I'm back ...

... into blogland, that is ! Almost 3 months have gone by since my last post. Too much physical pain (neck and right arm) led to the decision to stay off for the computer, for one thing, until I felt better.

That extra time led me to thinking about simplifying further our lives. Hence, we got rid of a HUGE amount of stuff that was in our home during the past 2 months. Furniture, toys, books, clothing, decorations, teaching material, picture frames, art stuff, yarn, etc. I brought loads of teaching material that I will not use anymore to a new teacher at my school - she was ecstatic. And then, my clearing out in my home inspired the same teacher to do the same in her home. :)

Most of my March break (and DH took the week off) was spent clearing our basement (more than half of the stuff is gone, lots of empty shelves and plastic containers - we can hear our echo) and transforming DS's toy room into a family library (very very nice) and putting back into their original boxes most of my son's Playmobil toys in order to sell it. That took a lot of time !

We brought 2 trunkloads of stuff to the consignment store (DS toys, clothes, books) - for which we got a few hundred dollars for it, still more $ to come - we brought boxes of books to the used book store - got very minimal amount of $ for them but we care more about simplifying our home and recycling - and we donated a large part of the rest of our stuff to the St-Vincent-de-Paul organization. We also simplified our garage and the room where we store coats, work bags, etc.

What a relief ! And I must say that our home was far from being cluttered.

The simplifying still goes on, every week more stuff goes out. Our closets are getting leaner as well as shelves, pantries. We see more and more empty shelves everywhere in our home. We gave away most of our holiday decorations (Easter, Halloween, Christmas) and only kept a minimum of Xmas things. We threw out a lot of stuff also.

The good in all of that ?

- We breathe better.

- We have more time for activities, relaxation times, time with friends and family.

- Cleaning duties on Saturday mornings go a lot faster !

- Our son loves the fact that he doesn't have a playroom anymore and much less toys : he just takes out what he needs for his play time in the library (he has his toy-games cupboard in there) and then puts everything back in his toy cupboard afterwards, instead of leaving it ready to play with the next time, like it used to be). He commented a few times that he has more time to play because he has less stuff to deal with. A powerful lesson indeed" !

- I play piano everyday, in our "new" library room (we moved a IKEA shelving unit that we had in the basement (got rid of most of the books from that unit) and another IKEA shelving unit (the same kind) from DS's bedroom to assemble in our library. It's awesome to play piano in a toy-free room ! My family loves the fact that I play everyday, DS now asks me to play longer when I sit at the piano and he can sing most of what I play, since I play daily !

- We have purposefully reduce to a minimum our shopping-spending since the beginning of last December. We were already not going to malls for the last three years (if not more), and now going to the store feels also foreign to us, as if stepping on another planet. We go to the grocery store and very very rarely elsewhere. Our desire to eliminate anything that we don't truly need is very strong. I see all the stuff in the stores and the only thing I can think of is, "Most of this stuff would be cluttering our simplified home and life and would end up pretty quickly in a get-rid-of-it pile." I have no desire to spend nor acquire.

We have re-acquainted ourselves with the difference between "want-desire" and "need". So simple really. We also plan before buying our groceries, buying only what is needed for a week's time. Less food in our cupboards. The store can stock it, not us. :)

It's hard to describe in words the feelings that these changes brought in us. The calm in us, the deeper breathing, more enjoyment of our lives, more content, the feeling of more space in our life. More time to just be. Ahhhh ...

NOTE : The simplifying is not over yet. It will be when everything that we have in our home is actually used in a more or less regular manner and nothing more will be residing in our home. Like I won't get rid of a punch because I haven't used it in 2 weeks, type of thing.

Less is so much better. For us. And that comes from a girl (me) who has accumulated a LOT of art stuff during the past 20 years (pretty much the only category-department where I did spent). I used to think that I would rather have some stuff that lasted to show for my spending. Now I think exactly the opposite ! :) I prefer consumables. They don't add to a person's stash of any kind.

Stay tuned for pics of our newly simplified home. Too bad I didn't think of taking before pics. Also coming, pics of the 2 other Valentine chipboard books and some Project 365 layouts. Many photos. THe photographing has been going strong. Photos taken every day. And now that spring is here, the birds are visiting our birdfeeders in a large number which provides DH and I with lots of photo ops !

