An Apple A Day…

Thursday, 21 August 2008Thursday, 25 September 2008 / LivE / 12 Comments

959631_fruits … makes one happy to play?

How long has this apple been dangled before me by family and friends, and how long have I resisted the urge to bite?

I’ll admit: the mac is sexy. Oh yes. But I have also been happily in love with Wilson and felt no desire to say goodbye to him.

See, Wilson has always been awesome and has never given me reason to look for another. Wilson is my super souped-up, ever loyal, constant companion and playmate.

He’s my PC.

But there’s a slight problem. I can’t take him everywhere I go. He’s a homebody and he won’t budge from the desk that he sits on.

I have a laptop which was actually okay, you know? Unfortunately he has gone past his middle-age crisis… like long-playing records and casette tapes, old Dino just can’t handle CS3 and its RAM requirements, and all his puttering and puffing while trying to please me makes me feel sorry for him. Not that it really mattered much in the past, because I do all of my work (and play) with Wilson. But… well. The eldest son is on his last year in high school, and he has been using Dino much more than I have, so the time was right to pass him on.

So to celebrate my 40th year on earth, my Best Blessing ever (aka DH) came home yesterday with this:

And so, yes, folks, as far as laptop work is concerned, I now join the ranks of my machead friends. (And I was just telling my friend Jessica a couple of weeks ago that it was so amazing that she got a mac laptop to support her main work machine, which is a PC… and around the same time my friend Janie also decided to upgrade her laptop to a mac… how in sync can friends around the world be, right? Amazing.So anyway, here are the first photos of the newest baby in our household:

Gotta love that sleek packaging, huh?

All that shiny silvery goodness!

Yep, I bit the apple!

And his name is... macGyver!

PS. Remember that DST newsletter that I wrote an article for? My friend Kel just corrected me: it’s not for the August issue, but for the September issue. heehee. Forgive my duh moment there. Thanks for the correction Kel!

And another PS. – Freebies coming soon! 😉

Back with a Vengeance!

Thursday, 21 August 2008Thursday, 25 September 2008 / LivE / 9 Comments

Well, hello there! Man, have I missed sitting here with you on this blog porch, just swinging leisurely and sipping contentedly on iced tea, watching the birds hop on the steps and listening to the faint tick tock of the clock…

The past weeks have been more like roaring waves of the ocean rushing forward and falling on top of each other with one deafening crash after another. Major WORK stuff, in other words.

There still major work stuff to be done, to be sure, but I’m giving myself a break before diving into the salt mines once again. After all, I just finished the article (and met the deadline, woohoo!!!) that I was asked to write for the August issue of DigishopTalk’s newsletter. My friend and fellow Spragsistah Kelleigh is the new editor-in-chief, and she asked me to do an article on Recording Firsts. I think it turned out way longer than it should’ve (lol… not that that’s surprising now, is it? bwahahaha). But, as is the case with all writing projects I delve into, I find myself totally caught up in the moment and am practically oblivious to the outside world, till I’m done with the writing and can come out of my cave like a bear stretching after months of hibernation. Aaaaaaaah. It’s a lovely feeling.

So… let’s play catch up. So much has happened since I entered the mouth of that cave. 😆

May Photo A Day Album – Done!

Woohoo!!! I actually got my May Photo A Day album all done and printed out and placed nicely in the pages of my 8×8 album! (Don’t you just love the sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing your layouts actually printed out and resting in those page protectors? I love it!)

Here’s what my album looks like:

the happy 8x8 album!

the title page

Day 1 and Day 2 pages

Day 3 and Day 4 pages

Day 9 and Day 10 pages

Day 15 and Day 16

I used my Extraordinary Days Album templates, along with Meredith Fenwicks lovely luscious papers from her Day Dreams Collection Wildest and Afternoon Serenade kits. The staple is from Meredith’s Everyday Inspiration collection and the overlay is from Kim Christensen. I was amazed at how fast putting this album came together… I was able to do all the 31 layouts *and* print them out, cut them, and insert them into the album page protectors within 24 hours! Gotta love templates, huh? (PS. If you want to snag the templates, just scroll down to the earlier posts and I have the links over there! )

First-Ever On-the-Spot Photo Shoot!

On the first weekend of August, a group of us, led by the country’s top pro photographer (and my very dear brother-in-law) Jun de Leon, went to the mountains to take part in a special project put together by Jun. The assignment: Take photos for an entire day to document the first-ever ITC-approved-triathlon-to-be-held-in-Asia (phew! how else do I explain that! ), and it was held in the Philippines! How lucky could we get!

Jun gathered a group of us and gave us specific assignments. We were to take only the photos assigned to us so that we could come up collectively with an extensive coverage of the triathlon from all angles. I found out about this only a couple of weeks before D-day, when we attended the wedding of one of our friends.

Intermission: it was a lovely wedding, where we were requested to come all in black (so that only the bride would be in white).

Here are some of the foolish shots of us: I only put them here because I promised my Spraground friends that I’d show them the one and most probably the only time this year that I would be wearing a dress.

