HP's First Haircut

Taking a break from the Project Life fun to share a simple layout with you. I made this back in early may at the Paperie retreat as well. I really wanted to capture Hudson's first haircut in his scrapbook album and how he was such a littel superstar through the whole thing. I think it helped he was only 8 months old at the time, so perhaps a little too young to be frightened of it all. He sat pleasantly through the whole thing and looked extra cute after it was all done: 

In making this one, I chose a bold patterened paper background and then layered with a bold dot print, punched iwth the notebook edger punch. A strip of washi tape over that and a tabbed journaling car was put on top. I decided to mat the pics in white to help them pop off the page, and used light grey letter stickers by Amy Tangerine for the title.

I embellished them empty space next to the journalling with a cluster of stars - a mix of felt, glitter, and metal - to reflect the journalling about him being a superstar:

I also added a glitter star, a strip of the punched dot paper, and a strip of washi tape in a cluster at the top. This picked up the look of the page and gave me a place to note Hudson's age.

I really like the way this one turned out. Now I should probably do his second haircut, which came before he was a year old. Yep, the kid had two haircuts before he had any teeth and before he turned one. Crazy I know! We're already gearing up for haircut number 3 .. which you can see is long overdue (pun intended!):

Project Life Week 19

While week 18 still looks like a work-in-progress, with some pics printed and placeholding:

I'll move right along a share week 19, which was Mother's Day week and my little nephew's fourth birthday party. Those two events combined meant we spent much of that weekend around the bay. Here's the two-week spread, without the insert shown:

And here it is showing the insert from Mother's Day ... more on that in a bit.

Here's a closer look at the left side of the page showing some nice spring weather, our little funny face, and a lunch date for D and me:

A closer look at the left corner. The picture of HP with the wine bottle is priceless. He hauled it out of the recycling box in the kitchen and came barrelling around the corner with it in hand, smiling and laughing, all proud of himself. Of course we took it and put it away so avoid any attempt to chew on the bottle or break it :) Then there was an impromptu lunch date that week for Des and me. We enjoyed conversation and delicious food, sans babe. Nice for a change.

Now for a closer look at the right side of the spread, which focuses on Logan's birthday party celebrations. There are pics from lunch, from Des playing his new game and then Des and Jason (Logan's dad) playing the game after Logan tired of it ... boys will be boys I guess! And my favourite story/pic from the day, Logan blowing out his candles before the end of the happy birthday song. Upon realizing it, he threw his hands up and declared that we had to do it again. Which we did ... his birthday party afterall!

I also ended up with an insert this week just because there were too many fun photos and happenings to pare it down. I used the insert to cover the Mother's Day events, which was perfect. Here are the front side (left) and back (right) of that insert. I used one of the page protectors just cut in half:

On the front, I made a title card, included a pic of me and my boy and the story of him still calling me "bob" instead of mom, and then a pic of Hudson, me, my mom, and my nan. On the back was a pic of Mom getting her Mother's Day gift from us, some snuggles from HP, and I added in the tag from my running jacket present from HP and D. I also added in the card from Des and Hudson, just punched holes in it and stuck it in:

Thanks for looking ... hopefully weeks 18, 20, & 21 will be ready soon :)

Project Life weeks 16 & 17

While I work on getting the more recent weeks of Project Life (weeks 18, 20 and 21) up to date, I'll continue to get you up to date on past weeks sharing Weeks 16 and 17 with you now. 

Week 16 was a full, busy week. I started back to work. Hudson P started in daycare full-time. We enjoyed dinner with friends and some awesome April weather, meaning playtime in the park. Here's a look at the two-week spread:

In laying out the week, I decided to group pictures. I used the right-side for my return to work and HP's start in daycare, grouping my work pictures, the details on a journaling card, and a card that I received from my VP on my first day together. I then grouped HP's story and a picture sent to me from his day in the park that first week on the bottom corner. Here's a closer look at that:

On the right side of the spread, I grouped pics and a story from our dinner out down the left half, and then pics and a story from our afternoon at the playground down the right half:

Here's a closer look at the night out ... where you can see Hudson's little buddy getting ready to pull on his hair. And instead of Hudson's daddy putting a stop to it, he encouraged it. All in good fun until someone starts to cry right?!

And here's a closer look at the grouping of stuff from my return to work. A quick pic of my desk, my first day back outfit (reminds me of being back at school!), a little note, and the card that was waiting on my desk for me that first morning. I just stuck the card in the slot for now, but I do have plans to go back and properly mount it on a background, and maybe to cut a slit across the top so the card can be flipped open and read without taking it out. We'll see :)

Moving right along to ...

We spent more time around the house this week, just relaxing into our new two-working-parents routine. Here's the two page spread:

I liked how the photos pulled together for a green/blue/yellow colour theme. Worked nicely with the Project Life kit and the extra supplies I had on hand. And yes that's a toilet seat around my child's neck:

Hudson is a bit of a Bam-Bam. And this week we had to replace the toilet seat from the half bath downstairs as he had pushed it so hard he cleared snapped it right off. We also had to install the gate on the stairs as Hudson had also figured out how to slide the uninstalled gate over through the spindles and make his way up all on his own. Fun times!

