Sunday Stuff

First I get to share with you the photo from my 1st official photo assignment for our church's sermon series. I LOVE this and I'm totally going to get a canvas print of it to hang in my Living Room!

and my artist statement which I wrote myself this time :)
In the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21), Jesus teaches us to choose the things of God over the things of Earth. The torn paper represents how these things we store up on Earth tear us apart from God.

Next are the pages I did for my creative teams but didn't get a chance to share with you yesterday. I was busy transferring everything back to the old computer and now am back to working on this old dinosaur, waiting for a new refurbished PC with Windows 7 to come on the market again. I quickly got used to the speed of the new computer though, lol.

Both Traci and Eva had 2 new kits each! The all totally ROCK! Traci put out 2 toddler kits one for a boy and one for a girl but I totally recommend getting both of them because the papers and elements coordinate so well and you'll see that I used the Orange Alpha and Cheerios in the girls kit for Isaac's page. Traci totally ROCKS the papers, seriously! I had to use every single one of the patterned papers because I couldn't pick just a few. I haven't had a chance to work with the girl kit yet but plan on doing it right after updating the blog while Isaac is taking a nap and Mark takes Moriah out for a date. I need to make a page with Moriah in it since all my pages are Isaac pages, lol. Poor girl got the shaft this week, lol. Eva also did a little boy kit too and I just LOVE the mud splats and the adorable toddler toys. She also come out with some wave clipping masks... I LOVE waves and LOVE clipping masks... I use them in so many of my pages.

Anyways, here they are along with links in the credits.

Toddle Around Boy by Traci Reed, Orange Alpha and Cheerios from Toddle Around Girl by Traci Reed, Papercropz vol 2 by NeeNee, Tweenybopper font by Darcy Baldwin

link to Toddle Around Bundle at a discounted price

Little Big Man by Eva Kipler, newsletter freebie template by NeeNee, Tweenybopper by Darcy Baldwin, Lizzy Fizzed Out by Darcy Baldwin, Cut Ups 2 by Lauren Reid

Bring Back the 70s by Eva Kipler, Clip Me Waves by Eva Kipler

a couple new layouts

I've been going crazy not scrapbooking so I've been risking the computer shutting down to make a couple pages.

This one was fun to make... I used the One Love collab by several scrapbooking designers where the proceeds went to Haiti. I used only Sweet Shoppe Designers' elements in this layout because I just love them and their stuff so much. The only thing that wasn't made by a Sweet Shoppe Designer was the background paper. Anyways, I picked up the fun Take Out Tuesday cluster template for the blog and had fun scrapping pics from what turns out to be my last Ladies' Night Out... After Tuesday's blog post it made me realize that this may be a problem and I need to get out more. I blame nursing... really, because what happened with Moriah tramatized me so much that I refused to be away from Isaac for fear that I was starving him. UGH, so now I'm determined to get out more especially now that he's older. He'll be mad but well, I need to take care of myself in order to take care of him and he'll survive. The font is Jenna by Darcy Baldwin.

This next one was a page I've been trying to do for quite awhile. It's been in the back of my head and I just decided I needed to do it. When my friend Barry had passed away suddenly in September I remembered that he had a goal of running a 10K in 2010 and I had decided that I was going to do just that. I want to run a 10K in 2010 in memory of him and it's only by the strength of God that I can do it. The journaling is hard to read but it's basically about Barry and his goal and how I want to do this and that running is my special time with the Lord... it seems to be the time I can really focus on talking to God and often times after a few miles it's when I'm really talking to God to get me back home, lol. I'm pretty impressed with this page... if you notice the jogging stroller, it looks like a double... well there wasn't a double in the kit. I used the single and duplicated it and then moved them together... then I had to do some erasing of the handlebars to make them look like one... if you look super close you can tell but I figure that's not what people are going to be looking at, lol. Anyways, the awesome kit is Run For Your Life by Shawna Clingerman and Emily Card, the bracket is Layered Up In You Brackets by Lauren Grier, the doodled borders is Border-Line by Lauren Grier (retired) and the font is Sissy by Darcy Baldwin. I also used one of the templates from Collection #13 by Cindy Schneider. I can't tell you how much I love these templates!

