prairie girl

love, claudia cd on itunes.

it's official!!!

claudia's long awaited CD is finally available on iTunes!!! can i say that i am just a little bit proud??? i am sure there is some way to link you directly, but just head over to iTunes and search claudia norris or love, claudia to listen and/or purchase her music  ...

monday was a very exciting mail day around here as many packages arrived with all kinds of goodies including ...

naturally this made her very happy!

and especially for tonight's launch we created these little bags holding the cds and a few extras ...

and we put together all the colours of the buttons ...

she's rehearsed with her band ... (and as "momager" can i just say how exciting it was to watch the musical creativity in action ... maybe i should have been a groupie in my younger years!!)

and she's ready to sing to the world ... well at least everyone that shows up at Roast Coffee House tonight!!

if you'd like a hard copy of the CD or a bag of the buttons, just leave me a comment and i'll get back to you because we haven't quite got her website claudianorris.net out of construction phase yet!!

hope to see you there ...

and my dear claudia, break a leg tonight sweetie!!!

love,

mom

mothers, spring & vlogging.

you gotta love living in edmonton ... last week we had one of those freakish spring snowstorms with temps of -14 degrees celsius ... and yesterday when i stepped out on the deck in the 25 degree weather i spied this!

spring has FINALLY sprung for real here ... thank goodness ... it has been a long, long winter ... started in october so that makes it about 7 months ... we deserve a little sunshine and some of that fresh spring green colour that i love so much!!

it will be so nice to have some warmer temps for this weekend when we celebrate all things MOM!!

as many of you may know, my daughter claudia is following her passion to sing her songs to the world and she has been putting up YouTube videos since 2007 ... recently she decided she would also like to do something with her other two passions that include painting her nails and makeup ... she has decided to expand her video offerings to the beauty side of things ... to say i am proud of her is an understatement ... we have really encouraged our children to pursue the things that make them happy and she is doing that full throttle ... if any of you follow any of the beauty gurus over on YouTube you know that they do beauty videos but they venture into other territories as well and claudia decided that for mother's day she wanted to suggest some books that her viewers could buy for their moms ... then she invited me to join her in her video!! i was flattered but wasn't sure at first that i wanted to do it, but she insisted ... we had a blast putting it together and she said she had to edit out quite a bit of stuff because, well, we both like to talk, A LOT!!!

so here's my first ever YouTube debut ... please hold the laughter to a low roar!!

 

i have written about some of the books in more detail that i have suggested in the video ... you can find the posts here and here ... and if you want to see more of claudia's videos you can find her channel here

i also wanted to include a little disclaimer on our discussion of "buying memories"... because in claudia's massive editing i think she deleted some of my thoughts on that! as parents mark & i have often chosen to buy memories over things ... sounds horrible i know, but let me explain ... for example we will go on a trip but sometimes the budget doesn't allow for shopping excursions, but we are in a different country or city, we get to sample different food and enjoy a different culture = buying memories and spending time together

we have chosen not to replace our couches but don't think twice about heading out for dinner and a movie with the kids = buying memories and spending time together

as the kids have gotten older we have often given them coupons for something we know they want, new clothes etc and then we go together to purchase said gifts = buying memories and time spent together

and of course memories don't always include going out, or travelling far away, mark & i feel very blessed that our kids actually seem to want to hang out with us, and our friday night dinners at home with our kids and their friends is a highlight of our week ... 

so when claudia and i talk about buying memories, it's really that we spend time together as a family, sometimes that includes outings and often it's just hanging at home, going for a walk, grabbing a starbuck's together or even watching a movie or tv together on that OLD couch ...

i know there will be extra cash as some point when the kids finally leave the nest (do they ever really stop relying on the bank of mom & dad??) to buy those fabulous new couches and redecorate our house, but at this point i'd rather create memories with my kids while they live here ... i have a feeling that they probably won't remember or care that we had old couches or that the walls needed repainting or that the house could use a freshening up ... i think what they will remember is that the house (old couches and all) was filled with love, friends & laughter ... that they were/are loved ... and that we love to spend time with them, doing stuff together ... and if that's what buying memories is, then bring it on!! and at book club last night we had a similar discussion and all of us left at the end of the night agreed that we're willing to forgo couches, diamonds, shoes, clothes in favour of spending money on doing things with and for our kids ... so i don't thing we are alone in this philosophy of buying memories ...

