random thoughts

You know your kids aren’t kids anymore

/ LivE / 2 Comments

when they start asking permission to leave at night and you have to give them a curfew to make sure they come back before it’s light outside. Boohoo. I have two boys growing up! Two weeks ago they went to the concert of Beyonce with their cousins and had a grand time. Last night they went to another cousin’s house and spent the evening playing and “hanging out.”

Gosh, makes me wonder… what did we do to hang out when we were their age? ( Geez, seems like so long ago) Oh, now I remember: I used to “hang out” with my favorite cousin, and we’d read books, occasionally dipping into cookies and sipping on milk… I seriously doubt, though, that that’s what my boys are doing 😆

Half of me is amused and proud to see them growing into fine boys (who, by the way, do not object to and actually do follow the curfews I set–what can I say, God is so kind to me); the other half of me wants to say “hey, no, don’t grow up too fast; stay and pull on my apron strings a bit longer.” But of course, I let them go. They are boys. I’ve always known the day would come when they would pack their bags and venture out on their own. But show me a mother who doesn’t feel the tug on her heart when that happens and I’ll give you roundtrip tickets to the moon and back. 😀

So those of you with children who still have temporary teeth falling, rejoice!!! You’ve got a couple of good years to go before they start “hanging out” literally out of the bounds of the yard and the home. 🙂 And you just might find some use for the freebs in this kit! 😆

Here’s what’s in Set 3 of the Toof Fairy kit: 3 papers, tamer and less grungified this time (except maybe for the yellow one which I call sweettoof :D) . There’s a yellow brush-striped one and a blue textured paper with green stitches. I think the solid yellow and the blue-stitched one will be useful for those who aren’t visited by the tooffairy anymore 😉

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Toof Fairy Set 3 Preview

There’s a silver commemorative tooth plate; a transparent tooth-shaped thingie which you can use for anything (maybe put a title underneath it? Maybe use it as a frame?) And then there’s a stenciled tooth and a chalk-y tooth: if you layer them on top of each other, they work quite nicely. But in the download I kept them separate in case you would want to use the stencil on the darker papers and the chalk-y one on the lighter papers… or for whatever you want to use them for.

Download Set 3 of the ToofFairy Kit. Zip password is toofsieroll 😆

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with the FINAL set in the Toof Fairy kit, and then we move on to new freebie kits! Woohoo!!! I’m so excited! Hope you are too!

Thank you for the love you leave!

What’s on your Christmas list?

/ LivE / 4 Comments

So I was thinking… you think maybe I should get a mac?

Should I? LOL! 

😆

😆

😆

DISCLAIMER:

Bwahahahahaha… This is purely for laughs. In the first place, I love my desktop and use my laptop only when there is absolutely no other choice but to crawl up the walls in desperation 😛 and in the second place, I love my Windows XP.  Okay, so I am open to a mac, but I am not open to the learning curve. And to the fact that there aren’t a lot of programs yet that work with it. Or maybe I’m just stubborn. Or maybe we should just stop analyzing this. 😆

I’ll shift to  mac the day my dear friend Jessica Sprague shifts to mac. Nuff said. 😛

My dear friend Jun de Leon (who also happens to be my brother-in-law and oh, yeah, he’s just been the top photographer in the Philippines for the past three decades or so…. hehehehe… of course I say that with sisterly pride–and gratitude for all the free family portraits we get! LOL!) has been trying to get me to shift to a mac.

So far… so good for me, not so good for him.

You think I should clone my face and put it on one of these people so he stops the mac-chant with me? 

😆

Did you ever notice…

/ LivE / 4 Comments

how totally cool the mom is on the Starbucks cup?

Sipping on a cup of hot cafe mocha, I happened to look at the Christmas design (did I tell you I find inspiration for digital design in everything, even a street sign? 😛 Now why would a coffee cup be spared my inspection? hahaha ). And there was the requisite happy family in the snow. Dad, son, daughter, even the family dog, and… hello? What was that I was looking at? No apron strings, no headband-in-hair, unh unh. With utter delight my eyes beheld The Mom.

