Scrapping Along

Farewells & Funerals

2011-12-06T11:47:00.001-05:00


Grace 1911-2011

It is a sad day in my family today. My grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep in the hospital last night.

She had been in the hospital the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, she weakened in the hospital and developed pneumonia which she declined further from slipping into a mostly unresponsive state for the last couple of days. We had been notified that it was only going to be a matter of time before she was likely to pass. They were keeping her in a comfortable state but not expecting a recovery.

Even with pre-warning, it is never something you are totally ready for when it occurs.

My mother and I talked on the phone a couple of nights ago. She was passing along updates on how she was doing and I was wanting to know how my mother was holding up through these tough times. It is how my mother holds up that is foremost on my mind. My mother is another very strong woman and has my dad, a good man, behind her making sure that she stays alright.

We got talking about funerals and how we deal with death. I am worried that extended members of my family may view my way of dealing with death as being cold and detached but to me, it is anything but that. Thankfully, my mother understands where I am coming from and understands that I view funerals differently than a lot of people.

I don't have a strong need to attend a funeral to say goodbye because I prefer to not really say goodbye but turn to memories to keep them alive in my mind. I intellectually know they are gone which I come to peace with by myself and don't need a funeral to do. Emotionally, I transfer them to my memory and keep them feeling close in that way so never really say goodbye but welcome them into my mind. I prefer to keep them alive remembering them for my best memories with them rather than the emptiness that I feel at seeing someone at a funeral.

My grandfather passed away over 10 years ago and there isn't more than a couple of months that go by that something doesn't trigger a memory with him and I feel his presence. It is those memories I prefer to remember, him in his full lifeness and personality rather than his lifeless body at the funeral.

I am a private person in showing emotions. So people may think that I am cold because I don't outwardly show my emotions but that doesn't mean that I don't feel. Mike can attest to the fact that I do feel and that things do affect me. I feel, I cry, I hurt... I just don't feel comfortable showing that except to a few very close to me.

To me, funerals are for those left behind and for those who need to see the body or ashes one last time to say goodbye. I don't need that for myself. I process on an intellectual level and transfer to emotionally later at my own pace.

I attend funerals for others who need me there, not for myself. So in speaking with my mother, the decision as to whether or not I attend my grandmother's funeral will be determined by whether or not she or someone else close in my family needs me to for them. Before her passing, she didn't feel that she needed me there but will keep me updated as to whether that changes now that she has passed. Knowing that my mother is scheduled to come spend Christmas with us helps me in feeling comfortable in not being there, should that still be the case.

I am worried about how other family members will view it if I don't attend. However, as long as those close to me understand and don't need me there, I likely won't attend. I have been researching flight options should my attendance be required once arrangements have been made but at the moment, I really don't know what will happen.

For now, I am processing her passing in my way and with Mike here for me. Without asking, he just knows what I need, when I need it. He stopped by on his lunch to just give a hug. He knows I am okay but still knows that I wouldn't pass up a hug. I am very lucky in my life with those around me and my memories of good times with my grandmother just add more to that luckiness.

Farewell Gran. May you find eternal peace and be reunited with your love. You will forever be remembered.

Kitties for Mush

2011-11-13T22:09:00.001-05:00

Mike called 'Aunt' tonight, as we needed Mush's mailing address so that we can ship off some books of kitty photos that we put together for her. She has been asking for photos of the kitties so we thought what better way than to send her books which contained both photos and some scrapbooking pages which give some stories into their personalities over the last couple of years.For 'Aunt', I am posting the books here so that she can also see them, as I have been very neglectful in actually posting anything on the blog... sorry...

Kittens - Softcover:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Kittens - Baby Photos:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Kittens for Mush:Some more recent photos along with older favorites:

Click here to view this photo book larger

Things we had forgotten... part 1: the grocery store

2011-07-06T11:15:00.001-04:00

We went back to Alberta, Canada this past week for my grandmother's 100th birthday party. In doing so, we spent some time with our families and were reintroduced to a few things we had forgotten about life in Canada.

We went grocery shopping and were reintroduced to the common courtesy of saying "excuse me", "thank you" and the stereotypical Canadian "sorry". It doesn't seem like much to use those few words when dealing with others in a grocery store but it almost made our jaws hit the floor the first time someone moved their cart out of our way blocking the aisle and said "sorry", or when we moved our cart out of someone's way and they said "thank you". Little words but when you haven't heard them very often at all in the last few years, it sure has a big impact on you when you do hear them.

The grocery store visit was even more eye opening in other ways, most namely, the prices now. Something that we routinely buy in the US for $8 was $12 and then we also got to add on $0.10 each bottle (6 in total) for bottle deposit and $0.01 each bottle for enviro/recycle fee, bringing the total cost up to almost $13 for the same thing as our usual $8. Oh and then, don't forget to add in the now lower US to Canadian dollar exchange rate making Canada far from the "cheap" shopping of years ago.

The grocery stores look very similar from the outside and from the inside but once you add in the different attitudes of the people in them and the bigger price labels on the shelves, they are very far apart in terms of being similar.

If we can add in a little more common courtesy of patrons in grocery stores around these parts, it would make grocery shopping such a better experience. Don't get me wrong, we do see some but not nearly enough or as firmly ingrained in the general public as it still seems to be back in Canada. It was a good reminder to us to remember to continue to use our "thank you"s, "excuse me"s and "sorry"s... for we have also gotten lax in doing so and maybe if we keep doing it, it might rub off on another and so on and so on...

Part 2... the differences in the credit card systems

Vacation update on hold due to...

2011-04-08T14:59:00.001-04:00

I have been meaning to get to our update on our vacation but it has felt like a couple of very long weeks since we were on it. Both Mike and I really felt out of it the first week back due to trying to get our land legs back. We haven't been eating too well because of the nausea associated with trying to get our land legs back.

Mike seems better now. However, I am still battling nausea but not because of the cruise anymore but because it is an unfortunate side effect of my pain medication that I was battling before the cruise, during the cruise and still now.

I had my follow up Dr visit this week and because it is still considered one of the safest of this type of pain medication, they gave me another medication to hopefully help the stomach problems... yet another 'ole lady drug... Pepcid prescription for acid reflux/possible stomach ulcer.

I go back again next month to see if this helps because they don't like prescribing actual anti-nausea meds with it because of the potential to cause seizures. Ya, no thank you on that side effect. Nausea is annoying and bothersome but seizures scare the crap out of me.

Mike and I have been talking and we are beginning to think that dealing with the pain might be a better alternative to the constant nausea and other possible reactions. I have developed a pretty high pain threshold over the years but the constant nausea is kicking my ass hardcore. Most days I am useless for more than a couple of hours at a time and then I need to lie down to try to stop the nausea for awhile. I am hardly eating and when I do, it just makes things worse.

It also worries us that there are a lot of reports of people who have very nasty withdrawals going off of this med. More than a few have reported it as being as bad as or worse than heroine withdrawals. Those reports seem to be from people who have been on it 2 years+ so I am still a long ways from that but it is still worrisome.

So we are being cautious and weighing the benefits of the pain free being to the side effects... Going to give it this month and see if the pepcid helps with the nausea or not.

As well, going to see if I can keep the pain away still by reducing the dose. The prescription has been for 3 times a day until this month when they changed it to 3 times a day as needed giving me some flexibility in seeing if a lower dose will keep the pain away as well as help lower the side effects.

Tomorrow is my 36th birthday and I think it is official, my line up of medications is telling me I have entered middle age!! I am even having to use one of those 4 slots/day 7 day pill organizers to keep everything straight. Uggg... middle age you suck!!

Even as bad as this may sound, Mike and I are doing well. It is spring here and the weather has been pretty nice. We are starting to talk of our summer house renovation plans. We still have a number of small projects to finish inside and would like to make the outside look better and the backyard more of an oasis to spend time out in.

Heather
Sent from my iPhone

We went on vacation!

2011-03-30T17:17:00.000-04:00

I have been wanting to write about our vacation for quite awhile, however, I couldn't ahead of time for one main reason... it was to be a surprise for Mike's mom, Aunt and Uncle.

Aunt sends us letters consistently keeping us up to date on what they have been up and what they have planned for the coming months. About 2 months ago, we got one of these letters in which she shared the details of Aunt, Uncle and Heather (Mike's mom) taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera.

In reading this, the idea struck me that Mike and I could surprise them and take the same cruise as a family getaway. I checked on the prices before Mike got home and had a chance to read the letter. Once he did, I asked him what he thought of the idea and he was on board 100% right from the start, however, he wanted to contact Aunt to be sure of details and in case for some reason they weren't going to go, we would know ahead of time. Aunt promised to help us keep our secret and was very welcoming to the idea of us ambushing their cruise. By that evening, we had the cat/house sitter contacted & booked, had booked our cruise room and bought our flights. In a very few short hours, we went from not having any vacation plans or even thinking about going on one to a completely booked and planned vacation & surprise.

Aunt was VERY good about keeping our secret, however, due to unfortunate circumstances, Aunt and Uncle had to cancel about a week ahead for medical reasons so called to see what we wanted to do about our secret. We got on a three way call with Aunt, Uncle, us and Heather so that we could break the news that Aunt & Uncle weren't going to be able to go but that we had everything planned to surprise her and take the cruise with her. It wasn't quite the way we had planned to break the surprise to her but we still got to hear her on the phone and knowing that she wasn't going to cancel as well and that we would be seeing each other in about a week.

We were very sorry that Aunt and Uncle weren't able to join us too but we hope to see them in a few months and have a good visit then. Whenever we go back to visit family, we tend to stay with my family which means that we tend to spend the most time with them. We are going to make a better effort on our next trip of making sure that we set aside a good chunk of time to have a good visit with Aunt and Uncle as we miss them very much. We are hoping that Uncle will have had his surgery by then and is doing better again. Our fingers and hearts are crossed that he will be feeling better very soon. (Get well Uncle!)

We had a very nice visit with Mike's mom on the cruise. We got together for most lunches and every night for dinner. We also booked the same excursion as her for La Paz and had a lovely time.

We have been back since very late Sunday night but these first few days back, we have been feeling very off and trying to get back to our land feet again. It was a very rough week for cruise weather which hit us like never before so it has been much more difficult to get back to normal afterwards... I am so ready for the world to stop swaying & spinning already!! More on that in another post... still working on photos and scrapbook pages about it... so to be continued over the next few days...

Until then... I did manage to crop a photo to create a new online avatar for myself as it is way overdue for a new one... so my vacation avatar... in color and b&w... not sure which I like better yet... leaning towards the b&w I think...

The adult kitty vet visit

2011-03-10T10:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the adult kitty vet visit. We have it spaced out so that the 3 older cats go to the vet for their annual checkups and shots in the spring and the 2 younger ones go in the fall.

Pickles is calm going but will growl at Cosmo to shut up being as he is vocal the ENTIRE way... from getting into the carrier, to the drive, to waiting in the office (even while holding on for dear life), to during the visit, to after his shots are done, to the drive home and for a short while upon returning home even. Tasha likes to try to hide in her carrier, hoping that the vet won't find her... but that never happens.

They all looked to be in great health and have all lost considerable weight so our latest food switch for them appears to be the right combination. Cosmo and Pickles have both lost over 2 pounds putting them just slightly over 12 lbs each and Tasha lost over a pound putting her at just slightly over 10 lbs. They are almost down to the weight that the vet thinks would be ideal for them and was very happy with how much progress they made in the last year with losing the weight.

Cosmo's paws are also looking great from the switch as the vet thought the puffiness and soreness last fall might be allergy related.

Pain Management Follow Up

2011-02-02T14:18:00.000-05:00

Today I had my first pain management follow up to discuss the results of my procedures and further course of action.

The caudal steroid injection has proven to be wonderful! My legs and lower back aren't achy anymore and I finally am getting consistent and restful nights of sleep. The nerve conductivity test showed that I have radiculopathy (nerve compression) at my S1 (sacral) region affecting my legs.

Our insurance company rejected the initial request for MRI coverage so the Dr. is contacting them further to try and get it approved so that he can get more specific information as to what is causing the radiculopathy to determine future course of action. For the time being, the caudal steroid injection is keeping the pain away which I am very thankful for so I am hoping that they are able to get the insurance company to reconsider the MRI, otherwise, we may be looking into what the full cost of it would be to have it done without insurance coverage.

The cervical medial nerve block however wasn't helpful in reducing my neck pain and headaches. It didn't appear to have any impact on it at all so this Friday, he is sending me to have another procedure done: Trigger Point Injections at the base of my skull which instead of targeting the nerves will target getting the muscles that the nerves go through to relax. I am not sure how I like the sound of that but the cervical medial nerve block was uncomfortable but not as bad as I was thinking it could be so this hopefully won't be much worse.

I was initially expecting the injections for the cervical medial nerve block to be done at the base of my skull but instead they were performed through the center of my shoulders at the base of my neck. So I already have myself somewhat mentally prepared for having needles stuck into the back of my skull.

Fingers crossed this helps! If we can get rid of these headaches and neck pain, I will feel like a mid 30s year old and not a senior citizen again! The back & legs are feeling great so here's to figuring out how to get some neck/head relief and then figuring out how to keep it & the leg pain away permanently.

Update for the MIL & family, friends who care to know what's up

2011-01-15T09:10:00.000-05:00

So from time to time my mother in law gently nudges that it has been quite awhile since I have posted any information here... not that we have been up to much but I guess I can take a stab at trying to let you know a bit of what we have been doing.

Not much scrapping lately as I haven't taken many photos and those that I have, aren't that interesting as they have to do with doctor's offices mainly.

I guess the most current news is that I am going through some pain management procedures. After years of having nagging, achy pain in my lower back & down most of my legs, I seemed to have aggravated one foot after a fall last spring which has lead to some more testing and belief by the doctors that my foot pain is actually originating from my nerve roots at my lower back.

My regular doctor referred me to a podiatrist who then referred me to the pain management doctors as they have access to more treatments which he felt would be more beneficial... so after a few months of back & forth of doctors, I am now at a point where I am getting treatment.

The accident just finally made the nerves down at my foot more inflamed to notice the pain all the way down and have it affect my ability to walk comfortably. He did an injection on my ankle which was by far one of the most painful medical procedures I had ever had done before... second only to having my muscle biopsy which they had to take out "fresh" so couldn't freeze it but only slightly numb the top skin when they cut it out. My ankle was sore for a good week before the pain of the injection was gone and the steroid had begun to kick in. That has helped a lot but not gotten rid of it, which is why I am now going through further treatments.

*knock on wood* other than 1 minor little stumble at home tripping on the door mat, since going to the gym for strength training last summer, I haven't had any more falls. My ankles and balance have gotten stronger and walking more steady. Still having trouble with stairs and curbs but those are getting better slowly as well. We have discovered that my stepping down with stairs seems to have a lot to do with overly tight muscles that I need to get relaxed better and stretched out.

So onto the pain management procedures... I have gone through a set of nerve conduction velocity testing & electromyography which I am awaiting results from... beginning of February for those.

On Friday, I had the first really invasive procedure completed - a caudal steroid injection... essentially a large xray guided needle injection into the epidural space at the base of the spine... a big ole needle to the ass (well, top of ass crack location wise) in layman's terms.

It isn't what you would call a comfortable procedure but also not that horrible either. I chose to do it without sedation as I am not fully comfortable with the idea of sedation so if I can manage through the pain, I prefer to. They cleanse & numb the area first which is just your typical pinch & slight burn type of needle injection. Then they guide the injection needle into place with the guidance of an xray... this is probably the most uncomfortable part as they have to guide it into the epidural space which means maneuvering it around bone and just plain uncomfortable having a needle moved around while inside you. Needles hitting/maneuvering bone is painful, not make you scream painful but make you wince good painful. Once they believe they have it where it is needed, they inject xray dye into the area to see how the injection spread is going to be when they inject the medication. This isn't bad, only slight pressure and a warm sensation. Once they have determined it is positioned to give a good spread of medication, they begin injecting it. My surgeon was very nice about this and went slowly and told me to let him know if the pressure ever got too much and that he could stop a moment to let the pressure decrease or slow the rate of injection. I was dealing with it but I guess since I was hooked up to a heart rate monitor, he had a better idea of how I was really doing than I told him as I can control it to some degree with deep breathing through pain but apparently he didn't think well enough at one point and stopped a moment to let it subside and then slowly finished the injection. Once the injection was finished, the needle was removed and I was good to get up slowly. Whole procedure from intake to outtake only took just over an hour. Was in at 8:30am and out by about 9:45am.

It will take a few days for the medication to start working but until then, I will still have mild discomfort over having a needle injected into my spine. Sitting at first was pretty uncomfortable as it had a slight sensation like the needle was back in it. Sitting in the car for the ride home was probably the most awkward time, I kind of had to prop myself up so I was more pushing my feet against the floor and my back against the seat so that I was in a semi-laying down state and not sitting on my backside directly.

I spent most of the afternoon lying in bed as sitting for any length of time was uncomfortable and achy. Once I was due to take another of my regular pain killers after the procedure, that helped a fair bit with the mild discomfort from the procedure. By the end of the night, I was able to sit up for longer and longer. After a night's rest, it is feeling a lot better. Still a little mild ache but as long as I make sure to get up and walk around from time to time and not sit all day, I think it will be just fine.

Next week, they will be performing another procedure but that time, on my neck which has always given me trouble and which I found out a couple years ago is already showing signs of arthritis. From the exam at the pain specialists, he suspects that I have facet joint syndrome in my neck, most pronounced on my right side so is going to have the surgeon do a cervical medial branch block procedure next Friday. The procedure sounds pretty similar to the caudal injection but will be either 2 or 4 needle injections (depending on which surgeon as there are 2 methods of doing it - can either hit 2 areas with 1 injection repositioning between actual injections so 2 injections for 4 areas or the other method of doing 1 injection for each 1 of the 4 areas. That procedure is supposed to give immediate results and I will need to keep track of the percentage level of improvement and duration to determine its effectiveness and whether a more permanent injection is needed or if they have to try additional nerve block levels to isolate the exact cause first.

I am a little more worried about doing that procedure without sedation as the surgeon said it isn't that bad but because there are a lot of muscles in the area, the needle injections do have to go through the muscles and that can be pretty uncomfortable. I am not comfortable with letting people touch my neck so much so am nervous to have it done but really hopeful that it will be effective. He does lots of them with and without sedation so it is my preference.

From speaking with a lady in the treatment waiting area, I am still more inclined to go without sedation as she said she really doesn't like the effects of the sedation as they are a lot more long lasting than the short duration pain of the procedure - nausea, dizziness and just feeling really out of it as well as there being more possible complications with sedation always. She wasn't having it that day because she had had a couple sips of green tea before going and was therefore, discouraged from having it as it could potentially cause her to aspire it into her lungs with the potential of deadly pneumonia. Something that small could have dire consequences so I like my preference of short term suffer for avoiding more possible consequences.

They are also scheduling me for a head and spine MRI but I don't have dates for those yet. My follow up from the nerve/muscle test and these 2 procedures is the beginning of February (2 weeks after next week's procedure is done so they can monitor their progress and effectiveness) and they are hoping to have the MRIs done and results by then as well so awaiting finding out when those will be. Based on those results, we will build the long term treatment plan.

So age 35 hit and I finally am sick and tired of mild to moderate discomfort continuously making me cranky and withdrawn as it is easier to suffer home alone than put on a happy face and go out, so seeking treatment to lead to long term pain relief hopefully as chiropractic and massage treatments help but results are very short lived... hoping to be pain free or well on the way to it by the time my birthday this spring rolls around.

So far, the medical bills have been better than expected with more appearing to be covered by insurance than it first appeared... knock on wood that remains as so far, we just have to go by what the doctor's office has charged us and haven't yet received the statement of benefits from the insurance company to know if we need to cover more. The doctor's office has gotten prior approval for the procedures so fingers crossed tightly that it all goes through as expected. The MRIs we know will likely be the large bills as they aren't fully covered by insurance so will be forking out 20-40% of those costs at minimum as our deductibles are also brand new for the year so haven't exhausted those yet.

We stayed within budget well last year, are expecting a tax refund finally this year and built up savings a bit so other than really missing the Canadian health care system where you didn't have to worry about doctor's bills, unless something more serious is discovered, things should be quite manageable... which is good news as I am the finance worrier/manager of the family so hate seeing me cost us so much... but like the expense for the gym, unless we are healthy and enjoying life, what is the point of having it in the bank?

So that is my news for the time being... just heard the alarm clock go off so best check to see if Mike is ignoring it again being a Sat morning or if I have to nudge him out as he has things he wanted to do this morning.

Oh and since this is aimed primarily at the mother in law & aunt :) Mike is doing well. His last doctor's check up had his numbers the best they have been in years. The gym is really helping to get his health better and he is building up some nice, strong muscles that are soon going to need larger sleeves to contain. :)

Happy Birthday Mike...

2010-10-12T19:33:00.000-04:00

and a lil dose of embarrassment for your 40th... live entertainment serenaded him & teased a little too at Season's Bistro.

Dahlonega Waterfall

2010-09-16T12:57:00.000-04:00

I am going to have to pull out my Dahlonega, GA area map to determine which of the falls this was as we visited 3 different ones but it was the last one & most impressive one we visited on our hiking excursions. It was the one that we were told we could spend a lot of time at so left it for last and it was well worth the wait.

More photos to come soon... but not yet... gotta stretch them out as I haven't been taking a lot of photos lately so need to conserve my scrapping material. ;)

Cabin recluse

2010-09-14T13:27:00.001-04:00

I have been given a gentle prodding from the MIL that news from our direction has been sparse lately.

It begins with my self imposed pull back from spending so much of my days reading facebook, forums, etc.. I have been more solitary lately. Focusing more on our little world and family than on the larger world around us. A calm, more content life together.

Mike went to Dragon*Con on the Sept long weekend with Amy & Jared. They all seemed to have a good time. It was also nice that they came in a day earlier so we all got to spend a day together before I saw them all disappear into downtown Atlanta from Thursday to Monday noon. Well, Amy & Jared spent Thursday in Atlanta while Mike & I were home after getting his pass so they could have some alone tine as it was technically their honeymoon.

Once I picked Mike up on Monday, we spent the rest of the day and Tuesday morning playing some EQ2 together before getting in the car and heading for our mini vacation.

We rented a little cabin up near Dahlongea, GA. It was an older cabin but nice, clean and functional. We picked it because it had a hot tub in the cabin rather than outside. It was very nice and just what we were looking for.

We were just looking to get away and relax a little away from work, technology and having to do anything specific for a few days.

Mike read a lot... in bed with tea... in the hot tub... on the couch. He had a great time just relaxing and getting some reading in.

I scrapped a page about it yesterday here: http://www.designhousedigital.com/gallery/decorator-gallery/p4756-relaxing-with-a-book.html

We also went and did some hiking on Thursday and Friday to see some very nice waterfalls. I haven't looked at those photos yet so they will be to come soon.

Hiking in the GA mountains isn't quite what we are used to as "mountain hiking". It was still in the mid 80s for temperature and very humid. Nothing like the cool, refreshing mountain hiking we have done before. However, it still smelled and sounded great.

When we got back on Friday after, we began playing EQ2 again as that is what Mike requested to do for the remainder of his holiday before going back to work on Monday. He wanted help with his new little healer toon - a warden. We did very well and learned a lot of new instances thanks to a new online friend I met when they were all at Dragon*Con and I was home alone.

So not a lot new around here. We resume our training at the gym tonight after a 2 week break for Dragon*Con and then our holiday.

Aside from Mike waking with a sore throat this morning, we all seem to be well and healthy.

Until the waterfall photos...

Heather
Sent from my iPhone

Navigon GPS app for the iPhone 4

2010-07-14T20:14:00.000-04:00

We bought the Navigon GPS app for the iPhone this week and picked up an audio cable and dock today to really try it out in the car. Swoon! With the iPhone connected to the aux audio of the car, we can play our iTunes music while having the Navigon app handle our navigation needs.

What is really nice about it, is that when it is time for audio navigation directions, the app quiets the music but keeps it in the background while it gives the instructions. No more trying to hear the navigation over the music and no abrupt silencing of the music.

The app itself looks to be a really nice piece of GPS software and we will give it a really good workout on an upcoming road trip.

It has already proven to be able to find an address which Google maps has problems with. So far, we give it an A. Likely to tack on a + or two once we have used it longer.

How to use Mini-Bridge with your Smart Collections in Photoshop CS5

2010-06-17T22:52:00.006-04:00

This video is a companion video to my previous video about how to tag your digital scrapbook supplies in Bridge and then organize and access them using smart collections.

It is set to open in a new window, so please allow pop ups for this site or visit here directly for the video.

How to Tag Digital Scrapbook Supplies in Bridge & Smart Collections

2010-06-17T22:51:00.003-04:00

This little video is going to show how I use Bridge to tag my digital scrapbooking supplies and then create smart collections to organize and group my files together for easy finding of specific items.