SILLY1
SILLY2

So anyway, back to the triathlon event. There were 7 of us in the group, which now has been dubbed by Jun as The Crew. (I provide the only estrogen on the team as I’m surrounded by men all around! The best thing about it? My hubby is part of The Crew, which means we get to enjoy our photography addiction and play together! Love that!)

The triathlon event was held on just one day, from 6AM to 6PM. There were two events, the regular triathlon, and the 03, which is basically the same as the regular triathlon but with the distance multiplied by three.

The evening before the event, we met with Leo, one of the best Philippine documentary photographers, who gave us a little seminar on documentary photography. My assignment was to take the Emotions photographs, but the person who was assigned to take the Details photographs didn’t show up, so Jun gave me the Details assignment as well (much to my delight! heehee).

After the seminar and dinner, we went to the event area to conduct an occular inspection of the site and to plan out how and where we would position ourselves the next day. Since we got back to our hotels at almost 11pm and we knew that the athletes would start coming tp the venue at 5am the next day, I decided to forego sleep (terrorized by the prospect of not waking up on time and missing the entire kickoff!)

It was also raining crazily, and so DH and I spent a good part of the night fitting raincoats over our cameras and lenses and trying to figure out a way to maneuver our lenses with the blasted raincoats on them. (Not easy!)

Good thing our kids were with us, because I had fallen asleep at 3AM and woke up only at 5AM when my 4-year-old S asked for his “milky.” I woke up DH and we practically ran out of the hotel to get to the kickoff point of the triathlon (our kids were left with their nannies and our older son).

It was dark and dreary, and the rain just kept pouring down, and after a while you forget about the rain-repellent hoodie you’re wearing and you think “oh heck, so let’s all have rainwashed hair, why don’t we?” The sun never shone that day, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise since the lighting was awesome (no direct sunlight and glare to deal with), and the cool winds meant that the athletes didn’t get wiped out with heat and fatigue too easily, which in turn meant that they didn’t take forever to complete the course.

So there we were, 7 of us, with our cameras and our lenses. I called us the Guerillas, since that’s what I felt we were… charging on ahead, taking the photos from whatever angle and position we could, and because we had media permits, we were able to get to places that the rest of the public couldn’t get access to (since they had closed off areas for the triathlon event alone).

The hardest part of it all? Going straight from 5AM to 6PM without a drop of coffee, no breakfast, no lunch, no snacks except a single banana and a power drink that tasted a lot like my kids’ vitamins. Yuck. The best part of it all? The Crew, the collective energy we had, the adventure of shooting on the spot, playing with our cameras, cheering on the athletes, and taking on this photographic project with DH! Would I do it all over again? You BET!

We had to submit our photos to Jun a week after so that he could choose from them and submit them to one of the two biggest national dailies for publication.

I used my Nikon D80 and my 18-200mm lens. I had my 17-55mm and 85mm lenses as well, but after briefly using them, decided I wanted the flexibility and zoom ability of my 18-200, so I kept that on the entire day. DH used his 200-400mm, and oh boy, does that bazooka lens rock!!! — but hubby rocks more, hehe!

Here are the photos that Jun chose from my collection:

And here’s a glimpse of The Crew at work (and at play):

Ooooh!!! The sun is coming up! More tomorrow! For now I have to jump into bed! See you with more catching up tomorrow, my sweeties!

((((hugs))))

MoMA Art

Monday, 14 July 2008Thursday, 25 September 2008 / LivE / 5 Comments

Okay, so maybe when you hear MoMA, you think of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And that’s a fabulous place to visit, and it’s what I also think of when I hear MoMA.

That’s not what you’re about to see here. 😛

This is actually my version of MoMA Art (Mom-Approved Art). heehee. Tell me, has there ever been a mom who didn’t think her kids’ artwork was the GREATEST? I’m no exception. 😀

Here’s what my son J gave me the other night, drawn while he was in front of the TV set watching Angry Beavers (according to Wikipedia, it’s an Emmy-nominated TV show… all I know is that it comes out on Nickelodeon and I’ve heard some great songs–cartoon-wise–from this cartoon show!)

J's Angry Beavers

And here’s what they REALLY look like on TV:

The Real Angry Beavers

I don’t know about you, but I thought my son’s recreation of these characters as pretty dang cute! Feel free to disagree with me… but in my Mom Book, this is a real winner for me! hahaha!

Catch you later today! 🙂

BACK HOME! Yay!

Sunday, 6 July 2008Thursday, 25 September 2008 / LivE / 8 Comments

Less than 24 hours with my feet firmly planted on homeground (okay, so maybe they’re firmly planted behind my butt as I sit on my chair, legs up, in front of my compy), and 3 hours of sleep after, and I’m so glad to be back home. I love traveling, but I love coming home more. 🙂

Chicago was awesome. If you go bloghopping, beginning with the Main Girlie’s blog (Read: Jessica, that Super-Awesome MegaWoman friend of mine) and going down the trail of blogs of my friends Shell, Veevs, Joan, Jana, Tori, Kari, Deb, Laurie, Jeanne, Susan, Amy, Lisa, Tall Lisa, and Janet who joined us for dinner on Friday evening, you should be pretty up to date with the am-AAA-zing weekend we all had last 27-29 June. We blew away the Windy City with all our cameras (the guy on the River cruise we took said “Wowza! I’ve never before seen such a group of women with such awesome cameras!” hehe. You tell em, dude! 😛 ), our laughter, our craziness, and our overflowing love for each other.

