documenting my crafting, photography and wanderlust life

PL week 18

Love me some cinco de mayo, I rarely have a picture of me, rarely alone either.  Big sis snapped this picture while Dave was making me laugh when we were enjoying some Mexican food in a new restaurant on Cinco de Mayo. I thought I should add it to the PL. Other good things; big sis and her new friend Emily have graduated officially to mall rats when we took them shopping at the Boca Mall.  Little sis had the cutest show at school where they learned sign language to 2 songs. I.am.going.to.eat.her. 

It was good times. 

DC with Vee

My lovely, sweet friend Vee invited me to come stay the weekend with her and I jumped at it. It had been almost 2 years since we first met face to face, but for awhile before that we'd been blogger pals. She is such a good person, kind, funny and of course talented. We hung out at her house and had cocktails at happy hour at TGIF, walked around DC Saturday and drove through Virginia and had her yummy chocolate chip pancakes Sunday. Her children are wonderful, polite and I look forward to when our kiddos can all get together. ( and I got to sit in the Vee craft space...pretty rad.) 

 

Smithsonian American Craft exhibit, (taken by Vee)

We were so bad, we didn't get any pics of us together and I lugged around my big ass camera and barely took it out.  So lame. 

Can't wait to see her again soon!

 

 

PL week 17

This was a good week. 

Ups and downs, it's life, right?  But all is well. 

PL week 16

Moving along...

It was a good, but busy week. Are you doing a PL?  Are you loving it?

keeping up with the joneses

The challenge for the month of May over at the Creative Type is to use the word empowerment in your layout.  Whether you use the word or a phrase about your own personal empowerment, it's all about how you have learned to overcome or appreciate something about yourself or your life that used to make you feel self-conscious, weak, embarrassed, but now you don't give two shakes about it. 

Mine was titled Keeping up with the Joneses.  I think when my girls were really young I worried about how they are doing in comparison to other kids, how my house looked, how I appeared to others. I won't even pretend that I don't occasionally feel self-conscious, I would be lying to say such a thing, but I definitely have lightened up and don't get so preoccupied with myself or things like before. 

So come play along with us!  Vee Jennings is the guest and has so generously donated the prize, a pdf of her popular misting class!  So go play!

PL week 15

I love the concept of Project Life, but I must say that I have a hard time staying caught up. I love looking over the pages of the weeks past though, the faces of family and friends makes me smile, so I'm going to stick with it.  Even if I am a little behind. 

And I added a 3 picture insert.

Week 16 is almost done.  And what is it? Week 19?  O'well. 

Mom's Day book

Hi ya all!  I am getting worse and worse about blogging.  

Just wanted to share with you a folding accordion style book I made my mom and mother-in-law for Mother's Day.  Inspired/copied from the talented Marcy Penner, I just loved this book!  She used most of the same American Crafts papers and stickers, and I thought it was so sweet. 

Front side                                                       Back side

I made one in light green for my mom (this one is my mom's above) and light blue for my MIL using the same papers and embellishments for American Crafts.  I think they'll love them and I wish I was able to spend the day with them, but I hope when they see these they'll know how much they mean to me. 

PL week 14

Hi there blogworld.  Are any of you findng it harder than before to keep posting?  I don't know where time goes ( laundry, homework, carpooling, soccer practice, etc...) 

Week 14

Weeks hightlights; my mom was here visiting, we love having her around, Easter egg dying, Easter candy and Easter egg hunts, Naples beach walks, Ava's spelling test=A, took another class at the Apple store, lots of fun playing board games and movie watching. 

admiration

I have quite a few scrapbookers I admire and enjoy their artsy style.  But this month's challenge over at the Creative Type was to pick just one scrapbooker or artist whom you admire and do a layout in their "style."  I  picked my friend Vee.  We met almost 2 years ago for a girls weekend with some of my other favorite ladies, we've remained good friends and I'm so excited to fly up to D.C next month to hang out with her again. I LOVE her fun and funky style, she really has a unique sense of design unlike anyone else, I think.  I had actually started this layout over a month ago and wasn't really trying to copy Vee, but I'd laid it aside to finish later.  When I saw the challenge was to pick someone else and use their style in your layout, I knew I could use this page with the teal paint steaks and stamped image to emulate a more Vee-esque page.

Vee's page;

and mine here...

Go play along over at The Creative Type, we have a great prize from our guest Shanna ( her layout is awesome!) and the other CT girls are showing whom the admire, too.

PL week 12 and 13

just a little behind...

week 12 was mellow, but good.  I finally broke down and bought a MacBook Pro, the girls started soccer season, I worked out 3x and did yoga 5x, and we went with friends to the concert in the park to see Blue Oyster Cult....could have needed more cow bell. ( the picture above of little sis and her friend with Dave holding them up on his shoulders was taken also by a reporter for the local paper and the following week their picture was in it.  Little sis and her friend thought it was so cool!)

week 13, finally broke down (again) and bought the Canon 5d mark II I've been drooling over, plus the 24-70 mm lens, little sis stayed home from school one day because she was "sick" but luckily was able to work on her fairy houses out back, started getting the guest bedroom ready for my mom, and got supplies gathered for the EB baskets. Life is yummy.

as cute as a cottontail...

