Christmas pix

I had a fabulous time with my family and friends. Love you guys!!

My grandparents:
My mom:
My dad (reading a book he got for Christmas):
My brother Jeff and I:

My cousins and I (Anne, Fanny, me and Nelly):
My aunt Anne:
My grandcousins Yanis and Ugo meeting Santa for the first time (Ugo wasn't totally secure about that weird guy... LOL):
My best friend's son Tristan and I, reading the book I gave him for Christmas:
and having fun together:
My friend's Nora's daughters Zaya...
and Kimi:
My mom's dog Calypso and my grandparents' dog Bagheera having fun in the snow:
And finally a gorgeous circular rainbow I saw with my mom... just stunning!

Hold me accountable

Here are my goals for the end of my vacation (I go back to work on Januray 5th):

• clean up my home office (I've taken before pix but I'll post those only when I'm done... I'm too ashamed of this room right now!),
• decide of my 2009 goals and make plans to reach them,
• clean the remodeled room (previously a garage, soon-to-be a living room) and help DBF put the floor (and take before / after pix),
• get slowly back to a "normal" sleep routine = get to bed by 10:30 and get up around 6:30

I'll soon be back to let you know how I'm doing!

BTW, this will be my "Tips Tuesdays" post: don't make "resolutions", make goals. And, more important, make plans on how to reach them. SparkPeople has great articles about goal setting. I especially like this one, entitled "Do's and Don'ts of Goal Setting". Have a look!

Merry Christmas!!

I know I'm late, but since I was with my family for the holidays since 8 days WITHOUT INTERNET (what was I thinking????), I still wanted to wish you a merry christmas and happy holidays. Hope you and your family are safe and enjoying the season together. Take care!!

Busy, busy, busy

Oh, did I mention BUSY??? I barely had a free minute over the last week. I'm working like a mad woman to try to finish everything before the holidays. Until tonight I thought I wouldn't be able to go to my grandparents' home for the big family party on the 20th, but after talking to my boss, we may find a way... I really hope things will work out!!

On the positive note, I received my late birthday/early christmas gift: a Nikon D60 with a AF-S 18-55 mm VR lense... I'm so excited!! Lookie, lookie:
BTW, I took those pix with another camera (well, obviously) but then I put the memory card back in my camera. I wondered if having the pic of a camera into the said camera could create some space-time loop and destroy earth... or I'm just working too much and should definitely have some rest! Not sure yet! LOL

Here I am, practicing my photographer's pose (in my bathroom):
Talking about photography, I just discovered this great site by Nikon... So many fab infos there! I just had time to have a quick look but I can't wait to watch them more closely...

One last thing: we got our kitty Flamby neutred on Monday, and when he came back he had some ointement on his balls... or rather where they used to be... and this ointement was silver. Not grey, silver. Just perfect for the holidays, so festive! LOL Poor Flamby, we laughed sooooo hard. Guy even whistled "Jingle bells" every time he crossed the cat. We're mean. Oh, and of course I took a pic... Couldn't resist!!
Have a nice weekend, everyone!! Mine will be... guess what... BUSY!!!

Organizing - Where on earth do I start?

Well, this works for organizing as for any other project that seem too overwhelming... This is a tip from Marcia Francois, hope it will help you get started!

First of all, relax and take a deep breath :-)

1. Start with the area of your home or life that bothers you the most.
If you can't bear to choose clothes every morning because your wardrobe is too cluttered, then that's probably a good place to start.

2. Decide what you want to have happen in that space.
Do you only want clothes in your wardrobe, or do you want shoes and handbags in there too?

3. Declutter.
You can't organise clutter. Get rid of everything that shouldn't be there. Some things need to move to other rooms and some need to move right out of your house!

4. Organise what's left according to your personality.
Not everybody is a minimalist. Some of us need to surround ourselves with our treasures and that's okay. Your system works as long as you can find what you're looking for relatively quickly (within a minute).

5. Maintain.
Last but not least, do a quick, 5-minute maintenance session in each major space every week so that your space remains organised.

Marcia Francois is a time management and organising coach who empowers small business owners and other busy professionals who want to make the most of their time. You'll get simple, practical organising and time management secrets to help you work less and enjoy life more! Visit http://takechargesolutions.org for your free Organising Success Pack.

Talking cat

What a better way to start the weekend than with some fun? Here's a little video that is just simply hilarious...

Gratitude...

I've heard so much about being thankful and the power of gratitude, that I really would like to give it a try... ;-)

Let's see... It might be basic, but I'm really thankful to have a good health. Okay, I'm not as healthy as I could, but I can walk, I don't have any disease or disability, and if I manage to treat my body correctly I'm sure it will pay me back with a long and enjoyable life. Thank you, my body, for having been a reliable partner for the last 29 years. Except on very few occasions, you were there when I needed you, you didn't let me down, I could count on you to help me through tough times.













It feels good indeed! LOL

What are you thankful for? Please share and make me happy for you! Have a nice day!

My grandcousin Masha

Ain't she cute? She's 2 months old, she's my cousin Nicolas and his girlfriend Lara's daughter.

