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Design Stuff

I've had quite the busy year and realized the other day that I've really not shared any of my design work on my blog in ages... probably since 2008! This past year has been wonderful as I continue to work for BHG Scrapbooks etc magazine as a Contributing Editor. They are an amazing group of people to work with and I feel really lucky to contribute to such a great magazine. I write the photography column known as "Snapshot Savvy" for each publication and I co-write the "Gadget Girl" column. I participate in coordinating, writing and/or designing some of the articles. It's a great gig.

My other design job that has kept me busy and happy the past year is with a great stamping company called "Hero Arts"... if you haven't already, be sure to check out their blog. They do an amazing job of inspiring through design examples and articles there. They also have a huge array of some of my favourite stamps - both  of the poly clear and wood block variety.

These two things combined with 3 kids that keep me hopping is how I spend my days (and many nights). It's fun! So, I thought I'd share some of my stuff from the past year - just a small sampling really - I won't bore you with it all.

Halloween layout for BHG:

Gadget Girl project for BHG:

 Stamping with Hero Arts:

Boyish Birthday Card for Hero Arts:

Fall layout for Hero Arts:

Thanksgiving layout for Hero Arts:

Christmas Gift tag for Hero Arts:

Layout for Hero Arts:

Layout for BHG:

Layout about our wait for Meg (for BHG):

Layout for BHG:

Layout for Hero Arts:

Layout using Hero Arts stamps:

   
 
Card for Hero Arts:

A christmas layout (Hero Arts):

A layout for Hero Arts:

A birthday layout for Hero Arts:

A card for Hero Arts:

Layout using Autumn Leaves:

 
Layout:

...I think I could keep going forever. It was a busy year of crafting! I'll stop now so I can get to work on some more projects. I'll try and share more often.   
 
 
 
  

 
   

What a great Christmas!

It is hard to believe that just like that... Christmas has come and gone again for another year. I love Christmas, it is my favourite holiday but with 2 birthdays a week before... it certainly creeps up fast and goes by even faster. We had an amazing time this year. The fact that Meg was home and with us for her first Canada Christmas really made it extra special. I remember last year we were still waiting for our referral to come and we were very close to the first on the list. I hoped and prayed we'd have her photo for Christmas... that was all I wanted - but it wasn't time and she had only just been born. This year I took the time to really reflect on how blessed we are. I didn't want a bunch of gifts under the tree, I truly felt like this was my year to just be thankful and enjoy the true gifts I had in my life.

Shaune and myself didn't really exchange gifts. I made him "Lightfoot Family Yearbooks" from Blurb.com - I did 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. I will go back and do every other year we've had children but I ran out of time and the thought of scanning negatives from my pre-digital camera days was a bit daunting. I love his gift though, probably as much as he does. Each year is a small magazine style glossy cover book full of all our favourite photos of the kids from that year.

The kids had a great Christmas. Keaton asked Santa for a Wii this year and I guess he was good enough all year round' that he got one. I have to admit we are having so much fun with it and even Chloe (who is a tad bit video game 'challenged') is loving the games. Chloe asked Santa for Biscuit the dog which is a huge computerized dog that behaves much better than our Henry... but isn't nearly as cute (or loved). She has been fussing over this dog for 3 days now and I think Henry is starting to get jealous... watch out Biscuit, Henry is likely to attack you when we leave the house next.

Christmas Eve we spent with Kerri & Matt and their extended family. The kids love going there on Christmas Eve and sharing in the excitement leading up to Santa's arrival. We had a great visit and they are like family to us. We stayed til' about 9pm and then headed home so that the kids could put out Santa's cookies and milk. They also opened their traditional 'Christmas book' and we read it before they headed to bed like little angels. Santa was coming and they wanted to be sure they were asleep when he got here.

Kerri got this photo of the 5 of us on Christmas Eve night.
 

