Moody landscapes

These are for Sharon... I was a good girl and finished all my photo editing today, finally... *phew*. I had been reading a magazine I borrowed off of the Twins dad, which said, in part, that 'ordinary' colour landscapes can be much punchier with a good b/w effect. And, as the actions that *skip* paid soooo much money for me to have HAVE such good b/w effects, I thought I'd try them. I shot these landscapes last May, soon after I got the camera. I was always disappointed with them.

NOT ANYMORE.

I think I'm going to have to buy a bigger house, cos this one is about to seriously run out of wall....

MIA

In case you were wondering why it was so quiet around here at the moment, this is why...



I'm sure that normal programming will resume shortly.... Meanwhile a word from our sponsors... (Do I HAVE sponsors??) lol....

This makes me smile!!

Thanks, Amy, for the joke... it did make me smile!!

Here's some more things. I think I'm going to have to start a list or something...

Journalling reads: I don’t think that I knew what to expect after I taught you how to CLICK
It has become an essential punctuation to your life. Such a habit, in fact
that no conversation with you is complete without the little noise
that you don’t even realise that you are making. Right to
the point that you are doing it in your sleep when we
disturb you to tuck you in for the night....

Papers, elements and Alpha from “Relaxed” “Elated” Express Yourself CD from Ashley Olson and Dawn Stocstill from Scrapbook-bytes.
Inked edge action from AtomicCupcake. Fonts used are CBX Labelmaker and 2Peas Fixin too

Journalling reads:

" I'm not really sure what went wrong,
One minute we were taking all these happy photos
of you with Tyson and then you got very upset. That
final look up at your Mummy is just too funny.
"Can't you see I'm crying? Pick me up!!" "

Background papers by Ashley Olson Fit for a Princess Paper Pack. Alpha by Ashley Olson Shortcake Paper pack, both from SBB. Inked edge and Wild tear actions from AtomicCupcake. Fonts used are Susie's hand, Enchanted Prairie Dog and Fulton Artistamp

Paper and elements from Glimpse of Spring by Amy Knepper, Fonts used are Glider Girls and Heavy Texture.

Don't you just love all those flowers? They sure did make me smile yesterday.... :)

There's some more stuff too, but my floor needs mopping and I'd better get to it.

Later everyone!!

Enter Day 3.....

Day 3 without water in my Kitchen.... :( Not happy jan. Or fred, or anyone else in fact. Big deal that it's covered by warranty if it means that I have to wait 3 days for them to slow turtle mail me the necessary part. Which hasn't come today, which means the soonest I will have it is tomorrow, otherwise it will be a whole weekend to go...

I need cheering up - anyone got any jokes? (clean ones please, my mother reads this too!! :P)

Self-explanatory

I'll let the journalling speak for itself here...

My parenting life hit a new low today
as we went sneaker shopping.
Never a favourite chore, but I can’t
believe that these were the only
‘acceptable’ sneakers around...
and that I let you talk me into
buying them. The most priceless part
was the look on your Dad’s face when
he came home and saw them, he just
couldn’t stop laughing! Not only do
they look totally dinky with those cars
and the big flap and the red rubber
toes... but worst of all my nightmares
They LIGHT UP!!
Only SAMMY could get away with
wearing these... I just hope the
batteries don’t last very long.

I used Laura Alpuche's Cozy Paisley paper pack for this layout, fonts were SM_bournisM and grumble.

More stuff later...

Oh, and btw, Holly has a sale on her stuff at TDC before she leaves for good, so go grab some stuff!!

Quick layout!

Just a quick layout before I toddle off for an early night :) Yeah, sure. Honest, I'm going to bed reallll soon.

Papers and elements from Study Hall Mini Kit by Amy Knepper.
Wild tear action from AtomicCupcake. Fonts used are TopSecret, Times New Roman and Schlimeyer Book.

This one is for you Sharon, this is a one of the layered photo effects I was telling you about.... Not the best photo to showcase it, but I really had fun with this one...

