Fall Colors {Laval Children Photographer}

While taking some fabulous fall, although chilly, birthday portraits of our new 6 year old, the littlest one wanted to join in the fun too. I ended up with this gorgeous piece titled : "Réflexion" which translates roughly to "Thoughts" or my artistic translation "Deep thought" ... which won 3rd place people's choice for fall theme while it was on display at one of our cities many public libraries! Can you believe I didn't even find the time to visit the expo myself?! Well, I didn't find the time to blog either!

Happy Birthday!

Continuing our fall timeline, my own 5 year old turned 6 mid-October! How dare she, right? I snapped a few images when her Grand-parents came over, a few on her actual birthday and honestly, none at all during her kid-only party. Being the Queen Hostess of the Princesses (and Prince!) Royal Ball, there very literally was no time to spare! Of course, now you all wonder how wonderful everything must have looked with me using all those official titles! lol I'll see what I can dig up from that day, maybe someone wielded another camera??

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Just a couple hours shy, but with 2 sick little girls at home instead of with extended family, I think it's safer to head to bed early ourselves! However, couldn't go to bed before saying MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone, HAPPY HOLIDAYS & be safe! Our own family card, which would have been printed as a folded 5x7. Front:

Inside:

Season of plenty! {Laval Children Photographer}

Where to start? I'll post something about this fall every few days and into the new year. I have a lot to share, but had little time to share it! Let's start with Back to School! My eldest girl started Kindergarten! No seriously, no kidding, I'm a mom to a kindergartener! In hind sight, I can totally believe it, but I was still a little shocked some days in the beginning. It would take me by surprise in the middle of the day, especially around nap time. The house would be SO quiet. Not to mention the littlest one quite enjoyed the freedom of play. Well, she did start saying she missed her big sister after a couple hours. Thank goodness for imaginations :)

She also took her very first BIG YELLOW BUS ride! She rides a good half hour to school morning and night. Makes for some LONG days and some tearful evenings. Me thinks it might be high time to give them both a vitamin boost for the winter!

And then, my youngest went and grew up to start Pre-K! So not fair... then again, guess what I did the very first day when both of them were away... 2 hours of blissful NOTHING! No blogging, no working, no phone, no cooking, no cleaning, no nothing. I could enjoy a book without being interrupted, needing to clean someone, feed someone, etc. Good times. Of course, life goes on and all things do need to get done ;)

Lefebvre Family Portrait {Laval Family Photographer}

Hello everyone! I have been literally quite swamped with work/life/school/family for the past few weeks, heck, the last season entirely! Work wise, you will all get a glimpse in the coming days. I have quite a few things to show off and share and I am really holding myself back or I'd do one mega post and then have nothing to say! lol Life, well, it's always busy it seems, trying to consolidate everything you NEED to do, with everything you SHOULD do and still having time for those things you WANT to do. As for School, well, keep reading this week and you'll know ALL about that too ;) And also at home, you know me, always the renovator! I just can't stop "fixing" things around the house to my liking. Comes from loving to work with my hands and being an Interior Designer by original trade. I'll throw in some pics of the results in the new year in between other things. It should give me enough time to sew the window coverings! Finally, I give you, our own family portrait for this holiday.

Don't look for it in your *snail* mail box, I don't quite think I can make the cut-off, but I may try to get at least 2 dozen out the door if I can! However, I WILL post the final result on New Year's Eve before we leave to visit with family :) A few bloopers to let you all know how truly *fantastic* it is to photograph your own family (*denotes a sarcastic tone)...

You can bet that 2011 will mark the year we go ourselves to a pro to get our own portraits done. And I know just the photographer for the job! I met her in Toronto and became fast friends, Nathalie Lamy from Lilifoto. If you're in the Ottawa region, I highly suggest you schedule your own family/child portraits with her! What else is in store for Nayanna Arts in the New Year? Well, I know of two very pregnant & very beautiful ladies that each have a gorgeous family to boot! Hoping they both call for some maternity and newborn shoots sometime in January & February. *wink wink girls!* Sometime during the summer we will definitely get together with Lilifoto and get some great portraits done of our own family. Oh and saving the best, in my humble opinion, for last, our new website should launch in the new year! Cannot WAIT to share it all with you! So stay tuned!

Nope, not quite done...

No, it's not quite done yet, but I've been meaning to post a pic of this project forever. We finally received the last drawer faces and have the trim at hand. All that's left if to install said trim and to tile the backsplash. After much HGTV watching, I think I've finally settled on an idea and need to sketch it out and make it happen. Meanwhile, here's the most up to date image of our Kitchen.

