in my tank top. Once the sun set below the stadium it cooled off fast though, and I was happy to have a warm coat.

Do you sew?

I forgot how much I love sewing. I haven't really sewn much besides a straight line in about ten years, and nothing with a pattern (I've just measured and made up patterns myself...which is easy if you're just sewing curtains or simple aprons), but last week I decided to sit down and sew a couple bags that I had the patterns and fabric for.

They are both sewn with Amy Butler fabrics and even though they are both different I love them both!

This bag is the Birdie Sling. It's so big and comfy to carry. I seriously LOVE it!



This bag was a pattern at my favourite local quilt shop, Satin Moon Quilts. It was so easy to make and only took three hours from the time I started cutting until I had sewn the last stitch. The other one took about 13 hours, but the cutting out was a good chunk of that.



I hope you have a great day!! I joined a Stampin' Up club and we made a super cute mini book at our first get together, so I'll finish it up and share it in a few days.

Back to School

Colin just went off to bed and I realized that I didn't get a photo of him on his first day of high school! He seemed to have a good day and tomorrow he goes to all his classes and finds out what he needs to buy for his classes. He's in art this semester (we thought it would be computers) so I can imagine the fun things we'll have to go buy for that.

I'm having a scrapbook garage sale at my place a week from Saturday (September 13 10-noon for you local girls) and I was going through my kits last night and taking them all apart. I had the paper piled up and then all the embellishments piled up. After I was done I looked at the pile of embellishments and realized that I felt like a kid on Halloween with all my candy dumped out in front of me. There were so many fun chipboard alphabets and packages of buttons and ribbons and other fun stuff.

Anyway, off to finish watching 90210.

And just because I can't do a post without a photo (but I haven't taken many lately), here's Colin with Chloe last winter. She loves cuddling!

Dragon boating

I know it's hard to tell in the photo, but that's me up front. Our drummer dropped out and we were scrambling to find someone ASAP. We needed to have the team roster in by Friday and our team captain managed to get us an extension until today. So I tried it today and had a blast! So it looks like I'm the new drummer for the boat. My throat is a tad sore tonight from shouting so everyone in the boat could hear me, but it was fun. We're racing on August 9th and it's going to be so much fun! Adam is on the team too and it's lots of fun having him there. I's my work team and we needed a few more people, so I asked if he wanted to do it. I'm so glad he did!

Summer

Adam bought me Cirque de Soleil tickets for my birthday in February and this past weekend we finally went! It was such a great day! It was all five of us (Adam, myself and the three kids). The kids didn't fight all day. We were totally happy about that! And Colin didn't ask to bring any video games. He grabbed a notebook and a pen on the way out of the house and he and Quinn spent the day drawing comic books. They each drew a frame or two and then passed it to the other one.

The show we saw was Corteo. It was about a funeral and was awesome. I can't get over how they can move their bodies!

While we were in Vancouver we also went to Science World. That was fun for the kids. Even though they'd all been there before it had been a few years, so it was like the first time for all of them. Even Colin, at 14 had a blast. We pretty much had to drag them all out of there, but not before they all bought Astronaut Ice Cream in the gift shop (yuck!!!).

Colin had the camera for a while at Science World and got this photo of me. My hair dresser moved to Saskatchewan two weeks ago, so I thought I'd get my hair cut off again before she left.



How depressing is this photo? Not the fact that the Olympics are that far away still (or that close), but the fact that I am almost the shortest one now. I think Quinn just has to grow and inch or two and he'll pass me. Colin and Else already have (and Colin keeps calling me shorty now).



Adam took these of Else and I during the intermission at Cirque. The shopping tent had a ton of masks and shirts and fun hats and wings and everything else you could imagine from the show. We managed to not spend a penny there though (except for the licorice that Quinn bought).



When Cirque was over we decided to just head for the ferries and eat dinner there (there's quite the food market there now if you haven't been in a few years). It was kind of a rainy day, but it had cleared up quite a bit by then. So we tossed a ball around and played on the beach for a while. I love this shot I got of Else there!

My poor neglected blog...

I'm going to do a little post a day for the next few days and then I'm going away for the weekend, and then I'm going to catch up with some fun things that we've done over the last month.