Meanwhile I've found some new places to look at posting too... of all places, The Shabby Shoppe has an open and welcoming forum and gallery - all designers welcome (and blinkies!! ;)), she's even allowing advertising of sales.... She truly is a PRINCESS in every sense of the word. :) And Tiff suggested the Digi Shoppe also which I am looking in to. I don't want to post here there and everywhere, but SBB has been WOEFUL lately... the gallery is flying past and better scrappers than me are getting no attention, so what chance do I have? My last 2 layouts there have had, respectively, 16views 3 comments and 17 views 5 comments... which is coming down from layouts a couple of weeks ago that had... 41 views 10 comments and 51 views 6 comments. Not that anyone's counting, but I just feel obliged to try to get some attention because of my DT commitments.... These girls are relying on me and I feel like I'm letting them down almost... :(

Ok, enough rambling. Time to do some more housekeeping on the puter, then time for bed! Honest! (with a magazine - hey it's bed, who said sleep? lol).

What, another new post already??

I know, I'm setting a dangerous precedent here, but I was blurfing whilst waiting for the first load of washing to finish, and I came across THIS, which led me to THIS... The whole concept being 20 photographs that answer questions about you..... Jessica Bolton has taken it on board and I'm going to join in because I think it might get me LIKING taking photos again....

So sing out if you are going to have a play too... it seems like such fun!!

Bi-iig Post...

Ok, so I haven't been posting much lately :) Here's a bit of an update.

Scrap-wise I've been a bit busy with life type stuff, and haven't gotten much scrapping done. But the galleries have been very disappointing, almost no comments and very few views. Not sure why the sudden die-off, but I hope it's a temporary thing.

After all that, I just didn't get anything at the Jen Wilson sale... nothing new or exciting. However, Laura Alpuche at TheDigiChick is retiring a few kits, and at 60% off, *skip* smiled nicely and said that special word - YES!!





The last one, Li'l Jesse is her free sampler of the moment, and the tan paper looks suspiciously like Kraft paper to me..... *wink*.... Gorgeous, and so practical. But if you want IN the sale is only for this weekend, so get your skates on!

In other scrapping news, I'm pleased to have had a new SM acceptance, and also a DMM acceptance so that's been very fulfilling. Although the more I get accepted, the more pressure I feel to create "brilliant" everytime, so I'm going to go back to some journalling and trying to get back to WHY we scrap... to record MEMORIES....

I am trying to make a bit of a deal with myself also to catch up on some of my DT layouts that I've been neglecting. I also sat down and spent 2 hours yesterday editing photos from my shoot.... more hours to come. I've been getting the hang of using my new Kubota Actions, and man, some of the different layering effects you can get are awesome. I'll have to do them on some photos that I CAN show you, to illustrate. (The next photo doesn't have any done I think, I really can't remember anymore. My memory is getting SHOCKING....)

Kit is a gorgeous Mini from Fernlilis.com called Pandoras Tranquility - love this yummy pink and brown combo with the hit of aqua. Also used inking and wild tear action from AtomicCupcake. Fonts used were AL Gettysburg and Miserable.

And finally... last but not least.

Last night we all went to Skyshow, sniffles and all. Skyshow is a local radio station Fireworks to music thing (about 20 minutes long) that's been running over 20 years... but I've only been twice - this year and last. Last year was my first try at fireworks photos, and I got totally hooked. So this year, with 2 digital cameras, I spent half an hour finetuning settings and then set Andrew up with the baby and I ran the bubby camera and we got over 100 each. Some duds, of course.... just the fun of the game. I really love this one though - the only one I've had time to crop and re-size yet - now it's my desktop! Like I said, it was only last night, we got home about 10.30.... Now I have to come up with something creative to DOOOO with all these photos, they deserve to be on display.



See, I told you it was a big post! Now I've got to go and do boring Mum-type stuff, finish cooking dinner etc. Later dudes!!

