Monday, October 27, 2008

A few more pages to share

I have done a few more this week, three of which are for submission for Vinnie's book. Not that I think she will pick mine, but nevertheless I am not supposed to show them for now. I have been working on my Shutterfly book, so here are the latest pages for that. Again, the credits can be found at DD. Create-a-book-VA,-page-15Create-a-book-VA,-page-16

Create-a-book-VA,-page-17 Create-a-book-VA,-page-18 Actually I did all these pages today. I don't usually like working on a project like that, but today I must have been inspired. Plus I have so many photos that I better get busy. I think there is only one more template coming, so I will have to reuse some of the old ones. Arghhh, I need more time.

 

Here are some other pages I did, just fun ones.

Making-a-Splash Someone was wondering if he was doing the air guitar. Actually he poured water on his head and is shaking it off like a dog.

No-More Summer-Dreams Thirteen

Rachel had her SecondDegree Black Belt test yesterday. I think she did okay, she really tried hard. She didn't break her boards, but that's okay, most people didn't. Of course then you have some young teenage boy with built in spring, who is able to leap to his head height, stretch out those legs and kick those 2 boards at the same time. I don't know how they do it, they look like mexican jumping beans. Those are very few and in between though. For her age I thought she looks fabulous. Questions were a different story, but I didn't expect her to do well with those. All in all she should have passed. It's going to be a few months before we find out.

It is really starting to get cold, and my pellet stove is getting a workout. My heat doesn't come on at all all day, which is great. It is still warm enough in the house. At night I have the thermostat set higher, so that the heat will come on and warm up all the bedrooms. This stove should really make a difference with our gas consumption this year.DSC_0031 It's not too shabby looking either I think.

I got to talk to Terry today. How cool is that? Terry is one of my online buddies, her blog is on my sidebar. It was really neat to hear her voice and talk to her for a while. Call again when you have time Terry! Don't work too hard. I just thought of her because she was telling me that it was 78 there, while we freeze our tails off. Well, it's time for me to put the kiddies to bed, it is actually way too late for them already. Til tomorrow or so!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

It's getting cold!

It's hard to believe that only 5 weeks ago we were still in the Pool. Now we already had our first frost, yuck! At least it's nice and sunny most of the time and the trees really have been looking beautiful for the last few weeks. Well, at least I don't have to take care of flowers outside anymore, water, water all the time, it kind of gets to you after a few months, LOL. I just brought all my houseplants in last week, right before the first frost. That's what they call good timing! Now my house looks like a jungle and hubby gets claustrophobic. I had to put my large Weeping Fig behind his chair in front of the window, poor guy. The corner I used to keep it in will be occupied by our brand spanking new Pellet Stove! It is being installed as we speak (or type for that matter) and looks pretty good. Our house has stone walls, so they have been drilling for quite a bit. I didn't know they could go through stone like that! I just hope it's going to reduce our gas bill this winter, last season it was completely ridiculous. Our house is old (1926), so it's poorly insulated and very big and open. I already bought an Eden Pure, but that really doesn't do all that much. It's more like a space heater for our sunroom where we watch TV. Enough of that. Here are a few pages I have done during this past week (can't believe it's been that long already again)

German-Lebkuchen Nature's-Art Warrior Enjoy-Life Create-a-book-VA,-page-13 Create-a-book-VA,-page-14 Enough No-Brakes Love-is Even-Pirates I think that's it! You can find all the credits in my DD gallery. It's so much easier than listing every single one! Some were for challenges but they were all a lot of fun! If I don't create a page I feel like something is missing in my day!

The class at Debbie Hodge's has started last Monday and I haven't signed up yet. I am so tempted, but so overextended, I am still hesitating. It's about creating an art Journal and it sounds really cool. I might still sign up just for the instructions, we'll see.