Short spiky hair. M.O.D.E.R.N. Soooo N-O-W.

My kinda gal!

Instant thought bubble: COOOOOOOOL DUDETTE!!!

Of course, I may be biased since I myself have short hair. >teehee<

See, that’s why I’m impressed by Starbucks. They have amazing marketing gimmicks (loooove the packaging… and have you bothered to read the literature at the back of each Tazo teabag? Love it!), and if this cup is any measure of how well they know their market, well, hats off to you, Starbucks ad-men! You just earned another gold star in my coffeebook. 😛

THO, HATH ANYONE THEEN HER?

The toof fairy? Becauth here cometh the thecond thet in the Toof Fairy Therieth!!!  😆

{Click on image for larger view}

LivEdesigns Toof Fairy Set 2

The other day we had the blues, now we have some greens as well! 🙂 There’s a real grungy, scratchy solid paper (looks like it got toothpaste all over it) and a patterned paper filled with teeth. There’s a sticker that says “Mind the Gap” (loved seeing that all over the London tubes);  small and big silver tooth brads; 2 paper journal tags with stitches around them (the blue one is shown in its actual-relative size to the layout and is blank; the green one has lines for journaling–I made it smaller but it comes to you in the same size as the blue tag). Then there are the 7 labels. Download Toof Fairy Set 2. Zip password is thankful (Happy Thanksgiving everyone!)

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

I HEAR YA!!!

I’m pretty excited to start on the Christmas kit, but I think I kind of like intermissions along the way as well (Who doesn’t love surprises?)

So I just wanted you to know:

Mary, I hear you on the celestial boy kit, blues, yellows, moons, stars, the works!

Beth, I hear you on the winter nature kit with birds, snow, grass, evergreen, cardinals, tans, whites, blues, reds…

Anybody else wants anything? Do leave me a note in the comments and I’m sure I’ll be inspired to come up with even a mini kit (or, gasp, a mega kit?) for you!

Have a happy day, my friends! I’ll be back tomorrow with another freeb!

COMING SOON!!!

/ LivE / 5 Comments

It’s been crazy nuts and I know I have been sooooo unforgiveably remiss in being “home” for your visits here… but my compy Wilson has been panting and chugging slowly, trying to keep up with all the designing load and scrapping work I’ve been giving him… Didn’t want him to lose steam and just fizzle out so I’ve been holding out till my wonderful blessing-from-heaven hubby would give me my additional 2 gigabytes of RAM and maybe an extra hard drive?

Have I told you that my dh is the most amazing man in the entire world? I have? Well, let me say it again! Today he came home with my 2gig RAM and 500GB of spanking new hard drive space!!!! Whoooopppppeeeedooooo!!!

Christmas in November! Ladidadida! Do the happy dance with me, my friends! And you do know what this means, don’t you? It means more FREEBIES FINALLY are coming soon!

Woohoo!!! So in the next few days I should be coming up with new stuff to snag! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

((((HUGS))))

Off to get some more work done! 😉 Have a great day, y’all!!!

Will I be able to do this again?

/ LivE / 1 Comment

Last year I went all out and prepared the Halloween treats for my son’s schoolmates who came trick or treating at our place.

 Halloween Treats 2006

Went out and bought all the “healthy” goodies (if by that you mean chocolates and yoghurt milk and cookies 😛 ), printed out a couple of Halloween creatures, made some Happy Halloween tags personalized with each kid’s name, wrapped them up in orange Japanese tissue paper tied with happy plaid ribbons… and watched the kids munch away within two seconds of handing them their halloween pails.

Do I have the energy to do this again this year?

I think not. 😆 Hence my posting this photo here on my blog. As evidence that once upon a time, yes, I did actually make the goodies for my kids. 😆

I think I’ll just work on digitally capturing their Halloween experience on some layouts, is that a good deal? 😆 How ’bout if I just work on a Halloween freebie kit for you??? Can I pass treat-jury-duty this year?