BRACE yourselves....

Jen Wilson also has a FATHER and he has inspired another sale, for Saturday, Feb 18th.... If you want to get some stuff before SBB goes into meltdown, better jump in fast!! Apparently her father is OLDER than her mother... so I'm working on my wish list now.

Don't know why I'm telling you all... don't get in the way of my bandwidth now... :D

Frustration....

I am always having a running battle with the rubbish that Tyson brings home... I know he's a boy and that's what they do... but it's driving me to distraction. So no homilies please, I'll not listen anyway. As some kind of therapy, I think out of sheer "I'm losing my mind" desperation in fact, I did this layout....



I know that the kit I used was the Ohnoes one from Christy Lyle and Robin Carlton from the Sweet Shoppe, but apart from that I could just care less about the fonts and stuff.... not today george. NOT in the MOOD.

Well, I'm in A mood, but not THAT one...

later peeps.....

Oh, please.... STOP

I beg you all.... enough sales, and store openings and general yumminess. I'm trying to be good. I really am.

I've got some DT stuff I have to do before I can even think about new toys... so suddenly I have some stuff MATERIALISE in my cart over at Eclectic Scraps... not to mention the Shabby Princess re-opening that I'm just covering my eyes and ears... lalala I'm not listening.

Ohhh I promised I'd be good. Just one Look??

And then there are a couple of kits being released tomorrow that look awesome...

Too many kits, not enough HDD space... :( *pout*

1 2 3 Awww.......

This one's for you Sharon ;)

My darling darling hubby bought me a little treat on Saturday night. I don't know if it was a cheer-up present or what... but I was very excited. However, a lot of the images I shot on saturday weren't suitable for this kind of treatment... which this one was... www.kubotaworkshops.com for the uninitiated...

I had to take these photos today. Remy came over for a visit while his Mum went for a nap. He was just too cute and pudgy and he's mastered sitting up, so he was just perfect for this shoot. I had to manage it all myself, but I actually got him to look at the camera quite a bit, apart from the darn thumb in his mouth. When Mum came back to get him, she was pretty impressed. I hope. It's hard to tell sometimes, but I sure am impressed. :)



And meanwhile, those eyes are their totally natural untouched colour.... I have been known to tweak them just a tiny bit in the past, but not this time.... Wow, huh!

I SOOOO had to do this today. After the weekend my confidence was totally shot. I think I'll just have to stick to babies from now on. Anyone want to book me??

the SHOOT!

I thought that I'd do a mass update here... I had just typed up an enormous post for you all and blogger killed it.... I can't type it all again. I'm so stressed I don't want to relive it all again.

I was shooting under such terrible conditions and odds.... I am never agreeing to such terms again. I got some shots. Not as many as I'd have hoped, but hey.... this is my battle.

A bright sunny park at 4pm
6 adults to shoot, 2 of which I'd never met before I got out of the car. And they took forever to "warm" up.
4 of them wearing glasses, 2 of them quite bald, 1 frail, 1 pregnant.

Traipsing all over this park, so that took TIME which I just didn't HAVE! I had just over an hour to shoot all 6 together, and nice shots of each couple. And every different setup had different lighting etc.

I didn't have the skills or experience to cope with it.... and I'm going to be paying for that with a whole lot of photoshopping.

Thanks again for all your support, your emails and chats meant a lot to me.... I'm going to be under this rock for a few days until these photos are cleaned up and out of my hair.

It will get better, honest! :)

Grrrrr

Oh dear.

I've got this photo shoot tomorrow that I'm stressing like mad about and I'm SICK! Sinusitis, sore throat, hot/cold, shaky achy SICK!! What rotten timing. Don't feel like shooting, scrapping or anything else in between. I can't let these friends down, but I'm quite sure I'll be dragging my sorry butt out of bed for it. Why me?? Why now???

So here, have a toot instead.

I know my friend Sandi has been doubting herself of late, and I am so happy for her...

