Speed Scrap

I went to my first speed scrap at Scrap Matters last week. My friend Di and I did the scrap together. It was so much fun. We chatted on skype while we scrapped. What is a speed scrap you ask? Well let me tell you how they work. You start off the hour with your first set of directions. They tell you how many pictures to use and if there is an order they want them arranged in. Then they tell you how many papers to use. They continue to give you directions every 10 min through the hour. At the end of the scrap you post your layout in the gallery and also on the speed scrap forum. They also give you a free gift for participating.



I'm also taking the Design your Life class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. There is so much information in this class. I completed the pre-work page but haven't gotten to the week one homework yet. Typical me - I'm in the lagger group again. And not for lack of time. It's the procrastinator in me. I keep thinking I need to listen to the video/slide show, but I haven't done it yet. So I finally just looked at the homework. It looks much easier than I anticipated. Now I just need to figure out what photos I'm going to use and get on the ball and do it.



I spent hours yesterday scanning photos from our Hawaii trip that we took in 2000. I want to get this album finished. I had started it years and years ago (paper obviously) but I think I'm going to redo it digitally since I prefer that method so much more. After I got the photos all scanned in and uploaded into iphoto on the desktop, I needed to copy them to a cd to put on my laptop. Have I told you that I've gotten really weak? Well talk about being frustrated over it. I couldn't get the darn cd container open! Man I was so mad. I took a screwdriver to try and pry the container open - and nothing. So I have to wait for Krystin to get home from school today to get it open so I can copy the photos.

Ok well that's it for now. Hope you have a great day.

New Store at ScrapMatters

We have a new designer opening up a store at ScrapMatters this Friday. Go over and take a look at Jenlin's stuff and get in on the sale!



Thanks for looking!

New Class

I'm taking a new class at Jessica Sprague. It's the Type+Writer class that both Jess and Liv are team teaching. It's to help you journal better and learn some typography. We are supposed to complete 6 layouts in 2 weeks. So far I'm being true to kind and am procrastinating. I am having a hard time with the first layout. I finished the 2nd layout and the 3rd layout I've got a good idea about. So hopefully I'll get started on that layout today.

In this class we are supposed to write in a journal for 15 minutes everyday. I have to be honest - I haven't done this. I really don't care to do this type of journaling, so I'm using updating my blog here as my "free write" today. The prompts for some of the writing have been very interesting. We had a list and we were supposed to complete the sentences. I was very surprised that I couldn't / wouldn't answer some of the prompts. One of the prompts that I had difficulty with was I am honored by....and another was I am waiting for... I know I could think the answers but actually writing them down ..no couldn't actually do it. I guess seeing my answers in writing either makes me feel shallow or egotistical. Some of the answers just made me think of how much I miss Mark and I didn't want to admit it to myself. Even now thinking of it makes me tear up. The ironic thing is this is the only layout I've finished for the class so far.

The layouts are all created with wonderful templates that Jess made so they are easy to get the layouts together. The typography we have learned so far has been very interesting. We learned how to create a text path. That is one of the things I always wanted to learn with CS3. We are also learning about text masking. So pretty cool things so far.

The layouts I've been doing for my CT at Scrap Matters have been coming along. I used one of the kits on one of the layouts for the Type+Writer class. I loved how it turned out. I've been posting my layouts at Jessica Sprague, Digi Shop Talk, Creating Keepsakes and of course Scrap Matters.

Here are my latest layouts.



20 Small Things
Brianna Cox About a Girl Kit - Solid Pink, Solid Purple Recolored, Pale Green Roses, Pale Pink Roses, Flourished Dots, and Little Dotty Paper at Scrap Matters,
Template by Jessica Sprague,
Justus and Charms font



Dole Plantation
Ellie Lash Scatter Sunshine Kit, paper recolored at ScrapMatters
F.Jardine stitches Carnival Kit
Papyrus Font


Thanks for looking. See you soon.