It is set to open in a new window, so please allow pop ups for this site or visit here directly for the video.

Couponing again... this is kinda fun

2010-06-15T17:53:00.001-04:00

I have been couponing again and this is kinda fun... I am liking the checkout prices for my carts much better! Two weeks and two trips to Target where I have left with a good number of items (which we will use) for under $20.00!

Yesterday I sat down and printed out some coupons and got them organized to go to the stores; Target and CVS. I decided this week would be my first week to check out what all the buzz about CVS and their ECB (Extra Bucks) was about.

So I went into CVS, took a couple of minutes to fill out the form to get myself one of their CVS ExtraCare cards. Then I set out to pick up some deals. Here is what I ended up with:

2, 4-pack Dt. Pepsi cans @ $1.25 reg each $1.00 sale each for a total of $0.50 savings on something we are cutting out of our lives but isn't completely gone yet and is a big money sink for us
a box of Betty Crocker Brownie mix @ $2.39 reg $1.00 sale for a savings of $1.39
a bottle of Old Spice Head and Body Wash @ $4.99 reg $4.00 sale + $4.00 in ECB for a net cost of FREE
a Schick Hydro 5 Razoe @ $9.99 reg $8.97 sale + $4.00 in ECB + 8.97 Schick mail in rebate for a net MONEY MAKER of $4.00
2, Right Guard Total Defense 5 Deoderants @ $4.49 reg each BOGO sale + $3.00 off on purchase of 2 coupon for a net cost for the 2 of them of $1.49

Total Regular Cost of above items: $23.96
Total Price with CVS Card Savings: $20.46 + $8.00 in Extra Bucks = $12.46
Total Price with CVS Card and $3.00 Manufacturer Coupon: $9.46
Total Sale Price with Coupons and Rebates: $0.49

Yes, really!! After sales, coupons, Extra Bucks and mail in rebate, all of the above cost me less than a dollar. CVS, you are my new hero.

Target had some good deals as well this week but my total still ended up being a fair bit larger than what my net cost at CVS was.

Here is what I picked up at Target:

Glade Air and Fabric Freshener @ $3.54 reg $0.54 after coupons ($2.00 Target + $1 Manufacturer)
Scrubbing Bubbles Shower Spray @ $6.99reg MONEY MAKER $1.01 after sale and coupons (it appears this week Target has this reduced down to $6.99 from $8.69 last week + $3.00 Target coupon + $5.00 manufacturer coupon... I was expecting it to be another $0.69 bottle but I sure won't complain about making money on the purchase!!)
Shout bottle @ $1.97 reg $0.42 after coupons ($1.00 Target + $0.55 Manufacturer)
Twizzlers @ $2.99 reg $2.49 sale $1.99 after coupons ($0.50 Target)
2 Old El Paso Taco Seasoning @ $0.65 reg each $0.35 each after coupon ($0.60 Manufacturer on purchase of 2)
6-pack bottles of Diet Pepsi @4.39 reg $3.50 sale $2.50 after coupon ($1.00 Target)
Clean and Clear Moisturizer @ $6.49 reg $2.00 sale $FREE after coupon ($2.00 Manufacturer)
Ziploc Containers @ $2.19 reg $1.19 after coupon ($1.00 Target)
Nexcare Bandages @ $1.90 reg $0.90 after coupon ($1.00 Manufacturer)
Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Gel + Fresh Brush Wand Refill Package - buy the toilet gel, get the wand refills free @ $7.88 reg for package $3.94 after coupon ($3.94 Target for package deal)
Dove Deodorant + Dove Body Mist package - buy the deoderant, get the body mist free @ $6.98 reg $3.49 for package deal $0.99 after package deal and coupons ($1.00 Target + $1.50 Manufacturer)

Total Reg Cost at Target: $46.62
Total Sale Cost at Target: $37.25
Total Cost after Sales and Coupons: $12.16

Coupon Savings @ Target = 25.09

Today In Summary:
Current Out of Pocket Expense: $29.62

Mail In Rebate: $8.97

CVS Extra Bucks to Spend (same as cash coupons to apply to any purchase at CVS): $8.00

Total Net Cost of Today's Purchases: $12.65 for $70.58 worth of products
Total Savings for Today's Purchases: $57.93

Having fun with coupons!

2010-06-07T15:55:00.000-04:00

Who doesn't love to save some money? I know I do! Enter... coupons...

Are they really worth the time & hassle? For me, the answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no. The reason my answer changes is that we tend not to stock a large pantry because simply, we don't have the space to do so. In addition, we don't tend to eat a lot of the prepackaged, very processed foods that you find for most coupons nor do we use a lot of chemicals and cleaners in our house. We tend to lean more towards the fresh foods and more environmental cleaning methods of steam floor cleaning and plain old soap & water.

However, I have been more interested in knowing whether or not I could shave off some more of our spending if I were to pay closer attention to coupons. So for the last few months, I have been subscribed to a few different coupon saving blogs (favorite being: Money Saving Mom) and watching the reports of good deals. I have used the odd coupon here and there but not a lot on any one shopping trip to really feel like a big savings... until today.

It began with me seeing a few deals which looked like items we use or have been wondering about using. So I went to the sites, printed off some coupons and got them all organized to make a trip out to Target. There was also one for an online medical supplies store which I decided I would check out being it was a coupon for $10 off any order.

So I began my couponing day by going to Medco Health Store and finding that they do carry Breath Right nose strips. Mike finds they help him a lot with breathing at night and work much better than any of the generics so we have been splurging on the brand name ones for him. They definitely aren't cheap but he does find them so useful so it is worth it for him to get good night's sleep... and snore less for me ;) Their prices seem close to what we pay elsewhere for them and they offer 99cent shipping which keeps the pricing reasonable. Add in a $10 coupon and yippee! A 38 count box shipped for $5.98. That is a price I much prefer to what we have been paying.

Then I was off to Target, where I picked up the following items with coupons...

a loaf of bread, 2 containers of deli meats, a bottle of Shout stain remover, a starter spray bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles Daily Shower power spray & refill, a box of Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaning Gel, a box of Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Brush Max refills, and a 2 pack of Viva paper towels. The price of the above without coupons at Target would have come to $35.94 + tax. However, enter coupon power! and my final price after coupons for all of the above was $12.92 + tax. A savings of $23.02 all because of taking a few minutes to print off some coupons.

The bread and deli meats were a package deal savings. Target had the deli meats on special that if you bought 2, you got a loaf of their Market Fresh sliced bread free. Since I was already going to be picking up a loaf of bread and some deli meat, I decided it worked out cheaper if I bought the extra container of deli meat and got the bread for free. The deli meat was cheaper than the loaf of bread and also each container had a coupon for an additional 55cents off each deli meat container. Total price for this combo: $9.47 before coupons for all, $6.48 before coupons just for 1 meat & loaf of bread as I intended to buy and $4.88 after coupons for all.

The bottle of Shout stain remover I unfortunately wasn't able to get one of the manufacturer's 75cents off coupons online because they were all out. However, the bottle did have a manufacturer's coupon on it for 55cents off. Combined with Target's $1 off coupon, it made for a very affordable bottle of Shout. $1.97 before coupons, $0.42 after coupons.

The Scrubbing Bubbles Daily Shower power spray is something that Mike & I have been looking at but never tried before. Seeing the deal on Money Saving Mom, I knew today was my day to get it and give it a try. This was an experience in making coupons work for you! Target had a $3 off coupon for the starter spray bottle and I was able to get an online coupon from the manufacturer for $5 off the starter spray bottle. Being that one was a store coupon and one was a manufacturer coupon, they could be stacked - yippee! I also was able to print off a manufacturer coupon online for buy the starter spray bottle and get a free refill, up to $3.99. This stacking mostly worked, however, I did have to go to Target's customer service to get the buy the starter spray bottle & get a free refill redeemed as it didn't automatically accept it at the cash register. A couple minutes of my time was well worth the $3.94 savings for the refill. The final price for the starter spray bottle & a refill was $12.63 before coupons or an amazing $0.69 after coupons! How could I not pick it up & give it a try for that price??

Scrubbing Bubbles also had manufacturer coupons for buy a box of their Toilet Cleaning Gel and get a free Fresh Brush 2in1 starter box or refills up to $7. Since we already have the Fresh Brush wands, I opted to pick up a box of the Fresh Brush Max refills as my supply of them was running low. We have used their Toilet Cleaning Gel before and we are kind of here or there on it. However, when I can buy it for the same price as the Fresh Brush Max refills I would already be buying and get the refills free, why not get it. It is nice to have, we just wouldn't necessarily always buy them. Total price for the pair was $7.88 before coupons, $3.94 after coupons. I did also have to have this deal done at the Customer Service desk because it didn't accept the coupon for some reason. I am wondering if it didn't accept it right away because they were expecting the 2in1 starter kit or the regular refills used with the coupon and not the max refills. Either way, Customer Service fixed it up quickly for me as they also said I had what the coupon says and it should have gone through.

The Viva paper towels are a brand Mike and I have found we quite like because of their cloth like properties and strength. Target had a $1 off a multipack of Viva paper towels. The nice thing is that "multipack" means anything more than a single roll so I picked up a double pack and was able to use the coupon on it. We don't go through a lot of paper towels quickly so prefer to buy smaller packages and not have a lot of extra to store for years. $3.99 before coupon, $2.99 after coupon.

A few moments of time printing off a few coupons today and I saved over $20! That is my kind of shopping!!

I also picked up a couple other things we were needing at Target while I was at it. Combine those items with these and how often can you pick up a few things at Target and actually make it out the door for under $20? What normally would have cost me almost $44, cost me about $18.50. I call that a successful trip and has re-energized my eyes to seek out coupon deals.

Have you found any great coupon deals lately? Have favorite coupon sites or blogs?

To scrap it or to scrap it...

2010-06-03T20:39:00.000-04:00

Whether to scrap it or to scrap it... as in whether to do a scrapbook page about our first week at the gym with the personal trainer or scrap it as in forget the first week and do a layout about it later once we have had more progress...

I tend to think that I should do a layout now about it to remind us later of where we began as it can only get better from here, right?! however, I am not sure that I would want to share the full and ugly truth about where we are starting out number-wise as they are pretty frightening. So to do a layout or not? share all the numbers or just a few? and then if I do, to share it or not?

I am getting better at facing myself and stating the facts, sharing my photos of myself, etc but am I really ready to get that "real" in public? I am not sure I am but at the same time, I think it would be good for myself to get that "real" with myself and what better way to face it than to just put it out there.

I am who I am and I am beginning to lose that bit of "Canadianism" of saying sorry... and now saying take me as I am. I am flawed but I think I also have a lot to give if you can take me in whole. At times I think that what I was brought up with in terms of the "Canadianism" of saying sorry and trying to please people and state things nicely comes across as not being "real" down here. It is understood as a way of communication in Canada but down here, it gets misconstrued sometimes... so I am trying harder to still keep the niceness but also get more "real" and people can take me as I am or not.

So my weight, my personality, my photos... it all comes down to how "real" am I ready to get with myself and with others? how secure am I with who I am to say "here I am, accept me or not, it's your gain or loss"... this journey is a physical one but with that, there are a lot of emotions that need to get worked out as well... I am ready for the physical journey... the emotional one I need to take as well but it is harder for me to work on... and maybe sharing it through my scrapping is the way I need to take the first steps...

Misc update & paying to have our butts whipped into shape...

2010-05-31T14:22:00.006-04:00

Well, it has been a long time since I have done an update on the blog. Since I recently got a letter from "Aunt", figured it was about time I did some updating.

Not a lot new in our lives... a lot of the same ole, same ole... mainly been doing a bit of scrapping, a little more cleaning than my usual (I am no housecleaner for sure but slowly getting better & house in more control), some photography processing, cooking at home more than eating out, playing with learning to use the ruffler for my sewing machine (not that I have accomplished sewing anything but practice so far) and general enjoying the summer weather. And Mike played softball this spring with work but that is finished now so mainly back to playing WOW for him.

We did replace our front doorway outdoor fixture this weekend with a three light multidirectional LED security motion/dusk-to-dawn fixture. WOW! It sure puts out the light! and being LED should be better on the pocketbook for energy usage as well as not require frequent bulb replacement. It took a bit of work to get the 3 lights aimed well to hit the areas we wanted it to without going too far to be an annoyance shining in neighbors houses. We think we have it now. It lights up our walk from the driveway, our sidewalk and all the way over to the edge of our lawn at the neighbors. A lot more powerful light than we expected but a very welcome sight. Being where our house is positioned on the curve of the street and placement of street lamps, our corner was very dark without it.

Mike also cut down a lot more of the hedges around our house as we are wanting to remove them and replace them with nicer plants that aren't going to overgrow as quickly and need constant trimming. These hedges we have are on super drive it appears in growing & need to go! It is chainsaw time now to finish removing them but the weather has been on & off rainy so not done yet.

Right now, the weather is nice and would be an ideal time to do it but we are tired and resting as we just got back from... paying to have our butts whipped into shape! Mike and I decided this week that enough was enough, we had been procrastinating long enough about getting back into shape. We went and signed up for a local gym on Thursday night. I went to the gym and did about an hour of mixture weights and elliptical/bike on Friday while Mike was at work. Then today, we had our first personal trainer appointment. We went through some of the basics and he put us through a short weight training routine which has us both fully aware of how out of shape we are but it felt good. We go again tomorrow night for our official first assessment and strength testing to develop individual plans for us.

It definitely isn't cheap but we also decided that being overweight and out of shape as we are is costing us a lot in terms of mobility, health and emotional happiness. We had made an agreement with ourselves that we would commit to going together 3 times a week. I had Mike commit to which nights/days per week he would put WOW aside and commit to going to the gym with me before we signed up so we have that set. The gym membership isn't that expensive each month as gyms go but the personal trainer is where it adds up!

However, from previous attempts at going to a gym, we have learned that we need that extra expertise to know how far to push us and how to push us. We need a specific plan of action to follow and measure progress against. With my muscle problems, I also need someone with more understanding of how muscles work together to know how to help me build the ones I need to strengthen and lengthen while being sure not to injury myself in the process.

So we decided that we could re prioritize and stretch our budget to afford personal training sessions 2 of our 3 times per week at the gym for 12 months. We felt that 1 might not be enough to get the results we want, while more than 2 times a week was financially prohibitive for our budget. As it turns out, our personal trainer offered that if we could go for the cost of the 2 times per week for a year, he would throw in the 3rd time per week at no extra cost. So we are now set for personal training 3 times a week for the next year as we figure if we don't have our health, there isn't much point in having extra savings either... the personal trainer and we think that we can accomplish our goals in the next 12 months so here is to beginning on that journey... we will succeed! it likely will be slow and hard fought but we will make it!

Our photos now...

Frustration runeth over...

2010-04-21T14:54:00.000-04:00

My brain is ready to explode from frustration... I have been trying to draft patterns to sew clothes for myself. Why you might ask... the answer is simple, my measurements don't fit into the mold of traditional patterns I could buy in the store and it seemed easier to try to start from scratch than to modify existing patterns. I have tried the modifying route before and had disastrous results. Well, I must say that even though I found a great book which has gotten me very close to having usable patterns, it hasn't resulted in an acceptable fit yet either. What the process has accomplished is making my frustration and hatred of myself grow by leaps and bounds. I am so frustrated with what a pain in the butt my body is to fit and how a simple dart can allude me from being in just the right spot to work... and being in that just not quite right spot makes it all so NOT working. I have however accomplished to be able to make myself a pattern for what ended up looking like a big ole potato sack dress when I made a mockup of it. So I am back where I have been for years now... resigning myself to buy ready made clothes that don't fit me any better and which end up having no shape at all either in order to fit my larger curves as I can either have them fit my larger curves or I can try to go for something more fitted and end up hating the way it feels when I move. Give me a paper bag & a dark room please. I will just live here.

I haven't had a lot of luck lately making clothes that fit Kinley either so that isn't an option that is even sounding very appealing at the moment.

So now what to do with the bundle of fabric I bought for making myself clothes with gift certificates I received for my birthday??

At the moment, the only successful project that I can think I have done lately and which I could use some of the fabric for is to make myself another sling bag... but I have way more fabric than I need for that.

I really am not sure right now but I needed to vent my frustration which is causing me to have one heck of a horrid headache this afternoon. I am packing up my sewing and leaving it be for awhile as I am in no mood whatsoever to do anything with it now. I would rather leave the fabric packed up than ruin it by trying to make something when nothing at the moment is working out as intended.

So off to clean it up I go... which is good as we have company coming this weekend and I needed to pack it up anyways... I just thought I might have a project completed before I packed it up.

I hope your day is going better and your creative mojo is keeping you happy. If you find mine, would you ask it nicely to come back home. I miss it terribly.

Using Google Reader to browse DHD's gallery

2010-03-29T21:11:00.001-04:00

A friend was asking for help on how to use Google Reader to browse a scrapbooking gallery. So I put together these pretty basic instructions on how to do it.

Unfortunately, I am working on my laptop which doesn't have all of my neat little programs that my desktop has. So, this isn't ideally the way I would want to present these instructions but it is the best I can do until my desktop is back from service.

Why I love using Google Reader to browse galleries:

as I view the thumbnails of pages, it marks them as read so that I can always know which ones I have not viewed yet
I can click on a thumbnail of a page I want to comment on or look at larger and my place is never lost
I set my google reader to pull main galleries so I don't need to worry about which sub-gallery I am in or someone places a layout in, I see them all
if there is a specific person I want to follow & not miss a page, I can go direct to their member gallery & subscribe to it separately so that all of their layouts are in one place & I know if they have posted anything new or not

Those are just a few reasons of why I love using Google Reader. If you use it, what are some of your reasons? If you are new to it & try it out, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

PDF Versions:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

Click images for larger versions which are easier to read.

January & February Layouts - Shape Collage

2010-02-28T16:40:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Shape Collage, I was able to make a quick & easy collage of my layouts by month.

January 2010 Layouts:And February 2010 Layouts:

Design 365 February Edition

2010-02-28T15:39:00.003-05:00

I have completed my Design 365 layouts for February - yay! I have had them mostly finished for the last week but was waiting until I had the last couple of pages done to name them & save all together to post as a slideshow.

I again used Jen Allyson's Design 365 Album and Kit to do my pages... being February, I used the February Album & February Kit :) I am loving the consistent look yet difference in colors and slight styling because each month there are new templates and a new month kit to work with.

The complete month's set of layouts can be seen here: February 2010 Design 365 Layouts

If you check along the sidebar under the main blog archive, you will also see where these Design 365 galleries will reside each month. You can find January's there if you missed it.

Serging ahead with a Brother 1034D

2010-02-25T09:58:00.000-05:00

Isn't it always nice when finances ease up a bit so that you can justify buying something that you *want*? Not *need* but *want*! I was greeted with some wonderful news this week which has given me that exact opportunity. Not an opportunity to go nuts but an opportunity to pick out something that I would like and get it for myself just because. And that is exactly what I ended up doing at 2:33am today... yes, you read that right, 2:33 AM! that is when I finally decided I had done enough review reading on my options I was weighing and knew what I was going to be comfortable buying.

Thanks to online shopping, in a few short (but will feel like long) days, I will be serging ahead in my sewing with a Brother 1034D serger. In addition, I will have some fabrics coming with it to try out sewing with knit fabrics and try making myself a blouse I have been wanting to try making.

Who knew it would be so hard to decide what to spend money on. I guess I have begun getting back into the mindset of what do I need not what do I want. So a few things that were contemplated included a new video card, an off camera flash, a new camera lens, a coverstitch machine or a serger.

The new video card was fairly quickly dismissed as my current one (well, actually, my old one as my newer one recently died & I ended up swapping back to my old one) seems to be doing what I need it to without too much trouble or frustration. It is slower than my other one but I am not playing video games anymore and with my photo editing and scrapbooking, sure speed would be nice but it is doing just fine as is. I just need to be a little more patient which is a good thing to force me to be.

An off camera flash remains on my wish list however, with spring upon us and never really taking a lot of indoor photos (other than cats who never stay put anyways), it didn't seem like something that I would use an awful lot currently. It is put on the back burner for more towards fall/winter again or next time that I can justify spending a bit more & I don't have things on that list that I prioritize ahead of it.

Along the same lines was the decision about buying a new camera lens. Sure it would be nice but I really have enough lens to cover my needs. I will never be the super great photographer to justify having all sorts of lenses but what I do have, allows me to take pretty decent photos. I have my trusty 50mm f1.4 for indoor photos which usually suffices to capture the cats and other around the house shots I want. Then, I have my 18-250mm general use one which gives me a wide range of possibilities. I need to learn how to use my camera better (aka, put my knowledge into practical usage) before I could really justify getting a new one.

Then came the decision between a coverstitch machine and a serger... this one took quite a long time to make... well, long in terms of steady online review reading. I was narrowing down which coverstitch machine I would like if I were to get one but finding online pricing for it seemed to be a bit trickier. However, I did track down a price range... ~$800 with one exception but that exception came from an Amazon seller which had usually good reviews but the few bad reviews gave enough hesitation to not feel comfortable buying from them.

So in the end, I decided that I couldn't really justify the price of a coverstitch machine right now. I am not sure how much I would use it and don't even know how to use a serger yet which in many ways, it is very similar to. So serger was the decision. Thankfully for Stella who I know has been doing oodles of research before her purchases, the decison as to which one was already decided - the same one she has. It has seemed good from what I have seen/used it, I trust her research & decision and if I need help, she can walk me through using it. So an easy decision in that aspect.

Now where to buy from, that was another harder decision for me. I went back & forth between ordering from Walmart, Amazon or Fabric.com. The pricing across those were all pretty close. I decided in the end that I would go with Fabric.com as they are a local Atlanta business which means that it appears I should receive it a fair bit earlier than I would have if I had ordered from either of the other two places. I did pay a little higher price for it but that is the cost of my impatience now that I have decided what I want. As well, by ordering it from there, I lumped my fabric purchase with it so not only will the machine come but it will come with some fabric goodies.... my first time ordering fabric online which is a little nerve-wracking for me as I don't know my types of fabrics all that well yet but Stella has used them a bunch and had only good experiences with them. And well, I need to get over that fear because how wonderful is it to be able to pick out what you want at 2:33am & order it & it will be delivered direct to my door!

Now it is time to get some more scrapping done & finish up one more sewing project at least before it arrives!

If you are a scrapbooker, be sure to check out all the great $1 deals at Design House Digital's Dollar Days which is going on until the end of February at which time all those deals will revert back to their regular prices of $3.99. There are some really great items in there! I picked up Audrey Neal's Neutral Stock papers today and am dying to get to scrapping with them.

I will be back shortly to share some new pages...

Sewn into exhaustion

2010-02-18T15:22:00.000-05:00

Not sure if it is me trying to battle this nagging cough that I seem to be fighting off or that I have just tired myself out thinking & doing a lot of sewing... the day seems pretty good but when waking up, it feels like I spend the next couple of hours clearing out all the crud that settled into my head overnight.

I finished off little Drew's felt playhouse the other night and got it packaged up and mailed off yesterday. It is supposed to arrive tomorrow or Saturday so hopefully it does as that would time it about perfect for his upcoming birthday.

I have completed one set of rag alphabet letters (sitting in the clean laundry bin after having had their "distressing" wash) but need to start on the other set I have planned to make. I want to at least get started on them to see how I like the other fabric combination before I decide which set to give to Maise and which set to give to Kinley. I currently have the green wobbly felt backed ones done and the other set will have a pretty orange damask backing.

I began making them for Maise and decided I would do 2 sets so that I would have a set to give Kinley as well as she should be ready to begin learning to spell in not that long. However, the fabric combinations I have picked out, I am thinking that the first set (which is complete) would be a good one for Kinley & their house decor and the other set (not yet started) would be more of a color combo that would appeal to Erin (Maise's mom) so that means to accomplish the task I began out to do, I need to complete the second set shortly as well. They don't take all that terribly long to do and weren't hard to do or anything... the only problem I ran into is that they are hard on my fingers with how much hand cutting they take. The inside of a couple of my fingers are fairly raw from all the cutting that I would like to give them a little rest to recover. Next set, I will be sure to use moleskin or gloves to keep it from being so hard on the skin.

I also made a little art case to match Kinley's backpack the other day. It turned out well. I know what I would do a little different next time but I like how it looks. And even better, it already seems to work well as a distraction for keeping Kinley a little occupied in restaurants until our food comes... which is good as we seem to have a fair number of slow restaurants in our area. The adults begin to lose patience so it must be even harder on Kinley and she does really well.

Hmmm... still have a number of things left on my sewing todo list & having a ball completing them... but I also need to find some time to get a few more scrapbooking pages done. I am getting to have quite the backlog of photos to scrap including a number from these various projects.

