Stream of whaaaat?

Winter is clearly leaving like a lion—and I gotta say, I’m bummed by it. Last week, Mother Nature taunted us with the first harbringers of spring—warm sunshine, chirping birds, melting snow, the sound of the run-off trickling into gutters, brown tufts of grass peeking out from lawns. It was heavenly. Looked like and Wiarton Willie finally had it right. An early spring and not a moment too soon. And, then, last Friday, right after she had us shedding mittens and parkas for jackets and sunglasses, she went ahead and dumped another 10 cm of the white stuff on us, followed by a week of frigid temperatures. Gawd.

Flash forward to yesterday—yup. More snow. Another 10 cm of the crap. Looks like grey, dreary skies all weekend. Utterly depressing. Truly. Mother Nature is one fickle b!tch.

I guess you could say I have cabin fever and wrong you would not be. I’m a proud Canadian, and I hate the thought of a green Christmas, but man, oh man—I was never meant for winter weather. I get to about mid-January and I’m done with it. Suivant, next.

But, we’ll get to spring eventually, I suppose—I’ll give Willie another week or so before I file an official grievance. In the meantime, I’ve got plenty to keep me busy. (When do I not?) Lots of things to cross off the To-Do list at home, of course, but I’ve also joined the Make-a-Wish team in Rockland as a volunteer, so I hope to be involved with Brooke and company in some fun events there. Looking forward to taking some wish-granting training soon, too.

Of course, I want to get started on that wish trip scrapbook, too, especially now that my sister-in-law Brenna—the star of scrapbooking superwebsite, ScrapSmith—found me some adorable mermaid/princess/fairy/Disney papers to work with. Gorgtastic! So, that’s another project that will be ever in the wings.

Must get back to the DISBoards as the folks there have been very patient with me while I have gone on blogging and trip-reporting hiatus for the last couple of months.

And, in spite of all my complaining, spring is coming, so that means time to get party-planning! Not only is there the usual Easter shenanigans to prepare for, but I’ve got a bundle of birthdays I need to celebrate. We have a lot of April birthdays in the family—my granny’s, my mother-in-law, my hubby, my brother (who will be 30 this year!) and, of course, Miss Avie, who will be two in just a few weeks. Eeek! I can’t believe it—seems like it was a couple of months ago that I began this blog to chronicle her coming into the world.

Here she is in a terribly unsteady iPhone users' hand (mine), perusing the Sears catalogue. Caught her ogling Dora tricycles. Little sister has already started catalogue shopping. Highly amusing. But, helpful, too. (One guess as to what my little sweetie will be getting for her birthday?)

She's growing up so fast. (FYI, her feet are growing at an average pace and are, in fact, quite normal-sized. In this pic, she was wearing Brooke's shoes.)

And, you know what she said to me this morning when I opened up her bedroom door to her little chattering voice? Prepare to gush....

“Oh! It’s my mommy. Love you!”

Yup. Sweetest thing ever.

Kid plucked all my heartstrings and the sound resonated all the way to work. In spite of the grey skies and bleak March terrain—which is saying something, I think.

More about her party plans forthcoming—but let’s just say, I’m very partyblog-inspired lately and have been showing my love of these awesome sites through Pinterest. Okay—can I say how much I love that website? I have found about a bazillion awesome, time-wasting websites in the last few weeks—Mod Clothes, We Heart It, Zulily—to add to my collection ol’ Flickr, Etsy, Contestgirl and Facebook standbys. But, honestly, it’s a struggle every time I sit down at the laptop because as the urge to creep along the pin boards is almost more than I can bear.... I adore it. I feel that website was created specifically with me in mind.

Seriously—I’m one of those peeps who has about 300 favourite websites stored on my browser and then saves a gazillion photos from different websites showing cool crafting, arty, entertaining or clothing ideas onto her hard drive. I’m not joking—there might just be more ‘mermaid party decoration’ photos there than there are pics of the girls. Now I can finally clear out all of those images and keep the ideas in one tidy little account somewhere in the cloud, all neatly sorted and organized and shared among like-minded friends.

Pinterest—my hard drive thanks you.

So, what’s all the point of this rambling piece? None whatsoever. Just a little stream of consciousness blurb to let you know I’m back.

Catch ya’ later.

For shame

So, I decided to put this little blog together as a way of chronicling my sojourn into motherhood (for the second time), while sharing my photos with family and friends. So far, I have failed to provide much in the way of photos. I meant to put up pics from Shammy's maternity shoot, some of my own (thanks to my brother, Rich!) and a collection of wonderful pics of B. So far---zilch. My bad.

Meanwhile, my sister-in-law Brenna, puts me to shame. As a team designer for a scrapbooking store in the quaint village of Carleton Place (called Scraptease, check it out if you are passing through! Lots of scrapbooking goodies for both budding and expert scrappers....), Bren has her own rightful blog--Scrapsmith, of which I am a devoted follower.

Scrapbooking is a hobby that she, Jax and I share, but Bren's devotion to it truly amazes me. Not only is she wonderfully talented (she has even had some of her pages published on other scrapbooking sites)--but she is highly prolific in her postings. She creates beautiful pages almost effortlessly--and so quickly, that I barely have time to tune into the blog without noticing another two or three additions to the gallery. (She was posting photos and blurbs within hours of her recent return from Cuba, while I am still downloading photos from January.)

It seems like ages since I last sat down to scrapbook. I love to do it, as I find it is a wonderful way of chronicling important and not-so-important moments in our lives and the lives of our families. It's a way of capturing memories, experiencing traditions and passing on little-known information to future generations. I know it's a cliché, but scrapbooking combines my love of writing and my love of photography--and just seems like a natural extension of those creative outlets.

I hope to have some more time to pick up the hobby again when #2 arrives and is settled into a routine. I always leave Bren's blog inspired and with good intentions, but then B will pee her pants or bring sand into the house and I lose sight of my intentions. Still, I love to tune in every other day to see just what new page Brenna has created.

In fact, after I had settled B on the bed with 54 uninterrupted minutes of Toopy and Binoo and a bowl of cinnamon apple cheerios this morning, I went to check in on my fave blogs. Brenna's latest posting nearly had me in tears.

It was of me. A page created from one of the maternity photos my brother had taken just a few weeks ago. It's gorgeous! Not only is "Patience" so visually appealing, but it reminds me of that virtue I so often forget. I need to be patient for just a few days more. Her page gave me a much-needed boost of energy. Thanks, Bren! oxoxo

If you'd like to check out Brenna's amazing work (and feel free to drop her a line, she loves to get comments!) or to order one of her custom-designed albums or cards, go to Scrapsmith. Well worth the visit!