She's got some great news, so hop on over to her blog and give her some congrats!!

She totally rocks, and deserves all the praise she gets!!

Scrapbooking 11 - The search for consistency...

Well, you might recognise the title as a spoof on Star Trek, the search for Spock, but neway....

Following on to my earlier post about running out of inspiration, here's another thought for you...

Do you struggle with consistency? I have some layouts that just absolutely blow me out of the water ROCK... and then the next one I do is just ordinary. Not even by comparison, I just know, it's ordinary.... a couple more ordinary ones and then another gem. What's going on? Is this normal? Are my expectations too high? Or am I producing too many layouts..... I suppose it has to happen to everyone at some stage. Or is it just me, alone in this torturous universe.

Ok, if you've got the answer, give us a yell. Otherwise, admire my latest NOT ordinary effort... this layout ROCKS DA' HOUSE!! (humility was never a strong point of mine)... lol.

Because both of my boys were born on the 7th, I make it a point to measure them every so often, on the 7th. I knew that Tyson had been growing, but Sammy just never seems to and I was so stunned at how much he had grown I had to scrap it right away!! I took a photo of our cupboard door that we record their heights on, and used that as part of the background to see the gaps of growth.

Papers, elements, stitching from Express Yourself CD by Ashley Olson and Dawn Stocstill available this week at SBB, these were a mixuture of Optimistic (Background paper) and Relaxed (stitching, flower chipboard and alpha) and Free (flower stem). Fonts used were CK MixN Match, Tom's new Roman, Aljo and My Old Remington.

Well I am humble enough to know that this layout just leaves my previous 2 for dead... and thus the search for consistency. However, I am impressed because this sort of feeling used to be a once a month thing, and now it's a once a week thing... I have reduced the gap between my rockin' layouts, and that's got to count as progress, right??

Well, what do you think??

Under the weather

Nothing serious, I'm just not that crash hot today/tonight.

I thought I'd pop this layout up and then run...

Journalling reads : This is our tenth year together. We've done a lot, been a lot of places and gone through a lot of things in that time. We've learnt a lot about ourselves and about each other along the way. Our experiences together have molded us into a unit. We are a team. This is the most wonderful part of being together for so long. We are each other's grounding point and their cheer squad.

Papers and elements from Ashley & Dawn's new CD, Express Yourself!! This is from the Calm kit. (which our life is anything but!!)

Smaragdify action on the photo, fonts used are Greer, 2Peas Masterpiece, Arial Narrow and Heavy Texture. Created in PS7.

Later all, and as always, thanks for dropping by!

Breakthrough!!

I am so excited.... I've got my first photo shoot for ppl other than my friends and babies etc this weekend and I was really struggling with exposure.... I have figured it out!! I'm so stoked. Now all I need to do is practice that little * button like mad until it becomes second nature. Poor *skip* got to stand over my like some warrior king while I made exposures of him against the light bulb - but it WORKED!! wahoo! And of course, the best thing is that I knew WHY it worked and what to do to MAKE it work. It took a lot of brain thinking things inside my head, but it's slowly sinking in. Over 3000 shots on this camera, and I feel like I actually own it now lol.

I really feel like a step (or a f-stop even) closer to my dream.

Meanwhile, have a layout....

This is a layout using the fabulous new kits from Ash and Dawn's new CD Express Yourself out at SBB on Thursday!! I love this CD, it's got a bit of something for everyone!

This layout was using "Inspired" and what fun happy colours they are. Just what I was in the mood for.

I've actually got another layout from this CD to upload... as well as 3 other Ash CT layouts still waiting patiently in the queue.

I think it must be due to superbowl, but the galleries are DEAD at the moment... very few comments anywhere for anyone. I've been a busy girl sharing some love around at SBB and 2peas and TheDigiChick... I think I'll hang on to these layouts for another day and give everyone a chance to get back on their computers!

