Oh, WOW!!!

Tuesday, 19 February 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 18 Comments

I’ve been waiting for February to roll around because I’ve been waiting for this particular magazine to come out…

If you’re wondering why, and if you’ll allow me to shamelessly toot just this once 😉 … here’s why: because it has the very first magazine article that I’ve written on it! 😀

Remember my friends Jun and Abby de Leon? Well, in all the decades that Jun has been top photographer in the country, this is the first time (to my knowledge) that he has ever agreed to come out in a feature article in a mag… and he had some requirements, hehe. One of those requirements, to my huge surprise, was that I write his article for him. 🙂 (He didn’t tell me… I only found out when the mag people called me to ask me to write the article… 😀 Have I said that I truly like this guy? :D)

So… here it is (another one on my “Things To Do in My Lifetime” List checked!):

Here are the pages, one by one, for my dear friend Noel who requested to be able to read it. 🙂

(PS. If you click on each image, you can get the enlarged view. If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel, hold down the control key as you scroll and you’ll get an even larger view 😉 …. oh, and I blocked out my last name… hope you don’t mind)

I joined Jun and Abby during their pictorial which was held early December (you can imagine how long I’ve been waiting for this to come out! :D). Seeing the lights and the perfect set-up just sitting there, waiting for the taking, I couldn’t resist and shamelessly snapped a few of my own photos while I was at the studio. Here’s one of the photos that I took, spruced up on a layout which I gave this lovely couple for Christmas:

CREDITS:

Michelle Coleman – WinterFrost Paper; Jason Gaylor – Japanese Foliage brushes; Fonts: BeoSans & Jane Austen / Photo by LivE

What Makes My Heart Smile

Speaking of layouts and artwork… I love love letters, don’t you? I especially love them when they’re accompanied by scribbles that are hardly legible… 😆

My 5-year-old son J is at that stage when he goes through paper with as much mercy as a shredding machine… but I don’t mind his using up all our paper when what he comes up with totally makes my heart burst with tender affection:

He’s into mixed media, haha! He received a bunch of Pooh stickers in his goody bag from Family Day which we celebrated at his school yesterday. He combined those stickers with his crayonwork and dotted all the pages (there were more than 6, but I didn’t add them all here, considering that just one of this would put a smile on my face that could reach all around the world and back). Each of the papers had “I luv mama” or “I luv papa” … awwww!!! Gotta love kids!

I scanned them for prosperity… and so that one day, when he’s a teenager, I can bring these out and tell him, “See? You loved us once!” 😆

Dilly-Dallying…

is what I’m doing…

Little Dreamer Designs has come up with an apprenticeship program, which is something that I’m sure has long been awaited by many who have wanted to get into the design world. A few of us from the Spraground ( you read that right: our playground has been christened Spraground (couldn’t resist the play with words!), with permission from Jes and Jared too! 😀 ) have decided to try our luck… I know I’m going to be up against a ton of great and seasoned designers, but no guts, no glory! (Hear me pushing myself? Trying to convince myself? 😆 ) Actually: it’s as simple as this–I promised myself at the start of the year that I would get into lots of adventures, so here I am, merely fulfilling my resolutions! hehehe.

So I’ve been doodling and drawing and brainstorming and imagining and doing everything else that it takes to come up with the required mini kit for application–everything but the actual doing. Uhmmm… so far, I’ve come up with nothing. Lots in my mind and nothing on my compy. 😆 Except for something for you, which I couldn’t help making…

Here’s the layout I made with it:

Here’s what I came up with while playing for the past week: 2 papers, some embellishments, and this plopper. Initially I planned on making a template for all you sweeties… that template developed into a plopper… and then, while I was making the plopper, I thought to myself… why not give all the individual elements that I used to come up with this plopper as well? 😉

So today you get the plopper, and tomorrow I’ll upload other parts of this mini kit…

I hope you like today’s freeb, and that you can find some use for it! Here’s the preview of the plopper (I used a stock photo on it). Credits for CU items I used can be found, as usual, in the TOU!

{Click on image for larger view}

This plopper comes as a .psd file… I’ve included a clipping mask to make it really easy to use. All you have to do is insert your photo layer between the plopper and the mask, hover your mouse on the line that divides your photo and the photo mask till you see the little snowman-like icon, and Alt-Click to clip the photo to the mask. You can add journaling or a title or you can leave it as it is… all up to you! 😉

Download the Perfect Moment plopper here. Thank you in advance for the love you leave on my blog! 😉

Well, I’ve got to get back to the other things that are swirling around in my mind (lots to think of and plan for)… so hope to see you around again tomorrow for the rest of the Perfect Moment mini kit!

May today be filled with perfect moments for you, my sweeties! (((hugs)))

Masterpieces Created by Friends Using LivEdesigns!!!

Monday, 18 February 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 8 Comments

I just totally love it when I see my friends using the designs I’ve made… it is such an HONOR, my sweeties!!! Thank you!!!

And so everyone can marvel at these wonderful masterpieces, here:

PS. Thanks to my darling friend Veevs, who showed me how incredibly easy it is to get an account at slide.com!!! Thanks amiga! 😀

I Caved…

Tuesday, 12 February 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 23 Comments

DH came home last Saturday with the most sumptuous feast from the Italian resto by the corner… totally no consideration for wide-eyed, famished, spaced-out women. 😆 I could not resist.

My dear friend Joan doesn’t like talk about diets 😉 but I will say this: there are a lot of things that I’ve learned in the past few days from this attempt to diet: Two, to wit:

1. Three hours of sleep and an empty stomach do not mix well. Nope. I was feeling quite spacey and ditzy, and had trouble focusing. At one point, dh said “do you realize you’ve been sitting there staring at your compy for the past X hours?”… I was “working” on a layout and here I use the term working very loosely because I have a sneaky suspicion that what I was really doing was sleeping with my eyes wide-open. 😆

2. Maybe I need to spoil myself less and deprive myself more. I mean, really, how bad is it to limit your intake? A very dear wise friend of mine, who was also my confessor for a good part of my life (and he baptized the last 3 of my children), once told me: “If you feel completely satiated and stuffed after a meal, then you know you’ve eaten like a pig.” Ouch. I need to learn to eat like a bird.

Thing is, I realize, this applies to a whole lot of other things in life also. We don’t really have to have everything to the maximum limit. In most cases, it must be good for the soul to restrain oneself for greater strength in the things that really matter. Balance is a good thing. A very good thing.

Now, Joanie, I will quit this talk and move on. 😀

Tagged! Again!

I’ve been meaning to do this tag from my dear friend Jackie, and while I was thinking of what to put in my tag, my friend Jeanne tagged me as well! So there I go: tag times two! Sorry, my dear friends who may not be fond of tags but are about to be tagged anyway by me 😆

Jackie’s Tag

These are the rules: You must post the rules before you give your answers.You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don’t have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you’ve been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged and need to read your blog for details.

(Jackie is lucky: she has 2 letters to her middle name. I have SEVEN. But one letter repeats so I’m going to count that as one. There’s nothing in the rules that doesn’t allow that, right? hehe)

M – Mom. This is half of a huge part of what defines me (the other is Wife). For me there is no greater gift than being able to be mother five times over to the most adorable sons (even when they’re not being that adorable, I am ever thankful for them). Of course I can’t be mom without being wife, so that kind of works itself out pretty well in the gratitude department, doesn’t it? 🙂

A – Addict. I am addicted to digital design, digital scrapbooking, photography. I can sit for hours and play, play, play. Can’t help it. I’ve been pulled over to the Dark Side and have absolutely no regrets! Thank you Jes! 🙂

R – Rebel. The good kind though (I think). This must be the after-effect of being the youngest kid of 6 for 15 years (the only weapon of the designated siblings’ slave is rebellion). I know for a fact that if you want me to do something, you need to let me feel that it’s my choice; otherwise, I rebel. (Okay, so maybe I should have said Brat instead, but there’s no B in my middle name). Maybe R should also refer to Relent–yeah, yeah, after I rebel, I relent. hohoho. Does that make me a fake rebel? 😆

L – Lover of Life. Oh yeah. Love life and all there is to it, peaks and valleys (though I prefer peaks, thank you very much). I will always be grateful for my life and the lives that have touched mine, and grateful to have been granted the grace to see, and therefore be grateful for, all the bountiful blessings that have been given me and the people I love. I really don’t get it when some people complain about having a rotten life: I think there are always two sides to the coin, and one can choose to see the dark side of things and be frustrated, or seek the lighter side of things (no matter how difficult this may be at times) and be happier.