My sewing todo list currently...

another rag alphabet letter set
another snugglie
modify & design a pair of toddler jeans to match what I have pictured in my mind
a coordinating top to go with the toddler jeans
modify a ready made tshirt into a coordinating top to go with the toddler jeans
make a pvc clothing frame for displaying the clothing sets on
modify another pattern for a toddler dress
make some felt flower hair clips

That is all that I can think of at the moment but I probably should write them down as I - or Stella ;) - thinks of them as my brain is getting where there is too many not yet done projects in it that if I put another in, one falls out. But I having a complete ball sewing again!!

Time for a nap & then more scrapping :) I *think* I have my ADSR5 race challenges now caught up so I can work on doing some unrestricted, fun scrapping.. and I have lots of great new releases from Design House Digital just waiting for me!!

Yesterday's sewing project

2010-02-12T11:15:00.004-05:00

I need to post some of my layouts that I did in January and so far in February but I keep thinking that I will do a collage posting of them instead of just showing them individually as well... I ended up doing almost 40 layouts in January. Not nearly as much in February so far but then I have been distracted with sewing & having fun with that too.

Stella put up photos of our project yesterday... making the official Kinley Marie bag for noone other than Miss Kinley herself. Stella included adorable photos of Kinley wearing it this morning on her blog if you would like to check it out.

Here is a close up of the embroidery applique that she made on her new embroidery machine to put on the front pocket of the backpack.
If you check out the backpack photos on her blog, please check out how well we matched up the prints that the pocket & main front body match! I know it is something small but it looks so sweet.

This morning, I had planned to do some scrapping but yesterday's project had my mind going over and over... I am still trying to figure out how to make my pattern quicker and easier to sew together. I think I came up with some things that are really going to help shave a lot of time off as well as eliminate the need for a number of steps off and make it easier to sew together. The previous method involved a lot of sewing of many, many layers together which was difficult because of how thick that ended up being in some areas.

We are trying to get Stella to open up an Etsy shop and start selling her sewing (& now embroidery too!) projects. At the moment, ideas for projects being thrown around are toddler backpacks, aprons, ruffle pants for kids, coordinating monogrammed (like embroidery applique above with or without the full name under it) tshirts for kids...

If you were looking to buy sewing items, what would you be interested in?

What price range would you be looking for the items to be between?

Have you bought sewn items from Etsy or someone's blog before? If so, what & for how much? How was the quality of the sewing?

I would really appreciate any input and suggestions as I think Stella would make beautiful items and think she just needs a little nudging that this could really be rewarding for her to give a go at. Kinley is the best dressed toddler I know!

Join Me For Some Sweet Talking!

2010-02-01T12:01:00.001-05:00

We’re kicking off a month-long challenge at one of my favorite sites today … the Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge at Log Your Memory!

I hope you’ll come on over and check it out today … there will be an entire month of scrapbooking challenges with a focus on “real life” journaling, plus the chance to earn points and prizes along the way! And if you’ve never visited before, you’re in for a treat! We have a wonderful group of friendly, helpful scrapbookers just waiting to say hello and show you around!

Get started by visiting the Log Your Memory Blog HERE and get ready to journal your way to becoming a Log Your Memory Sweet Talker!

(And tell them hguenthe (Heather Guenther) sent you!)

Design 365 Project - January 2010 Album

2010-02-01T11:52:00.001-05:00

I have completed my first month of my Design 365 Project and it is still only the first of February so I am feeling good about staying on top of it. I took photos daily but did let them stack up a bit before completing my layouts with them. I finished up all my month's layouts for January last night.

Once I finished them up, I decided that I was going to try out using Adobe Bridge's Output module and have it create a web gallery of my layouts so that I could see how they flow together. Such an easy process it turned out to be and I quite like the simple but striking way of showcasing them all together.

I have added a Design 365 Project section to my sidebar and added a link to my January album there. I plan to add in each month's web gallery link as I complete them.

What do you think of the web gallery? too boring? or just about right? suggestions for tweaks to it for next month?

Introducing the Kinley Marie backpack

2010-01-29T23:51:00.007-05:00

As I mentioned in my last posting, I was working on creating and sewing a new backpack from scratch. It was inspired by a Pottery Barn Kid's backpack. I sketched my variation of it and then set to work on turning it into an actual pattern... my first ever attempt at making a pattern from scratch. Wow, what an endeavor it has been but also probably one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I have such an huge feeling of accomplishment right now as I finished sewing together the backpack tonight.

My calculations worked out. I had a minor adjustment to make after my mock up but once I did that, the actual backpack went together wonderfully. Everything lined up and worked out as intended. I was a bit worried as I hadn't used zippers, piping, binding or lining in my mock up so that left for a lot more layers of fabrics and finicky sewing. But... it WORKED!! sorry, like I said before, I have such a huge feeling of accomplishment right now :)

I still have to go through and see if my intermediate step photos turned out and write up the pattern instructions along with some tips I would keep in mind if I or someone else makes it again. My sewing isn't perfect and there are some areas I wish I had been able to do better but I was pushing the limits of my machine in a few tight areas with putting on binding and getting in tight corners. However, I am very pleased with how the backpack turned out. I think it came out looking really adorable.

It was sewn together with some left over fabrics I had from another project so not only did I accomplish a new endeavor, I worked on clearing out some of my fabric stash instead of adding to it. Bonus!

And I will now stop typing and leave you with the photos so... I would like to introduce to you the Kinley Marie backpack, named after the cutie who inspired making a backpack in the first place and started this endeavor down its road...

A sewing interlude

2010-01-27T17:28:00.000-05:00

I have been taking a bit of a sewing interlude from scrapping this last week. It most definitely isn't from a lack of wonderful new releases coming out at Design House Digital as everytime I look in the store, there is more products I know must end up in my cart. However, due to the burdens of a woman's life & how nature works from time to time, I haven't had the energy or inclination to scrap this week.

Instead, I have been working away at the felt playhouse I am making for a friend's son. I am making good progress on it and quite liking how it is turning out. I am not working exclusively on it but rather working on it from time to time as I feel the inclination to do a bit more work on it. It is a good project for being able to work on a bit, put it away, and then work on another bit another time slowing making its way to completion. I have 3 sides about 75% complete each and then the other side is the front which will have the door and mail envelope so large chunks which shouldn't take too long to complete once I have the other sides done.

Here is a little sneak peek at a piece of it... it is my rendition of Jen Martakis' Nuts 4 U kit a la felt.

However, instead of working on it yesterday, Stella asked me if I would be willing to help her modify a pattern she found that she could buy to make Kinley a toddler backpack. She has found one at Pottery Barn Kids which she really likes & what isn't to like about it? it is drop dead adorable! However, when you are someone who can sew like Stella, it gets hard to justify what they want for it when she could make Kinley a made just for her one.

I took a look at the pattern that she found and the Pottery Barn one. After looking at them and doing some mental calculations as to how it was constructed, I came to the conclusion that I thought I could make my own pattern which would be closer to the Pottery Barn styling than the other one and it wouldn't cost Stella a thing for the pattern. The other one - yes, it is cute but it was very basic and definitely could whip up a pattern like it for way less than $6 for the pattern. And if Stella did decide to make more later, it also wouldn't cost her an additional $8 for a license to use the pattern to make more to sell. I think Stella thinks I am odd for finding this stuff fun but I do so it might not have been what she had in mind when she asked me if I would help her modify the pattern she found but I think in the end, she will still have what she was wanting to have design wise.

So I set to work on calculations and cutting out pieces of 8.5 X 11 paper into pattern pieces. Taped them together and came up with my paper backpack variation. Being that the paper is fairly stiff, it gave it a good framing for visualizing how it would look made up in a heavy fabric with some probable padding in areas.

It came out looking pretty good, in my opinion and most importantly, Stella thought it looked cute. So I set to taking it apart and turning the pieces into actual pattern pieces with seam allowances.

I did most of the pattern piece designing last night but finished up this morning. I ended up choosing to do a mock up of it first to make sure that my calculations were correct and that things were going to go together as I had mentally prepared them to.

To do my mock up, I took an old pillowcase and cut it apart to give myself a good sized piece of fabric to cut my pieces from. As it turns out, a pillowcase was perfect for doing the mock up. I was able to position all of my pieces to get them cut out of the main section of the pillowcase. Then I was able to cut the backpack bottom piece out of the top casing section of the pillowcase.

Throw in a little thread and some time sewing and my mock up came out looking about as planned. Being that it was made with an old pillowcase, the fabric is lightweight and not best suited for giving a tailored or stiffened look. The actual backpack would have piped edges, bound seams, be lined giving it more structure, have some padding in the straps and likely the back for comfort and the main area & front pocket would be closed with two way zippers. However, the mock up has proven to me that I have all of the pieces designed now, that the calculations work together and which order to put the pieces together.

I stuffed it with bubble wrap to get a better idea of how it would look. I think it will look a lot cuter once it is made out of fabric giving it more structure and a more tailored finished look. However, I am proud of myself for making my first ever project from scratch including making the pattern from nothing but paper, pen, rulers & tape.

Next step... make the actual bag :)

Revealed: My First DHD Blog Tutorial

2010-01-22T13:52:00.000-05:00

My first blog tutorial for Design House Digital is now up. It is on How to Weave Digital Elements.

Please link me up if you try it out or learned something new from it. What did you like? What could I have done better?

The layout that I created for it was inspired by Week #6's prompt in the Scrapbookers All-In-One Memory Logbook at Log Your Memory.

Sewing & Scrapping

2010-01-20T12:46:00.006-05:00

Sewing & Scrapping... that pretty much sums up the first couple weeks of January 2010.

With Design House Digital opening, I have had the delightful pleasure of scrapping with many, many wonderful new products. My latest layout that I did last night will be featured in my first DHD blog post later this week. It is a tutorial on weaving elements together to give your layouts a little more dimension and fun. I used the very cheerful and beautiful Lovestruck kits by Audrey Neal. Here is a sneak peek at it...

In addition to doing a lot of scrapping, I have done more sewing in the last week than I have done in quite awhile. I finished 3 projects and began on another which is likely going to take me a few weeks to complete.

I finished up a dress that I have had the materials and pattern to make for a couple of months for Kinley. I sure hope it fits as it is the first more fitted and toddler sized outfit I have made for her yet.

Then I did something that I haven't done in a very long time, I sewed a project for myself. It has only been on my todo list for probably 6 months now. I picked up a bunch of remnants to make myself a purse but couldn't decide on a pattern to make. I finally settled on the Margaret Sling bag. I followed most of her instructions but I wasn't pleased totally with how the pleats were done in the instructions so I added an extra step to make sure that the top portion of the pleat was closed and didn't want to pull open at all.

I love how it turned out but am totally sure that it is my kind of purse. But then, I am not sure any kind of purse is my kind of thing. If I made it again, I would have to rethink the pattern for the strap as the cross body sling strap may be good for most people but I am larger than I should be and my feminine curves mean that the strap should have been made a few inches longer if I really wanted to wear it as a cross body purse. It is a good length, a touch long but not bad, for over the shoulder but I have always had problems with purses never wanting to stay on my shoulder and not slide off.

And then Mike and I went to the store to pick out fabric for his Snuggie aka Snuglet. The tutorial/pattern calls for 3 yards of fabric but Mike decided that he wanted his to be double thickness so we picked up 6 yards and for his height, that worked well to add an extra 12" to the length. I cut off the 24" from the end which is what the tutorial calls for, for the sleeves. Since we didn't really need to make them double thickness, I left the other 24" which became his 12" added length once doubled over.

I then took the rest of the fabric & folded it in half. I then marked and cut out the arm holes. I pinned around the arm holes to be sure that they stayed lined up when I sewed up the side seams. Next, I stitched up the sides with french seams (leaving the top open for turning) as I much prefer their finished look to simple seams on something that you likely will see the wrong side often. French seams on that much fabric is a bit awkward but the finished look is so worth it.

Then I turned it right side out and sewed up the sleeves with french seams again so that they would be ready to be attached to the body of the snuggie. I then pinned and attached the sleeves and finished it with french seams. Lots and lots of french seams which made for a lot more sewing but I do so love the finished look.

Once the sleeves were attached, all that was left to do was to sew up the top. I folded the ends in and did a simple stitch across the top finishing it. Not the ideal way to finish the top but I am not one to like hand sewing at ALL! so it still looks neat and clean finished but not hidden like the rest of the seams.

Mike seems to really like it and it is definitely extremely cuddly warm. $30 well spent to get him one in a color he likes, is nice and thick and cuddly for him and has arms and length long enough for him. If anything it is a bit too long but there isn't really such a thing as too long in a blanket is there? He gets to tuck it all around his feet and be happy.

Do you think it gives off Monk or Jedi vibes?

My next project is another felt playhouse for a friend's son. However, this time, I am going on a smaller scale. The frame is about 35X35 inches cube and is going to be an animal sanctuary with lots of small critters crawling around in the grass or swimming in the river.

I am using some of my digital scrapbooking supplies to make my patterns for the pieces for the animals, trees, clouds, etc. And I am probably going to add in some monsters ARRR! as Spencer Nugent has some really cute ones in the store which would look really adorable and her son likes to say ARRR! to monsters. Still deciding if the monsters will have their own side of the playhouse or if they might be intermixed with the animals.

What do you think?

{Organize}ation Progress

2010-01-07T21:37:00.000-05:00

It is a good thing that you can't get digital papercuts from digital scrapbooking because if you could, I should be covered in them after this week. I have been having a blast scrapbooking with all of the new products at Design House Digital. Just when I am getting through scrapping with a bunch of my new supplies, it is Thursday and wow, new releases & a busy new releases day... over 70 new products! *(New Releases are on sale for 30% off on their day of release & new releases come out on Thursdays so be sure to stop by & shop the new releases when they are first released for the best prices)

I was caught up on having all of my digital scrapbooking supplies {organize}d but now have today's new purchases to get {organize}d and take a closer look at what all was included in each kit. It is such fun doing that closer look and seeing what little goodies I may have missed seeing on the previews.

It sure isn't helping me get my cleaning done but it has been a lot of fun. I have managed to get a fair bit of cleaning and even better, {organize}ing done around the house this last week however. I have a new sewing table and shelving unit complete with all of my sewing supplies {organize}d and put away neatly in wicker chests/baskets. It feels so good to look at it & if I can tear myself away from scrapping awhile, I could actually get some good progress done on my sewing projects.

From {organize}ing all of my sewing supplies, I learned that I have a fairly large wicker chest stuffed full of fabric cuts awaiting being assembled into various projects and another one stuffed with notions. I have some serious sewing to do before I can justify purchasing anymore fabric.

After seeing how the wicker baskets look on the shelving unit, I decided to buy a couple more that would fit the other side of my desk which is the printer stand shelving unit. So I bought another basket and another chest last night and {organize}d all of my paper & ink & cds/dvds into them. Now the complete desk looks nice and neat. I am loving it.

Around the house, I have {organize}d both of our bookshelves in our livingroom. Instead of just finding them boxes or make shift homes, I actually went through all of the papers and sorted them and filed the important papers away, threw out the garbage and shredded the rest. Part of the paper clean up was to clean out the couple of paper baskets I have on the wall next to my desk. Boy, does it ever feel good to look at them now and not see them stuffed beyond capacity with papers.... but now, my filing cabinets are stuffed... next will be to sort through them, scan and shred the really old papers that I likely don't need to hold onto any longer or that at least, a scanned copy will suffice.

So the house isn't looking totally clean yet but it is on its way and I have cut through the clutter so that the dusting & vacuuming part will just to make things shine again.

I could have accomplished a lot more this week had I spent more time on cleaning and not scrapping but well... I have all year to accomplish my goal of {organize}ing our house so I can afford some scrapping time, right?

Here are the pages that I have done this week... so far ;)

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Spencer Nugent - Monster Jam Papers, Carina Gardner - Essentials - Masks V.3, Jen Allyson - Design 365 - January Stamps, Audrey Neal - Organic Digital Kit

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Meredith Fenwick - A Year In The Life - 31 Day Template, Spencer Nugent - Bubble Gum Neutrals, Carina Gardner - Sugar & Spice Kit - Gemstones, Essentials - Papers V.1

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Spencer Nugent - Bubble Gum Aqua, For The Birds: Fying High, Rectangular Frames, Tiffany Tillman - Storyteller Template Collection #1

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Tiffany Tillman - Scrappable No. 8 Template, Audrey Neal - Organic Kit

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Deena Rutter - Design 365 Starter Kit, il faut Brights stripes, Melissa Esplin - Psychadelic Circus The Collection, Jen Allyson - Design 365 - January Kit

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Jen Allyson - Design 365 January Album, Design 365 January Kit, Design 365 Journal Papers, Carina Gardner - Essentials - Papers V.1, Essentials - Masks V.1 (used as a mask to blend the Journal paper into the solid background white paper)

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Audrey Neal - Pieces of Me, Carina Gardner - Essentials - Papers V.1

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Melissa Esplin - Psychadelic Circus The Collection

Credits:

All Design House Digital Products:

Meredith Fenwick - Diner Car Mini Kit, Carina Gardner - Essentials Frames V.2

It's here! & new layouts

2010-01-01T23:56:00.007-05:00

It's here! Design House Digital is open! (& everything is on sale for 30% off all weekend - Jan 1-3)

And now that it is here, I can post the layouts that I have been doing over the last couple of weeks anticipating its opening.

This is just a sampling of what is available in store as there is a lot more available now & more new coming every week.

Thanks for looking & I hope you enjoy them.

Credits: Jen Allyson @ DesignHouseDigital.com - Design 365 Kit, Design 365 Stamps, Jen Martakis @ twopeasinabucket.com - Simple Starts No. 10 Template, Subtle Shadows

Credits: All Design House Digital Products: Very Cherry MiniKit (background & bottom mask papers blended over slight grey at 20% & 100% respectively), Essentials - Masks V. 1

Inspired by Week 1 prompt of Scrappers All-In-One Memory Logbook 2010 available at Log Your Memory

Credits: All Design House Digital Products: Tiffany Tillman - Scrappable #5 Template, Jen Allyson - 365 Kit, 365 Journal Papers, Carina Gardner - Essentials - Stitching No. 2

Credits: All Design House Digital Products: Tiffany Tillman - Scrappable #27 Template, Carina Gardner - O Christmas Tree Paper No. 1, Paper No. 2, Ribbons & Stickers

Credits: All Design House Digital Products[/b]: Meredith Fenwick - Fancy Shapes No. 1, Carina Gardner - 365 Seven Photos Masks Distressed, O Christmas Tree Kit (paper, sticker, ribbon & card overlayed background paper for wordart/design), Essentials Papers No. 1

It's almost here...

2009-12-31T14:23:00.002-05:00

It's almost here...

What is "it's"? Well, "it's" is actually 3 things... The first three days of 2010 are already looking wonderful to me.

It will begin with ringing in the New Year tonight with the launch of Design House Digital!! As you know if you read my last post, I am very excited about this new site and all that it will bring to the scrapping community.

I have had the pleasure of scrapping with some of the new designs over the last week and am excited to share them with you once the site goes live.

For the Grand Opening, Design House Digital is having a 30% off the entire store sale for January 1-3. And when the Grand Opening is done, don't worry, there will be new releases released every Thursday and the new releases will be 30% off on their day of release! How cool is that?

If you are anything like me, you know what day is new release day at your favorite scrapbooking stores and are sure to pop over and see what new goodies you can get your hands on. You may buy a few and put a few more on your wish list for when they go on sale. But with Design House Digital, you won't have to wait until they go on sale as they will be on sale on their day of release! On sale just for the day of their release but how wonderful is that? Their weekly sale is on NEW products!

And then January 2nd brings even more good things my way. We are scheduled to have our AT&T Uverse installed which means MUCH faster internet for us. We currently are on a slow dsl connection because it was all our neighborhood could get besides cable from the cable company we had nothing but problems with... but AT&T just finished upgrading our neighborhood and we are actually the first connection on our neighborhood's Uverse box! so until someone else gets it, we have the entire box to ourselves! and even when more people get it, we shouldn't notice any change in connection.

We currently are on up to 3Mbps speed and will be going to 18Mbsp!! I finally should be able to download and upload while Mike is playing WoW and neither of us notice each other sucking bandwidth away.

Could it have been any better planned to being installed right after Design House Digital is set to launch?! I think not.

And then to finish out the trifecta and perfect first weekend of January 2010, our friend, Erin is having her birthday on the 3rd and we are to attend a celebratory lunch with her & friends.

Countdown... 11 days until...

2009-12-21T22:59:00.003-05:00

Christmas is this week but not living near family nor having kids of our own, it isn't a big celebration for us. It will likely be a pretty quiet day spent just the two of us spending time together.

However, I am counting down the days until a very exciting and special day for some friends of mine (as well as for me)... in 11 more days, January 1, 2010 will be upon us and with the new year comes some special, exciting news...

Design House Digital will be opening their online doors to scrapbookers and crafters all around the world!

Over the past month, they have been announcing the designers who will be joining the store. So far, the list of designers include: Deena Rutter, Carina Gardner, Natalie Malan, Meredith Fenwick, and Melissa Esplin. There are still a few more designers to be announced so the excitement continues. It is bound to be a diverse group of designers with varied backgrounds in many different design niches. You can follow the interim DHD blog or become a DHD facebook fan to stay up to date on the newest announcements and going ons.

As you may be aware, I have been CTing for Carina Gardner for the last few months and with Design House Digital's opening, I am excited to say that I will also be joining the DHD family as a CT member; a DHD Decorator.

Just over a week until you all will be able to see what a beautiful site they have in store for us all. I have been lucky enough to get glimpses of some of the products to be offered and swoon... 2010 is going to be a beautiful year full of gorgeous designs.

If you haven't already signed up for their email newsletter, you can by going to the site now & entering your email address. Once you sign up, you will be sent a link for a beautiful free Christmas kit. If you read my tutorial the other week on how to make a paper Christmas ornament, you may remember the beautiful paper I printed out to make it... that was from the freebie kit from signing up for the newsletter.

11 more days... oh how waiting is so hard especially when you have been given a sneak peak and can't wait to start scrapping with it!

How to use a clipping mask

2009-12-21T13:47:00.004-05:00

This post is especially for cindyj at 2Peas who asked about how to use a particular mask, Wonky Photomask II by Erica Hernandez @ 2Peas, however, since I wasn't able to describe it well in words, I took screenshots to hopefully help her & anyone else who might be wondering how to use these types of products. They are some of my favorite types of products and so very versatile. One mask can produce many different looks.

I find it easiest to split these types of photomasks into individual pieces if I want to clip different things to different portions of it. So that is what I am going to start by showing. To hopefully help keep this process clear, I am going to work with the photomask on a blank transparent canvas and not on top of anything else to confuse you as to what layers belong to what part of a layout.

1. Open the photomask (my screenshots are from CS4 but PSE should look very similar)

You should see that when you have the original photomask, there is only 1 layer in the layers palette on the far right, bottom section of the screen.

2. We are going to now cut the top, left portion of the photomask out of the group and put it on its own layer to make clipping to it easier.

To do this, we are going to use the square marquee tool as there are definite straight spaces between each portion of the photomask.

Use the square marquee tool and draw a rectangle around the top, right portion. Once finished, you should see marching ants around it like shown in the above screenshot.

3. Now that you have that one block isolated with marching ants, the actual cutting it to its own layer is needed.

To do this, go to Layer -> New Layer -> Layer via Cut as shown below.

This is going to take that portion of the photomask and cut it from the original grouping and put it onto its own layer. Be sure not to move it unless you are wanting to change how the overall photomask placement is going to look.

4. Next, we are going to go back to our original layer which still has the other 3 blocks on it and repeat the above process for each block.

So next would be to isolate the top, right block using the rectangular marquee tool to draw marching ants around it.

You will notice that after you put each block on a new layer, you are increasing your total number of layers for each of those blocks.

When finished, you will end up with 4 layers each with a different block on it as shown below.

Now that you have all of the block separated, it is a good idea to select them all and link them together. (I forgot to do this in my example so don't have a screenshot for it). By linking them all together, you know that if you move one layer, you will end up moving all of the layers and not change how the overall photomask looks. Subsequently, if you want to rotate one block or move a block, just don't link them and they will all move independently of one another.

5. Next step is to decide what you want to put in each block. Bring in photos or papers. To "clip" to the individual blocks, put whatever you want to clip to a particular block on a layer above that particular block. Then you will Control-G/Command-G on a Mac for PSE to Group with Previous, also known as "clipping to". Or if you are using CS, Control-Alt-G/Command-Option-G on a Mac to create a clipping mask.

For my example, I clipped photos to 2 blocks and paper to the other 2 blocks. Look at the layers palette to see that the order of layers goes, a) what is clipped to b) which block you want it in & repeats down through the different blocks.