Lots of photos coming soon. As of last upload count, I had 2000 photos, so I will have to work on sorting through all of them and narrowing the count (lest this become a photo blog, lol!). Gotta love 8GB camera cards, huh? 🙂 Okay, so maybe those photos included NYC as well, but Chicago alone accounted for about 1500 of the total photo count… (Chicago GFs, are you ready to download these? ROFL!)

While sitting in the plane flying home, thousands of feet above sea level in the middle of dawn and morning, I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote this by hand, fully wishing I had a laptop instead, and fully intending to post it on my blog as soon as I arrived home. So here it is; bear with me:

How Gremlins Can Be a Good Thing

It’s a 28-hour-flight, more or less (or at least it feels like it), and we’re crossing time zones and three cities with layovers and de-planing and re-planing (I’m inventing words and I’m claiming jetlag insanity to excuse it 😛 ). Aaaand it just so happens that my little 2-year-old boy decides that THIS, the longest leg of the flight, from Detroit, USA to Nagoya, Japan, is the perfect opportunity to grab a nightmare out of nowhere and have a major meltdown in a plane filled to the brim with tired passengers trying desperately to get some shut-eye between cities.

So picture this: a large jet with every seat occupied by a tired, heavy-lidded passenger trying to find the most comfy sleeping position possible. Lights dimmed. Low hum of plane engines the perfect white noise to lull everyone to sleep. Perfect. And then…

NYEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

A piercing cry, shrill, high-pitched, breaks through the sleepy lull, like a mad banshee in a forest. Heaven help me, the sound is emanating from this little 2-year-old boy beside me, the one who just a few minutes ago was like a sleeping angel in my arms. I hug him, I hold him, I shush him. But the kicking, screaming, and blind punching continue. This nightmare my little one has had is so real, he can’t even wake up enough to realize that it’s just a dream (and my ego suffers a dip as I realize my most soothing motherly voice does nothing in the comfort department, lol!) The binky I offer gets hurled by angry little fists at least 2 rows down, to be fished by some elderly gentleman from the plane’s carpeted floor (thank you, my eyes tell him with extreme gratitude and apology combined).

“J touched me!!! He touched me!!!” my little one screams, pointing to his arm, punching the air, totally annoyed that his older brother “touched” him while he was sleeping. Of course this little older brother was seated a row ahead of him and two seats to the left… and unless this boy had morphed into the PlasticMan while I was asleep, there was absolutely no way that he could’ve touched this other sweetie of mine.

But even if I whisper “It was just a dream, honey” and “J is fast asleep; he couldn’t have touched you, dear,” my little one is unconvinced and is just a total mess of tears and wailing.

After about 24 hours (okay, in reality, it was less than an hour, but it certainly felt like 24), my dear hubby comes to the rescue, hobbling over legs from his seat 2 rows ahead of us where he had our 4-year-old sleeping the flight away curled like a nice little baby lamb on the seat next to his (Why, oh, why could we not have shifted kiddo assignments for this particular flight, I ask myself wistfully).

Three minutes after hubby squats beside our seats, which is now a tangled mess of airline pillows and blankets, my little one decides to quiet down. Still refusing to be held by anyone, he tucks his little binky’ed chin into his chest and faces the backrest of the chair to whimper and sniffle himself back to sleep. I watch with bated breath, fearful that any movement might rouse the gremlin that got into my kid and make him do a screaming banshee act again.

And then. Like the first rays of dawn beaking through the dark clouds of a long-winded nightmare, the little one reaches for me, bleary-eyed, with outstretched arms, and softly whispers…

“Mama.”

And I take that little monster of mine into the curve of my circled arms, rock him back and forth a bit, and when I am sure his breathing is relaxed and back to its peaceful cadence, I let out a long sigh of relief and more than a couple of teardrops of exhaustion.

Now what could be good about this major meltdown? (I am thinking of my friend Jes and her equally horrifying experience with her kids’ meltdown recently at a friend’s place. And I’m thinking, heck, this one beat theirs).

Count your blessings they say. Behind every dark cloud is a silver lining.

Here’s the silver lining of this one: For one thing, I realize yet again that as parents you and I may want to control our children and their actions and reactions as much as we can (especially when that action causes an infinite reaction of shuffling and twisting and turning of disturbed passengers in their seats), and yet despite all our best efforts, we still aren’t able to do a single thing about it. Not because we lack anything, not because we did not foresee this, not because we are unprepared, but only because… sometimes, that’s just the way things are.

Acceptance.

This has taught me to accept with peace and calmness that certain things are just beyond one’s control.

