Obsession

For those of you who know me this will not come as a surprise, but once I find something that I want or something that I want to do I become obsessed with it until I have done it, or purchased it. I found the coolest camera bags on Etsy this week and obsessed about it until I had ordered a custom bag. I want a bag that will hold my camera stuff and enough stuff for when Caleb and I go to the zoo for the day or the park or whatever. Plus these bags are super cute. I ordered a bag similar to this one, but I got the Ultimate Snugglens. I'm so excited to get it. If you want to visit this seller's site it is http://www.etsy.com/shop/gypsyrosehandbags

Texas Bluebonnets & Oh Shoot!

I always have such good intentions to post and then I seem to run out of time. The last month has been really busy. I'm taking a photography class called Oh Shoot! at Jessica Sprague's website. It is taught by Candice Stringham and has been really great. I've done another class and read some books about my camera, but it never seemed to click for me. Well, I finally seem to be getting it. I've supplemented her lessons with a few books about my camera to really get this stuff into my head. I also bought a new 35 mm fixed focal length lens for doing portraits. It's got a lower aperture on it than my kit lens so I'm able to get that lovely blur that looks so good in portraits. We are on kind of a break this week from the class. Last week was our lesson on Manual Mode. I'm happy to report that I've managed to get some good shots using manual. The shots below were either taken in Manual or in Aperture priority.

Caleb pointed out that this cactus looks like Mickey Mouse, and I must say that he is correct!

By the end of the bluebonnet shoot, this is how Caleb felt about my picture taking.



At the end of the day, Caleb decided he needed to take a few pictures of me and since he'd indulged me all day I decided why not. He took quite a few interesting shots, but got some pretty good shots in too.

Gotta go get the boy from MDO. Enjoy!

Another digi layout!

I finished this layout a few weeks ago and just never got around to finishing it. This layout was the second of the Digi in Deep class at Jessica Sprague's website. I think this is probably my favorite digi layout that I've done. I just started looking through old pictures and found one of Caleb when he was one and a half and then thought about some of the pics I'd taken when we went skiing in January and I knew I had the photos that I wanted to use. I'm so happy with how it turned out:




The companion page was a page that I designed and completed myself. It's not as good as Jessica's page, but I thought it turned out ok. It took forever. But, I'm learning as I go so that's a good thing. It just takes awhile to get all of this stuff in my brain.



List of materials used:
SP Lima background papers: From Monoblendz Paperie - Lima paper pack by Anna Aspnes
Rounded corner square die cut: from Border Templates pack by Katie Pertiet
Striped Paper: From Spontaneous Delight by Carrie Stephens
Dirty Journaler Label: from Dirty Journalers set by Katie Pertiet
Grunged Up Photo Block: from Grunged Up Photo Blocks No. 2 set by Katie Pertiet
Staples by Katie Pertiet

First 5K Baby!

I decided about a month ago to run a 5K. My niece was going to run it and my sister in law was going to walk it. I probably didn't give myself quite enough time to train for it, but I've been working out pretty consistently for the last several months so I was in decent shape. I started running at the Y and have just been trying to ramp it up as the race got closer. I've been so stinking nervous about it that I haven't slept well the last two nights. I really wanted to run the whole thing and I think I just put too much pressure on myself. Once I got there I was fine, but I was nervous about getting there, parking, being in the right place, etc. It was definitely chilly while we were waiting, but once we got going it was fine. I ran with Holly for the first mile. I stopped at the water station at the 1 mile marker to get some water and ended up with a cup of beer. Now I like me some beer, but didn't want it while running, so I shoved that back at them and missed my chance to get my water. I kept Holly in my sights for a while after that, but lost her after going up a big hill. I think if I'd stayed with her longer that I would have done better, but I'm still proud of myself. My official time was 33 minutes 5 seconds. Not bad for a first 5K, if I do say so myself.
Before the race:



My lovely running shoes with my timing device from the race:

A digi layout for your viewing pleasure ;0)

I've been doing some digital classes for about the last 6 months. I've meant to post more of the layouts that I've done, but never have. I am now taking the Digi In Deep at Jessica Sprague's website. If you are looking to learn digital her site is the place to go. I've wanted to learn photoshop for several years now and finally took the plunge. It's fun, but it is also frustrating for me. It's one of those programs where you have to constantly practice so that you don't forget what you've learned. It is also extremely complex, but it's amazing what you can do with it. So without further ado, here are my latest digi layouts. This layout is from November of last year when we planted some bushes and trees at the house. Caleb really enjoyed digging in the dirt! The first page is a straight copy of the layout that Jessica does in the first lesson:


The second page was our challenge page for this lesson. It took me forever to complete just because I have a hard time envisioning what I wanted it to look like. The circle shapes kind of throw me off. I'm just not good at incorporating them into my layouts, but I think it turned out ok.


