Remember to Breathe

As promised ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:22:00 +0000

lights at Whistler.

The day we went to Blackcombe

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:03:00 +0000

You would think by the title that going to Blackcombe is a big trek ... but no it's just a short gondola ride from either Whistler village or the round house. The Little girl had been across one day during ski camp but it was a first for the Big Girl and I. We chose to go from the village on Monday morning and as it turned out, this was probably a good choice ... of course we didn't realise what a good choice until much later in the day when we ventured higher up the mountain. Anyway, back to the story ... on Monday morning we caught the Blackcombe Excalibur gondola. This is after the first stop at Blackcombe village looking back down.

Us.

Once at the top of the gondola we caught the Excelerator Express. From there there was a good selection of blue runs to try, all quite bumpy with the fresh cover of snow. We skied all the way down to the base before catching the Wizard express for a couple more runs.

There really was a nice thick cover of new snow which caught all three of us out at different times. Luckily falling in this soft stuff is like rolling in foam. If you look closely you'll see the Big Girl camouflaged against the trees with her skis buried in the snow. You can see this was before the Little Girl detoured off into deeper snow at the edge of a run and went head first in.

We had planned to meet Hubby over at Whistler village so we decided to catch the Solar Express up to Rendezvous to catch the Peak to Peak. It was really windy and awful on the chair. The gondola while at least not being exposed to the wind was still not warm. Once back on Whistler at the round house we still needed to get back to the village and the fastest way down is to ski so we set off. We were almost at Olympic Station when I pulled up next to the Little girl and she burst into tears because her hands were so cold they hurt ... my hands weren't feeling too good either. We just had to keep going because standing there wasn't helping and I promised her we would download at Olympic Station. The Big Girl was waiting there for us with red-rimmed eyes because she felt sick again. I picked up the Little Girl's skis and lugged hers and mine into the gondala and started to try to warm my hands up too. As they warmed up I wasn't sure, with the combination of painful hands, a cold and overheating in the enclosed place whether I was going to faint or vomit. Luckily I did neither and the blast of cold air at the bottom revitalised us all.

We all went up to have a rest in the room before Hubby came home. He'd seen the snow and after doing one very slow run on his snowboard he swapped it for some skis and took a ski lesson. After relaxing and filling up on some yummy food we just never did get around to going back out again.

Lots of snow ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:13:00 +0000

has fallen in the last few days. The morning skiing has been punctuated by the thump of avalanche blasting. Lifts up the top of the mountains are closed until the patrols finish work up there. I have caught a cold and took my day off on Sunday ... we have ski 10 out of 12 days tickets and we are only here 11 days. The Little Girl decided to join me. Hubby, The Boy and the Big Girl continued their snow boarding lessons. After lazing around the room for the morning Little Girl and I ventured out to find something to eat. We ended up at favourite of ours for light meals.

After eating we went for a walk down to the Olympic rings. In the background is where you can go skating. They were only hiring skates for another 15mins. We've promised Little Girl we'll come back and she can go ice skating then.

and if you ignore the grumpy face in the foreground you can see how pretty it is here at night. We tend to go out for dinner about 5:30pm when it is just getting dark.

Project Life: Week 2 including January's 12 on the 12th

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:54:00 +0000

This week includes my 12 on the 12th page.

Credits:
Becky Higgins Project Life Template A (Jessica Sprague)
White BG Paper: One Little Bird Jubilee (Oscraps)
Journal Cards (red recoloured): Paislee Press and 3PaperPeonies Collaboration Then and Now (Oscraps)
Craft Paper, Red Striped Paper: Paislee Press Photobooth (Oscraps)
Date Stamp: Biograffiti Month Stamps Clean (Oscraps)
Numbers: Emily Powers Nature Boy (retired)
Green Patterned Paper: Wild Dandelions 525600 Minutes (Free kit from SYTYCD)
Grey BG Paper: Emily Powers and Paislee Press collab Everyday Ordinary (Oscraps)
Journaling Block: Ali Edwards Title and Journal Blocks #1 (Designer Digitals)
Fonts - CK Becky

More Whistler ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 05:34:00 +0000

well I did go on the Peak to Peak on Wednesday but it was -22C with a windchill of -35C and when we saw conditions on Blackcombe we stayed on the car and came straight back to Whistler.