And since we mentioned peace… this brings us to the second silver lining: This experience beats any eight-week class on Lamaze breathing exercises. This is the mother load of training in Inner Peace Maintenance. I’ve heard it said: Never try to put out a fire with a blaze. This meltdown certainly had enough heat of its own. So a couple of deep breaths and inner calming mechanisms later, I can now claim that I am a Master of the Zen of Deep Breathing.

Third silver lining: This drives home the truth in that old adage – This, too, shall pass. Good moments, freaky ones… they all pass. They’re all temporary, fleeting, here today gone tomorrow, popping like fragile bubbles of time. What a great reminder of how, truly, we are simply travelers in this world, passing through temporarily till we get to our final destination with peace, wits, and ability to appreciate all things intact.

Ah.

The profundity that lies behind Major Meltdowns. Where would we be without it?

Other Various Lessons I Learned from 10 Days Away from Home:

1. You can get *really* BIG hair in the Big Apple if you skip that crucial step of applying conditioner after you shampoo your hair at night. So make sure you either use conditioner at night or get up really early before the rest of your family does.

2. You can walk around and around in circles, map in hand, to get to Madame Tussaud’s in New York, and then lose the map at the 4-D show at M. Tussaud’s yet walk back to your hotel in four minutes flat, in a straight line. Nope, no circles, no map. Less time. Go figure.

3. You can meet, hug, stay up late, and walk the streets of Chicago with friends you’ve only actually held in your arms a matter of seconds ago in real life… and feel like you’ve known them all your life, and feel like you can talk and talk and talk forever, and miss them like crazy when the three days are over because these are people you love and who love you back… and know that this is phenomenal, that this is a gift, that this is something that doesn’t happen to many in even one lifetime. And you know in your heart. THIS is what connection is. Not as it is defined in any dictionary, but as it is etched forever in the grooves of your heart.

To all my Spragsistahs that I hugged in real life in Chicago, and to my most awesome, amazing friend Jes… THANK YOU. This is an experience I will always treasure in my heart. And remember, there are no goodbyes… only Till Next Spraguefest, right? 😉

And now, on to the growing list of to-do’s that are calling my name…

Freebie Fun!

Wednesday, 21 May 2008Thursday, 25 September 2008 / LivE / 22 Comments

Just a quick one, as I’ve been through a whirlwind 2 weeks of real life and digi life and everything in between…

Just wanted to leave a quick gift for everyone who passes by my porch (and there’s iced tea and cookies and freshly brewed coffee too over here too! 😀 ).

Thank you for all the prayers and all the kind words that you’ve left in my comments. Your friendship is so precious to me, your words such a balm. You are totally awesome. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am about 7 layouts delayed… 4 for our April challenges (was too busy wrapping up the previous run of the Up&Running course, and then attending to our Digi: In Deep course that followed on its heels 🙂 ) and 3 layouts for the templates that I created for our Digi: In Deep creative challenges.

I hit two birds with one stone by combining this week’s Spraground Weekly Challenge-Designer Spotlight with my template-layout requirement (yay!) plus I got to restore and scrap with old photos. So yay, this was a great case of getting many things on my to-do list checked at one go! 🙂

The designer we spotlighted on our Spraground this week was Anna Aspnes from DesignerDigitals, who–like every single designer in that fab shoppe–has the most amazing work and best of all, they are ultra-generous with their freebies! This past Sunday she gave out the most WONDERFUL plume freebies! So that’s what we played with for our challenge!

Here’s what I made:

CREDITS:

LivEdesigns DIDIt-03 Template; Anna Aspnes – DD 18MayFreebie Plumes; MeredithFenwick-AfternoonSerenadePapers ; GrungyBabyPapers; WarmHeartAlpha; DawnWilson-BlackFridayTab;
Fonts: BeautifulES; BabelSans; Times&Times; subway photo from statravel.co.nw; AtomicCupcake & Wow actions

And here’s the template that I used:

It comes with the drop shadows to make the three blocks look dimensional (but you can always disable the shadows), and you can use it either as a 3-photo template with journaling spaces; or a 6-photo template.

Hope you find some use for it! You can snag the template HERE, and thanks for the love you leave on my blog as you download it!

Well, gotta rush back to the one million one things I need to attend to.

Oh, and PS. Just a little request for prayers:

1. for my dear, precious friend Lisa who has just lost her husband and best friend (we are all grieving with her and we keep her in our thoughts and prayers, and would love to have you join us in lifting our prayers to Heaven); and

2. for my special intentions (which have to do with V-day… will let you know all about that soon!)

Thank you so much in advance, and do visit again soon!

(((((((((hugs)))))))))

That Dreaded White Screen

Monday, 12 May 2008Thursday, 25 September 2008 / LivE / 15 Comments

ETA: I typed this in yesterday but am only getting it posted today… Read on and you’ll understand why… 😉

I’ve been staring at it for close to 48 hours now. I click on Internet on my computer, and normally I get my msn homepage from which I launch into my wonderful day of work and play. Sometimes, when the net connections are iffy, I get a white screen with that message below (trying to connect…) and I know if it takes about 5 seconds, there’s definitely something wonky going on.

Well. Let’s just say I’ve stared at that white screen for so often this week, I almost feel it’s a wall I can climb.