List of supplies:
defining flowers and lumiere papers, journaling strip (red)-jen wilson
hemp tie, King Me Paper, -katie pertiet
dd wise-a la mode flourish
tag-Linda GB
barcelona button 2-lynng
funky vintage frame-NRJ
the house-hardwood 3 (blue paper)-tjd-kuwtj

Snow, snow, and more snow!

I felt a bit like a kid yesterday when I saw that it was snowing. Caleb had his Valentine's Day party at school yesterday so we headed for his school yesterday morning. All the way to school he kept saying, "It's snowing! Hooray!" I'm glad he shares my enthusiasm for snow. I hung out at his school so that I could be there for his class party. There are only 5 kids in his class, so it didn't take long to pass out the their Valentines. I headed out after the party to get a few things done and then got the call that they were going to do an early release because of all of the snow.

On our way home I told him that when we got home that we would play out in the snow. I got another rendition of "It's snowing and we get to play in it. Hooray!" So, we got home and the search began for all of our snow clothes. Luckily we had just been skiing so they were fairly easy to find. We got all bundled up and headed out. Several of our neighbors were out too, and Caleb was excited that his buddy Matthew was outside playing. Caleb had said that he wanted to make a snowman, so I started building one. I've never had the experience of just rolling a snowball and rolling it around to make a big ball, but this snow worked that way. In fact, when I was making the middle ball for my snowman, it got so big that I ended up making it the base of a second snowman. John got home and he helped me get the snowman put together. We started our search to outfit the snowman. We used rocks for his face, and sticks for his arms. Caleb started getting excited at that point and said that our snowman looked like Frosty. John found the snowman a hat, and when he put the hat on our snowman Caleb asked if the snowman was going to come to life! Too funny. He really got into the Frosty the Snowman song this Christmas.

Here's Caleb just as we got outside!

And here he is perched on the makings of our snowman.

And here we are with "Frosty"!


Then in true Jones family tradition, John hooked up a sled to the four wheeler and took Caleb and the neighborhood kids sledding. When I was a kid, my Dad would do the same for us. Caleb had a blast with the sledding. If we had done it all night, I don't think that he would have gotten bored with it.

We did finally come in for a while to warm up. I got dinner started and after some hot cocoa and marshmallows John and Caleb headed out for another round of snow fun. This time they headed out to the back yard where Caleb discovered that his fort was covered in snow. What do you do when your slide is covered in snow? Well, you slide down it, of course. Caleb was fascinated with sliding down and landing in the snow. Then Caleb and John decided it would be funny to come knock at the door and try to peg me with a snowball when I opened it. Caleb would get so tickled that he could hardly stand. Then I'd shut the door and open it again and he'd have another giggling fit. After being out for quite a while John told him that they probably needed to come in. Caleb said, "I'm sorry Dad, but I'm having too much fun to go inside."

This morning when we got up Caleb was very anxious to go out again. We actually have received record snowfall amounts and got more than a foot of snow. Caleb played on the slide some more and then I put him on the trampoline that was covered in snow. He was just amazed at it all. He got to play some more with Jacob and Matthew and he and Jacob had a snow ball fight. Caleb was cool with that until some snow went under his shirt. I didn't see it happen and he started saying, "My tummy hurts!" Then I realized it was the snow that was just freezing him. He also ate plenty of snow. Every time he fell down he would lay in the snow and lick it. He kept saying that it tasted like ice cream. He is so funny. After we were out for a while we came inside to warm up and to get some lunch. I asked Caleb what he wanted to eat and he said "marshmallow lasagna." I told him that I didn't know how to make marshmallow lasanga, and asked him how to make it. He said that you get some marshmallows, put some cheese on them, stir it in a circle and then add some chocolate. Sounds like a lovely combo, but those are three of his favorites.

Check out how deep it was.

My little snow eater

John made it home from work and helped Caleb make a snow fort. Then of course they had to have a snowball fight. Caleb can't ever get anyone because he's laughing so hard when you get him.

We have definitely enjoyed the snow, and I know Caleb will be sad to see it go.

A few layouts

Well, this is some sort of record for me. I don't think I've ever finished scrapping a trip so quickly. I don't get much of an opportunity to scrapbook snow pages, so I pulled out all the snow themed embellishments I've collected over the years and my Aspen paper packet from Close To My Heart and went to town. I ended up using a lot of old stuff from my stash and that felt good too. The metal letters on this first layout I bought at Joann's years ago on clearance and finally used some of them. The journaling on all the layouts are basically the blog entries
I made about the trip, just tweaked a little. While my new hero may be the queen of simple scrapping, I don't know if I can make that leap. I like adding a bit of bling to keep things interesting, but that's the great thing about scrapping. They are your pages and you can make them any way you like.

The layout below is from Christmas 2008. I used the It's a Guy Thing paper packet from CTMH. This layout took forever, but I like the way it turned out.