Another Layout

It's been fun going through all the kits at Scrap Matters and trying to decide which kit to use. This is such a change for me - usually I have my few kits that are my favorites and I keep going back to them, but now I need to choose different kits to use. Kind of a nice change. The new challenge will be to use more of the items in the kits. My style usually is pretty plain without using alot of stuff added to the layout. So I will have to look closer at the added items in each kit and try to use them more - stretch my "style". But not too far yet. Still in the baby steps stage.

Here is the latest layout. It's from 2 years ago when Krystin and I went to Disneyland ( I know like we would go somewhere else?). We had never been in this one area of California Adventure since we thought it was for little kids. We had a blast. We ran over rope bridges, she felt the need to roll down one of them. And they had a Rock Climbing area. So of course she had to do it. Mind you she's only about 2 feet off the ground.



Waltograph and Tekron Pro Fonts
When Nature Calls and I've been Framed Kits
All by Fluffy Bunny Feet Designs at Scrap Matters



Thanks for looking.

My First CT Layout

Here is my first layout for Scrap Matters from the Designer Erica Zane. I also uploaded this layout to Digi Shop Talk and Jessica Sprague. So I'm very excited to start this fun journey. I have 3 more layouts to do this month. The designers at Scrap Matters are so incredible and it's so much fun to use their products.



Erica Zane EZ Template #1 at Scrap Matters
Erica Zane Bright Fun at Scrap Matters
Digs My Heart and Arial Font


Thanks for looking.

I'm a CT at Scrap Matters!!!

Yippie! I can't tell you how excited I am that I was chosen to be on the creative team at Scrap Matters. There were over 60 people that applied and they chose 18 for the digi team and 5 for the hybrid team. One of the really exciting things is 3 others from our Jessica Sprague group were chosen also! Just goes to show how much we've all learned there. So I'd like to make a big shout out to Kari, Monique and Jamie for making the team also!
It's going to be a busy 6 months. So I should get lots of scrapping done during that time.

I have also signed up for Liv & Jess's Type & Writer class. I really hope I'm not jumping in over my head, but oh well. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? There are also a few of us that are getting together and practicing/learning new techniques. Veev's so generously volunteered to head up this project for us. So far we have worked on extractions and then Linda gave us a really cool technique for masking. It was so quick and easy. I would never have thought of it, so I'm really glad she did and shared this technique with us. Then on top of it she let us practice with one of her fantastic pictures from her Italy trip. She took the best photos on this trip. The scenery looked just like you see in the movies. The kind that look so serene that they never look real. I can hardly wait to see her layouts using these photos.

I finally got out my tablet and gave it a try. I wish there was a way to video tape me trying these things. If there were I'd be a very happy winner of America's Funniest Home Videos. I was working on the extraction I was trying, and here I am holding the pen over the tablet, my arm hovering over the tablet in the air, trying to get the pen to only touch down in specific places on the screen. With the loss of alot of my muscles I'm not as dexterous as I used to be. My hand eye coordination is just not there. My brain knows what I want it to do, but the arm is laughing at me. So I'm hovering over the tablet, arm shaking by now, hitting just about everything except the magic wand button in Photoshop that I'm trying to click on. So finally after 5 minutes of this I figure I'll just rest a finger on the tablet for balance. Duh moment again. After I thought why didn't I just hold the pen like I was writing on the tablet. Did I say I still haven't watched the how to video for the tablet?

So once I rested my little finger on the tablet it went much smoother and quicker. So the moral of the story? I figured I can rest my hand on the tablet as long as I don't pound on it. Resting is good Pounding is bad. I guess I really should watch the video and see how you are supposed to use the tablet. So much for me learning spontaneously.

I'll be posting my pictures for the next 2 techniques we are working on as soon as I've finished them.

Have a good day.

I applied for a CT

Yep - it's the truth. I applied to be on the Creative Team at Scrap Matters. It took the encouragement of so many of you to get my courage up and apply. Not that the applying part was difficult, you only send an email stating you are interested with links to your gallery, blog, and a short bio to them, but man it was the thought of not being good enough that does a person in.