On Christmas morning I woke them up at around 8:15am... I was wide awake and excited to get things started! Meg loved all her "In the night garden" toys. Keaton came down and saw his stocking with some Wii games sticking out of it and he was confused because he didn't see the Wii console already set up to our TV (thanks Santa for getting that all set up in the night!) - he was so happy to have it all ready to play. Chloe tore through her gifts and was super excited. Shaune made a simple breakfast of bacon sandwiches and then we needed to get ready for Gram's hall party for 1pm lunch.

Some shots from our morning:

 

The kids requested Daddy's homemade ice-caps for a morning treat!

Keaton's new Guitar hero from Kiss - "The Axe"

  
 

I couldn't stop smiling all morning!

 

I love that we rent a hall and still get together as a big family. Everyone that could be there was and it was a great time. The food was terrific and the kids had a blast running around with their cousins and playing. The smile on my Gram's face (who is 96 years old) as she watched all the activity around her... surrounded by all her loved ones, made it extra special to me. I love her so much.

I was especially grateful my dad felt well enough to attend our family party. He had prostate cancer surgery a week before Christmas and is doing good. We are so happy that he seems to be recovering quickly and that it looks as though his cancer did not spread before the surgery could happen. Thank you God.

Keaton and Curtis... buddies and cousins.

 

Jacoby and Caleb - not hard to tell they are brothers!

My mom and Meg

 

Besties: Erin and Chloe
   

From the hall party, we headed into Shaune's parents for another amazing feast. The kids were showered with more gifts and had fun with their cousins, Thomas and Adah (as you can see from the photos below). Lynn's turkey is always amazing and Shaune was thrilled that his mom made his favourite pie: chocolate pecan pie.

Keaton's new harmonica

The girls got away from us long enough to find Nana's makeup!

Aunt Sarah with Meggie

 

Thomas the T-rexer

Boxing Day was spent avoiding shopping malls and vegging at home all day. We had another holiday celebration at supper with my Aunt Betty, Uncle Charlie, Rhonda, Debbie, Aunt Delma and my parents and brother. More gifts, more food (chinese food!) and more fun.

Today we were on the road to and from Lindsay for a hockey game... long drive but worth  it - they won 6-1 and Keaton got a goal - which made his Christmas. The boys all played awesome... what a great group of kids! Tonight: a hot soak in the tub and then Keaton wants to challenge me to a game of Wii guitar hero.

Merry Christmas - it sure was!

Merry Christmas to you from us...

Its that wonderful time of the year again. The gifts are wrapped, the stockings hung, and Christmas Eve is upon us. I love the anticipation that is Christmas Eve night. We are still undecided as to what we will do tonight. We have invitations to a few different events and they are all so tempting... but another side of me wants to have a chill night at home with the 3 kiddies  -  open a couple gifts and anticipate Santa's arrival.

Whatever we decide to do, it will be exciting for the kids. Keaton and Chloe have been counting down and are READY. Meg, she has no idea. LOL!

Christmas day we will spend with my family for lunch and then Shaune's family for supper... it is a day of merriment and feasting til' you ache. This will be Meg's first Christmas with us and I know she'll most love all the tissue paper I wrapped in with her gifts... she'll be very pleased!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends, near and far. May you each enjoy all that this season has to offer - have a magical time and make some great memories!

Meg turns ONE!

We celebrated Meg's 1st birthday last night. I was busy all day because I decided I wanted to make all asian cuisine for her first birthday. It all turned out delicious, even the items I'd never made before. We served: pork/waterchesnut fried wontons, crab & cream cheese fried wontons, fried rice, potstickers, bacon waterchesnuts, and sesame meatballs. For dessert my mother made Meg the most deliciously rich homemade chocolate layer cake - Meg thought it was the best part of the meal although the rice ran a close second in her opinion. We had my mom, my brother Cory, Shaune's brother Aaron and our neice Adah, Nana & Grandpa Lightfoot and my cousin Debbie. My dad is home from the hospital recovering from surgery so he couldn't make it.

