Busy Bee

Before I write down a few random thoughts for today - and load a few pages of eye candy - I wanted to stop and express my condolences for the people that lost family members in yesterday's Metro rail crash in Washington, DC. I'm only perhaps 30 miles from DC, still well within the "metro" area for the District ... and wow ... Driving home last night, shortly after 5:30 pm, I heard the announcement on the radio ... and promptly called DH and told him to turn on the local news. What a horrific accident. Washington DC's Metro train system is one of the safest in the country, and this magnitude of accident have never happened before.

Hopefully the coming days will shed some light on exactly what happened. I hope that the families can find some peace, and that those injured, severely or otherwise, recover soon.

A friend also lost her mother recently ... so sending big hugs her way, too.

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On a lighter note, things are in full swing with DS and his summer vacation - the kid is bored ... still. So far, so good, on eating everything in sight - although I'm sure I'll find some empty boxes in the pantry ... perhaps weeks from now ... you know, when I really need "X" for something. *sigh*

The boys are planning another baseball trip. Seems a lot of fun was had the first time around - oh, and DH wants to get enough points for a free hotel stay (yeah, there just had to be an ulterior motive, right?! LOL). Hey, I say let them go - that will leave just me and my 'baby' at home to kick back, relax, watch movies, order in ... well the dog will get her own treats, not mine. I've given DH specific instructions to have OTHER PEOPLE take photos this time. There's only so many shots of his and DS's noses at arms length that I can handle!

I've been busy scrapping all kinds of things. Heather's got some new things at Pixel Canvas, and I had my first layouts with Carina's kits posted at Two Peas today. Well, I DID have something else of Carina's posted in the gallery ... but it's been snapped up by ScrapStreet.com magazine (July issue). Check their Pet Park article *wink* Funny thing was, I sent in my submission for the call and less than 24 hours later I had a request for the page. Now, you're probably wondering what's so funny about that?! Well, the editor wasn't responding to my submission - she found me on her own by scanning the galleries. The fact that I'd applied at the same time she was looking was just a coincidence! LOL If you've been following my blog, you might be able to figure out which page it is ... if you remember. Hint: it's fairly recent. I've also been asked for something for a in-print magazine - for next year! Publishing-wise, this has been a great year so far! :)

So, here's a few things for today's eye candy ... hope you enjoy!


Both of these pages use the Midnight Bloom paper pack, buttons, and rub-on alphas from Carina's new Garden Vignette collection (available at Two Peas).

This page has all kinds of things - pieces from Crysal Wilkeron (Two Peas), Natali Designs (Scrapbook Graphics), Sande Krieger (Two Peas), and Vinnie Pearce (Pixel Canvas). I just love mixing 'n' matching elements from different designers. Each has their own style ... and yet I relish the challenge of making everything work together ... well, I HOPE it all works! LOL The photos are courtesy of Tisha - they are of her son; this was a photo swap at at digi site. Can't wait to see what she does with the photo I gave her!

Here's my favorite one of the bunch. I love the pop of red ... the template that I used as the base ... the stitching. Once again, this is a mix of designers - the papers all come from Crystal Wilkerson, the stitching from Carina Gardner, the flowers from Vinnie Pearce, the words from Studio B, and the template from Ashley Kennedy ... phew!

Change is Coming ...

So much happening right now, that I don't know quite where to start. Okay ... let's see ... a summary might be best:

• Heather's got an open CT call right now. You can read about it HERE. The ladies are great to work with - as is Heather ... and, I'll admit that while I'm relatively new to CT's, Heather's is BY FAR the most international that I've seen or read about! (Notice that she did her CT call in French for our European neighbors?!).
  
  
• Carina has a blog giveaway that runs until next Tuesday - its for her new Garden Vignette collection, which will be released next week. Oh, did I mention that I'm working on Carina's CT - that's Collection Team (a little different from a Creative Team, but many of the same responsibilities). The page I did for my "introduction" to Carina's team has already been snapped up for publication - in less than a week! More on that as the publication date gets closer.
  