30 seconds rule

Here's a great tip from Sandra Felton aka The Organizer Lady: "If it takes 30 seconds or less to do it, do it now!" This can apply to many different little jobs that, when added one after the other, make a great difference in how the house look: putting a dirty plate in the dishwasher, putting things back to where they belong after using them, picking up an item that fell down (or that my lovely cat pushed down the table when playing with it! LOL), etc.

Here's the explanation of this rule by Sandra Felton herself: "Sometimes when I mention that if something takes 30 seconds or less to do that we should determine not to put it off, people object. "If I start doing everything that takes thirty seconds, I will work myself to a nub." And that is true. So let's limit how we apply it. The thirty second rule needs to be applied in two ways only. The first place we should apply it is with what happens in the future. The second place we should apply the thirty second rule is with those that are high priority needs."

I will focus on that today. Do you have any example of 30 seconds jobs that would help you have a more organized and neat home?

A very inspiring site

As I want to post more on my blog(s) but can't seem to find the time during the week to do so, I've decided to prepare my posts on weekends and let Blogger do the work for me! LOL

On Mondays I plan to post some personal things... either a LO I created, something that makes me happy or inspires me... I've entitled this category of posts My Mondays... yeah, so original, I know!! LOL

Today I'd like to share a fabulous site, very inspiring: Amy Atlas Events. Check out their Eye Candy page, they have absolutely gorgeous stuff! I especially like the Candy Shop Dessert Table (starting pic #22): so colorful and fun, plus I love the retro candies!

Have a nice day, everyone!!

My friends are helping... so cute!!

As some of you may know, we're TTC, and my friends Jean and Iris, who had a cute daughter Amandine 14 months ago, are trying to help: they offered me this box:

It's written "Love seeds" on the box and it has everything in it to grow red flowers... or babies, maybe? LOL I thought that was just too cute!!

I'll definitely keep the box to customize and make some hybrid craft... one day... maybe! LOL

New LO

For this week's scrap challenge @ TBLDS.


Journaling reads: "I know that all this hard work, all those frustrations, all those deprivations, will finally pay off. I’ve already lost those pounds... twice already!! I know it, but yet I have to keep in mind that I can do it, one habit at a time. I now have almost 14kg to lose and when I look at the big picture I feel completely overwhelmed. But when I only think about the first 4 kg, or the coming week, or simply my next workout, things seem suddenly so much more doable and I gain confidence."

Credits:
"Let's get physical" by Mandabean and Heather Roselli @ SSD,
glittered and stitched circles by Amanda Heimann (What Goes Around kit),
fonts are DJB Writes a Lot by Darcy Baldwin and Elizabeth Skinny,
Color Pop and B&W Photo Action by Andrea Burns.

Feeling so overwhelmed!

I'm having a hard time keeping up with things and, even worse, with people! I'm stressing out more and more about the coming holidays, not knowing if I'll be able to be with my family on the day we'll celebrate Christmas. Since we're a HUGE family, we rent a place the weekend before Christmas to celebrate all together. It's a giant mess full of love, of fun and of excitement, very tiring, but I love it! I wouldn't like to miss it, but since it's the busiest time of the year for me at work, I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it or not.

I'd hate not to be there, but on the other hand I have to do what's best for me. If I create more stress by trying to be there at any cost, that's not good either, right? Last year I even got terribly sick while I was there (sinusitis), probably just because my body couldn't handle the travel in addition to the stress it was already under... NOT a good way to enjoy the holidays, believe me!!

Anyway, I will call my mom tomorrow, talk to her about it and try to make a decision by the beginning of december. Wish me luck!!

Nice weekend

I had some friends over for dinner last Saturday, and we had a great evening. We hadn't seen each other for waaaaay too long, so it was really nice to catch up on everyone's life! The not-so-great part of it is about weight loss! I chose a pretty healthy meal ("chinese fondue": everyone cook it's meat in broth) but the appetizers and sides just knocked me down!! I really craved all this fat and salt, but I paid it this morning on the scale. Hopefully drinking a lot of water over the next days and watching my food carefully will help me get back on track. Wish me luck!!

I had a dream...

... and it became true! Both litterally (I dreamt of Barack Obama's victory last night) and in reality. I'm really happy that he won this election, I'm proud of the United States today!

Happy belated birthday to me!!

Yesterday was my birthday! I had a nice day, that ended with a night out with Guy... I had the best freaking chocolate cake EVER!!!! We'll celebrate tonight again with inlaws and some friends! I can't wait, it's gonna be fun!!

I'm also starting a new blog for a 101 in 1001 mission: have a look here to know more about it!

Happy DSD (digital scrapbook day) everyone!

Guess what I watched...

The Aristocats!

I used to have a tape of this movie’s soundtrack and I listened to it every night before going to bed. It was really weird to hear the exact same dialogues and songs 20+ years later! Still totally cute, though!!

Don't you just hate it...

when you're supposed to be on vacation but end up spending 2 hours at work? when your boss keep telling you that nobody's irreplaceable and that your job got done (and well done) before you were here, but he still asks you to come while you're supposed to be home for a well deserved free week? Uuuuuugh!!

