Halloween fun

We had a great time trick or treating last week for Halloween. It was so warm here. Plus staying up late was fun for them since it wasn't a school night.

Where has the time gone????

So...I've totally been MIA the past several weeks! I started a new project (with the IT consulting company I'm with now) in downtown Dallas at Blockbuster's HQ and things have been crazy. My part time job has pretty much become full time. I finished the first project and they've asked me to stay on and take on a new project so I guess it's going to be like this for awhile! The good news is that with the extra $$ I'm treating myself to a new camera! Right now I'm looking at a Canon 40D Digital SLR. My dad just gone one and I really like it. Plus we'll be able to share lenses so that's cool too.

The last several weeks have been busy with the kids activities - soccer, cheerleading, flag football and cub scouts, plus homework. Busy, busy. See some of the fun pics below.

We also celebrated the kids bdays a couple weeks back - on the same weekend. That was crazy!!

I'm going to try to stay more current with my posts!!

It's done!!!

Finally.....it's taken a while, but I just finished our summer vacation album. I can't wait to see it printed as a Photobook. Thanks so much to Susan Catmull that let me know that our TLC photobooks are expiring soon so I got it done ASAP!

...sniff...sniff....

It's finally here...the first day of school. We dropped off Jake (2nd grade) and Paige (Kinder) this morning. Jake was excited to see his friends and was completely fine. Paige was really quiet as we were waiting in the cafeteria. When we got to the classroom she did great putting up her lunch box and backpack. She even gave her teacher the cute little desk calendar I made (see image below) and posed for pictures. Then as we were getting ready to leave she started crying and kept asking me to stay a little big longer. I started getting teary-eyed too so wasn't much help consoling her. I think she'll be fine once the class gets started. Plus she'll get to see one of her good friends at recess so they will be good too.


I wasn't like this with Jake, but I guess it's different when it's your baby! I wasn't the only red-eyed mom this morning! Now I'm sitting at home trying to figure out what to do with my day! Lots of things on my list, but I've just been taking it easy so far this morning chatting on the phone and downloading pictures.




Here are a few from this morning -

Click image for credits

My cute cub scout

Jake has joined cub scouts this year and they have a popcorn fundraiser that has just begun. So yesterday we walked around the neighborhood and sold some popcorn. He was a little shy at first, but he had a pretty good sales pitch by the time we were finished. He wants to go again tonight - which I was really surprised by. Tom suggested that maybe we need to explain that the money is for the boy scouts...he doesn't get to keep it! LOL! That could be part of the excitement!!

Star Wars Fanatic!

Well, I took Jake and a couple friends to see Star Wars the Clone Wars this afternoon while Paige was at a bday party. He has been counting down the days ever since he saw the first trailer for the movie. All three boys were totally engrossed and I even liked it (of course I've always been a Star Wars fan too!) I heard it's kicking off an animated series that will be on Cartoon Network in the fall so I'm sure we'll be TIVO'ing that series so it can be watched over and over and over!!

We're heading to the Great Wolf Lodge tomorrow with friends from Oklahoma. It's a huge hotel and indoor waterpark. Really looking forward to one more summer blast before school kicks off on the 25th!

The kiddos were in Oklahoma earlier this week with their grandparents so I got a little idea what it's going to be like since both will be in school this year. It was so quiet! I think I'm going to be emotional the first day...but will likely recover soon to enjoy more free time!!

I watched a LOT of Olympics this week and did some more scrapping on our vacation album. I've finished 50 pages so far...with only the zoo, the beach, and a few pages about our hotel left to scrap. This will definitly be a printed as a Photobook! I've still got several books left from TLC account to use up. Can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll wait and load a slideshow once it's all done!

It's starting...

I've so enjoyed this summer, with a more relaxed schedule, but it's quickly coming to an end. The kids are in soccer camp this week and both start soccer practice with their teams this week. Jake had tryouts for flag football tonight and Paige is going to do cheerleading for the same league. Those practices will be starting in a couple weeks. Shew!! I'm helping plan my 20 year high school reunion coming up in Sept so that's going to be busy too, but looking forward to it.

I've been a scrapping fool this past week working on our vacation photos. Once I'm done I'll post a slideshow. Using lots of templates, which I love! It's really turning out cute.

More title pages...

Another couple 'title' pages for my San Diego Vacation Book -

Wild Animal Park Layout

Here's a layout from our San Diego vacation. I'm planning to make a Photobook and have sections for each different park using a different kit for each park. I'll use this same template for the beginning of each section as a header page. Click for credits.

Layouts based on Krystal's Designs

My guest CT spot for Krystal Hartley is coming to a close in a few days. I got behind on posting my layouts to my blog so here are a few.... Click images for credits.

Sunkissed kit -

Ooh La La kit -

My Piano Room kit -

Thanks Krystal for having me as a guest member this month it was a blast!!

Texas Born...Texas Bread

Texas Born...Texas Bread is one of the slogans for Mrs. Baird's Bread. A popular brand here in Texas. Yesterday the kids and I went with the Spence's for a tour of their Ft. Worth bread factory. It was really interesting and we received samples of bread hot out of the oven. YUMMMMMY! You should have seen us in our hair nets and hard hats....totally hilarious!

Here's a few facts (so if I decide to scrapbook this I'll remember - even though they wouldn't allow any cameras inside :( )....

• Their oven can cook 2000 loaves at once
• They have 6 factories in Texas
• This is their 100th year - Mrs. Baird started selling bread in 1908.
• They make 5 million loaves a month and 60 million per year.
• They run their shifts 24x7.
• They have a metal detector as part of the assembly line just in case something accidentally gets into the dough.
• It takes 7 hours to create one loaf from beginning to end.
• They make Wendy's hamburger buns, as well as the 'store brands' for Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Albertson's with slightly different ingredients.
• Mrs. Baird's story

Very interesting and very fun!