It may have been just as cold but at least we could get some skiing in without riding any lifts. The ski school was not allowing any kids to ski without hand warmers and they were not to use lifts. I thought that was pretty good policy. We managed three runs from round house down to the village with a break to warm up between each one which filled in the bulk of the day. This was the coldest day at Whistler this season. The Big Girl still wasn't feeling well so Hubby stayed home with her.

Thursday was forecast to be -17C, which it was in the village but it was -8C up on the peak. Huibby walked out, saw the beautiful day and got me a ticket for a ski lesson. He rang me at 9:25am to tell me that the lesson started at 9:45am. I quickly got my ski gear on and was heading downstairs when he rang to let me know that the lesson started from up at the roundhouse ... a 17min gondala ride from the village. Luckily the groups do a warm up run first and I picked up a group as they came round after their first run. It was a gorgeous day and I got to travel over a good portion of the mountain ... even riding the Peak Express, on which you need to be ready to lift the bar and get off just after it clears the final cliff.

Friday I took the Big Girl out to ski for the day. She was feeling a bit better but I wasn't sure whether she would have the stamina to get through a day of ski school. The other went to ski lessons. THe ski camp finished on Friday and awards and progress cards were given out. The Big Girl got the Miss Invisible Award because she was hardly there. Little Girl probably had the best time she's had at ski school. Instead of tears and crying she was excited to go eery morning and bursting to tell us about her day when we picked her up. She got the Most Ladylike Award because her instructor kept telling her to be more aggressive and attack the bumps but she wouldn't.

Today was almost warm ... -2C but windy.

With a big dump of new snow overnight, the top of the mountain closed and a weekend crowd the lift lines were huge. We managed three runs from round house down to the village, although with the moguls on the final run I don't think my legs would have stood up to much more.

The Big Girl tried snow boarding today and Hubby and The Boy continued with their lessons. Hubby is now able to do normal runs so we'll be able to go together a little bit now ... although I'll avoid riding the lift with him for a while yet.

We've also been enjoying the food, including so far, Teppanyaki, caramel apples, huge slices of chocolate mousse cake, meat fondue and crepes.

Finally a little taste of the lights at night, taken with my iphone. I plan to go out sometime in the next few nights now that it's not quite so cold and get some photographs with my DSLR.

Guess where we are now ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:10:00 +0000

... Whistler!!

It was a bit of a trek to get here. We flew on points and had a 4am wakeup Sunday morning to catch our 7am flight from Melbourne-Brisbane-LA-Vancouver. Hubby was already in Canada on work so he met us at the Vancouver airport. He was late because he slept in, waking up at 12:40pm ... our plane arrived at 12:30pm. Then a bus ride to Whistler past beautiful scenery which I just managed to keep my eyes open enough to appreciate.

We arrived in Whistler at 4pm and got kitted out for skiing before dinner and bed. From bed to bed was 47 hours.

Monday morning the kids were booked into the 5 day ski camp. I was waiting with the girls to sign them in when the Big Girl said she felt sick. She often gets a sore tummy when she gets anxious so I said don't worry you'll be alright ... you're skiing. A couple minuted later she looked at me and she said "I really think I'm going to be sick". The look in her eye told me this was serious so I quickly whipped off her helmet and her head cover which covers their lower face including their mouth. As soon as I got it off she leaned over and vomited. I took her home with me and the Little Girl stayed for the day. Little Girl's instructor said not to worry he would reserve a place for the Big Girl in his class.

We had a rest in the room then ventured out to find some lunch. The Big Girl was feeling a bit better so we did a couple of runs before the lifts closed for the day. The other two kids had a great day. The Boy has decided to switch to snowboarding and he seems to be picking it up fairly quickly and he's loving it. He's also been trying to organise a play with his new friend from his class. There's only two of them and the other boy is staying in the same place we are.