so whether you buy your mom a great book, take her for lunch or just make her a cup of tea ... i believe any present should be attached with a gift-tag of time together ...

stepping off the soap box ... NOW!!

to mom's everywhere - happy mother's day!!! 

v

OLW blog hop may 2013.

it's that time again - the first of the month one little word blog hop!!!

for those of you that aren't familiar with this, each year i pick a word (for 2013 it's BALANCE), i take ali edwards' class over at big picture classes and she gives us monthly prompts and then a group of us blog about the previous month's project and hop around to each other's blogs ... fun, fun, fun ... especially if you're a scrapbooker!!

my april started off a bit rough, lots of tears in some awkward situations, but i survived ... i think the stress of the past few months finally got to me ... and when i get stressed i retreat to my scraproom which usually means organizing my stuff ... it's somewhat mindless and i can loose myself in the organizational process, which i love ... i have really spent most of april organizing, purging and sorting through every little piece in my scraproom ... and i am almost done!! i was taking the organizing FUNdamentals class over at BPC that provided me with lots of great ideas ... i am planning on sharing an in-depth video of my room later this month ... that will be exciting for scrappers and a snooze-fest for those other friends of mine ;)

anyways ... our task, as assigned by ali this month, was to take 9 photos that highlight or resonate with our choosen word ... since i had holed myself into the scraproom i wasn't taking a ton of pics and to be honest the word i have chosen this year is a toughy ... not only from a picture taking perspective but for putting it into practice in my life ... i took the majority of pictures in my project in the past week, as the may 1st "deadline" was looming ...

here are my 9 photos ...

my january intentions for my word included finding balance in the areas of my life that i felt were very out of whack ... as my month progressed and my mood lifted, i started focusing and balancing in these areas:  shopping, cooking and eating more veggies at home vs eating out ... as a family we've been trying to walk after dinner vs settling on the couch for the night (and on a few occasions i was even caught splashing in the huge puddles that lingered most of the month ... how fun is it to let out your inner child?!) ... i managed to get some productive office time vs time wasted websurfing ... even though i spent an inordinate amount of time organizing my scrap supplies it really drove home the point that i don't need any supplies in the immediate future!! ... and to balance out the low of the beginning of the month, we ended on a high, celebrating jack's 17th birthday this past weekend with his friends and some family ...

as the year progresses i am realizing that this word is teaching me patience ... finding balance takes time and it's something that is constantly in flux ... i've also recognized that if i evaluate my life over a longer period of time, there may be more balance than i orginally thought ... 

i recently stumbled across a great quote that i've kept on a post-it attached to my computer screen ...

life is a balance of holding on and letting go

it's simple, and so accurate, on so many levels ...

v

sadly after i'd written my post i went over  to the one little word message board to check out who i was linking you to and realized that i was omitted from the list; so if you're here and you'd like to check out the other gals you can start at lee's blog ... i know it was a busy month for lee, so no worries that i got left off the list ... and thanks for popping by!!

photo walk - paris.

it's high time that i show you part two of my wonderful trip that claudia and i took in february  (you can find part 1 here) ...

after london, we took the Eurostar through the Chunnel (which i was totally scared of doing, due to my claustrophobia ... but you're only underground for about 20 minutes and the train travels really fast and through so many tunnels before then, that you don't even realize you're in the chunnel ... my fears were totally unfounded!) ... and once you hit the france side it's pretty much overground ... if i lived in london i'd take that 2 hour ride frequently!!

stepping off the train platform we'd suddenly left the properness of britain behind and landed smack in the middle of that french "je ne sais quoi" ... it's paris afterall and what can one say about paris that hasn't already been said? ... it has this chic, almost arrogant vibe that you can't quite touch but desperately want to possess ... 

after checking into our hotel near the tuileries garden the sun popped out and we greeted paris in all it's late winter splendor! the ferris wheel only graces the place de la concorde every second year and claudia was thrilled because it wasn't there when she visited the city last year with her school ...

