Sunday, December 16, 2007

Over all, a Good Weekend (if you don't count the snow)

A couple of Good Things happened this weekend.

Friday night I went to a Pyjama Crop at Scrapbook Centrale. Now, I have to admit, I don't quite get the appeal of hanging around in your pj's to scrap - but I don't like to lounge around in my pj's at home, either - so I'm sure it's just one of my own little quirks. The nice thing about it was that it obviously appeals to lots of other people, because the place was a full house. That means there were lots of fun ladies and lots of laughs. Who wouldn't want to scrap in that atmosphere? I even got 4 1/2 pages done.

Saturday we had banking stuff to take care of, and the cool thing about that, is the new bank we're dealing with is open on Saturdays! We're totally not used to that, and that convenience factor is a huge bonus for us. You have to love it when a business like a bank looks for better ways to really serve it's customers' needs.

Saturday night we went out to dinner, and had a really nice meal. Liam had had a good nap at Starbucks, so he was in a good mood for the meal (always a plus). He didn't eat what I ordered for him, but he ate what I ordered for me, so I'm calling that a win. :)

Sunday - well, let's just say we got a lot of snow. A lot of snow. DH has been shoveling a couple of times already, and I think with all the wind that the driveway will be filled in again in the morning. *sigh*

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Brrrrrr!

It is quite chilly here today. OK - VERY chilly! One Good Thing that happened today was that I got a parking spot really close to the door when I went for my Starbucks run. I'm so glad - the wind chill was something wicked!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Office Christmas Lunch

Last Friday night we had the office party. It wasn't up to it's usual standards, and I think a lot of people were disappointed in how the venue treated us.

But today we had the department Christmas lunch, and that made up for it, in my opinion. The food was excellent, the company was good, and it was generally a very nice time. I really enjoyed it.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Nice shoveling weather

So, it's snowing again. No big surprise there. But this time when I had to go out and shovel off the stairs, it was nice out. I mean really, really nice out. It was dark, with that faint light you get from the street lights reflecting on the snow. And the temperature was so nice for a winter's night (just around the freezing mark). There was no wind. Truly beautiful outside. I probably should have gone for a walk to just enjoy it.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Design Team!

I am so excited to announce that I have be chosen for the new Blue Prints Design Team at A Shade of Blue.

A Shade of Blue is revamping their site and their Design Team, with a re-launch of the site in the new year. Their DT is comprised of 4 teams, and I'm on the Scrapbooking team (the others being Altered Arts, Stamping & Digital Arts). I'm so pleased to have been given the opportunity to work with this very talented group of artists!

A Shade of Blue is a paper crafting group, and all papercrafters & digiscrappers are welcome to come and join us. We have new challenges posted daily, with ideas and tips to try out and expand your paper crafting repertoire. I hope you'll stop by!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Good Starbucks Karma

Boys & Girls - it pays to be nice to your Barista!

One Good Thing that happened today happened when I went in for my coffee at Starbucks. One of my favorite Baristas handed me a Christmas card from the staff with a couple of drink coupons in it!! She said they don't forget their favorite customers at Christmas!

This says a couple of things about me:
- I am always nice to my Barista
- I am there WAY TOO OFTEN!!! LOL!


On a completely different note, December 5th is apparently International Day of the Ninja, and keeping that in mind, here is a link for you:

http://askaninja.com

These videos are funny - you should give them a try...

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Extentions

One Really Good Thing that happened today was that André's contract got extended 'til March. That means he won't have to job-hunt in December, which is a pretty fruitless time of the year to job hunt.

I can't tell you how much better our Christmas will be without that stress!

Oh, I also have a secret that I'm dieing to share, but I have to wait... ;)

More snow & good neighbours

A little late, sorry - this one is for Monday actually.

Remember when I said to get those snow tires on? Holy Cow - did we ever get snow yesterday! By the time it was done, there was 30cm (about 12 inches). And I still don't have my snow tires - the appointment is Thursday. You just know that once the tires are on, all the snow is going to melt. :)

One Good Thing that happened was early in my day yesterday. I got stuck trying to get the car out of the driveway (where the plow had blocked me in, you know the drill). As I was trying to shovel out, a neighbour, whom I've never met, came over to help me shovel. How nice is that?! Thanks Neighbour - I wish you'd stopped long enough to give me your name!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Get your winter tires on!