Work In Progress Wednesday

Not much to report this week... Mark spent the weekend with more mudding and more sanding... we're getting soooooo close! Anyways, I finally picked a color for the 4th bedroom and hopefully next week during Isaac's naps, Moriah and I will be painting it and finally moving Mark into his "office", YAY! Since I'm having difficulties transferring pics from my camera to the computer you only get an old P365 pic to show you the progress.


and for fun, I've added a fun little quiz... I'm laughing because I think it's pretty accurate for me, lol. Would love to know if you take the quiz and what you come up with for yourself.

You Are FAQ

For you, the internet is like your personal library. And you know more facts than fifty normal humans. Your brain is basically lot a computer at this point. You have a lot of information stored up there. You spend hours looking up obscure information and learning things. If you have question, you always Google it. You can't help but be a bit of a know-it-all. You can answer everyone's frequently asked questions.

What Internet Slang Are You?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

Is 36 too old...

I'm about to go emo on you guys...

I'm going through an identity crisis again... I did this when Moriah was about 24 mos old (after my 2nd miscarriage) and now that Isaac's almost 16mos I'm doing it again... with my first, I dropped 30lbs, started only wearing handmade skirts and got myself new glasses and a nose gem... I had a style and I wasn't afraid to be who I was. I wasn't afraid to be the Hippie that I am/was and wasn't afraid to be different from the suburbian norm. My nose piercing ended up healing shut during my c-section and I really MISS it like crazy... I miss being the funky person I am/was... I've been in such a slump lately and I really feel the need to get back to my hippie/free/artsy self. I mean the mama image is me too but I feel like I'm not totally me and I'm afraid I'm teaching my kids not to express who they are or being comfortable with who they are, does that make sense? Am I too old for coloring some of my hair a fun funky color like hot pink or blue or purple? I really want to get my nose pierced again but we aren't necessarily done with having kids and I'd hate to do that and then it close again if I end up having another c-section. Plus, am I too old to have a nose piercing? Plus, Isaac is such a boy and I can totally see him pulling at it and OUCH! I think I need to wait until he's older and not in the family bed anymore. I'm due for new glasses too since it's been two years. I've had these fun funky glasses but let's be real... they have butterflies on them which really isn't me, and I make sure that pics of me don't show that part of my glasses. I can't seem to find a hairstyle that I like either and am growing out the "chop all your hair off" infant mama style.

I think it's finally time for me to admit that I'm just not feeling like myself anymore at least on the outside. I need to figure out who that is again and get myself out of this funk. That picture in my header is 2 years old... I've yet to find a recent picture of me that I like and really shows who I am.

I mean I know that I'm a child of God and that I'm a princess and perfectly beautiful in the eyes of God, I just know that how I look and feel right now doesn't reflect that outwardly. I want to feel like a princess again!

Making this page last night kind of helped me realize it... I love the relationship that Mark has with Moriah and I love how these pictures reflect what my relationship with God is... Moriah was a princess and her daddy was guiding her along. I need to remember that I'm a princess too and my Heavenly Father is guiding me along. I need to hold my Heavenly Father's hand again and not be afraid of who I am.

Credits: Chick or Sweet by Susan Bartolini

Week 8 - "Hands-On Fun" Photo Challenge @ I Heart Faces

As soon as I saw the assignment for this week at I Heart Faces I knew exactly what I wanted to submit... this was a picture I took a couple years ago, when I was still fairly new to using my dSLR. I thought it was fun to show how much I'm addicted to my computer. I had fun with the post processing on this pic and have played with it a few times. This is the one I finally decided to submit for this week.

Make It Monday

Just posting a few pages from last week that I didn't get a chance to post here since I don't know when I'll be back to scrapping.