But I took the plunge and applied anyway. I love Brittany's designs at Scrap Matters and if I get chosen to be on the CT you have access to the whole store - all the wonderful designers there. I've been getting back into the swing of things and since I had created 3 layouts in 3 weeks time I figure I'm on a roll and if I get chosen I'll have lots more reasons to make sure to scrap!

I also got myself a new toy! I got a Wacom Intuos3 Tablet. I was so excited waiting for the Fed Ex person to arrive and bring my new tablet. I was pacing all day in anticipation. When the driver finally arrived (4:30pm) with this very large box I ripped it open to get to my new tablet. Remember I'm very excited about getting my tablet - I open it, look at it and think omg what have I done? When I ordered it I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I got the 6 x 8 size tablet. Now I know in my head that's the size of the writing area, but for some reason that little section of my brain just shut down. Those poor little mice on the treadmill that keep the lights on in my brain must have been taking a break. The tablet is big. It's about the same size as my laptop. I usually work on my laptop sitting in bed or on the couch watching tv. Now to figure out a place to actually put the tablet while I'm working on my laptop. So what's a girl to do? Promptly put the tablet in a drawer! I know I spent all that money on a tablet and put it in a drawer. So my list of things to do today is to take the tablet out of the drawer (and the plastic it came in) and install it on my laptop. Oh ya and actually try something on it. It's a good thing my friend Veev's has a new tablet too so we can learn how to use them together.



My New Toy

So I'm off to play with my new toy and watch more of the Olympics. Have a good day!

The dogs think I've lost my mind

Ok the dogs think I've lost my mind. They are probably right, but I hate to admit it to them since they usually think I'm pretty wonderful. I am the one who gets them food, water and treats so I'd kind of like to keep them thinking I'm pretty wonderful, but I put a big dent in that thought process the other day. I've been in turtle slow mode for a couple of months, you know the lights are on but no one is home syndrome, so i'm going to blame my outburst on that.

I've been trying to get back into the swing of things and thought I'm finally ready to start making layouts again. It's been really hard to even look at my pictures since Mark is in so many of them, but I figured I have to work through this. So....I open my photos, decide which ones to work on, open photoshop and then my brain comes to a GRINDING HALT. I upgraded to CS3 while I was taking Jessica Sprague's last class and while it's similar to photoshop elements, there are many things that are different. I remembered how to open the photos, get the paper in, well I was working with a template and just used the paper that came with it so I didn't have to deal with any paper, so then I go to "clip" my photos to the mask and that's when my brain just came to a stop. I'm looking at the keyboard like it was something from outer space and none of the keys were familiar. I couldn't remember how to clip the photos onto the mask. So I do what any normal redblooded girl would do - start hitting random keys and hope it works. Well my first guess didn't work. My second guess didn't work either, or the 3rd, 4th or 5th. Well by now I'm not gently hitting the keys (I'm sorry little keyboard), and I'm yelling at the computer. Masking is my very favorite photoshop tool and for the life of me I couldn't remember how to do it!

By now I'm scaring the dogs who are looking at me like I've lost what little mind I had. Here I was sitting on the couch yelling at the computer, hitting keys, the dogs hiding under the table thinking they are the next in line. Mind you NOTHING IS WORKING! I figure I'm better than this. I can figure it out. So I finally think (yes the brain finally started to catch up) I'll just use the layers menu. There is a clip to mask there. So that's what I finally used. During my tantrum Krystin came to see what I was yelling about - saw what I was working on shook her head and turned around and went back to her room. The dogs followed her thinking they were safer with her.

Next thing I think of is Hey! We learned this in the DID class so all I have to do is re-watch the video and it will remind me how to do the clipping mask trick. Told you my brain was starting to catch up. So off the the JS site - load up the class video, (love that they are there forever!) and then watch away. Well I found the lesson and boy did I feel dumb when it showed the little trick. One of those DUH moments. I had been hitting every combination of keys except the correct one. Oh well I'm sure it won't be the last time I'm doing the duh moment, I just hope I figure them out easily like I did this one.

Well the dogs have forgiven me for my lack of self control and are back to thinking I'm pretty wonderful so life is getting back to normal.