a walk down the champs elysees ...

and i couldn't get over the sheer number of people strolling on this somewhat chilly albeit sunny afternoon ... on the advice of claudia's friend's bf we hit the Laduree location on the boulevard and can i just say it was insta-love with those macarons ... heavenly bites of chewy, marshmallowy softness with a subtle sweetness of raspberry or the slight bitter bite of mocha -  my fave flavours ... totally worth the 45 minute wait to purchase them and the $2/macaron cost!! (it's paris people!!) ...

we had to check out the other location on the rue royale to get another fix to buy some gifts for friends and family back home ...

and as luck would have it, our terminal at the airport had another kiosk, so we were able to buy a few more for the long plane ride home, because it's rude to dig into the gift boxes!!

and on the topic of food and raspberry desserts ... we sampled a few different varities of this pastry!

the best, was the one we found in a little patisserie just down the block from the musee d'orsay ... 

  i'm still craving that one ... it had the perfect bite on the crust, a velvety custard filling and the most luscious, flavourful burst of raspberries dusted with a bit of icing sugar ... oh be still my heart!!

 

we didn't just eat cake!! oh no, we sampled some other very "healthful" parisian staples like eggs benedict at Angelina's ...

cappucino with a mountain of foam at Cafe Trocadero ...

croque monsieur with frites and lemon tarte on the patio at  L'imperial Rivoli  ...      

and we had a great italian meal at il Vicolo ... claudia says it's the best meal she's ever had!! 

we did a ton of walking, because that's what you should do while in paris and it helps balance all the rich food intake ...

and on the rainiest day of our trip we chose to walk around the Marche aux Puces St. Ouen de Clignancourt ... it's the best flea market and i have been wanting to go there for a very long time ... because claudia didn't want to listen to our cabbie, we went the opposite way he suggested ... and although those stalls were filled with zillions of scarves, shoes, leather jackets and cheap souveniers we did manage to buy two coats which we desparately needed to ward off the cold ... so the wrong turn worked out ... we refueled with a nutella-filled crepe and much to claudia's chagrin, i insisted we persevere through the freezing sleet and wind to take one last turn down another alleyway ... and jackpot ... the vendors i had been hoping for ... tiny spaces filled to the brim with antiques, beads, vintage clothing, chandeliers, dishes, keys, books, posters ... a total treasure trove ... all these pics are compliments of claudia's pink nikon J1 because i was holding the umbrella!!

and this pic just captures the day perfectly ... the two of us with our new jackets layered over our trenchcoats, mittens, umbrella, big smiles, even though it's raining, and the rustic backdrop of the lane all encapsulated in an antique mirror ...

since we walked almost everywhere and didn't spend much time on the ...

i began noticing all the fabulous door colours with their ornate detailing  ... claudia, however, did not share my fascination with the doors and after five days of me commenting on them she was so over it!!

the rainbow of colour continued in flower shops ... 

in the candy kiosk at the Roue de Paris ...

and on the eiffel tower ... 

... and why didn't i buy one of those pink ones for my scraproom???

speaking of the eiffel tower, we had to take some of those goofy, touristy shots!!

and the jump photo ...

due to the weather (and really our lack of proper packing!) our plan to walk over the bridge to get a closer view of the iconic structure was thwarted ...

instead we viewed impressionist art at my new favourite museum ... the Musee d'Orsay ... the architeccture is stunning since it was a former train station that was remodeled to house art in the mid - 80's ...

and the clock is simply fab ... like something  from a harry potter movie ...

and the view of the eiffel tower and the city was way better from the top of the roue de paris on a sunnier and slighty warmer day ...

i love how the wheel looked by night as we sped past ...

and we did get to see the city of lights by night from the top of the pompidou centre at Georges restaurant on our final evening in Paris ... stunning views, tasty sipping and scrumptious food ...

combined with being part of a dali installation after dinner ...

it made for a perfect end to a perfect trip ... merci for taking this parisian walk with claudia and i ...

v

love, claudia - cd launch.