I need a new router. I need it soon. Like yesterday. Or I’m seriously going to need to be committed. Haha.

I feel so bad that I can’t get to the Up & Runners on the forums and the galleries. Jes, hang on! I’ll be there as soon as I can fly on the internet waves!

Making the Most of It

So… what to do when I can’t get to my Up & Running friends, my Spraground family, and my one-million virtual field trips? I do what I should’ve done way way back. Start cleaning up my compy’s guts. Start trying to make sense of the kajillion gigabytes of digistash I’ve accumulated over the past year and a half. And maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll actually get to organize some of them in ACDSee. Maybe.

So here I am, in between stifling sighs and the urge to scream in frustration, in between constantly clicking on the Internet button and hoping and praying I’ll get more than a five-minute connection before it disappears into the virtual black hole again…

Catharsis

So while fixing my files in my compy, guess what shows on HBO? StepMom, that movie that stars Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, and Ed Harris. That movie that is sooo real, where the line that separates the “bad guy” from the “good guy” is so blurred that it’s totally believable. (I love that. I mean, is there really a bad guy through and through, who has not a sliver of goodness in him? I doubt it. And for that matter, is there really a good, good person who has not a sliver of weakness in him? Doubt that too. So this is so real. You don’t know who to hate because you can totally identify with the characters, so in the end you end up loving them all.)

I don’t know if it’s because the past week has been particularly stressful, having to deal with daily (I kid you not; DAILY, as in every single day) trips to the hospital for my kids… mostly for vaccines but the one that worried me a lot was my little baby whom we were afraid would need surgery for 2 masses that started to grow… and Saturday morning, when we saw our pediatric surgeon, he declared immediately that there would be no need for surgery; that the masses were due to hyperactive glands; that they would resolve themselves in time. I had a bum stomach the entire week waiting for that appointment with the doctor to push through, and that very same day that I found out my little one was free (and I’m absolutely positive that it’s all due to the prayers of my Spraground family and my friends in real life), the stomach issues disappeared. Stress.

(So thank you, thank you, my dearest Spraground family, for all your kind thoughts and prayers).

So. I don’t know if it was that stressful week. Or the fact that I missed the Up & Runners’ chat that Jes and I had scheduled for this morning (not for lack of trying to connect). Or the fact that I can’t get to my virtual workplace even if I want to. Or the fact that I’m again way behind with visiting with you on my blog porch. Or the fact that I lost my mom when I was a kid and had a stepmom whom I loved dearly (and lost too eventually). Or the fact that I’ve been trying to be valiantly cheerful while wanting to kick this dumb router for being so unresponsive (and let me tell you, the support of my DSL service provider did not have a solution for me… in fact, I think the guy knew even less than my hubby, who called them to get them to fix it for us).

But. The fact is… I cried. Buckets. Pails. Pools. Heaves and sobs. I totally sobbed my heart out . So my eyes look terrible and I look almost as ashen as Susan Sarandon did towards the end of her days as her movie character.

But you know what? I needed that cry. Strange. But it felt good after.

And so here I am, typing my blog entry into Word, waiting for that magic moment when I’ll be able to connect to the net… at least long enough to get this post up on my blog.

(((hugs))) to you and do know that I’ve been missing you!

I’ll be back soon for another post! I have my router fixed (thanks to my always-knight-in-shining-armor, resident compy geek hubby)… so I am alive again!!! WOOHOO!!! 😀

She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountains..

Tuesday, 18 March 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 25 Comments

when she comes… 😆

Hello from the mountains!!! I’ve been stuck here (happily, I must admit–mostly. I’d be in heaven if I had my desktop here with my CS3 and my dsl connection) for almost a week, spending vacation time with family. I’m writing now from my dinosaur laptop, which doesn’t even have 1GB of RAM (yeah, yeah, sorry isn’t it?)… so, much as I’ve been dying to design and scrap some layouts, I just don’t have those options open to me right now. But you know what? I’ve been scribbling on my notebooks my ideas for more designed freebies, and I promise you when I get back down to civilized lowlands, I will have a lot of gifties waiting to be created and shared with you! Woohoo!!!

I am posting here though on quick notice, upon request from my friend and fellow Spraggirl, Susan. She referenced me on her blog (bless her!) regarding how I keep track of my layout credits, and she has requested me to repeat the instructions for those who have been wanting to know more.

So… here they are, my dear Susan, and many thanks once more!

The Importance of Credits

I really believe that listing credits is a hugely important habit to form, especially in the world of digital scrapbooking where we often share our layouts on galleries, on our blogs, or even in magazines if we’re lucky enough to get published. I have never yet come across a TOU (Terms of Use) from a designer who says “Please, whatever you do, don’t give me credit and don’t say that I’m the one who created this item you’re using to create your layouts!” 😆 Some do say “credit is not necessary” but they’ll also tell you that if you do decide to give credit, they will certainly be appreciative and grateful.

Considering that it only takes a minute to list these credits down, why not take that extra step to express our gratitude and appreciation for the hard work that designers put into making these designs that we happily use to display our fondest memories with, right? (Because it really is not easy to design stuff… fun, definitely–I love it!–but it is a lot of hard work that goes into the littlest thing that is created… and a lot of love! So it’s always nice to give love back when it’s given to us in the form of the digital schtuff that we’re using).