How ’bout you? What are you doing for Halloween this year? (If you’re going to be all creative and amazing with your treats, you’re going to make me cry in guilt!) just kidding of course. I’ll stand up and clap for you till my hands are raw and numb!

Working on more of the Sistah kit, which is fast turning out to be pretty major. Will be back to post the links soon! 🙂

WOOHOO!!! Freebie At Last!

/ LivE / 16 Comments

I am soooo happy!

I have finally begun the freebie kit that I’ve always wanted to work on, in celebration of the friendship and family I have found in Jessica’s awesome playground! This is for all my girlfriends at jessicasprague.com–my darling sistahs from the June class, and our ever-growing family now including our August and October little sistahs! WOOHOO!!! This is for you, my sweeties!!! (And for all those in our worldwide family of digiscrapping addicts as well! 😆 )

This kit is called Swing Out Sistah! and I’d like to thank my dearest friend Jana for saying that she fell in love with a paper-scrapping paper (ha! Is there such a word???) with swings that she saw. Naturally, the wheels in my head started turning. Thought process: hmmm, I’ve always wanted to make a kit in honor of our playground family, and I’ve always wanted to do one with swings ( we always sit and play on virtual ones, right, Deb? 😉 Mine’s the red one and kimi, is yours the yellow?)… so this must be the kick in the butt I need to just go ahead and do it!

I got kicked, and this is what came out of my playtime today:

LivEdesigns Swing Out Sistah Set1

{Click on image for larger view}

This first offering has 3 playful papers, all textured slightly. The blue one, Pond, is just a wee bit grungy on its edges. The green one, Grass, has some grass stains on its sides and a vine design (an image gift from my sis, a bonus for my work on their brochure). The swings you see on the green paper are not part of the paper; they’re actually part of the wordart that I placed on top of the paper. So you get a green medium-solid paper (because its pattern is limited to its perimeter). And the patterned paper below, Swing Out Loud, is a light blue textured paper filled with different colored swings!!! I was trying to decide between wooden swings or tire swings, but I kind of think tire swings, hanging from tree branches, are more reminiscent of those lazy afternoons when the breeze wafts through hair warmed a bit by sunshine… and many stories and secrets are shared among girlfriends amidst giggles and cool lemonade. Aaaah. Such wonderful happy days.

But I digress. Back to the other parts of this freebie. I included a wordart, just one quote, but in three versions: a black-and-white version, a colored version, and a bevelled colored version which you see in the preview. It’s about 6 inches wide but you can resize it easily. Special thanks to Cindy Doerksen and SweetMade for their commercial use items and to haloocyn of stockexchange for the photo inspiration.

This must be one of my absolute fave freebies, though I really can’t tell, because I just love making freebies… so I suppose I like all my freebs, but this one has special meaning–along with the pink ribbons (such touching comments I received for those, I loved reading them)! Download the first set in the SOSistah freebie here. Zip password is 4myGFs Please let me know what you think of it, as this is the first time I’ve ever come up with something so colorful and playful. Any comment you leave, whatever love you leave, on my blog is always, always so appreciated!

ETA: Sorry, download link is no longer available.

Have a great day! And I’ll be back soon with more freebs, so do visit soon!

Now, off to work on my layout for this week’s challenge at Stand Up & Scrap. Have not done a single bit of work on that one. hehe.

PS. My 5-year-old son looked at the preview as he was passing by and said “mom, those look like doughnuts! Or cereal loops!” Yum. Good enough for me. 😆

Life Lessons from a Little Man

/ LivE / 5 Comments

I hastily scribbled down this experience in a little notebook that I keep in my bag. Though I have to admit that sharing this with you might make me look “not so good”, I want to share it with you today. Because a-ha moments like this are too good to be kept to oneself. Hope you like it. 😉

 

The sun rose that morning without a hint that it would bring with it an extraordinary day, one that I would want to remember for a very long time.

