The Play is over

We made it :) It was actually very lovely, the kids did such an amazing job, I mean all the kids! They sang, danced and acted like pros. The sound could have been better but it might have something to do with the fact that we had seats in the front row (thanks to "moi"). At least I could use my 28-70mm lens being that close. I can always crop them later. I cleaned up only a couple of photos so far, it still was very dark and we weren't allowed to use flash, so I have to rely on Photoshop :)

This page is done as a lift of Deanie, one of the girls at DD who hasn't been feeling too good, so we decided to cheer her up a little and lift one of her pages :) Look at that make-up, they went super heavy on her face, I don't know why. She wasn't too happy about it.... . Our friends were there too, I thought that was so sweet, they came the whole way from Altoona, which is about an hour away to watch them. So now life is back to normal, no more staying late at school. It was kind of strange picking them up at 2.30 again :)

It's back to raining around here, we had a pretty good storm yesterday and today we had a couple of heavy downpours. Enough already! I want me some sun!

Gabrielle wanted me to take her to Karate tonight, I just didn't feel like going. Poor thing, I know she wants to train as much as she can because of the tournament...we'll go tomorrow.

I have been practicing the piano this week, I really like my new song "Into the WEst" from "The Return of the King" Love, love it!!! It's amazing what a difference it makes when I like a piece of music, I actually feel like sitting and playing :) She will be happy with me tomorrow (yeesh, I feel like the kids)

Let me see what else I did...

I bought this little wire basket at the school garage sale, thinking it might come in handy some day (yes, I know, I am a clutter person). Anyway, TG took one look, walked in, settled down and went to sleep in it. She loves it!!! She is in it all the time, too cute!

This was for Pattie's artjournaling class, creating a picture transfer with filters and blending. I love learning these new techniques :)

There is one more page, but it's for a challenge that wasn't posted yet, so I'll show it to you next time.

I called and ordered 6 tons of pellets today, they were cheaper when purchased during April. Now I have to wait to get them delivered and I made sure I told him after 3 PM when the kids are home, so they can help carry the bags. That is not going to be fun, but it needs to be done. Hopefully that will get us through the winter, at least close to it...

Did I mention that Gabrielle was inducted into the local chapter of the National Junior Honor Society? I was so proud of her, she tries so hard with everything she does. It requires leadership, service, good grades. I really liked reading what they said about her, I believe the teachers really like her. Oh boy, Highschool is next, that is so strange...

Well, that was just a short update, I hope all is well, talk to you soon

Count-Down

One more day until the kids' play, I cant wait. This practice stuff is really wild, they have to stay until 6 PM, so they are putting in 10 hour days! They got their costumes today, it will be cute. Nothing elaborate, but fun. Phil had to run them up to Dunhams to get shorts to wear under their long tops (which weren't long enough).
Today I spent the day scrapping. I had nowhere to go other than picking up the kids, so I wasted it making pages :) How fun it was. Wanna see?

My little baby, how cute she was. The photos I have from back then are just horrible. To save it I made it into a sticker after extracting it. That was a fun project

Remember the cobweb from the other day?

This is the latest craze in the schools , these rubberbands that everybody wears, even the teachers. It is really funny. I wish I had come up with the idea for them. Spend a few cents to create and make a fortune!

There are worse things the kids could be getting into, so I am not complaining. Made for a fun page too! I like to keep track of the things they like through the years.

Okay, time for prayers...

Playing catch-up

as always! 6 days already again, where does the time go? We are so busy lately, the kids are staying late for play practice every day and Gabrielle wants me to take her to Karate every single day, because of the upcoming tournament. Yikes! All I want to do is stay at my computer and scrap! It is not to be I guess.
Today I have a semi free morning, I just have to run to the store. That gave me a chance to go through my list of blogs I follow, I feel like such a heal, I visit so infrequently. Not enough time in a day...
I received an email from Shruti at Kodak. They are doing some kind of scrapbooking contest in conjunction with the release of the new movie Babies and their launch of a new website. She asked me to do a baby page to be used at that time. I thought that was kind of cool. I will let you know more about it when the time comes. I got it done and sent in yesterday. Since it was babies, I had to scan in some of Gabrielle's old photos. Man, my pics were bad then....thank goodness for Photoshop is all I can say, it made it a little better. Here is another page I finished this morning. Do you remember this Jo?