E – Explorer. I love learning. I love dissecting things, trying to understand what makes things work, trying to find a better way of doing something so that it’s more efficient and makes better sense. I love discovering the world. I think I would just die if a day passed where I didn’t learn something new. This is the reason I totally adore books, and why I can spend hours playing with Adobe. There is just such a wealth of information to be bitten, chewed, mashed, swished around, and digested. Mmmmm. Burp!

N – Night Owl. I can function on 3 to 4 hours of sleep (well, as long as I don’t have an empty stomach). I love the quiet time and the darkness around; so conducive to thinking and creating art. Maybe this has something to do with having a buzzing household with five rambunctious boys when it’s daylight… or maybe I just like burning the midnight oil. Or maybe I just love my playground friends so much that I make it a point to be awake when they’re awake on their side of the world. 😆

E – (okay fine, I’ll be fair and do the other E as well 😆 ) Everything-that-happens-is-good Believer. (Is this really pushing it? 😆 ) Did you ever notice my blog header? Take a look above: Right over there, at the top right side, you’ll see my mantra: “It’s all good.” It really is! Sure there are some really yucky things in life, can’t avoid that. (After all, will one know the sweet joy of laughter without having tasted the saltiness of tears?). But I really believe that behind every cloud there is a silver lining. I guess it all stems from faith, that precious gift: I truly believe that my father God loves me with a personal love (just as He loves you with a personal love), and that He will allow unfortunate events to happen to His beloved ONLY if there is a greater, better good that can come out of it. It is our task, therefore, to find what that greater, better good is.

Alright! Jackie, you would be proud of me! Got all seven facts done! Now I tag my dear friends (who I hope will still love me after I’ve tagged them 😆 ) Veevs, Linda, Laurie, Heather, Ann, Dawn, and Kelleigh (welcome to the playground tag game, kel!!! 😛 )

Jeanne’s Tag

Jeanne’s tag is a different kind, a very heart-warming one:

The idea behind this tag game is different from other tag games. Rather than look inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for three blog friends. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose to do so. In addition, be sure to go to the blog of those you are blessing and leave a comment on their blog to be sure they check yours!

Okay, this is really hard to do, limiting the number of people to three, because there are truly just too many people who need to be counted on this list (and a good number of them don’t even have a blog). Maybe the tag limits us to three so that we can remain in the blessings of those whom we haven’t tagged? 😆 just kidding. Couldn’t resist that. >heehee<

Seriously though, Jeanne, thank you for your oh, so kind comments on your blog. It is always a GREAT thing to receive warm fuzzies unexpectedly, and you gave me warm fuzzies enough to last an entire year and then some. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart too.

Alright, my three people (and those whom I’ve left out… you’re in my heart, you know that).

Lisa. Lisa is a darling friend, whose latest venture has been taking up the cudgels of providing the playground challenges. Lisa is my personal hero, because despite her battle with trying to keep from losing weight (what I would give to be able to donate my excess to her), she is nonchalant about her health battles, never drawing attention to herself, and manages to maintain a great sense of humor and a matching concern for others. Where others would’ve withdrawn and buried themselves in concern and worry that could be justified, Lisa is amazingly brave and continues to live life to the fullest. She is awesome.

Deb. Deb is just a fountain of never-ending warm fuzzies and is my most constant blog-bench visitor, there from the very start when there were just a handful who would come sit on my blog-bench. She is so generous with her kind thoughts and her kind comments, and she never has a negative thing to say. I love positive people! Deb, like me, has a houseful of children (well, okay, she has more than me), and counts them all as blessings. I love that about her. She has had more than her fair share of trials and tribulations, and has just been through so much these past months… yet she continues to struggle against the raging winds. This aint no weak woman here. She’s a wonderful girlfriend, and she knows she’s going to get humongous hugs from me the moment we meet. She is awesome.

Kari. Kari is The Boss. Man, can this woman get things done! (Okay, actually by tagging Kari I need to tag Laurie and Tori as well, because they complete our PP group, but I’m so generous, I’m going to leave Laurie and Tori for Kari to tag, hehe). She is way organized (OCAR Queens, unite!) and takes it upon herself to make things happen. I love that. Way back when she took the U&R course and I was moderating, I already knew she had The Boss in her. She’d also most likely win Mom of the Year award, the way she takes on 15 children in her home at one time (and not for a birthday party of her child, noooo, just a regular generous thing to do, you know?), the way she bakes cookies for everyone, and continues to do her one million and one motherly things to do. Seeing her photos of her Christmas tree up on her blog inspired me to get my butt into action putting ours up as well. 😆 Kari is amazingly thoughtful, and she’s quiet when she does her generous acts: love that too! She is terrific.

Note now that I would tag everyone on my playground if I could, including my two dear friends who flat-out refuse to have blogs except the virtual ones (Joan and Jana, you know who you are) and darling Veevs (except I already tagged her above, so it would be cruel to do it again, hahaha!). I would tag every single one of you who have taken the time and effort to leave such kind words on my blog and on my 4shared site. I would tag every single one who has deemed my freebies worth working with; it is a true honor that you choose to download them. I would tag every single person who has crossed the path of my life, because I truly believe there are no accidental meetings, that everyone you meet even for a split second changes your life and adds to it in ways you cannot even dare to dream of. But because we are limited to three, I hope the rest of you realize that you are dear, dear, dear to me and I love you to little pieces.

The Latest

Here are the latest layouts I’ve come up with. Not very productive compared to my LOAD January days, hahaha! But you don’t want me to go on and on with why… so without further ado, here they are:

NOTE: My son’s school required mom-and-child collaboration to do a page of his Artwork for their school yearbook (he graduates this year from Senior Kinder… man, does time fly!!!). It was easy scanning in his artwork, but extracting each letter of his penmanship was not. (And yes, Kari, send me your kids’ penmanship and I’ll extract them for you… in exchange for Jessica’s new book. LOL!!! just kidding. I’d do it in a blink for a song, you know that).

CREDITS:

Kim Christensen’s Spelling101 Papers, Overlay, Stitching; Katie Pertiet’s Folder Frame, Special Tag, On the Edge Flourish; Andrea Victoria’s LoveFrame freebie (heart extracted); Amber Clegg’s Postage Date Stamp; Lisa Warren’s Staple; Sara Carling’s Aero Leather Tags

Journaling reads:

high five, n. slang … 1. a gesture of greeting, elation, or victory, in which one person slaps an upraised palm against that of another person; 2. a group of five adorable boys with the uncanny ability to make their mother’s heart soar high up in the sky every single moment of every single day

CREDITS:

Amy Teets’ Whity Tighties paper; Katie Pertiet’s Ledger Grid; SnapFrameEdgers; StampedMoments (Loved); JenniferAdams Donelly’s accessories (recorder buttons) – recolored; Deanna Patterson’s Stitched Ribbon; Raechel Knight’s Black Friday Stitching (recolored); Michelle Coleman’s AntiquatedSwirl; Pattie Knox’s BasicFeltAlpha; Andrea Victoria’s Nutrition stamp; Atomic Cupcake

NOTE: This was done as Lisa’s first PSF challenge, which was a scraplift challenge from Designer Digitals (one of my top favorite sites and shoppes!)