If you want to clip a single photo to all of the blocks, you could do that without the splitting apart steps. You would just Control-G/Command-G on a Mac for PSE or Control-Alt-G/Command-Option-G on a Mac for CS to the original photomask.

However, you could also clip a single photo to multiple blocks once you have them separated out. For my example, I have clipped the same photo to all 4 blocks but I could have easily only clipped it to 3 blocks and left the other one with a paper clipped to it.

To achieve this, you will put a copy of your photo above each block you want it to show in & clip it to the individual layer. Be sure not to move your photos otherwise they will not look seamlessly clipped into the different blocks. So I find it easiest to copy & paste the photo the number of blocks I want to fill and then link the photos together and then move them above the particular layers I want to clip to & clip them. That way, if I move one, I move them all & they will keep that seamlessly broken up look.

Hopefully you can see how that is working from my last screenshot.

So those are the basics as to how to use these types of photomasks and hopefully I was clear enough & provided helpful screenshots to help you achieve this look yourself.

If you have any questions, please ask.

Paper Christmas Decoration Tutorial

2009-12-13T14:40:00.000-05:00

I found this tutorial online to make a paper Christmas decoration and it looked simple enough for a non-paper type person like me to try out so I did. I think it turned out really neat and was quick & easy that I thought I would share my experience making it.

I have done more hybrid in the last month than I have before and it brought me back to arts & crafts time in school which was always a fun time.

The final product:

Materials needed:
6 square pieces of paper - double sided
scissors
glue stick
hole punch or some way to make a hole for hanging
ribbon or string or something to hang it by for display

I started out by taking a digital paper I got in a freebie kit from signing up for a new digital scrapbooking store's newletter, Design House Digital. {The store doesn't actually open until January 1, 2010 but you can already sign up for their newsletter and get the kit as well as find out over December which wonderful designers are going to be at it. So far, Deena Rutter and Carina Gardner have been announced as designers for it with more to be revealed over the next couple of weeks... subscribe to the blog to find out who is going to be announced next}

This paper is the snowflake paper from the freebit kit from signing up. It is a wonderful kit and as beautiful as it looks on the screen, you need to print these babies out & see how truly gorgeous they can be for not only digital products but hybrid projects too!

I printed mine out on double sided matte paper but I also printed it out on plain white normal copy paper and it also looks beautiful. Either types of paper will work for this project. The copy paper makes a nice light weight version and the matte paper makes a more solid, crisp version.

I had my printer center and crop to fit my paper as you need the pieces to be squares. So once printed out, I trimmed off the white edges with a cheap little paper trimmer.

I am not a paper scrapbooker so don't have all the cool tools so make due with what I have. I am sure a nicer paper trimmer would make a cleaner edge but either works for this. You could even fold over, crease the edge and then use a knife to cut off the edges as you might do with wrapping paper.

You will need 6 squares of paper for this. Since I let my printer automatically center and crop my paper, my squares ended up being about 8 inch squares. This resulted in a final project size of about 21 inches from point to point in each direction... so pretty big!

First fold it from corner to corner making a triangle. If you are using the thicker matte paper, try not to crease it too hard otherwise, the crease will be harder to roll out later. This is mainly to serve as putting the paper in a shape to make the cuts really easy to make.

Next, fold the triangle in half again so that it is a quarter the size of the original paper. You can either do this & only need to make half the cuts or you can gently mark where center is going to be & do your cuts individually for each side of the triangle. I was lazy so folded it in half & did half the cuts of what the original tutorial I was following did.

Next, you will make your cuts. If you want to do each side individually, click on the tutorial link at the top of this post. If you want to do the lazy way but still effective way, stick with me :)

You can choose how many cuts to make, stopping about 1/2 an inch to an inch from the center fold of the triangle. The open edges of the triangle should be going parallel with your cuts... otherwise, you end up with a useless cut piece of paper as I made the mistake of doing when I was making mine & ended up needing 7 pieces of paper to complete my star.

I only did 2 cuts on this one. I also tried one doing 4 cuts and the original tutorial shows with 3 cuts. All of them look really cool and give slightly different looks.

Once your cuts are done, unfold the paper and yours should look similar to this.

Now, we are going to begin the rolling & gluing.

Put a dollop of glue on one triangle corner of the center cut piece. Fold the other corner over it to form a roll. Hold until the glue has stuck it together.

I found that especially with the thicker matte paper, I needed to hold each roll for a few minutes making sure that the edges were well stuck together. The copy paper didn't take as long to stick together and stay.

If you don't hold it long enough to be well stuck, it likely will unroll as you are gluing the next rolls and once the other rolls are glued, it is harder to get your fingers in to hold the center roll together.

Next, you are going to flip the paper over and do the same to the middle cuts as you did for the center cuts.

This is going to make it so that the center curl is curled the opposite way of the middle curl and is what gives some interest and dimension to the project.

Flip the paper over again so that the center curl is facing up. Now you will curl the outer cuts together and glue them.

The center and outer curls will be going the same direction and the middle curl will be going the opposite direction.

If you do more cuts than just the 2 that I did, just be sure that you are alternating which way each curl goes to give it the neat look.

The final step is to join together the 6 individual pieces together into a final star. To do this, you will first put them together in groups of 3.

I glued the bottom peaks of 3 of them together making sure that the longest curl on each one of them was on the same side. Repeat for the other 3. Once you have 2 groups of 3 pieces stuck together, put the two groups together. I chose to alternate the direction of which side the long curls were on. So on my top half, the long curls were on the right and on the bottom half, the long curls were on the left side. I think you could do it either way and it would still look lovely but this way, I found that the long and middle curls fit together better to form the star.

A final bit I did which wasn't in the tutorial was to take a thin strip of the patterned paper and cut a long enough rectangle to wrap around where I had joined the 2 halves of the star pieces together. I just thought that it gave it an extra little nice finishing touch but it looked nice without it as well.

Then I used a hole punch to punch a hole in the top point that I wanted to hang it by. I attached a piece of ribbon through the hole and then strung it up to hang from the bottom of one of the stair rods of our spiral staircase. It is an area that I am never sure what to do with but it works nicely to hang things from it as they can gently twist and twirl with any slight air movement in the room.

So as you can see from the instructions, it is really a very easy little project and quick. It is something that you could even get the kids involved in making to decorate around the house.

End Result:
* no papercuts - yay!!
* one broken nail from slipping using the little knobs on my paper cutter & jamming my finger into the table but it needed cutting anyways
* slightly sticky fingers from glue but they let go & a little soap & water & all better
* fun playing with paper
* lots of ooo'ing & ahhh'ing over how the paper printed out & how the star looks hanging in the room

Is it 2010 yet?

2009-12-08T01:22:00.002-05:00

Is it 2010 yet because I apparently need to start focusing on my one little word for 2010... {organize}... as I have been meaning to do a blog update but keep getting caught up in other things. Like for instance, right now, instead of writing this, I should be finishing up a pattern I am working on making for a little dog for on Kinley's playhouse that Stella and I are working on. It is already almost 1:30am and I haven't finished it & should be in bed as I have told Stella I would be up in the morning & over to work on the playhouse.

So, for now... I will just leave you with a new digital scrapbooking site that I was told about which will be opening January 1, 2010. If you sign up for their newsletter to get all the details leading up to the launch, you also get a wonderful Christmas themed freebie kit.

So how about you spend the time you would have reading my post as you know I usually write a lot so being short tonight is saving you time ;) and head on over to Design House Digitals. Carina Gardner announced today on her blog that she is going to be one of the designers at it come January 1st! as well as she will be teaching an Illustrator class at Jessica Sprague in the new year (currently on sale for 20% off for the holidays).

Shhh... less talk, more photos

2009-12-04T13:22:00.000-05:00

When I started Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers' class, I set forth on a goal to talk less in my posts. I seem to be failing at that aspect but hopefully with few words today and more photos, I can help to swing the average back towards my goal.

I have decided to try to do a December Daily album this year and have signed up for Tiffany Tillman's 25 Days of Templates class. I thought that having templates would help make the process easier and increase my chances to keep up and complete it.

Three days down and here they are... the products used are Paislee Press' Adorned Papers and Elements kits provided with the class, Tiffany's templates provided with the class and when it works out with the design, I am working on incorporating Jen Allyson's Ornament brushes and stamps as I think they are such a simple yet stunning Christmas touch for the pages.

Dec 1: patterns, paper & playhouses

Dec 2: hand made stocking by mom

Dec 3: frames painted

Look ma, no papercuts!

2009-12-02T01:46:00.001-05:00

Look ma, no papercuts!

I probably should have held off of saying that until after I had all of my Christmas cards made but I did manage to make the majority of them already without any mishaps.

I am not known for actually making Christmas cards or even for getting readymade bought ones out the door... I have this affliction of good intentions but by the time the end of January rolls around and they are still sitting in the box they came in, I give up & say "next year"... which until this year, has very rarely actually happened.

And the years that it has happened, I maybe send out a handful to close family and a couple of friends.

However, this year, I have made about 30 so far and have another dozen or so I will likely make. It began with one of the ladies I CT for, MaryAnn, asking for people's addresses for Christmas cards back in July to get hers ready. I decided back then it sounded like a good deal and that I really should try to do it this year... maybe that was the trick... thinking & beginning planning in July.

So whenever I had a coupon for Michaels and was there, I would pick up another piece. It started with a box of plain cards in September, then finding a rubber stamp which I ended up stamping & then scanning in & playing with digitally to print back on the inside of the cards & then most recently found some cute ribbon and packages of little poinsettias to attach to the front.

They are a pretty simple design but I am okay with that. I did it! and that was the accomplishment for me. The first 30 are even in addressed envelopes just waiting to go to the post office for mailing. The others I am doing up with family & we'll see if I actually get a letter written to include in those ones or not.

The best part of putting the cards together? using my rotary cutter & mat I bought recently for sewing to easily measure out & cut all the strips of ribbons & then the coolest glue thing ever! a glue runner like those dry whiteout cartridges. It was perfect sized for the ribbon I chose that I was able to just run it across places of the back & then just attach it simply & effortlessly.

And today, or rather the day that I haven't been to bed for yet, is December 1st so my Tiffany Tillman 25 Days of Templates has begun. I got the first set of templates and supplies today. I copied and duplicated the planner pages so that I would have 1 for each day of the month and then put them all in a combined pdf with the other planning documents. I put the December calendar at a glance page first and then used the lovely little ability in Preview to add annotation links so that when I click on each calendar date number, it will take me to that day's full planning page for page layout sketch, journaling and photo notes.

December 1st is planned out, photos taken and now to determine which kits I am going to use for the album and then I can begin putting together the first layout.

This is my first year attempting a December Daily type of album. I am hoping to be able to keep up with it and have ideas for the days as we tend not to do a lot of Christmas activities. Maybe we will change that this year & embrace the season more like we did when we were kids.

Have you done a December Daily album before? Planning on doing one this year?

What types of activities do you do for the Christmas season? Any special plans made?

Grand Daddy Printer & Black Friday Supplies

2009-11-29T23:37:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I was reading a friend's blog - Jen Allyson's The Project Girl - and she has posted her top ten gift ideas for crafters. She has a great list and I can definitely point to a few on her list that I would sure like. However, number 2 really got me thinking about those things that you just drool over and wish you had but just can't justify it for yourself... which took my mind back to seeing my mother-in-law's large format printer.

It isn't your usual "large format" printer that you would hear scrapbookers talking about having but rather a grand daddy of large format printers. I knew she had a "large" one but until I saw it in person when we went back to Canada to visit, I had no idea quite how large... so instead of describing it to you as I can't do it justice, I will instead show you a quick photo Mike snapped of it for me. I was busy playing with transferring photos & doing a hdr composite on her computer to take it myself.

She works with a Canadian artist, Tyler Thompson, and they use this printer to print his giclee canvas prints so for them it is a necessity whereas for me, it would just be a droolfest.

Instead, I have a simple little HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-In-One Printer which fulfills my needs as I am not one to print a lot of things. I picked it because it prints directly onto printable CDs/DVDs and has a document feeder which are two features I was looking to have over my previous printer.

This weekend's Black Friday/Cyber Monday specials have also helped me stock up on printer ink & photo paper at really nice prices so I am hoping to do a little more experimentation with hybrid projects.

I definitely wasn't complaining at the discounted and then additional 40% off my printer inks which I got to order from the comfort of my home in my pjs at 1pm in the afternoon while others had braved the crazy shopping hassle of Black Friday. And then again wasn't complaining at the $25 Kodak photo paper sale for $4 or the $13 Staples double sided matte paper sale for $2 that I got today in a nearly empty store! Unfortunately for the paper deals, they are mail in rebates so I had to outlay the cash now and will get a rebate in a month or two but I can handle that for the end result prices! I can play a lot more and not feel like I am potentially wasting a lot of money if they are dismal results.

Do you have a favorite or dream printer? Get any great Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales?

11 months down & November's Tybee Island, GA

2009-11-24T23:29:00.002-05:00

It has been 11 months since Mike and I sat down and thought about our resolutions for 2009. I also picked a One Little Word this year {explore} to focus on which we incorporated into our resolutions. With only 1 month left in 2009, we have begun evaluating how we did this year and thinking of what we want our 2010 resolutions to be.

Back in January, we listed our 1st resolution as:

To {explore} Georgia more - we made a couple resolution to take a trip to a B&B and do something new or see someplace new in Georgia once a month.

We haven't stuck to our resolutions extremely rigidly but rather allowed for some flexibility this year. For instance, early on in 2009, we adjusted our first resolution to be:

To {explore} ~~Georgia~~ more - we made a couple resolution to take a trip to a B&B (or inn) and/or do something new or see someplace new ~~in Georgia~~ once a month.

11 months in & our track record on this resolution is looking positive for satisfactory completion. We haven't made any plans yet for December but have a few ideas dependent on how well we stick to our budget in the next couple of weeks.

It did go through minor revisions but we did stick to the underlying principle of getting away together for some quality time and try new things. We are both very happy with the results and experiences we have had because of it and are working on our revision for modifying it for next year.

A quick overview of our 2009 progress...

In January, we went to a B&B in the Georgia mountains and took a Tuscany Cooking Class
In February, we went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and took my first nighttime beach photos & in the rain beach photos
In March, we went back to our favorite spa (The Grove Park Inn) in the North Carolina mountains and had our first $100 pedicure complete with champagne and imported chocolates
In April, we went to Destin, Florida and had a gourmet sunset dinner on the beach with friends
In May, instead of going away we had friends visit & stay with us - we all went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival
In June, we flew to Tampa, Florida and went to St. Pete Beach driving our first convertible rental as well as met with a few scrapbooker friends
In July, we were introduced to the limitations of being "new parents" with a house full of 6 baby kittens so weren't able to get away but did go to and participate in Scott Kelby's Annual Worldwide Photowalk which Mike ended up taking the winning photo for our Atlanta walk - using his p&s camera ;)
In August, we flew to San Antonio, Texas for a digital scrapbooking crop & photowalk
In September, we had friends visit again so instead of going away, went to an Atlanta activity - Dragon*con... that was definitely an experience & one I will let Mike & our friends go to on their own next year ;)
In October, we made a return trip to Canada to visit family & attend a friend's wedding... our first in 3 years & first trip outside of the US since moving so that was a first in its own right
In November, we went to Tybee Island, Georgia and took a dolphin sightseeing boat tour and taking my first water locked lighthouse photo
In Decemeber.... tbd

We just completed our November trip this past weekend which is how a lot of our trips have ended up being... near the end of the month. It has made us greatly aware of how fast the weeks go by and that if we don't pay attention, the months can easily slip by without embracing life and exploring new things and places.

So glad that we made the resolution and have stuck with it. Had we not, I am not sure if I would have as many wonderful photos and memories to think back on from this past year. They are generally only an overnight trip leaving early one day and getting home dinner time the next but you can get a lot accomplished and a lot of new sights seen in such a short time without breaking a budget too badly. It helps make you value time so much more preciously.

This weekend, we got up early Saturday morning, packed a change of clothes and camera gear into the car and then got on the road. With nothing but a hotel reservation set for plans on where we are going or what we are going to do, we start off. Roof down, jackets on, heated seats turned on and favorite tunes in the stereo. A lovely 3 1/2 hour drive to the Georgia coast with just time to chat and focus on our surroundings as we drove. A lovely time and a reminder of something we used to do quite often when we were first together. Mike loves driving so the car ride to the destination is his favorite part. For me, it is the destination and sights I get to photograph that are my favorite part. But together, it is all a wonderful trip.

We arrived just after noon so had the entire afternoon to explore and take photos. Upon checking into the hotel, we were given an area guide so took a quick look through it before deciding where to have lunch. We found that there was a dolphin sightseeing boat excursion for only $15 that would take me by a water locked lighthouse that I was really wanting to see so we called up to find out when the next trip was going out. Luckily, it wasn't going for about an hour and a half so we had time to grab some lunch and still catch it.

The dolphin sightseeing boat excursion was wonderful and worth the $15 and a lot more for how close I was able to get to the lighthouse and for seeing the dolphins just as the sun was beginning to set. Beautiful sights!

Instead of telling you more of the small details of the weekend, I will leave you with a layout I did today which features one of the photos from the north Tybee Island beach as well as a photo of the Cockspur Lighthouse and the dolphins swimming next to the Georgia-South Carolina border jetty.

In addition to using products from some of my favorite designers (Jen Allyson, Jen Martakis & Carina Gardner), this layout also features a template by my friend, Erin Clayton who debuted today as a digital scrapbook product designer at ScrapArtist.com!! I have had the pleasure of seeing some of her upcoming products in addition to what she released today and I hope that she is met with open arms and wonderful support from the scrapping community. Three Cheers Erin!!

Christmas Dreaming {click title for link to credits}

Kreativ Blogger Award

2009-11-23T21:22:00.003-05:00

This morning, I opened my email to find a notification of a new comment on my last post from a fellow scrapbook friend, Kerry of Kerry'd Away Designs. Her blog was nominated for it yesterday and she was in turn nominating mine. Thank you Kerry :) I appreciate it very much.

I am not normally one to participate in "chain-style" things but I think this one is a pretty nice one to show people who may not realize that people are reading their blog think that they are pretty darn creative and enjoy their blogs. As well, it is a great way to share with your readers some of your favorite blogs which they may not be aware of yet.

The expectations upon receiving the award are as follows:

thank the sender for nominating you
make sure you link to the person who nominated you
copy the logo onto your blog
list seven interesting things about yourself
nominate seven Kreativ Bloggers
post links to their blogs
leave a comment for each letting them know of their nomination

Uggg... now the part of this that I normally would just skip over but what the hay, let's see if I can come up with seven things and if they resemble anything remotely interesting...

I managed to digitally print out my first Christmas card tonight & embellish it meaning I just created my first hybrid Christmas card ever
My husband and I have been taking short weekend trips away each month this year exploring places close to home & ensuring we have some quality time together each month
This month's overnight trip was to Tybee Island along the beautiful Georgia coast where I got to photograph a water locked lighthouse by boat & watch dolphins swim next to us
I have taken my dslr camera off auto more times in 2009 than ever before yet still take probably 90% of my photos on auto & am happy with it that way as I can then focus more on composition & less on technical things I can mostly correct in post processing
My husband and I took in 2 stray cats in 2009, one of which was pregnant and subsequently had 6 kittens which we raised & adopted out 4/6 this year
I started sewing again in 2009 after many years of not & have found a renewed love for my machine that my grandparents gave me as a gift 12 years ago... still running like new after a quick check over servicing
I am Canadian and proud of it! yet I adore living in the US and someday would be equally as proud to become a US citizen should the opportunity arise

So I guess there are seven things about me. You can judge for yourself whether they are interesting or not as I don't find myself all that interesting but then I am just me and okay with that. I am embracing my new found move towards a Type B personality.

As for seven Kreativ Bloggers to nominate. That is very hard for me as my hard drive full of photos proves what a difficult time I have with narrowing down to my favorites. I am going to narrow down my choices by some of my most frequented blogs which cover a wide range of types of blogs I consider Kreativ... from scrapbookers to card makers to writers to seamstresses (I would say people who sew but that comes out sewers which just can be too confused with something much less beautiful!!).

my sister, Jennifer, at OxyGen - a blog for writer but has good tips for anyone writing whether it be professionally or just improving your blog writing
a good friend, Lisa, at Stamped Art By Lisa - I bow to her card making skills!!
a good friend, Stella, at The Bell Family - for a self taught seamstress, she has come a long way in a very short time & inspires me to sew more everyday as well as she has my favorite little cutie model, Kinley
Michelle at with love by mushy - one of the first scrapbookers I met and was inspired by her work, now a designer & inspiring me to try my hand at hybrid through all her great tutorials on her blog
Jen at The Project Girl - one of the wonderful designers who I am lucky to be on her CT and another one inspiring me to delve more into the world of hybrid projects to organize my life - wonderful tutorials and freebies to help you organize your life too
Katrina at About A Boy - a wonderful, talented woman who has taught me so much about embracing my photography and taught me about depth of field, my favorite photographic tool!
Melanie aka Britgirl at Sweet Nothings - talk about a creative soul! she does it all! and love her from the heart journaling whether it is a good day or a bad day - real life blogging at its best

I know it is quite a range of types of blogs but they are all very Kreativ in their own right so I hope you will check some of them out.

Are you an A or B?

2009-11-20T13:38:00.000-05:00

In catching up in a bit of my blog reading, I read about this Discovery Health personality type quiz. Mel (aka Britgirl) took it and posted about it on her blog.

I decided to take it and find out where I am sitting these days. A few years ago, I know I would have fallen into the Type A personality type really far but I have been working hard on learning to go with the flow more and relax. Learning to take pleasure out of moments and experiences rather than measuring success by material things and others' opinions.

So I took the quiz today and was happy to see that it seems that I have been making progress in my personal change. I owe a lot of it to my best friend, soulmate, husband Mike! He gives me such a wake up call to relax more & just breathe. Together, we will make things work. I wonder what his score would be... he is generally pretty laid back but also has his Type A moments. However, if you are still reading, you are likely more wondering what my score was.

My score today was.... drum roll, please... a 41! You ask, well, what does that mean?

According to the Discovery Health Quiz results, it means:

"You seem to be in the middle between the Type A and Type B personality. In this case, the middle ground is good. Your attitude to life is more of the "smell the roses" kind and you know how and when to relax. Nonetheless, you realize that picking up a challenge and competing a little bit for your place in the sun can add some spice to your life. The equilibrium is important, so don't let your hostile, aggressive, and competitive alter ego take over too often. Generally, you are easy to be around, and people tend to feel relaxed and comfortable in your presence. Yours is a very healthy attitude towards life."

For those of you who feel you know me, would you agree with this assessment?

If you decide to take the quiz, I would love to know your result & whether you feel it is an accurate representation of who you feel you are today. Is it who you want to be or are you taking steps to change who you are?

What was your score?

Feeling like Goldilocks

2009-11-17T10:30:00.000-05:00

Fall is a wonderful season for the cooling off in the hot Georgia temperatures but it also leaves me feeling a bit like Goldilocks a lot of the time... it's too warm and then it's too cool and then it's just right and then it's too warm again and round and round we go, never quite right for long.

We went out and bought a new thermostat for our house last week because with the up and down temperatures, we were finding we were constantly having to switch the system from heat to cool to heat to cool to...

Our new thermostat was advertised as being able to automatically adjust back and forth between heating and cooling to keep the house at a constant temperature range. However, even though that was its main selling point over the other model we already had in the Honeywell line, when you install it with the factory defaults it comes with, it doesn't have the auto setting. It appears to operate exactly the same as our half the price model we already had...

Mike found this to be really quite odd. He installed it. Tried to find the auto setting and couldn't. We could set it to heat or cool but no auto setting. We double checked all of the packaging and model number to make sure that we had in fact bought the model we thought we were and not a duplicate of our existing one. Nope, everything said that we had bought the model we wanted and that it should do auto switching. Confused...

Mike then pulled out and read the manual to find out that "depending on how it was installed" it would have the auto switching enabled or not... ummm... so he found the weird, convoluted method in which he had to press a bunch of advanced buttons to turn on the auto switching feature. It was there but buried in the settings and you needed the manual to do it as it wasn't some simple, push this button & it was turned on. It was a program in this number for this particular spot to get it to turn on. How exactly this was a "depending on how it was installed" topic, we still aren't sure. Typically, how you install a thermostat is pretty darn straight forward. Take off the old one, connect the proper wires and remount. No weird messing around in the advanced jumper settings.

Which left us thinking...

Dear Honeywell, don't you think that if someone is paying the much higher price to buy a thermostat with the auto switching capability, they MIGHT want to have the auto ability enabled by DEFAULT??

So with that behind us, we have a house that keeps a constant temperature range. Yay!