Take care everyone ! I would love to hear what you've been up to these past few months !

For the next while ...

I will not be blogging for the next while as I have health issues that need to be addressed asap. I'll be back in due time with LOs of Project365 plus the other 2 Valentine chipboard books.

In the meantime, take care !

Couldn't stand it anymore .... and simplicity.

My blog's banner that is. Couldn't stand the sight of the snow. So I changed it to this LO of mine that I did a while ago.

Aaahh, I'm looking forward to signs of spring outside. Colors, little buds of flowers, the green of grass. In the meantime, I'm still enjoying long walks in the Gatineau Park. I went there today with Rafael while Pierre was sleeping. He slept most of the day as he worked all night last night. He came back home from work at 7:30, dark circles under his eyes. Of course, his sleepless night got his cold in an even worse condition. The man's not talking right now, he's kind of croaking. Losing his voice. He needs some TLC and lots of sleep.

I had a most awesome day today. A great mix of work and play. Spent a lot of time with Rafael. Outdoors and indoors. Prepared my teaching stuff for this week while Rafael was studying for his geometry test on Tuesday. Got more stuff out of our home, which is part of the on-going project of simplifying our lives. For us, living simpler has a lot to do with having less stuff, which means less time dealing with the said stuff and more time to play. The more I live, the less stuff I want to be surrounded with. Same thing goes in my classroom. Simplifying. Simplicity has been a key word in my life for the past 3 years and is still a key word. Yesterday I dropped some stuff at the consignment shop. Picked up the $ I made with the stuff I dropped there last time.

I'm still nursing a cold ... and my bed is calling my name right now ! LOL Take care and live the present moment ! I'll be posting the other 2 Valentine love books sometimes this week. Ciao !

Love Book #1 plus other subjects ...

Here's the Valentine chipboard love book that DS and I created for my awesome husband-DS's father.

Pages 1-2 were created by me, pages 3-4 were created by DS and the last two pages were created by both of us. Needless to say, there's no X-rated stuff in this book ! ;) I scanned the pages with a black piece of cardstock behind them for scanning purposes as the edges of the pages were uneven ; so while viewing the pages, keep in mind that the black CS that you see here doesn't exist IRL. The photo of DH and I was taken by my friend Nathalie V. about 2-3 years ago in Montréal. Remember the occasion, Nathalie ? It was at the Butterfly Exhibition during Easter time. Lovely memories !





It was lots of fun and very satisfying to finally use some of those Valentine embellishments that I have collected over the years. I still have lots more to create more Valentine books in the next few years, hehehe ! As a matter of fact, I've already chosen next year's Valentine books from my stash ! Supplies used here includes MM papers and stickers, SEI papers, 7Gypsies rub-ons, KI Memories heart (very last page), Scenic Route lined PP, Bazzill textured CS, AC pen and various heart punches.

Today President Obama is visiting in Ottawa for the first time since his election. The town was all buzzing about it including students at my workplace. As a result of this important visit, the buses were taking different routes today for protection reasons so all streets leading to downtown and near the Parliament were closed to public. It made for a different bus circuit for me when I left work at 1 p.m. and I enjoyed it ! I happened to have my camera with me since I brought it to school to take pics of my students working on their painting so I got lots of glances thrown towards my Canon 30D. A bus passenger asked me if I had been downtown to photograph Obama and several passengers turned their heads my way to hear my answer ! I didn't think that the passenger behind me was talking to me when he asked that question but when the passenger in front of me turned around to hear my answer, I made the connection with the camera around my neck and answered, "No, but it would have been fun !" and then we chatted. I wish I would have had the opportunity to photograph Obama ! :)

My principal asked me today to design our teachers-aides (the school personnel) room, you know the place where we eat, talk, relax and have meetings in. The room is really ugly and has always been that way - I've been teaching at the same school for the past 22 years. I hope that I remember to take before and after pictures. My first step for the renovations ? To choose the paint colors and then some teachers will be volunteering to paint it one weekend. I have already submitted an idea to decorate the walls of the room and I got a very enthusiastic "YES !" to go ahead with my plan ! My principal loves what I designed for our school's office last year, she regularly tells me how much compliments they (the two principals and the secretaries) get for that art display from the parents, the visitors and the teachers, etc. It's always fun to hear that one's work is appreciated ! Personally, I loooooove changing the students' artwork in that Art Gallery that I designed last year, I get such a kick at designing it every couple of weeks. It is such a fun project !