The party was great and Meg was thrilled with all the love and attention - she was all smiles and clapping her hands most of the evening. She wore a beautiful black velvet dress with cream trim, a hand-me down from her cousin Adah but it looks brandnew still. I specifically chose a black dress because of the cake she'd be eating... but it was so finger-lickin' good that there was very little mess involved - she made sure it all got in her mouth!

Here are a few photos I managed to take. It was busy and I had to force myself to snap a few. Hoping others got some good ones with their cameras.

Eating up her supper, rushing to get to her cake maybe?

 

Keaton was leading the singing "happy birthday to you"

 

What's all this about?

  

 

This is what you'd call "shovelling it in"

Sugar dazed from Chocolate!

Here are a couple photos from Lynn:

Meg with my cousin Deb

 
 

Thursday, December 17th

We woke up on Meg's birthday at 8am and she was still in her crib playing. Keaton, Chloe and I charged into her room singing "happy birthday to you" and she thought that was quite amusing. The day was a blur after that as I got the kids ready for school, then they missed the bus and I had to drop them off. I also had to run a million errands to get groceries, gifts, etc for Meg's party the next night. So, her birthday was less than ideal that way. She spent a few play hours with her Nana Emerson so I could avoid running her all over town in this horrid bitter cold weather.

I did manage to make my first pot of Pho ever. I picked up the items at a local ethnic food grocery store called "Global Foods" and it was a cinch to make really. Everyone enjoyed it except Chloe - 4 out of 5 is okay by me. After supper we quickly got ready to go to the kids school because Chloe's class was doing a number in the Christmas pageant. Meg spent her birthday evening in the school gymnasium listening to Christmas carols and our school band play songs.... she thought it was a great time and I told her the whole production was put on especially because of her birthday - she believed me! Before the pageant started, Chloe's buddy Adison came walking through the gym to our seat with a big helium balloon for Meg... my dear friend Kerri had remembered and always knows how to bring a smile to my face. Thank you Kerri for all you do for my kids!

 

Kerri snapped the photo. 

Here is a quick shot I took of Chloe dressed for her musical number... she just HAD to have this black velvet dress when she saw it at the store. She was positively giddy when she got to wear it to the pageant.

Happy 9th Keaton!

Another year older and every year it hits me like a ton of bricks! How can time fly by in an instant and take your baby boy to the age of 9 years old?! It happens I guess. Keaton choose to have a bowling party this year and invited 6 friends. We had a great time, they are all terrific boys and fun to be with. They bowled for 1 hr then had pizza and pop and cupcakes. Keaton set up a target game for them to play with his Star Wars nerf gun and then they were off to the arcade with handfuls of quarters to play some games til' their parents picked them up. It was a fun celebration for Keaton on his 9th birthday.

Curtis, Dalton, Dylan, Conor & Evan. Front: Keaton and Brayden 

Our 9 year old!

Brayden

Keaton with his hockey buddies. He is the youngest and as you can see, the smallest. He'll catch up!

 

Guess which shoes are Keatons?

This last photo is of Keaton's birthday dinner at his Nana & Grandpa Lightfoots. They ordered chinese food (his favourite) and Sarah and Aaron (with kids) came too. I wondered what he wished for this year?

 
 

TDH Holiday Party for the little ones!

Here are a few photos of Meg and kids at our agencies Holiday Party in Toronto. I have more but they are with children that I'm not sure if their parents would want their photos shared. The kids had a fun time. The 2 hours flew by and I didn't manage many photos at all. It was great getting together with new and old friends that we've met through TDH and Children's Bridge... families like ours with beautiful blessings from Vietnam.

 
Steph and Alexa ( I know it's Alexa because her name tag says so!)

Ava or Alexa, Meg and Keaton

Keaton, Ava and Alexa, Chloe and Meg (clearly we forgot to take a hairbrush to Toronto with us, my poor neglected wild looking children!)

 
This party was from 2 wks ago. Thought it was about time I put the photos on our blog. I've been busy. We've celebrated Keaton's 9th birthday and Meg's first birthday since then. Photos to come soon. 
 