 

It was a very ordinary weekday in June, filled with regular routines and more of the common stuff that makes up everyday life. My son and I were riding in our car on the way home from his school. We were going through the familiar route with nothing unusual, our car temporarily waiting out a red stoplight in one of the busy junctions that we normally pass.

There was a greasy hobo with a skullcap on his head, sporting a five o’clock shadow and unkempt clothes, leaning against the cement post under the flyover where our car happened to be idling a few feet away. I wouldn’t have noticed him, really, except that he happened to fancy throwing hand signals our way. Looking straight into the window of our car from about 5 feet away, he gestured animatedly with his hands. What his motions meant, I could not tell.

Life Lessons from a Little ManI chose to ignore his signals. I suspected he might be loony, perhaps more than a little bit off. I looked away, inwardly afraid and anxious for the light to turn green.

He fixed his gaze directly on my precious five-year-old son. A flicker of a smile crossed the rough terrain of his weathered face as he put a crooked finger on his lips, as though he was sharing a secret between just the two of them. Without missing a beat, my son waved and cheerfully called through the closed car window, “Hi!”

As though that was the only invitation he needed, the man limped closer to our car (only then did I notice the crutches supporting him beneath his armpits). Simultaneously, in perfect timing with every stride he made, I pulled my son closer to me, like a mother hen tucking her chick under her protective wing as she watches a wolf lumber close by. Our driver, an old man himself, motioned to the man with the usual hand gesture that drivers in our country automatically give to vagrants on the street knocking on car windows, that hand-signal that tells them No, please, go on your way… It is a sign which is, paradoxically, both respectful and uninviting, both accepting and cold, at the same time. It is a motion so commonly used and accepted in this third-world country of ours that no one even stops to consider how such a gesture can be both kind and mean at the same instant.

As the man turned and ambled back toward the spot that he came from, the palpable fear in me thudded a bit less strongly, relief quietly creeping back to the place once occupied by thunderous heartbeats. From under my arm, my son’s hand slowly crept up and tentatively waved at the sullen figure. Back at his post, the man waved back at my son and then looked away. There seemed to be a hint of sadness in his eyes.

And then it hit me.

What if this hobo was just being kind? Sure, he was a beggar, illegally strolling along the highway, breaking jaywalking laws as he asked for alms from passing vehicles. But he was also a man. A human. Perhaps he had a grandson just like my son? Perhaps it wasn’t a grandson, perhaps it was a son. Perhaps the last time he saw his son was decades ago when his little boy was the same age as mine? Perhaps—and it was entirely possible—I was romanticizing this incident too much?

But as our car moved away from its static spot, I felt a bite of guilt for being unkind and wary, if not in my outward demeanor then at least in some small part of my suspicious thoughts. I was ashamed of myself. For judging that this man was either dangerous or cuckoo, or both, because of the way he looked.

I shot a glance at my son, who had turned around in the car seat to face the back. He was trying to catch a last glimpse of that strange man on the street. I was tempted to tell him, “Don’t be too friendly, son. Be careful with strangers. Be wary about whom you trust. People who may seem nice may not always really be nice.”

But I kept silent. There’s the rest of his life to learn those equally valuable lessons.

That day it was I, more than three decades older, who had to learn from the pure heart of a five-year-old boy. This is probably what the Great Teacher meant when He said, “Unless you become like a little child, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” To see others with the eyes of the heart—to fine-tune one’s vision so that it goes far beyond outward appearances and sees what lies behind, whether these are realities or mere possibilities—this is what gives the world its hope.

I have to admit. That day, my son and I took a ride, and along the way, for just a moment, he was a much bigger man than I was. I am in awe of the beauty and purity of his heart, so big for the little body that it rests within. And in overflowing gratitude for this eye-opening experience, I pledge to make a greater effort to view the world and its citizens—every single one of them—with the pure, innocent, loving eyes of a five-year-old child. My five-year-old little man.

Don’t they worry?

/ LivE / 3 Comments

about their future? about where they’re going at the end of time? about where they will spend eternity? Don’t they think about what God thinks of them? Of how greatly they offend Him, the Author of Life, the Prince of Peace?