Best friends and birthday parties!

There is no doubt about it, my little girl has a BFF. They barely met last fall for a bike stroll, before the snows invaded, then we didn't see them all winter long. When the snows melted and school outings took us wondering, we found out that this new friend actually went to the same preschool close to our home! JOY! Although they didn't share any classes, that's the way it happened, we saw them and played with them every few days. Now they have 2 morning classes and 1 afternoon class together (all three my daughter actually attends at all), on top of sharing a 2 minutes bus ride!! HEAVEN! My shy girl is very particular of whom she befriends, so it's easy for me to say this little redhead is her BFF. She speaks mostly of her and as soon as they separate, the question is *when will I see her again?*. We invited her to our 5th birthday party and she did the same. Happy Birthday sweet friend!

HAPPY HALLOWS-EVE!! {Laval Family Photographer}

The man in the Yellow Hat & Curious George {My husband and our littlest one, Gabrielle}

The Wicked Witch of the West and her Flying Monkey (well, she has wings! {Myself and our eldest, Evelyne) Trick or Treat!!!

Happy 5th Birthday!

How in the WORLD! Here we are, 5 years old. How can it be! Happy fabulous birthday my little lady.

*she wanted a Dora cake & Jelly Beans... but it also had to be Gluten Free!*

*she wanted face painting*

*she wanted candles to blow out, NOT the #5 sparkler I had lit in the first place*

You're only 5 once, right? She asked, and she received :)

*Ready for family party the next day*

*more sweet treats, with more GF jelly beans!*

*actual birth DAY, train track expansion set! Playing BEFORE breakfast!!*

Baptism {Vaudreuil Family Photographer}

I am NOT an event's photographer. Really, I'll leave Bar-Mitzvah's, Weddings and parties to the more event specialised of us. That said, being invited to a ceremony for friends, a private one at that, which is frankly unheard of now, who could resist! I told them I would love to record this day in their family's history if they'd let me. They jumped on the offer and I had so much fun photographing this church and their private ceremony. Guys, you know I love you! This is just the tip of the story.

September!!!

Does that mean summer is officially over? Can I go back to a semblance of routine for somet time?

If you aren't following me on Facebook (it's currently under my own name) then you wouldn't be aware of what I have been up to all summer. Goodness, it's been a long one. It all started way back in april or so when my husband and I finally agreed we were renovating our kitchen. After a not so perfect experience with our bathroom renovations back in February 2008, I decided that I would do most of the work. Yep, you read that right, I wear the toolbelt in this household ;) We each have our talents, and mine doesn't only include Photography! ((*Bear in mind 2 things as you view through this photos, they were taken with our wee point and shoot camera or even *gasp* with my phone. The batteries on the camera died and I took them out to recharge them and have yet to find them through the mess a renovation like this does to a home! So some of these are REALLY really sad looking. But in this case, they get the point across rather well, no?*)) So, June came around, we finally settled on a design through Home Depot's Kitchen designing team and everything was ordered, to be delivered near the end of July. Here are Before Pictures. These were taken, ironically enough, the week after our Bathroom renovations were done:

(As you can see, my now 2.5 year old was barely one in this photograph. Awww.)

So, if I wanted to have everything ready for the furniture delivery in late July, I had to start at some point, so demo started in late June. Approx. June 28th. I ripped out the old cupboards (which THANKFULLY were NOT glued to the wall, just really really well nailed into it) ripped out the old gypsum (on outer AND inner walls) and ripped out the old flooring. By then it was the end of the first week of July.

(you can see what I found underneath some of the cabinets here, ICK! BUT, I did find when these cupboard were made, they aren't "original" as I'd first though, but date back to early 80's. So that gave them 10 years less in age!)

(This is exactly what you think. Even with the valves turned closed, it still dripped. These pics were taken to help me buy all the parts to redo the drain piping, but in the basement instead) Our electricians from Drycore Electric came over and re-wired everything. Although not in our initial plans, it simply made sense to have them come since the walls would be open anyways. Of course, I was then (easily I might add) convinced to also tear down the ceiling. I would now decide to also sound proof the ceiling and put in new ceiling pot lights and decorative pendants/task lighting over the island counter and the sink. Mani & John did some AWESOME work. While they were doing that, I was busy finishing up a few odds and ends, like adding braces between the studs (so they don't bend or warp, they ARE holding the second floor up!!) and moving the stove's fan exhaust to a more convenient location for the new layout. Once they were done and gone, I started laying down the subfloor, as can be seen in these images:

(You can even see where I did some slight ductwork in that last image. It would make it possible to slightly reduce the height of the bulkhead)