Here my latest layout. I'm finally getting to where I can look at pictures of Mark without it choking me up too much.

Thanks for looking



Chirpi Sunday Morning Kit - clip & paper, Old Toy Camera action

Getting Back to Life

It's been a long time since I've been to my blog. As most of you know my husband passed away suddenly in May and I've been kind of in a tail spin for the last couple of months. There are so many things to take care of and I'm still not done with everything.

I want to thank all of the incredible people at Jessica Sprague who made cards for myself and my girls. They were so thoughtful and meant so much to us.

So now I'm on to getting back to life. So I thought I'd start out slow. (Turtle speed actually) I started by just cruising the galleries and message boards at JS. Then gradually started posting on the message board. One of my good friends at JS decided I needed to take the Oh Shoot! photography class with Candice Stringham at JS as a kick in the pants to really get me started. I enjoyed the class, the videos that Candice did were outstanding. I'd like to say I finished all the projects, but I didn't. Not because they were too hard, but I got side tracked. It's been over 100 degrees for weeks now and it's just too hot to go out and take pictures. I have my camera on the tripod and I just can't lug it around myself with the dogs. I'd hate to drop it! So I've just put it off and I'll finish the class in my own time. That's one of the best things about the classes at JS, the class materials are there forever and you can finish when you are ready.

Krystin is going to nursing school and doing great. She had a week off between semesters so the two of us headed to Disneyland for a couple of days. So I've done some scraping and put together a page of the photos we took there. This seemed to be just what I needed to get me scraping again.

So here are some of the pages I've done lately. Thanks for looking.


This is from our last trip to Disneyland
simplysarahdesigns.blogspot.com Layered Template #42 , Digs My Heart Font


The new Kitten
joyrevisiteddesigns Heather Lee Template, Sabdesbois Impressions Papers


Krystin, Bryan and I went to the Olympic Trials for Wrestling and Judo at the Thomas and Mack
simplyyin Template #42



Creative Lesson - Picture that represents song lyrics - Candice Stringhams' Oh Shoot Photography Class

I'm Back!

Wow I can't believe how long it's been since I've updated my blog. Our Advanced Digi class at Jessica Sprague really did me in. I learned a ton, but I seem to have gone onto overload after the class. Maybe I just went on strike. I did the class is Photoshop CS3 instead of the easier Photoshop Elements. I loved CS3 and now just have to wait until i can afford to purchase the more expensive program as I guess I have gotten spoiled and like it much better than Elements.

The weather has finally warmed up which means Jasmine has been in the pool several times a day now. The other morning about 8am I hear this big splash and of course figure Jasmine has jumped in the pool again. I look out the bedroom window (yes I was still in bed) and to my surprise it wasn't Jasmine in the pool. A duck had landed in the pool!





I ran to close the dog door so the dogs wouldn't run out and chase the duck away before I could get pictures. I get outside with the camera and the duck is just swimming around in the pool having a grand ole time. We don't have ducks near our house so I have no idea where this duck came from. I kept looking around to see if there were other ducks flying around, but didn't see any others. After swimming around for about 5 minutes we heard duck honking and our duck flew off.

We are doing the Photo a Day for May at JS so i'll be posting more pics here soon. There are some really outstanding photos in the gallery there. Mine are more snapshots, but some real art going on there. Stop by there are take a peek.

See you soon!

Funny You Tube Video

While I was blog hopping the other day I stopped by Brittish Designs blog and she had the funniest video on her blog. I usually don't check the videos, but for some reason this one just struck my fancy. It's Ellen DeGeneres with an exercise chair so you can exercise while you are working. I really needed the laugh from this video as my allergies have really done me in this week. I hope you like it.

I also have another lo for our challenge gallery. This weeks challenge was a scraplift with color challenge. So I had this great idea that I would take pictures of my cherry tree in bloom. I love this tree and the pretty pink flowers. So outside I go to find flower petals all over the driveway and the cars and almost none on the tree at all. Darn wind. So I see my neighbor behind me still has blooms on their tree. So off to the backyard I go. Well during this time Jasmine sees me outside with the camera. She comes running over to me and sits in front of me and won't move until I take her picture. Mind you she has me backed up to the pool so there is nowhere for me to move to. So I take her picture and away she trots. She just loves to have her picture taken.