So… credits. Love ’em. Keep them. Announce them. You know the saying, “Give credit where credit is due” ? Lot of wisdom in that one. 😉

So how do I do it?

I’d like to believe that everyone in the scrapping world would love to give credit (scrappers are an amazing bunch of loving people)… the problem, I think, comes in when we have used items, changed our minds, replaced those items, and then at the end of it all, we forget from which folder we pulled out this paper and that element… 😆

So I think the easiest way is to keep track of the credits as soon as we pull in the background paper (which I assume is always the first thing we get onto a new document) and then keep adding to that… and editing the credits to reflect changed items either as we go or at the end when our layout is complete.

There are a million ways to do this–and I think this ability to do the same thing in different ways is what makes digital scrapbooking rock! It’s simply a matter of finding which way works best for you! Some people keep a notepad open where they list the items; other people make a new layer and write all the info there; etc. I’ve tried several ways as well (including making an Excel file to keep track of everything), and through trial and error, I’ve found the best way that works for me is to use the File Info option in Photoshop. (I’m sure also that I’m not the only one who has discovered this, so I can’t take credit for thinking up this process! 😀 )

Both Elements and full-version Photoshop have this File Info option.

This is how I keep track of credits:

1. Go to File (on Photoshop main menu)) > File Info. Bear in mind that we need to have a document open in order to have this option open to us. Otherwise, with nothing open on our workspace, we won’t see this option open to us).

2. In the dialog box that opens, we can put in the title of our document or layout, we can put our name as the creator, and in the Description box, we can also type in all the materials we’ve used, together with the designers who’ve made them.

NOTE: Screen shots are from PSE5 since that is the only program I have loaded on my dino laptop. 😉

The great thing about this is as I work, I input the information in the File Info box instead of having to open another document or file to keep track of the credits. And when I save my layout, the File Info gets saved along with the document. YAY! No more having to save and store together two different files referring to the same layout!

Then, when we need to put in the credits (say, if we upload our layout into a gallery or onto our blog), all we have to do is click on File > File Info, highlight the content in the Description box that contains our credits list… then copy/paste the information onto the Description area on our gallery upload dialog box, and voila! It’s all there!

What I love about this is that it’s kept separate from the LO itself, but in the same “drawer”– if you will– so that it never gets “lost”. Also, if midway I decide that I want to replace a particular item that I’ve used on my layout and inputted into my File Info, all I have to do is delete that item from the list in my File Info box and add in the replacement details. Then when I hit Save to save the file, everything is replaced as well with the updated credits list. Awesome, isn’t it?

Hope this is of help to anyone who can use the info! (By the way, the File Info of your photo files already contains all the EXIF details pertaining to your photo–isn’t that marvelous?)

Alrighty then, back to the mountains! Catch you again soon!

Back to Life…

Friday, 14 March 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 17 Comments

… as I knew it before the past two weeks. But much better. Much, much better now.

By now you’re all probably aware (unless you haven’t been to the Spraground) that I’m out of the apprentice program. I won’t say much about it except that I believe everything happens for a good reason, and when you do your best and still what you worked on slips through your fingers, it can only mean that there’s an even better opportunity out there, waiting in the wings.

And so there is. 😉

I’ve gotten so much more than I ever could’ve had I gone farther than the second week. And what I have received is worth infinitely more than anything in the world. I have been overwhelmed again and again by the overflowing love, affection, loyalty, and support of my sistahs on my playground… and when you have that, how can you not feel that you have won so much more? I do. I have treasures beyond compare, and they have names. I play with them everyday on the playground. They are my friends. They are my family. I may not have had the opportunity (yet) to hug them in person… but they know that I’ve sent a kajillion hugs over the oceans and clouds, a kajillion hugs for each one of them.

I am so blessed. So happy. So contented.

And THIS, this is the life I have wanted. I went on this adventure and learned a lot. But my most important gains were not in the area of design. They were in the book called Life. I have never, ever waivered in my devotion to my home-away-from-home aka Spraground. And I was not happy being away from my friends there, which was what happened while I was working on my entry kits.

This is probably where I have to say that I am still and always will be grateful for the opportunity I was given by Little Dreamer Designs. I am not bitter nor sad nor angry about the elimination because I know that I gave my best and I made decisions that I thought of thoroughly. I could’ve opted to make really simple designs and thus ensure that I could go on to the next round, but I chose to be experimental and to push my limits, and to not take the easy way out for me. I made judgment calls, and those judgment calls were part of what got me eliminated… but it’s fine! Because I made those judgment calls myself! They were my decisions. And I stand by them. So I’m happy! 😀

And because I know I’ve been true to myself, there is nothing that I can possibly be bitter about. Besides bitterness only zaps energy, and that’s never a good thing. I truly believe, too, that we get what we give out, so I only want to give out good vibes. Good juju is good. 😆

And really, if you have the Spraground sistahs in your corner, how can anything go wrong? How can anyone be sad? The only tears I’ve shed are those that have quietly rolled down my cheeks as I’ve read messages of love, support, and affection from the girlies (and guy-ie :D) who mean the world to me.

