Saturday, June 17, 2006

The Tale of the Invisible Layouts

I don't know about you...but I am a praise JUNKIE. I LOVE to get comments on my layouts in the galleries. If the "My Photos" button actually existed in the real world, mine would have the letters worn off by now.

In the past week or so, I have created 7 new layouts... but I can't post them in the gallery! They are for the e-zine that I write for Ready-Set-Create, so they can't be posted to online galleries until after the issue comes out (which in this case, is August). Talk about delay of gratification! Jennifer, the owner and editor, always tells me how fab they are when I send them in... but it's just not the same. And the worst part of it is, by the time I CAN post them in the galleries, I forget that I have made them, and they STILL go unposted and unpraised. They are my invisible layouts.

So here's what I need you to do...go buy a subscription to Ready-Set-Create... it's like $2 an issue, and then email me and tell me how wonderful all my layouts are! LOL, just kidding! But seriously, grab a copy of the mag, it ROCKS and is FULL of digital, traditional, and Jen-coined tra-digital scrapbooking, plus recipes, and lots of other stuff. And if you get the June/July issue...I made that cover...WHOO HOOO! Go me!

and let me just add a men...ugh... just because.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

I can spill!

OK I gave you a sneak peek a while back of....

My kit for the Digital Freebies Club this month! YAY!! Whoo hooo! hoooray!

Here it is, called Fruit Smoothie


I did a layout using it of my "nephew" Radek...he's just the cutest little thing...


It's raining...again... I swear if this rain doesn't stop the contractor will NEVER start on my house...and then he'll NEVER be finished!! ARGH!

That's all I have to say for today! Go make some comments on layouts, and make someone's day brighter!!!

Friday, June 02, 2006

Where I’ve come from… or why I don’t paper scrap any more

I had to post a layout at scrapbook.com that I did using one of Jeanine Baechtold’s kits (called Softly Summer, available at www.computerscrapbook.com), and I had one other layout in my gallery there...it was one of the only paper scrapping layouts I had ever fininshed... and OMG it's AWFUL! Funny thing is the reason it's there is because I had entered it into a contest (gasp), I didn't win...big shock LOL.



Anywho, this was my creativity level when I was paper scrapping. Everything is perfectly lined up, all mats are perfectly even, which is fine, but it's BORING. There are 2 clips on each photo, on opposite corners. Journaling was printed on the computer as was the title, on a long strip of cardstock. The “embellishment” consisted of a large disco ball diecut a friend gave to me. The photos weren’t zoomed in or cropped at all, they were the exact snapshots that came home from the photo developers, that came right out of one of the disposable cameras we had on the tables at the wedding. Could this layout BE any more boring??? I haven’t re-scrapped these photos (mainly because they are currently attached to that layout, and not in my computer. But seeing this layout gave me a little push to re-scrap some of these old layouts (that being like what…5 or so that I actually finished…each as boring as the next…). I know I know, scrapbooking is about the memories, not about the art on the page. But here’s the thing…those layouts will never be seen. They are stuck in a plastic sleeve in my basement, they’re not even in an album…and even if they were, there would be like 5 pages to flip through and you’d be done! So I am going to scan in those photos and re-scrap them…who knows, maybe I can do it soon and give Dad a Disco Daddy-O layout for Father’s Day

Foil that layout with this one, recently published in Ready Set Create!


Credits: Jasbeanie's Cocktail of Surprises kit

Everything is still lined up, lots of straight lines here, but it's exciting! Inviting...Interesting! My scrapbooking has changes worlds since I started doing digital a little over a year ago, and I am so glad I have a medium that allows me to express my creativity that is in my head. And hopefully other people like to look at it too!

Who knows...maybe I'll actually win the next contest I enter!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Did ya ever have one of those days...???