These people who have the temerity to indulge in terrorist activities, without regard nor respect for the dignity of human life: do they wonder how they would feel if it were their mom, their spouse, their son or daughter, hurt, maimed for life, or killed by the work of their hands?

Are they so numb to what is morally right that they can just throw away what they have no right to even touch, human life?

A bomb went off today in a mall in the business district. 8 people have been identified as casualties, up from the initial news reports of 4 casualties, and there are 86 reported injured. I wonder how those numbers are going to go up as the investigation goes on.

The worried mom in me kicks into high gear at times like this. I can’t help thinking, my gosh, what kind of world will my kids live in? Will they be safe? What kind of country, instead of cradling its citizens in a cocoon of security, makes its children feel unsafe and insecure?

Here are some photos from the website of inquirer.net, which one of the bigger Philippine news agencies.

Glorietta Bomb 1Glorietta Bombing 2

Depressing.

I wonder how some people can go about doing evil (yes, I’ll say it again, evil: anything that involves taking away human life is evil) without worrying about eternal life. There is peace, and there is justice, and there is a God who sees all this and is hurt by the abuse of freedom that some of His children do. And one day, these people will have to answer to Him, whether they blind themselves to that reality or not.

😥

Oh yeah!!! YEAH!!! { Of Projects and Contests }

/ LivE / 6 Comments

I am doing the happy dance because little by little my projects– Big, Small, Medium, Smaller, Smallest–they’re all beginning to come together and run towards completion, and that means more playtime!!! YEAH!!! I totally feel like a kid who just finished studying for the final exams. Oooh, thank God I’m light-years away from those days!

A quick run-down of the stuff that’s been accomplished, for those who care to hear:

The Big Project, DeliveredThe Big Project

– did final tweaks on the entire thing two dawns ago (yes, I count by dawn now, not by night 😆 ) and it’s on its way back to Hong Kong now. Hopefully it won’t be FedExed back to me with new work to be done on it. Keep your fingers crossed for me, will ya, honeys?Here is Mr. FedEx Box, as tall as my 5-year-old son’s study table in the background, where I embarrassingly dump all my design notes and books when he’s not using it. (The table is a wonderful ikea light-wood table with matching chairs and a bench… which you cannot appreciate since it’s totally being blocked by this humongous friend of mine. And PS. if you look real close, you’ll see one of my clearbooks behind with the title “Digital Design 2” on its spine… there are about 6 of those filled with notes I’ve gathered and made so I can flip through them when I feel the need for some waking of the creative mojo. hehe).

What Mr. FedEx carried inside (didn’t bother to measure its width, but it was about 6 inches wide… standing up like that the box reached about halfway of my thigh, and no, I’m not a midget. 😆 ) were the blueprints and proofs of the Big Project, which I had run through oh about 6 times already… and on the flap in the plastic place was the DVD which contained the same files… I had to blur some surnames and the name of the studio as I don’t have clearance to release the names, but if you look closely you’ll see an envelope there with To: and From:, which we would repeatedly just jumble up as the box passed from my friend Tatum to me back to Tatum and back to me. (In case you don’t remember from the past post on the Big Project, Tatum is the layout artist I have been working with… love that she keeps the same ungodly hours as I do. We send each other text-messages on our cellphones and they invariable contain some reference to life: A sampling

Me: Are you still alive?
She: Yep, still awake.
Me: Good, so glad we share the same night-owl genes.

OR:

She: Still awake?
Me: You kidding? Coffee runs in my veins.

OR:

Me: T, it’s 5.30 AM and I just can’t do this any longer, my eyebags are large enough to cover my entire body like a blanket. Goodnight. Or good morning.
She: Yeah… goodnight. Tomorrow again…

The Medium Project aka The Brochure

– Done! My sisters asked me to make the brochure for their business, which involves supplying products for hotel gift shops in Asia. Did the design, layout, and photo editing (the last one was not part of the deal, but I just couldn’t stand not tweaking the photos to make them better 😆 ) for their brochure. This was loads of fun, and what made it more fun is that they gave me their logo, their swirls, and their logo colors which were all professionally made for them (read: paid for 🙂 ). The brochure consists of about 40 cards inserted into a beautiful silk box with a band to keep the pages all together. I don’t have the sample of the box, but when it arrives, I’ll take a photo and post it to complete the experience. haha.