On a more positive note, I ordered the food for my birthday party today. It'll be simple and casual, buffet-style, not much to do myself. I'm not the best cook, especially when I have 15 guests... Yep, FIFTEEN!!! LOL

Guy's niece Julie, who turned 18 this summer, will bring her boyfriend over. He wasn't supposed to come, but finally he'll be here. I can't wait to meet him, to be honest I'm really curious. It'll be fun to see how Guy will react too: he's not only Julie's uncle, he's also his godfather and he saw her when she was just born (he keeps reminding her that he saw her "naked, purple and in a glass box"... She loves it, as you can imagine! LOL), so he's very protective with her. He already plans to have a "guys' talk" with the poor boyfriend who doesn't even know what he'll have to face! LOL It's gonna be interesting, for sure!!

Have a nice day everyone!

A fun halloween-ish personality test

I'm all about Halloween these days... and we don't even celebrate it here! LOL

Here's a test for SSD's FOB2Y:

What Your Jack-o-Lantern Says

You tend to be a goofy, optimistic person. You enjoy Halloween more than anyone else you know. This Halloween be as silly as you can - dress up as a giant version of a small object The candy you should give out: laffy taffy

The Jack-o-Lantern Quiz

This test is funny, and this is sooooo me! I don't like to dress up usually, but I'd love to dress up as a giant version of a small object! LOL

New LO

First good news: I'm on vacation! Yayayayay!!! I had some tough days at work last week so it feels just wonderful to be home and enjoy some free time!

Second good news: I scrapped and enjoyed it! I was feeling some pressure recently when I scrapped, don't know why, but not this time: I just enjoyed it!!! How great!! Here's the LO:

For SSD’s Slogan #30 and TDC’s Scraplift challenges.

Credits: scraplift of Karen Perry’s Upside Down LO,
Robin Carlton’s Pink Ladies @ SSD,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
font is Pea Sara.

It's a picture of my friend Lydie with our other friends Jean and Iris' daughter Amandine... How cute is this pic, really?

Have a good evening everyone!!

Sad decision but great news for you

Hey you all digiscrappers out there! LOL Unfortunately I had to make a difficult decision and leave Victoria Greenlees' CT. I'm sad because I love the team and Vici's product, but right now I don't have enough time to promote those products as they deserve. As we're several in that case, Vici is having a CT call... that's the good news! She is such a fabulous designer to work for, the team is really great and the goodies are just amazing! Take your chance and apply! Have a look here for all details. Good luck!!

I'm your hostess...

Well, actually I'll be tomorrow! LOL Get to Vici's blog tomorrow and discover the challenge I prepared! Hope you'll play!!

So mad...

I had a very hard arguement with my boss tonight. It was very violent, and I was completely freaked out afterwards. I could hardly breathe, I almost had a panic attack. He would have punched me that it wouldn't have been more shocking. Such a mean person! I went to my doc who asked if I wanted to be at home for depression, but since I took some free days (before all this happened), I will keep them and see if things get better after some rest. I didn't sleep much last night so that didn't help, but still, he's just a *%§@*#!!! Someone give me a punching ball, please!!

Ugh!!! (weigh in)

Well, after loosing 900g last week (2 lbs), I gained them back this week, plus 2 more lbs. Argh!!! I hate to think that I'm back on track and be hit back by the tough truth a week later!

I had a VERY productive weekend!

Don't you love those weekend that let you with this satisfying feeling of having many things accomplished? That's the kind of weekend I had. Among other random everyday stuff, I managed to do the following things:

• work in our garage-living room to be
• 2 law studying sessions
• hotel reservation for my trip in november
• finish invitations for my birthday and prepare them to print at work
  
• celebrate my nephew's 13th birthday
• empty my e-mails inbox
• unzip and tag 20 files in ACDSee
• cook 3 meals (1 pretty bad, but the other two were really good! LOL)
• bake cupcakes that I wanted to try before my b'day parties
• back up LOs on DVD's (last one is getting burnt right now

Not bad, uh? Pfew, I feel exhausted just by looking at this list! LOL Off to watch CSI and work on some favors for my b'day guests. Have a nice start of your week!

Party time!!

Victoria from Chirpi Designs is celebrating her birthday with a fabulous store wide sale (35% off everything). You can also win the whole store! Hurry to her blog to have a look!!

Just because...

I had a bad day at work, so I needed some fun tonight! I just found this video, which is simply hilarious!! Have a look:

ROFLOL, this sleepy kitten makes me laugh soooooo hard!!

Fast food

SSD's blog challenge last week was about fast food... BAD topic for someone like me who's trying to lose weight: it makes me hungry!!! LOL We don't have much fast foods around here: basically just Mc Donald's and Quick (a french version of Mc Donalds). I love them both, especially because I'm more a salt lover than a sweet tooth, so french fries and hamburgers are just my kind of treat. But my absolutely fave take out restaurant is a traditional one here in my small town, named "Bim Buewele". The couple that have this place are just the sweetest people ever. We feel so at home there (except the food is much better! LOL). Sometimes, when we don't feel like going out, we take food home... Yummy!!! What I love is "Bibeleskaes", some sort of yogurt served with onions, bacon, garlic, herbs and fried potatoes. Another of my favorites is "Grumberekechle" (grated potatoes, fried, like the swiss röstis) with salad. Both of those traditional alsacian meals are not very healthy, so unfortunately I try to limit the times we go to this restaurant, but it's sooooooo good. Have a look here if you wanna get hungry (and if you understand French)! LOL

Hold me accountable

Here is what I want to do today:

• 2 loads of laundry: wash and hang up #1 DONE, #2 in washer
  
• dry laundry: hang down, fold and put away DONE!
  