I still haven't gone through the tutorials I bought at DD. Cassie Jones has the best, they always include materials to be used and they are so easy to follow! Well, I better get busy and make some dinner before we have to head out to Karate tonight! Rachel is testing this Sunday for her 2nd stripe on her Black Belt, so she needs the practice. She is really working hard and I am so proud of her. Oh yeah, we also went on a little diet (mostly for her sake but I wanted to lose a couple of pounds myself) So far she is doing really well and I am so proud of her! I hope she will keep it up!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Duh

Do you ever have one of those moments? I had one recently. I have been doing pretty well creating shadows and such, bending them thanks to Cassie Jones' tutorial. Anyway the part that escaped me was how to make the shadow softer, mine always looked harsh and hard, not real. Then somebody mentioned a Taylormade tutorial and she was precisely talking about that, namely to use the Gaussian Blur to soften the shadow. Here is the big moment when the hand slaps the forehead. I knew this! Have known this! How could I have forgotten? I tell you one thing, I will never forget again, LOL. It opened a new dimension for me, it made me so happy! I have been using it left and right, I love shadows. It just adds so much to all the elements. Here is one of my latest pages where I used a lot of shadow work. Well, actually not really that much, just the large shadow on the ground, but to be able to create that was such fun!!!! I really had a ball with this page, making it into an urban setting which looks nothing like the place we live at. Great fun. Here are the credits for this one

Rachel-First-Bike Beauty (2) The next one I created for Vinnie's site, I kind of liked the look of it, all monochromatic. Plus I really liked the pictures of Gabrielle. Here are the credits for it. I think I will just show you the pages I did, there were quite a few these last few days. It will take forever if I talk about each one of them.

Cheer Summer-Beauty   First-Bloom Birthday-Girl Live-for Josie Life-is-a-picture EnjoyLife Create-a-book-VA,-page-11 Create-a-book-VA,-page-12 Loved Love-(quickpage)

Geez, I didn't realize I made this many pages in just a few days, no wonder I feel stressed, LOL. I am becoming a maniac! All the credits for all the pages can be found here. That's my gallery and all the LOs are listed there. My Virginia book is coming together nicely. I will probably have to add more pages, I have more pics than I thought.

It has been so beautiful here, gorgeous sunshine and warm days. I took the kids to a nearby creek on Sunday. The City just finished this kayaking project, where they placed large boulders in and around the river to make it into a whitewater river. It was really quite pretty there. The dog stepped into a lot of mud and had to be washed off. Michael was bouncing from rock to rock and had a ball and I was able to take a bunch of pictures. There were a couple of guys practicing there roll overs in the water. That was fun to watch. I'll probably make some pages about the whole thing soon.

Okay, hubby is calling for our nightly movie. Have a great evening everybody!

Friday, October 10, 2008

New Class! Stories in Hand - Home - Sprague Lab - Digital and Hybrid Scrapbooking + Notes from JessicaSprague.com + Daily Goodness


New Class! Stories in Hand - Home - Sprague Lab - Digital and Hybrid Scrapbooking + Notes from JessicaSprague.com + Daily Goodness

Jessica just announced her new class and it's going to be completely free. It sounds really interesting and it's for all levels, scrapbookers or not. Go check it out! Doesn't it look cool? If you have never taken a class form her, this is a great opportunity. Her presentations are via video and really easy to follow. I am excited about it. Of course it's just another thing on my never-ending list of things I want to do (as long as it has nothing to do with cleaning)


Sunday, October 5, 2008

I am being consumed

by this desire to create, I can't stop myself, LOL. Today was just awful (not really). After Church we went to Eat'n Park for lunch, which was really nice for a change. The kids were great company and we had a good time. After that I pretty much spent all day on the compy! I have no desire to practice the piano (good thing my piano teacher doesn't read my blog), I have to force myself to do the laundry and some minimal cleaning! Having said that, I still don't get everything done I want to do. I haven't even looked at any blogs yet today. Maybe I am trying to do too much?

