veronica norris

here i am.

picking...up the mail on my way home from a meeting and noticed that lots of the snow had melted from the sidewalk...

hoping...that spring is just around the corner

eating...too many decadent-over the top, peanut butter, rice krispie brownies

listening...to my inner voice to find balance

catching up...in the office after my wonderful trip with claudia

craving...those raspberry lemon tarts we had in paris

wishing...for a little sunshine

creating...a new vision board for my OLW class

wearing...my favourite new scarf from anthropology 

drinking...lots of ice water

purging...scrapbook supplies...again!!

buying...too many of those gorgeous new scrap supplies!!

watching...the new normal and new girl...my current faves

being...inspired by wilna's artsy scrapping class at 2peas

editing...those gazillion pictures of our trip

deleting...some of those trip pictures

planning...a scrapbook filled with those great london/paris memories using some of those new supplies

feeling...overwhelmed with all my planning, purging and catching up

reminding...myself it's about balance

breathing...deep breaths

deciding...it's time to stop blogging and start doing!!

;)

v

photo walk - london.

i have been back for about a week from the most fantastic trip with my darling daughter claudia and have been slowly tackling the 1800+ photos the two of us took with our cameras and iphones...so i apologize that i have ignored my blog for most of this month...i contemplated blogging from the road but have realized that technology just doesn't love me as i ran into major glitches with my iphone and ipad!

mark & i decided that we would celebrate our children's graduations & entry into adulthood with a trip abroad...so claudia chose london and paris...we made it a girl's only trip and mark kept asking why he wasn't coming along!! although we missed our boys, it was super special to spend time with claudia to wander, shop, linger in cafes, peruse galleries, shop, poke around antique markets, take photos, nibble delicious pastries and shop some more as only girls can do! truly a delightful 2 weeks despite some chilly and rainy days...claudia is a wonderful, easy-going travel partner, and aside from a few "diva" moments on her part and a grumpy morning on my part, all was quite stress free...the best part: she loves to take photos as much as i do...

so i must credit her with quite a few of the following photos captured via her artistic eye and pink camera!!

how can you not love a lobby filled with disco balls??

some of those delicious pastries in our new favourite find L'eto Cafe just a few blocks from our hotel in Soho...wish we had a location right around the corner  from our house!!

a few iconic london sights...

 

a different view of the tower bridge often mistakenly called london bridge...

loved the ads at the more upscale "tim horton's" sandwich/coffee chain of london...

and we obeyed that message and went off to enjoy the most delectable "pret-a-portea" at the Berkeley...a very cool twist on British afternoon tea...the chef used the most recent autumn/winter couture collections to inspire whimsical and delicious pastries...

rainbows of colour everywhere... 

february is the month to celebrate chinese new year's and it's the year of the snake, which is my chinese sign, so i totally loved the window displays at Harrod's...

and we found lots of hearts in the most unexpected place during the month of love...

we had to view the city from the london eye...

 stumbled upon little shopping gems...

and this street!

loved the fantastic pop of colour of this door...

and you can't be in the queen's hometown without spying bits of "gold"...

 

 or taking a side trip to get on the hogwarts express!!

by day...

or night...

London is still one of my top favourite cities in the world...i'll take a photo walk there any time!! it's simply brilliant, as the Brits would say...

cheerio mates!!

v 

photos taken with a sony cyber-shot W570 and nikon j1

OLW blog hop january 2013.

welcome to another year of one little word blog hops on the first of each month!!

first a big shout out to Lee Currie who will be hosting us this year, i am thrilled that she has taken the torch from Margie so we can continue this monthly tradition, because it sure keeps me motivated to complete my assignments on time!!...i am so excited that we have such a long blog roll once again this month and happy to be hopping with lots of my OLW classmates...you should have arrived here from the wonderful mrs. wookie...

i am also glad that Ali Edwards has switched things up this year for the OLW class over at BPC...this is my third year participating in her class...it was great to revisit all the same assignments last year, as in 2011, but by the end of last year i was SOOO ready for a new twist...and Ali has not disappointed, she's started us right out of the shoot with something different...YEAH!

Ali had us create twelve little cards with intentions and actions...i changed things up a bit because i was having a hard time choosing other words to go with balance that felt right for me and what i intended for my year...i pondered this assignment for several weeks and finally found inspiration from another classmate (thanks Ami P) who also chose this word...

i've listed the areas in my life that i would like to balance this year...i decided not to label the cards with the months of the year as Ali suggested, because my OCD mind didn't want to assign each action with a specific month, instead i would like to revisit all of my intentions at the beginning of each month...focusing on just one aspect of my word each month just didn't made sense for me, and Ali always insists that we adapt her prompts to suit our needs...

for my balanced "colour" palette this year, i decided to pick black & white which is usually associated with the yin-yang symbol...and for just a touch of brightness i added some red...i pretty much lifted Ali's design when i created the extra little cards...

i also made a title page which will hang on my scrapbooking wall all year to inspire me and keep my word visible...i'll slip it into the front of album when the class is over...

i used a ledger paper because "balancing budgets" is something i'd like to work on...i wanted to have the image of a "balanced" scale...i picked the apple sticker because the saying "an apple a day, keeps the doctor away" seems like a good motto for a year of a more balanced diet...and the quote was very apropos because i picked this word specifically since i felt i had lost balance in my life...

now, how has balance been working in reality this past month you ask??...uhhh the jury is still out!! we were lucky enough to spend the first week of january in mexico, but i have felt a little behind the eight ball ever since i came home...it also felt "off balance" to be setting all my goals for the year a week late!!! however; eventhough i might not have felt balanced, i have been organizing and completing and crossing off a lot of little niggly tasks that have been hanging around on my to-do lists for awhile...(i love crossing things off my lists!!)...

i really am looking forward to this year of balance and love that Ali's first prompt has clarified in my head and on paper exactly why i picked this word and i know this will be the perfect framework for the year...a fabulous start Ali!!

thanks for popping by...now head on over to Eydie's blog here

v