I've been finding so many things totally inspiring lately! This site has some fun sewing patterns on it, but I absolutely love the sewing/craft rooms she's posted. Pink Penguin

And we went to Seattle a few weeks ago and here's a peek at one of the photos that Adam took of me. I'm snapping a photo of the bar where Tom Hanks hangs out with his friend in Sleepless in Seatle at Pike Place Market. I loved Seattle SO much!!

Photos for a day

So Shimelle has come up with this great idea. To take photos all day long on the 25th of the month for a year and scrap them. So I'm plugging in my camera battery tonight to make sure it's all charged up and I plan on taking photos all day tomorrow. I'm actually looking forward to when the 25th doesn't fall on a Friday (Fridays are pretty boring for me because I work at two jobs all day long) but I'll make it fun.

- photo taken by Shimelle (this is her Flickr account)



I've started working my way through my list of things to do this spring. I bought Colin a new bike and then Adam and I bought me a new bike (it even has a basket, that Chloe doesn't really like). I took it to work one day this week and it's my plan to start taking it almost every day. It's just been a busy week for me where I had to get home for something. And it's been windy and cold. Where is our spring??

And I figured out why I love that new cleaning stuff so much. It smells like fresh cut grass. I think that's one of my favourite "fresh" smells, so I love using it!

Adam and I went to Sooke last weekend and stayed in a super cute B&B. We stayed in the Garden Spa Room. And then we ate dinner at the Sooke Harbour House, which was totally amazing. The food was like art and tasted amazing! We also biked around and walked out on Whiffen Spit. If you ever get the chance to go there, make sure you do it! We're going to go back for sure!!

Here's a few photos from the weekend (all taken by Adam).

This is the view from our room. The last row of bushes you see has an 80 foot drop on the other side right down to the rocks. And then it's all ocean until you see the mountains. That's Washington.



This is in a huge mirror that was out on the patio in front of the Sooke Harbour House. They have a great "gift shop" (it was really more like an art gallery with all local artists...gorgeous stuff!) that spreads out to the deck (I'm assuming they don't do that in the rainy winter though). If you look closely you can see the whale carving on top of the fence that hides the parking lot. And in the gift shop I bought a super cute candle holder that they had on the tables in the restaurant. It has a little bird perching on it.



When we were walking out on Whiffen Spit we found this great washed up row boat.

Things I want to do this spring

I was thinking today of some things I want to do this spring. Here's a few of them...

- Make aprons.
- Finish Shannon's camera strap (I'm still on the look out).
- Make my first quilt (I bought the fabric today...it's called Celebrate Spring).
- Buy Colin a new bike and go on more bike rides, and maybe put a basket on mine so Chloe can come with us.
- Keep up the spring cleaning. I bought some yummy smelling biodegradable all purpose cleaner at Shoppers that smells good enough that I love cleaning right now. Pear and violet...yummy!
- Take a photo a day (I'm going to try it again).
- Read more. We've been going to the library tons lately and I'm loving all the books. I just walk up and down the fiction section and look for the "fluff" books. If it's pink, purple, yellow, light green or light blue, I'll probably enjoy it as a quick read.

Has anyone read Marley & Me? It's SO good! I'm loving it. And realizing that Chloe is not as bad as I thought she was. She's a smart one though. It's amazing how our pets can manipulate us to get what they want. She knows how to get a treat, every time!

Girls Just Want to Have Fun was delayed until April 29th. Juno came out today though, so I'm sure I can watch that a sufficient amount of times to tide me over.

Hope everyone is enjoying April!!

Five more sleeps

Girls Just Want to Have Fun is coming out on dvd! I'm so excited!! Does anyone remember this movie? It has Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt and Shannon Doherty in it. I remember it being my favourite movie when I was 12. And a week later Juno comes out on dvd. So April is a good month for movies. :)


I was at Old Navy and got the cutest dress. It looks cute over jeans or on it's own.


And then I saw a sweatshirt that is really similar to this that I had to have too. It was only $20 for both though. Not bad, eh? I love getting great deals (and fitting in children's clothes).


I called in sick to work today because I have a yucky cough and am just feeling blah. So after I take Colin to the dentist I plan on coming home and scrapbooking. If I get anything made I'll be sure to share it! Hugs!!

