Happy Digital Scrapbooking Day!

I know I'm doing some shopping today, what about you???? Oh, and even though the stuff in my store is old, I went ahead and put everything on sale for 50% off until Tuesday November 9th. Enjoy your day shopping and scrapping!!!!

Happy Halloween!

For those that celebrate Halloween, I want to send out good wishes for a safe, fun and ghoulishly scary day! I happen to be one of those people that rates Halloween right up there as my favorite holiday! If I didn't have young kids, I would spend the day watching a scary movie marathon eating roasted pumpkin seeds and working on something creative. However, I DO have young kids (still sleeping at the moment) that are sooooo excited to go Trick-or-Treating tonight they can hardly stand it. They don't know what they're going to do to make the time pass today. We will carve pumpkins at some point and I will roast the seeds but beyond that, I haven't decided. For dinner we will pick up a Jack-O-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's and then junk ourselves out on candy right before bed! Who wouldn't love this day, lol!

CREDITS: Tricky Treat doodles by Kate Hadfield

Denver Zoo Animals!

Saturday, October 9th I had the pleasure of going on an "Early Morning Photo Safari" at the Denver zoo! I've often wanted to spend some time taking photos of the animals so when I saw this opportunity in the Zoo newsletter, I signed right up. I often take my boys to the zoo and have lots of snapshots of the animals but I wanted to try out my new Sigma 50-500mm OS lens and get up close and personal with the animals. Since it's a big lens and heavy(4lbs) I borrowed a monopod from a friend and loved it. I will probably purchase one a some point.
It was just me with 24 other people and we had the zoo to ourselves for 2 hours before it opened to the public with that golden morning light! We had the choice of going out on our own or following the Zoo's photographer, Dave Parsons. I started out with the group but ended up lagging behind and being pretty much on my own. Since I love to photograph birds I was hoping to come home with a lot more bird photos than I ended up with but 6 hours and 600 photos later I was too exhausted (and starving) by the time I got to Bird World. I WILL go back again and the next time I will hit the birds first! I did come across a few birds that I blogged about over at Calico's Nest.
As a "still learning" photographer, I take way more bad photos than good ones but I'm proud of the progress I'm making so far. Yes, part of it has to do with having nice (and expensive!) equipment but I've learned other important things such as capturing catchlights (or eye glints) in the eyes. I REALLY tried to focus on that in these pictures but the light and the animals were not always cooperative. Catchlights bring life to a face. I still struggle with composition. I TRY to get good composition when I take the shot however, I usually always have to crop the photo post- op to get the composition better. Another thing I struggle with is metering. Most of the photos I deleted were victims of over or underexposure. Still struggling with that one so I have no advice to offer. Below, I've posted a few pics I took but if you would like to see all my favorites from the day, you can view them HERE! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Kayla!

Kayla

My sweet, fluffy-muffin, furry-girl celebrated her 13th birthday today! The boys put together a nice little party for her complete with wrapped dog treats in hand-made birthday paper and a banner with her name on it. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her while she ripped open her treats. No pictures of the party since it all happened so fast but I did make her suffer through a photo shoot with a pumpkin just because she's always a willing participant! Eventually I'll make a scrapbook page of these :)

Time for a blog re-design and re-direction!

I've decided to switch gears with this blog so you may notice some changes coming soon. First I'm going to change the name. When I first created this blog I did so as a means to share the digital scrapbook kits I designed. Well, those of you who have followed me since those early days have come to realize that I haven't created anything new for probably a year or so. Life became more demanding and I never was one for organizing my time well. I always felt my designing time was too limited for me to be creative. I lost my designing mojo and sadly, it never returned :( Plus, I missed scrapping! Designing took away all my scrapping time.
I now use this blog primarily to share my digital layouts...infrequent as they may be. I've been thinking that since my interests change often I want this blog to reflect whatever it is I may feel like blogging about. Hence the decision to give this old blog a new direction. It will soon become a place for me to share anything I happen to be involved in at any given time. Some examples may include, craft projects, photography, homeschooling adventures, my dog, my boys, scrapbooking layouts (of course!) and anything I find interesting enough to pass along. So, that being said, I hope if you subscribe to this blog you will continue to do so and if it no longer interests you, I'll totally understand!!!! As a side note, my store is still up and running with all my old kits.

First Theater Movie Layout!

The boys will be 6 and 8 this summer and I finally took them to see a movie in the theater and in 3D no less! I don't know what they enjoyed more, the big screen, the 3D effect, the movie itself, or the snacks! It was fun but I ended up with a big old headache after and felt a little motion sickness the rest of the day from the 3D. I will take Dramamine next time :)

Credits: Kit- Movie Night Collab by Holly Designs and Kate Hadfiled! Adorable kit!!

Layouts to share!

It seems that once I joined Flickr, I started neglecting my blogs! I need to remember to do both so I'm doing some catch-up posting today. I have done a few layouts since I last posted in Feb but not as many as I would like. Enjoy!

