Happy Friday & long weekend!

It's Friday! Whew. Made it. It's been harder and harder getting online and doing what I love best.. blog trolling. lol. But I've got a fun new side project happening designing for a terrific musician and some fun packaging at work. What with the full time job, the freelance thing and making Keira's lunches this summer... I am dog-gone distracted! The lunch thing is what's got me most stressed out, can you believe it?




Ah well.. some photos (SOOC) here of Keira's hair cut and the curls she always requests (that take  f o r e v e r  to do at the stylist's). And a sunny day outside... Have a great Friday everyone and a great weekend..
And to my fellow Canucks:
HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

trio pasta & watermelon strawberry salad bento

Well, school is over and summer day camp has officially begun. And with it came rain, wind and cooler weather. Huh. Keira was a bit nervous heading back to her day camp wondering if any of her friends were going to be there but I know her. Whether or not they will be there, she always makes new friends anyway.

Today is rainy and cool and I thought a warm lunch would be heartier and apropo to this weather. So today, she has a thermos full of a trio of pasta (shells, penne and rotini) with her Papa's home made meat sauce. And now with farmer's markets brimming with seasonal veggies, it's a great time to add sweet tomatoes and other yummy veggies to the sauce! psst! She won't know...





With the pasta, I added a watermelon and strawberry salad. These are Quebec strawberries! Deep red colour, a bit smaller but so packed with sweetness and flavour. Mm! I love that triangular bento box that I got for Keira from Lunch-à-Porter. So handy and so pretty.

Some of you may wonder about the hashtag on twitter/instagram/facebook #twitterfoodparty. It was started by Shirley of www.lovelylanvin.com and it's a fun way of creating dishes and posting them up for everyone to see and share. Twitterfoodparty happens every first week of each month with a different theme or food. This month was #twitterstrawberryparty. Join up next month! The theme/food will be... cheese!

amusement park season

Papa et Kiki


For Father's Day, we decided to head out to Six Flags La Ronde amusement park with Keira. It was a gorgeous sunny day. We teamed up with another parent and bought season passes to La Ronde so that this year, whenever we found ourselves bored to the hilt, we'll head on out to the amusement park and spend our day there. We're hoping this year, Keira will be interested and stay up a bit later to view the fireworks competition, held every year here in Montreal. As much as she begs to stay up late and once in a blue moon she's got the energy to howl at the moon at midnight, mostly she pretty much KOs by 9:30pm. I know, tough for us right? Heck, she's been known to put herself to bed! lol.



Rubadubdub! Actually, think it's called Le Joyeux Moussaillon

We had a pretty super day on Father's Day spending the whole day at the amusement park while the Mister and I reminisced about him working there as a teenager and me going there doing all the crazy rides. I've got to dig out that photo of myself in that rubadubdub tub ride (we call it rubadubdub tub but I think it's really called the Joyeux Moussaillon ride) when I was a toddler.

With school finally over, Keira was invited by her school chum yesterday to head back to La Ronde and they spent the entire glorious day there (with her school chum's mum). I was a bit worried as the temperature climbed to 32º C (89ºf), feeling more like 40º (104ºf) with the humidex. But no worries, after spending more than 6 hours outside, the girls still had crazy energy leftover afterwards!


Ahhh! I don't want to fall....
View of Montreal

splish splash, happy friday!

What happens when your kid begs you to let them head to a friend's pool yet again cuz it's a hot almost summer mid-week evening? Of course you say no because there's school tomorrow! I think we're about the only house on our street along with our immediate neighbour to the right who doesn't have a pool (although, they're a step up what with their spa). Made even more wretched as I tried to get home and found the street blocked at neighbour-2doors-down because of big machinery to dig a pool out in their backyard. sigh...




So I convinced Keira Mr Wormy sprinkler would be just as fun! And judging by the way she splished, splashed and giggled... I think she had a great time the old fashioned cheapie way. Have a great weekend everyone! Thanks for stopping by this week. xo

young jedi

Don't you just love it when your kids spring one of those last minute requests of "Oh and by the way mommy, I need a costume for my show"? Keira does this to us All. The. Time. She keeps telling us that, 'oops! haha, I forgot to tell you' (said in a sing-song way).



She did it again to me yesterday. She needed a Jedi costume for her class production that the parents are invited to watch tomorrow. Grrreat. Where in heck was I supposed to find a Jedi costume that quickly? We make do with what we have right? I found some leftover fabric that I made a headboard cover out of and decided to make her an Obi-Wan Kenobi/Luke Skywalker/Princess Leia white thingy. Granted, the fabric I used is pretty thick and heavy with a matelassé texture but I think it adds to the effect.