Garage Sale...

at my place on Saturday morning!! If you live in town and want to come by between 8:30 and 10:30, then send me an email, call me or pm me (my user name is Cate) on POTP to get my address. I have a TON of stuff I'm getting rid of (we're talking 9+ boxes). As of right now there is nothing over $7, with most of it between $1 and $3, and I'm not quite done going through my stuff or pricing.

Hope to see you here Saturday morning! And don't forget to watch the video in the post below. She's SO cute!!!!!!

Star Wars according to a 3 year old.

This is seriously my favourite video lately! She is so dang cute!!!!!!

I'm home...

and SO tired!!! I've been sleeping a lot since I got home, trying to make up for what I didn't get when I was gone I guess. I suppose that's what happens when you have six women staying in a hotel room together. It was fun from the time I got dropped off at Tara's last Thursday until I got home this Thursday morning. Here's just kind of a mishmash of fun photos from the trip. Enjoy!! (and apparently iPhoto doesn't like me yet again...argh!!!)

My suitcase with the LAX tag on it. There's a little glare, but I know what it says. :)


Tara, Kim (Moreno) and I in California Adventure. This was the first time I'd met Kim and she had me laughing constantly!


Me and Colin's favourite, Pluto. He is adorable, isn't he? And I noticed that his ear is flipped up like Chloe's get (which drives me nuts and I always have to flip it down). And you can see my newest pink streaks in this photo. I LOVE the colour of them!


Me in my pink jammies getting the press release ready for the press room. We were punching and adding keychains to things late into Saturday night.


Me in my birthday hat from Sandra. Isn't it adorable (maybe not me in it, but the hat)? It totally reminds me of the unbirthday hat from Alice in Wonderland. I'm going to think that every time I see it now.


This is a blurry photo of the eight of us going on on Sunday night (my birthday). It's myself, Natalia, Kim, Holly, Sandra, Tara, Becky and Anna. Sandra and Anna ended up having to leave the Cheesecake Factory because Anna had a migraine, but we had a ton f fun before they left.


The very pretty table in the Pageframes booth. The stuff that the DT made was unbelievable!


And Colin and his friend Nigel picked a number from the posts on my last blog entry, and number 10 wins. That's karenmc. So I'll contact you to see what pattern you want.

Pageframes CHA sneak peek

Pageframes has some cool new products coming out!! Tara is releasing patterned shapes, albums and pages in the same material that you've grown to love, and a super cool thinner material (same thickness as the Hambly Heavy Overlays). I played with them (see the album) and cut it myself with my Tonic trimmer (and it cuts with scissors great also!!). These are going to be available in 12x12 sheets so you can cut it and make your own album or shapes. I cut the 12x12 sheet in half for the 6x12 album.






Tell me what you think and your name will be entered to win a heavy overlay of your choice.

Saltspring

On Saturday Adam and I took the kids and went to Saltspring for the day. I think Saltspring Island is one of my favourite places ever. When you go there you can feel yourself relaxing. Adam's brother, Josh, lives there and had told Adam about a lake there that was frozen. So we decided to head over for the day and check it out. When we got there it was like a winter wonderland. Saltspring itself was green, like Victoria, but once we started driving up the mountain there was snow everywhere.

So we got to the lake and it was still frozen and covered in snow, so the guys used hockey sticks and boards to clean it off. After playing on a smaller section for three hours someone else showed up with shovels and they shoveled and played for another hour. It was just an awesome day!

Chloe trying to stay warm in Adam's bag. My mom knit her this sweater for her birthday this year.


Josh and the kids walking up the mountain after Josh and Adam both got their cars stuck on the way up. Then they rode those crazy carpets all the way back down to the cars when we left.


Colin spent the four hours at the lake playing with Bobby. He absolutely loved him! (and I had my camera on ISO 800 the whole time I was there, so the good ones are shot on automatic...this one obviously wasn't. Live and learn though, right?)


I love Chloe's tongue here!!


Adam and his brother playing hockey together.

More JUNO Love

I could watch this trailer 1000 times and not get bored of it. I think I'm going to go again this weekend. Even if I have to go by myself.

Oh, and seven more sleeps 'til CHA!!