Remember me mentioning that I bought new rims for my winter tires? Well, they aren't actually on my car yet. I couldn't get an appointment as early as I would have liked (I need to make an evening appointment, and those are a bit scarce these days).

At any rate, we got some more snow last night, when we needed to be out and about running errands. One Good Thing was that we didn't get into any accidents. The road was very slick & greasy with the new wet slushy snow. I almost hit someone at at a stop light. I started breaking waaaaaaay back and the car just wouldn't stop. I'm very grateful that there was no car in the lane next to us, because I had to steer into it to avoid hitting the truck ahead of me.

So, get your winter tires on.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Muppet Matrix

OK, here's something that made me laugh. I needed that today. Check it out!!

Muppet Matrix

Murphy's Law hasn't killed me yet.

Having one of those days where everything seems to go wrong.

But Murphy hasn't killed me yet, so I guess that's a good thing.

Liam let me give him a hug and a kiss (which is rare with him), so that was a really Good Thing.

Ooo and I played with shiney sparkly scrappy stuff tonight. I'll post pictures later - I'm rather pleased with the results.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Hot fries

One Good Thing that happened today was that my french fries at McDo were fresh out of the fryer and piping hot. Yum - just the way I love them.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Layout of the Week!

One of my BOM pages was chosen as Layout of the Week (November 23) at 2 Croppin Cousinz. I was so surprised!



Here's the thread on their Forum.

Survived

One Good Thing today is that I survived the visit to the in-laws.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Winter Rims

One Good Thing that happened today was that Walmart had the size we needed for winter rims for the car. The best part is that they were about 40% cheaper than buying them at the car dealership. Gotta love that!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Department Change, Oil Change & Spare Change

I hate Mondays, just on principle. I woke up grumpy, and expected to stay that way the whole day. But a lot of Good Things happened today.

Just after I got to work today it was announced that an old work colleague was returning to our company. This was a really great bit of news, as he is really on the ball, and fun to work with to boot. He will be the new head of the accounting department, as the old head left in August.

Tonight, after work, I took the car in for an oil change at the dealership. I wasn't able to get an appointment when I needed it, so I had to take my chances with the 'express change', which means "Come in and we'll see if we can squeeze you in before closing time". They told me it would be 2 hours, which I was sort of expecting, so that wasn't so bad (and I'd brought a good book to read). Half an hour later they called me on my cell phone to tell me the car was ready!! What a pleasant surprise - I've never had an oil change that fast, even when I've made an appointment!

Which leads me to another Good Thing. While I was waiting, I figured I'd go to the nearby Tim Horton's and grab a bite to eat. I forgot that they don't have Interac.

Now, I normally pay by Interac for just about everything. When I was younger my wallet was stolen a few times, and usually at a time when losing the $20 in my wallet meant that I'd be eating Mr. Noodle for the rest of the week. And not even the brand name kind - the crappy yellow-label, no-taste, 5-for-$1 kind. This taught me two things - I've since become crazy obsessive about keeping an eye on my wallet, and I don't carry cash on me anymore.

So, all that to say, that One Good Thing was that I actually had enough spare change in my wallet to buy a soup & sandwich combo.

When I got home afterwards, I had another Good Thing happen. Normally when I ask Liam for a hug, the response is "No, pas de hug!" Tonight he came and gave me the hug, and I didn't even have to ask.

Today was a Good Day.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Beau Chapeau Rouge!

I apologize in advance if I spelled that incorrectly - my resident francophone spell checker is outside raking leaves... :)

One Good Thing that happened this weekend is that I found a super-cute new winter hat for Liam. Last year's hat was too small. I was afraid that I wouldn't find a cute baby-type hat (he'll soon be too old for this sort of thing, so I intend to enjoy it while it lasts)

The best part was that he loves it. Every time I tried to take it off, he wanted it back on. At least that will make it easier to get him dressed all winter! Here he is modeling it. I was playing with the settings on my camera, and I have no idea how I created this effect, but it's kinda fun!



Thursday, November 15, 2007

Peppermint Mocha

Starbucks Peppermint Mocha. Need I really say more?

OK, if you insist. One Good Thing that happened recently is the Red Sprinkles are back for the Peppermint Mocha. They only have those during the Christmas season.