On the left-side, we see plenty of morning snuggles and other morning routines, from picking through the cupboards, to pulling on PJ pants until being picked up, to running around mid-dress!

Here's a closer look at a 4x6 slot where I used a couple of smaller pictures of family visiting HP on a Sunday afternoon. I wanted to get more pics in this week, so resizing them made that easy-peasy:

I also love the look of the washi tape layer on over empty space on a photo, leaving me room to stamp and play a bit:

And finally, there's this pic from the week, perhaps one of my favourites. Our little post-bath froggy, having a fun time before bed. xoxo HP.

Runday Monday: Rest & Recovery

With my half marathon completed under time, I spent the rest of last Sunday and Monday celebrating my accomplishment. I was relieved to have it done and ready to rest up. On Monday, I happily designated the next few days for R&R – rest and recovery. After a visit to the physiotherapist, those few days turned into a whole R&R week, which was a-ok by me!

In the last six to eight weeks of training, I was feeling my right hip quite a bit. Not so much during the run, but certainly afterwards. Especially when going from sitting to standing and when taking those first few steps. I knew it was running related issue, but put off physio until after the race. It wasn't extremely painful, it wasn’t slowing me down, and I was in no way ready to slow on training that close to race day. I did make an appointment though for the week right after the race.

In the first few days of the week, without any running on my agenda, the ache had subsided, confirming my suspicion of a running injury. At physio, we determined it was a typical running injury related to a tight IT band (the muscle/tendon that runs from your hip to your knee). Fortunately, I caught the issue early enough (though perhaps heading in before the race would have been even better!) that a few stretches and some foam rolling to release tension and loosen everything up should take  care of it in no time. My physiotherapist suggested really taking it easy, focusing on stretching and foam rolling, and very easy runs for the rest of the week, easing back into more regular running next week. No prob said I!

I actually decided to skip the easy runs altogether and spent the week kicked back. There was no lunchtime running, instead lunch dates with friends and taking care of a few outstanding errands. There was no post-work run crammed in before supper, instead I cooked leisurely or enjoyed a BBQ, cleaning up as I went, freeing up post-supper time to play with the boy. 

The extra time even meant a nice glass of wine on a warm sunny evening after the boy went to bed: 

There was no weekend long run either. Instead, I indulged in a celebratory supper with friends (an amazingly delicious dinner with amazingly delicious wine!), time with my family, some extra zzz’s, and plenty of time-wasting on the internet via Pinterest, Facebook, and my google reader. It was awesome all around. Exactly what the doctor physiotherapist ordered.

Just one of five delicious course ... c'mon a salad with fried cheese on top,
seriously?! Is that not the most perfect dish during a week of R&R?!

That said, as much as I enjoyed the week of R&R and can feel the improvements in my hip already, I’m missing that running schedule. Now, I didn’t say I’ve come to like running, but I do feel the lack of activity in my muscles, my bones, and my brain. Starting today that changes again. I’ll begin to ease back in with a few short, slow runs (likely inside thanks to the damp chilly forecast) and see how it goes. I’m hoping to be back to a longer run on the weekend and settling into a new running schedule that works by next week.

As tired as I was from running and training before the race, I guess sometimes a little R&R is all you need to get the mojo back again. 

Good Day for Ridin'

The sun is out today and any Friday the sun's shining is a good day in my books. And if you're a motorcycle enthusiast, like Hudson's Uncle T, it's also a good day for ridin'.

This is a layout I did earlier this month at the Paperie retreat, showing Hudson sitting atop the (parked) motorcycle with his Uncle. We were lucky to spend quite a bit of time with Uncle T while I was off on mat leave and it shows. The smile on little man's face is always quick to appear when Uncle T is around. He's also one of the few people Hudson is happy to go to when he's just waking from a nap and one of the few he'll reach for in a crowd, other than mom and dad. This pic, taken when Hudson was about six months, is a favourite of the two of them.

The paper, with it's motorcycle image printed on the corner, was perfect for the page. I then blitzed it up a bit by layering a star mask on and spritzing with some Mister Huey's ink.

I also can't resist a bit of paper/embellishment layering. Off setting the photo I add a brown "cool" bingo card from the same paper line as the background sheet, which was placed on top of a misted manila tag. On there I added a few star chipboard pieces, some twine, and a phrase sticker.All that was placed on top of more squares and banners of patterned paper and some washi tape. The final bit in this cluster was that leather tag. It was just something kicking around my mixed button stash. I was holding onto it for some unknown reason and good thing! It was the perfect rugged touch for the layers.

After I added a few journaling strips and the date, I still felt like it needed a little something. Poking around my supplies, I found a couple of fun metal buttons that fit perfecting in the motorcycle wheels, playing up that design element. Altogether, I was happy with the end result.

Yes, the sun is shining. It's a good day for ridin' indeed. Happy Friday everyone!