This morning Big Girl got off okay but I'd just completed a few runs and was back in the room warming up (it was -14C today which was an improvement on the -22C forecast) when I got a phone call to pick her up because she'd been sick. The good news is that she's kept down her dinner tonight and her instructor said she was skiing well and enjoying herself. We've told her not to have the hot chocolate for morning tea tomorrow because it was after that that she started to feel sick.

Hubby has changed to snowboarding and has been having lessons the last two days, progressing up two levels. We're hoping after tomorrow he could come further up the mountain for some more difficult runs. As for me I haven't done a heap of skiing. The first day my toe was killing me (I'd lost the nail Saturday night before we left. It turned black after our skiing in July) so I got a bigger size boot and today was much better. Looks like tomorrow I will be catching the Peak to Peak to explore further afield with friends.

NB. Probably not a good idea to remove your gloves off to take photos when it's -14C ... it's very hard to warm them back up again.

Project Life: Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:58:00 +0000

For some reason the text on the first page looks bold but on the actual page it's the same as the second. Maybe because when I saved for the web the first half was not flattened but the second was? Anyway ...

Am I allowed to say I love it? Here's the credits ... there's a lot of them for something that was supposed to be simple. I can see they'll be some things that I use over and over though so that will speed things up moving forward.

Credits: Becky Higgins Project Life Template A (Jessica Sprague)
Blue and White paper: Sabrina Creations Beach Party Freebie
Yellow and White Paper: Vicki Stegall Tweet papers freebie
White BG Paper and Blue Striped Border: One Little Bird Jubilee (Oscraps)
Journal Cards (yellow recoloured): Paislee Press and 3PaperPeonies Collaboration Then and Now (Oscraps)
Craft Paper, Green Striped Paper and Word Strips: Paislee Press Photobooth (plus my own added word strips in the mix ... Liz's kit does not have a "making sausages" strip) (Oscraps)
Date Stamp: Biograffiti Month Stamps Clean (Oscraps)
Numbers: Emily Powers Nature Boy (retired)
Fonts - CK Becky, Ostrich Sans Rounded

The plan ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:29:00 +0000

yes I have one ... well maybe a few ... but specifically a plan for memory keeping this year. Last year I completed three photobooks and I really want to get more of our photos and stories printed into books this year. I would really love to have a general family yearbook but haven't managed it yet ... although I've got a few years in progress. Looking at all the project life albums around I decided this would be the perfect format to get the range of stories that occur throughout the year into books but there's no way I want to have the number of huge albums that would result hanging around the house ... plus I might need to use glue and scissors. Then I saw the digital version and decided that would be perfect for me. So my plan is to:

1. Briefly cover the major and minor stories of our family this year in a project life format to be printed as a photobook with each week represented by one to two pages maximum.

2. Intersperse these pages with layouts that either are more elaborate and showcase a longer story or a favourite photo or cover an event in more detail (not too many of these).

3. I seriously considered doing an iphone P365+1 this year in an effort to both document our lives and improve my iphone photography but then decided against it. Instead I've decided to do 12 on the 12th using the hipstamatic app on my iphone. It was toss up between 10 on 10 and 12 on 12 but I went with 12 because then the photos will fit into a 4x3 grid. These will go into my project life on their own page.

4. I will also keep doing my month in numbers blog posts and I will incorporate these numbers into the journalling on my normal project life pages.

5. Supplement this book with smaller albums detailing either holidays or special events. For instance I am currently working on a photobook called Hot and Cold which will be the story of our summer holidays from boxing day until the end of January.

6. I am doing the kids albums in hybrid mode so that I have a place to put certificates and other bits and pieces along with a selection of photos and stories. Hmmm ... guess I will be using glue and scissors after all.

So my schedule will be for the weeks to run Monday-Sunday (except the first week which is Sunday to Sunday) and I'll be working on the layouts during the following week before showing them on the blog on the next Monday. This year I'm just going to do it and avoid second guessing every. little. thing.