We were at a party at somebody's house, I don't even remember who...man, was she little!

The other day I was practicing some backlit shots and I got this one, which I just had to scrap

I am still trying to finish my artjournal lessons, I am way behind. Here was lesson three, that was really a tough one (technically). It didn't work out the way it was supposed to, but I finally got it done

artjournaling doesn't come easy to me,  takes some getting used to :) (and it's a lot of work)

I finished another week for my Project 365. Since it fell on the end of the month, I broke it up, so I could start April with a new page.

So they are both week 13, kind of goofy, but they are going to be separated with the monthly calendar page anyway. I need to do two more weeks to be caught up....

Gabrielle found out that with her grades she is in the junior achievement group at school, she was so happy and I was so proud of her!!!

The school garage sale is over! That was a lot of work, but since it's for the 8th grade class trip, it was worth it. We had to go Thursday and sort everything (so much junk) and then go back Saturday from 11 - 3 and help out. When we got there, a lot of the stuff was sold already, I couldn't believe it. We were told that people were lined up at 6.30 in the morning for the 7 am opening and they sold $500 worth in the first two hours. I am hoping they made a lot of money. 

This weekend is the play, both Saturday and Sunday, so the whole weekend is planned out already. 

I just saw in the paper yesterday that our local camera club is going to have a photo contest, so I really want to send in some photos. I will also join the club, it shouldn't be too involved, they only meet once a month and then maybe I can ask the pros there some questions when I need to. They are organizing a pboto walk this Saturday morning, I so hope I will be able to go for a couple of hours at least. Sounds like fun, I have never participated in one. I have to see how I can work it out around the play, I don't know what time the kids have to be there and the play starts at 2 PM.

Yeah, my life is so exciting!

Well, I better run to the store and get something to eat for lunch too. Half the day is gone already.

Ciao!

Art Journaling

Did you ever try it? I have seen people do it in the past and always thought that it looked really creative, but I am not one to smear paint and gesso all over the place, I can't even glue a picture on straight. Now I am taking this class by Pattie Knox over at debbiehodge.com, teaching me all those techniques in the digi world, and I am loving what I am learning. Actually there is a lot that I can use all the time, masking, some stuff I have never heard of, like threshold.... amazing lessons. The first thing I did was my cover page, not very exciting to look at, but the techniques were really cool and I had to figure out the basics :)

I did a lot of different blending modes and got these colors which I really like. Then lesson two talks about making a silhouette and creating tissue paper and making a collage with it. Just making the paper alone was awesome...

Geez I think I must really like these oranges and red and yellows :) I wanted to make a page about a house being a home when it's filled with love....

I downloaded lesson three and it sounds so awesome, it's just a question of finding the time to work on a page with it. I am giddy with excitement (doesn't take much for me obviously)

Yesterday I met my GFs for lunch, it was great! We don't see each other often enough and when we do it's always way too short...

In the morning I found out from our accountant that we needed to vest another employee and the stuff had to be overnighted by yesterday. Talk about a stressful morning, getting the paper for her to open an account, figure out what had to be done, get the checks and papers, write a letter of distribution and get it all out. I could have strangled him. Not only that but the only reason he figured out that we had to do this is because I mentioned it! Argh!

Today is parent lunch at school and Gabrielle really wanted me to come, so I will head over there. It's not like I am not there at lunch often enough, since I volunteer every other Monday, but that's okay. Of course I am going to have to pick up a salad for her, because a sandwich from home wasn't good enough :) Let the other two dummies make do with a ham sandwich, not Gabby! But I am happy to indulge, I'll pick one up for myself too, I could not bring myself to eat the ravioli they had scheduled as the meal of choice. Yuck! It sounds like Chef Boyardee! (sp?)