Well I'm off to finish off a Project365 double pager. These are so much fun to make ! I'm trying to think of some ways for my students to do that kind of project next year, about their school year. I need to iron out the particulars of this project made by students who don't have a camera for the most part, and other important aspects of this very cool project.

Thanks for stopping by !

some news ...

It's already past the mid-month of February ! Wow ! The days and weeks go by so quickly ! We've had more sickness in our home and probably that single fact makes our weeks go by even faster ! DH got the flu really bad, he was in bed almost all of last weekend, feverish, very sore throat. Lots of sleep for him. He should really be staying at home to rest and heal but there's this big project at his workplace with a looming deadline and his presence is much needed for it. So away he goes every day to work, feverish or not. He's in bed early evening though and that helps.

I've come back from work today (elementary school) with another start of a cold. So many of my 110 students have the flu, or sniffle, or cough, or constantly reach for tissues for their running noses, etc that it's no wonder that I've started to cough myself. :(

We spent a lovely Valentine's Day on Sunday ... hum yes on Feb. 15th because DH was too sick on the 14th ! We exchanged our chipboard Valentine's books and everyone was thrilled with the results ! We also exchanged store-bought Valentine's cards ... well you know, it's a tradition between DH and I that started over 24 years ago and we enjoy it tremenduously ! Now DS has joined in. He asked one of us to drive him to Wal-Mart last Saturday so that he could choose a card for each of his parents. Aw, so sweet ! I happened to glance at him while he was in the cards' aisle at WM and saw that he read the text with great attention. He later told me that he makes his choice based on the design on the card cover and the written words inside. He's very involved in the choosing of the cards. So cute !

We had a lovely Valentine's dinner and then once DS was in bed, DH and I had a cozy movie night in our living room !

I will be posting pics of our chipboard Valentine's books along with my Project 365 layouts as soon as I have the time to scan everything. That's a promise.

One last thing before I go for a much-needed nap after the short night I had last night ... I need to change my banner very soon as I'm quite fed up to stare at this snow pic. I'm longing for spring, its perky colors and all that it entails ! What about you ?

Take care ! :)

December Daily in February

Well yes, I'm still working on both December Dailies, both my son and mine. He's responsible for the journaling part of his and I do the picture taking and the assembling on his. I've assembled his book this week, lots of cutting, trimming, punching holes. The book is coming along so nicely. I love it ! It will be a very good representation of his 2008 December. His goes from December 1st to Jan. 4th and I've included several pages of 4 photos on our Christmas celebration day so that he has in essence a book about his Christmas with extended family at the same time as a Daily. So there's about 60 pages altogether.

Here's a pic of it in its new form, all assembled. He hasn't painted the chipboard cover yet. Soon though.



The next step is for Rafael to write the journaling for each page, alternated with one page typed on the computer and the other one handwritten. I love the personal value of handwriting. He will not be writing in his 8 year old handwriting all of his life so I am making sure that he leaves some traces of his handwriting in scrapbooking projects regularly.

A couple of days ago, I covered the Valentine chipboard book that will be filled by my DH and I for my son with some SR pp from last year. The minute he saw it completed, he said "Wow, I love the colors !" So I guess my choice of papers for him are to his liking ! :) Here it is :



I also covered the Valentine chipboard book that my DH and DS will be filling for me. I'll be posting a pic of that one as soon as I've taken one.

Gotta go. I have a ton of correcting to do - my students' writings and a few errands to run. I'm still dealing with my cold but it's getting better. DS has his cold with a really stuffy nose and he is on antibiotics for his ear infection until next weekend. He's missing his school life as he missed 3 days this past week and is starting to feel cabin fever. Time to get him outside for a good walk to clear his head of cobwebs before he gets too negative, hehe ! ;) Life's good ! :) Take care and live the present moment because that is the only one we've got ! I'm reminded of that every day.

Friday already !

Weeks are really going by so fast ! This one went even faster, perhaps because we're all sick in my home and we've all visited the doctor in the last week and a half. Oh well, I'm sure that we'll all be mended in the not too far future.