Here’s a sample page:

Medium Project Sample

The Small Project aka The Blinkies

– Jess requested for blinkies for those who took her past Up & Running courses (ours was the beta June run, then there was the August run, and now we’re right at Week 1 of the October run–which I have the honor to moderate in again… fun, fun, fun!).

I had never done blinkies before, but I sooooo love dealing with never-before’s. The challenge of tackling the unknown and undiscovered gives me the same rush as it does a mountaineer who’s given the task of scaling K6 or Mt. Everest! I love the discovery and adventure and learning that always go hand in hand.

So anyway, thanks to the wonderful world wide web, I was able to gather some information on how to do it… and it took me roughly the better half of a day to do the first blinkie for Up & Running and roughly the better half of another night to do the second blinkie for the Now We’re Rockin’ course of Jess (a new one that opens in a week, and my playmates–most probably, you too!–and I are so excited about being all together on this course!). NOTE: If you want to see the blinkies I made, they’re blinking right on the bottom right side of the sidebar on the right of this page! 😀

You know what’s amazing? Blinkies are basically animated designs, and making them is like making a moving cartoon. You have to be able to imagine how the next movement is going to happen, sort of like seeing the whole thing unfold in your mind like a muted movie in slow-mo. Cool! The first blinkie had 42 final layers (and I’m not even talking single layers, these are 42 merged layers… the single layers could easily be twice or thrice as many). The second blinkie had 78 layers. The tutorials I had chanced upon on the web had about 3 or 4 layers up to 12 layers… so if anyone thinks that it’s difficult to make blinkies, it’s totally not. It’s just time consuming. I’d be glad to help you out if you were interested. 😀

Here’s the second wonderful thing about making the blinkies. All the tutorials I found were done using CS2. I am much more comfortable using PSE 5 at this point because, ahem, PSE 5 is my BFF. CS2 and CS3 are nice acquaintances. Not the first ones you think of running to when you need some friendly advice. And so I worked on the layers in PSE 5. But then… and here’s the real fun part for me… I needed to use Image Ready in CS2. There’s a way to do animation in PSE 5 which I had toyed around with once in the past, but it didn’t really excite me then. I was searching for a greater source of excitement. So I opened up CS2 and Image Ready, and voila! It was so EASY to use! (I should’ve probably prefaced this with letting you know that full-version Photoshop, though resting in the innards of my compy, still intimidate me with how GRAND they are. The learning curve just seems too steep to climb, especially if one is working round the clock and trying to beat a deadline, whether actual or personally set. With the blinkies, Jess was so wonderfully accommodating with the time I needed to work on it, so I know my wanting to produce it immediately was s self-inflicted deadline.

It was a load of fun. Lots of trials and errors all the way from beginning to end (best way to learn!) … and quite addictive too! 😛

The Smaller Project

It’s that time of year again when the community’s newsletter, of which I am editor-in-chief, is due. Or I should say was due. Ideally, since it comes out quarterly, we prefer to release it to the community within the first week of the first month of each quarter. Well, this time all the deadlines were pulling at my hair, legs, arms… and so this was the first to get delegated to what Franklin Covey calls B-priorities. So yesterday I got that finished with just one little part missing: my regular column’s content. I have a regular column there called ParenTTalk, which is absolutely wonderful because it’s right up my alley of interests (I love families and kids!) and basically, I get to rant and rave  to my heart’s delight about any topic under the sun. Mostly I rave. I don’t think I ever rant. Except when the moon is blue. 😀

The Smallest Project

Smallest only because in the list of priorities, it’s a NICE-to-do, not a HAVE-to-do… this refers to my wanting to design the next FREEBIE KIT offering for all you wonderful friends of mine. I know what I want to do, I have images rolling about in my head as to what it will be… and now I will have the time to indulge! Whoooppeeee!!!