A very very good friend of mine–one of the most awesome people I have ever met–sent me an email with this quote, right after I had told her that I had been eliminated. This email of hers was what brought to my eyes the very first tears–I cannot even begin to describe how she totally touched my heart. I want to share the quote part of it with you here:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knowcking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that hHe is building quite a different house from the one you thought of–throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Beautiful quote. Beautiful email. Beautiful person.

And beautiful messages and beautiful cards from beautiful people! (And I mean beauty of the heart!) ~ God is so good. He has blessed me with so many gifts. You. My friends. Precious, precious gifts.

So now I’m back, and I’m extremely glad to be right where I belong, surrounded by all your beautiful hearts. Ahhh. Always so good to be back home.

Soooo… thank you, thank you all for all the affection and the support (and the really funny things you were saying: you really made me laugh! And I loved that too!)

And the Creative Muse Plods On! 😀

And because I love creating, here is what my muse has come up with for you. (There’s more bursting to come out, inspired by all of you whom I love more than I can ever express in words… so expect a whole lot of freebie gifts coming up for you soon!)

I promised the paper I used for the preview of the ElementaLove kit, but I didn’t want to give just one piece, so I created more stuff… My creative muse is still in that experimental mode, so I have a torn and curled rough paper border, four grungy & textured papers (three solids and one patterned), a grungy photomask (pull in your photo onto the layer above it, hover your mouse on the dividing line between the photo layer and the mask layer till you see a snowman-looking icon, then click and you have your clipping mask!), a fabric mat with built-in buttons to attach it to your layout (can be used for journaling or as a photo mat), and a simple ribbon strip.

PS. The arrow on the photo mask in the preview is only there to show that it’s the mask I used with my photo… 😀

Here’s what the additional stuff looks like:

{Click on image for larger view}

And here’s where you can snag the ElementaLove Add-on Kit!

Okay, I’ve got to do some rounds on the galleries to leave love, because I’ve been away for so long and I am just soooo excited to see all the masterpieces my friends at the Spraground have come up with!!!

I’ll see you soon! Have a great day, my sweeties! ((((((((hugs))))))))

Coming Up for Air…

Monday, 10 March 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 21 Comments

… after being on a self-imposed exile for the past few days, working feverishly on getting my Round 2 Challenge submission for the Apprentice Program at Little Dreamer Designs done. Thank goodness for a very understanding hubby: “Shhh, J,” he tells our son, “Mama’s working hard…” Priceless man! 😆

And thank God for not letting me come down with the virus that hit my 5-year-old dearie 3 weeks ago and that, hopefully, is on its way out our door 2 weeks after hitting my 2-year-old honey. I lost my voice for a day and felt really sick for about three, but other than that, I’ve just been sooo grateful that I haven’t had to lie down and nurse the illies. (Totally helps that I’m also downing really strong vitamins like an addict, just to make sure I can function well enough to do all that has to be done).

Actually, I kind of feel like I could give the Energizer Bunny a run for its money. 😆

So… I just finished uploading my kit and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I make it through the next round. I’m just counting on making it through each round alive. 🙂 This sorta reminds me of the relationships I had when I was young: unlike so many of my friends who used to count (and celebrate!) anniversaries with their boyfriends by the month 😆 I always used to just look forward to just celebrating the days till they eventually turned into years. Call it crazy, but I like living each day fully, and then having the option to look back one day and say, “Wow!!! Those were some ultra-fabulous 365 days!” instead of “That was a great year!” 365 days sounds so much more than a year, right? Hmmmm. (If you haven’t noticed it in the past, by now you should be fairly certain that I have some strange ideas. 😆 )

So… anyway… it’s been an awesome week. Crazy-busy, more than ever before, with the 3rd run of my dear friend Jessica’s fab beginners’ class, Up & Running… (on the 3rd day of the course, there were 400 layouts I needed to go and leave love on… I can imagine how many masterpieces are waiting for me to marvel at!) The galleries at our Spraground are seriously ROCKIN’ too, with all the great great creations of all my Spraguemates… and WOW! Have you seen the LDD Apprentice Gallery??? Man, all (and I’m not exaggerating here, but I mean ALL) my friends who uploaded their layouts there really ROCKED the kit and the gallery!!! And I was soooo happy and proud to find that one of us, dear, dear Carol, was the very first one who won the very first $10 coupon given out by Michelle at Little Dreamer Designs (if you haven’t yet uploaded a layout using any of the apprentice freebies–hopefully, mine! 😆 — in the gallery there, go run! Michelle is giving out two $10 coupons each week for the four weeks that the apprentice program is running, and the only thing you have to do is (1) be a registered member there (it’s free!), and (2) upload a layout into the Apprentice gallery using any of the kits that are there for exclusive download.

