random thoughts

Muse and Music

/ LivE / 1 Comment

I have always loved music. All kinds of music (uh, okay… you can hold the heavy metal selections; not too hot about those 😆 ). I think there’s just something magical about how words + melody + feelings all combine perfectly to express what otherwise lies hidden, unexpressed, inside the soul. (Which makes me curious: does music play a huge part in your life too? Or can you live without it?)

Luckily, my hubby is a music fanatic too, and so are my sons, one of whom introduced me to this latest vid… an introduction which was really timely because as soon as the drum appeared (watch it and you’ll know what I mean), my creative muse stood up and started dancing, and now I’m on a creative roll! Wheeeee!

So here ya go, enjoy this very cool vid (and the awesome music that it brings) and excuse me as I go indulge in my creative whims! See you in a bit!

PS. While we’re rockin’,  here’s another one of my all-time favorites!

Listen…

/ LivE / 2 Comments

… and be amazed. This girl makes me proud to share my country with her. 😀

PS. Man, it has been silent here for a long time! It’s great to break through the crickets chirping in the garden!

i’m back ʞɔɐq ɯ,ı i’m back ʞɔɐq ɯ,ı  i’m back ʞɔɐq ɯ,ı… I! AM! BACK! Wheeeeee!

Back Up.

/ LivE / 13 Comments

Frequently.

Think once a month is enough? Twice a month? Nope.

Let me tell ya. Back up right now.

I’ve heard horror stories and felt the pain. You know how you think “Oh I am so so so sorry!” and at the back of your mind, you’re filing “Back up” in your to-do list, but fail to put it down on the Priority A notepad?

So, I lost all my files on one of my Seagate EHD’s. I’m in shock. Feels like wide-awake paralysis. Words fail to capture the sinking feeling, the despair, the disbelief, the devastation… so this pretty much sums it up:

Got as far as determining that I’ve lost a whole year’s worth of photos (2008), about a hundred thousand scans, about 3 years worth of design work, and all my music files. Oh, and those photos that I took as part of the official team documenting the first-ever Asian triathlon to be held in the Philippines in 2008 – yep, they were in there. I need to stop trying to recall what else was in there and hope for the best.

So if you happen to stop by my blogporch today, heck, let’s drink a kajillion iced teas to the geek gods that be, and hope that my prince in shining armor / geek god sublime / hubby manages to pull me out of this quicksand pit I’m treading in right now. And thank you for the prayers that you send to heaven along with mine.

You. Are. Awesome.

/ LivE / 13 Comments

Truly, you are.

Thank you so much for partying with us and joining us on our first-ever birthday bloghop bonanza! Thank you for taking the time to hit the Comment button and leave some love. Thank you for coming a while and sitting on my blog porch… and I hope you know that you’re always welcome and I’ve saved your little spot for you with a cup of hot cocoa or a tall glass of iced tea anytime you feel like passing by for a chat or two. 🙂

In case your bus / train / cab got a wee bit delayed and you’re coming in just now, and you’re feeling sad that the bloghop party’s over, don’tcha worry my friend! Most, if not all, of the You Are Awesome mini kits that belong to this wonderful mega collaborative kit are going to resurface in our shop today! And pssst! Here’s a bit of good news… today (Monday the 21st) is also the last day of our storewide sale, so you have the chance to grab these already low-priced bloghop mini kits at a further 20-off discount! Now how’s that for some cheering-up news? 😉

Here are the mini-kits that will be in the shop today!

You Are Awesome by Linda (In the Making Design)

You Are Awesome by Kari (iKari Designs)

You Are Awesome by Nisa (Splendid Fiins)

You Are Awesome by Jan (The Queen of Quirk)


and You Are Awesome by Liv (Liv.Edesigns) … (wait. that would be me! 😆 )

(Images are linked to the shop pages to make it easy for you! 😉 )

And here’s a fabulous layout created by the uber-talented CT member Miki, right on time for Fathers’ Day yesterday!

Party (Freebie) Hangover!

And just because everyone knows what it’s like to have a bit of party hang-over, here’s another wee freebie for you!

Click on the image above to download (and thank you in advance for the love you leave! It just thrills me to hear from you in the Comments section! 😉 )

It coordinates with this larger pack of huge Summerific labels, also available at my shop. (Image is linked to the shop page)

And here area couple of layouts created with them by our uber-fave and uber-fab JessicaSprague.com Creative Team!

by Miki

by Jenn

Keep Updated!