So I’m really very sorry, no freebies in this post… but SOON there will be! If I don’t run out on my fuel tonight (since the sun was rising by the time I jumped into bed last night) and my blurry eyes clear up (they get blurry everytime I lack sleep), by tomorrow hopefully I’ll have a freebie up for you, so do check back! I am so sorry for being a total dweeb at posting in my blog these past few days, and thank you for your patience with me!

And The Others

There are a load of other things that I’ve been wanting to do but which have invariably been pushed to the back because of the Bigger Projects demanding attention. Still, not having been able to do these things caused a lot of frustration in me that there weren’t 72 hours in a day!

Doing the Rounds in the October MB and Gallery

This is always so much fun for me. I love getting to know the new students; totally love being able to help them out; and absolutely love seeing their layouts come up. Some show immense growth as the days go by, and others are adept immediately from the start in an awesome way. I have a soft spot for the digital virgins / digital newbies because I know, from experience, how wonderful in a jump-up-and-down way it is to be able to discover and learn new things, and feel like “hey, I can actually do this!” That’s a totally great feeling. I make it a point to hop on over to the MB everyday, but the gallery I hadn’t had the time to go through yet. Well, today, I went through all of them and was delighted to see everything popping up there! These girls are really just so awesome.

Taking a Walk in the Playground Gallery

Another thing that frustrated me was not having the time to play around with my playmates in our General Forum playground. Well, I was able to do some hopping and skipping around the playground today for a longer time, and I loved going through all the layouts that had mushroomed in our gallery while I was busy “making a living,” (And I put that in quotes, because much of what I do is gratis, so one cannot really refer to it as making a living then, can right? hehehe). I am sooooo proud of the layouts that my girlfriends are coming up with! Jessica’s site is just bursting at the seams with wonderful, awesome talent! Amaaaaaazing.

Doing the Stand Up & Scrap Challenge

I have so far successfully avoided the booby traps of getting eliminated from the Stand Up & Scrap (SUNS, as I like to call it) challenges. I have said before that my only objective in joining the challenge was, in true Survivor fashion, just to finish the race without getting eliminated. Four weeks and four layouts after, with a fifth one due by next Tuesday, and then just one more… I’ve so far been able to hang on. The challenge is the first contest I’ve ever joined (give me a break, June was just roughly 3 months ago! 😆 ) and I’ve learned a lot because of it.

Since each week comes with both a Design Focus and an Inspirational Focus (like the theme of the layout, which also comes with a quote), I like that I’ve learned how to work within a tight box where limitations and lines are clearly drawn, at least in terms of the design and theme, and always with the tools you’re allowed to use (in this case, only kits and designs made by approved designer-sponsors). I also like that it comes with a deadline that will get you eliminated if you don’t meet it. Sometimes that kick in the butt is just what’s needed to get something going. (Oh yeah, a major procrastinator in many instances standing right in front of you here). It has also forced me to manage my time wisely, to really think out which one has to be done “yesterday” and which can be pushed for later. I also love that there are so many different layouts–numerous amazing and awesome ones–that are so inspiring. Eye candy is always so delicious!

Here are some other things I’ve been delighted to discover in the process (like bonus eureka moments 🙂 ).

* Because there are so many different layouts, and many of which are of the collage and altered art type, I’ve learned more about my personal style. If before I only kind of thought so, I now clearly know that I like creating clean, graphic, simple layouts more. I know I like grunge, but only a touch of it. Not a whole lot of it. I know that I like scrapping about happy moments, precious moments. I know I most probably will never scrap about something disturbing, though I admire greatly those who have the courage to do so.

