How did she know?

It's like Miss Flannigan painted this picture especially for me. Check out that red hair and hairdo? Ok, so maybe it wasn't painted with me in mind, but that's what I plan on telling everyone when they see it on my wall. Pretty indeedy do!

25 Things

I have been tagged on Flickr and on Facebook many times by many people, so here you have it

1. If it's true that the human body is made up of something like 75% water, then I am made up of 75% coca-cola. Guaranteed.
2. I am actually proud of fact number one.
3. Stay at home mothers who said that looking after their kids was the hardest job out there were super annoying to me. That was until i had a child of my OWN. I have never been so utterly wrong about something in my entire life.
4. I love my pug Lola like a child. It's going to be a rough ride for all those around me when she dies.
5. I also believe that Lola is me in dog form.
6. My mom always told me from a young age that I would have to succeed in the workplace to be able to afford my lifestyle. Um. She was right.
7. I live for fashion.
8. I truly think that laughter is the best medicine. If you are not funny, or take yourself too seriously we are just not going to make it as friends. Period.
9. I was born to be a redhead.
10. My husband is one of the most considerate, self sacrificing people I have had the pleasure of meeting. If Rowan ends up being half the man that James is, then I have done my job as a parent.
11. I was considering opening up my own Pilates studio, until i went through the certification process and realized that I would end up hating something that I love to do if it became a job.
12. Music makes the people come together.
13. I traveled the world to realize that there is no where that I would rather be then in Canada.
14. Save the drama for your mama. I have been known to sever ties with people who are overly dramatic. It's like poison to me and it wears me down. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!
15. I rarely cry and do not like to talk about my feelings with anyone but my journal.
16. I am genuinely a happy go lucky person. Always have been and hopefully always will be. That being said, when I am not happy, my world seems to come to a grinding halt.
17. I wish I would have taken dance lessons from a young age. I fantasize about being on "So you think you can dance" often!
18. I used to pay my brother to tickle my feet when we were younger. Now, I get my husband to do it for free.
19. I am intolerant of intolerance.
20. I can't stand VPL. (Visible panty lines).
21. Vanilla Sky is one of my favourite movies. "Every minute of every day is a chance to turn it all around" is one of my all time fav. movie quotes.
22. I need a little edge in my life and with my relationships. No vanilla please, I need a side of quirky.
23. If my boobs don't come back up to where they were before having a kid soon, I will throw money at the problem and be done with it.
24. I love me a killer heel. Louboutins, Jimmy Choo and Chloe...oh my!
25. I am one lucky girl!

Hide and Seek

I have to admit, that every once in a while I will get a massive girl crush. It has nothing to do with looks and everything to do with talent, always of the artistic sort. I can't tell you how much I adore Mia Michaels. She pretty much rocks my world. And then this girl came along, who is making me forget about my Mia obsession. Well, maybe only until the next season of So you think you can dance starts. If you don't know Imogen Heap, well...shame on you. The first link below will take you to the song that can be heard constantly in my headphones at work. Imogen was also in a band called Frou Frou, whose song Let Go was featured on the Garden State Soundtrack, which could be one of my favourite movie soundtracks ever! Imogen is a classically trained cellist and pianist. She plays clarinet, drums and guitar as well. I love over achievers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cpSv2mNhhc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgcIpKL86Jk

Mia, there's a new girl in town!

Jo

The Next Big Thing

While living in Chi-town, I had the pleasure of meeting a few up and coming local fashion designers since one of my besties owns a killer thread boutique called Roslyn in Wicker Park. One of those up and comers happens to be Elise Bergman. This sweet girl is in the running to be one of the designers on Bravo's new television series The Fashion Show. How cool is that?! Anywho, she just opened her online boutique and I wanted to spread the word. I always get nothing but compliments when I wear one of her dresses. Take her multi-wrap dress for instance. I just bought this dress in gold plaid (see below) and it is so amazingly versatile. Go check her out!

Better late then never

I promised a favourite 10 layouts of 2008 post a long time ago. Well here are six from 2008 and a few new ones for 2009. I hate taking pictures of my layouts. I really need to just take a picture after I am finished creating them and before it gets into an album. Once it's in the album I really don't feel like touching it again.

Midsummer Nights Dream - I miss Amy so much. Good friends are irreplaceable, and I haven't been able to find any close girlfriends in Toronto like I had in Chicago. I can't wait for Tara to take pictures of Amy and I in March.


City Gals - Another Chicago friend. Aren't all my Chi-town friends absolutely friggin gorgeous. For reals...


Beautiful Boy - Inspired by the Ben Harper song that I love so much and is on frequent rotation in Rowan's room.


Pretty Leaves - If I really love the picture, the layout is going to end up being really simple and straight forward. I love this picture of Rowan sitting in our front yard eating leaves while James was raking them.


Guilty as Charged - I love to capture and document moments that have become part of our everyday lives. Lola gutting stuffed animals happens on a regular basis.


Operaman - My little guy has found his lungs.


Krabi - I adore this picture that Tara took of me in Krabi. So, I had to find all my favourite scrapping supplies of the moment to document this time of my life. I love the Crate Paper!


D - One by one I am scrapping my favourite pictures of all my Thailand friends. I have to pick the perfect papers and embellishments though, so I haven't gotten them all finished yet. Blogspot is rotating this picture incorrectly...


Bliss - I like this one bunches. I am really digging using Kraft cardstock as my background lately. It really punches up the photo.


And I'm spent! I live for Austin Power's quotes. I hear he is working on a new movie....

Hello. My name is Michelle and I'm a Fickrholic

Hello Michelle!

I am going to out Jo as well here too! If I am going down she's coming down with me! Ah, there are so many people I can blame for leading me down this path of self destruction. Let's see, there is Tara, who suggested that we put our Thailand pictures on Flickr. Then there was D's three.sixty.five photostream that got me really drinking the Kool-aid. And last but not least we have the enabler Jo, my flickr buddy and parter in crime for the 365 days challenge. I have already gotten at least a half dozen dirty looks from James about Flickr. He has questioned the amount of time I am putting in to the photos and the online groups. And it is a total time suck. The minutes and hours just fly right on by in Flickrland.

So, it is time to pull myself out before I get in too deep. I have decided to finish 365, but I am allowing no more then 30 minutes a day to taking photos/posting photos/commenting on Flickr. I already feel twitchy...

Come check out my stream!!

Happy Birthday Jamesie E!

It is my Jamesie E's birthday today. He is the big 34. He hates celebrating his birthday and every year I have to remind him about February 9th. He would just let the day come and go with zero celebrating if I let him. But that's not my style. Birthdays are a big deal to me. So, I will be dragging him out for some b-day eats, while "the Karen" looks after Rowan. I am going to start referring to my mother-in-law as "the Karen" from now on, after hearing a close friend of ours call her that. She is kind of like super grandma, so I think she deserves a "the" in front of her name as much as anyone.

Kisses for you sweetness. You are the best daddy and hubby a gal could really ask for. I don't deserve you....but I'm keeping you anyway!