  
• Speaking of publications, Scrapbooking Memories, an Australian scrapbooking magazine has also asked for a page of mine. I don't know, for sure, if it will make the final cut ... waiting to find out. Just tickled that they'd even be interested in the first place.

Probably so many other things I could talk about scrappy-wise ... but I don't want to bore you with all the details. LOL

On the home front, DS has finished school for the year - he made it through 7th grade in one piece. Waiting for final grades to be mailed out, but all looks good from what we're seeing online. So, DS is at home ... and bored! Oh, what I would do for an 8+ week vacation! But, DS is a social kid and he ... he ... misses school. Not for the educational aspect, nah, don't be thinking that - he hates lessons, sitting still, paying attention and - most of all - homework. He misses his friends ... and Lord, it's only be one day. *sigh* I suspect my food bill will increase expotentially now that DS is home all day ... eeekkk.

Plans are forming for our trip 'down under' in August. It will be good to see Mum again ... yeah, and even my brother. DH has already booked us to walk the Sydney Harbour Bridge again - yep, all the way to the TOP. We did this last year and had blast - even if DS is scared of heights; he still did it. Last year we did the tour right before sunset. By the time we got to the top, we had the city below us, all lit up with the neon and flourscent of the night ... beautiful. Oh, and yes, we were, literally, walking along the top of the bridge - harnessed with rock-climbing type hooks, hooked right on to the bridge. Awesome!!

I'm planning an air balloon ride for me and DH one morning (hopefully it won't be too cold) during our trip. Since DS is scared of heights, I don't think he would want to go into the air in an open basket LOL - then again, this is for me and DH ONLY, so DS wouldn't be invited anyway! Mum is also planning a vacation-in-a-vacation for the four of us. The last time I went on vacation with her was ... I don't know ... when I was maybe 12 or 13? It promises to be fun.

Okay, better sign off - got work to do (hhhmmm ... why do I always update my blog at the office?!) ... and I'm leaving early today - Comcast has messed up our HD signal somehow, so need to get that fixed. So far we've already swapped out the HD box and ... nada. He he he - that's okay, though, I'll leave at 1 pm today instead of 5 pm :)

Change of Plans

If you've liked the layouts I've done using the kits from Crystal Wilkerson ... well ... she's now selling her new releases directly on her blog - Creativity by Crystal. As a little incentive to stop by, Crystal's offering a great deal on her kits:

My Baby ... aaaawww

When I lost the last 12-18 months' worth of photos, I realized that I also lost all pics of my "baby", Haddie. We adopted her about a year ago, so all the funny things she's done, like climbing on the kitchen counters, destroyed numerous pairs of underpants, sweats, and socks ... and even eating toothbrushes (yeah, gross, I know) ... well, all that photographic evidence has gone. My baby was in the backyard yesterday evening and the light was great ... so out came the camera. She posed, like she KNEW I was taking some pics - isn't she a cutie?

Credits: Love Amour wordart, plus extracted heart - A La Carte; paper from Island Paradise; Photocuts Filmstrip v.1, distressed; Photocuts Frames v.1, matted; Photocuts Masks #3, modified slightly; check marks are a Photoshop shape, distressed -- all Carina Gardner (Two Peas). Checklist stamp from Romance Me, Vinnie Pearce (Pixel Canvas).

With most of the recent photos lost for good, I've started to go back over some older ones, including from five years ago, when we adopted DS from Bulgaria. He doesn't talk about Bulgaria very much - in fact, he prefers not to. However, we'd like to make sure he remembers where he came from, whether it was a good experience or not. I'm putting together some pages for DS from our trip to pick him up (we had to stay in-country for almost a week, so we did some sightseeting). This is one I did recently with a photo from the Rila Monastery. The Monastery was a wonderfully peaceful place; a fully functional monastery that allows the public inside. The architecture was beautiful and the place just oozed history ...