I know, they don't affect the taste, but they look so pretty!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Blinkies

I am so not a fan of obnoxious blinkies. Don't even get me started on animated avatars on forums.

But I love my Starbucks blinkie:

One Good Thing that happened today is that one of my favorite scrapbooking sites (Paws On Scrapbooking) put my blinkie in the forum, so I can use it like any of the other emoticons.

I know - my pathetic coffee addiction is out of hand. *grin*

Monday, November 12, 2007

Poutine

One Good Thing that happened today was that I was totally able to control myself and not have a poutine at lunch time. I really wanted it, too. They kept talking about it on the radio - meanies!!

Of course, I totally broke down and went out and got one this evening... ROTFL!!!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Friday Crop Night

One Good Thing that happened this weekend was that I got to go to Friday Crop Night at Scrapbook Centrale. This is only held on the Friday's when there are enough people signed up in advance, so it doesn't happen every week. This was the first one in a few weeks, (due to various circumstances), so I was really looking forward to it.

It was a small, but friendly group (Hi Ladies!) and I really enjoyed my evening. It was a great decompress after the long work week, and I actually got a few pages done.

I felt energized after the crop, and that feeling carried me through all Saturday as well. Thanks Ladies - you don't know just how much positive energy you gave me this weekend!

Friday, November 9, 2007

Free lunch!

OK - yes, I'm really behind. Sorry! I was having some grumpy days, and I didn't want to spread that around...

One Good Thing that happened today is I got a free lunch. There was leftover pizza and salad from one of the managers' meetings. Yummy! Much better than the frozen lunch that was waiting for me...

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The Good sort of mail

One Good Thing that happened today was that we got the sweetest little thank you note in the mail from our friends' kids, in regards to the visit (see Saturday, Oct 20) at out place. How cute is that!?!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Day at home

Liam was sick today, and I think I'm catching his cold. But the One Good Thing about today was that I got to spend the day with him.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Deadlines met

One Good Thing that happened today was that I met several scrapbooking deadlines without scrambling. It's nice to have a little breathing room!

Just in Time (Saturday, Oct 27)

Tonight we went out to dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, Bombay Choupati. Yummy! Liam ate so well - he tried everything mommy was having, and he asked for more. I love that he's finally starting to eat more of the Indian food, because we love that restaurant.

One Good Thing that happened was in regards to a power outage. Now, I would never call a power outage good - I did live through the 1998 Montreal Ice Storm - but the good thing was the timing. We had just left the restaurant. And I mean just. We were lucky to have a chance to finish our meal. I feel bad for the folks who had just sat down and ordered though.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Sushi makes me happy!

I love Sushi. One of my all time favorite foods. Who would have thought I would prefer fish raw, rather than cooked?

I had sushi for lunch today. Not the fancy stuff, the el cheapo food court variety. Still made me happy, though!

One Good Thing was that when I walking into the sushi place, they were just putting out a fresh batch of combos in the cooler. Fresh sushi is always better.

You've Got Mail! (Thursday, Oct. 25)

One Good Thing that happened today was all the cool stuff that came in the mail. Got my ebay auction goodies (for André), got my mail order of scrapping supplies (loving my new Basic Grey!), AND got some scrapbooking goodies that I won in some challenges.

I love that kind of mail!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

First Place in Round 3!

Late Monday they posted the results for Round 3 of the 2 Croppin Cousinz Tricks & Treats Tournament. I got First Place this week! That puts me in position #2 overall, so I've got a chance. The tournament is pretty close - there are a number of scrappers who could take it - it will come down to who places first in Round 4, I think.

The Round 3 challenge was to do a layout with Texture. Now, with my costuming experience, I'm all about the texture, so I jumped right in. Here's my winning entry:


And here's a close-up of some of the details:


Sunday, October 21, 2007

One Good Thing today: My fortune cookie said "A change for the better will happen soon".

OK, sounds good. Bring it on - I could use some 'better'.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Saturday, Oct 20, 2007



Today was a great day. We got to spend the afternoon / evening with friends whom we do not see nearly often enough. André & Josée and their two children came to visit us, and my André lead all the kids on a wild Scooby-doo-esque 'mystery' with monsters & smoke and mayhem, complete with the unmasking of the monster at the end.