Now, enter in our new memory foam bed topper... and I am feeling like Goldilocks again! too warm! throw off the covers, too cool! rinse, repeat, toss, turn... it is amazing how just a few inches of memory foam on top of a bed can change how it retains heat and whether or not you can have a good night's sleep. I cannot sleep if I am too warm. My toes are frequently sticking out from under the covers to cool off which with the kittens around is just asking for toe attacks throughout the night...

So now to figure out the proper ratio of flannel sheets and comforter with the memory foam topper to the proper house temperature range for sleeping...

Can you help a girl out? What temperature do you keep your house at?

Introducing Alex...

2009-11-14T22:43:00.003-05:00

I haven't done any scrapping this weekend because I have been trying to rest up a wrist injury. Thus, I have been trying to stay away from the computer a bit more to give it the needed rest I should give it.

So instead of any scrapping related post, I thought I would tell you about a family member I recently got to spend more time with when we went home for a visit.

I would like to introduce you all to probably the least talked about member of my family... Alex. If I remember correctly, Alexander Graham Bear is his full name.

However, I am not definite on that because I remember at the time, my mother wanting to give him the name Sigmoid because of the reason that he came to be part of the family. However, he is now known well in the family as Alex. We all know who you mean when you talk about Alex.

Alex is my mother's teddy bear... He isn't a teddy bear she has had all her life or anything vintage like that. However, it has felt like Alex has been part of the family for more years than I can remember him not being a part of it.

He is a little teddy bear that her sister gave her as part of a balloon/teddy bear get well gift when she has a major surgery a number of years back now... she had a surgery involving her sigmoid colon thus why at the time, the name Sigmoid was being thrown around as a possible name. So very glad it was only thrown around and eventually out...

You wouldn't think that such a gift would have such a long and momentous impact on not only her life but also on the lives of more of the family. However, you see... Alex... he came with a personality and a way of bringing a smile to everyone's face when you see what he has gotten into next. He is a little curious, adventurous, mischievous little guy! ALWAYS getting into something or somewhere he shouldn't.

And don't think he gets away with his bad behavior just because he happens to come in the shape of a teddy bear! My mother disciplines him as well. Especially when he gets into something dangerous to his health or the health of those around him. He once spent an afternoon sitting in the corner because he was a bad little teddy bear and was playing with matches at the fire place. Tsk, tsk, bad Alex! and he has been good and not played with matches again. He does, however, still like to play with the wood and hang out enjoying the warmth of the fire place.

You can often find Alex "hanging" around somewhere in the house... which is fitting as he did arrive tied to a balloon which hung around the living room those first few weeks with him floating around, enjoying the view.

Although, he doesn't always pick the best places to "hang" out... like the night of our belated Thanksgiving family dinner. He chose to "hang" out by going for a spin on my mother's stained glass ornament hanging from the ceiling. But she couldn't really punish him for that being that she was the one to give him a hand up to it in the first place.

You see, Alex does tend to get himself into trouble or mischief, but rarely does he manage to get into it without a "helping" hand from someone in the family. However, we can always count on Alex to keep his mouth shut tight and not spill the beans on who is accomplice was. He is very loyal that way.

I hope you have enjoyed getting to know about my little bEArother, Alex.

Does your family have a member like Alex?

Mystery Google

2009-11-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

I thought for today as I am trying to refrain from spending a lot of time on the computer and give my hurt wrist/hand some typing rest, I would throw out a fun little time waster that my sister put on her blog today...

Mystery Google... you get the search results for whatever the person before you put in...

I searched my sister's name and got the results for pizza... what did you get?

Looking forward...

2009-11-10T21:12:00.003-05:00

There is just something about a photo from behind that I find so appealing. Looking forward towards where they are headed rather than looking backwards on where they have been.

The past is a great source of learning but it is only learning if we take pieces from it and put them into where we are headed. Bring our past into our future. We can't escape it so need to embrace it, learn from it and make it work for us in making our future brighter for having gone through those experiences.

We recently went back to Canada to visit family and attend our friend, Eric's wedding. The last time we actually saw Eric in person was when he came to visit us a couple of years ago while he was going through a difficult time in his life. It was hard not to have memories of those times come back when we saw him again. And yet, it was like seeing a more complete, happier person in front of us. The light was back on in his eyes and his heart.

We had known from talking to him, that he was on a happier road these days; that he had a wonderful, supportive woman in his life; and that, as difficult as his past had been at the time, it had brought him to where he stood today.

It stood as a testament of what I had told him back then, that things looked dark then but once he made it out of the dark, the light would be shining brighter than he could have ever imagined before. If we continue following the dim light for however dim it may appear, when we get to the light, it will open up a whole new, wonderful world we didn't know could exist for us.

It stood as a testament to me that I must remember whenever things aren't looking as bright as I would like, that this time shall pass too. The light will shine bright again. I have been through worse and made it through. Those dark times have made me appreciate the light so much more. Without those dark times, I would not see how bright and fortunate my life today truly is. What seems like pain and hurt now can teach you something so much more powerful and positive for your future if you open your heart to learning from your past.

My past has shaped who I am today. Today will shape who I am tomorrow. I just hope that I choose to learn the right parts from the past and today to keep me along a path of lightness. For when the light shines upon you, darkness cannot exist.

So here's to remembering the past but looking forward to what is ahead of you.

Kurious Kitty...

2009-11-06T11:13:00.000-05:00

Kurious Kitty aka Ash, our ~19 week old kitty, is normally quite endearing with his curious nature. However, yesterday, his curiosity was making things more difficult for me to get things done and I was really wanting to get things done so that I could get onto other things I had planned for the day.

I can't share with you yet the pages I was working on yesterday as I was doing them for a project Kristin will be releasing soon. However, I can tell you that in the course of putting those layouts together, I needed to take some photos of special items to me. One of them happened to be my Bamboo Fun tablet. (the link takes you to the new Wacom Bamboo tablet that I would say is the closest equivalent to what I have, not the actual one I have but the one I would like to upgrade to someday possibly... still not definite on that as I like the scroll wheel on my current one)

But that is where Kurious Kitty decided to really impede my progress. I had it staged on top of our bed so that the light coming in the window was hitting it for good lighting. This made it a bit too convenient for Ash though. Can you imagine what that meant for my ability to take photos? If not, I will share with you one of many photos which I managed to get which does show my Bamboo tablet but which also have parts of Kurious Kitty impeding my ability to get a short of it without him in it too.

He was fascinated by the pen especially as it would roll around when I would place it against the tablet as I had the tablet on a slight angle for the light to hit it nicely. My mistake... for I should know better that anything small and which rolls when he touches it is going to fascinate him and become his newest play toy. After trying to get him out of just 1 shot with about 10 failed shots in there, I finally realized I had one of his favorite play toys in my hand... the lens cap! So I tossed it on another part of the bed to get him out just 1 shot please... and it worked! So what should have been just a quick shot taking no more than a minute turned into about a 15-20 minute play session with Ash.

The mundane is never really mundane anymore with kittens in the house. The mundane fascinates them & they make sure to pull you into their Kurious Kitty cuteness. Thankfully Smirk was sleeping at the time as I can't imagine how long it would have taken had he decided to check things out too!

And voila.. the shot I was after, finally captured!

Have you ever had a curious pet impede your ability to get something done?

Want to win a cool family tree?

2009-11-04T13:51:00.004-05:00

If you read the comments to the previous post, then you would see that I meant to mention Gennifer and how cool she made linking look in her blog posts. They just happen in the natural conversation of her posts.

So guess what?! Today is Gen's blogiversary. To celebrate, she is giving away a few of her ultra cool Family Trees. Pop on over to Brought To You By The Letter B to see how you can enter to be one of her lucky winners or pop on over to her Etsy shop and see all the cool options she has.

I had been thinking about getting one for my aunt as she is our family historian but the more that I think about it, it is the perfect gift for my grandmother for Christmas. She turned 98 this year and I never know what to get her as she wants for nothing material.

Off to write down my family generation names so I can order one... that marks another gift off my list.. yay!! :)

To Link or Not To Link.. that is the question

2009-11-04T13:19:00.000-05:00

To Link or Not To Link... that is the question on my mind today. Today's prompt for class is to blog about some of your favorite things. A great prompt but one that I feel like I have been doing over the last few months especially. When I find something that I love or feel strongly about, I like to share it and that often includes links as I find that a lot of people appreciate the ease of links. The scrapping community is a great community for sharing and encouraging others to check out what they have fallen in love with. It is a beautiful site and as I get out and follow more of these suggestions, the more inspiration I find to fuel my own scrapping.

However, when is it too much linking? I know I have done some posts lately which I feel are over the top with links and am trying to figure out the balance of what I think will share my passions with others easily but also not overwhelm with too many links and come across as just advertising because that is not the intent!

For instance, you may have noticed me mention some of my favorite designers who also happen to be some of the ones that I CT for. Am I trying to promote their products, definitely. HOWEVER, I do that because I believe in them both as designers of great products but also because they are genuinely nice people to get to know. They care about people and are genuinely thrilled to see layouts people do with their products and care about the scrapping community. I would be promoting their products even if I wasn't on their CTs because I believe in them as designers & as nice people!

Would it surprise you to hear that it was even one of the designers that I CT for who turned me onto another store & other designers? She thought that I would enjoy their work so pointed me towards a few designers there and she was right. We chat as friends not as designer-scrapbooker. The style does suit me and I have since purchased a few items and continue to keep an eye out for things that I just must have. She had my scrapping needs in mind not only thinking about it as a business to her. A lovely, nice designer who cares about having scrappers happy, even if it means that their style doesn't fit everyone's desires. From that act of thoughtfulness for my needs, she strengthened my bond in wanting to see her succeed. I will always root for the nice person over the one just trying to reach the finish line... it's who I am.

I try to share my love of products I come across whether or not I CT for them. A few examples of people I believe in but don't CT for and the only interest I have in them succeeding is that it means that they can continue to design and bring their wonderful skills to the rest of us are Anna Aspnes at designerdigitals, Jen Martakis at twopeasinabucket and Michelle Filo at littledreamerdesigns. If we love someone's products, I feel that we need to help promote them if we want to continue to see their work. It is a huge scrapbooking world out there & we need to do our part to help shine the light on those we adore and want to see continue.

Anna does beautiful wordart and brushes as well as some of the coolest, artsy templates. She has one coming out this weekend with a quote I just adore! ("I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget HOW you made them feel." Maya Angelou).

Jen Martakis does great templates and is beginning her journey into kits. I have seen her upcoming winter theme kit and wowie, that is going to be fun to play with. Her templates have been a true blessing lately for me in getting more pages done.

Michelle Filo, I met before she started designing and has also been an inspiring digital and hybrid scrapper to me. Now that she is designing, she is bringing that inspiration to a wider audience and sharing her always growing talent with the rest of us. I am going to be making my first attempt at a hybrid calendar this year because of seeing all of the cool calendar variations she does.

So To Link or Not To Link.... I purposely didn't link anything today... as a reader, do you find links helpful or would you just rather find things yourself?

Who are some of your favorite designers?

I am always interested in checking out other designers and finding that hidden gem for my own style but find it overwhelming to just start out in this vast world of designers without direction.

Log Your Memory & Amazon!!

2009-11-03T15:33:00.003-05:00

For anyone who may have (or maybe not) read my earlier post about, my good friend, Kristin's new book and site, I am happy to announce that she now has the Scrapbookers All-in-One Memory Logbook 2010 ebook version available direct on her site, Log Your Memory. And the perfect bound version is now available at Amazon.com!!

But what about the coil-bound version?

The ebook, perfect bound and coil-bound version are all still available direct from the publisher at Lulu.com.

So whichever version suits you best, the books are getting out there & available... 1 month & 28 days until the new year & getting organized for lots of memory keeping & scrapping in the new year.

Be sure to check out Log Your Memory as well for the forums, gallery and chatroom. A very nice, designer neutral community is forming with lots of inspiration for real life scrapbooking.

How hard is it to "not"?

2009-11-03T14:38:00.000-05:00

We have all been told many times through our lives to "not"... not to touch that, not to do that, not to... How powerful that little three lettered word is!

I have complex prisms in my glasses which is something which I have learned throws a lot of optometrists & ophthalmologists off. They aren't really comfortable or knowledgeable about them. That has made the process of eye exams a real headache and drawn out process... except for one ophthalmologist my family goes to in Canada... Dr. D.

That is why when we were going back for a visit, I had my mom make me an eye appointment with Dr. D. I hadn't been confident in the prescription I had been given by the last ophthalmologist I saw in North Carolina a couple of years before so wanted to feel confident in my prescription and get it tuned up. I rely on my vision so much everyday that it is something I hate not having confidence in my prescription.

It was a great thing that I decided to do this because I had real reason to not feel confident in my prescription from North Carolina. It was in a large part a copy of my previous prescription that Dr. D had written for me a couple of years before that and what wasn't an exact copy, was moved in the wrong direction. No wonder, they never felt quite right... they were a step back from my last prescription rather than a move forward! Uggg... it brought back the frustration of that day with the Dr. in North Carolina.. I went through all of that for not!

So I got a proper prescription with a very smooth and easy exam... Dr. D. knows his stuff!! and knows how to make the drawn out process not seem drawn out at all. However, he then did tell me that all powerful word... not... not to rub my eyes.

He checked and double checked my cornea because of the drastic change one of my eyes has made in the last couple of years. Although it currently appears to be fine, he did say that I need to have it regularly checked each year. I need it checked for the development of Keratoconus because of how severely & quickly my one eye has changed prescription. It is a progressive disease that can lead to vision loss and rubbing my eyes can speed the process by damaging the cornea further as it is thinning... so I am to not rub my eyes.

How hard is it to not rub my eyes? Apparently a lot harder than I ever realized before! He also told me that the reason my eyes have been so itchy lately is courtesy of "living in the southeast"... the allergies that accompany the area. So my eyes have been itchy from allergies, I have been trying to use my allergy drops instead but it is still very difficult to not want to rub my eyes. Makes you feel like you are going to crawl out of your skin trying not to rub them and ignore the itch.

I bow to you little three letter word, not.... you are extremely powerful and I am trying so very hard to obey you but it definitely isn't easy.

What is your not... that you are trying to obey? How is your journey to obey it going?

While you think about what your not is, I will leave you with a layout about the outcome of my appointment with Dr. D... new glasses which are taking time to get used to but which I have full confidence that my prescription is right this time... Dr. D knows his stuff! if he didn't, I wouldn't have dropped the small fortune on new lenses... the frames were relatively cheap... the lenses not!

Blog Redesign Credits

2009-11-03T00:19:00.003-05:00

Are you reading this through Google Reader or another new feed reader? If so, want to pop your head out for a moment & check out the layout & graphics redesign to my blog? I would so appreciate it as I think it turned out really cute and would love to show you what I have done.

The blog graphics are from one of my all time favorite digital scrapbooking collections - the Spot Color Collection by Jen Allyson at twopeasinabucket.com

The kits I used from the collection are her Spot Color Papers No. 3 (lined paper), Spot Color Simple Shades Paper No. 2 (patterned papers), Spot Color Element Stickers (flowers & bird in the comments header), and Spot Color Cool Colors Block Alphabet for my initials on the lined papers.

To stitch it all up, I used Carina Gardner's Playtime for the Girls Stitching kit also available at twopeasinabucket.com

One of my favorite parts of the design is the comments header & footer. I learned to put these into my layouts about a year ago now and love how the little bits give the comments section a little more flair.

Thanks for looking & popping your head out of Google Reader if you were cruising the blog train that way.

Blogging for Scrapbookers Class Intentions

2009-11-02T13:58:00.000-05:00

I am beginning a new online class today called Blogging for Scrapbookers, by Shimelle. Over the next three weeks, we are going to be getting daily prompts from Shimelle to help us start making the combination of blogging and scrapbooking work for us. In addition, after the 3 weeks, we get a second workbook called A Year of Blogging which is going to have a year's worth of blogging topics especially for scrapbookers to help keep us going on our journey.

Today's prompt is to document our intentions and goals for the next 3 weeks. My intentions today are essentially the same as my intentions when I signed up for the class a couple of weeks ago. However, they have also begun to change a bit, the closer I got to the beginning of the class, and as I read her first prompt.

Originally, my intentions were solely to update my blog graphics and get better about blogging more frequently. I figured if I could get in the habit of blogging more frequently by taking this class, that would help me cut down on my long posts which I am sure bore a lot of people to read through to the end. Not that I have a lot of readers but I need to stop talking the eyes off of the few that I do have. *waves to anyone reading* Thank you! I will talk to myself on here if I must as I find it helpful but definitely prefer to think that someone else is reading it along with me.

However, now, my intentions have altered a bit. I do still have the intention to update my blog graphics and that is my goal for today. I have let it slide for quite awhile and really do want to give it a face lift. I have done most of the code revisions to change the layout format but haven't done the graphics or put any of it on my live blog. I have a draft blog I use for my testing and playing around. I also still have the intention of writing shorter posts... maybe not today's but give me time to learn to shorten things down.

But what has changed is that I now realize that I can write a little here and then come back & write a little more when I have time. Not everyday needs to be the same time commitment. If I have time, I can include more photos and scrapbook pages but if I don't, I can still give my reports and leave it at that. When I have time, I can come back & then give the photos and/or scrapbook pages.

I set this blog up as a way to communicate with family and I haven't been doing that as much lately. Which isn't all bad as I have been giving more glimpses into what I am up to scrapbooking wise and how my thought processes work when I am scrapbooking so they are still getting to see bits of my everyday life. However, I want to start blogging more about the content of my pages and posting larger photos for my mother as she has requested that. She likes seeing my scrapbook pages for my creative outlet but finds that I tend to scrap my photos too small for her to really get a good look at them. I can completely understand that and being that most of my pages are done because the photo captured something I wanted to share, I feel I should be sharing the larger photos as well.

So those are my intentions for the next 3 weeks and beyond... get more consistent at blogging, blog shorter posts, and showcase my photos along with my scrapbook pages.

I hope you will continue to share in this journey with me. To me, any journey is always better if you have friends and family along for it.

Now to get to work on updating the graphics & updating my links!

November Classes & Log Your Memory Grand Opening SPOOKtacular Event

2009-10-25T21:56:00.001-04:00

I know I have a bunch of catching up to do about what I have been up to the last couple of weeks but I am going to set that aside for the moment. I haven't edited the photos from our trip back to Canada to see family & attend a friend's wedding so will save that update until I have that done.

However, some news in my scrapbooking life is that I have begun taking more classes. The first one is called The Gift of 2010 over at a good friend's (Kristin Rutten) new site, Log Your Memory.

Log Your Memory is centered around her new book, the Scrapbooker's All-in-One Memory Logbook 2010. It is a daytimer consisting of daily & monthly calendar pages to keep track of your appointments & special dates, weekly challenge prompts to get you thinking about everyday things you might miss documenting which make the days memorable, examples of "real life" scrapbook pages, a variety of questionnaires and room to jot down memories or sketch ideas. It is designed to help those of us with busy lives focus on the everyday, real life memories and experiences we want documented for future generations or even just for ourselves to look back on and see how our lives have changed and stayed the same over the years. An immediate place to store all the important details of our lives so that when
we have time to scrap, we know exactly where to find everything and aren't searching for little bits of papers all over our desks or in the bottoms of our purses.

I came home from my recent vacation to find mine in the mail and oh, is it ever shiny and wonderfully bound. Now the hard part... waiting until 2010 to begin using it. It is chalked full of great resources and very reasonably priced at $34.95 for the coil-bound version, $29.95 for the soft perfect bound version (this is the one I picked up & loooovvve... meant to get the coil-bound but user error of thinking it was a good idea to order it at about 3am while having 2 chats going on facebook meant I clicked the wrong link in ordering but I love it so much! so no hardship for sure) and then $19.95 for the color, ebook version that you can then print at home or a print shop and put into a binder and customize with additional pouches or envelopes to hold special memorabilia, etc from the year.

The site is having its official Grand Opening SPOOKtacular next week and she has some very interesting chats and goodie bags set up if you join us. Some of the designers sponsoring the event and providing wonderful goodie bags are: the fabulous & one of my favorite people - Jen Allyson - The Project Girl, Sweet Shoppe Designs, Peppermint Creative, Julie It Is, Kris Meyers Designs, Shelleyrae Designs and Sahlin Studio. I got to take a peek at them this weekend & wowzers, they have their treats stuffed in there so the bags are overflowing! A lot of great items for not only Halloween layouts but also a lot of very versatile, everyday digital scrapbooking supplies.

Some of the chats planned are a fabulous, well known Mystery Guest chat and contest at 7pm Pacific Time, Thursday, October 29th; a Holiday Challenge Chat at 10am Pacific Time on Friday, October 30th and a Caffeine Chat Challenge at 9am Pacific Time on Saturday, October 31st. The chats will occur in the Log Your Memory Chatroom so be sure you get yourself registered for the site ahead of time so that you don't miss out. The goodie bags full of digital scrapbooking treats will be spread out between the chats.

If you need help getting registered for the site (which is free!), I put together a little registration help video for Kristin... and for those who don't need help but are curious as to what a Canadian living in Georgia sounds like, it is even narrated... you have no idea how uncomfortable I was doing that but I would do almost anything for Kristin so sucked it up and narrated ;)

Since the Logbook starts January 1, 2010, Kristin has put together an online workshop for the month of Novemeber. It is The Gift of the Year: 2010 workshop to create a special scrapbooking style hanging 12 month calendar which focuses on the special relationship between the giver and the receiver. As one of her first CT members, she asked me to put together my calendar ahead of time to use as a sample for the workshop participants to get an idea of what they could put together for their loved ones. With the workshop registration (only $15), you get a complete set of prompt word art brushes/stamps set and downloadable handouts, group interaction & support through a private forum & gallery. So you can share your pages as you create them without worrying that your recipient is going to see them before you give them their gift.

I know that I do so much better completing an album type project with having continued support and encouragement through the process but you usually can't do that if you are giving it as a gift as many of our loved ones keep up with our usual online galleries and would see them early.

I believe that there is also going to be a layered template offered based on the design I created for my pages included with your registration if you are really short on time and just want to spend your time focusing on the journaling instead of having to try to think up a format as well. The layered template isn't an exact replica of my layouts because I used some of my favorite designers (Jen Allyson, MaryAnn Wise, Carina Gardner & Anna Aspnes) products in mine but I have put together a similar look in my layered template using some brushes that I created as part of my homework for the last class I took - Tiffany Tillman's Brushshop class over at ReneePearson.com last month. So you can use it, not use it or fill it with your own favorite papers and elements.

As a taste, here is my January layout. I did my entire calendar with the same basic layout and just swapped out the month's prompt word art and my responses to the prompt and then picked a color from that month's photo to be my pages' accent color. I thought it fitting to keep the basic design the same as we are all short on time so it made the process quicker but didn't take away from the special meaning captured by putting all of my time into my responses to the prompts. I thought about the different prompts off and on while on vacation and then when I got back, I was able to sit down and spent a day scrapping. In the end, I had a completed calendar filled with heartfelt emotional responses in answer to the prompts which I am anxious to see in print and give to my darling husband. It went together very easily following the prompts and was a wonderful experience creating it. It was ordered this week so I am anxiously awaiting its arrival in the mail... I was so happy with the online order preview that I can't imagine how wonderful it is going to be in actual print. And now to think of who I am going to do my calendar for during the workshop... I was so happy with this one, I certainly want to do another with the workshop participants.

So I hope you will stop on over to Log Your Memory and join us for any or all of the Grand Opening SPOOKtacular, The Gift of the Year: 2010 workshop & forums. Kristin is a wonderful person and from the looks of the community growing day after day, it is going to be a wonderful place to hang out for inspiration and support in your scrapbooking. Oh, have I mentioned... being it is centered around the Scrapbookers All-In-One Memory Logbook and not a digital scrapbook store, it is a great place to upload your layouts featuring any and all of your favorite designers. You don't need to worry about only using certain designers' products to upload to the gallery and share in the community. The gallery is already beginning to fill with layouts from all sorts of different designers, styles and skill levels so is sure to be full of inspiration.

And now for my second piece of scrapbooking news... the other class I just signed up for today: Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers! It begins the beginning of November and I received the beginning Blog Blueprints handout today to get started now. It was also only $15! I love these cheap classes as I don't have a lot to spend at the moment but can afford that to learn lots and get support in scrapping more and keeping organized. Check out the link above about the class as it is chalk full of all sorts of things that the class is going to teach us. It looks really good so hopefully you will begin noticing some changes in my blog and find it more pleasing to look at as well as to read... as well as more frequently updated as the class includes prompts for a full year of blog entries.

I am still always nervous taking new classes but they are getting easier as I am beginning to know more ladies taking them with me. I already know a few who are taking Shimelle's class with me... the 'Nifers (Gennifer & Jen M & maybe Jen Allyson??? come on Jen, join us!) and KatheriNIFER (Katherine). Anyone else?