{ You can click on the image for a larger view in case you want to read the journaling… }

CREDITS: Multi-photo Template, PerfectMoment Frame by me; Everything else from Paint-the-Moon aka Annie Manning’s Chloe’s Treasures kit. Many of the photos of my country are stock photos from various sites, including gettyimages, wayfarer, lonelyplanet and corbis.

Note:

This layout was my answer to Lisa’s other challenge to do a layout on our hometown (amazing layouts on our playground gallery!) Just wanted to put in a few details about the photos, for the benefit of all my playground friends who want to come visit (you’re welcome, and it’s an invitation that has no expiration date, remember!)

Top Row:

1st photo – cobbled streets of Vigan, Ilocos (northern part of the archipelago)

2nd photo – Banaue Rice Terraces, which has been called the 8th wonder of the world (sorta in the same league as the pyramids?)

3rd photo – the famous Manila sunset

4th photo – a wonderful expanse of beach in Palawan

Second Row:

1st photo – Tagaytay, southern getaway about 45 minutes from the city, with great mountain air and lots and lots of greenery; love this place!

2nd photo, top: Taal Volcano, in Batangas, known as the world’s smallest volcano (it also is a volcano in a lake with another lake in its crater, and yes, it is active)

2nd photo, below: Intramuros, once called the Walled City, which is like the fort used to defend Manila during the 300 years when we were a colony of Spain

3rd photo, top: diver with a pawikan, or sea turtle (great, great marine life in our country!)

3rd photo, below: map

4th photo: Manila Cathedral at night (one of the biggest and oldest churches in the city, standing there since the time of the Spanish occupation)

5th photo, top: Bibingka, one of the most delicious Filipino delicacies (I could make a whole layout and then some on Filipino food!) – this is a sweet rice cake which you eat piping hot, with butter generously spread (and immediately melting around it), with lots of melted cheese, including kesong puti ( or “white cheese,” made from the milk of carabaos… extra special around here), and salted red eggs, and with ground fresh coconut meat on top to complete the gustatory experience. Mmmmm!!!

5th photo, below: “Dinagyang Festival” in Iloilo (I initially thought this was the Ati-Atihan festival… but with all the feasts and festivals around here, the constant is the beautiful colors and merry spirit that fills the town).

Third Row:

1st photo – Mayon Volcano, known for its perfect cone (well it used to be completely perfect; now some eruptions have made it not so perfect, but it’s still the closest to a perfect cone in the entire world)

2nd photo: Palawan huts by the sea

Fourth Row:

1st photo: city lights at night showing the Makati skyline

2nd photo: Boat on its way to Boracay, a famous tourist spot known for its talcum-powder-like grains of white sand and long stretches of calm blue waters… it’s not as private and unoccupied as it used to be more than 20years ago when I visited it as a newly-out-of-college kid, but it’s still awesome anyway

And because of this…

layout, I made a multi-photo template that I want to share with you! (Thank you to all those who have left comments on the items that they normally use; I hear ya!!! So here’s one for those who said they like templates! 😉 )

{ Click on image for larger view }

I tried to make it as versatile as possible, so it’s a really simple template: has the grid and the photo blocks which you can clip your photos to so that you can crop-without-cutting (hit CTRL-G to form a clipping mask if you’re using PSE; hover your mouse between the mask and the photo layer and ALT-click if you’re using full version).

I’ve also included the text path in the freebie… just double-click on the text, CTRL-A to highlight the entire text and type in your own text. You can change the font size, the font color, and the font type as you wish, using the usual way.

Oh, and of course it’s a layered template, so you can shift things around to make it work for you as you want it to. (Just remember to give credit! 😉 ) Don’t worry about the black background layer; just pull in your own paper and turn off the eyeball icon on my background layer so that it’s just your paper that shows through.

Hope you like it!!! Here’s where you can download the template. Thank you in advance for the love you leave on my blog.

Now… this has been another looooooong post, so I need to get back to doing the stuff of real life. 😉

Have a happy day, my sweeties! (((hugs)))

Die Yet? :D

Thursday, 7 February 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 23 Comments

That’s how I spell diet, which is the latest adventure I embarked on two days ago. 😀 I exchanged my See Food diet with the South Beach diet (which is yet the best diet for me so far, because it actually forces one to take on a healthier lifestyle!)

For one who loooooves eating, this is not an easy journey. Show me anything from entrees to main meals to desserts and snacks: you’ve got me in the palm of your hand. 😆 (It doesn’t help that people in my country will find every single possible excuse to celebrate with food, and that kind of culture is deeply ingrained in my psyche, hehe). But! It’s good to pull up my jeans and strut around without having to unbutton the top of my jeans by the end of the day just because it feels like total freedom to do so. 😆

Is it hard? Yeah. Does temptation abound? Heck, yeah!

But it’s amazing. Because I realized that if I can overcome the temptation to eat what I want to eat (given that eating is not bad at all), then I suppose that strengthens my spirit and trains my resolve, so that it becomes easier to stay on the good path in other aspects that may not be so good, should temptation arise in those, whatever they may be (hmmm, the temptation to be impatient, for instance, or the temptation to scream when the telemarketers make their calls one after another in the span of 5 minutes. 😆 ) It’s sort of a variation of that principle that if you have been faithful in little things, then you can be faithful in bigger things. 😉

Another realization: this is a great exercise in staying cheerful. I mean, it’s great to have a better, healthier, non-junk-filled body… but if you don’t have a smile and a cheery disposition to go with it, then what’s the point right?

And yet another realization: talk about diets is probably boring, so I should stop now. 😆

(Psst! One last: So far… I’ve lost 3 pounds! Woohoo!!)

In one of my first posts for this year, I made a list of resolutions that I was hoping to accomplish this year. With the first month of the year over and the second one beginning, I decided to revisit the list to do a little self-evaluation and see whether I’ve been living up to my… ahem… lofty goals. 😆

To my utter delight, I realized just a few minutes ago, while re-reading them, that I actually have not done a bad job so far! 8)

(When you bite your nails in nervous anticipation waiting for your report card to come, and you realize all the butterflies in your stomach can stop flying around in there cos you’re doing okay after all–isn’t that always a cool thing? 🙂 )

So let’s see:

1. Make a layout a day – did pretty okay with this the whole January, thanks a whole lot to LOAD. (I need to kick myself into scrapping mode this time, with LOAD over… before I fall into my bad scrapping-procrastinating habit again!)

2. Lose 10-20 pounds – ha! We shall see on this one, but at least I’m making some effort towards achieving this in the next few weeks.

3. Give out at least one freebie a week – hmmm. This needs some working on. I promise! 😉

4. Consider having Lasik surgery done – I get an A on this one! Jumped in with both feet, a wish, and a prayer, and now all that’s left to do is go religiously to the post-op appointments for the entire year, and make a layout on this! 😉

5. Clean and organize stuff in our home storage areas – okay, I get a total F on this one. 😳

6. Clean and organize my compy stuff – have been working on this (slaving is more like it). I’m a far way from “done” but baby steps are good, baby! 😆

7. Learn some more, play some more, pray some more – yep, some here and there… after all, I wouldn’t want this particular struggle ever to end (too much fun, learning, playing, and praying!)

8. Stop pushing things to the last minute – okay, if any of you have the secret pill to swallow that makes this achievable, send an entire bottle my way, please! 😆

Awww, shucks!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you my sweet friends, for your warm, warm fuzzies that you left in your comments here, and on our playground message board, and on the 4shared site… THANK YOU!!!

Your sharing in my joy over the Oscraps challenge touches my heart in ways that words cannot express. Wish I could hire Aladdin to take me on a carpet ride to you all so that I could give you enormous hugs!!! But since I can’t do that, give yourselves a kajillion hugs for me, please? 🙂

Thank you. You know I love you, right? 😉

Oh, here’s a HUG!