Yesterday morning we had a little fog and when I looked out my kitchen window I could see the dew on some cobwebs. Ever the diligent photographer I took Gabby's old school shoes and climbed up the wall steps in the cool morning to get a closer look. Here is one of the pics :)

Isn't it cool? Amazing what you can see if you just get close enough!
Which reminds me, I have to print out pictures I took of Gabrielle's science project, killing a bunch of eggs in the process. That stuff has to be in tomorrow, so I better get busy with it. I still have to edit those, so I'll show them later
Here is one more blooming pic

Now I really have to run, gotta get those salads :)

I'll catch you later, have a great day and God bless!

The Play

is taking over our lives :) Turns out the kids had play practice yesterday on top of every day and today they had to work a spaghetti dinner at the Church to benefit the play. I guess it's not half bad, at least they might get some decent costumes, or so we hope...
We had a few pretty cold nights, it even snowed Friday night, nothing major, just a few flurries, but still... I actually had to turn my pellet stove on again, I was hoping to be done with it so I could clean the porch. Since the exhaust goes to the edge of the porch, we get a lot of soot on the floor and the ceiling. As soon as it's a little warmer  I will have to hose it all off and clean the floor. Of course I do that every spring and then it's time to put out the house plants. My porch always looks like a jungle but I love it!
We have this poor stray cat that always hangs around the house. He always fought with Chubby so we would chase him away. Well, this winter we started giving him some food and the poor guy got to be so friendly with us, we gave him the name Peter. Now he comes and wants to be petted and rubs against our legs. He is blind in one eye, I remember a few years back we saw him lying in a corner of the yard with the eye bleeding and infected and thought for sure he was going to die, but he made it! Well, now he has an injured leg and it looks awful! There are chunks of meat missing from the back and it was bleeding all the time. He limps around on three legs, but still comes and gets his food and sleeps on the furniture out there (yuck) I feel so sorry for the poor bugger, he is nothing but skin and bones and raggedy looking. I started giving him tuna with his dry food thinking that he can't hunt anymore. Rachel keeps telling me to take him to the Vet and I am wondering how the heck I would do that. Plus I am afraid they would just want to put him down. Maybe he'll still make it, after all cats have 9 lives right? We'll see....
I haven't heard from my friend in over a week, woman, give me a call!!!!!
Yesterday I took hubby for a walk around the park, trying to get him out in the sunshine to get some color on his cheeks! It was really nice, still cool, but beautiful. Today it's actually warmer, I am loving this weather!!!

Well, enough babbling, here are a couple of pages I did:

Remember that peach tree in the yard? I couldn't resist but use those photos. 

Anna's potpourri paper  made it easy, I just love this set.

Talking about peach trees, do they have to be sprayed? My fruit is always buggy and ugly looking, there must be something I am not doing.

Friday I went to the kids' Mass, Rachel was cantoring and Gabrielle read the introduction. They did such a nice job. Of course there was the choir, but she still had to sing some things by herself, like the psalm and the acclamation. I was so proud of her, it takes guts to go up there and do that all by yourself. I know that there would only be squeaks coming out of my mouth had I to do it.... they grow up with it and get ready for life!

I couldn't sit any closer, the front rows are always reserved for the kids, so the picture is not the best. My zoom doesn't work that well in low light, the aperature is too small when zoomed. Well, you get the picture anyway!

Here is Chubby outside the other day, rubbing against my leg when I was trying to take pictures of my tree :)

It was one of those fast, turn around shots, I couldn't believe her eyes were actually in focus :)

Okay, guys, I can't believe how much I had to say today!

MIA

well, not really, but it sure feels like it's been ages. It's only been a week! No complaining please! I guess with Easter everything went by the wayside this past week. Not that I have been super busy, I don't even know. Well, we had to sing at the Easter Vigil and there were all the services, but we knew that, right? The rest of the week just went by like it always does. The kids have play practice every single day, some days it gets to be really stressful. Today Gabrielle was saying that she is really tired, I think it's too much... Now they are supposed to show up on Saturday to practice. It's ridiculous! I can't wait for this play to be over. Just a few more weeks....
Gabrielle is training to go to the Karate tournament at Master Kim's. She is pretty good and surprisingly good at sparring. She loves it. I don't know where she gets it, I hate sparring. Give me forms any day and I am good! At least I didn't have to teach adult class this week, I got to train, yeah!!!
Tuesday I went to lunch with the Karate girls again, sans two of them. We went to a Japanese place and did the hibachi, it was such fun. Bri had never used chop sticks so we had a ball watching her, but she got good really fast. Then they had to catch broccoli and catch Saki, it was so fun....