Some links ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:19:00 +0000

Not Saturday but it's the holidays so here you go anyway ...

1. I had just got home from a morning at Nippers with the kids and was hanging out the washing while they were supposed to be washing off the sand and hanging up their wet stuff but instead I was being subjected to a constant barrage of whinging and bickering. It struck me why I find it so difficult to stay in the moment ...

Anyway pop over to the Momestry (I know this post has done the rounds but it offered encouragement to this mum not to stress about enjoying every.little.thing but recognise those moments of kairos time in the day)

2. The Joy Dare or in a similar vein Maxabella's 52 Weeks of Grateful.

3. Trading One Dramatic Resolution for 10,000 Little Ones. - "You see, the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments. The character that was formed in those little moments is what shapes how you respond to the big moments of life."

4. List of good family games.

5. My favourite year in review post for 2011 was this one by Jenners.

6. Burning your photos onto CD? Eighteen25 has a DVD cover all ready to print and use.

7. Free audio books for children

8. Printable time capsule questions.

This years verse?

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:38:00 +0000

The lady sitting next to me at the church we visited this morning gave it too me ... completely out of the blue ... I'm thinking it's a keeper.

52 Photos: Celebrating

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:31:00 +0000

Week 52: Cocktails to celebrate the new year. Yummy and refreshing, the recipe is from What Katie Ate.

52 Photos Catch-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:20:00 +0000

Between fighting off the stomach bug (unsuccessfully) that has been doing the rounds of the house and fighting with accpac and the servers at work ... the last few days have been busy and frustrating. Today I made it to the beach this morning and I thought this afternoon I'd take a little time to post my final post for 2011 with a little look at my progress on my 52 photos.

Week 46: Mosaic

This is a mosaic tile The Boy made at school. I put some felt squares on the bottom so we can use it on the table.

Week 47: Thankful

Celebrating 40 years of a wonderful life ... lots to be thankful for.

Week 48: Real

Lucky for the rest of us the real Father Christmas doesn't jump out on unsuspecting passersby brandishing a storm trooper gun. (Alternatively this is real life at our house).

Week 49:

Anticipation

Not long now ...

Week 50: Perspective

We were on the beach when the yachts in the Melbourne to Hobart yacht race sailed through the heads. I know they are much bigger when up close but from this perspective they look way too small to tackle Bass Strait.

Week 51: Joy

He just loves Christmas.

The final week is celebrate and I'll be taking that photo tonight.

Enjoy your New Year's Eve.

December Daily: Day 5

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:03:00 +0000

Day 5 the story was all about our advent calendar ... I finally found somewhere to put it up so we wouldn't damage the walls.

Days 3 and 4, days 1 and 2 and credits.

52 Photos: Nostalgic

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:32:00 +0000

Week 45:

We bought this for her first Christmas ... she's 12 now.

A conversation ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:25:00 +0000

and an unrelated photo ... apart from the fact that it is The Boy in the car. This is at the end of one of his two end of term free clothes days. This is the one with the year 5 fundraising hence the face paint and weird hair.

Anyway ... the conversation ... the kids and I were in the car and a particular song that shall remain nameless came on the radio.

The Boy: That doesn't make sense, he says he's got passion in his pants ... but passion is in your heart.

The rest of us remained silent ... I, for one, was not prepared to go there right now.

And that is why we usually have the dial set to Light FM.

52 Photos: Wild

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:25:00 +0000

Some of our wild weather. (week #44)

December Daily - Day 3 and 4

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:14:00 +0000

Some of my December Daily pages will only be single pages, I'm just going to go with what fits the photos and story that I have. These two are birthday pages ... my families birthday celebration at Moreton's in Rathdowne St ... best bread and butter pudding ever ... and the day I turned 40, with presents and Hubby's family for lunch.

Credits plus day 1 and 2 here.

This week's links ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:02:00 +0000

1. The Little Girl made peppermint milk chocolate chip cookies this week. They were a big hit with everyone.

2. Print and Build Nativity Set ... we won't have time to do this but it is sooo cute (via How About Orange)

3. Homemade Sewing Kit - would make a good present for someone just moved out of home, at least they'll be able to sew a button on.