• b'day card for my cousin (Joyeux anniversaire, Anne!): create, send to her, post on CT forum DONE!
• fall LO combined with SSD challenge: create and post
• SSD blog challenges: typing test + fast food DONE! (see above)
  
• review town magazine I had to take pix instead!
• 1 session of law studying
• cook lunch
• cook dinner DONE!

Well, I think I've got about everything covered... I'll update this post when I get things done!

I've been thinking a lot!

I've been thinking a lot recently, reconsidering my priorities and how I want to accomplish my goals. I'm getting close to a plan, and it feels sooooo good to know where I'm going and (more or less) how I'll get there. I feel peaceful tonight because of that thinking... what a fabulous feeling, what a relief!!

A food experiment gone bad...

I'm testing some recipes for my birthday parties (yes, my house is too small to have only 1 party with everybody!) next month and yesterday evening I created a cupcake version of Two-Face...

When you look here, it is fine:

But then you turn around and you see that... Argh!!


Actually, it tasted good, but it looked terrible! LOL It's a double chocolate cupcake, with white chocolate dough in the bottom and black chocolate on top, and the white chocolate dough wanted some fresh air apparently!! LOL I will have to put less dough in there next time!!!

Martha Stewart's blog

3 days ago I posted about Martha Stewart's site, and I forgot to mention she also has a blog. I love it, lots of great infos there too! For those who don't know how to blog (and for anyone who loves great tips... who doesn't??), she has made a special post here!!

Crafty evening - the pix

Here are my creations from last night.

I'm not very productive (yet): it took me 1 hour (watching Cold Case) to create those 4 tiny pumpkins in polymere clay. One of them already has some metal wire to hand pictures, and I've prepared holes in the other ones as well. I chose one of my brother's scariest faces, to match the Halloween theme! LOL

Crafty evening

Today was a good day. I didn't started too well because I gained weight... again. But instead of making me depressed and hopeless, this weigh in made me feel energized and mad... a good (and much needed) kick in the butt!

I cleaned and re-organized my craft stuff tonight, and then did some polymere clay (fimo) pumpkins tonight. There are cooling right now, so I'll take a pic tomorrow. They turned out really cute, I'm quite proud of myself! Ok, enough teasing, wait for tomorrow and see! LOL 'Night everyone!

New LO

Vici has created a fabulous collab kit with Laura Lively Designs: How does your garden grow? It's just gorgeous, very versatile, with lots of fun and one of a kind elements! I just created this LO with it:


It's a bitter-sweet LO about being far from my family and my friends, especially my BFF Stephanie. I did this after a phonecall when her baby boy Tristan (22 months old) said "Auntie Chloé" on the phone and got me immediately into tears. I was so proud and so sad at the same time.

Credits: How does your garden grow? collab by Victoria's {chirpi} Designs and Laura Lively Designs @ chirpi.co.uk, Color Pop and B&W photo action by Andrea Burns @ TDC, font is DJB Chloé by Darcy Baldwin @ SSD.

I'm still alive

Man, the back to school time has been really crazy this year! I don't have any kid and I'm not at school anymore, but I still feel the combination of excitement and stress of this time of the year. I expecially had (and still have) a hard time with getting back to my routines and managing a big change at work. Add to that some personal issues, and you get a pretty good picture about why I didn't blog since... errrr, way too long! LOL

On my permanent quest for efficiency, I recently discovered two fabulous tools.

The first one is very inspirational (and hence help my scrapper's efficiency! LOL): it's vi.sualize.us. You can bookmark the images you like wherever on the internet and tag them, then they all get on your account there. How many times have I wished "Oh, I love this, wish I could mark this down for further notice!" I usually ended up bookmarking the page and then forgot about what took my attention on the image (if I ever think about looking at my bookmarks!). And with the tagging feature you can organize your inspirations, that's just great! Here's the link to my favorite images. You can even get a feed to people that share your interests' page!

And that leads me to my new favorite tool: feeds. Okay, I know I'm totally out of fashion here since feeds exist since a looooong time, but I just discovered this concept and I finally understood how to use the feeds. I'm using feedreader to keep track of all the blogs, sites, vi.sualize.us accounts that I like. I don't have to browse every single blog as I used to, I automatically get new posts in the feedreader. What a time saver! I can now get every update in about 15 minutes daily, when it used to take me twice as much time!

On another note, I also discovered Martha Stewart's site... Yeah, I know, it was about time! As for the feeds, I'm the trendiest girl ever, ain't I? LOL Anyway, I really like it. Of course, not everything is doable for "normal" people like me (= with only 24 hours a day and no super powers), but I found some great inspirations and tips.

