crazy storm & theatrical play

We had a crazy rain/lightning/thunder storm yesterday with flash floods everywhere. Perfect weather to go out in and attend Keira's end of school year theatrical play! Uh huh. No. It rained so hard in such a short amount of time, our street was like a mini raging river. The mister had to go around the block to get home because there was a mini van slightly stalled in deep water on the street coming home. Nice.

But then the rain let up and we eventually made it to Keira's school. We were there to see the kids play in... Une Voix en Or (The Golden Voice). It was about an opera singer whose beautiful golden necklace gets stolen by a thief and her 2 bumbling idiot partners in crime. Keira played Agent Pédicure (yep, in english it's Agent Pedicure!), a scaredy cat police woman who's also very much into her looks. haha!

It was really a lot of fun watching these kids get up on stage and act. Almost all of them with real gusto and also, forgetting their lines. It was so cute watching each of them eventually prompting the other with their lines.

Here's a bit of play with translation to boot! Enjoy the show... (Keira is the police woman in light blue shirt & leggings).

novalee mag - issue 2: skate surf kids love

The newest issue of Novalee mag is now out! This is a kids magazine out of the ordinary with more of a street/skater vibe to it. Boys be glad! It features as much boys stuffs as for girls. Which I love!

Congrats Peggy and Angela on a terrific new issue! Thanks for letting me be a small part of it. This mag fills a certain void and certainly takes off on the same wave length and track of Color and Thrasher but way more tame and suited for the little dudes and dudettes. For now. ha!

Herewith, some of my favourite images and spreads...

How awesome is this shot? Photography by Peggy Juche of Paul & Paula blog

Photography Peggy Juche, Novalee Mag
Photography Kelly B for Novalee Mag
 Photography Kelly B for Novalee Mag
I love this one! Photography by Flannery O'Kafka

And some of my photography for their Street Noise feature!

my original pinterest boards, scrapbooks

More glimpses into my old scrapbooks, my original Pinterest boards! I have tons more tear sheets to go through and paste.. as much as I love my virtual boards on Pinterest, I can't help love my scrapbooks.

sweet friday!

Sweet Friday! I can't seem to keep up with time lately. I want to do absolutely nothing by Sunday.
Meanwhile, I'm off to SIDIM today, Keira will be walking the catwalk at the Missie Sunshine fashion show tomorrow after swimming lesson and Sunday.. Sunday I hope there's nothing.

Have a great weekend all!

La Petite Magazine Issue Nº 8

Courtesy: La Petite Magazine, Issue Nº 8, Photography: Femke Reijerman

Here is the newest Issue of La Petite Magazine! As always, the quality within the pages is exquisite. There are also some terrific new features and surprises that got me excited. You'll have to read Issue Nº 8 to find out what I'm talking about!

Courtesy: La Petite Magazine, Issue Nº 8. Photography: Kristin L. Theiss

I always look forward to reading Kristin's For the Love of Books feature, this current one reminding us about our ABCs (I love the layout of the feature as well). How cool is her vast collection of vintage and new books?

Courtesy: La Petite Magazine, Issue Nº 8, Photography: Anabel Fournier

And what a lovely surprise to see an interview with the lovely Anabel of Petits Fournier! Her company creates some of the most beautiful accessories and soft crochet toys but the foundation, provenance and care with the women who create them elevates her products to a higher level.

Photography Justin Baderhorst, La Petite Magazine

I also found it interesting to see a more tween/teen layout within this issue. I'm hoping this isn't just a trend for this one issue and will be slightly more expanded for later issues to come.

Courtesy: La Petite Magazine, Issue Nº 8

And what about this interview with Sissy + Marley? They design some of the most stylish baby and kids room (as evident in the layout above).

Click here: La Petite Magazine to view all the goodness for yourselves. You'll be inspired!

our ballerina's end-of-year performance

Keira in her "3 Little Pigs" costume official portrait.

It was another beautiful and sunny day today. Perfect for a little girl's ballet performance! The last recital of the year and highly anticipated. Cameras and camcorders were verboten during the performances and so here, I share only grainy snapshots of Keira onstage with her troupe. The show lasted over 2 hours! Keira's part lasted only a few moments as they were part of a bigger show with every dance categories from beginner to more advanced performing as well.