claudia's first CD, love, Claudia is finally scheduled to be released on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at Roast Coffehouse, 10359-104 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ... she is so excited to be performing acoustic versions of all the songs from her CD, as well as other new originals and some covers ... Roast is an all-ages coffeehouse so anyone and everyone is welcome!

come buy a CD, grab a coffee and listen to some great music ... 

if you want to hear her music you can find her here on YouTube ... or visit her here on facebook ...

and her songs will be available on iTunes May 16th!!!

v

17.

my sweet little boy...

is growing up...

happy birthday jack!!!

you make me very proud ... (most days!!!) ... i am so glad that you challenge me each and every day ... you make me smile and i love your wicked sense of humour ... but most of all i admire your dogged determination ... it will take you far ... so honoured to be your mom ... have a fabulous day/week of celebrations!!

love you with all my heart,

mom

beauty.

the new dove beauty campaign has generated some varying views on whether this message is positive or not...take a look for yourself...

 

personally, this video touched me, and i think as women we tend to be very hard on ourselves ... regardless of whether this "experiment"/campaign is rigged or not scientifically sound, as some bloggers are suggesting, i think the overall message is that we should love ourselves, see our true, inner and outer beauty and believe in ourselves ... that is a good message in my books ...

if people really want to criticize anything  they should be more vocal towards the fashion and beauty magazines that photoshop those already thin, wrinkle-free models into shapes and smoothness that are unattainable by anyone human ...

from a marketing and advertising standpoint, this campaign is a success in my eyes ... kudos to dove for trying to take a different approach ...

and i think you're beautiful!

v

here i am.

standing ... boxes deep in scrapbook supplies 

purging ... said scrap supplies

reorganizing ... you know it ... scrap supplies!!!

thinking ... i should never buy another single scrapbook supply ever again ... but we know that can never really happen!!

eating ... leftover carrot-coconut-lemongrass soup that i made for a potluck birthday lunch for a dear friend

wearing ... my fluffy white housecoat ... yes i know what time it is ... please don't judge!!

looking ... at snow outside my window and ...

hoping ... that it will all melt really soon and we'll see some green grass by maybe, oh, june???

patting ... myself on the back for eating more veggies these days and even dropping a few pounds!!

walking ... around our neighbourhood more regularily and getting other family members involved

reading ... The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, if you would have told me i wouldn't be able to put down a non-fiction, scientific book about the HeLa cells, i would have called you crazy!! but if you have even an inkling of interest in science and/or medical research, grab this book

sorting ... scrap supplies

dreaming ... of sorting, purging and reorganizing those damn scrap supplies (this project has taken over my life and i'm hoping it's coming to the end, but i keep opening more drawers and voila, more stuff!!) 

enjoying ... our friday night dinners with our kids and their friends

planning ... on making a few subtle changes to my ole blog once the scrapbook org is completed

putting ... the final touches on claudia's first music demo cd 

preparing ... for her cd launch in may

balancing ... myself on this ledge called life!!

smiling ... and 

feeling ... grateful 

v

OLW blog hop april 2013.

welcome!! if you just came from kelly's blog you are in the right place for our one little word blog hop for april!!! and for my regular readers you probably know the drill by now ... i will be talking about my OLW assignment that i did, or in the case of this month, did not complete for the month of march ...

ali's prompt for march was to take ACTION ... we were supposed to identify one task related to our word to complete within the month ...

things started out well ... i had signed up for two online programs ... the first was an e-course taught by the very talented blogger Holly Becker over at decor8 ...

and the second was a 21-day meditation led by Deepak Chopra & Oprah ... 

i thought both classes started on march 11th ... so when i finally logged into the Blog Boss class i was more than a week behind ... and i am currently on day 8 of the 21 day meditation!!!

i have struggled with finding balance in  my life this past month ... as i mentioned a few days ago we had a personal issue that hit us out of the blue at the beginning of the month ... my husband's father passed away rather suddenly ... although he had some health issues over the past few years, it wasn't something we thought was imminent ... despite the incredible sadness we've experienced, there has been incredible joy as well ... we have spent some amazing time with family that we haven't seen in some time ... we had a true celebration of his life ... there was laughter along with tears and heartfelt stories ...