That's it for now. Take care!

FOB2Y - show me happy

Kellie asked us to show a LO that makes us happy. That's tough, 'cause 99% of my LOs make me happy to look at them. I cherish almost all of the photos I scrap, especially because I cherish the memory or thoughts they bring to me. But since I had to pick one, I chose this one:


This pic is just hilarious to me. I absolutely adore the stupid face of my doggy Kira. She's smart, though, but this pic doesn't do justice to her intelligence! LOL. Hope this will make you laugh as much as it does me!

Here's a link to this LO in my SSD's gallery for credits.

FOB2Y... catching up

I'm soooooo behind with blogging! I'm on vacation this week so I enjoy catching up on everything: housework, house remodeling paperwork (much needed!), scrapping, everything! I'll post all my recent LOs (probably) tomorrow, but before that I want to catch up on SSD's From Our Blog To Yours challenges. Sooooo, here we go!

June 26th, Angela asked us to post about our favorite birthday year... Mmmm, I think my fav years were my late teenage ones, between 17 and 20 years old. I had so much fun, and I remember that time of my life as a worries-less moment. I definitely had worries, but they weren't THAT serious, and I was really not as stressed as I am now. Still, I think I love every part of my life so far: childhood, teenage, young adult, young couple life, and now that we are slowly getting ready to build a family. Ok, enough rambling! LOL

July 3rd, Meghan gave us a fun test to do. Here's my result:

What Your These Fireworks Say About You

You are jubilant and easily excited. While you aren't very intense or passionate, your happiness is abundant. You can always find cause to celebrate, laugh, or even just smile to yourself. You find that life is full of things to be happy about!

The Fireworks Test

Yep, I guess that's me... especially the last sentence! ;-)

July 10th, Karrina just came back from vacation and asked us what our favorite vacation spot is, or what our dream vacation spot would be. As much as I love my dear Normandy, where I spent aaaaaaall my summers until I turned 16, I would love to find a place with a bit more sun (when it rains there, you're stuck in the house for days!) and big cities around... Like Paris on the beach, you know? That would be the perfect spot for me because I love to relax and do nothing, but not for a very long time.

On July 17th, Mimi started to think about summer jobs and asked us to post about the ones we had as teenager. I used to work as babysitter when I was 16-17 years old (including one trip to South Italy with a crazy woman and her 2 brats... errr, I mean children). The summer before I turned 18, I started to work as waitress in bars and restaurants. The first 2 places I worked in were great, quite classy, with good bosses, but the last 2 were much less chic. I even worked in a bar right in front of a military base where the young soldiers had a free night every Tuesday. I saw them running from the other block to my bar, ready to drink as much beer as they could during those 2 free hours... I never imagined a human being could absorb that much liquid in such a short time! LOL

Finally, last week Meghan wondered what kind of music we are... Here is my result:

You Are Country Music

You are friendly, down to earth, and fairly conservative. You are true to your friends and your upbringing. Change is hard for you. But beneath your old fashioned attitude, you are expressive and artistic in your own way. Very few people can express pain and pleasure as eloquently as you can.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Those tests are usually pretty accurate, but this one is definitely not! LOL

Pfew, it's been a long time!

I've been soooo busy that I couldn't find any spare time to update this blog. All the time that I spent outside of the office was dedicated to exercising, to DBF (since we celebrated our 7th anniversary on July 8th... YAY!!!) or to scrap. Here are my latest LOs:
For TBLDS, week #2:

For SSD’s Recipe #38, TDC’s Style 101 #20 and TBLDS week 2.

Credits:
Black pp by Leah Riordan (Oooh Lala!),
Eva Kipler’s Chalking the Way @ SSD,
http://www.thedigichick.com/shop/product.php?productid=16775&cat=0&page=1" target="_blank" class="bb-url">folded paper template by Karah Fredricks @ TDC,
Michelle Coleman’s Stamped alpha,
Font is Courtney Dorkling,
Pic free from internet.

Week #3:

For SSD’s Spin-A-Lift, TDC’s Style 101 #21 and TBLDS week 2. I spin-a-lifted Gracielou’s Our Story

Journaling reads: “I think I’m doing ok this round. Not great, not terrible, or maybe both of them depending on the day. I’m still highly motivated and excited by this journey, and that’s a great point! I’m proud of myself too, because I accomplished much more than what I thought I would be able to do. I especially faced the stress of my life without turning (too much) to food for comfort, and that a great improvement! I’ve been losing 300 and 400 grams per week so far. That’s not as much as I would like to lose, but it’s already good considering the circumstances and my weight loss history. I hope that I will be able to keep the momentum and get to a healthy BMI by the end of the round, and then start to try to conceive with a healthy body, a body ready to welcome a baby!”

Credits:
Eva Kipler’s Life is a Journey @ SSD,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC
Fonts are Darcy Baldwin's DJB Chloé @ TDC and Gill sans MT

I also created 2 other LOs:

For SSD’s Shutterbug Shakedown and TDC’s Anything Goes.

