Hiring!

Posted on | December 9, 2010 | 5 Comments

I need a new model. My current one has been going on strike (a lot) lately… or I have to hike up the price before she would let me take photographs of her. Usually I’d get a back or her moving a lot (she knows I prefer her staying still since I use her to experiment) but today I got the above.

My backup model is not reliable. Maybe in a few months she’ll be better but right now she’s as uncooperative as my main girl.

Aaaahhh… I guess she doesn’t know that it’s harder nowadays to find a job. I should probably use the unemployment rate to reason with her! The thing is, she’s really good at modeling for me… on good days that is.

Well, gotta go and think of ways to get my girls to be ready on demand when the black box wants some action. Also, I just received my new lens (after almost a month in the mail) and want to do more photo editing from today’s session and play with some Photoshop editing and actions. I’m not quite getting the feel I want and it’s frustrating!! The lens itself is gorgeous. Love it to pieces! See how creamy the background is on the photo above? Aaaaaah… all the savings was worth it!! I’ll post something crafty tomorrow! Until then!!

M’s First DigiPage

Posted on | October 27, 2010 | 16 Comments

Today I am honored to present a little guest designer. She did the above all by herself and very proud of herself for doing it!!

Last week M was curious on how I created my layouts on the computer. So I showed her. I helped get the picture from Adobe Lightroom to Photoshop but after that, she pretty much went on her own between Adobe Bridge, where I can easily see all my digi pieces, and Photoshop. I showed her layers and helped her understand its concept by stacking all sorts of crap on top of a piece of paper on my desk and why moving a layer can make something appear or disappear… or be on top/the bottom of one another. I never taught Photoshop when I was working, it wasn’t my department’s main thing but just like the other software I teach I’ve always been good at using daily things as an example to help people understand the concept.

The above was her first layout. Not bad, huh? There’s nothing fancy, just putting different pieces onto a new work space and moving things around using the mouse and layering. She also got to practice a lot of right clicking! Handy thing to master on the computer, right?

So we’re still out and about and we’ll be back in a day or two. Ta ta for now!!

Did You Miss Me? :P

Posted on | February 15, 2010 | 10 Comments

How was your weekend and/or Valentine’s day? Great I hope!!

It’s been five days since I posted something! Wow, I think this is the longest I’ve been away! There’s just been a lot going on this week and by the time I’ve got everything done my eyes told me it’s sleepy time. I could have posted about some randomness but I dunno, it just doesn’t seem right if I don’t share a project, tutorial, or at least a photo. Even that I’ve been slacking! I am still on track with my project 365 but to me many of the pictures havn’t been really meaningful. But tonight I did get a scrapbook page done and have a picture of M to share.

Just FYI, as of yesterday Jovie’s not toothless. She’s growing one bottom tooth. It’s not very visible but my finger could feel it. Exciting!!!

The tree trunk and bird is by Wplus9. Do you know the store is now open? YES!! Check it out, it is NICE!!! This set is on sale and it is super versatile!!

For this page I used Bazzil cardstock, Making Memories flower paper, Prima flower stem, Basic Grey felt stickers and chipboard, and K&Co stickers. Oh, I also recycled the cardboard from one of Prima’s packaging.

For Valentine’s instead of the hubby and I doing something special for each other we decided to make it special for M. She’s been sick since Thursday. We finally took her to the walk-in ER Saturday (our military base is small so on weekends/evenings we have to go through the town’s ER to see a doctor) and they told us she has strep. I’ll be off with her again Monday and hopefully Tuesday she’ll be able to go to school again. Doc said 48hrs after the antibiotics she can go back to school. So here’s M – she hasn’t eaten much in two days and this morning she almost finished her scrambled eggs. Oh, the kid love the au lait — or tea with milk — like her mama. I got into it when I went to France ages ago and ever since I cannot drink tea without milk — except for Asian tea. M also received a happy mail from a little friend far far away. I’ll share that tomorrow. I don’t want it to be buried in this post.

Happy Birthday Miss M!

Posted on | February 5, 2010 | 21 Comments

Has it been six years? It has it has!!! My little girl is now 6-yrs-old. We’re not doing anything crazy to celebrate. M wanted a party at her school and so we have cupcakes and goodies bags ready. Then this weekend we have plans on going to Kansas City to do some celebrating at her choice of places. I do have a surprise, or two, stops. Hopefully the weather will be nicer. It’s snowing right now.

Last night, despite my tiredness, I made her a sweet little card. She’s gotten simple and sweet on me and I thought this card would be perfect for her. I used Wplus9′s stamps again (check here for store opening info), mostly Funky Foliage. I used the tree top portion to make a flower! The colors I used are Rasberry Fizz, Artichoke, and Chocolate Chip.

Like I said it’s sweet and simple and very M.

Here’s a photo of my girls this morning. One just turned 8-mo-old yesterday and the other is a big 6-yr-old. I remember when she was just born! That sweet little face. So glad I have them in my life!!!

Flabby Butt and Signing

Posted on | January 27, 2010 | 12 Comments

My M said this evening:

M: Mommy, when are you going to start working out again?
Me: Why?
M: You have a flabby butt.
Me: (deep inside: AAAAAAURGGHHHHHH!!!!)Thanks, M.

So I was doing the P90x but that was short lived. I blame it on M. She puked all over my workout rug. Don’t ask me what happened. I think all the rolling around and crazy moves that I did made her sick. After she threw up she went to bed and was all better the next morning. I ended up watching the video while cleaning up M’s mess. I had to air out the room too and it was probably 0 degrees outside.

BUT, it will continue! I have the kids on a schedule this week and so far so good. If this continues I should be able to workout at around 9:30 p.m.! Of course we’ll see. My hobby might just distract me, ha!

The signing deal… my baby is growing up!! Jovie can sign “milk” and “change“. I use change instead of “diapers” because it’s harder to see the sign for diapers. She’s also understanding “bath” and “all done“. The milk sign started a few weeks ago but I wasn’t sure until a week or two ago. We have this parents as teachers program here and her mentor was here when Jovie signed milk. We’re so proud of our little peanut!! M signed when she was 6-months-old and she got “dog” at 7-months. The rest came tumbling through quickly (we watched the My Baby Can Talk video and Signing Time) and at 14-months M knew about 33 some words. M started talking at 14-months. She skipped babbling and went to talking but a few words were sometimes unclear and so M would speak and sign until she was 18-months-old. By then she was speaking in 4-5 word sentences.

We’re hoping Jovie can do at least the basics. We’ve noticed that she’s a lot slower than M in terms of development timeline. M had a few teeth at Jovie’s age while Jovie’s still toothless. M was already pulling herself up too while Jovie is still not crawling although she loves to sit up by herself and jump on her jumparoo. It’s so interesting to see how different each are. Fun fun!!

I did make a card and this one is based on the current Embellish magazine challenge: stripes and the colors kraft, purple, and brown. So ok, it’s not a traditional stripe but I’ve got some lines in there, right? I wanted to use more of the PTI stamps I got!!