Well, I have talked your eyes off by now so I shall wrap this up... I will be sure to share more of my recent layouts soon... and with this class, "soon" hopefully will soon be a daily thing not a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly type of update soon :)

Layout Catch Up - Oct 3rd

2009-10-03T12:42:00.001-04:00

I really should keep up with these updates better.. have intention to do them as a weekly update but I was sick last week so now what was 1 week of layouts is now two. So for today, I am going to try to not write so much as I do tend to ramble and they become loooong posts.

I haven't been using my Designer Digitals supplies as much lately mainly because I have been out meandering the bigger, wider, wonderful world of digi scrapping stores. I have been buying a few things from here and there as well as getting to experience more things through the downloads with a class I am currently taking; The Photoshop Brushshop with Tiffany Tillman at ReneePearson.com.

I did start out the week though with a page using Designer Digitals products.
Mike - Kitty Krazy

Then I started my brushshop class and used some products which are completely different than anything I normally use but was quite happy with the result. It opened my eyes to thinking about using a touch of the more 3D looking products with my pages as I tend to do more flat, brushwork pages.

Week 1 Assignment

Then using what I have been learning about brushes, I decided to attempt putting a bunch together and create my own clipping mask for a page. I was quite pleased with how my playing turned out in this next page.

Smirk's Eyes - his eyes have now gone from blue to green to amber

Then this past Tuesday was Jen Martakis' debut as a 2Peas Designer. She re-released her Simple Starts No. 1-3 as freebies and then added to the series with Simple Starts No. 4 which I used for my next layout.

Goofy Funny Silly Zany

The Weekly Challenge at 2Peas this week was to journal over a photo so I put together this page with some details about our trip to St. Pete Beach, Florida in June. I really love how Jen Allyson's water splash element turned out with a little beveling to it.

St. Pete Beach

And the Digital Weekly Challenge at 2Peas this week was to take inspiration from a card. I had recently received a thank you card from a friend, Susie, and as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to use. I fell in love with Carina Gardner's Lazy Days Doodles the moment I saw them and they were perfect for this page. If you click the link, it will take you to the posting which also has a photo of the card which inspired it.

Summer Loving

Then it was time to do my homework for week 2 of my brushshop class. I am really enjoying this class and learned some more about how to layer brushes and apply them differently to get different stylized looks. This week's class was on blend modes and I learned a new way to blend brushes beyond just layer blend modes which has opened up a lot more variety in my brushes. I could spend hours upon hours just playing with brushes.

The photo in this page has wonderful light and dark contrast and was sent to me by Masq's new mamma, Gina. I loved the color contrast in the photo and decided to capitalize on that with my page. I love how the colors just pop against a black background and give it such emotion.

Dash of Love

And then last night, I attended my first 2Peas online crop. Wow... I know I can scrap fast when I need to but wow... I managed to get 4 challenges and 2 mini challenges (which for digi scrappers were more like full challenges still but fun all the same) in 4 hours!

Challenge No. 1 was to do an All About Me page. I found this cool frame embellishment in my stash which I hadn't realized I had and I think it works nicely offsetting my curls in the photo.

Love Amour

Then it was time for Mini Challenge No. 1 - create a card using a photo. I chose to use a photo I took of Ash on Thursday as he was checking out the mail on the table. As Mike's birthday is coming up and he is such a kitty daddy, I thought he would like a birthday card from one of his kitties.

Purr-fect Birthday

Next came Challenge No. 2 - create a page using the freebie kit, Friday I'm In Love, provided by the host, Shimelle Laine about Friday or Love or both. I chose to use a photo I had taken just earlier in the evening of Mike and the kitties. He wasn't feeling well when he came home so he went straight to lie down in bed and a bunch of the kitties decided to join him... and he definitely never minds when they pile on him... he loved it when they were tiny kittens and he still loves it now that they are bigger (14 weeks today!).
Kitty Love

Next up was Challenge No. 3 which to use all the colors of the rainbow. As soon as I heard what the challenge was, I knew the perfect photo to use. A photo of the San Antonio Riverwalk with a row of multi-colored umbrellas reflecting in the water which I have been meaning to scrap but haven't gotten to doing so until now.

San Antonio Riverwalk

Thankfully before I had closed all my files from the previous challenge, I read that we had Mini Challenge No. 2 - create something out of whatever you had on your desk or for digi scrappers, files you had open. So I ended up using some of the things I had used in the previous layout and did some color adjusting to give them a new look.

The Alamo

And to finish out the crop and evening, Challenge No. 4 was to use one of Jen Martakis' Simple Start No. 1-3 templates. Oh shucks, this was so hard for me to do... {that is pure sarcasm!} I love her new series and bought No. 4 as soon as it was available for purchase... bought it even before it was fully in the store - the add to cart link was working at the time and that was all I needed. It is now fully in the store with previews and samples to view. And next week, I hear that No. 5 and No. 6 will be released. Yay! I love templates for quickly putting together pages and her templates have a nice, clean yet still layered look to them. Perfect for digi scrappers or paper/hybrid scrappers to use as a sketch.

I took this photo of Clousette on Thursday night before she began her journey to her new mamma, Robin's home. She was picked up by a friend on Thursday night and delivered to Robin on Friday. I heard from Robin last night and apparently our sweet Clousette is being a real sweetie for Robin too and already has her wrapped around her paws. So happy to hear that she has found a wonderful, loving forever home.

Sweet Little One

Whew, what a night and actually when I look at them all together, I managed to get a fair number of layouts completed in the last 2 weeks, even being sick for a lot of it.

I still have plans to begin doing some walk through posts demonstrating different techniques I have found and love with digi scrapping. Similar to how I constructed Living with Nature and did the walk through of it. I love learning new techniques and searching around learning about different things so thought that I would do this as a way to help those friends of mine who want to learn different things but don't have the time to search or know where to begin searching for themselves.

Do you have any that you would like to see me try my hand at? I am always up for giving anything a try and not afraid to play & succeed or play & fail... it's all a journey.

Have a favorite product to suggest I try using? still learning about all the wonderful designers out there and have a few dollars each week I am looking to spend on something new to try out.

And if you are still reading by this point.... THANK YOU, I really appreciate it as I like to chat but don't like to talk to myself.

My new favorite collection

2009-09-19T16:48:00.001-04:00

This week, my 3 layouts have one thing in common... Jen Allyson's new Spot Color Collection! I love the clean, crisp, fresh look of her papers and element sets. She released 5 kits this week; 3 paper packs, a set of title spots and a set of word rounds. Next week, she has another 9!! kits being released in the collection; a set of element stickers to coordinate with the papers, 4 solid coordinating paper packs, bird branch stamps, a collection of word spots, a set of borders and a kit of journal stamps. A varied and wonderfully coordinating collection.

The first layout, I did this week, was a page about how it appears we have raised a whole litter of computer literate kittens! We knew Smirk liked to watch and play on Mike's keyboard when he is playing World of Warcraft (WoW). His favorite spot to sit and watch if not on Mike's lap is to curl up on the time capsule... which is fine until he has been there too long and it begins to get a bit warm. When it gets a little too warm, we start noticing our internet connection isn't as strong and have to remove him so it can cool back down to optimal temperature.

Mydnight also likes to get involved with WoW, especially if Mike is flying on a bird in the game. She loves to try and catch it. Ash is more of one to sit in Mike's lap and quietly watch, however, he has his moments too when he wants to play on the keyboard. Then I found out this week that Brit & Nugget love their new mamma's computer as well... and then the same day, found out that Masq is really into his mamma's laptop too. I wonder if this is a hint that we maybe spend too much time on the computers as they picked it up so quickly & seem to be most at rest around computers? As I sit here writing this, Ash is currently sitting on the time capsule checking out the WoW screen and Pickles will tap him from time to time to get out of her view as he gets where he blocks her view from time to time. We can't have that, can we? hehe...

So, I decided for my first layout, I would scrap a photo I have of Smirk with Mike at the computer. I started my page out using template no. 1 in Jen Martakis' new collection of Simple Starts templates, which beginning September 29th, will be available at 2Peas in her shop! The first 3 which she had released as freebies on her blog this week, will be offered as freebies in her new shop. Congratulations Jen! Wishing you most success in your new endeavor and looking forward to seeing where the series goes next!

I picked her template because it has a great, clean design and layered blocks which I could easily use to layer different papers. I am bad at figuring out how to layer my own blocks of paper so love when I have a template to help me get going with that aspect! I love papers but have such a hard time with layering them, that I usually end up blending them together or sticking to just using a basic paper.

The birds in some of Jen Allyson's new papers are so adorable that I extracted one and layered it on top of the lined paper to help fill in some black areas in my journaling. Next week, I am happy to see that Jen has some great bird stickers in her collection so that I can do more of these types of things without needing to extract them myself.

Next, I love the simplicity and cuteness of the word rounds so used it to help tie everything together. I think it turned out to be a lovely, clean line layout and who can resist Smirk's cute face?

A little birdie told me....

The next layout I did this week was using a photo that Lauren, Brit & Nugget's new mamma, sent me. It is so nice that she will periodically send me photos and let me know how they are doing. They appear to be doing really well and very happy in their new home.

This photo is one of the sweetest photos I have ever seen and just had to scrap it. I started by using Jen Martakis' Simple Starts No. 2 template. Another clean line, great layered paper design. I again used Jen Allyson's Spot Colors papers for the page. To give a little more interest to the simple textures in the papers, I decided to overlay Carina Gardner's Imprint V. 7 brushes over top and softly blend them into the paper colors. I used Carina's PhotoCuts Masks V. 7 on the photo to give it a pretty cut edge detail. Then I took Jen Allyson's Title Spots and Carina's Imprint V. 7 brushes and combined them into a design I wanted to turn into a brad for my page. I then used an Atomic Cupcake action to take that circle combination and turn it into a brad to stick down some of my papers. I also created smaller brads using the same action using solid color circle coordinates to stick down some other pieces. MaryAnn Wise's new Pet Word Art gave a beautiful way to add a touch more sweetness and title to the page.

Brit & Nugget

And my third page which I did last night tells the story of how my new profile picture came about... Mike being Mike and I gotta love him for it. He makes me smile everyday and is the best friend I could ever hope for. My love!

This time, I started with using a template from The Queen of Quirk at 2Peas. I liked how it had the 3 sections for photos and then blocks of paper behind them. I began with using one of MaryAnn Wise's new Neutral Grunge Solid papers in grey. Then I used Jen Allyson's Spot Collection papers again for the blocks of paper. Her collections have such a variety of textures and patterns and colors in each kit. You can get one kit or multiple kits and everything works beautifully together.

Then I used Katie Pertiet's Scripted Typeword Art and modified it to fit my photo blocks the way I wanted. Have you learned the great trick of being able to use the marquee or other selection tools to select just the parts of an element that you want and then either Create a New Layer by Cut or if you just want to adjust it a little and not make it, its own layer, just flip to the Move tool while you still have it selected, and move it around on that same layer? I learned this by accident a few months back and now use it a LOT and love it! especially when I just need to move a word here or a flower there but don't really need to put it on its own layer. I then selected just pieces of the word art and selectively colored them.

Then I used Rob & Bob Studio's Scandia Rub Ons to add a little bit of fun and whimsy to the page. I turned them into stickers as I liked them better that way next to the center photo frame.

I decided to remove the framing that came with the template and instead use Carina's PhotoCuts Masks to clip my photos to and then put a solid color square behind the mask so that where the mask is cut away, the color of the square behind would show through and give the impression of actually being an overlay on top of the photos.

For the center photo, as I wanted it to stand out from the others and being different as I left it in color and made the others black & white, I used MaryAnn's Curled Photo Frames White. They are a great basic frame with that touch of coolness with having the curled edges. Her kit for these is a great kit to have at your disposal, not only are they great basic frames but she has included a great range of photo sizes and shapes which a lot of other kits miss out on. They range from square to rectangular to the harder to find panoramic style frames.

Something I have been trying harder to remember to credit on my pages is the fonts... and I have been using a specific collection of fonts a lot lately... XXL Designs font. Bailey who is the creator behind XXL Designs is a wonder, kind friend and recently gave me 2 of her collections. They are great hand printed fonts each with their own flair. I have been using XXL - Maise and XXL - Kayleigh a fair bit lately. Bailey also through her Etsy shop will create personal fonts for you or you can buy one of her ready made collections. I haven't been using my own font lately on pages but I do have one and use it all the time in my MacJournal. I love the look of writing in my electronic journal and having it look as though I wrote it by hand. A great personal touch to add to your layouts or printed out letters.

So... as much as I hate having my photo taken, I have a new profile photo which shows my entire face and which I quite like. I actually prefer the full photo to the cropped photo I am using for my profile photo so you may see a layout about that photo too. Amazing, I know... those who know me well, know how much I hate having my photo taken and even more so, how much I hate sharing it with people so to be doing layouts and posting it out there for everyone to see is a big deal for me.

Profile Photo

My next post I hope to do another little walk through of how I created a framing look in a book I recently put together for a thank you for a wonderful woman with the photo contributions of a number of ladies who were on the San Antonio photowalk with me. I really like it for when you might want to crop a photo to show a specific area but on the other hand, really like the photo as a wider view. You can achieve both with doing it this way.

Would you like to see how I achieved the look of this page?

If interested, here is the full Shutterfly book I put together as our thank you to Katrina.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Catch up on layouts

2009-09-13T12:48:00.000-04:00

So, I thought I would share some of my recent layouts as I have been bad about posting them here as I do them. I have been posting them at 2Peas and MyScrapbookArt as well as on my Facebook page but the family probably doesn’t see those. I haven’t been posting as many at Designer Digitals lately as I am still working out this new balancing act but I did do a few yesterday for their 16 hour 3rd quarter chat & sale.

I had fun putting together a page recently with Jen Allyson’s Beep Beep kits. As soon as I saw her tire tread brushes, I KNEW that I finally had found the perfect kit to put together a page documenting a little conversation with my mom about what we should get a personal plate to say for our new Smart car. When we first had one in Canada, we got our first personal plate which was 8ITLAST. There is a candy in Canada called Smarties which has advertising “do you eat the red ones last?” so we thought it was a fitting license plate as it was a little red Smart-ie. You’ll have to read why we are now thinking of getting a personal plate for this one which says H7 or HUMMER7.

I have already showed you my Living with Nature layout. Next came Millionaire’s Margarita, a photo of a special margarita at one of the San Antonio, TX Riverwalk restaurants that I photographed on our trip and photowalk. This page actually went together before I even had an idea of what photo to put on it. I love the bright, clean look of MaryAnn’s new Button Border Solids paper and her cool new Page Bling flowers that I knew I wanted to do a page with them. Her new Curled White Photo Frames are a great basic and I enjoyed personalizing it by blinging it up with the Page Bling flowers which I turned into a sticker look and layered over the photo frame so that it looked like a single decorated frame. I think the final and crowning touch to the page was when I wanted to have more colors of MaryAnn’s papers showing on the page to go with the flowers and thought about using Jen’s new Adorn Stylized Vignettes No. 2 to give the corners a little more punch and interest. They are simply layered in white over the edges falling off the corners and given a drop down bevel to look like the papers have been cut away. Doesn’t MaryAnn’s Romantic Frame Set look pretty overlayed on the corner of the paper and blended softly into the background paper? I was happy with how the page went together but then I had to think of a photo which fit it... I usually ALWAYS have the photo in mind first! but these products had me creating out of pure joy of the products without a photo in mind. With Mike making lots of funny faces and home renos occupying a lot of my photos, thinking of something pretty to put in here took a little more thought but in the end, I think the margarita was a good choice. I have been wanting to scrap a page for it so it all worked out perfectly for me in the end. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

This week, I got together with Kerry, a fellow digital scrapbooker and friend who lives nearby. We took a country drive up into the northern parts of Georgia to see if the apples were out to photograph. It was a great trip and we also managed to get a number of photos of a pumpkin farm which we stumbled upon and greatly enjoyed. It was the first pumpkin farm I have ever been to so a great treasure find! Unfortunately, the apple orchard had sprayed that day so we weren’t able to do u-pick for our apples. However, they did allow us to go for a walk in the orchard after warning us of the smell. It did stink but we did a quick trip and snapped some photos. The apples did still look beautiful and with some post-processing, my apple photos really popped for me. I can’t stop looking at it and wanting to reach in and eat it! Thank you Kerry for suggesting the drive! and showing me what beauty is so near to home for Mike and I to explore more.

I kept the scrapping it simple because I think that it didn’t need much with it and the products really showcased it well. I used MaryAnn’s Button Border Solid paper again and love the green as a backdrop to the photo. I used MaryAnn’s Curled White Photo Frames and Basic Stitching No. 1 along with a leaf cluster from her Great Outdoors Glitter Leaves. And the final touch was to add one of Carina Gardner’s Element-ary Bottlecaps. I fell in love with these bottlecaps the moment I first saw them. They have such gorgeous designs on them. I keep gravitating back to looking at this one and am so pleased with its result.

The next page I put together was for the Weekly Digital Challenge at 2Peas to make a layout using exclusively 2Peas free kits. I hadn’t downloaded any of their freebies yet so went exploring all of the variety they have and found Carina’s May Freebie kit which has a paper I instantly fell in love with. It has a great basic pink lined paper! As well, it had a really cool ornate element which I used up in the corner to help balance my clustering down in the other corner. There are lots of great freebies to go explore at 2Peas to give you an idea of the great products their designers put out week after week. I hope you are enjoying the layouts as I am finding them going together a lot easier than in the past and am really liking the results. I am thinking of reusing the design I put together in this one without other products that I have because I was so happy with the result. It didn’t hurt that it has one of my favorite photos from our San Antonio trip, a sweet one of a good friend, Kristin and her daughter, Dani.

Will you join me in trying out the 2Peas Weekly Digital Challenges? They are fun! and Mellypea awards $5 store credits to a number of participants each week. I even won the first week I participated! and used it to pick up FIVE!! 99cent templates by The Queen of Quirk who has some great templates which I plan on using in the near future. They have great clean lines and help me layer papers! There are actually a number of challenges each week you can participate in and a single layout can be entered in multiple challenges at once. There is a weekly Use you 2Peas kits & win challenge in which you can enter any layout you post which uses at least 85% 2Peas purchased OR free kits.

Interested in learning to digital scrapbook but not sure where to start? Sande Krieger, a Garden Girl at 2Peas has a series of free video tutorials to help you get started and learn how to digital scrapbook using Photoshop Elements. You can get a 30 day free trial from Adobe and then work through the classes with her to see if it something that you would be interested in learning and doing more with. Not only can you use the principals you learn in doing digital scrapbooking to do actual scrapbook pages but you can also use it to make your own cards, calendars, photobooks and all sorts of other projects to bring a bit more beauty to your life and document those everyday special moments in our lives.

Jen Allyson, on her blog, also has a great tutorial on building yourself a chicken wire organizer and to personalize it by creating your own or printing out her free calendar download. Her blog is The Project Girl and Jen is a great project girl! check out all the cool ideas she has there!

This week, she has also put together a great project planner which you can download or coming September 22nd, in her Spot Color Journal Stamps kit, she has a whole collection of stamps that you can combine together to make many organization projects to help you in your day to day life. Her entire Spot Color collection of kits which begin coming to the store this Tuesday, September 15th are fabulous! Great papers, word arts, stamps, stickers. A FANTASTIC collection! You can get a sneak peek of it by visiting her good friend and 2Peas Garden Girl, Jen Martakis’ newly redesigned blog.... she even has some great music to entertain you while you check it out! While you are there, if you are a scrapbooker, how about helping Jen M out by giving her some feedback on what you look for in a template.

So that is what I have been up to in the 2Peas world of fun lately! Now to flip over to my other hat, my DD side. I couldn’t pass up going to their 3rd quarter chat & sale yesterday to spend the day chatting with friends. During the chat, I managed to put together a few pages. Here are previews of them and you can check them out in full size by visiting my gallery there.

First... my silly husband wearing his new cat ears he got at Dragon*con.

Then I did another page with my favorite apple photo from my day’s drive with Kerry.

And then likely my fastest page ever, the itunes challenge inspired by Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever album cover - 5 to 10 mins max to put this one together of a photo of all the wheelbarrows at the pumpkin farm along with a photo of some of the great pumpkins we saw and walked among. Isn’t blending such a great way to put together a layout quickly?!

If you are reading this, could you do me a little favor and just leave a comment saying hi so that I know I am not talking to myself ☺ Thanks.

The Making of "Living with Nature" LO

2009-09-06T17:08:00.003-04:00

Love the look of brushes or blended pages but not sure how to do it? This post might just help demystify it a bit for you. At least I hope it does, as brushes and blending are my favorite parts of digital scrapbooking.

During a chat with a friend recently, we got to talking about what styles of scrapbooking each of us is comfortable with and which we seem to have a hard time getting a handle on. For me, blending and brushes are my kind of fun play but I have a hard time with getting a handle of how to layer blocks of paper in designs. For her, she is great at layering but finds brushes still a struggle to get a handle on.

So after finishing my page today, I decided this layout would be a good one to deconstruct and show the making of it. It combines some pretty simple brush and blending layers to show how you can take a brush and give it more dimension. As well, it shows how you can take a paper that has a design or texture that you like and transform it into a color that fits your current project needs.

Let’s start with the paper. I knew the texture and design of the paper I wanted but it wasn’t the colors I was looking for, for this particular page... so instead of trying to find a paper that was the colors I wanted but likely not have the exact texture and style I wanted, I transformed the paper into my ideal. The technique I am about to show is a great way to expand your existing paper stash to be whatever color you need for any specific page.

I started with a solid layer of the color I wanted my paper to be.

I then put the paper which had the texture and design I wanted on top. In this case, it happened to be a paper from MaryAnn Wise’s new Great Outdoors paper collection.

I changed it to a soft light blend mode and lowered its opacity to 50%. The paper now had the texture and design I wanted but I wanted my paper to be a monochrome color instead of the subtle colors still showing through.

To finalize the paper to what I wanted, I added a hue/saturation layer colorized to the same color as my original solid background above the Great Outdoors paper and clipped it to it so that it would only affect the Great Outdoors paper. Clipping it to the paper which is being blended into the background color allows me to do any fine adjustment to it if I want it’s design to be more pronounced or more subtle against the solid coloring.

Then because it was for a beach page, I decided I wanted to add some corner brushwork using MaryAnn’s new Grungy Edges WaterStained brushes which will be released this Tuesday, September 8th. I stamped them in the same solid color I used for my background color and hue/saturation layer. I then changed their blend mode to multiply and set their opacity to 80%. This gives them the look of causing the ink in the paper to bleed from being water dripped and then the lower opacity helps to make them blend in better and not be too strong of a color discoloration look.

And there I have created the made to order background paper for my layout.

Next up is making the wordart a two color brush instead of all being the same color.

I started out by stamping MaryAnn’s About Life wordart in the same solid color as I used in the making of the background and setting it to multiply blend mode, 100% opacity.

Then I duplicated the layer and filled it with a blue which I grabbed from the blue jeans in my photo. I set it’s blend mode to linear light, 100% opacity as that gave it the rich, blue jean coloring which allowed the texture of the paper below to show through some.

Then I took a solid, small round eraser and zoomed in and erased off of the blue that I wanted to be the color of the first, brown layer. Once I finished erasing what I wanted to be the color of the other layer, I selected it so that I had marching ants around the remaining blue parts, selected my brown layer and hit delete so that I had two layers with the two pieces and one wasn’t being blended overtop of another color.

The remaining original brown layer

The pieces that I wanted to be changed to blue

And the final word art layers together.

You can also achieve a lot of interesting looks by having multiple layers of colored pieces blending into each other. However, for this one, I wanted a very clean, crisp color difference between the different parts of the wordart so didn’t want to have dual layering pieces.

Layering and using the eraser to selectively delete parts so that colors below show through is a very easy technique to take a brush from one look to many varied and more interesting looks.

Using the same technique as above for the wordart but adding in more layering adjustments, the shell was brought more to life and given more dimension than simply being stamped on the paper. The below series is made by putting each new layer on top of the previous one. So this first one I show ends up being the bottom of the series and the last one will be the top layer.

I began by stamping MaryAnn’s Sparkle Beach Brush in black, normal blend mode and 100% opacity.

Then I wanted to have it be a little more pronounced so I duplicated the layer and changed its blend mode to multiply, 100% opacity which helped to make the shadow and watery look under it more pronounced but not be a solid, non-transparent color which leaving it as 2 layers of black in normal mode tends to do.

Then I duplicated the layer and locked its transparency so that when I filled it with the blue color I wanted to use, it wouldn’t become a colored blob but would retain all of the transparency and differences in opacity of the original brush.

Then I changed the blue layer to a hard mix blend mode, 100% opacity to achieve some variation in the shell and star twinkling.