Flourish brush, curled neg. frame - Katie Pertiet - Designer Digitals
Grid Paper - Whitie Tighties - Anna Aspens - Designer Digitals

Long Over Due Update

Blending Tutorial by Cassie Jones

Papers, Alphas, brushes by Katie Pertiet

all Designer Digitals

LivE Designs overlay and paper

Home away from Home papers by Jessica Sprague

These are the latest layout I've done. I am extremely happy with the blended layout of Krystin. I've loved how they are done, and just didn't feel very confident in doing this technique. So now I need to practice to get more comfortable with the technique.

I also am very pleased with the Lunar Eclipse layout. I wasn't even sure I would get any pictures of it at all since it was so cloudy all night. Fortunately the clouds would come and go. My hubby thought I was crazy dragging the camera on the tripod in and out of the house. Especially since I was making him do it. What a guy - he did it though.

Our next challenge at Jessica Sprague is on my to do list. It's to use a lot of white space. I love the look of it, but not very good at achieving it. So I'll work on that this week.

Last week Krystin and I went to Disneyland for 2 days. We had a great time. It was the first time I had really been anywhere except for the doctors office since the feeding tube had been put in. Like I said we had a really great time, but man was I exhausted when we got home. 

Krystin got to push me around Disneyland in a wheelchair the whole time. The good thing about it is you don't have to wait in line with a wheelchair. You get to go up the exits and pretty much get right on the rides. I figure her pushing me around in a wheelchair is making up for all the time I pushed her around in a stroller. 

I'll be getting more layouts done and try to update my posts more frequently.  Also my friend Veevs's mom is in the hospital. If you could keep her in your prayers that would really be appreciated.

tfl

Template Challenge

Template - LivE Designs

Paper, tags, brad - Britt-ish Designs

This week at Jessica Sprague our weekly challenge was to use a template made by our own Liv. We've had so many wonderful layouts done using this template. I thought the disney character photos would work well with this grid template. 

My favorite photo of the group is the shot of Tigger with his hands over the girls faces. I like this shot so much it's the screen saver on my phone too. It was fun getting a picture with the Genie. I was sitting in the shade by myself, waiting for the Aladdin show to open the doors, and who comes up to me but the Genie. He starts patting me on my head and next thing I'm taking my picture with him. There was no one else around just us. It was fun being sought out by a character and spend time with them without crowds jumping all over you.

My older daughter has been coming over to the house alot this week. We used to spend alot more time together, but since she's moved out we don't spend as much time together. So we went to the movies. We saw 27 Dresses. This is a really funny movie about a girl who has been a bridesmaid 27 times. We laughed through most of the movie. This is a typical "chick flick" and I'm glad we got to spend the afternoon together. I forgot how much I enjoyed watching the previews for the upcoming movies. After each preview we always look at each other to see which movie we'd see with Dad, without Dad or not at all. So if you want to see a fun movie, I recommend this one. It's been out for a while, so you may have trouble finding it in theaters, but if that's the case - it's one to get on dvd!

tfl

Sleeping Dogs

Paper by Liv - Bear Hugs

Frame and Stitching from Gunhilde

This was the lastest Challenge at Jessica Sprague mb. Scraplift and use the Orton Effect. I thought the dogs would be a good target, uh i mean subjects for this project. They were all sleeping so I thought this is good. They are all stationary and should be easy to get pictures of. 

Roxanne, of course, had her head under the pillow of the couch sleeping. We call this her ostrich look. Molly (2nd photo) hangs her head over the edge of the couch and sleeps. Reminds me of a vulture looking for prey. Madison - the big chocolate lab just takes over the whole couch. Of course she does weigh over 80 lbs. Then there's Jasmine. She loves to have her picture taken. She was sound asleep then heard me turn on the camera and had to sit up and pose. She thinks that anytime the camera is on I need to be taking pictures of her. So no sneaking up on her for any candid shots because she stops and poses. It's actually pretty funny to see her running around and just stop for a picture.