* Because there are hundreds and hundreds of participants in the challenge, I’ve found that I like love adore the close-knit warm family atmosphere of our playground at Jessica’s. Don’t get me wrong, there are many fabulous scrappers–all of them!–in the challenge. But perhaps because the contest is anonymous (for reasons I completely understand and agree with), it also makes one feel a bit disconnected. I don’t know how to explain it; I’m sure I’m failing somehow. I like the contestants, the moderators, the challenges, the forum, the designers, the judges… but you know how it is when you love someone but you don’t really understand to what extent, and then something happens so that it becomes crystal clear to you just how immmmmmmensely you love them that it’s hard to put into words? That’s exactly how I feel about my Jessica-family!

Doing the PSF Challenges

To keep us busy in the interim of our Up & Running and Now We’re Rockin’ courses at Jessica’s, the amazing Lisa took it upon herself to lead us in doing Photoshop Friday Challenges (also found at Jessica’s site… they’re free and awesome; ifyou haven’t tried them yet, go ahead and click on the link to Jessica’s site on my sidebar over to the right). These have been loads of fun, and I am totally amazed by the work that my JS-family has been coming up with in the gallery. Amaaaazing!!! I am so proud of them!

Unfortunately, because of the deluge of projects with deadlines that like sticking to each other, I have only been able to complete 2 of the 7 PSF challenges that Lisa has come up with. Actually, I have completed more… I used some of the PSF tutorials to do some of my SU&S contest entries… except that contest rules do not allow us to post our contest entries on any other galleries till the 6-week contest period is officially over. So right now I’m behind the boat in putting up layouts on my home gallery. But I’m hoping to get to that soon. 😉

I have to say at this point that I am awed by some of my girlfriends, because quite a number of us are participating in the SU&S challenges and yet they are able to come up with layouts for the PSF challenges as well. I wish I had their energy and endless supply of creativity! I wish I had more time! 😀

And speaking of time…

I’ve rambled long enough. There won’t be any time to create more freebies if I keep this up. And at this moment, other new projects have surfaced, calling for attention. So off I go, back to the salt mines! Do pass by soon: I will be putting up layouts by my wonderful friends who have used the freebies (if you have used my freebies and you will be so kind as to allow me to hang them on the walls of my blog, then please feel most welcome to send me a link to your wonderful creations!)

Toodle-oo for now! Sorry, there are no freebies in this post, but there soon will be! 😉

Of fathers and sons

/ LivE / 10 Comments

One of the projects that’s been taking up a lot of my time has to do with just this: fathers and sons. It’s a huge project which, while it hasn’t come out yet, has to be kept under wraps (have to sit on my hands and do a jig to stop myself from shouting it out to you, my friends! 😆 )… but I was inspired to write this poem. I should probably mention here that I normally shy away from sharing my poems as they come from such a raw, vulnerable part deep inside of me… but I dare to write it here because you, my dearest friends, make me feel safe. (And that’s the best way I know how to express my trust and affection for you) 🙂

Hope you enjoy it…

Magallan stock.xchng photo

The Legacy of Ripples

They amble in quiet cadence

hand in hand

to the edge of the lake.

His chest swells with quiet pride

as the little one bends down

by the water’s mouth

And gently, carefully

sets sail to the paper boat.

Together they watch it,

this newspaper ship,

as it glides across the glassy surface

till it is but a dot in the distance.

Looking down,

he spots a stone

hidden in the blades of grass.

He picks it up.

Winking at the little one,

he hurls the piece of earth into the still water,

the little one’s gaze fixed on that rock

flying through the air

landing with a plop into the water

quickly descending into the bosom of the lake,

leaving only a trace of its presence, its weight, its impact

in the ripples that begin round its exit point,

little waves, slowly but surely

moving, w i d e n i n g ,  e   x   p   a   n   d   i   n   g ,

reaching out like embracing arms

till it almost touches the foot

of the little one

who stands in awe, mesmerized, entranced.

The son looks up at his father,

smiles and tucks his tiny hand

into the work-worn one.

They walk away silently,

but the ripples are seared into that young mind.

Many sunrises after,

the memory of the quiet soft waves

will accompany him when he returns

to this very place

With another tiny hand in his own grown grasp

as together they stand by the water’s edge

and watch the same ripples begin again…