They had a ball - my husband is such a big kid sometimes. :)



The WereWolf:


The unmasking:


"And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids"

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Kit Challenge Win

One Good Thing that happened to me today was the announcement, on one of my favorite scrapbooking sites, that I won the Kit Challenge. For this challenge we were all provided the same supplies and had to create a layout. It was really neat to see the wide variety of pages that were all created with the same set of supplies. The participants voted after the challenge, and my layout won!

Here's the page in question, and here's a link to the forum on 'Paws On Scrapbooking', where you can read about the challenge, and see the kit that was supplied.


Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Today there was no mail. That means no bills. :)

There were also no phone calls all evening at home. That means no telemarketers. :D

One Good Thing is that I just resisted the urge to rant about all the telemarketers that call my house. Wow! (It would have been a really long rant, too... with big words. And insults. Maybe even big-worded insults.)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Kindess of Strangers

One Good Thing that happened today occurred during my (far too) regular Starbucks pilgrimage.

First off, not only did I manage to get Liam from the car seat into the stroller without waking him (which is quite the trick, let me tell you...), but he continued to nap through my entire coffee break. Good for me, because I got a little quiet time to just sit and think and enjoy my coffee. Good for Liam, because he really needed the nap (late night, last night).

Here's the cool thing: there were no empty tables, so a lady offered to share hers with me. So nice!

The cooler thing: someone else had noticed me looking for a table, and when he was leaving, he let me know ahead of time, so that I could get the table before someone else.

'Small things', you might say, but small things like this brighten my day and make me smile. So I'll take all the 'small things' sent my way - with gratitude.

Old Friends

Got home way too late last night to post, so here is my One Good Thing for Saturday:

Yesterday we went to a local convention and unexpectedly ran into a dear old friend. We had not seen Gregory in 3 years, and it was soooo nice to see him again and catch up.

BTW - Gregory takes wicked cool pictures - check out his website.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Coffee Break

One Good Thing that happened to me today is that I had DH for company on my coffee break today. He got off work early, so I picked him up on my way to Starbucks, and then he dropped me off at the office (so that he could have the car for the rest of the afternoon).

The only thing nicer than having Starbucks on my coffee break, is sharing it.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Retail Therapy

One Good Thing that happened to me today is that I was able to go shopping at a local scrapbook store where everything was 45% off.

I love it when Retail Therapy is on sale.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Shoes

Today I wore fabulous, pointy, leopard-print shoes.

The One Good Thing about these shoes is that, not only would they make Stacey London proud, but they make me three inches taller. Love that.

Featured Layout and English School Boards...

Well, before I look for something good that happened today, I wanted to share a couple of Good Things that happened on the weekend.

On Friday, one of my scrapbook layouts was selected to be the featured layout of the week, on the storefront webpage of one of my favorite scrapbooking sites.

(Edited Oct. 12/07)

They have already changed to the following week's layout, so I've included it here:



On Sunday, I had an even better thing happen. I finally found out that Liam is eligible for the English school board. Yay! For those of you not from Quebec, this is a big deal. A really big deal. If you are not eligible, you have to go to a French school, no ifs, ands or buts. Legal battles have been fought (and lost) over this issue. Why is it a big deal to me? Well, aside from the obvious fact that my French language skills are less than stellar, the only bilingual public schools are in the English school board, and we want to send Liam to a bilingual school. I’m very happy about this. Very.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

And So It Begins...

I was going call this Blog "Ihateeverybody" or "dailyrant". But there are two problems with that: a) I don't feel like drawing attention from the RCMP just because I'm having a bad day, and b) I already have a problem with negativity - do I really need to compound that?

I'm pessimistic by nature, no idea really why that is, but it's not healthy for me. I need to start looking at things in a more positive manner. Therefore, this is going to be my place to talk about at least One Good Thing that happened today. It could be a small thing (the sun came out), it could be a big thing (I won the lottery - don't laugh, it might happen. OK, it probably won't, but you get the idea).

I can't guarantee that I won't post the occasional epic-length essay on the travesty that is the Quebec driver, and why the highway signs here suck, but I'll try to keep those to a minimum. :)

Oh yeah, I want to hear about your Good Things, too. Leave me comments - let me live vicariously through your happy moments... LOL!