We had an eclipse today. I hopefully got some good pictures. I just hope any are actually in focus. So I'll be playing with them in the next couple of days and do a layout on that soon.

Have a great day and tfl!

I Wish Challenge

This is the latest challenge for the Jessica Sprague mb. I chose this quote from Designers Digital because Valentine's Day is this week and it looked appropriate. You can use this quote for any number of things, whether you have a significant other or not. 

I thought this was very fitting for my  husband. The man has been a rock though all my struggles the past couple of years. When I was diagnosed with cancer, he was steady and wouldn't let me think that something bad would happen to me. The latest venture has been the swallowing issue. The scary part is when i can't breathe. My throat just closes and nothing goes in or out. He's right there. When I had to have surgery for the feeding tube and couldn't do anything myself, he's been there. Never making me feel like I was a burden. (even though I know I can be) He is my rock and I love him more than he can imagine.

Tag You're It

I've been tagged again. This time it's a different type of tagging. The idea behind this tag game is different from other tag games. Rather than look inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for 3 blog friends. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We're going to see how far the bloggin' blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Be sure to go to the blog of those you are blessing and leave a comment on their blog to be sure the check yours!

The first person I'd like to tag is Carol. Carol lives is Australia. She is always generous in her comments on my blog and always has a nice word to say to everyone. 

Tez is the 2nd person I'd like to tag. Tez is wonderful. She is another part of our wonderful group at Jessica Sprague. I appreciate that she asks for my opinion on layouts that are already beautiful. Her devotion to her family is always apparent in her layouts. The love just shines through.

Lindsan is the 3rd person I'm tagging. Linda is an incredible artist. Her designs range from artwork, scrapbooking, photography, and card making. Her style is so beautiful and clean. Her photography is stunning. Everything she does is so professional. I love the look of everything she has done.

Weekly Challenges

Florida Album Cover

Anna Aspen Tissue Paper Alpha

Scrap Your Town

J Binder Frames

We have weekly challenges at the JS mb that Lexicam started for us between classes to keep our scrapping skills up and give us something to do. Well, Lexicam has had real life interfere and she has decided to discontinue with leading the challenges. So I got voted to step up to the plate and take on the leadership role of the leading challenges. There are a couple of others on the mb (Liv, Veevs, etc...) that will step up and lead challenges also.

 

The first challenge I came up with was Scrap Your Town. Since everyone on our mb is from around the world and the weather has been so crazy and we keep asking "Where do you live?" I figured that would be an interesting way to "See where everyone lived".  

Then last week when we were chatting the thought came up of doing a "scraplift". I thought that was a spectacular idea as I have zero creativity. I look at a blank screen and nothing at all comes. Sad but true. If I have another pic to look at great. I can take it and change it to what I might be able to use, but to start from scratch - torture!!!

I found the scraplift idea at Designer Digitals on their weblog. When I first saw the layout I thought of Lindsan whose style is simple and beautiful. A style I would love to be able to copy. I'm so proud of everyone on our mb who participated in this challenge. We have had more people do this challenge than any I have seen yet. I guess it was easy enough for everyone to do this lo. If you haven't check the gallery - be sure to stop buy and look at the wonderful work everyone has done.

Well, here are my los for the last challenge.

Cheerleading

This pic is from last year and is done with Anna Aspens gradient masks. It was fun and easy!

here's a video of my younger daughter's cheer team Desert Cheer Xtreme. She's the one on the team with the big black brace on her knee. Makes it easier to pick her out of the crowd.

The video is about 2 minutes long.

tfl

Updating layouts

Credit - paper Liv's Boy oh Boy

Alpha - K. Pertiet Grunged Alpha

Orton Effect

Original photo

Ok I've been getting nagged on the chat at Jessica Sprague to upload the picture I did using the tutorial the Kimi posted on her blog. It's call Orton Effect. It makes the photo kind of look like a painting.

