A busy month

May has been a really busy month for us. Even at 3 Caleb has a lot of end of the year school stuff going on. I was in charge of the teacher appreciation luncheon at his school this year so I had that to deal with as well as a myriad of Mother's Day projects. I made this for my mom for Mother's Day. I thought it would be something that would be really useful for her as she keeps a lot of cards on hand for various occasions. Each page is a pocket page that she can store her cards in. I sewed the pockets on the paper so that the cards wouldn't get stuck in the glue-I learned that the hard way ;0) I thought that this would allow her to keep them organized as well as give her a place to write down all the dates she needs to remember. The papers are all from Close To My Heart and are from the Key To My Heart set from last year. I love this paper. All the elements and stamps are also CTMH.














This has also been an enlightening month. I've learned a lot this month-some good, some bad, but enlightening nonetheless. I'll be making some changes based on these revelations and we'll see what we see. Speaking of learning, my photography class, "Oh Shoot", ended last week and was a great experience. I learned a lot and hope to continue to improve my photography. I took my friend's daughters out and did a surprise photo shoot of them for her for Mother's Day. The pictures turned out great and she was thrilled. I need to see if I can get her permission to post them, because I'd love to show them off. It was nice to do a photo shoot where I didn't have to coax and cajole the subjects to do what I'd like. But, I would hope that teenagers would be a bit more cooperative than a fiesty 3 year old....

That's all for now. I have lots more to say, but it will have to wait for another day.

Sweet Summertime

My favorite digi designer has an all new paper and digi line coming out May 1st called Sweet Summertime. If you leave her a comment on her blog by April 27th you have the chance to win this adorable kit in either digi or paper. This line is too cute. I love it. You can visit her blog at http://www.creativitybycrystal.blogspot.com/ and be sure to look for the layout by yours truly on her blog.

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