( little and big sis, circa 2009, El Vez, Philadelphia)

Happy Easter out there to all who celebrate, and to all who don't and celebrate their own holiday, many wishes of good health, happiness and peace to you!

photog class

Wanna take a great class???  When I got this email I signed up immediately!  I just bought my new MacBook Pro, PS CS5 and my new LOVE, the Canon 5D Mark II, along with this lens.  Yep. Now...just to learn to use them better.  I almost always shoot in manual, and before my old computer got a weird virus that wiped out my CS5, I was getting okay at that, too. But now, I feel like this class has some of my most admired photographers ( I die.) and it's so affordable!!   It was meant to be. 

Register by Sunday night, April 1st w/ the coupon code "SPRINGJOY20" and get a $20 discount!

Wanna take better shots of  the superheroes in your life?

For those of you who are ready to begin capturing your world with fresh eyes, join me for the next session of Superhero Photo! As always, all skill levels and types of cameras are welcome!

In this course we will explore:

• Different themes each week - Portraits, Treasures, Composition, Self-portraiture, Color + all of my best photo secrets!
• Technical lessons-- In aperture, lighting, composition, post-processing and more!
• Treasure hunts-- A downloadable PDF of creative photo prompts to inspire and delight
• Inspiring interviews with super talented photographers-- Tracey Clark, Vivienne McMaster, Anna Kuperberg, Andrea (Hula) Jenkins, and Tara Whitney
• Plus, a warm and encouraging community space on Flickr to share our work!

You can find out more here!

 

My approach is simple: Let go of the fancy dials. Carry your camera with you wherever you go. Explore new perspectives. Have fun. Get ready to see your world in a brand new way.

• I believe that there is an opportunity to create extraordinary images right outside your door.

• I believe that you don't need fancy equipment or advanced technical skills to create beautiful work.

• I believe that creativity is an access point to personal growth and that by exploring our creativity we become more brave, more intuitive and more alive.

• I believe that when we do it together, it's way more fun.

 

Class begins April 10th

Come join with me!!!!!!!!!

project life week 11

continuing on...

I used some clear packaging from some scrapbook supplies to make a page insert.  I sewed 2 pockets for each 5x5 page, plus I sewed a side tab and filled it with green confetti and little paper banners I typed out on the different things we did over the week.

some highlights:

St. Patrick's Day, started the day with the pesky Leprechauns making a mess in the kitchen with spilled flour and cocoa powder all over, peed green in the toilet ( agh, gross.), but they left a bunch of gold chocolate coins and some other small trinkets. Went to a small parade and later adults-only pub time. Spring break, lots of day outings, beach, park, movies, swimming.  Made my flight to go see Vee in May, whoop! A good week!

go.

Using Studio Calico's story hour kit mostly and some veneer letters, with Tina's lovely polaroid prints.

Go.

granny chic

Hi there all, how are you?

I've been using this kit a lot, which is not like me. I have a hard time sticking to just one kit. Here, the Studio Calico Storybook kit is mostly what I have, then I used a picture I snapped a few weeks ago of my fave chair and crocheted throw.

Do you have a "style" of your place? 

green

Just a few pictures from yesterday's St. Patty's Day.  The leprechauns left a bunch of gold chocolate coins, some glittery, rainbow colored pencils and some minty chapstick for the girls.  They also made a mess in the kitchen, poured flour and cocoa powder all over the floor and counters, geesh... Then we took the girls to the town center to listen Irish music.

Later just the adults went to the town center for a band and a wee bit of Guinness drinking with our pals from the Scotland and Ireland ( oh, and Panama, but whetev.)  It was bloody good time.

PL week 10

A good week really. Big sis got 3 A's on really hard tests (she studied a lot!, good chica), I had lunch Amy Tan and Kelly Purkey in Miami Beach while they were here for a couple days( so nice to see Amy again and meet Kelly), little sis got on a soccer team and we made some cute little candy bags for her to hand out to her classmates since this week she's on Spring Break.

Are you doing a Project Life?  How's it going for you?

sk8ter nerd

I loved this picture of little sis in one of her favorite shirts. Then I saw an October Afternoon sketch from a couple weeks ago and I thought it would work well with these 3 pictures. I also used the latest Studio Calico kit, Storyboard. I have a couple other pages in the works, plus last week's PL, so I shall return.

magazine inspo

The March Creative Type challenge is to use either the front of a magazine, ad or article spread as inspiration.  I saw this lovely picture in Somerset the other day and knew this would be a fun one to use.

and here is mine;

The talented Rahel is out guest designer and is donating a stamp set for one lucky winner!  Go play along with us and win this stamp set!!

PL week 8

A good week.

I used the slim American Crafts 3 pocket sleeve. Then next is a Becky Higgins page.

Renaissance Faire, Tom Jenkins BBQ and Ft Lauderdale beach, new blog design, started a new photography class, walked and did yoga 3x. Yep, it was good.