Credits:
Kit-Brain Freeze-Connie Prince
Cluster frames by Gunhild Storeide



Credits:
Template 159- Yin Designs
Kit and Alpha-Grungy Athlete(colors altered) by Calico's Digital Designs
Green paper-Misty Cato-Thanksgiving Solids
Font- Stencil Std



Credits:
Template-2 many photos 1 by Janet Philips
Kit- Recess by Heather Roselli
Alpha- Backyard Explorer by GET Designs
Stitching- Pixie stitches by Wendy Page



Credits:
Template 190 by Yin Designs
Doodles by Kate Hadfield
Paper and Ribbons-Sunrise Sorbet by Elie Lash

Valentine Skate Party

We decided at the last minute to go to a Valentine Skating party hosted by Hunter's online school. Before we left, the boys signed their Valentine's and made some boxes for the contest. While there, they had fun doing the Limbo, passing out valentines and looking at all the creative boxes made by the other kids! When we got home, they emptied their boxes and looked at their loot!

Credits:
-Template 93-Yin designs (freebie)
-Heart border-Lindsay Jane
-Background paper-ksharonkdesigns
Doodles-Kate Hadfield
Font-Oh(photo)Shoot!

Valentine Dog

Happy Valentine's Day! Of course I had to bug Kayla while she was trying to take a nap! She didn't care too much, she's used to my props by now and such a good sport about it! ;)

Credits:
-Paper and frame quickpage-ksharonkdesigns
-Black border-digiscrap.ch
-Wired heart-Delicious Scraps
-Font-Angelina

Pizza Night

Just a fun layout I did of our favorite night of the week! Friday night...pizza, dessert and movie night (sometimes game night)!


Credits:
Template 159 -Yin Designs
Kit- Pass the Pepperoni by Misty Cato

Cowboys!

After we got back from the stock show, Hunter and Riley transformed into cowboys for a few days!

Credits:
-Kit- Little Buckaroos by SMJ
-Lifted frames-Yin Designs
-Font Outlaw

Credits:
-Kit- Little Buckaroos by SMJ
-Blue paper-Backyard Exsplorer by GET Designs
-Black strip-Sturdy Solids by Shawna Clingerman
-Lifted frames-Yin Designs
-Font Outlaw

Year Of Kayla

While doing Project 365 in 2009, I managed to snap a photo of Kayla each month (and then some!) In these photos, she's 11 - 12 years old!

Layout Credits:
What a Hoot quickpage(freebie)-Sweet Blossom Designs (slightly altered).

Breckenridge Flowers

Last summer(2009) while RV-ing at Tiger Run Resort in Breckenridge, CO I photographed these lovely flowers!

Layout Credits:
-Template-2 Many Photos 6 -Janet Phillips
-Sweet Envy kit-Scrapmalin
Every Life Alpha-JM Designs

Brothers Layout

On our way back from our daily walk, the boys were deep in imagination with their swords. Hunter grabbed Riley's hand to keep him from falling in the smoldering lava and bring him safely home!

Credits:
-Background paper- by Rainbow: Cluster frame- by Lottchen: Stitching-from Falalala kit by Fruit Loop Sally and Kate Hadfield: Quote-The scrapping Sisters: All other embellishments from Shabby Orchard by Misty Cato

Ice-Skating/Gingerbread Event

COVA (Hunter's online school) hosted and Ice-skating party / gingerbread contest. This was the first time on ice-skates for the boys and they loved it!
Credits:Template #73-Yin Designs: Kit-Frosty Flurries-Pamela Donnis: Ice skate doodle-Bundle Up by SMJ & Kate Hadfield: Gingerbread Doodles- Cookies for Santa by Kate Hadfield: Fonts- Chubble and Dupree

Christmas Day 09 Layouts!

I managed to fit Christmas day in 3 2-page layouts thanks to Yin's templates. I Love them! It always seems so daunting to scrap big events but I just took my favorite photos that tell the story and got it done. I really tried to not use every photo I took. If it wasn't a good photo, I deleted it. Now, I would love to go back and scrap last year's Christmas this way!

Credits: Template 167(slightly altered) by Yin Designs: Kit-Falalala collab by Kate Hadfield and Fruit Loop Sally; Alpha- Funky Junky Old School by Kate Hadfield. Top Layout also has Sparkle snowflakes fro Weeds and Wildflowers-Jolly Holiday; Scalloped edge-Jen Caputo: Stiching by Misty Cato.

Cookies for Santa

This is the only picture I took on Christmas eve this year!

Credits:
Frame by Yin Designs
Swirls by Kari Q
Paper and Holly from Kate Hadfiled's Falalala kit
Number title-Funky Junky Old School Alpha by Kate Hadfield
All other doodles-fromCookies for Santa by Kate Hadfield

New Year's Eve 09/10

We rang in the new year at home, just the 4 of us and it was perfect! The boys had no problem at all staying up until midnight and then some! We watched a movie, played a game of Phase 10, ate pizza, brownies and popcorn and watch the ball drop at Times Square. At midnight we went out on the front porch with our hats and noisemakers and contributed to the noise and fireworks echoing through the night air!

I hope you all enjoyed the start to the new year!

Credits: Cluster frame by KimB
Paper-Waiting to happen by mgl designs
Title-Elegant Wordart by Bethany
Everything else form Midnight Kiss freebie by Bren Boone
Font-BoyzRgross
Custom Shadow layer styles by Kristen Rice

Hand-picked Freebies!!!

Just wanted to spread the word to those of you who love a good scrapping freebie! In case you didn't know, Ikea Goddess has retired from freebie hunting and my friend Christie aka Digital Daisy has taken on the job! Go visit her sight for the best hand-picked freebies around digi-land!

Digital Daisy's Hand-Picked Freebies

Happy New Year!!!