And finally I'd like to give a big shout-out to Beth, who's blog has sent my blog's hits through the roof!! Thanks honey!! A lovely girl, and an AWESOME scrapper.....

Silence is golden

An inability to stay quiet is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind. ~Walter Bagehot

And that's all I have to say about that. There is plenty more I could say, but I will not. People have exposed themselves, their pettiness, their fears and their own agendas. I have been misrepresented and betrayed. But you know what? I don't CARE anymore. I haven't lost any sleep over it. I didn't need you and don't miss you!

Finito........ the end.

I suggest you all move on with your lives, because that is entirely what I intend to do.

More scrappin....

I swore I wouldn't scrap today. I had a blinding headache by 4 o'clock and the thought of scrapping just made it worse....

So how on earth did this absolutely FABULOUS (in my humble opinion!) layout get onto my computer? I dunno..... but it sure is cute!!

This is a digital re-do of one of my earliest paper layouts... nothing like the original at all. I have no intention of doing it to all my layouts, but hey, I bought this gorgeous kit, and it just SPOKE to me lol.... All papers and elements from Ohnoes Kit by Christy Lyle and Robin Carlton from SweetShoppeDesigns. Arrows by Gina Cabrera from Digital Design Essentials. Fonts used are Stylograph, 4990810, 2Peas Tasklist and Snowshoe.

Meanwhile, I really DO need to stop creating for a while and give myself a chance to catch up on my gallery posting... I have a horror of being a gallery hog, and try to spread my layouts out to one a day, or at least in 12 hours.... but I'm making more than that at the moment... time to catch up? Yeah, right!

It's only 11pm, but I'm totally exhausted and yawning my head off, so I'm toddling off to bed...
Night-night!!

New layout, and some shopping!!

Heya everyone......

Here's another picture of little old me.... I just keep on scrapping them at the moment... probably because I'm the only gal in this house, not counting the dog, who is technically an "it". The twinnies dad took this picture and passed it on to us last week, and I just loved it. Which is rare. For me to love a picture of me. It's not a particularly flattering picture.... but I love the feel of it... you get my drift. So while I was doing my hair last night, this layout started growing in front of me...... it's about me btw....

Me, me me me me (sorry, matrix joke). Me too!

Papers, elements and alpha from Ashley Olson's new kit at A Cherry On Top who is celebrating just having gone digital!! Wahoo! Lovely friendly community and loads of great designers.... go check it out!

Used lots of fonts too, Dominican, Pushkin, MA Sexy, Jane Austen, Oxalic, 2Peas Fancy Free, Penguin Attack.

And also grandly opening is SweetShoppeDesigns. They had a fantastic opening sale for one day, and if you missed out, too bad. I did warn you!!

This is what I bought :)





I also bought their rather cleverly marketed quarterly assortment... You don't mind paying for samples when you get THAT many for such a small price. But it doesn't come with an enmass preview, and I'm not posting 8 more.... Sorry, but you'll have to go to the store to see it for yourself!!

*skip* approved the purchase and helped me pick them out..... I really HAVE to stop buying kits and stuff though, cos my teams are keeping me well and truly occupied... I've got 2 or 3 more layouts just waiting for a gap in the traffic.... some have been waiting quite a while now. Quite a few that haven't been uploaded anywhere, some have only been uploaded here.... I'm finding it harder and harder to keep track!

*skip* is looking at designing me a database program to help me.... I hope he hurries up because my brain is starting to hurt! lol....

Ok, enough raving on.....

Night!!

Uh-oh....

Not that any of us need any encouragement, but just so you know...

SweetShoppeDesigns is now up and running. With a grand opening sale too boot.

Congrats to all the girls involved, the store looks fantastic, and I am so pleased to see so many "boyish" kits and elements.... for such a girly sounding place, they aren't afraid to make mud pies lol...

It's for one day only, so go forth and spend!!

Tagged, tagged, tagged

Ok, I've been tagged again, and again, and again.....