In case you’d like to keep updated with my blog (and … ahem… give me another awesome reason to come out and play on my porch more often) — you can click on the RSS icon over there on the top right side (yep, that would be the little green icon right below “Keep me updated”, or subscribe via your email inbox (right under the RSS icon)  and get notified each time a new post comes out.

Now if anyone knows a way to spread my arms around the entire world so they can reach over to you and give you a GREAT BIG SQUEEZE, let me know! Because I sure would like to give you the most humongous hug ever! Again, many thanks, and see you soon!

33 Freebies to Celebrate 3 Years!

/ LivE / 133 Comments

I love birthdays! I love goodie bags! And I love that my favorite playground / Spraground in the entire world is turning three years old this month!

Man, it seems like just yesterday when we beta girls crashed Jessica’s site for her first-ever Photoshop class (Up & Running). I stayed awake for close to 24 hours just to sign up for a course that was probably intended for 20 students–but quickly grew to about 200 (or was it 2000?) in the first five minutes that the registration gates were thrown open. And now, we’re a family of… guess. It’s way beyond 2000, that’s for suuuure. 😉

Three years after, (3 x 365) days filled with overflowing creative passion and tight friendships formed around the world, and here we are! For me, the journey has progressed to courses that I am honored to co-teach with Jes (Type+Writer 1 and Type+Writer 2), a growing chest of digital design work that I am thrilled to be able to sell at the best shop (with the best team of designers and the most awesome Creative Team), and an ever-growing family of the most awesome Spraground fellas ever!

Thank you, Jes and Jared, for creating this home for all of us. Thank you, my awesome Spraground family, for being so caring, so amazing, so absolutely awesome! And thank you, YOU who are reading this, for coming to my little blog-porch today and sitting a while. You are awesome.

And no, I have not run out of adjectives that begin with A… the repetitive use of the word “awesome” is intentional, meant to lead you to…

(drum roll)

THIRTY-THREE awesome FREEBIES to celebrate three years of jessicasprague.com magic… and to celebrate you, because YOU ARE AWESOME!

(Yes, I am screaming! And yes, I am jumping up and down! And yes, I am handing out birthday trumpets and throwing confetti and popping the caps off cases and cases of… you guessed it! Diet Mt. Dew! 😆 )

And they’re all yours to collect from 10PM (EDT) tonight all the way till 10PM (EDT) Sunday! Just because we like celebrations that last an entire weekend! 😉

Here’s how the game goes!

See? We love you so much that we decided it wasn’t enough to just give you 33 birthday goodie bags this weekend! There’s more! We’ve included a little quote strip in each of our bloghop freebies (so make sure you unzip those goodies right away! 😉 ). Collect them all as you unzip each freebie from each of our 33 blogs.

Then, as you struggle to hold all your goodies in both arms at the end of your bloghoppin’ bonanza, take those 33 quote strips, play around with them, and arrange them in the correct order. When they spell out the quote that reflects our fondest wish for you, type it out in an email… then seal it with a kiss and send it to tori@jessicasprague.com. This AWESOME friend of yours and mine – and an amazing Spraground admin officer who just *loves* support tickets 😉 – will gather all the correctly-arranged quotes and include them in a raffle for some really amazing prizes! So don’t forget to grab your chance at winning too! (Just make sure you send them in before 10PM Eastern on Sunday! 😉 ).

And now, in case you’re shifting weight from left foot to right, thinking “Right. Now let’s get on to the freebie, girl!” … I hear ya!

Here’s my goodie bag waiting to jump into your arms!

Click on the image to download my part of the mega collab You Are Awesome kit!

If you happened to arrive right here on my blog porch first thing this evening, you’ll need to know that you’ve landed at the second blog out of 33. You’ll want to go to the beginning of the bloghop to make sure you didn’t miss a single one of the 33 freebies… so head on over to the Blog of all Blogs that belongs to the Queen of Digi-Skill-Growing and the Diva of Photoshop Fridays and one of my very best friends!

Click on the image below to go to Jessica’s Sprague Lab!

When you’re done a-grabbin’, hop on over to the next blog, which belongs to… my dear, dear cereal-lovin’ friend and super-talented designer-mate, Nisa Fiin!

Click on the image below to go to Nisa’s blog (feel absolutely free to click your heels too! 😆 )

Remember to keep hoppin’ till you get all 33! And if you need to rest, you’ve got till Sunday to hop around! 😉

Oh, and if you could take a minute to leave some love on my blog, that would be… AWESOME! (Did you expect another adjective, maybe? 😆 )

Now, after you’ve unzipped all the goodies, you’ll probably be dying to start playing with them! Have I got the perfect excuse for you to  tear the wrappers off your birthday gifties from us and play with them: come join our challenges, going on at the same time, right on our General Forum area! Click on the image below to get to the Spraground!