A bear hug from me! 😀

Here’s the second set of the Bear Hug mini kit…

{ Click on image for larger view }

This comes with a humongous hug from me to you 🙂 … plus 3 textured papers (2 patterned, 1 solid), a felt-embroidered heart (with gratitude to hawksmont, whose designs and generosity inspire me, I have named this heart HawkHeart 😀 ), and a chipboard journaling tag… Hope you like this set and can find some use for it! You can download it here. Thank you in advance for the love you leave on my blog!!! Loooove having your warm fuzzies right here! 🙂

Funny, again

My 5-year-old J does it again! This guy cracks me up big time.

Yesterday, we were having our usual chats (we talk all the time, have you noticed? Must be the shared love for words, haha)

Suddenly, out of the blue, he says: “Mama, can you please, please, please get me a large meatball?”

Hmmmm. I’m thinking, okay, where did this thought come from? But I say, “Sure, honey, let’s get you that. But for what?”

He says: “We’ll get A (his eldest brother) to tie a string on it, because he’s really tall. Then he can hold it while I punch, punch, punch it, and then I’ll become really strong, and my friends are going to call me lean-mean-muscle-machine, and I can defeat all the bad guys!!!”

I swear, this is the very first time in my whole life that I have ever heard of a meatball being associated with a punching bag. 😆

This excites me!

I was just over at my dear friend Jessica’s blog the other day, where she placed a link to Shutterfly for her own little ABC book that she created for her son Elliott. I loved the ABC-book templates that she created (and that she’s giving away for free!!! FREE!!! Gotta loooove this woman!). Seeing what she did with it for her dear little son totally inspired me even more to create my own for my… wait a minute, I have 5 sons… omg, does this mean I need to create 5 ABC books??? 😆

Go ahead, hop on over to Jes’ blog, and see what a fantabulous book she has created! I’ll bet you all my little fingers and toes that you’ll want to create your own too! 🙂

And if you do (and you know you do 😉 ), here’s what can come in real handy when you start off on that exciting adventure!

Join me! Let’s do the ABC!!! 😆

EDIT: The templates come “free” on Shutterfly (which is where you go if you want to create the ABC book), and then you have the option to order the printed book from Shutterfly (it’s 20% off too for an 8×8 book)! Just wanted to clarify that in case my excited post was misleading… 😉

Word for the Month

Have you thought of yours yet? I’ve figured out mine for this month: JOY.

n. – intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness; the source or object of such pleasure and satisfaction

v. – to enjoy; to take great pleasure; to fill with ecstatic happiness, pleasure or satisfaction

[ from the French joie, and Latin gaudium, which means to rejoice… which reminds me of a wonderful encyclical I read, called Gaudium et Spes, or Joy and Hope ]

related words: cheer up; gladden; jump for joy; walk on air; delight; pleasure; positive stimulus; excitement; jubilation; high spirits; exuberance

Wow! So much to be joyful about! And those related words make me want to use them as jumping points for lots of everyday ordinary things!

What’s your word for the month?

To my friends in Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee

Are you all okay? I just read in the papers this morning about the twisters that hit last Tuesday evening! Please know that I am praying for your safety and that you are all okay, and I would love it if you could leave a note in my comments here to let me know that you are well and doing fine! Hugs and prayers to you!!!

You Ask, You Get

is what my friend Veevs always tells me. 😆

So… let’s take her motto (which makes a whole lotta sense) and apply it to us, why don’t we?

I have so many ideas swirling in my head for freebies, but I do want to make sure that they’ll be items that you can actually use and will want to use. (Yeah, we have our hard drives filling up, don’t we?, so it’s always good to give what will deserve the space on those sleek and sexy hard drives 😆 )

Would you want…

1. More papers

2. More elements – which ones are your favorite and go-to items?

3. Themed kits – which themes?

4. Templates, Quickpages, Ploppers?

So help me out please: let me know what you want? Would love to hear… go ahead, click on that Comments button and let me know! Thank you in advance!

Okay then… Busy day today, gotta attend to some things related to a trip I’m making in June 😉 — so I must be off for now… but you know I’ll be back soon, right? Thanks for visiting! Have a happy day, my sweeties!

WOOHOO!!! Happy, happy day!!!

Wednesday, 6 February 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 24 Comments

Remember the more-than-140-merged-layers layout I posted a while back, the one I had absolute fun working on, and was totally absorbed in for close to 24 hours? It was an adventure in thinking outside the box for me, and I really, really had the time of my life with it (felt very close to oil painting, which I haven’t done in more than a year… except with this layout, there were no brushes to clean after, no lingering smell of linseed oil or turpentine, no mess to clean up… perfect! Or… maybe it’s safe to say, I’m just hopelessly, digitally addicted. 😆 )

Anyway, did I say that that layout was the answer to a designer spotlight challenge featuring the Nature Glow kit of Annie Manning (aka Paint the Moon) at Oscraps?

The funny thing is, the only 2 challenges I have ever joined are ones that my girlfriends over at jessicasprague.com mention on the threads and rally about joining. I always welcome a chance to play with my friends; it’s like someone says “Come, let’s go on a trip to Disneyland and ride the scariest rides!” Who could resist grabbing the chance to have fun with friends, right? And Lisa–who normally handles our PSF challenges every Friday (except now she’s on multiple creative teams so the rest of us have taken over coming up with challenges… but I digress)–had included the Oscraps challenge as her PSF challenge for the week.

So anyway, I was checking the threads a week after to see who had won (always nice to know, so we can leave some love and congratulatory whoops), but there was no word on the discussion threads. After a while, I got totally caught up with the NWR course moderation, the LOAD challenges, and the 2peas photography course–not to mention real life (ha!)–that I stopped checking.

My friend Veevs would ask me periodically, “So who won?” Then I would remember to check, and I would tell her “no mention on the threads yet.” Finally, she got tired of waiting and told me she would email them to find out. Okay, so originally she pushed me to email them, but I am a shy guy (really! I am! >heehee< ), so my dear friend, total go-getter, sent an email.

This morning, as is my usual routine, I opened my inbox, and first thing I see is Veevs’ email to me telling me OMG OMG OMG YOU WON!!!!

I almost fell off my chair!

So I went to the link she had in her email, and realized that there was a private message for me waiting in my inbox at Oscraps from Annie herself (a totally sweet email!!!), and okay, here is where I confess to my duhhhh-ness that I never did think of checking in there. ( I was totally not expecting to win. There were MANY great great layouts submitted for the challenge on the Oscraps gallery, and among my favorites were those made by my girlfriends over at the playground! Have I mentioned that I never dare to think I could win in any challenge that I join? Well, this was no exception.)

But, dang, it feels good. Yeah, it does. 😀 😀 😀

And you know what’s even better? Knowing that all my friends over at our playground were so happy for me. Now THAT really matters big-time to me. I love my JS family, I really do!

A brief aside: I remember when I was 9 years old, I told my dad I wanted to join a drawing challenge for Sanrio (the Japanese company that makes Hello Kitty, Little Twinstars–which was my personal favorite back then, Melody, and those other cutesy totally-Japanese characters). What we had to do was imagine what kind of birthday party the Little Twinstars would have, draw it, and submit the drawing. The winner would receive a personalized certificate with a handwritten note from the Twinstars’ designer (big thing then), as well as a full year’s subscription to the English version of the Sanrio newsletter/magazine and some other stuff that I can’t remember.

My dad was iffy about my joining, and told me, “Fine, if you really want to join, go ahead. But please do not expect to win, because there are many joining that contest, and if you set up yourself wanting to win, and you lose, you just might be really disappointed.” I found that funny because even then, I never considered the possibility that I would win. I just wanted to draw! 😆

Long story made short: I did join. I submitted my drawing, which had a swimming pool (something I had always wanted to have in my backyard as a kid, but which we of course didn’t have) and everything else around it. Then I promptly forgot about it.