My Design Your Life course pages

Credits: Silly Sprout by Lauren Grier (part of 2009 quarterly assortment vol 3)

Credits: Everyday by Lauren Reid (part of 2009 quarterly assortment vol 3), CK Doodling, DJB Heather G

One of the SugarBabes at Sweet Shoppe Designs has some awesome templates and I totally LOVE her style. She has an amazing collection of templates you can find at Peppermint Creatives. I used one of her templates from Collection #13. I choose a collection that uses 1 photo... but I really need to start to branch out and start doing layouts with more photos...
Credits: Organically Yours by MandaBean, Eva Kipler and ScrapKitchen Designs (LOVE this kit, isn't it gorgeous!)

Just catching up...

Had a little catching up to do after working on getting all my actions and fonts into Photoshop Elements... unfortunately, these may be my last pages for a few days while we... and when I say "we" I mean Mark... tries to figure out what's wrong with our new computer... not really excited about a new computer having hardware problems, UGH! Anyways, that means P365 and scrapping are on hold. So anyways, here are the pages I was able to get done yesterday... through many tears and screaming at the computer. All of these pages use mini kits from the new 2010 Sweet Shoppe Designs Quarterly Assortment that was released yesterday.

This first one was the Design Your Life course Real World Color assignment. I'm totally in LOVE with this page. The gorgeous kit from the quarterly assortment is by Lauren Grier. I also used the font in the quarterly assortment by Darcy Baldwin. The background paper is from Sturdy Solids by Shawna Clingerman.

The next two pages are my pages for my P365 book for this year. I really hope I finish P365 this year because I definitely want to have this book printed out. Week 6's kit from the quarterly assortment is by Christy Lyle and the template was a freebie in December by Julie Billingsley. The alpha is Filthy by Julie Billingsley and the font is Darcy's font from the quarterly assortment... I LOVE this font btw!
and then week 7's adorable kit from the quarterly assortment was by Shawna Clingerman. The Alpha if Frivolous by Julie Billingsley and the template is from The Soundtrack of our Lives - 247365 by Traci Reed and Meghan Mullens.

Scrappin' Saturday

Such great new releases this week! First is Traci's new one Doo Be Doo Be Doo, which is such a fun spring kit. I LOVE the colors and the papers are gorgeous! I think I used almost every element in my layout because I love them all so much, lol. The wave is a clipping mask by Libby Weifenbach and the font is AngelBaby by Darcy Baldwin.

This next one is a new release to Sweet Shoppe Designs by Traci that was part of The Digi Files over at The Daily Digi last month... I had created this page with it last month. I LOVE the colors in the kits and the alphas are AWESOME! The kit is called Little Miss Can't Be Wrong, the font is AngelBaby by Darcy Baldwin and I used a blog freebie template.

This next one is a new release by Fee Jardine and Sweet Shoppe Designs. I'm not on her creative team but I had won this kit earlier in the week on one of the birthday celebration threads on the forum. I was so excited when I saw the preview... it's such an awesome boy kit! The kit name is called Just A Kid, and I used an Inspired by Leslie template by Darcy Baldwin and Scatterz by Nee Nee... btw, these Scatterz totally ROCK! I love them and can see myself using them in many of my layouts...

Lastly, Eva gave us her contribution to the new quarterly assortment out today. I played with it and the papers are so gorgeous I had to use them all, lol. I used a freebie template by Crystal Livesay and the Paper Clips Waves 2 by Libby Weifenbach. The alpha I used is a newsletter freebie from Misty Cato and the word strips are by Lauren Grier.

Fix It Friday #44

Well, I finally got all my actions imported from the old computer to the new one... I still need to work on importing all the LR presets, but at least I had something to work with. I downloaded the RAW file of today's Fix It Friday pic because the cutie patootie was underexposed and I didn't want to lose anything in her face while working on it. I opened it in LR2 and fixed the exposure then opened the fix in PSE6 and played a little bit with the color curves to add some contrast and then added a couple actions, CoffeeShop Sunkissed, playing around with the layers until I liked it and then flattened it to add the CoffeeShop Burn action to really make her pop out in the pic. Once again it's been so much fun getting back into post processing of pics.