Happy Hoppin’ my dear sweet friends! 😀 And thank you for the love you leave on all our blogs! ❤

ETA: If you have difficulty downloading (the download links should work for macs and pc’s alike :D), the likely cause would be kinks from simultaneous multiple downloading, so please try the links again… and remember you have till sunday 10pm EST to grab the freebies! 😀 Thank you soooo much for your patience and for playing with us!

Up for a challenge?

/ LivE / 5 Comments

Perhaps two? Or even three?

The first one of three going on this entire weekend will be up at 10AM Eastern! Led by Chrissy, it’s surely going to be a (birthday) blast!

See you at the jessicasprague.com General Forum later! (Check out the Spotlight Area right at the top of the forum to find Chrissy’s challenge!)

And we pause regular programming…

/ LivE / 1 Comment

… for some ear candy!

I’m marvelous… I’m marvelous… oh, marvelous! (must listen to this when I’m not feeling too marvelous 😆 )

One love, one love, one life, you gotta do what you should…

… and what I gotta do, what I should do RIGHT NOW, is get some design work done!

So toodle-loo and I’ll see you around in a bit! ((((big squeezes!)))))

Just sighing…

/ LivE / 2 Comments

So. The national elections are over. I have remained quiet for the entire duration of the campaign period, never saying a thing publicly, because I somehow think that political discussions are taboo and can cause great big arguments, to which I am highly allergic.

But just for today, now that it’s all over, I want to let out a sigh. A quiet sigh. One that I really do not wish to be a stimulus for any kind of argumentative discussion (gosh, no, no, no. Did I say I don’t like arguing at all? 🙂 ). But since my blog is a kind of journal of my life, I just felt that I needed to get my thoughts on this, post-elections, down just so I can record this part of my life.

So bear with me, and if it’s not something you wish to read, carry on… and as always, you can sit on my porch and pretend you don’t see me typing, and we can sit in silence as friends, you with your iced tea and me with my mango shake. 🙂

In a nutshell, here’s my post-election reaction:

Hay naku, Pilipinas, heto na nga’t nasa harap niyo ang pinakamatinong kandidato: maka-Diyos, maka-pamilya, maka-tao–ngunit hindi ninyo lang siya tinanggihan na maglingkod sa inyo at iangat ang nakakarami sa kahirapan, dinurog pa ninyo sa pamamagitan ng kasinungalingan ang katauhan niya. Pagkalipas ng panahon, inyo sanang magunita ang laki at bigat ng konsikuwensya ng inyong kabulagan.

Photo from Wikipedia, by Mike Gonzalez

It’s in Filipino, because that is the language of the heart in this country. Know how things can get lost in translation? Some things need to be said in one’s native language in order to really hit home, and in this case, this entire emotion of mine just found its way to my brain from my heart in Filipino, never mind if 98% of the time I express myself in this language with which I write, the language that I grew up with.

For my friends around the world who wish to know the content of what I just wrote, here’s the English translation, lacking as it is in capturing the full range of emotions:

Oh my, Philippines, here right in front of you was the most able candidate: God-fearing, dedicated to the family, and dedicated to people–and yet, not only did you refuse his offer to serve you and lift the majority from their lives of suffering and poverty, you even crushed his person and character through the lies you have spread about him. As time passes, may you realize the  great error and the gravity of the consequences that will likely result from this blindness you have today.

Yes, I was a student of the University of the Philippines (Diliman). And so there is just no way that I can stand by and be apathetic, not have something to say, about my country, which despite all its warts and wounds, I still love with all my heart.

Day 2 challenge and a freebie!

/ LivE / Leave a comment

Just getting off the speeding work-train for a minute to call you all to join Day 2 of our 7 Days in May Challenges at jessicasprague.com!

The challenge today is … well, I’ll let you read all about it HERE… 😆

Remember how I said yesterday that there’ll be random freebies given our during this week of special challenges? Ya never know… today might be the day… 😉

Awwww okay, I’ll let you in on a little secret: today *is* the day (or at least one of ’em… more are coming! 😉 ). But you have to hurry if you want to grab the freebie, because during this week, the freebies for the 7 Days in May challenges will only be up for 24 hours… so grab this one before 10am EST tomorrow! 😀

Here’s a little sneak-freebie-peek:

(Image is linked to the jessicasprague.com General Forum challenge thread… just click and you’re there!)

See you there! (she says, chasing the speeding work-train as it starts to round the bend… 😆 )