There was a party where we could buy Sanrio stuff while waiting for the announcement of the winners (great marketing ploy! haha!), and here’s the totally unexpected addition to my take-home goodie bag from the party!

And if you want to a general idea of the birthday pool (totally pixelly, hahaha!) here it is:

I have no idea why I won. Till now. Maybe the passion that went into doing it pulled all the good vibes? 😆

Who knows, but I loooved getting the Strawberry Magazine in the mail with its Japanese postmark every month! 😛 Just as I loved getting the surprise email from Veevs and Annie this morning!

Funny Nights

My five year old son, J, is the funniest thing on earth. He cracks me up about 24 times each day. Maybe it’s because he talks a lot, and he verbalizes whatever’s on his mind; you know what they say: “kids say the darndest things”.

Well, yesterday evening, while we were chatting, he told me,

“Mom, you know, I really like my friends. We pretend we’re Zoids or Power Rangers.” (pause) “We play rough games, and it’s lots of fun!”

Me: “That sounds like fun, alright!”

He: (another pause) “We don’t play with girls. They don’t like playing rough games.” (and this, in a sing-songy voice): “All they want to do is study and study and study… and play with dolls. Ugh!”

😆

Got me thinking: amazing how the difference between boys and girls is apparent even at such an early age?

And there’s more:

He: “But you know, my friend M (a girl classmate of his), she’s coooooool.”

Me: “Yeah? Why is that?”

He: “Cos she likes pretending she’s a Power Ranger too! She can play our games! She joins us!”

Aha. A typical boy’s buddy, she. Yup, those girls are precious. And in my limited experience, sometimes it’s precisely that total lack of self-consciousness and ability to relate with boys’ interests that gets them these girls the best boys. 😛

And yet another precious nugget:

Tonight, J tells me he wants to be a policeman when he grows up, “so I can fight the bad guys.”

He then launches into a whole description of what a bad guy is:

“He steals apples, Mom!!! Steals them! And he fools people! He says ‘Hey, paint this wall and I’ll give you candy.’ So the guy paints the wall, but after, the bad guy doesn’t ever give him the candy he promised. He lies! He lies, Mom!!!” (This description comes complete with wide-open eyes and look of disbelief and shock on his face).

Then he says “I’m going to need partners. Do you know who my partners are going to be?” and of course he gives the names of his two best buddies. He then goes into many details about how they’re going to punch and apply ninja moves on the bad guy (insert kapow, baboom, ching, and all other sound effects you can think of in place of the verbs… sample: “I’m going to kapow him, and then R’s going to kaching him…”)

He pauses long enough for me to say, “But honey, can you please consider another job, perhaps a safer one, where I don’t have to worry whether someone will hurt you while you’re fighting them?”

To which he replies, “Oh no, Mom, don’t worry, I’m not going to get hurt. My friends and I are gonna practice our moves.” (a thoughtful pause) “And we’re going to get M as a partner too!”

M is another girl classmate–not the “cool” one mentioned above–whom my son is less than fond of, because he says she’s a goody-goody. HAHAHA!!! So this girl classmate and my son are often at odds with each other; for some reason I can’t understand, they have a knack for getting on each other’s nerves.

So I am totally surprised when he tells me he’s getting her to join his posse.

I say, “Wow! How fun! You’re going to make M your partner too! Great!”

And he says without missing a beat, “Yeah, cos you know why? She’s really good at nagging! So she’s going to nag nag nag the bad guy and he’ll get defeated that way!”

😆 ROFLOL!!!

(Trivia time: nagging is taboo in our house. My sons are so used to hearing me say, “I only say it once, okay?” And I don’t normally result to throwing threats when things don’t get done, but when I do, my threat is always, “Do you want me to turn into a nagger?” A very effective threat, too! 😉 Ah, boys! )

Freebie, Long Delayed

Now one thing that HAS been nagging at me is my long-delayed freeb!!! I am soo soo sorry for the delay in uploading the promised “companion kit” to the Valentine card plopper I gave a few days ago…

I wanted to upload it sooner, but I also wanted to add a few more items that were not part of the card plopper. Unfortunately, I was not happy with how they were coming out. So I tweaked and tweaked and played and played, and finally I came up with something that I felt you might be happy with. So… I hope you are! 😀

Here’s Set 1 (of 2 sets) of the Bear Hug mini-kit:

{ Click on image for larger view }

Doing this freeb had me venturing outside my “design” box once more. Probably fitting, as Adventure was my word of the month for January… (which reminds me, have you decided on our Word of the Month for February??? I need to think about mine!). So this mini-kit is totally a result of playing around with my usual design styles. 😕 I hope you like it, but do tell me (gently now, softly, kindly) if you don’t like it, okay? 😆

What you’ll be downloading HERE is 3 textured papers, one that’s tame, another one that’s a bit on the wild side (done especially with Veevs in mind), and another one that has a grungy flower print on it. (Gratitude for the designers whose commercial use items I used in coming up with some of the items overflows in my TOU 🙂 ). There’s also the bear sticker (pretty large, about 8″–feel free to resize it according to your needs!), and a stitched wordart…

Just a few notes about the stitched wordart: on the card plopper, and in the download, you’ll find the quote is one straight line. In case you want to break it up into phrases (as seen on the preview), you can just cut and paste it as you wish (CTRL-X and CTRL-V), depending on how you intend to use it on your layout. Also, I don’t recommend that you apply drop shadows to it, because it already comes with its own drop-shadow and bevelling so that it mimics being sewn right onto your paper. Having said that, you are absolutely free to apply drop shadows if that’s what rocks your boat! 😀

Alright, I still have TONS of stuff to attend to (won’t bore you with the details, haha!) but I really wanted to put up this long-delayed freebie.

Thanks for the love you leave here, and have a very happy day/noon/night!!! Catch you later!

Whoa!!!

Sunday, 3 February 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 12 Comments

I didn’t realize how long it’s been since I last sat on this little porch of mine…

Been very busy lately, trying to juggle real life with completing the last week of LOAD at bigpicturescrapbooking, playing with the challenges of the 2peas photography course, and moderating the January batch of Now We’re Rockin’ with Photoshop (NWR) at jessicasprague.com… so please, please forgive me for being absent, my sweeties! You know I’ve missed you!

I’m here now, and so elated to be, so come sit on the swing beside me and set your glass of iced tea on this table here… and let’s catch up on missed time.

LOAD is Done!

Together with the end of the first month of January, LOAD ended as well. 31 layouts in 31 days… well, almost 31 days (I uploaded my 31st layout at 12:02 of February 1st. But who wants to be technical, right? 😆 ) My only objective in doing the LOAD was to get kick my procrastinating butt in gear and get into the habit of scrapping at least once a week. I was scrapping a layout practically every single day this January (except for those few days when real life didn’t permit it), and that’s a huge accomplishment for me!

What an amazing and super fun ride… thank you, Lain, and thank you, Stacy. What a great start to the new year!

LOAD is also what gave me the push to get this far with my Daily December album! I loooove Jessica’s Daily December template, and I love playing around with it (The only templates I’ve ever used were from Jessica’s courses, and this was one which I simply could not resist!)

Here are the LOADs I was busy with:

Journaling reads:

a stone’s throw away from my home, i find my other home, where i can run to You in times of joy, sorrow, confusion, elation. You are always there, waiting for me with open arms. You are my first love, who so generously gave me my greatest treasures in life–my husband, my children, my friends. i can never thank You enough; i can only offer to You this humble and contrite heart of mine, seeking to love You more and more each day.

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague Echoes of Asia Kit: paper (blended with Miriam Lima’s paper); Katie Pertiet’s Dirty Web frame; Web frame brush; JournalStamp-grunge; Michelle Coleman’s Grungy Rivet; Capris Flower Brush; LivEdesigns GrungyOverlay2

NOTE: This is one of the chapels that my brother, an architect, designed. I used Jessica’s double-photo effect with one photo Computer Tricks tutorial from CK January (you can find it here; it’s awesome. If you haven’t tried it out yet, do!)