We have been having so much fun with the chat room. I haven't gotten very much done because of it. Oh well. That's life. The laundry isn't going anywhere.

I'll be trying to put up the video tomorrow from you tube of a cheer competition that my daughter competed in. She should be home to help me - you know how techie teenagers can be.

tfl

Chat Room

We have a chat room at Jessica Sprague!!! The chat room opened up this morning and I was on for over 4 hours, and finally had to retire to get some real life things done. (Fold the laundry, eat breakfast and lunch, etc...) We were having so much fun. Liv finally had to leave after several hours to get to sleep. She's in the Philippines and hadn't even been to bed when I got on a 8am!! It was almost 11 am when she finally left to get some sleep. We all know she doesn't really sleep. Just does incredible things on No Sleep. 

I got another lo done for the load project - hum, it's the 21st and I only have 9 los done. Oh well, 9 is better than none.

Hop on over and play on the chat room and I'll talk to you soon!

More Photos

Just wanted to add a couple of layout that I finally got completed. One is a quickie page that is from the Jan. kit with Scrappers guide and the 2nd is the Photoshop Friday at Jessica Sprague - the diffuse glow tut. Had a lot of fun with that one. If you go to her web site it's on her blog. Very easy to follow directions!

tfl

7 Random Facts

I've been tagged. It's taken me a really long time to get to this and by now everyone has been tagged so I guess it ends with me. I was tagged by 3 people Liv, Dawn, and Angela. check their blogs for some incredible layouts and freebies.

The Rules of the game are 1) Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. 2) Share 7 random facts about yourself on your blog - we all want to know them. 3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. 4) Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a message on their blog.

Ok for my 7 random facts

1. I collect Disney antenna balls. I have enough to change the antenna ball of my car every week for over a year without repeating.
2. I love trashy novels. The trashier the better. The latest phase has been trashy vampire novels, but any will do.
3. I cry at sad/emotional movies, books, commercials. If it has a sad part in it, I'm crying. My kids told me to watch the movie "The Notebook" with a box of tissues, so I still haven't seen watched it as my family makes fun of me when I cry.
4. I have nephews and nieces that are older than I am. When I was in high school one of my nephews would introduce me to his friends as Auntie Lisa. We had a class together and the teacher kept trying to tell me that I was his cousin not his aunt (his mom & I are sisters - a 20 yr age difference)
5. I took ballet, tap and hula lessons when I was young. We would perform for the retirement centers around our area. I wanted to be a ballerina until I discovered gymnastics (and grew boobs). 
6. When I was young I had to take piano lessons. No one knew I couldn't read music until one day one of my sisters asked my mom who was playing piano and she said  I was. My sister said that couldn't be right as I was playing music she normally played (claire de lune) - remember i was about 7. She came out to see who was playing and started yelling when she saw that I had the wrong music on the piano. I hated piano after that.
7. I was on the Art Linkletter Houseparty TV Show when I was in the 4th grade (1966). There were 8 kids picked from my school. For being on the show we received a hair dryer and a croquette set as prizes.

I hope these are different enough to make you to laugh :)

If you are reading this and haven't been tagged - well, you're it now!

Just a short update. I haven't been feeling very good lately, so I haven't done anything on the computer except lurk on the Jessica Sprague message board. No scrapbooking, no posting, just boring sitting on the bed watching tv. Went to the Dr's yesterday to have them check the peg feeding tube as it's starting to get a little clogged up. This would be very very bad if it got completely clogged as this is how I get most of my food. If it gets too clogged up they will have to change it. Not something I want to look forward to. I don't know if it's something I would have to have surgery to have it replaced like when they first put it in. The next big challenge is to get my weight up. I was supposed to be up to 80 lbs by Jan. but I can't seem to get past the 77 lb mark. I eat fattening snacks like ice cream and pudding, but I guess not enough to make a big difference. When I was chunky all I wanted to be was skinny, and I'm way tooo skinny and all I want is to put on weight. Better watch out for what you wish for. Now the next pain is that I finally found a gastro dr. that I really liked and knew what he was doing, and he ups and moves on me. I would follow him if he only went to California, but noooo he has to move to Florida!! Just a little too far to travel for dr. appts. The physician's assistant I saw yesterday was very nice so I guess I'll just stay with the same office and see someone else in the practice.