Then there are our wonderful Spraground Weekly Challenges, which are really so much fun, especially now that everyone is playing excitedly. I can’t even begin to tell you how RICH our galleries are with inspirational materials! These girlfriends of mine are ROCKIN!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF THEM!!!! (Okay, I had to shout that out, because … the words just aren’t enough, you know??? My heart is bursting with pride and affection for each and every one of them!!!)

It’s also the end of the school year where I live, so you know what that means? Oh, just tons of final exams for each of my 3 kids who are in school. It also means that all the schools schedule as much parental-involvement activities as they can in these last few weeks (probably cramming what they can fit into the remaining few breaths of the school year)… I almost think it’s a conspiracy. 😆 End-of-the-school-year also means entrance exams for kids to enter the next level (my 3-year-old S had to take an entrance exam to enter Kinder, and my 5-year-old J has yet to take the entrance exam for Prep… and then my first two sons have to take summer review programs to prepare for the entrance exams for university and high school)… SIGH! Exams, exams, exams. Thank goodness I’m done and over with schooling! 😆

And then… summer. Kids with me, beside me, around me, by my head, by my feet, by my hips, on my lap… 24/7. Love it. I need to find some worthy activities to keep them busy so that they aren’t tempted to speak the Unspeakable: in our home, the three words that are among the most forbidden are “Mom, I’m bored.” 😆

Then there are a number of other projects as well, which I’ll surely let you know about as they come closer… and … the long-awaited DIGI IN DEEP at our Spraground in a few weeks!!! WOOHOO!!!

But so that I don’t let you suffer further with all my blah blah blah, please tell me that you forgive me for being absent for most of this past week… on the Spraground, on my porch swing here… I do peep in once in a while to say hello, but haven’t had much time to really sit and talk (and regret that GREATLY… if only I could find 48 hours in a day to do all that I want to do!) 🙂

So anyway, forgive me? Please? And let me give you all a HUGE HUG for all the warm fuzzies and the awesome layouts and the wonderful support that you’ve given to me while I am embarking on this huge design adventure of my life! I promise you I will never ever forget this incredible show of support and love: it’s written on my heart forever. And even beyond that. 😉

Speaking of design adventures, here’s the latest!

This is my submission for Little Dreamer Designs’ Apprentice Program Round 2 Challenge:

I can’t say much because it’s all private and propriety information that we get, but this much I can say: I have truly enjoyed slaving away at the challenges… it’s playing, learning, creating, sharing all in one blow… really, how much better can it get?

So here now comes the sharing part!

What you’re getting: a mini-kit of elements in what I called my ElementaLove (the love is there for you, you know. 😉 )

1 glitter foliage accent – in two versions: one without shadows and one with its own shadow… I chose to apply the preshadowing to this element because I felt it was the hardest to do a shadow on… the other elements are easier, but with this one, I did my best to apply a drop shadow so that various parts of the wildflower seem to be at different heights from the paper base

1 shiny chrome / metal photo corner – there’s one png file, but you can use it to put two on either sides of your photo or journaling block, or you can use all four, or… 😉 Just flip and rotate and have fun!

1 stitched border – a little trivia: this took me the longest to create, because I made my own new stitches and stitch holes from scratch, experimenting a bit here and there and playing around with Photoshop… I worked on the first set for roughly 48 hours. I went to sleep at 6AM, with the sun just about to rise, last night/this morning… and when I opened my kit on my compy to get ready to upload it at LDD… I took a look at the stitches and decided I didn’t like them much. So it was on to creating a new set of stitches and stitch holes from square one… experimenting some more… and this time I came up with something that I really liked. So I hope you like them too. And you know what? I have even greater appreciation for all the designers who put stitches in their kits: let me tell you, these little bits of thread are not easy to make. 😆

1 metal and glass triple-frame – I’ve included instructions in the download folder on how to work with this in the easiest way. If you’ve downloaded and used my pocket page from the first Apprentice Round Freebie submission, it’s pretty much the same technique you use… easy-peasy! 😉

All items have no shadows (except for the pre-shadowed version of the foliage accent, but you also get the shadow-free one, in case you want to apply your own)… so that you have absolute freedom in deciding where and how you put it on your layouts.

Here’s the preview, in case you haven’t seen it yet on Little Dreamer Designs (click on Apprentice Gallery Round 2 if you want to leave love… there are some awesome kits over there! Have you seen the company I’m in? Man, seasoned designers and newbies, all in one room! It’s a GREAT mini community we have going there for these next few weeks!)

Okay, enough talking! (See what happens when I don’t see you for ages? I’m unstoppable! 😆

Here’s the preview:

{ Click on image for larger view }

And you can download it HERE.

PS. The preview paper isn’t included in this mini kit, since our challenge for the week was all about elements… but if you want it, leave me a note in the comments, and I’ll upload it here for you in the next few days. Just give me a few hours to get my lost hours of sleep back, hahaha! 😉

Thanks for passing by, and thanks for your continued support, thanks for all your warm fuzzies, thanks for keeping your fingers, toes, arms, legs, and eyes crossed that I get as far as possible in this adventure… and just, wow, a million kajillion bazillion THANKS. From. The. Bottom of my bottomless heart.

Have I told you that I love ya? I have? I’ll say it again. I do. 😉