And here are the rest of my Daily December pages that I did for LOAD:

DAILY DECEMBER CREDITS:

For all the Daily December layouts, I used Jessica’s fabulous Daily December template, together with Katie Pertiet’s grid brush and Michelle Coleman’s topper. You’ll find the additional individual different items I used per layout in the credits under each layout.

Journaling reads:

every christmas, we put up the nativity scene but leave the manger empty till the eve of the 24th, when the Christ Child is gently laid on His humble manger. i hope you always remember the deeper message behind this simple tradition of ours:

our own hearts can be the greatest thrones, but only when we fill them with Christ’s humility and gentle love for everyone around us.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS:

Mindy Terasawa – papers; star patches; flower sticker; Atomic Cupcake; Photoblast EZ Actions

Journaling reads:

yo dude, i would really like to know what you did with the little boy i carried in my arms 12 years ago. if you ever meet him again, tell him that i loved him then, but that i love this bigger, sweeter, bolder, funnier version of him even way much more…

ADDITIONAL CREDITS:

DigitalDivaDesigns, Jen Lessinger, MaryAnn Wise, Jessica Bolton, CanDee at CanDesigns – Papers; Sara Carling – leather tag; Amber Clegg – Postage Date Stamp; DanaZarling – Adchallenge Life Is Good Sign

Journaling reads:

look at you, honey, so intent on writing your own letter to santa. if doesn’t matter at all if you’re writing on toys; i’m sure santa would be absolutely delighted to receive such novel, first-class mail!

ADDITIONAL CREDITS:

Michelle Coleman – paper and glitters, Miriam Lima – papers

Journaling reads:

there are few things more heartwarming than seeing the cousins gather around the piano, filling the christmas air with laughter more lyrical than the classical music emanating from their fingers deftly playing on black and white keys.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS:

Leora Sanford’s NoteClips; Petit Moineux’s paper; Stacy Carlson’s heart tags; Heidi Larsen’s swirl; Anna Aspnes’ paper; Michelle Coleman’s ribbon wrap; Jason Gaylor’s brushes

Journaling reads:

twenty-eight years after graduating from high school and the friendships are still holding strong. what better time than christmas to celebrate the gift of solid connections?

ADDITIONAL CREDITS: Paper, doodles, and flowers from Maria Designs

Quote by Edith Sitwell:

winter is the time for comfort, for good food & warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand, and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.

ADDITIONAL CREDITS: AnnaBen @ ScrapbookGraphics – paper, flowers; Miriam Lima – papers

This is my dinner table, all dressed up for Christmas. 🙂 The chair wraps are silk, held together with capiz shells. Love how the chairs look like ladies with shawls! 😆

Must Not Forget…

… this funny tonight.

My 2 older sons, A & R, were teasing me about how my camera has become my appendage. Of course dh could not resist joining in the fray. The downside of being the only female in the family is: when the boys decide to gang up against me, there usually is just me against all the testosterone. 😆

But my 2nd son, ahhh, this boy is such a funny, loving guy (actually they all are, but he’s the one quick to come to my defense all the time. ha! gotta love that! 😆 ). When dh and A were going on and on about how I’m forever whipping out my camera, he said “No, Mom doesn’t take photos when we’re eating…” then he turned to his older brother A and whispered just loud enough for us to catch, “Now who’s going to win the Offspring of the Year award, huh?” and the two boys burst out laughing.

Offspring of the Year award. That’s one for the scrap pages!

(It doesn’t sound so funny now, but trust me, it was hilarious when it happened). 😆

And you thought there was no freebie…

but there is! If you’ve made it this far, you’ll find it right here!

I decided to experiment with making a Valentine card as a freebie, so I hope it’ll come in useful for you and your kids…

Here’s what it looks like:

{ Click on image for larger view }

It’s a .png file, a plopper really–it’s going to be a really quick download 🙂 So in case you’re in a rush, you can just open the file in PSE or in CS3, hold down the CTRL key as you click on the new layer button in your layers palette (on a mac that would be the Command key) so that your new layer comes in under the plopper. Then pull in your photo file, resize it using the transform handles, and voila! Instant Valentine’s card! 😀

Note that I just placed my text on the journaling chipboard tag, but you can put your own journaling text on it in your plopper… I’ve left the tag empty of course 🙂

Oh, and the size of the card is 5″ x 7″ but you can always change the image size to make it smaller or bigger. 😉

You can download the BearHug valentine card plopper here. Thank you for the love you leave on my blog! 🙂

I’ve also decided to make a teeny tiny Bear Hug mini kit which will have the items that you see on the card plus 2 additional papers… just in case you want to make a layout instead of a card. 🙂 I’ll upload it tomorrow (because it’s 4AM now so that means it’s time for Lala Land!).

And that’s all for today, folks! 😀

Humongous hugs to you, my sweeties!!! 😉 And I hope to see you again tomorrow!

Oh. My. Goodness!!!

Saturday, 26 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 19 Comments

You will never believe what came in the mail today.

I got a package, I got a package, I got a package, woohoo!!!

I received a notice from the post office this morning, telling me that I had a package waiting for me. I hoped against hope that it would be from my dear friend, Kari (I just received a couple of weeks back a beautiful Christmas card from our mutual friend, Laurie, that totally made my day too!!!). So I immediately had the package picked up, and while I was chatting with some friends over at our playground, the package came.

I know I was probably a blabbering fool at the chat–I was so excited!!! I don’t even remember what I said; I just know it involved a lot of woohoo’s and jumping up and down and running around in circles and dancing like crazy. 😆

A little aside: when I got the box, it had been opened. And hastily put back together again. See, that’s the thing I don’t get about the post office in this country. Why do they do that? Doesn’t that constitute some deprivation of one’s right to privacy? (Not that there was anything private in there, but it IS nice to be the one who tears open the tape of your own package instead of having someone get there and do it before you. And my friend Kari did such a great job of putting the box and the gift inside together so nicely… 😦 ) I suspect they open it because they want to check if there are $$ inside the package. After all, if it were to check the safety of what’s inside, there are Xray machines to do that, right? hmmmm. Very strange, Watson, very strange.

Here’s what it looked like when I got it:

The Best Surprise of the Year

BUTTTT!!! Even so, that didn’t dampen my excitement!

And here’s where it gets even MORE exciting!!! I opened the box and discovered a Christmas card from Kari 8) , and another card with a note, a long note, on it! WOOHOO BIG TIME!!! 😀

I love receiving letters!!! 😀

And wait. It gets even better. As I was happily freaking about the package with my girlfriends on the chat, it dawned on me that they knew about the package and its contents! Apparently they were all in on it, they all had something to do with getting the package to me… now how TERRIFICALLY COOL is that???? I looooooove my girlfriends at the playground, they are soooo sweet! Now THAT is what totally touched my heart!!! I have seen this book through the making but to have the real thing in my hands: wow. And to know that it got to me flying over the oceans on the wings of my sweet girlfriends’ love… that’s an infinitely bigger WOW!!!

I guess here is where I have to explain why this book is so special: this is a book that we, rockers at Jessica’s playground, came up with as a surprise for Jes (if you look at her blog and scroll to the end of December, you’ll find photos there of the same book). It was a collaborative effort of all the wonderful girls on our playground. Laurie came up with the idea seed, Kari pushed and pulled and took over the reigns (Kari’s da boss! 😆 ), Tori came up with the mosaic cover, and I came up with the dedication page and the two final pages at the end of the book. Every wonderful girlfriend on the book contributed her own masterpiece (without their pages, the book would be nothing) AND contributed time, effort, even finances, to get this book off the Shutterfly site and into Jessica’s hands! WOW! This is working together at its very best!