I think we are now past mid-July at this point. And here in Quebec, there is a "construction holiday". Oh yeah, NO joke. Originally, without the electrical work and ceiling remodel, I had planned to be done, drywalled and painted by the weekend prior to this holiday. We were scheduled to receive our furniture the first week of that holiday as the Big Box Stores like HD don't honor that holiday. (Not that they should either). In any event, easy to see that we were NOT ready to receive them so a quick call to Home Depot and a note should have taken care of that. More on that later. Then came the drywall contractor (NO, I did NOT do this myself, even if I COULD do it, it would have taken me WAY too much time, seriously!) So I had the fantastic Neil Scott from Hunter Construction come in and drywall and plaster, not to mention share tons of stories from his boat outings with his son to his ancestry from the very first Scott settlers, which would be the original Scotts that came from Scotland no less! With the modifications to the original estimate he gave us, he ended up working much later than originally, but it worked out well for both our schedules. I think plastering was done and dry by early August. As he was finishing his plastering, he took the time to explain and subsequently actually SHOW me how to lay tile. He lit a fire under my butt and I got it done in a couple days (or rather evenings). Whatcha think?

Once that was layed down, it was painting time, I had a "little" help...

my eldest was just SO enthusiastic, which would explain why she's looking at me tape down the floor protection with wilting patience! (first weekend of August)

(And little sister looking on with longing, you can see stuff piled and behind the grey frame, that would be the refrigerator, in the dining room...)

Painting all done:

Meanwhile, the furniture arrived, actually, there was the first attempted delivery (apparently no one reads notes anymore) then the actual delivery the first week of August, which was missing quite a few items (everything longer than 5 feet was missing). Mind you, these were "build it yourself" cabinets, all in compact boxes, as we didn't purchase the extra installation package. Saved a few extra bucks there, but at the expense of massive sweating and, let's face it, swearing, although mostly under my breath or far FAR away from tiny ears... I started building the furniture, bit by bit and slowly, the space morphed into this:

Then this:

I also had to cut holes for both cold and hot water as well as for the drain. While I was at it, a friend suggested I have heating come through the kick space of the cabinets to heat our toes while we are in the kitchen. Would sure be nice, there was no other heating in the kitchen itself before.

At some point, I even found the time to research and buy lighting and once they arrived I installed them as well:

And even built a new one for the dining room, all from "scratch". Well, I did buy the shade ready made ;) Actually, that's the wrong shade, I bought another, dismantled this one and rebuilt it with the new shade. Need a new pic!

Then came the frantic research and purchase of our new undermounted sink and a one hole faucet, both purchased through Thalassa Domocile here in Laval (two weeks ago).

Once the cabinets were done (who am I kidding, we are still missing a replacement cabinet as it was damaged in the box, so I built it temporarily so we could call the Granit people), I placed a call to the Granit company, who came and measured our cabinets for a precise fit (last friday). (The guy had a laser measuring machine! Pretty cool!) Of course, since it's obvious things can't go according to plan here, I forgot to verify WHEN our sink would get here before sceduling the measuring. A few more frantic calls to the sink company had my husband leaving work early so he could be on their doorstep before 5 (how's 4:55pm?) to grab the sink so we would have it the next morning... I open the box before bed to bask in our new sinks grace... only to find it's the wrong model. No joke. It's a over counter mount, NOT an undermount. Joy. So, MORE frantic calls, and they are having one from the south shore's warehouse shipped to Laval. It's Tuesday night, September 1st, still no sink. The granit people are waiting on the sink's template to go ahead and cut the granit and can only guarentee a "before sept 17th install" if we get them the template before September 3rd. AND, through ALL of this, there has been a busy Photographic summer. Well, busy considering I had almost no time to spare! As you can see in my previous posts, I've had an early July session (they actually got to witness the grandeur of our work when they came to view their photos) and then a late July session. Between those two sessions, I had a special session for Kidscentive's marketing images and in early August I had another session, the ones with the dinosaurs :) Yeah, thankfully it wasn't the "nicest" summer weather wise, so I don't feel like I misssed out on too much. That said, my husband only took a couple weeks vacation time here and there. So I basically worked around the kids' schedule (which includes, three meals, two snacks, playing at the playground with friends, and a few bike rides & errands) and on weekends when I didn't have any Photographic sessions that needed my immediate attention. I'm looking forward to posting an "ALL DONE" photo. Check in soon, I'm counting on being D O N E before my girl's 5th birthday, mid October... Hmmm, my second "original" deadline was before school. NOT gonna happen it seems...