I thought today was going to be AWESOME! Piper slept in until 6:30 (yes, that's sleeping in as of late), she was happy and playful this morning. So we headed out to the grocery store to pick up a few things. It was hot when we came home, so I parked the car in the driveway, left it running with the AC on, took my house key off the key ring, and brought the groceries inside (can you see where this is heading yet??). I put her down for a nap, and she slept for 2 hours, YIPPEE. When she got up we had lunch, and headed out to Michaels (for basket-wrapping supplies for the bridal shower on Saturday) and Marshalls (for shoes and a dress for me for the wedding). Had fun at Michaels...was totally shocked that the total was only $20, as since I am usually buying stamps and jewlery making supplies when I am there, which, apparently, are considerably more expensive than a few sale silk flowers, floral foam, basket plastic bag, and a roll of ribbon LOL. Piper started getting fussy, so I decided on a super quick run around Marshalls, as I wasn't really expecting to find anything anyways. She got fussier in Marshalls, and I gave her a cookie, then she wanted some juice (reminds me of a book...). The guy checking me out couldn't get the dress that I found for Piper off the hanger, but I was trying to hold her sippy cup and swipe my credit card, so I was in no position to help, and he just stuffed the whole thing in the bag, hanger and all. No shoes or dress for me, but a dress and book for Piper, and we were off for home. The sky is getting blacker and blacker as we drive home, and the temperature is dropping. I get home, get all the stuff out of the trunk, run out to the street to get the mail (Scrapbook Answers...yay), and come back to go into the house put hte stuff down and get Pip, and lo and behold, my house key is not on my keyring. BLAST! I left it on the countertop. So I grab my cell and dial Dan, as the rain starts. Yes, I have locked myself out of the house, in a burgeoning thunderstorm, with a baby who needs to nurse, and doesn't want to be held in the humidity. Dan hasn't left work yet, so he's 30 min away. Thinking that Holly (MIL) would probably be closer, and has a spare key, I call her. And she's going to come rescue us. I call Dan back and say no hurry your mom's coming. He says, she drives too slow, I'll be there before she is, and then we'll be stuck with her all night. Good point. So I called her back and told her that I got ahold of Dan and he was closer (lie...but necessary). I pulled a lawn chair up onto the covered side porch, and nursed the baby as the rain started pouring. And then the thunder and lightning started. OK so I'm not a big fan of thunderstorms when I am safe in my house. I am LESS fond of them when I am locked out of my house, with my baby in tow. So once she was fed, we hopped in the car, and drove around listening to Laurie Berkner, until Dan got home. Unloaded Pip, and my purchases, and started on dinner. While digging through the cupboard for the orzo I bought and Dan put away (in the wrong place), I elbowed a jar of baby food and sent it hurtling towards the floor. CRASH! And there's baby food and glass all over the floor, and I'm in bare feet. Figures. So I clean up the area around the stove and cupboard, find the orzo, open the box, and spill some of that on to the floor. Well at least I needed to sweep anyways... Dump the orzo into the boiling water and continue to clean up the orzo/baby food/glass. Forgot to turn down the burner and the pan boiled over. Turned on the light to look and see if I got all the glass, and I blew out a bulb. I am like a walking disaster film tonight!

So I think I am going to bed early tonight, for fear of what else will happen if I stay up.

On my seemingly never ending search for a dress for BILs wedding I have found something that I like. My dilemma...
1. 9:30 am wedding in July = my outfit should be semi-casual
2. DH is best man and in a tux = my outfit should be dressy
3. wedding colors are fushia and burnt orange = I am going to be in photos, and can't clash with this color scheme

So I keep going back and forth between a dressy dress, and a more casual top and skirt. PLUS with my current "milk truck" chest, and not-back-to-pre-baby-size bottom half, I am 2 different sizes... So every dress I think I like, I then feel like it's probably too dressy, and every skirt set I think I like, I then feel is too casual. I found this one the other day in Chadwicks catalog:

Is it too casual? Is it going to make my bottom half look larger than it actually is? Is it too casual? I am so at a loss as to what to wear to this wedding. It wouldn't be an issue if I wasn't going to be in the photos...I'd just wear whatever. I have been to lots of weddings and never really gave my dress a second thought. But my SIL looks RIDICULOUS in our wedding photos. My colors were pastels, it was an evening wedding, and she wore a very casual pants set in dark turquoise blue. I don't want to be that person in someone elses photos.

I have been seriously considering making myself something (or my mom offered to make it for me). That way I could make a different sized top and bottom, and get everything fit the way I need it. But that's a lot of effort for something that is going to be worn once...especially when it's not my wedding and I'm not standing up in it. I just don't know.

Alrighty, enough blathering, time to put Pip to bed!