as i stand back and look at my past month i realize that balance wasn't as far away as i thought ... perhaps my word didn't manifest itself as i had planned, but it was there, gently creating an ebb and flow of emotions and moments ... and at times i found myself laughing through tears ... if that isn't true balance, what is??

i do believe that the universe gives us what we need at the right time ... the Deepak meditation challenge was entitled "21 days for  perfect health"and i had no idea that the word balance would be central to so many of Deepak's daily messages ... it's been a true gift to participate in these meditations when time allowed and it seems that the messages i received on the various days were the perfect message at that time ... really quite amazing ... best is i still have 2 weeks of meditations to work through ...

as for Holly's Blog Boss class, i have crammed over the past 3 weeks and the class gave me the opportunity to loose myself in something completely unrelated to the emotional up & downs i have been experiencing ... it was the perfect outlet for escape ... and along with all the new information that i have absorbed has come a new appreciation for professional bloggers and some much needed introspection on my goals and aspirations for my own little blog ... you might notice a few changes that i'll be implementing over the next few weeks and months here on my blog, but overall i think i am going to continue blogging primarily for myself, my family and friends ... i don't think i want to turn my hobby into a job ... at least not yet!! whatever your blogging goals, i have to say that Holly's class is one worth taking ...

although march was a difficult time, faith, family, friends, passions and hobbies have helped achieve some balance during this period ... and i may not have filled out my ACTION sheet for my OLW album but my word has been working diligently behind the scenes to guide me ... that's why i like having a word for the year ...

thanks so much for being here this month and if you are continuing with the OLW blog hop it's time to head over to melanie's blog ... and if you are lost on the hop you can always head back to lee's blog for the full list of participants ...

v 

project pinterest - painted easter eggs.

i pinned these absolutely beautiful impressionist-type painted eggs last year from a creative mint, a fellow canadian blogger and amazing stylist and i really wanted to try my hand at making them ...

so yesterday claudia and i decided to boil up some eggs to create our own version of these painted pretties ... our colour palette was inspired by another pinterest project i tried last easter ... spray painted thrift shop candles ... 

i dug out the various things we needed to complete the project ...

supplies for painted easter eggs:

• hard boiled eggs
• acrylic craft paint in various colours
• paint palette (recycled top of a scrapbook embellishment package)
• various sizes of paint brushes
• cup of water
• paper towels
• my favourite supply in my scraproom: baby wipes

and this is what we ended up with ...

these are my designs ...

claudia's creations ...

even jack picked up a paint brush to create one painted egg ... he said he wasn't feeling the whole impressionist/flower thing and took his egg in a whole different direction!!!

gotta love teenage boys!!!

while "posing" the eggs in various different ways for my photos, claudia suggested perching them on the candlesticks ... i loved how they looked, so i decided to set the easter table like this ...

this pinterest project was totally relaxing and really easy ... and it only took us about 2 hours, including boiling and set-up time ... we also learned a few things along the way ...

tips for painted easter eggs:

• acrylic paint can be removed with baby wipes if you make a mistake or get finger prints on the eggs 
• to get the watercolour effect we watered down our acrylic paint on the palette and then used the colour in two ways: apply the colour wash first and add in the more pigmented paint once the first layer is dry ... or reverse the process and use the heavily pigmented paint first and then fill in afterwards with the colour wash 
• hold the egg close to your work surface ... because, afterall, it's an egg ... and even though it's been hard boiled, they still crack when you drop them!! ... we lost several eggs this way and i'm hoping my broken one doesn't start smelling by tomorrow evening!!
• boil more eggs than you think you want or need (see above point!!) ... and some of your eggs might not turn out quite like you thought!! and if you're like me you'll be sad when you have no more eggs to paint!!
• next time i would limit my colour palette to even fewer colours ... probably a total of three since you can get variations of each colour by using the colour wash technique ... 
• use a fine, small watercolour paint brush for more control ... claudia used a larger brush and got a different result than i did  
• don't be afraid to experiment and have fun!!

have a hippity-hoppity easter!!!

v