Journaling reads: “This song by Carl Douglas almost drove me crazy. I had to take pix at a martial arts show, and I had the song in my head for 2 days afterwards... Argh!!”

Credits:
Eva Kipler’s Wild Blueberry @ SSD,
template by Rachael Giallongo,
stamped alpha by Valerie Fowler,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
fonts are Highland Perk and More Than Enough.

And finally a LO featuring those adorable pix of my friends' little girl Amandine:

For SSD’s SWTSB #36 and Color Confectionary challenges and TDC’s Scraplift challenge. I scraplifted Valerie’s 4th of July Food LO.

Credits:
Tamra Burwick’s Kokomo @ TDC,
Distressed Paint Stroke Brushes by Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
fonts are Wendy Sue and Wasted Collection.

I survived!

The last week was completely insane, I had the town magazine to finish and the mayor (=my boss) had to review it. Problem is: he's extremely busy and we couldn't find the needed couple hours to work. We finally did Saturday at lunch time (yeah, I know, but it takes what it takes) and I was done at 1:30 pm! I only had to check the spelling mistakes this afternoon and the magazine will be at the printer's office tomorrow at midday! YAY!!!

On the weight loss front, things are going better than what I expected. With all this stress I had some emotional eating episodes and I was afraid I would gain. But since I still exercise every morning (getting up at 6 am!) and with a little help from my hormones (for once, they're useful!!), I think I should be ok tomorrow! Keeping my fingers crossed!!

I even had time to scrap for TBLDS, but I'll post tomorrow about it, right now I'm too tired of computers and writing stuff! LOL

New LOs

Here are my latest LOs.

First, this one that I created for SSD’s One Word #10: Story, Digi Dare #93 and TDC’s Anything Goes.

Credits:
Into The Blue papers and elements by Victoria {chirpi] Designs @ chirpi.co.uk, Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC, clip and flower by Sarah Jones (Happy Place), fonts are Doodlebet by Fee Jardine and fontastic, sun doodle by Digital Designs Essentials team, torn paper by Steph Krush @ digital paper tearing.

Then this one for TBLDS round 8, week 1, SSD’s Cookie #37 and TDC’s Style 101 #18.


Journaling reads: “Starting fresh (again) for round 8. This idea of starting again is both depressing and motivating. Depressing because I sometimes think that all I’ve done was worthless. But at the same time, I’m not at the same point than when I started, neither on the scale number, nor in my mind. Starting fresh also means that, no matter the mistakes I made, no matter how “bad” I did, I can do better. I messed up my eating at lunch? Well, dinner is a new meal. I didn’t exercise yesterday? Now is the first moment of the rest of my life, and I can make it whatever I want to. I’m in control, I’m responsible for my life, my behaviour, my actions. That’s a very powerful idea, but a bit scary at the same time: if I’m responsible, then I’m the one to blame. No more excuses! That will be my motto for this round.”

Credits:
Template by Kay Miller, inspired by a LO by Jenny Jorgensen,
black paper: Michelle Coleman’s Color Me Solid,
everything else from Eva Kipler’s Tree Hunter, Dirt Lover @ SSD,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
font is Darcy Baldwin's DJB Chloé @ TDC.

SSD's blog challenge - June 16

Here's the previous FOB2Y topic: what your fridge say about you!

What Your Fridge Says About You

You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times. You are a very thrifty person. You don't like to waste money... or food. You don't tend to be a very adventurous person, but you do surprise everyone now and then. You have a bit of a wild side. You are responsible, together, and mature. You act like an adult, even when you don't feel like it. You are likely to be married - and very busy.

What Do the Contents of Your Refrigerator Say About You?

This is quite true, especially the "not very adventurous but can still surprise everyone now and then" part!

Back on track (again)

Even if I ended TBLDS' round #7 with a 2.6 kg (5.7 lbs) loss, I still slacked most of the round, both on the exercise and eating! So today we started the round 8 with getting back to the original rules, which are much more strict than what I got used to. I'm quite scared, but I'm even more scared by the idea of never losing the last 8 kg (17.6 lbs) I want to get rid of! I started well with a 30 minutes strength video this morning. So far (=breakfast + morning snack + lunch) I had 950 calories! I'm happy!! Now off to cook some healthy dinner and start my TBLDS LO (about re-commitment!)

I'm made of awesome!!!

I still can't believe how lucky I am! Eva Kipler offered me to be a guest CT for this summer! I'm just soooooo excited! Her designs are not only fabulous, but she's also a very sweet girl! I already had the chance to play with her latest kit (@ SSD): Happy Dance. A perfect name to fit how I feel about this guest spot! LOL

Here's the LO I made with it, for SSD’s SWTSB #34 and TDC’s Sketch challenge :

Credits:
Eva Kipler’s Happy Dance @ SSD,
sketch by Kresta,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
font is DJB Writes a Lot by Darcy Baldwin @ TDC.