Then I duplicated the layer, locked its transparency and filled it with the beige color I wanted the shell to be. Blend mode is normal. However, I wanted to give the sparkles a little more look of twinkling so I selected the layer to get the marching ants and then Select> Modify> Condense and condensed it by 1 pixel. I then did an inverse so that everything but the part of the shell I wanted to keep that color was selected and deleted. This left me with a layer that looks like the black layers but its lines and sparkles are a tiny bit smaller which is going to allow everything below it which is larger to give the shell a glow effect.

Then to give the shell its dimension, I added an inner bevel style to it. I used the default settings for the style but increased the softness so that it was a soft roundness to the bevel. I changed the highlight and shadow colors to be - highlight color the same color as the shell, the shadow color the same brown solid color used elsewhere. This helped to soften the look a bit more. Next, I selected the layer style and used the Create Layer option which puts the shadow and highlight bevels on their own layers clipped to the solid beige stamp. I then used a soft round eraser to erase everything but the shell bevel on the shadow and highlight layers which were just created by using the Create layer option. I didn’t want the stars or watery shadow beneath it to have a bevel to it so that simple erasing helped give it a more realistic look. The result was a shell that looks like this.

Combine all the layers and you get a shell stamp with dimension and stars that have a little twinkle to them.

Add in photos in Anna Aspnes’ Sketchy Multi Foto Frames No. 1, a cool brush (brown color, multiply blend, 100% opacity) from MaryAnn’s Leaf Clusters Brush Set, wordart brush from MaryAnn’s Handwritten No. 1 Brushes, a location and date text and the result is my Living with Nature LO.

Hopefully this will encourage you to try your hand at some blending and brushes in your next project. It is one of the great things about digital which you just can’t achieve in traditional paper scrapbooking and is a lot of fun to play with. Some of the best looks you will achieve will be through “mistakes” of learning. The possibilities are endless.

A Whirlwind Month... August In Review

2009-09-02T16:30:00.000-04:00

What a whirlwind month August turned out to be! You already know about our trip to San Antonio, Texas at the beginning of the month... or you can scroll back to see the trip report as it should be the posting just before this.

However, some other news that wasn’t ready to be shared in my last posting but now I can... August was a month of change and growth for me in my scrapbooking.

The month started out with MaryAnn Wise asking me if I was interested in being part of her creative team. I was very honored and surprised that she asked me as I haven’t been given much recognition in my scrapbooking before. I was very happy and excited to accept. She has been a great help in learning the ropes of what it means to be on a creative team while still giving me great freedom to create my scrapbooking as I desire. Instead of making me feel wrong for adjusting and modifying her designs, she applauds it and encourages my creative tendencies. She makes her design team feel so appreciated and inspires me to push my comfort zone which has only lead to me being more and more happy with my growth in scrapbooking.

And a bonus of being on MaryAnn’s team... her personal involvement with us leads to her, without even having to ask, putting her design skills to use to create products which fit perfectly with our typical scrapbooking matter. She put out a great series of beach style product at the beginning of August which will be perfect for all the beach photos I have stored away and been meaning to get back to scrapping. Or the heads up that she gave me that she is working on some kitty themed product in the color schemes of our kittens! how more perfect or thoughtful could you hope for?!

I am so excited to see what she has coming out each week! Next week is a fabulous new release week for her! Don’t miss it! Some great items to add to your basic stash as well as some great new products to add that perfect touch to your pages!! Her creative juices have been flowing and her designs seem so much freer and livelier since she moved to 2Peas. This is the MaryAnn that I adore to be friends with and am so inspired to create more scrapbooking pages.

In addition, through knowing MaryAnn and her help in learning the 2Peas (twopeasinabucket.com) site, I was introduced to a couple of best friends who also happen to both be designers at 2Peas, Carina Gardner and Jen Allyson. They both seem like wonderful and positive people to be around and get to know. Facebook has been a great resource in getting to expand and learn more about all the different opportunities and designers out there in the scrapbooking world. I learned that Jen & I share something in common... we both have kittens almost the same age in our homes.

Jen has a little kitten named Archie who is only a couple of days older than our little guys and gal. (update on our lil ones: Brit, Nugget & Masq have been adopted, Ash is pending adoption the beginning of next week and Smirk & Mydnight currently are without new homes so our home is home to them still). It’s it amazing how facebook is able to bring you into contact with people from all over the world who share common interests and life stories. Archie and our lil ones seem to be up to very similar things at the same time.

I have been so confined to just DD for the last 16 months, I have lost touch with some designers who have left or community members who have left and become designers. It has been wonderful to open my eyes to seeing more of what is out there and getting back in touch with some of those designers and friends. Getting caught back up with Michelle Filo, I learned how far she has come in the last year and what amazing talent she has. She recently did a video of her making one of her pages and my jaw was stuck open at the end. I am paper challenged but she is a wizz at it! and her designs showcase her wonderful, love of life personality so well.

I ventured out and saw what Dana Zarling has been up to since leaving DD and going to Little Dreamer Designs where Michelle Filo also sells her products through. Dana’s papers continue to have such beautiful, rich colors and textures to them. I love her solids because even though they are a solid color, they always have such great texture and subtle designs in them.

Later in the month, Carina and Jen both asked me to be on their individual design teams and I was very excited and thrilled to accept both of their offers. So in the course of one month, I went from only dreaming of ever being asked to be on a creative team to being asked to be on 3!!

It has been a bit overwhelming in figuring out what each designer is looking for from me in being on their teams but it is all positive growth for me. MaryAnn’s team has been a source of support as a number of other friends who I have met through my scrapbooking are also on it and we are learning our way together. Both Jen and Carina also have wonderful ladies on their teams and I am getting to know them more and more each week. A number of them have been at 2Peas for years so have been a great help in learning the site as 2Peas is sooooo huge and offers sooooo much in terms of product, forums, galleries, and challenges!

I am even being tempted to try my hand at some paper or hybrid projects! Jen has this product line called Project Cuts and looking at all of Lisa’s cards, she has me thinking that I should really get better at sending cards to people and using the Project Cuts, I could combine my digital scrapbooking papers with the templates and create cards to send to friends and family without having to play with too much paper.

In the next little while, I am going to be working on changing the graphics on my blog so that I can show you some of MaryAnn’s, Carina’s and Jen’s great products and how versatile they are! As well, I am going to try much harder to be more consistent blogging and posting my layouts here for you all to see.

Here is a little taste of Jen’s new Spooky Scary mini-kit that came out this week with a little early Happy Halloween message from Mydnight, our little black beauty:

So as you can see, August was a month of a lot of change for me and throw in having a house full of kittens before Brit, Nugget and Masq were adopted the last weekend of August... it was busy and zoomed on by!

Here’s to September and finding my way and balancing all of the new opportunities I have been blessed with.

San Antonio Digi Crop Report

2009-08-10T06:16:00.000-04:00

This weekend was the Designer Digitals’ Digi Crop in San Antonio, Texas. I have been looking forward to going to it since it was announced a couple of months ago. An opportunity to meet up with some ladies who feel like long time friends just from knowing them via the forum posts and their layouts.

I have really been looking forward to getting to meet Kristin face to face because we seem to have so many likes and life experiences in common. Apparently so much so that at a dinner unknowing to the other at the time, we ordered the exact same meal and both thought it was really good. I think we also both felt a bit like we were crashing the cool kids party at that dinner but were so glad that they told us to come along and made us feel very welcome.

So for the report...

Mike and I left from Atlanta on a 9:30am flight on Friday morning to head to San Antonio. The flight was on time and was great. A nice, quick jaunt on down to Texas. We landed, made our way to the shuttle over to the car rental place. We learned that everything BUT SUVs are bigger in Texas. The car rental company tried to tell us that a Pontiac Vibe was a midsize SUV... sorry, but we call that a CAR and apparently so does Cars.com as they voted it the 2009 “Best Bet” Passenger CAR. It appeared that it was likely more of a case that they were out of midsize SUVs and were trying to pass it off as one. We had reserved a SUV because I find those low cars a pain to get in and out of. We have rented from the same company many times and this was the only time we have had them try to pass off anything like this as a midsize SUV. Luckily, we had a nice older fellow at the rental company who understood why we had reserved what we had and that the Vibe was not a comparable option. He gave us one of their last 2 fullsize SUVs instead. When we returned it, we saw that they do normally have a lot more SUVs including ones we would classify as midsize SUVs in their fleet, they had just all been rented already on Friday. Enough about that, it all worked out... it was just a bit frustrating & more frustrating trying to have this discussion out in the blazing San Antonio heat after just getting off a completely full flight.

We got to the hotel, checked in and Mike took the SUV over to the hotel’s parking lot... a nice jaunt away while I took the bags up to our room. We never knew that the Hilton had “Hilton Honors Members Only” floors but apparently they do and we were on one of them. I couldn’t tell a lot of difference between it and the other couple of floors we took a look at other than possibly a bit nicer carpeting and furnishings in the hallways.

The room was nice. We received a king size bed room which was one of the most comfortable beds I have ever had in a hotel room. It just cuddled around you and took you away to dream land as soon as you laid your body down... which was very good as the days were excitement filled and I was ready for bed big time each night I put my head to the pillow.

Kristin had arrived the day before so after getting situated in the room and having a short rest (both for us as well as for Dani), we met her in the lobby to go for lunch down at the hotel restaurant. You know how you will know someone’s picture but when you meet them in real life, you think you recognize them but aren’t really sure... well, that never happened. Immediately, I knew it was Kristin and Dani and they were standing with Terry who also was an immediate recognition. Terry didn’t join us for lunch as she was just arriving and went to get herself situated before the digi crop.

Dani and Kristin

Terry and Tatiana

We had a lovely lunch. Apparently something happened with Mike’s order, we aren’t exactly sure what because when our meals arrived, all we could tell was that he had my side and I had his but being married, that is no big deal, we just swapped them around. However, the restaurant thought they had messed it up badly enough that they gave Mike his meal complimentary. Can’t complain about that.

After lunch, we split up to get our laptops and cameras and meet at the crop room. It was like walking into a room of old friends. Faces were familiar and personalities matched expectations. Finally, voices to go with the faces and amazingly, people sounded just as I expected they would.

The glow from all the laptops working around the room was amazing and the chatter of 40 women & a couple men was a bundle of laughter but surprisingly, not overwhelming. Thanks Lynda (farabee) for giving Katie the “good” idea of having each of us stand up, tell who we were and something about ourselves... okay, so it was great to hear everyone else but sure was hard to keep those knee knockings to a dull roar myself standing up.

For a digi crop, we did get some scrapping done but got a lot more chatting done. I tried showing Terry how I have my photo file structure set up and use Bridge to organize both my photos and my digi supplies. She says it helped but I really wonder if it did or if I just confused her more. There is a reason I am not a teacher, I am not great at giving directions in a smooth, easy to follow method. She is welcome to call me anytime and I hope she does as she seemed to like how it all works and I know that it has been a real time saver for me.

We had a snack break through the afternoon and then later, we broke up for dinner around 8pm and groups went off in different directions to get some food. The group I was with headed down to the hotel restaurant to pick up food to take back to the crop room. Another group headed off to Fuddruckers to pick up and bring back. Another group headed off... no idea but most were back fairly quickly and once we finished up, started to get a group shot taken in the hallway.

Mike tried to take photos with everyone’s camera and it was entertaining to see him moving the chair he was standing on back and forth depending on which camera he had as we all had different length cameras and different camera bodies to figure out. Unfortunately, we don’t have everyone in any one photo as Phyllis (whatnext) had to leave early so we caught her in the early photos but Katrina and Myra and a few others weren’t back yet from getting their food so were missed in those photos. We did get another round of photos a bit later once they had gotten back with Katrina and Myra and the rest but were then missing Phyllis. Mike got into the later set of photos holding Dani as Tracy (Jazzmatazz) took photos for the group. Unfortunately, I hadn’t left my camera turned on so thinking that it wasn’t working and mistaking the shake reduction On indicator for my power On, I didn’t get a shot of that group shot with my camera so I am hoping to get a copy of someone else’s. The group shot that I do have however, had Patricia in it which I thought was fabulous as she was bound to be in maybe half of them as she would pop in and out of the group shot to take some photos of the group herself.

We got about 4 challenges completed but by the time it was for the 5th, people were pretty tired and enjoying chatting more than thinking so we called it at 4 challenges and just chatted the rest of the evening away. Katie and Randy were sticking around to the very end but someone finally convinced them to head off to bed as they had a very early morning to get to the airport and fly off to Salt Lake City, Utah for the next digi crop of the weekend.

Saturday morning, it was time for Katrina’s photowalk along the Riverwalk!! How I have been looking forward to that and it certainly didn’t disappoint. We started out with quite a large group and being that the Riverwalk is fairly narrow with no railing so you don’t want to get too close to the edge for fear of taking an unwanted morning bath in the river, we got spread out fairly quickly. Over time, people had to take off to get back home or off to other obligations. Before Donita had to leave though she got a photo with her childhood love, Smokey the bear who was having a birthday party in one of the squares.

We had a good sized handful still by lunch time and stopped for a bite to eat. After lunch, we were all re-energized to head back out into the amazingly hot and humid weather. We continued until we were all not much more than puddles on the ground and stopped for a Ben & Jerry’s revitalizing ice cream break before heading back to the hotel. Our photowalk ended up being a glorious five and a half hours long. Feet were tired and heads were overheated by the time we got back to the hotel. It was break time before evening plans.

Mike and I took a short break in the room and then headed out in search of the couple of things on our to-do list for San Antonio... 1.) get Mike a puffy taco at Los Barrios, a restaurant featured on the Food Network a couple of years ago which is what had put San Antonio on Mike’s to-visit-sometime list and 2.) get a photo of the Guenther street sign for namesake as it isn’t often that we see Guenther spelt with the “e” in it. The puffy taco wasn’t a lot different from a normal hard shell taco but it was enough to be quite intriguing and very delicious. We got photos of both East Guenther street as well as West Guenther street so the ideas are spinning around in my head as to how to use them in a layout about our moving from out West to living in the East now.

After returning to the hotel, I went up to see Kristin and Dani for us to go down to room 827 for the party room of Katrina, Mollie, Sarah and Myra. I think we both felt a bit like we were crashing their party but they were very welcoming and we hope (decided we would believe whether it was true or not) we weren’t crashing the party but were wanted. It certainly was the party room! In addition to them, we found Patricia, Kelly, Cassie and her husband, Jeff and their two kids, Jack and Ellie.

We all headed over to the Alamo to take some evening photos as it had been packed earlier in the day on our photowalk. Katrina and Ellie had a little photo session of their own with Katrina showing Ellie the photos she was taking. Unfortunately, Jack met a bee who gave him his first bee bite right behind the ear. He was a super trooper and we all learned to much delight that Jack is not allergic to bee bites. Cassie was a great protective mom and squashed that bee dead and gave it a real stern taking to about biting Jack. Ellie also was mad at the bee and gave it a real stare down.

We headed over to a restaurant along the riverwalk for dinner and had a lovely meal together. I got to witness Katrina having a beer! It’s one of those things she is known for so was a moment to remember. Cassie showed us her cool apps on her iphone including one that will help you identify backyard birds by their features and then play one of their calls which will attract them to you. She also took a photo of her makeup in her purse to show us how the Amazon app works. Very cool stuff but even funnier was watching Cassie and Katrina take iphone photos of each other with their phones on camera mode shooting a photo of their mouth while the other person took the photo. So you have them with an iphone in front of their mouth displaying a photo being taken of their mouth. It is a very funny thing to see.

It was a great meal and chance to get to know them better. However, Kristin, Dani, Mike and I had to head off around 10-11pm as we were exhausted and both had to be up early Sunday to head to the airport for our flights home. Apparently the others continued to chat the night and early morning away. So glad they had a chance to connect again as they had on their Disney trip and even more glad that they welcomed us to tag along with them for the evening photos and dinner.

Sunday morning, we packed up and headed off to the airport. Kristin took the airport shuttle instead of coming with us because she had left her car seat in Billings, Montana as the airport shuttle won’t let you use them anyways and it made her trip much less cumbersome. Mike and I took the SUV to the airport and returned it. Knowing that Kristin would also be at the airport with a couple of hours before her flight as well, we decided to check the departures screen to see if she would be close or clear across the terminal. As it turned out, our two flights on different airlines were at gates 14 and 15 side by side and scheduled to depart within 15 minutes of one another.

We had breakfast and then set out to see if we could locate Kristin and Dani. We found them grabbing some breakfast as well. They were about to set out to see if they could locate us. So the four of us found seats at the laptop wall and began plugging in. Kristin and Mike pulled out their laptops. I was too lazy to pull mine out so just used my iphone to check on things. It was nice being able to sit together waiting for our flights and it made the time go a lot faster. Our flight originally was scheduled to leave about 10 minutes before Kristin’s however, ours was delayed about 20 minutes giving us a chance to see Kristin and Dani off before ours started boarding.

Another quick, nice flight back to Atlanta. It feels good to be home but already missing the fun weekend and all the wonderful ladies I finally got to meet in person. Awaiting the next location and hoping to be able to attend. There is talk of an Atlanta one which would be wonderful and if so, already told Kristin she has a cheap hotel room which often comes with food at our place.

I feel for all the ladies who weren’t able to come to the crop and so wish they had been able to. However, now being to one, it would be that much harder to not go to the next ones.

A great weekend with great, wonderful people! Couldn’t have asked for better.

Non-kitteh news

2009-07-21T21:11:00.000-04:00

Kitteh news can be found at kittehpile.blogspot.com

In the realm of non-kitteh news this week, it has been fairly busy for us.

Saturday, Mike and I went to the Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photowalk in downtown Atlanta. It was a great day for shooting and was a lovely morning out. We met a few neat people on the walk and got a chance to chat more with them afterwards at a restaurant meeting place.

I played around with how to process my photos being “urban” and not my usual subject matter. It took awhile to find a look I liked but I put one together and have gotten a great response about it which has made me feel really good. They inquired as to what preset I was using and it was nice to be able to tell them that I built it myself.

We haven’t gone through Mike’s photos yet because well, getting him to just take photos is already a feat in itself. He is the kind that will take 3-5 photos of an outing and rarely look at the later. He took probably more photos on the walk than he has taken in a few years combined and I haven’t even checked to see how many he did yet. I just know that he was snapping fairly often and was on a mission to take a photo of every eating establishment we passed along the route and there were quite a number of them.

He did have fun using my monopod as a walking stick as well as stabilizer for his teeny tiny point & shoot camera. It looked a little funny but it was also quite unique and made you smile to see it. It kept him happy and that was the important part. He was coming along to keep me company and was a great sport about doing something that doesn’t really mean much to him but he knows I was really looking forward to doing.

Here is a layout I have done with some of my favorite photos I shot on the photowalk. The backside jean shot is indeed Mike with the camera bag on his back and monopod in his hand. It is my favorite of the day and holds special additional meaning for me as we were laughing and having a good time when I snapped it. It is more than a photo to me but as a photo in itself, I am really proud of how it turned out. {click to enlarge}

After the photowalk, we were near the Smart car dealership so headed over there. We have been talking of trading in the Focus for awhile now and much more seriously recently. It was getting old and it has never really liked the heat because of their original design for the fuel pump in those vehicles and heat is something that we are not lacking in, in Atlanta. It’s struts were getting where they would be needing replacing. The brakes squeeked - more so because of the brakes they replaced the originals with just before leaving Canada rather than because of the actual brakes’ condition. They had squeeked since they were brand new but it gets worse when damp and we get a number of storms down here that rain is a pretty common occurrence.

There was a bit of question about trading in the Focus because it was a Canadian car and odometer and speed gauge were mainly in kilometers than miles. In the end, they took it no problem and the wholesaler is going to sort out what to do with it. We got the trade in value we were looking for it so are happy with that.

Financing was also an interesting situation because of continued fun of still building US credit history. We have already built up ourselves a good rating but the fact that it is still short on the years is still a complication. Thankfully the finance guy was actually able to pull our Canadian credit history and see that our US score is in line with our Canadian one so it isn’t that we are only newly good credit risk but that between Canada and the US, we are good payers. He couldn’t specifically use our Canadian score to influence anything but could use it to make the final decision to approve the loan.

So we came home with a new Smart car... and this is so much more than our Smart car we had in Canada. We bought a slightly used Smart car instead of a brand spanking new one because of what this one all had... it had been bought by an ultra-wealthy man who trades cars monthly and usually only drives them 100-200 miles before trading it. He bought it, had it tricked out and kept it 3 months and drove it 3600 miles! He really liked it and we really liked what he did to it.

He had a body kit modification done so it has a sporty, racy look to it. He added a kicking stereo system to it complete with additional speakers, subwoofer and amp in the car. It has 17“ Pirelli wheels and a quieter Brabus exhaust system... it quietly purrs. Anti-theft and alarm measures.

In addition to the specialized additions, he had it filled with all the bells and whistles... auto rain wipers which turn on based on detection of rain, auto lights, 6 CD/MP3 disk changer in dash, cargo net and cover, heated leather seats... everything Mike ever dreamed in having in a Smart or any car really.

Being used, the original owner took the initial massive depreciation on the car that we got it and the $10-12K of modifications he had done to it for about the original price tag. Looking at it next to the new cars, there wasn’t a lot of decision to be made. It was so much more than the others and the price fit in what we were looking to pay and was slightly cheaper than the brand new, not fully loaded price tags. 3600 miles was pretty negligible in our minds.

Oh ya... it is a convertible model in Rally Red with black trident.

And then to finish out our weekend, we continued working on the bathroom off our livingroom remodel. The cork finish was finished up and is looking very sweet! We used a different sealer this time as we used up all that we got with our cork and this was the same stuff but made by a different manufacturer. We got semi-gloss for the bathroom as we wanted it to have a bit smoother finish than the matte we have elsewhere being it would see more water. It looks so sweet!

We started putting stuff into it last night but hit some snags. The vanity went in fine and attached the vessel sink and faucet to it fine. The connectors out of the wall had to be modified slightly as one was a tiny bit too low but cutting the wall, we are able to reposition it without having to cut the actual vanity to make it fit. We needed to get adapters for the supply hoses though as the faucet came with slightly different than what the wall outlets had. Not a big deal.

Then came the toilet... so... apparently the builder either put the wall in the wrong spot or put the drain in the wrong spot. It measured just slightly off of being 12” rough in... but enough that we have to go with a 10“ rough in toilet which is NOT regular stock at the hardware stores.

We did find one at Home Depot that said it was a 10” rough in but when we got it home and went to put it into place, it was actually a 12“ rough in that had been put in the box... and from the look of the box being taped back up (we thought just opened) and the fact that it came with a smooshed on wax ring already, we are sure someone else was caught with the wrong thing in the box as well and when it was returned, noone fixed it.. just taped it up and put it back on the shelf.

I did call a Kohler dealership today to see if they carry the 1 toilet style that Kohler makes that comes in a 10” rough in. Thankfully, they had one at another location and are having it shipped to our town so we can pick it up locally. We could have ordered it from Home Depot as well but it would be a special order and take 5-7 business days to come in. The $20 price difference between Home Depot and the plumbing dealership seemed worth it to be able to put it in once Mike is back from his trip to North Carolina this week. It will be nice to be back to having 2 working toilets and nice, remodeled bathroom.

The original toilet that we got for the remodel is a Kohler one-piece toilet with water saving yet powerful flush system and rim wash is going to be replacing the even worse toilet in our master bathroom. We hadn’t planned to replace it right now but it will fit in there.. surprise... that wall seems to have about 13-14“ roughin... wonder where that extra space came from... so it isn’t a loss, just a bit more work than we planned for right now.

So that has been our busy weekend. Mike is in NC for a few days for work so I am flying solo in looking after the kittehs.

Checking in

2009-07-16T13:48:00.000-04:00

Just checking in here as I have been spending the majority of my time over at our kittehpile.blogspot.com blog following the developments in the kitten brigade currently occupying our lives. If you want to know what is up with them, check out that blog for the latest details and the adorable little photo faces.

As for non-kitty news, we are currently in the middle of remodeling our bathroom off the living room. The painting took a little longer than planned for a few reasons. 1. keeping it closed off to keep the cats out of it as we have rags stuffed in the pipe intake and the toilet drain and they like to pull at danging, lose fabric type things so reduced circulation equalled longer than expected dry times 2. whatever the professional painters did to the paint for spraying has made the partial cans of paint thicker so again, longer to dry 3. the disgusting brown color that was in there wasn’t wanting to cover very well in comparison to how well it was covering the areas we patched so it was blotchy until 3 coats had been applied

The floor received a scrubbing last night to get it ready to lay cork flooring on it. Mike used a modification kit on the fan which was supposed to reduce its noise by 50% and give us 20% better circulation. We shall see. We didn’t have a lot of options because of the size of the previous fan so this seemed like the best option.