I got tagged from several girls on the JS message board. I did a 7 facts post on the thread the Veevs made on the no tagging thread, but hopefully later today or tomorrow I'll do one here, maybe even with a layout. I think everyone has been tagged, but I'll see if anyone got left out.

Thanks for listening. 

More Load LO

Here are 2 more layouts for the LOAD project. I'm behind but I'm pleased with getting more layouts done than I would have without doing this class. Currently I'm doing layouts that Jessica Sprague did a tutorial on in the Creating Keepsakes magazine. It's fun and I did 2 of the same technique to get a little more practice. 

Credits: Golf - Katie Pertiet Frame, You are Beautiful by Verona Karolyi Paper

Madison - Katie Pertiet Frame, DMI Naturals by Diane Miler paper

tfl

USS Arizona

Here's the next page for the load challenge. This lo was when Jessica and I went to Hawaii for a gymnastics competition. We stayed in Honolulu. One of the places I really wanted to see was Pearl Harbor. The trip to the Arizona was incredible. I was really moved by the memorial and tributes to all our heros who served in our armed forces for WWII. This is one page of the album from our trip. I'll have to keep working on this so I have a whole album.

LOAD

I've been creating layouts for the Lay Out A Day at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I've been using templates so it's much easier than trying to think up a design - I'm so not creative like that. Give me directions on exactly how to do something and I'm good, otherwise it's boring straight lines and blocks. Oh well, do what you can do. I need to make resolutions about trying to expand my design skills to incorporate new styles. Try to go "outside the box". There are so many styles of my friends that I would love to emulate - Liv, (Lisa) Lexicam, Kimi-boo. These ladies are so creative and stylish. It makes me green with envy. I love to see their layouts because they are so good. Lisa (Lexicam) is now on a design team, Kimi makes tutorials so we can learn how to do things better, and Liv - what can I say. She creates. She makes freebies - papers, elements, you name it. She made a shutter plopper for everyone to use. If you like it please visit her blog - see my sidebar and pick it up. She's incredible and so generous. 

Alot of us girls over on Jessica Sprague's mb had a chat last night. What fun that was. I had to leave after 3 hrs as the battery on my laptop was dying, but others stayed for 6 hrs!! We started at 7:30 pm PST. Veevs joined us from England -she had to set her alarm to wake up at 3:30 am to get in the chat. That's what happens when you live half way around the world.

Here are a couple of layouts for the LOAD class.

The top layout is of my daughter Krystin and I at Disneyland, the bottom photo is of my younger daughter Jessica and her friend Danielle.

tfl

Happy New Year

I can't believe it's 2008 already. It seems as if 2007 just flew by. I guess it's ok as it wasn't such a great year for me. I'm looking forward to 2008 being better. I signed up for a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking for LOAD (lay out a day) for the month of Jan. I'm already behind and it's only the 2nd of Jan. Oh well, I'll just have to keep trying to catch up.

I scanned a bunch of pictures of a trip Jessica and I took to Hawaii for a gymnastics competition in Jan 2004. As soon as I finished scanning all the photos, I checked in the back of the album I had them in, and lo and behold what did I find? I had the film developed and also put on a cd. I guess every once in a while I think ahead. At least it makes it easier to put the pics on my laptop and not have to copy everything to a disk and then to the laptop.

Here is the layout for my 1st day of the LOAD class. It's of the Rose Parade. The photos of the floats and band are pics I took of the tv. The Rose Parade logo I copied from the Pasadena City Web site. I used it as the background and also on the lo itself. I kind of miss not being in So Cal for the parade. You could watch the parade all day long on several different channels. You don't get to do that here in Vegas. It's only on a couple of channels and if you snooze, you lose part of the parade.

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and have a great 2008.

tfl