I also made a LO with Vici's latest freebie, Sunday Morning, for SSD's TOTM: I scraplifted Holly's Little Girl LO:

Credits:
Sunday Morning freebie by Victoria's {chirpi} Designs,
alpha is Taped UP by Victoria's {chirpi} Designs,
Acrylic-O-Holic by Traci Reed @ SSD,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
font is Darcy Baldwin's DJB JGeek @ TDC,
folded corner template by Karah Fredricks @ TDC.

This mini kit is sooooo cute, and it's free!

Last but not least, a LO about my DBF, for SSD’s Pop Rocks and TDC’s Color challenge:

Credits:
SSD's "Hey Girlfriend" collab,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
font is Darcy Baldwin's DJB Chloé @ TDC.

That's it for today! Thanks!

Collab kit for Laurie is in the shop!!

Check it out here. You can NOT be disappointed, this is the most beautiful collab I've ever seen in the digi world!

Charity kit

As some of you might know, a dear friend of mine, Laurie Garza, lost her husband a few weeks ago. She's a member of my TBLDS group. Michele Mc Graw and Shelly Greninger, the two leaders of this group, decided to put a charity kit together to help Laurie and her 3 kids in this difficult time. Many designers responded to Michele's request, and they have built a fabulous kit altogether. It's gorgeous, it's huge, but most important it's for a good cause. It's called "Celebration of Life", and it's a fabulous tribute to Laurie's husband, Val, who enjoyed life, and to his family's attitude towards this loss. Laurie is really amazing, a true example for me! Anyway, here's a LO I made with it.

(I also used Michelle Coleman's stamped alpha and Andrea Burns' color pop photo action @ TDC)

The kit It will be selling at Shabby Pickle for $12. It includes...

• 94 papers
• 157 elements
• 4 alphas
• 8 templates
• 6 Quick Pages
• 2 mini albums (a heart one and bracket)

Hey, I told you it's huge!! And, seriously, it's soooooo worth the money, the quality is just fabulous! I'll let you know as soon as it's in the shop!!

The funniest blog ever!!

Thanks to a post at SSD, I discovered today the funniest blog ever. She's a mom of 6 (six!!) kids, and she blogs about her life with so much humour that she almost makes me wish I had 6 kids... Well, only if the writing's talents come with the kids! LOL Take a good laugh here. Make sure that nobody's around, or they'll think you're crazy laughing out loud at your computer! ;-P

SSD's blog challenge

Meghan asked us to post about our favorites summer activities... Mmmm, that's good to dream about summer when it's raining outside! LOL My fav summer activity is to go visit my granparents in Normandy. To be 100% honest, my grandma is not always the nicest host, and it doesn't get better with age. She can be very rude sometimes, but I still love her dearly. My grandpa is the sweetest old man ever. I used to spend my summer vacations there as a child, and I still love to go for a visit. I feel like a kid every time I do. We're planning a big house remodeling this summer, but I already told DBF that I'll probably go there no matter what. I want to enjoy seeing my grandparents while they are still here.

Vici's new kit and a LO

Seriously, I'm a lucky girl: I'm in Victoria Greenlees' CT! The more I see of her designs, the more I'm amazed by her talent and creativity. My new favorite is her latest kit Secret Garden.



The whole kit is gorgeous, but the best part is the papers' textures: sooooooo realistic! Here's the link to the boutique and here's a LO I made using it:


It's my little brother (5 years younger than me!), sitting on my head after having won a home wrestling competition… I made this LO for SSD’s Cookie Decorating challenge.

Credits: template by Aggie Aviso, inspired by a LO from Stephanie Czosnek,
kit is Secret Garden by Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk,
grey ricrac from Black and White by Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk,
blue ribbon from Zoe Pearn’s My Sunshine @ SSD,
white ribbon from Plum Tuckered by Jan Crowley,
title alpha is Val Fowler’s Foam Stamp alpha.

I'm so excited!

Today is a great day! First, because I decluttered about 2 bags of clothes (a big deal for me, aka the greatest packrat on earth), but the real good news is: as I was decluttering, I decided to try some of my old clothes on. They didn't fit for a long time... Well, today I could wear them ALL!!! Of course, some of them are still tight and not very flattering, I can barely breathe in my jeans, but at least I can button up!!! I'm so excited! I was getting discouraged with weight loss recently, frustrated and tired of doing efforts for nothing, so it's so great to see that it pays off!

Weight loss news

I'm really excited about the latest weigh in. I've been struggling to get some workouts in recently, but last week I decided to exercise every single morning, no matter what, for at least 15 minutes. I did it, and it paid: I was down 1.8 lbs this week! YAY!! I know that part of this loss is hormones-related and might be back next week, but it still feels good to see the number go down again.

Here's my LO for the week. I also made it for SSD’s Sugar Free #44 and Color Challenge and TDC’s Color Challenge:

Credits:
black pp: Black and White by Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk,
green pp: Swishy Swashy by Cori Gammon,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
notebook sheet: Sassy by Ksharonk,
font is Darcy Baldwin’s DJB Teacher @ TDC,
title alpha by Michelle Coleman,
buttons: Tiny Buttons by Valerie Fowler,
staple: My Baby Boy by Fee Jardine,
painted border for the pic: You and Me by Fee Jardine.