Original

My edit using LR2 & PSE6

A few pages

I've been dealing with an ear infection so I've kind of lost my mojo, plus it really hurts to sit at the computer so I'm going to make this quick. I've really been enjoying the birthday celebration over at Sweet Shoppe Designs and doing a few pages in participation on some of the fun birthday threads. This first one was a Spin-a-Lift where we went to the gallery of the person who posted before us and lifted one of her layouts but first we had to spin it... I chose an easy one that she had used a template for and I had the same template in my files and then turned it 90 degrees. This has become one of my favorite layouts currently.

Credits: Boy Crazy by Melissa Bennett, Inspired by Leslie templates by Darcy Baldwin, DJB TracyD

This next one was to scrap your 4 eyes... so I did a page about how our kids are destined for glasses.

Credits: All About the Wordplay by Libby Weifenbach, Border Basics Circle Stiches by Libby Weifenbach, Templatz vol 2 by Nee Nee, CK Holland & CK Ali fonts

This last one is to scrap a page using "4 Keeps" in the title. I thought it was perfect for scrapping this goofy picture of Mark when he was making the recovery discs for our new PC.

Credits: *Limited Edition* All 4 One - Sweet Shoppe Designs Birthday collab kit, Bad Sewing Machine - Write It Down by Traci Reed, Coffee spills by Penny Springmann, Potato Print Alpha by Misty Cato (newsletter freebie), 3-D Alpha by Penny Springmann, That's My Boy Alpha by Zoe Pearn, Papercropz Vol 2 by Nee Nee

Now I'm off to work on my assignments for Design Your Life... and then hopefully I'll be working on my new computer... the goal tonight is to try to get the new computer all set up tonight or at least by the weekend. We have the desktop and my documents all transferred over I just have to make sure I have all my fonts and actions and stuff all transferred over too.

Work In Progress Wednesday

We're getting sooooooo close to having the office done! The guys got so much work done this weekend despite Mark's broken bottom, lol. Isaac of course loved hanging with the guys and was quite upset every time they left him to go work downstairs, poor dude! Isaac would then spend the time waiting while going through Grandpa's tool bucket. Mark got the stair fixed all by himself... the funny thing was that if he'd waited just a few hours longer he would have had his nail gun delivered and it would have been the perfect project for testing it out. Yes, Mark got a nail gun for Valentine's day... he did all the work in finding the best deal and honestly it was too good a deal to pass up... he's so ready to work on the trim in all the rooms now, lol. I won't bore you with too many details but the drywall is up and mudded and sanded and mudded again... now we just need to sand some more and see if there is any more mudding to do and then I need to finally decide on paint color to paint the room with, YAY!

Oh btw, Costco has an awesome sale on laminate flooring and so we decided to "return" the laminate we had bought for the room and buy it back... it saved us $64... then we decided the sale was sooooo good and we both knew we were going to replace the laminate in the family room one day... so we bought enough for the whole lower level, except the bathroom. We're going to try to match the laminate color with our stain color for the stairs and when we refinish all the hardwood floors. I'm so excited to have some laminate down in the family room that actually looks somewhat like real hardwood, and will match the rest of the house, lol. I also picked out a paint color that I like for the main parts of the house... family room, kitchen, dining room, living room and upstairs hallway. It's all on big open space so it was fun trying to find a color that would fit nicely in all the rooms. It's called dried plantain and I'm totally in LOVE with it. I can't wait to get rid of the obnoxious painted colors in our house, lol.