I can honestly say, the Mister and I were bursting with happiness watching her onstage (no mistakes or apparent stage fright!). I guess all those dance rehearsals really paid off. Grandmaman, Tante Loulou et Oncle Richard were also present, cheering her on.

Enjoy these photos of Keira without her bangs... they might be the only ones for a very long time to come.

Enjoying a celebratory bbq supper with oncle Richard. Of course Keira's eating penne pasta!

weekend in instagram

What a glorious long weekend this is turning out to be! We're celebrating Victoria Day tomorrow and as such, it's a day off! Woot! Victoria Day weekend is also the start to everyone's gardening and judging by the craziness at the garden center, we weren't the only ones stocking up on beautiful plants.

After this long weekend, we'll be (hopefully) back to more relaxed and normal days as tomorrow is Keira's end of season ballet show (no cameras or video cams allowed! not happy) and school nearing the end. Her violin and theatre end of school shows are coming up as well. I can't wait for it all to be over with. I don't know how any of you cope with all the extra curricular activities but.. if you're still smiling after it all, I tip my hat off to you.

Wolverine! aka Adam. My nephew painstakingly cut out and taped together his own wolverine claws! How awesome is this?

Yesterday, we paid a visit to my sister and her family and once more, were spoiled through our bellies: steak and kebabs on the bbq, rice, feijoada (my sister and I grew up on this as our father made huge batches of it and we ended up eating feijoada for weeks on end), mashed potatoes, garden salad, home made chocolate chip cookies (made with Ghirardelli chocolate!), home made lemon pound cake.. We came home with an over-full tummy. Keira and her cousins went over to the neighbor's pool and cannon-balled into the still freezing water. I think Keira turned slightly blue. lol.




Tonight, it's a mom's night out! No kids, no dudes. Just us. We're heading out on the town and we will definitely enjoy ourselves. I think I can honestly say... we deserve it. Hope you're all having a terrific weekend too!

Behind the scenes - A photo shoot

Keira gets her hair & shades adjusted.

Although I don't have much time after coming home from a full day at work, I am sometimes asked to design for a project that gets my creative juices excited and flowing. Last December, an old friend asked me to help her design her branding for her new venture and it was too fun to pass up. This is a bit of a teaser post as the official launch will happen May 26th with a fashion show flourish! And as such, I will definitely have a proper introduction post about this fantastic venture of Christina's soon...

In the meantime, I'd like to share some behind the scenes photos of the fashion shoot I art directed with the incredible photographer, Sandrine Castellan. Her work has been published in publications such as Babiekins and Mag Doolittle. It was such a terrific and fun photo shoot with Sandrine and my friend Christina. The little models were a dream to work with! And boy, were they pampered. They got the full makeup treatment with gentle Geneviève (isn't she gorgeous? and she deftly and expertly made up each girl's makeup and hair without over-doing it). It was a full day's work and the girls handled themselves professionally and with aplomb. I think the end results speak for themselves. Don't take my word for it, see the look book for yourselves here! Now.. check it out!

The lovely Sandrine with Charles Olivier and Christina.
Meeting Emily.


Talk about hard to photograph! Em on the run...



Models relaxing after a long day...
End of day discussion.. 


Linking this up to Sweet Shot Tuesdays which is usually up on Darcy's My 3 Boybarians site but is now with Kent Weakley's photography site. Hook yourself up too!

mother's day weekend

Happy Mother's Day to you all! If you have pets, you're a mom! Who else would clean, feed, love and care for them? Hope you all had a terrific weekend.



I've recently joined Instagram after seeing how much fun Kristin's been having (if you're not following her pics on Instagram, you should. They're gorgeous). I've found all my friends there and it's like another world! Full of incredibly fun and interesting pics.

If you thought I got a break this weekend from doing the mom stuff, you'd be wrong. Sadly, I was still chauffeur, cook, cleaner, laundress and servant. But there were still moments where I actually got to sit down on the sofa! And read! I brought work home and had to start some projects but I just couldn't fire up the computer to start. One part of my brain said I had no choice but to work and the other side said, forget it. The Forget It side won.




We spent Saturday with my mom for a chinese meal in chinatown and Sunday with the other mom at their place. I think I would have rather stayed home and be by myself. Too selfish that way right? sigh...

If you're on Instagram, let me know! You can find at @ChantaleP.