a pretty loooong while! I looked at the date of my last post here… December 20th… that was LAST YEAR, for crying out loud! 😆 Geez, I didn’t realize it’s actually been that long!

Guess holidays really can make things so hectic that everything else not related to food and partying and food … and did I say food?… seems to fall behind. 😛

But! I’ve missed you, my dear friends! And I’m back with a vengeance so strong, you’ll probably be hoping that I stayed away longer when you see the multiple posts a day come up! hahaha.

First, the good news:

I have heard from wonderful, wonderful Adam J. Lambert-Gorwyn aka stoneraven, whose photo I used to make the shutters plopper… and he has given me permission to go ahead and release the freebie I’ve created!!! WOOHOO!!!

I have not heard from jason gaylor, though, whose japanese foliage brushes I used also on the plopper, so I may have to re-do the plopper with other brushes before I can upload it as a freebie. It will be on for a limited number of downloads, though, so be sure to check back soon! 😉

My first layout for the year!

Something funny happened today. I visited my friend Noel’s blog and I saw her layout for Lain’s L.O.A.D. class at bigpicturescrapbooking.com, which begins January 1st. It’s January 2nd in my part of the world, and I was out of town and up in the mountains for the better part of post-Christmas till New Year (so you will, I hope, find it in your hearts to forgive me for slacking off on my blog these past 10 days or so)… so I had completely forgotten about this! The funny thing is, I had mentioned to Noel that I had signed up for the LOAD class in one of our fun, fun chats between Christmas and New Year… but I had completely forgotten about it till I saw her blog! So with just a couple of hours left till the PST clock matched my time in this part of the world, I was able to complete a layout! YEAH!

Thanks, Noel, my friend, for posting your layout on your blog and mentioning the LOAD class. I would have completely forgotten about it if not for you.

And here is my very first layout for the new year!

 

Journaling below reads:

so funny that my boys have inherited my love for hoodies, but when they’re this cool, who’s complainin’?

CREDITS:

FONTS: Stoned Wash 6; SubPear / Mindy Terasawa – Groovy Boy Papers (Recolored), WordSticker & Staple / Katie Pertiet – On the Edge Flourish, WordSeal / Kim Christensen – DirtyShirt Brad & Eyelet – recolored; Spelling101- Black Inked Overlay / Jen Caputo – PaperTear Template / Brushes: smoke brush by ca-pris; Dot-Round brushes by GoGetADesign

And now… for a few mountain photos!

Love trees… I may not love the lack of dsl speed connections in the mountains, but I certainly loooove the scent of pine trees, the cool blast of wind in the face, and the trees all around!

Here’s a macro shot of the pine trees… such wonderful texture (and such fun playing with my camera!) 
 

Speaking of macro, here’s a bug on the glass door of our villa. Looks kinda like an alien to me… my kids had a blast looking through the camera viewfinder and seeing it UP CLOSE in a big way! (Grossed them out too! Ha! Beats actual holding and handling of the bug for me! 😉 )

Loved taking texture photos, like this wooden bench here.

The wind was blowing so hard, you could actually watch the clouds move across the sky faster than an airplane would.

Here is one of the cabins… to give you a feel of the place 😛

Here’s the spa and lodge, where we check in and check out.

And for my golfing friend Joan, here’s one for you! The view of the golf course–or, more accurately, part of it. (It was really foggy and windy that day, so this is the best I could do with the photos!) 😀

I took the view of the golf course with my lens fully extended to its 200mm length… amazing! I was on top of the mountain by the spa when I took this! Gotta love my beloved lens!!! (AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm DX… the VR is great for those windy days too!)

And that’s the end of today’s film show! 😆

PS. I used Jay Arraich’s matted frames for the photos. You can get them free at his site!

I’m off to do some work on the shutters freebie… and if I don’t run out of energy, I’ll do more freebs for you! Yep, I’ve suffered from my mountain-imposed freebie-creation-diet and can’t wait to get back into feasting on design… all because I want to share more stuff with you, my sweeties!

Have a happy day, and I’ll be back soon! 😉

Happy New Year, and humongous hugs to you, my sweeties!