My Mom and I talked about the fireplace in the family room, trying to figure out what I want to do with it, what to save and what to get rid of. I couldn't figure out why the fireplace always looked a bit off to me... well we found out that the fireplace isn't centered, lol. There is an extra 1.25ins on the left side, but the ugly paneling above it was centered so the center line of the paneling was to the left of the center of the fireplace box... that meant that if I wanted to fix that in our eyes we need to get rid of the paneling for one, but we also need to figure out a way to make the fireplace below the mantal not look so off center... that means no big tiles... so I think we have decided to go with either mismatched stones or the really really tiny tiles. Even the hearth has to be either the stones or tiny tiles. Well, the good thing is that narrowed down my options pretty much, so it won't be so stressful figuring out what I want to do with the fireplace, lol.

Well, what's a post w/o pics right?

Ten Things That I LOVE...

This week's blog assignment at My Great Retreat is to make a list of 10 things that I love:

1. Jesus Christ

2. Hubby

3. Moriah

another 3. Isaac

5. Family

6. Friends

7. worship/singing

8. photography

9. scrapbooking

10. Babywearing

Make It Monday

I'm a little behind on updating the blog... my parents were here this weekend and we had such a great time and the guys got so much accomplised on the lower level... it's so exciting knowing that Mark will be able to work in the office soon.

Yesterday, I didn't make a page, which the break was kind of nice. I did work a little bit on a couple Sweet Shoppe Designs portfolio challenges and my Design Your Life pages when I had a little break to play. I can't believe my Design Your Life class is half over already and there are only 6 more weeks left. I've enjoyed the class so much.

This page is one that I'm really excited about. I literally made the page minus the journaling and then took pictures to match the page, lol. Usually, it's about matching the page to the pictures, but I really wanted to use this adorable kit. The challenge was to use the LOST numbers (4,8,15,16,23 & 42) and create a page using elements, photos and papers that equal those numbers... so I used 4 photos, 8 ribbons, 15 papers, 16 buttons, 23 flowers and 42 words of journaling. I really really LOVE this page, isn't Moriah such a cutie? I used a newsletter freebie template by Lauren Grier and the Limited Edition Petit 4 Free As A Bird by Lauren Grier, Fee Jardine, Misty Cato and Zoe Pearn at Sweet Shoppe Designs.
This next challenge was the 3rd page for my Olympic inspired layouts... this was to scrap a page about something I'm competitive about... I did it on the 12th which was my day for my mugshot on my P365 so I took my self portrait with this page in mind... do I look like you shouldn't mess with me? LOL I really like this page, it was fun to do. I used Traci Reed's Staying In Tonight and her Bad Sewing Machine Swirls. The font is Gimme Space by Darcy Baldwin and Lauren Reid. The waves are Traci's Edgy clipping masks.
This 3rd challenge page was the bonus challenge #2... we got to learn about designer Lauren Grier and the bonus was to scrap a page using her goodies. I had this gorgeous picture of Moriah that I really wanted to scrap and thought this cute little mini kit was perfect for it. I used You Sing To My Heart (part of 2009 SSD quarterly assortment vol 4), Layered Up In You Waves, and One Step Closer Layered Alpha... all by Lauren Grier.
Here are my Design Your Life class pages for this week's lesson on Contrast/Emphasis and Real World Color assignment, all of these using templates by Cathy Z.

Credits: Frog Prince by Kristin Cronin-Barrow (part of the 2009 SSD quarterly assorment vol. 3)

Credits: It's A Little Flaky add-on by Eva Kipler (part of 2009 SSD quarterly assortment vol. 4) & More Than Words Alpha by Darcy Baldwin and Jenny Hutson

Credits: Little Boy Blue by Misty Cato (part of 2009 SSD quarterly assortment vol. 3)

Scrappin' Saturday

Here are the new releases from Traci and Eva... A perfect grown up Valentine's kit and a spring pick me up kit.

I just think this kit is absolutely gorgeous and love how grown up it is. Traci's Everyday I Do is stunning! I love the word art in it even though I didn't use it for this page. I also used Edgy by Traci.

Pick Me Up by Eva Kipler is such a fun springy kit, I love the rainbow! I also used Cuts Ups by Lauren Reid and one of Susan's templates that's retiring tomorrow.