A few more pics from San Diego

Back from Vacation!

We returned late Thursday night from San Diego. What a wonderful vacation! We visited Legoland, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. Plus spent some time swimming at the pool and at the beach. It was very fun! A great family vacation. I'm finally caught up with laundry and cleaning the house. Ready to do some scrapping now!

Here are just a few of my fave photos (I took over 600...yikes!!!)

I had Jan Pepe (and her friend Vicki D) help book my trip and it was really great. They got us some great deals at our hotel (free breakfast buffet every morning and valet parking) which saved us over $300. I highly recommend having a travel agent book your trip! Let me know if you need contact information!!

Summer Fun at the Circus

Here's a layout with Krystal Hartley's Moody Hues: energetic kit with our picture from the circus a couple weeks back.

Niagara Falls State Park

Here's one of my first creations for Krystal's design team. It was fun to make!

Click image for credits

Toothless Grin

I whipped up this page using a freebie template from Shelley Moore! You can check it out at her blog. I really like this one! She did a great job! I'm LOVING these templates. They rock!!

Click image for credits.

Improvement, I think!

I just finished re-doing the Popsicle layout (created in Memory Mixer) I posted a couple days ago, in PSE using drop shadows. I think it looks much better!! I'm just using the default 'Low' shadow, but would like to figure out how to do custom shadows as I think I'd prefer a grayer shadow instead of the black on this page.


I'm liking PSE more and more!

1st PSE template

Well, it's definitely not my favorite layout (I think the papers I used are a little too busy), but I created my first layout in Photoshop Elements using a template. These things rock! I can see my digital library expanding soon!!!

Credits:

Kit - Gidget by Dani Mogstad

Template - 8x8 TripTych Layout #1 by Bree Clarkson from Sweet Shoppe Designs

CT Guest Member!

Woo hoo! I found out yesterday that I was one of the lucky ones picked to be a guest Creative Team member for Krystal Hartley. Woo hoo! I'm so excited! Of course, most of the people reading this blog probably know all about her 'awesomeness', but if you don't go check her out!!

Well, yesterday I took the plunge. I started working on some Photoshop Element Tutorials. I didn't like the way my Popsicle Page below turned out because the kit doesn't have drop shadows on the elements and in Memory Mixer it didn't add shadows correctly to the elements in this kit (it looks like a box instead of following the lines of the element.) So I decided it was time to give PSE a whirl!

I found a great site with TONS of tutorials - both written and video - Hummie's World. I liked this because it started at the basics and then goes into more detailed topics. Plus the written tutorials are much faster to go through, but if there is a topic that's confusing it's nice to be able to see the video and exactly how she's doing something. She also has them broken up so you can skip around some of the more advanced topics and pick and choose what you want to do. You have to register to access the tutorials (free registration). I think all the written ones are free, but to access the video tutorials it's $5.50 a month. She even has several video 'previews' you can watch as a sample before you pay.

** Update ** Krystal send me a couple links to some other great sites for tutorials. I've looked at a few on Misty Cato's site and these are great too!

Misty Cato
http://www.mistycatodesigns.blogspot.com/

Jessica Sprague
http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/

I spent about 3 hours last night and got through a lot of the basics. I learned how to add the drop shadows, cut paper (like select a shape or text and then 'cut' that selection out of patterned paper - I've been wanting to know how to do this forever!!), use a template, etc...

I'm still struggling with some of the selection tool stuff, but I think more practice will help! I'm going to try to re-create that Popsicle Page below with shadows. At this point I'm not ready to switch over from MM to PSE for every page, since I'm soooooo slow, but there are so many more artistic things you can do in Photoshop!!

Off to go get the kids off the couch and out for a bike ride before it gets too hot!!

Oh - I did find out that I didn't make Eva Kipler's CT team, she said she had 150 people register. Yikes!! I should have requested a guest spot instead of perm and maybe that would have helped. But oh well, I can focus on Krystal's designs this way!! LOL!

Summer fun - Swimmin' and Scrappin'

We had a nice family weekend. Tom had off on Friday so we spent the day at the Hawaiian Falls Waterpark. We got lucky and with a $5 raffle ticket won a free cabana for the day, and pizza and drinks. It was awesome! I was so bummed I hadn't brought my camera. I even checked out their little shop and they didn't sell waterproof cameras. Bummer! Jake was a total daredevil!

Saturday we just vegged most of the day and then went to the city pool for an evening swim sponsored by the kids' elem school. It was fun seeing everyone from the school.

Today I cleaned out the garage with the kids helping (supposedly!) and then we made up water balloons for a backyard water balloon fight. Nice lazy day! Tom's going in on Thursday for a steroid shot to help out his back so he can't take any muscle relaxers now so he wasn't up for cleaning the garage. I sooooo hope that this shot helps him. He's been in pain for so long.

I've also spent some time scrapbooking this weekend. I decided to try out for a couple creative teams (crossing my fingers!) - Krystal's and Eva Kipler. In order to do this I created a gallery on Digital Shop Talk. I'm totally psyched about this site now. Love all the layouts...they are great inspiration and I love the fact you can save layouts to your 'Faves'. It's really a great site! Thanks for getting me going on this Krystal!!!

For you DST'ers out there - a couple questions -

1. Is there an easy way to add a hyperlink in the comments section when you upload your photo?

2. Where do you add a photo of yourself to your profile (that shows up on your posts)?

** Update - never mind - figured this one out! **

Here are some of my recent pages (plus a few older ones I've never uploaded) -