I guess I also have to explain that I could not, for one reason or another, upload any of my page files to Shutterfly (thank you Veevs and Project Posse for doing the uploading for me; where would I be without you?) So that meant that I also would not be able to order my own copy of the book! So that is why I am just sooooo awed by the book in my hands today. I can stare at it all day long, know what I mean? Rub my eyes, stare. Shake my head in quiet pleasure. Repeat: rub my eyes, stare…

😀

Kari, you are amazing. Thank you, my dear friend, for organizing this whole thing!!! (Even if you did it behind my back. hahaha!!!) Tori and Laurie, you too! PP rocks! And everyone on my playground, THANK YOU!

I feel totally privileged, honored, and blessed to count ALL MY GIRLFRIENDS on our playground among my dearest, dearest friends. Actually, no, they’re more than just girlfriends and best friends. They’re SISTAHS in every sense of the word and more! (My ties of affection to you are so strong that they can build a bridge across the oceans and we won’t even need visas to visit each other! Ha!)

There are no words that can accurately express or even come close to my gratitude and overflowing affection for you, my sweeties, so here’s a “card” I made (they say a picture paints a thousand words… so here are my thousand words, and more–uh… keep your eyes on my message more than on my funny face, okay? 😆 )

Me and the Surprise

Thank you. Seriously. For making this the best day of the year ever. I can’t say it enough.

Oh and PS? My son will attest to the fact that since I got the book and the card, I have not let it out of my sight and reach for a single minute. WOOHOO!!! 😀

Oh, and of course, I had to take photos of the masterpiece that Jessica’s rockin’ girls put together for her, right? 😀 (And kari’s lovely handmade card too!)

Jes’ Book

And here’s my friend who put it all together:

Kari’s Page

I wish I could put the photos of all the pages of my darling friends’ pages over here… but that would mean that I would be putting the ENTIRE book on my blog! 🙂

Girls… I love ya! You know I do!

Almost Caught Up

Almost. Not quite, but I’m getting there.

Did three layouts yesterday in an attempt to get caught up with the LOAD requirements I had failed to post on time. I’m not giving up the goal though… I’m still working towards finishing 31 layouts by the 31st of January.

Here are the three I did:

10 More

Journaling reads:

wheeeee! only ten more days till christmas!!!

CREDITS:

Jessica’s fab DD template, Michelle Coleman’s topper, Katie Pertiet’s grid brush AND Papers by Leora Sanford, Lisa Warren, and Heidi Larsen(slightly recolored); Emily Merritt’s button; Christina Renee’s doodled circles overlay
Brrrrr…

Journaling reads:

brrrr… ….break out the blankets and the jackets! we may live by the equator but that doesn’t stop jack frost from nipping at our noses and toesies!

CREDITS:

Jessica’s fab Daily December template; Michelle Coleman’s Topper; Katie Pertiet’s Grid Brush AND Angela Shetzer’s papers &, holly stamp from her Downhome Christmas kit; John’s Photoblast EZActions

Little Santa

Journaling reads:

more than the games, more than the chance to have your photo taken with santa, more than the yummy food laid out on the tables, what you loved most of all was giving your classmates christmas gifts. so wonderfully generous. so typically you.

CREDITS:

Jessica’s fab Daily December template; Michelle Coleman’s Topper; Katie Pertiet’s Grid Brush & doodled Christmas title AND Michelle Coleman’s MerryLittleXmas papers; MiriamLima’s flower; EvaKipler’s Artistic-Flourish sequins; Anna Aspnes’ quote; ScrappyPony’s Holiday Grunge Overlay

Balancing in White

Our lesson at 2peas for this week had to do with White Balance. Which is a big word for just making sure that your photos’ colors are “calibrated” according to the light source that you’re shooting in. So if you’re shooting indoors with incandescent lighting, you can get a better-looking photo by tinkering around with your camera’s WB, instead of coming up with a photo that looks like everyone ate much too much mangoes and papayas and therefore turned orange. 😆

Our challenge for this week was to take 3 or more indoor photos: one using the automatic white balance setting of the camera, one with the “tungsten” setting (or its equivalent), and another with White Balance set manually.

There were bonus points for trying out the different settings for white balance. WB settings vary from camera to camera. On my D40 I have an entire list: Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct Sunlight, Cloudy, Shade, and Manuel. I tried them all with exactly the same item and without fiddling around with the fine-tuning knob (According to ken rockwell, this is something unique to Nikon, which Canon doesn’t have: the white balance settings on Nikon allow us to further refine the white balance settings, even if they’re “set,” so that we can come up with the best possible color calibration when we take a photo).

Here are the results of the experiment:

{ Click on images for larger views}

Incandescent WB setting looks a little greenish, don’t you think?

I think the Shade setting looks too orange… Ken Rockwell says that this setting is best for shooting in the shade, which produces colors which are normally bluish (hence the orange balances the blue). It also works, he says, for shooting on cloudy days when light from the clouds casts a bluish tint, or when you have a subject that’s backlit. Nice to know, right? 😉

Cloudy WB casts a warm tone and is better, Ken says, for outdoor shots in direct sunlight. The fluorescent WB setting I know I do not like. 😛

CREDITS: Jason Gaylor’s brushes, Papers by Petit Moineux

I find that when I set white balance manually, it was closest to the auto setting, which brings me to something that I learned:

Nikon’s Auto White Balance totally rocks. 😀 I think I’ll keep my white balance setting on Auto, though it’s terrific knowing how to manipulate the different manual settings, just in case I find myself in a situation that requires it.

Alright! All for now! Must get working on the next freebie for you, my sweeties!

Catch you later! 😉

London Calling…

Thursday, 17 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 6 Comments

Interrupting freebie work and LOAD scrapping to post a few photos for my friend, Verona, who has a collection of Diana the Princess stuff. And for my friend Veevs, who continues to deny that she’s undercover British royalty (from the Peruvian branch of it). 😆

Dh and I happened to be in London around the time that the accident happened… give or take a few days, can’t remember now. We didn’t time it that way; we just happened to be there. I may not remember the exact number of days but I do remember the cab we were riding in from the airport stopped when we passed by the Buckingham Palace (as a sign of respect and sympathy). I also remember the tons and tons and tons of flowers left by everyone who happened to pass by.

I guess I must admit (geez, and I thought I could keep this hidden from my 7 random facts tag) that when I was in grade school, two of my friends and I were very much up-to-date with the goings-on in the British royal family’s lives. We knew who was related to whom, and where they had castle residences. Funny, because the interest had its roots in a simple fooling around with the British accent. “Oh, what a quaint idea, deahhh” we would say to tease each other. Silly stuff like that.

Anyway. I know nothing much about the royal family anymore. Can’t remember much either. So don’t go asking me any trivia questions because I will most certainly fail your test. 😆

Verona and Veevs, these are for you! (Will remove these photos once you’ve seen them so that I don’t make you suffer by plastering my face all over my blog. 😆 )

London, September 97

Diana and Me… hehehe

Alright then. Enough fooling around. Freebs and LOAD will have to wait till tomorrow as it’s 4AM.

Bed, not London, is calling.

😆

Some funnies

Monday, 14 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 4 Comments

Decided to take a break from my Daily December album pages and make a different kind of LOAD entry for today.

I had wanted to use this photo of the lighthouse I took last year while we were vacationing in KK. I have also been wanting to use a photo of my hubby in the yacht, simply because I love the look on his face: absolute contentment, totally relaxed, free! Precious. Wish the bay was closer to the city if only for this reason.

Got to get both of my “wants” onto a single layout with this. That makes me happy. 😀 Also, I realize that the number of LOs I make featuring my hubby pale in comparison to the amount of LOs that my kids star in… but aside from the fact that he’s one and they’re five (and that fact automatically ups the scale in their favor–imagine the proportion: 1 is to 5), I also have a hard time journaling on LOs for him because that part of me is very private, treasured, even sacred if I may say so… but for this one, funnily enough, the journaling spilled out all in one go, like it was just waiting for me to put it down in the letters of the alphabet. Guess it was really meant to be made, huh?