Credits: "Unforgotten" by HeatherT, "Bucket Full of Sunshine" by Vinnie Pearce (both Pixel Canvas); vingette by Sande Krieger (Two Peas); font is Dear Joe.

We've had so much rain recently - and with more on the way for tonight (lightning is around, as I type this), that our backyard is literally like a swamp. The ground squishes under foot. I even found a "friend" in the garden - thankfully, Haddie didn't find him - he would have made a great toy to play with and chase around. I've really been trying to improve my photography, especially my macro shots - I took these in the late afternoon, and was about 3-4 inches away from my yard visitor ... I like how it came out (considering it was a last-minute, rush kind of thing):


Now I hear thunder ... better sign off.

'Til next time ... :)

Oh, the suspense ...

OMG, this is going to kill me! In our family, I think it's safe to say that I'm the one that can keep a secret the best. But now ... now ... I have a page that I would LIKE to share, but can't - it's part of a secret digi challenge at 2Ps. I really like it - even if I do say so myself (ROFL), but it's one in a chain of pages that the girls are doing, each person 'lifting elements, style, or an entire design from the person before them. It's a secret 'cause Gen is keeping track of the layouts - and she's the only person that knows (hopefully this is more fun than "throw up Wednesday"? LOL). I suspect that Gen started with a picture of her hubby ... but we'll see.

So, here I sit, munching on crackers with peanut butter, mapping out my next move. I have about 15 minutes left for lunch. Maybe I'll go reorganize my photos, the ones I recovered from CD's last night - I managed to find everything from 2004 to 2007; looks like I lost most of at least the last 12 months ** boo hoo ***. I have over 2 GB of photos to sort - didn't realize I took THAT many pictures! Of course, I've become a bit of a photo snob now and there are probably photos that I might just delete.

On second thought, since I AM at work, maybe I should ... you know ... do ... work???

Back in the Groove

Yup, I'm back in my scrappy groove - well, getting there, at least. Finished up a challenge page last night using Carina Gardner's new Serendipity kit at Two Peas. The template comes from Ashley Kennedy's "hand cut" templates at Pixel Canvas, and the teal flower, sequin and heart button are from Vinnie Pearce, also Pixel Canvas. I just love how all the colors go so well together, and yet it incorporates a few designers, and from different sites, no less.


Coming in the next day or two ... looks for some pages using this kit: Unforgotten.

ETA (June 10, 2009): Here's my first using mostly HeatherT's Unforgotten kit, mentioned above. It's a pic of my late MIL and my DH:

Down ... but not out

Had a great time on my weekend away - got sunburned and now I itch like crazy on my back ... but it's all good (except for the weird, "finger" tan lines that I now have thanks to an uneven sunscreen application ... duh!).

I know I promised to post once I got back, and that was a week ago ... but I've been pretty busy: the dog knocked my external hard drive off the table and it died. Nothing could be saved - not a single file. All that could be recovered had too many bad sectors to the point where it wouldn't even open. Kits I can replace (and thanks to the VERY understanding designers who have allowed me access to their kits again) ... but photos. I've lost most of nearly five year's worth of photos. Some I have backed up on CD's, so I'm going through those, one at a time, to see what I might still have - or not. My biggest fear was that I had lost all the ones of Dad - but I have those (in fact, I have those on multiple CD's! LOL). I've also lost my last 4-5 completed LO's - well, the Photoshop and high-resolution JPG files, at least. It will be just my luck that someone wants to publish these and I can't give them the high-res file they need ...

Oh well. Moving on. Just about got all my kits reloaded. Managed to scrap a few things and can now catch up on my CT work. Here's a few pages I did the past day or two. The first one is a page from my weekend away (the pelicans were wonderful to watch); the second is for a CT call by Carina Gardner (a digi designer at Two Peas)*** UPDATED - OUT FOR PUBLICATION ***; and the last one is for a challenge at Making Memories For You. Enjoy. I'll be back with more - and will add credits to the pages - once I get everything straightened out again.