We decided we had to do that place again next time :) Maybe then I will get a try too, taking pictures has it's downsides.

Monday I went to meet with Chuck Mamula. He is a local photographer, I think I mentioned him before. He was so nice, he agreed to meet with me and look at my camera and give me some pointers. Well, at least I know that there is nothing wrong with my camera :) :) It's all me!!!! Seriously, it was so great to meet with somebody who knows what he is doing and he spent over an hour with me, just taking a few pictures of me and showing me different things. I wish  I could visit him every day :)

The weather has just been wonderful, sunny and warm as though summer had arrived already. Of course that had to change today. The next few days will be cool and rainy. We had a thunderstorm, haven't had one of those in a while. I got to take a few shots before it started raining

My peachtree in full bloom, I just hope we won't get another frost...

Okay, now to the pages I did

see that cool camera bag? I just love it!!! Now I can really take my camera everywhere I go and not worry about banging it up!! 

The page above that is the one I just did today. It's for the AAM challenge at DD. It took a little longer than normal pages, but I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make those boxes and propping up those letters etc.

The one with Michael on the bike is following a tutorial from my Photoshop magazine. That blur behind him is hand made, wasn't in the picture. A lot of people thought it was the shot that came out like that :) that was fun also. I like trying out new things, too cool

Oh well, hubby is yelling for me to quit and come to watch the movie with him. I guess I have to follow the master's call, right? :) :)

Talk to you soon, have a wonderful evening!

First icecream

boy oh boy, spring must have arrived. Our local icecream place opened and we had our first taste of the season tonight. It was such a gorgeous day today, warm (short sleeves warm), sunny and just pleasant. Well, if you don't count the mosquitoes that were flying around already. We walked down there and took Max with us. I figure if we eat icecream we should at least earn it, right? It's not that far anyway. It's amazing how much you notice the ugliness of something after you take a picture of it. They seriously need to paint those posts :)
We all enjoyed the icecream anyway

It was getting dark when we headed back home.

I bought some flowers today and noticed some pretty baskets with flowers they had for sale. So I decided to put my own together. What do you think?

I really like Maidenhair Fern

this is TG playing with her favorite little toy. Both she and Sweetie just love this little thing. They drag it around the house and you can hear Sweetie making these pathetic meowing sounds. It's really funny. I haven't quite figured out yet whether she things it's her baby or her prey!

I finished another couple of pages from the visit at Fr. Sylvan's House the other weekend. Yesterday I did this double spread

It looks better when they are next to each other. Then today I did the preciding page, kind of like an intro..

I used a Lightroom preset on the photo, kind of gives it an old-fashioned look.

The other day I did this page

I had just taken that picture in the afternoon, after the rain had ended. You can see that little drop in there and I really liked the colors.

I also got another 365 page done

I really want to try and get the last one done so that I get caught up. I really like this format, I think it's going to look pretty, when they flow into each other.,,,

Monday I have an appointment with the photographer I talked about before. I finally called him up and he was really gracious about the whole thing. I think he has really no idea what I want from him and I don't really know either. I offered to pay him for a little hands on help but he didn't want any payment. I thought that was really sweet. We'll see what happens. He said he wasn't sure how much help he would be but I don't expect miracles, just a little help. I am excited about that.

The rest of the week is going to be busy like I said. We missed Mass tonight but went up to spend a little time in adoration. Just as we walked into Church, our neighbor was coming out and told us she left her keys in the car. We were going to take her home to get her extra keys and then take her back up. After we were done with prayers she realized that she did leave her keys in the car, but she also left the car running!!! For 1 1/2 hours!!!! Good thing nobody drove away with it LOL. She felt pretty silly about it, but stuff happens.

Tomorrow there is a service at 1 PM, I don't want to miss that one and then there is the Vigil on Saturday. Easter is but once a year!

Well, hubby is calling for the movie. Have a great night!