He also put up the new light fixture last night. Thankfully we chose to go with the 3 bulb version as it just barely fit for the space between its connection and the corner of the wall. In order to put it up, he had to get a modification box and mount that as somehow the previous light installation had passed inspection without having any kind of box put into the wall... it was simply screwed into the wall with the wires connected through a rough hole. Now, it is securely attached as it should have always been.

We have gone with a stand alone vanity with vessel top sink and faucet with matching mirror. A lighting fixture that echoes some of the lines of our dining room fixture right outside its door. And a one-piece super duper Kohler toilet with ring wash which hopefully will help keep it cleaner than 15 minutes with this water of ours.

Still a bunch to do but hopefully it will begin to go together a bit faster now that all the rip out and painting is done. The flooring shouldn’t be too bad because it is small but will still take some time for sealing. And then there is the trim before we put anything back in. The installation of the toilet hopefully will go smoothly as it should just be the wax ring to deal with as it is the one piece and no tank to attach separately. The vanity looks to have come mainly pre-assembled and fingers crossed, everything hooks up easily.

Hoping to have it done by the end of the weekend as Mike is gone for a couple days next week for work. However, we do have the Scott Kelby 2nd Annual World Photowalk in Atlanta on Saturday morning so that cuts out part of the weekend but for what should be a fun and entertaining social outing.

Little annoyances... Mike’s work suv was broken into outside our house last night and his gps stolen. They smashed the drivers side window and just grabbed the gps without touching anything else in the vehicle. Don’t think they even opened the door, just reached in and grabbed and were gone. We were home all night but didn’t hear a thing and our bedroom window is just a few feet from the vehicle. Grrrrr.... thankfully nothing more or involving any harm to people or animals.

As well, Mike was notified today that his Visa check card number may have been compromised so the bank is taking action now to prevent any problems. So just a minor inconvenience but makes you wonder when #3 is going to happen since don’t all bad things come in 3s????? maybe my dad being diagnosed with early stage cancer a couple of weeks ago is number 3 and these were just minor to fill out the whopper that news threw us for.

Well, off to edit photos of the kitties from last night and get some much needed scrapping therapy done.

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2009-07-08T16:41:00.001-04:00

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Kittehpile Blog

2009-07-06T04:33:00.000-04:00

We have put together a new blog solely for the tracking and documenting of the growing up of the kittens. Thought this might be a more interesting way of recording the changes and important moments in each kitty’s life that they spend with us before being adopted out.

It is kittehpile.blogspot.com if you are interested in following what the kitties are up to each day and layouts done about them along the way.

Feline News

2009-06-27T22:57:00.000-04:00

Where to begin with our feline news... I guess start with the sad and move onto the good and then exciting and kind of scary at the same time news.

This layout describes the unfortunate feline news we had this summer. Full size can be viewed here which hopefully is large enough to read. It is too sad to write about again.

Shortly after that, we decided we really needed to make a better effort to gain trust with a sweet stray that had been visiting and spending the afternoons on our patio to make sure that it was healthy. At first, we thought it was a he and named it Clueso after Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther because of the white markings looking like a mustache. Shortly after we named it, Mike noticed that it had pronounced teets and we had to rename her Clousette. A day or two later, we realized that taking her to the vet and making sure she was fixed was a little too late.. she was pregnant, decidely pregnant. We worked hard to make sure that she trusted us and got her into the vet that week to be checked over and make sure she was in good health and the pregnancy was going alright.

We waited with baited breath after just having gone through bad results with Sam. Thankfully, everything came back healthy and in great shape. We introduced her to our master bathroom then and set about trying to find her a good shelter.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to find any that either had room or that wouldn’t euthanize her and her babies due to no room. She was so sweet that we couldn’t bring ourselves to condemn her or her babies to that fate. Apparently it is kitten season which we didn’t know there was a specific kitten season but the shelters and their foster homes are all full at the moment. We decided we were going to try our hand at looking after her and her babies through the birthing and up until they are old enough to be fixed and adopted out. We realize that we may seem crazy to some and at times, we agree but it is something we decided to take on and have been really enjoying.

Mike has been checking her daily to see how she is progressing as we have no idea when she became pregnant but from the size of her, we knew that time was coming soon. She is rail thin except for her pregnant midsection. Yesterday, we could tell that her teets were beginning to look as though they were filling and time was getting very close.

This morning, I woke up to Mike going into the bathroom and saying “woah! we have kittens!”. He went in, Clousette came to meet him all proud and he realized that her midsection was a lot SKINNIER and that the bathtub that we set up for her as a nest with a bunch of fluffing cloth was full of kittens. She had her litter sometime between when we went to bed at 2am and when we got up at 9am. We didn’t hear a thing. She did a great job and took care of her little babies beautifully. She was a proud mamma and wanted to show Mike her babies right away.

It was hard to get a count on exactly how many she had as they were all squirming around and close in colorings. We finally got a count on them... 6. We had been hoping for a small litter but with the size of her tummy, we can’t really be surprised at 6. They are all pretty equal in sizing and all seem to be doing well. They suckle lots and wriggle around one another to get to food. They all seem to really like to eat that she hasn’t been able to get much rest from feeding them. We moved her food into the tub so she could eat it while they fed at the same time and she chowed down hungrily.

They are so tiny! Their eyes are all shut and apparently aren’t supposed to open until they are about a week old. They are skinny, longish and being that their hair is pretty thin yet, their tails look all long and skinny like a rat. They are pretty cute but not as cute as they apparently will get in a couple of weeks. Such delicate little things they are at the moment.

Clousette is very protective to making sure she knows who is coming in the door whenever it opens. However, she relaxes right away when she knows it is us and is very acceptable of letting us pick up the little ones. She keeps an eye on them but lets us move them around and hold them.

We haven’t gotten photographs of many of them yet as we are trying not to take them away from suckling and they seem to be a bunch of really hungry little kittens. Some of them even fall asleep still suckling. We have a tub o’ pile o’ kittens.

Exciting but also nervous and kinda scary times but mostly exciting. Here’s to them continuing to grow up healthily and us being able to find them good homes.

Here is a layout for Ash, the first of the kittens that we were able to get a photograph of.

It's been way too long...

2009-06-20T18:16:00.000-04:00

So it has been way too long since I last updated things... either that or it seems more has been happening lately that there is more to report.

Mike and I took our June getaway this past weekend. We headed down to St. Pete Beach, Florida for the weekend. We left on a late evening Friday flight which ended up being a number of hours later than anticipated from a combination of Air Tran being behind in getting our plane to Atlanta and then added onto that even more by weather delays. Had our flight left on time, we would have missed the Atlanta storms but as it was, we ended up spending an extra hour in the terminal waiting for things to reopen for flights and then finally got boarded but got delayed another hour sitting on the tarmac in about 3rd from take off spot as more storms halted take offs. We were to arrive into Tampa at about 8:30pm but didn’t end up getting in until midnight... all the while having a lady behind us who NEVER shut up for a moment the entire time and who was one of those persons to just grate on your nerves.

We picked up our car without any problems - knock on wood but love National’s Emerald Club for making renting cars quick and easy. We went with a convertible for this trip because they had a special pricing for them which made them very reasonable price - $35/day. We picked out a silver Chrysler Sebring. Figured out how to get the roof to retract and plugged in the gps and off we went to our hotel. A few wrong turns to begin as there is a bunch of construction near the airport that the gps didn’t know about but quickly sorted that out. We stopped by McDonald’s on the way to the resort as we were starving by this time and it was about all we saw still open.

We checked into the resort, the Sirata Beach Resort & Conference Center. We had gotten a good price for a room at a place actually on the beach so couldn’t complain too much when we got one of their older rooms. It was nice enough. It just had that now familiar Florida hotel, slightly musty smelling ac unit smell. The resort looked very nice and maybe is going on the older side of things but definitely worth checking out. Location to the beach was great.

Mike and I spent Saturday on our own. We rented a cabana on the beach... well, that is what they call their ones on the beach as well as their ones by the pool. The ones by the pool are what I think of as cabanas. Their ones on the beach, I would call wooden chairs with essentially an umbrella type canopy. Either way, it gave us somewhere reserved to sit and shade from the heat for the top of our bodies.

Mike enjoyed the water but it was a bit too warm and calm for his real liking. He thought it was more like being in a warm bathtub and he never has had much patience for a warm bath. He swam around awhile and tried to see if there were any fish or anything to see but visibility was very low. We sunned on the beach for a while. I then put my camera back in the room and rolled up my shorts’ legs. Mike and I went walking along the beach. I got my shorts pretty damp but it was a nice walk. I normally don’t go in very far because the waves have a tendency to knock me off balance. However, being it was so much calmer, I could get out to my knees pretty easily and keep my balance.

After that, we did a bit more sunning but it was so warm, we decided to go for a drive in the convertible and see more of the area as well as get a breeze. We drove up to Clearwater Beach to see where we would be going the next day. Mike could point out all of the Publix stores he has visited on his trips to the area. We didn’t actually get out at Clearwater Beach because it was so packed. We drove back to our resort and stopped along the way for Mike to get a 7-11 sugar free slushie. We don’t have 7-11s around our area so this is a big treat for him and an old summer habit.

On Sunday, we went to Clearwater Beach to meet up with some friends from Designer Digitals, the online scrapping community I associate with. We all had an “interesting” time finding parking and Mike and I had an encounter with a {insert whichever nasty, mean, idiotic, jerkish swear you wish here & double it at least} family driving a Hummer... they lived up to all the nasty stereotypes you hear when people refer to people driving Hummers! Thankfully not much after he literally forced his vehicle between us and the parked cars almost hitting a number of things and forcing his way in front of us to take the spot we were waiting on for a good 15 minutes, we found a spot. We had some very unfriendly comments for him which he of course didn’t hear because he was too into himself and so were his passengers but others around us who saw what happened understood... and we learned that convertibles can be bad things for needing to watch what you say and who is around. Mike doesn’t have a lot of patience for idiotic, rude drivers and I am finding neither do I so that wasn’t a nice encounter but I have a photo straight on of his vehicle and license plate and his photo which I just may do a scrapbooking page about. I like to be nice but some people don’t deserve the effort because they certainly don’t care about others so we shall see.. I may still do the page or I may just skip it.

We met Myra, Tatiana, Bailey and Bailey’s daughter, Rilyn. We had a lovely conversation while having lunch on the patio at Frenchy’s Rockaway Grill right along the beach. After lunch, we went for a short walk to see if we could find a kitsch house that Myra remembered seeing and had been wanting to photograph. Unfortunately, Mike and I didn’t have a lot of time left because we had made plans to meet Barb also from Designer Digitals on our way to the airport for coffee as she couldn’t make the lunch.

We found the house just as we were going to turn around and head back. We snapped some photos and drew the attention of a neighbor across the street who asked us about us all taking photos with our cameras. He had a sunflower out back of his place which had looked very nice a couple of days before and asked us if we wanted to take a look at it. We did. Unfortunately, it was past but he had a lot of other nice flowers which we took some photos of. By this time, we had to hoof it a little faster to get back to our car so we could go meet Barb.

We met Barb and her husband, Jim, at a Starbuck’s right along our route to the airport. We had a lovely conversation and time flew by. I loved meeting all of the wonderful Designer Digitals ladies and they were just as wonderful and special as I expected. However, I was especially thrilled to meet Barb as we share some similar muscular issues and I have never met anyone who shares them before. It was nice to have someone else who really, truly understood a number of the everyday obstacles I deal with.

Our flight out was about 9pm but we needed to get the car returned before then and you never know these days if security will be quick or take awhile so we made sure we got there with time to spare. As it turned out, dropping off the car at National was just as easy as I remembered it and we were onto their shuttle to the terminal very quickly. Security wasn’t busy either so we got through that quickly. We had about an hour and a short bit to wait before our flight.

We went into the restaurant and had some dinner and a drink each. We weren’t sure what we were going to encounter for our flight so wanted to have a dull edge just in case. Time went by quickly and we ended up having to box up the rest of our meal to take on the flight and suck back our drinks. Mine wasn’t too bad as it was just a regular strawberry margarita but Mike had had a premium mojito which must have been at least a double over regular alcohol - sure was priced as such.. his was $15 but 1 drink!! mine was only about $6.

The flight back, we ended up being near the back as that was the only places left we could sit together. We ended up being right next to the engines which was an annoyance but also a blessing. We had a group of early 20s behind us who liked to swear and discuss their weekend’s sexual experiences. So the blessing was that the engines turned their conversation to muffled noise thankfully.

The flight took off about 10 minutes late but arrived a bit early. We quickly got off and headed to our car. A fairly quick drive back home and yay, home!

It was a great weekend and have many great photos from it which I am still working through. I will leave you with this one however which is from our Saturday night sitting out by the beach enjoying strawberry margaritas on a hammock.

Next post will be updates on all our recent kitty news and there is lots of it, some bad but mostly good.. and some very exciting kitty news... but this post is long enough as it is... if I kept up better, it wouldn’t be such a novel.

Hope everything is alright with anyone reading this.. not sure how many actually still check it but hopefully a few so I don’t get accused of not keeping people up to date on what we are up to.

Summer in Georgia

2009-06-04T12:17:00.000-04:00

It has been a bit since I did an update on what we have been up to doing lately. It is summer in Georgia and we have been having an interesting definition of a draught... we have had loads of rain but also a good number of sunshiny days as is proved by today’s most recent power bill. The AC has been doing its job but that also means we are in for a few months of high power bills to pay for the comfort the AC brings us.

What have we been doing??... well, hmmm... update on our new year’s resolution to do a monthly getaway. January - check, February - check, March - check, April - check!!, May - kinda check... it has been a busy month for work travel and other plans so we decided after such a great April getaway (an expensive one), we could make May a stay-getaway as we have another great getaway planned for June.

Our stay-getaway for May was a combination of spending time with friends and going to local entertainment venues.

We got together with friends to go to the local Geranium Festival at the beginning of the month. A beautiful day! Took some photos which I was glad turned out pretty well. I am getting more confident in being able to capture what I want, when I want which is a wonderful feeling. I am getting more familiar and developing my own personal post processing look which I am liking. Now that I have built it into a preset, it is taking me much less time to process photos. I can apply the preset and then just do tweaking and minor touch ups and be happy. Doesn’t always work with all photos but am liking it for a large number that I take.

This past weekend, Amy and Jared (friends from World of Warcraft) came to stay with us. We met last year at the Georgia Renaissance Festival when they were still living in the area. This year, they came to stay with us as they now live out of state. We all took off for a glorious sunshiny day at the GA Ren Fest. It was the first sunshiny day that this year’s GA Ren Fest had had and it was beautiful if not blistering hot. However, we are learning and were smothered in sunscreen so other than tiny patches we found we missed (tops of feet & a tiny patch at hairline), we came away with no redness. It was a great but tiring day in the heat. Photos to come later.

Amy brought with her some delicious baking.. yummmm!! Shortbread cookies, toffee cookies!!!!!, and an amazing pie.... not sure what to call the pie other than amazing brownie in a pie shell. You heat it up and it melts a bit like a hot brownie and then topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Oh yum! Delicious!

And most recently, we went to 6 Flags Over Atlanta with friends for a day of amusement park fun which was originally scheduled for May but due to work obligations was pushed back a week and into June. I didn’t ride as I find it too difficult to get in and out of some rides because of my muscular dystrophy and have recently learned that my neck is already showing signs of arthritis and has a reverse curve to it which I probably shouldn’t subject to the forces on many of the rides which are designed for people with proper neck curvature. So instead, I took photos. Giving them a quick review, I think that I managed to get my settings pretty close on a few to get some good action shots of them on some of the rollercoasters. I have a few more which aren’t so sharp but you can still make out who is who. I will process over the next while and see what I actually ended up with.

So even though I didn’t ride the rides, I did learn a bit more about shutter priority photography and trying to do exposure compensation. Far from mastered but on the way to adequate knowledge about them. Each time I have an opportunity to try my hand at it, I am getting a little better and ending up with more and more useable shots which is encouraging.

So that was the notable moments of May and the beginning of June. We have our June getaway coming up soon which I am excited about for a couple of reasons. 1. we are flying to Florida as we had flight credits & vouchers which were expiring in days so had to book something RIGHT then or lose out on them. It took a bit of work to find something that worked with the credits & worked for us for location & timing but we finally found something and only costing us a $5 service charge for the flights! I love that pricing!! 2. we are renting a convertible for the weekend as that airport actually had very reasonable prices on them... getting a better deal than we could rent most cars & less than suvs for $35/day YAY! we have wanted to rent one for a long time but usually they are stupidly overpriced 3. going back to the Gulf coast but farther down the Florida panhandle 4. potentially (hopefully) getting to meet some scrapbooking friends who live in the area

Our May plans all ended up to be sunshiny days so here’s to hoping that continues for our June trip!!!

When I get some more photos processed from May, I will post some. But until then, we are all doing well.. busy but well.

Medical update

2009-05-21T01:37:00.000-04:00

Just a little update medically. Got blood work results back today and they came out pretty much as expected. I have to figure out some conversions so that I can compare my last set of test results to these ones to know actual changes. It did tell me that I need to increase my calcium intake more as my serum calcium is now showing low and other than right after an episode, hasn’t shown low on tests before.

Southern living hasn’t been too bad on my cholesterol but also hasn’t been the nicest.. no longer low cholesterol across the board, I now have to watch my triglycerides as they have creeped to just marginally over normal.

Yet again, confirmed that definitely have polycystic ovaries and that they are pumping out large amounts of testosterone into my body. Which I will be able to confirm once I do the conversion to have equal test results to compare, definitely appear to be building up to higher and higher levels... severely over normal levels. This was expected as the symptoms have definitely been pointing to that happening. As the rest of my tests came back within expected results, the Dr. was able to prescribe some medication which should inhibit the testosterone reactions and lower things back to allowing my body to balance things better. Not a quick fix but should begin seeing the scale tip back in the right direction in about 3 weeks...

I sure hope so! as I am sure Mike is hoping as well. Think about the shows you see about guys pumped up on testosterone and their aggressive moods... in many ways, that has been me at times. Trying to control the moods, sometimes I just can’t and will snap comments. I don’t mean to and try hard not to but sometimes I just can’t anymore and let it go or need a good cry to let out the emotions and frustrations over not being able to control it. Similar to how Mike can’t control his irritated behavior reactions when his sugar levels get out of control (rarely). So fingers crossed that this will help the ability to maintain evener moods!

It was definitely nice to have a Dr. which actually listened to me when I said that I have had horrible reactions with a wide range of birth control pills which are the usual course of action for treating the problems I am experiencing. Instead of saying that was the only option to try to put things back into balance, he offered me this new course of treatment which should remove the excess of testosterone instead of just pumping more of the other hormones into my system to put them in more balanced ratios to one another.

In addition to the other medication he gave me, these two combined over time he expects will combat the problem my body is causing for me and may actually get my system back to having cycles thus meaning that there is still hope at the end of that tunnel which has seemed so dark for so many years now. I still have a long ways to go to reach that light but there is now a reminder of a possible flicker at the end of it. Thank you!

So here’s to hoping modern medicine does have a miracle change in store for me given time... I would so like to be happier and more even keeled as I once remember myself being...

Overalls & Spot Coloring

2009-05-14T15:54:00.000-04:00

The scrapbooking site that I am part of the community, does challenges which I think are more aimed at getting you to try new and different things than really a challenge in terms of winning. There is no winning or losing, there is just participation and having fun trying something specific.

The layout below I did for the Daily Dose challenge which was to selectively color a photo. I thought this photo of Kinley was perfect for it. I had been wanting to do a layout about Stella dressing Kinley in clothes that we have given her when we met up and the overalls looked cute selectively colored in the photo putting the focus on them and not directly on the cutie who steals the shot anyways so went with the subject matter I was wanting to scrap about.

It isn’t necessary and I don’t think a lot of moms these days think about these little things but Stella does. It is very kind and thoughtful of her to dress Kinley in clothes that you have given her when she knows that we are meeting up. Hopefully she wears them more often than that but it is nice to see them off the hanger and on Kinley. I thought they were darling overalls on the hanger but I think they are even cuter in motion on Kinley. It also gave me an opportunity to scrap using pink which isn’t something I do very often and my mom can tell you, she rarely ever will catch me in pink since that was all I seem to remember wearing as a kid and have a big distaste for the color on me.. red okay, pink, no thank you but I have to admit, pink on a little girl like Kinley is too darn cute.

lunch @ Heritage Park

2009-05-12T23:04:00.000-04:00

Today, I went for lunch with Stella and Kinley. We stopped by Subway and picked up sandwiches for Stella and myself and then headed over to Heritage Park. It is a local park but one I have never been to yet. We ate our lunches and then went for a walk around the buildings. Our first and main stop was through the community garden plots. Kinley had fun walking around and checking out all of the vegetables growing. Then we walked just around the old buildings for a bit to give Kinley a chance to wander around. She is getting very good at moving and has a fascination for heading towards those areas she shouldn’t... stairs down, bridges, and finally the roadways. Stella is very good at curbing her other directions and she may fuss for a quick moment but then is off again happy, smiling Kinley.

Still working on trying to get photos of Kinley face on but she is a profile loving girl. She doesn’t purposely avoid the camera all together, just turns away from it and does her thing. If I was faster at focusing, I probably could get a few more face on ones of her but I am not that quick yet and she is very quick at looking away or off she goes somewhere interesting. Everywhere is interesting to her which is great to get to watch.

Here is the first photo I processed today and worked on for a layout. These two beauties take great pictures together and make working on layouts fun. It is nice to have a change from always Mike or landscapes... I still loving doing layouts of Mike and landscapes but variety is nice! and with these two, I get to use more girly things and colors.

Not a lot new for Mike and I. Mike and I both had dr appointments last week with a specialist. I need to have some blood work done to check levels before he wants to do anything further. Have a follow-up next week.

He has Mike trying a new insulin type for him which if he can sort out and get a handle on, will mean that he will be down to only 2 shots a day instead of 4+ which he is quite liking. One shot in the morning and one at dinner and he is done. It does mean that he has to do more planning for eating and make sure that he is eating enough throughout the day and has a lasting snack before bed. He got the daytime down pretty quickly but was still working on ensuring that he got the nights under control. The first couple of nights, he had me pretty concerned as he was dipping really low and having to get up and eat. Needless to say, I had a few nights where my late night tendencies were much later than normal and involved checking on him a few times. Makes me very happy that I am able to sleep in days when I stay up late at night for things like that. Thankfully, he maintains his wits about him even when he goes very low and is able to get himself to food and correct the situation. However, it doesn’t make it any less nerve wracking for me until I know he has a new regime under control and I am sure he got a little tired of me going in and putting my hand on his chest to check his temperature and whether he was sweating or not... but I would much rather that he get a little peeved with me than something happen and he not able to get peeved at me again. Parental units - no need for concern - he is under control and very responsible about making sure that he is okay.

Other news... we have a couple of weekend getaways planned which include plane travel. In August, we are going to San Antonio for a weekend for a scrapbooking get-together. In June, we are headed to Tampa for a weekend to another area of the Gulf Coast and planning to meet a few ladies that share my hobby for digital scrapbooking who live in the area. And then in October, we have our week trip planned to head back to Canada to see the family (extended) and attend a friend’s wedding. Haven’t forgotten Aunt... we just haven’t taken the time to sort through specific plans for when we will visit Wetaskiwin and when we will be in Edmonton... other than the wedding, noone has spoken for any specific day(s) so we are still open if you come up with a day before we do.

Guess this is a long enough novel.. if I was better about blogging more often, I could keep these things shorter.

{dude} you are my sunshine

2009-05-04T03:32:00.000-04:00

Art Inspired

2009-05-03T20:59:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple of pages I have done recently which are more of an art inspired style. They are a little funky, weird, strange, psychedelic, {insert noun here} but were fun to put together. So more so than the end product, the journey to completion was the creativity and enjoyment.

Stella - Take 2

2009-04-24T12:11:00.000-04:00

Every once in awhile, I will happen across a photo that draws me in but I have a hard time figuring out a layout design to do it justice. This photo of Stella falls into this category for me and so here is a take 2 at trying to come up with a design for it.

Today's layouts

2009-04-23T23:18:00.000-04:00

Finished up a layout about Mike at the beach today... he went surf hurdling (aka trying to jump the waves)... how do you capture a photo of that other than the one he missed and the wave showed him who was boss upending him...

and then I decided to work on a photo of Stella from lunch. As cute as Kinley is, her mama is a real beauty both inside and out and having lunch with her today was the highlight of my day so here’s to Stella...

Lunch Date

2009-04-23T16:39:00.000-04:00

Had a nice lunch date with Stella and Miss Kinley today. We went to the Mellow Mushroom and had a nice lunch on the patio as it was a beautiful day outside.

Here is the first of some photos I got of Stella and Miss Kinley today.

Trip layouts

2009-04-22T18:50:00.000-04:00

These are the first two layouts from this past getaway... {click for link to larger gallery photo}