This one is for Ash and MirandaLea..... they both got me the same day!!

Better get on with it!! :) stop putting it off lol

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 YEARS AGO? I had just turned 20.... I was working in the city, in Austudy, working hard and playing hard. Had been out of school for nearly 5 years, had a new car, was still living at home, but semi-independently. Had an AWESOME wardrobe, was a size 8 and I don't think I'd met Andrew yet... that was later that year. Oh, and I had a new puppy too... sadly we had to sell her a few months later. A gorgeous Rhodesian Ridgeback called Gemma.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 1 YEAR AGO? I was paper scrapping, still had time for cross-stitch... My little baby had just started school so it was a huge change for us all.

5 FAVORITE SNACKS: Icecream, chocolate, chocolate icecream, with chocolate chips and chocolate topping. (Hey, they're favourites, doesn't mean I eat them all the time lol)

5 SONGS TO WHICH YOU KNOW ALL THE LYRICS: almost ANYTHING by COLD CHISEL and lots of 80's hits. I dunno.... I am SO hopeless with song names, I just sing along when they come on the radio. Ashlee Simpson's Boyfriend, Pussycat Dolls, Don'cha, most U2 songs, Blackeyed Peas, and I love Nickelback and Creed. I'm a rocker, really.

5 BAD HABITS: Umm. I spend WAYY too much time procrastinating. I'm a clutter collector. I talk too much. I laugh too loud. I'm not good with strangers.

5 THINGS YOU LIKE DOING: Coffee and shopping with girlfriends, scrapping, reading a good book, watching bollywood movies, and scrapping!! (had to stick it in twice)

5 THINGS YOU WOULD NEVER BUY, WEAR OR GET AGAIN: Shoulder pads!! I hate them. I rip them out of everything except lined jackets. Ummm.... this is hard. Granny clothes. A widescreen tv that we hardly ever watch anymore. A notebook....

5 FAVORITE TOYS: My 350D, my puter.... my broadband!! My car, broom broom. *skip* thinks it's his car, but I am the one that drives it all day. And my kettle. That's not a toy, but I"m lost without my kettle.

5 TAGS: Peta, Sharon, Sandi, Beth and AmyK if she gets time!! ;)

Meanwhile, MirandaLea has also been waiting patiently for me to do this other tag too, and then I think I'm nearly caught up.....

WHAT SCRAPBOOKING PRODUCTS DO YOU DISLIKE?
Stickers and die cuts.

WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING YOU'VE EVER HAD TO SCRAP?
My DH.... he's just difficult full stop!!

WHAT TECHNIQUE DO YOU USE MORE THAN ANY OTHER?
Ink and tear. Always.

EVER BEEN PUBLISHED?
Quite a few times now!! Wahoo for me!!

WHAT IS THE SMALLEST SCRAP OF PAPER YOU SAVE?
When I used to paper scrap, I kept down to a couple of inches square, and vellum down to the tiniest strips. I have started chucking all those bits out now though, lol...

EVER HAD ANY SCRAPBOOK-RELATED INJURIES?
Aching wrists from the mouse.... I need a new one.

FINISH THIS SENTENCE: "IF I WASN'T A SCRAPBOOKER, I WOULD SPEND MY MONEY ON... What? there's a life outside of scrapping? Probably clothes.... or books.

GIVE US YOUR BEST STORAGE OR ORGANIZATIONAL IDEA:
Label, label and more labelling.... everything!! and keep all your information on a REAL calendar and then keep the calendar. I keep mine with my photos from predigital years, so I can usually work out to at least within the month, when a photo was taken.

YOU JUST WON A WEEK-LONG SCRAPPING CRUISE FOR 4. WHO IS GOING WITH YOU?
Peta, Sandi and Sharon.... it would rock. But this boat had better have high speed broadband and lots and lots of memory!!!

TAGS: I think this one is definitely over.... but if you haven't done it, tag yourself!! (SANDI!!)