Total time from panic mode to finished sewn product: 30 minutes. Add Princess Leia donut hair and voilà!
Young Jedi is born...

our garden is blooming!

redesign of paul&paula blog

Check out Peggy's updated & refreshed blog look over at Paul&Paula! I helped redesign her header and logo. What do you think? She wanted fresh, clean, pop and fluo & not too kiddy. I wish I could've added real tactile glitter because I love it. lol.
I'm so glad Peggy loves it too!
Click www.pauletpaula.com

sleepover saturday

Um, yes. The Pose. With the weird arm thingy Keira made for herself.

Keira had a swim-almost-all-day Saturday what with her swim class and then going over to her friend's for some more swimming. The girls came home for supper and Miss M stayed over for an impromptu sleepover. Which is exactly how I like it. Impromptu. On the fly. No worries. The girls wanted a camping style sleepover so I let them sleep on the rug (with plenty of blankets) in the playroom. And while the mister and I watched a movie in the basement, all we could hear on the baby monitor (yep! Still use it whenever we both head to the basement while the kids are upstairs) was giggling and chatter and more giggling. Today, both girls head to different birthday parties and all of us parents get a bit of a break.
Yay!

techno vs paper

Creating her cupcakes with Curious Brain's Julius ♡ Cupcakes app


A while ago, we were at a restaurant and we (the parents) noticed that they (the kids) were all playing with their respective iPhones and iPods around the table. It was a bit jarring. They were still talking with each other except, their eyes were honed in on their hand held screens.

I am not one of those parents that can brag that my kid is a whiz on the computer/handheld device/Gameboys. Keira has never been interested in any of the above. We have a Wii that just collects dust. Occasionally when we have guests over, we like to turn it on but otherwise, it just sits there. I'm not sure why she has this averse reaction to computers. In a way, I think she doesn't like the unknown and doesn't like to fail so won't try in the first place. On the other hand, she just really loves to play act and be physical instead of sitting around, fiddling with those things.

I recently started downloading some apps for her to get used to the Touch. Apparently, she is supposed to use a computer in school next year (sadly, I'm sure it will be a PC) and I want her to get used to getting around one. I've always let her try my computer and put the mouse on the left hand side for her (she's a lefty). She loves typing and 'drawing' in Photoshop... that's a good sign right?

One of the apps she really loves is Curious Brain's Julius ♡ Cupcakes. It's an app where you get to design and make up your own cupcakes. She's created & saved tons of them! It really is fun and cool. She doesn't go for those game apps, she just ends up being too competitive (against herself!) and gets frustrated and agitated. Nope, what she really loves are the ones where she has to get creative like the Julius ♡ Cupcakes and any drawing apps.

Is your child a computer guru? As much as a small part of me worries if she'll be on par with those computer whiz's out there, another part of me breathes a huge sigh of relief that she's still a paper and pencil type of gal.

missie sunshine couture! a fashion show launch

Keira looks like she stepped out of a japanese fashion magazine

Check out the cutie in the middle. Isn't she a hoot? That's Christina's daughter Mona, the Original Missie!

Keira, workin' it!

The official launch for the new brand Missie Sunshine Couture was about 2 weeks ago! Missie Sunshine is a refreshing and unique take to summer beach wear for girls (women's wear to come in the future). With beautiful fabrics from India, it's a chic way to make a statement during summer.

I was lucky enough to create the branding for this new company started by my friend Christina and Bali. They both have such a great eye for style and design and are both so so sweet! I say I was lucky enough because I was given free reign in the creative design department and man, I ran with it. lol. From art directing the photo shoot to creating the logo, look book and website... it was certainly a labour of creative love on my part that I only hope matches the same labour of love from Christina and Bali.

Does one of the little models look familiar to you? Yep, it's Keira. And boy did she have the time of her life at the photo shoot making new friends! Last Saturday, the girls came together again. This time, for the fashion show launch. And once again, the girls had a terrific time. I love this age where they're not so body conscious yet. They're up there on the catwalk just enjoying strutting to the beat of the music and having a good time. And they were awesome!

The clothes were out of this world gorgeous. Beautiful cottons, silks, jerseys. Keira's favorite is the pink/white/black jumpsuit she wore. These are outfits the girls can wear pretty much all day during the warmer months and the tunics can easily be paired with leggings or shorts. Keira has worn her Missie Sunshine tunic since she received it in January!

I also met the lovely and wonderful Celina of Petit à Petit blog that day. Finally! We had been meaning to meet up for a while now but it's really hard to coordinate place and time. Celina has a terrific kids design and fashion blog and she's got quite the following on Pinterest as well! She brought along her two kids that day and wow, are they ever adorable. Very very happy to have met her that day.

Enjoy the show! But most importantly, please go and shop for Missie Sunshine Couture yourself!
www.missiesunshine.com