4. I also made a Mango and Pineapple Cake. I used a fresh mango instead of tinned because I got a tray of mangoes as part of a school fundraising drive. It was very yummy, not too sweet ... although it may be sweeter if you used tinned mango.

52 Photos: Busy

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:29:00 +0000

Week 43:

It's all go at our house with a constant stream of workman ... yesterday they poured the driveway.

December Daily: Days 1 and 2

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 03:58:00 +0000

Finally I have something to show. I decided to use Ali Edwards 31 Days Overlay Set and Star on Top by One Little bird and Amy Martin Designs. i'll be using these throughout my album. I modified the overlay to produce a facing page and filled the space with a collage of photos.

We have a tradition of putting up the tree on the first but I wasn't sure with the move that it would be happening this year. Luckily Geoff got it from the shed and we squeezed tree trimming between the Big Girl's tennis lesson and the girls school Christmas Carols where the Little Girl was one of the grade 4 soloists. She doesn't get her singing from Hubby or I.

Second day is all about our Jesse Tree readings. The kids have worked out a system now of who gets to do which part of the reading but at the start there were arguments because they all wanted to read.

52 Photos: Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 07:25:00 +0000

Week 42:

In an effort to reduce the amount of dust and dirt we are a shoes off house at the moment ... today because they were pouring the concrete at the front door the collection of shoes was at the back door.

This week's links ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:45:00 +0000

1. Love this framed memories ... tickets, wristbands, love notes collage framed.

2. Not Just Cute's handmade Christmas list.

3. Total Lunar Eclipse Tonight ... I stayed up late last night watching a bad movie on TV so not sure if I'll make it tonight, especially considering it'd raining at the moment so it's unlikely given the weather we'll see anything.

4. If you've noticed my new format for wrapping up the month and you were interested in doing your own post Julie has written a post on how she pulls together her month in numbers posts.

5. Challenging: When Christmas Gets Radical.

6. Maxabella's Marathon Running Plus Other Stuff ... asking the big questions. Have you found an answer?

7. What's on Your Christmas List.

52 Photos: Calm

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 07:35:00 +0000

My Boy playing calmly, oblivious to the mess of unpacking surrounding him. (week #41)

52 Photos: Today ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:31:00 +0000

the first day waking up in our new bedroom. (week #40)

Well it was when I took the photo, but that was two weeks ago now.

39 Things ... the end.

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:24:00 +0000

So I turned 40 on the weekend. The final tally ... 17 things complete.

~~Move into our new house.~~
~~Buy a dress.~~
~~Finish our US photo book.~~ done.
~~Go with the kids on a bike ride.~~
~~Make~~ ~~sundried tomatoes~~. done
Put together a slide show of our US trip.
~~Read Bonhoeffer~~. done
Reduce stored files by half - go paperless.
Make glow cones.
Finish my P365-2010 and print.
~~Ski a black run.~~
Throw a dinner party.
Make a cupcake stand.
~~Do Week in the Life.~~
Sort and backup digital photos.
Go bush walking.
Finish and print 2009 album.
Digitise APS films.
~~Complete first set of the Riftwar Saga.~~
~~Go back to uni.~~
Make gnocchi.
Read Anne of Green Gables with Little Girl.
Spend an afternoon playing parlour games.
Make a fancy cake.
Read a book with Big Girl.
Make a garland with the kids.
Choose and complete a photo project.
Catch up with school friends.
Go for a night swim.
Read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with The Boy.
~~Make Icecream.~~
~~Take the kids to ACMI.~~
~~Go out for dinner with Hubby.~~
~~Bottle fruit over summer.~~
Put together the 2010 home video onto DVD.
~~Play tennis.~~
Read Jane Eyre.
~~Make a~~ ~~photo kaleidocycle~~ ~~with the kids.~~
~~Do my world map jigsaw that's been in the cupboard for who knows how long.~~

December Daily is still coming.