 
 

Hero Arts Blog HOP fun!

Welcome to an exciting day at Hero Arts with our Hero Arts Blog hop. Several of us are involved in a blog hop and we are previewing some of the new stamps coming out! I got a yummy box of new stamps and couldn't wait to play with them.

Here is my lil' project using all Hero Arts stamps. The new stamp I used is absolutely adorable. I kept it simple for this tag design and stamped the little girl in black ink then colored it in with colored pencils. Next I stamped a background using the Friends cling stamp. I made a title "A Special Friend" by framing the circle design in one of Hero Arts metal framed tags. My daughter loves to dress up her birthday party gifts and cannot wait to attach this one to a gift at her friends upcoming birthday party.

H5330: Girl holding flowers stamp

CG125: Friends Definition Cling stamp

CL309: ClearDesign Whoo Loves You stamp (message: A special friend)

CH146: Assorted Clear Circles

Blue Ink, Black Ink

CH191: Purple Metallic Decor

Other: Striped patterned paper, green patterned paper, scallop border punch, shipping tag.

Thanks for stopping by my blog... now hop on over to Kelly Booth's blog to see what she made using her new stamps!

Have a great day!

Has it really been 1/2 a year?

On Monday December 7th, we celebrated 6 months together as a family with Meg. It seems like just yesterday that we were in the crowded HOT van driving to Vung Tau from Ho Chi Minh City to meet our daughter. In other ways though it seems like Meg has been with us forever - she is such a part of everything now.

To mark the occassion of 1/2 a year together, we drove up to Toronto to meet up with the 3 other families we travelled with from Toronto through Hong Kong to our final destination in HCMC Vietnam. We spent more than 4 wks together and witnessed some of the best moments of each families lives. We passed the time in Vietnam meeting for lunches or hanging out at the pool or shopping at the Tax Center (to name a few). It was an amazing experience that we all shared together and there is a bond there that I hope we can maintain for a lifetime. The children are all girls (5: Quinn Anh, Ava, Alexa, Lia and Meg) from 3 different orphanages in Vung Tau. I hope that through the years they will become good friends and be there for each other.

We stayed with Oli and Steph and their beautiful twin girls, Ava and Alexa.  They were the best hosts and put on an amazing spread of so many different Vietnamese dishes for supper on Friday night. We were able to visit with Renny, George and Lia... as well as the whole Antonides family. Quinn Anh seemed to really love having all the girls together for her to play with and carry around from here to there.

We spent the night at Oli & Steph's and then we were off in the afternoon for a great lil' kids party put on by TDH. There were lots of children in attendance and it was a happy couple hours as the kids played in the ball pits and on all the fun play equipment at "Just Ducky".

I was rather lazy with my camera and didn't pull it out at all until Saturday... here are a few from Oli & Steph and Jennifer. I'll post about Saturdays TDH Vietnam kiddie get together in another post.

Not sure if this is Ava or Alexa :)

 

 Ava or Alexa, Oli & Quinn Anh

The whole gang!

Back row: Sean, George with Lia, Steph and Oli with Ava and Alexa, Shaune

Middle: Renny, Leslie with Meg, Brad & Jen

Front: Nathan, Joel, Chloe and Keaton, Eve, Quinn Anh

Renny, George & Lia

Meg and Moi

Oli & Steph had this ice cream cake made up with our group photo from our last day in Vietnam all together. In the photo you can see it was a pool party. The woman on the far left in green is sweet Loan, who I miss very much.

Just a portion of all the amazing Vietnamese food that Oli & Steph ordered in for the occassion. I bet they are still eating the leftovers a week later! It was delicious!   

Updated with a few more from Steph:

Quinn Anh, Chloe & Eve with their Pho soup

Lia, Ava & Alexa (or is it Alexa & Ava?), Meg and Quinn Anh

Oli playing with the kiddies

Meg and big sister Chloe, pj time.