Vinnie Pearce is looking for some CTs and has this contest going. I have submitted a couple of pages, although I am sure I don't have a chance in you know where. A lot of the ladies from DD are on her site and they are so good!!! I would really really love to do this kind of thing, I love her creations, everything she makes is just wonderful, at least to me it is. I guess that's my kind of style. Birthdays-and-pizza Celebrate-happiness Happy-Birthday-Gabby These were all created with Vinnie's supplies, although on the birthday one I added stitching from A.Aspnes and the border from M. Wise, both from DD.

This humming LO was a lift for the copy cat Wednesday challenge at the InspirationBlog by Kayleigh and Tara (check my list on the right) I love taking pictures of flowers and bugs and all kinds of things in the yard, I figure it will be so cool in the middle of winter to look at those. Then I did this one of myself picking peaches. I can't believe I actually used a picture of myself, but the colors worked, LOL.   Credits

Just-humming-along  harvestThis next one I did a few days ago for my friend Doris from TempusFugit (check my sidebar again) I mentioned her before, she designs cool freebies and she lives in Germany, so I get to write to her in german, which is so cool! Plus she is really sweet. I used her supplies on here, plus a couple of things from DD.    CreditsMichael-at-the-pool 

and last but not least these two pages. Finishing these  makes me caught up with the pages for the Shutterfly book. Yeah. Of course today they had template #6, so I have to do those yet. I really like Katie's templates for the book, they make it so easy and they look so professional! Plus they are so versatile, I might have to flip some to create more pages. I didn't realize I had as many pictures as I do. I think it's going to be a fun book! Credits1 and credits2 .

New-Create-a-book9 New-Create-a-book10 Well, this brings me to the end of today, I am realizing that my life is completely boring. There is Celia (check blog) who is in Japan right now and she has the most amazing posts and stories on her blog, and then there is me who sits at her computer all day long. I need to get a life! If I didn't do Karate every day, I would probably turn into a blimp just from sitting so much! Speaking of Karate, Sabomnim makes me teach part of the kids class almost every time I take the kids. I guess he trusts me to do it right by now. It really helps me remember the requirements and the execution of forms much better. Rachel is going to test for 2nd degree in a couple of weeks, that's another biggie! He teaches a special class for this group, focusing on little things and their technique really looks a lot better. I just wish it wasn't so darn expensive!

Und fuer meine deutschen Besucher (falls da welche sind), alles Gute, hoffentlich habt Ihr alles verstanden. Lasst mir mal einen Kommentar da, damit ich weiss ob es Euch gefallen hat oder nicht. Klickt auf Kommentar, schreibt was rein, klickt auf anonymous, mehr nicht. Bis bald, Coco lieb!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A Card and more VA pages

I made a digi card!!! How fun and how easy. I am thinking I can just print it out on heavy paper and glue it on a blank card.  If I don't print the flower, I could actually attach a real one later. This was the challenge for this week at the Spraground. How fun!Fall-CardAll supplies by V.Lim Designs.

I got a few more pages done for my Shutterfly book at Designer Digitals. I might get more than the 20 pages this time. We have quite a few pictures just from Williamsburg and a ton from the beach. We'll see. I really enjoy putting this together. I hope the pictures aren't too small now that I reduced the template.  

  credits   New-Create-a-book6New-Create-a-book5  credits    

 

 

credits   New-Create-a-book7  New-Create-a-book8credits             

 

I also had to change the colors on this set, I am just not able to keep the same pale color through the whole book, I get too bored with it. I don't think a little splash of color will make it look too different. Williamsburg is such a neat place to visit.

I actually signed up for another class at Debbie Hodge's. This one is for travel also. She has a planner for each lesson and a design packet for 5 pages. I might make them into templates, so I can use them again later for different things. Plus she has another class coming up toward the end of the month in which we make an artsy journal. It sounds really cool and crafty. I haven't done anything with my hands for a long time, so that does sound enticing. Plus I thought it might make a nice present for the girls. They both enjoy drawing and writing, I'm sure they would make good use of one of them.

Never say Never!

Well, here I am creating my very own blog! I was always very sure I would never get into this blogging "thing", but here I am. I hope you will enjoy finding out a little about my not so interesting life!