Journaling reads: ”It might sound stupid, but I sometimes have the feeling that there’s a beast inside of me, a terribly hungry beast that always want to eat and always crave for more and more food. No matter how much I know that junk food is just plain bad for me, the beast keep moving my arm until the pantry and make me open the cookies pack... AND I DON’T EVEN LIKE COOKIES!! Food has definitely been my main issue for this round, and for all my life actually. I’m still amazed by the independent life my mouth have from my brain. It’s surprising what I can eat without even noticing (or wanting to notice?... Mmmm, interesting question). But I’m now getting tired of having this hungry beast inside of me. I want to be the only one in my body, I want to make my decisions for food and not let some strange yet strong impulses guide me. I’m smart, I’m indepedent, I’m in charge, and I refuse to be submitted to anything or anybody. This is the reason why I quit smoking 8 years ago: I couldn’t stand the fact that I was dependent to something. I hate the idea that I can’t decide, and this is why food has become an enemy. I know this vision of things isn’t good, and that considering food as an enemy is the first step to eating disorder, but right now this is how I feel. Planning my menus is a chore, meals represent a cause of stress, either because I’m ending up frustrated, or because I feel guilty for indulging some “bad food”. There are enough tough things in life for not hurting myself with something that should be a pleasure. Enough is enough.”

I was quite surprised with the journaling after writing it: I didn't expected I would go that far!

A LO that made me think BIG TIME!

My latest LO for TBLDS... This challenge (Our struggles for the round) took me much farther than I expected!

For TBLDS weekly challenge, SSD’s Sugar Free #44 and Color Challenge and TDC’s Color Challenge.

Credits:
black pp: Black and White by Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk,
green pp: Swishy Swashy by Cori Gammon,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
notebook sheet: Sassy by Ksharonk,
font is Darcy Baldwin’s DJB Teacher @ TDC,
title alpha by Michelle Coleman,
buttons: Tiny Buttons by Valerie Fowler,
staple: My Baby Boy by Fee Jardine,
painted border for the pic: You and Me by Fee Jardine.

SSD's blog challenge

That was a fun one: a "nerdiness" test...
Here's my result:

I'm very computer-oriented but not into sciences AT ALL, hence the not-as-high-as-I-would-have-expected score! LOL

SSD's blog challenges

Playing catch up...

Last week Sarah challenged us to find a kit in the sweet shoppe that has some of the US colors in it... or some of the french colors, since they are the same! LOL I chose Ain't No Sunshine by Traci Reed. Definitely one of my favs kits, very fun, very bright, soft textures, and it has some blue and some red in it!! It's been on my wishlist for a long time, I'll have to buy it with my sweet rewards!!

Yesterday was Angela's turn. Her challenge was really easy: blog about my dream vacation spot... I'd say US east coast. I really really really want to see NY once (and, no, I'm not talking about it because I saw Sex And The City 2 days ago!) and I'd love to visit other cities around there as well: Boston, Washington DC. I've already been to LA, to Washington state, to Arizona and Texas, so I'd love to discover another part of the US.

New LOs, movie... well, I'm updating! LOL

My poor blog is barely born and I already forget it! I'm definitely the worst blogger ever!! LOL I've been pretty busy at work, exercising, housekeeping, all that stuff. Still found some time to scrap, though:


I did this for SSD’s Sweet Inspiration and TDC’s Sketch Challenge, using a sketch by Kresta,
Sun-drenched papers and elements by Victoria’s {Chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk, Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC, swirls by Jessica Sprague (Companion Digital Kit), fonts are Post Human and Darcy Baldwin's DJB Chloé @ TDC.

For SSD's Inspiration 43, TDC's Scraplift challenge and Digi Dare 88.

Credits: scraplift of "Being Mom" by RatherBscrappin,
grey paper = Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk (Natural Cardstock),
red paper = Amanda Heimann (Red, White and Denim),
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
glitter = Sarah Jones (Unpredictable Designer Sample),
arrow = Jacque Larsen (This Way To The Top),
frame = Miss Mint @ Peppermint Creative (Party Pants),
mat shape = Julie Johnson (Blueprint 1),
white paper for the bracket = Miss Mint @ Peppermint Creative (After Midnight),
“28” alpha = Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk (Taped Up),
“things” alpha = Andrea Burns @ TDC (Sticker alpha),
“that” alpha = Debby Fisher (Clear Copper alpha),
“I know” alpha = Amanda Heimann @ TDC (Taggiebet),
“@28” alpha = Leah Riordan,
font = Darcy Baldwin's DJB Chloé @ TDC.

Pfew, that's a lot of credits!! LOL

And last but not least:

For TBLDS and SSD's Treat Of The Month challenges.

Credits : Scraplift of Karen’s Belly Laugh LO,
Japanese Garden by Victoria’s {chirpi} Designs @ chirpi.co.uk,
Andrea Burns' Color Pop & Black and White Photo Action @ TDC,
font is Darcy Baldwin's DJB Chloé @ TDC.

I also found time to go to see "Sex and The City" with 3 girlfriends. That was just GREAT! I love every minute of the movie, I'm a huge fan of the show and that was like watching 5 episodes in a row... soooooo good! LOL