My Harbor

Journaling reads:

you are my harbor,

my lifeboat, my anchor,

my shelter in any storm.

you are my north star,

the wind in my sails,

my lighthouse, my safe shore.

you are my ocean of adventure,

my blue skies, my gentle waves.

you are my horizon

where heaven and earth meet

in a long, tight embrace.

you are my one, my only,

my forever, my always.

CREDITS:

Katie Pertiet’s frame; Anna Aspnes’ paper & mat (recolored); Eve Recinella’s photo prong & deco star; Amy Cheeseman’s rubon; Nancie Rowe Janitz’ canvas texture, atomic cupcake action used on title, and LivEdesigns ***hey that’s me!*** grunge overlay & compass

Somefin funny happened…

Today:

My 5-year-old J and I had just come home from school and I commented how I had a terrible headache. (Not sure if it was caused by the extra-bright glare of the sun or the sunglasses I wore to shield my eyes… all I know is that it certainly had something to do with my “new” eyes).

My son said to me, “Mom, you should go to the doctor maybe.”

I said, “Yeah. Maybe.”

He said, “Don’t worry, I’ll go with you.”

A pause.

Then: “Maybe I’ll just stay home and wait for you. I don’t like the prickin’ they do at the doctor.”

😆

Last Saturday:

Over dinner last Saturday, hubby and I were talking about having lunch the next day at the new restaurant we opened. My 2nd son, who loves all things food and who can whip up real yummy stuff in the kitchen from nothing, opened his eyes wide in excitement. He asked, “Oh! Are we all having lunch there tomorrow?”

Naughty parents that we are, we decided to tease him.

Hubby said, “No, not we. Just your mom and me.”

I said, “That’s right. We’re having a daaaaaate!”

My son grew quiet, then said to everyone at table, “Just one little second, may I be excused?” and left before any of us could answer. We could hear him moving around in his room, and then he came back with some money, which he gave to me.

I said, “What’s this?”

He said, “Uh, that’s the change for the pizza I ordered for my friends when they came over yesterday. That way you can give me the amount that I paid and you already have the change.” (I had asked him to pay for it first, and told him I would pay him back).

I said, “Oh. Okay. But you didn’t have to give it me right now. What do you need the money for right now?” and gave him that questioning look that parents give their kids when they know something more lies behind the surface.

He looked sheepishly at us, and said: “Table for one?”

😆

What he meant was that he would go to the restaurant and pay for his own dinner, since we weren’t taking him. 😆 That guy cracks me up. Of course hubby and I broke out in loud laughter and told him we were just teasing him. Just as he was teasing us with his “table for one” line. That was really funny to me.

Yeah. We are certified crazies in our home.

😆

Alrighty then! More work to do! Catch you later!

(((hugs)))

PS. Sssh. I’m trying not to remind you that you should be getting freebs soon, but that’s exactly what I’m about to work on! 😉

Running After Time

Friday, 11 January 2008Wednesday, 24 September 2008 / LivE / 3 Comments

There’s so much I want to do, and not enough time in a day to do it all! How many of you have felt this way? How do you handle it? Is there some secret you can share with me?

LOAD Day 10 & Daily December No. 6

Got this done this morning.

One of the lovely advantages of having 5 sons is that as they grow older, they eventually take over the task of getting the Christmas decor up, so that I am free to sit and watch them with a smile on my face, wondering how I got so lucky to have such great guys (and related to me, too! 😆 )

Tree Trimmers

Journaling reads:

last year there were three; now there are four of you working together to put up the tree and trim it. next year j will be old enough to join the fun as well. each christmas, year after year, i can just sit and watch you for hours, filled with quiet pride and gratitude. i am so lucky to have such great tree trimmers!

CREDITS:

Jessica Sprague’s Daily December template (altered); Michelle Coleman’s Topper & rivet (recolored); Katie Pertiet’s Grid Brush, HolidayOrnaments Brush, PostmarkedHolidays Brush, Emily Merritt’s Jolly Jingle Sparkles (recolored), Miriam Lima’s HolidayMagic paper, Atomic Cupcake actions

Word for the Month

Over at her blog, my dear friend Jessica mentioned Ali Edwards’ Word for the Year (another amazing lady there!)… with a twist: Jess has decided she wanted a Word for a Month instead. Given my own love for words, I totally agree with her! (Also, nice to have 12 words to live by instead of just one for the year! 🙂 )

I decided my word for January would be ADVENTURE.

noun: an undertaking; an unusual or exciting experience

verb, tr.: to venture upon; undertake or try

verb, intr.: to take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome; dare

synonyms: (n)risky venture, escapade; (v) take a risk, take a chance / related words: (n) project, task, undertaking, labor; (v) chance, attempt, try, seek

I think this is a great word to start the year off with: I’ve always loved adventures, whether of the real kind (the kind that took me to places as a kid) or the vicarious kind (the kind that I take now that I’m older, which normally I gather from museum trips, reading books and magazines, surfing the net, and playing around).

I also like that the related words (project, task, undertaking, labor) are so closely related to WORK. I have such a great respect for the dignity of work. I think working to your best capacities and abilities, in the simplest thing (sure, even in tasks as simple as cleaning your bathroom or picking up that piece of tissue lying on the floor) and offering it up to our Lord, is one of the best prayers and one of the best ways to give back glory to Him who has given us all we have.

Who knows what adventures lay ahead this year? Just thinking about it is so exciting! Here are a few that come to mind:

Adventures in Design: I love learning. I love the adventure of discovery, of finding out new things, of learning something new everyday. I guess that’s why I love designing so much: every kit is an adventure into the unknown! I see something in my mind and I try to create it digitally. When the vision and what I see on my monitor match each other, it’s such a WOW moment for me that I can’t wait to share it with all my friends! (hence the freebies 😀 ) I want to learn a lot more and experiment a lot more with Photoshop and designing. I need to open those new/old software CDs that have sat in my drawer (was once too terrified to attempt them, am more adventurous now), among them: CS3 and Xarax.

Every class with Jess is an adventure: I am so looking forward to our next adventure in March, which is when our Digi: In Deep course will begin its maiden journey.

Doing something I would not normally do: take a risk = adventure. I am normally what my people would call segurista. One who does not like taking wild chances; one who finds much sense in the saying, “better safe than sorry.” But nothing big has been accomplished by staying on safe ground when you could be sailing the high seas (with WISDOM, of course). So I think it’s a good time to attempt to go back to those days of abandoning fears and just jumping in with both eyes closed and fingers crossed (uhhh. I really think my Lasik adventure last Monday is a good case in point). 😆

Another case in point:

I am normally a shy person (I kid you not; even if it may seem unlikely. 😆 ) When I see friends I haven’t seen in ages, I vacillate between saying hello and re-introducing myself and staying away so that I don’t subject that person to a blast from the past that they may or may not welcome.

Last night, as hubby and I were walking (killing time while waiting for our dear friends Jun and Abby to arrive–we were having dinner together), I happened to see a guy who was very good friend of mine back when we were in university… but we happened to lose touch over the years (I distinctly remember the exact time we last spoke: it was when he invited me to his wedding to this sweet girl, who just happened to be a Philippine actress… and I do get really shy [almost reticent] around showbiz personalities, so I stayed away. And we lost touch after). Anyway, hubby said to me, “Well, why don’t you go over there and say hi?” So, very uncharacteristically, I walked up to A., said hello using the petname we in our group of friends used to call him back then, briefly saw a look of non-recognition pass in his eyes, and right after I gave my name. My maiden name, of course (we lost touch even before I got married). And with the mention of my name, there was recognition. It was quite funny, actually: watching his eyes was like watching the aperture opening of a camera, first small then becoming larger and larger. He said “Hiiiiiiii!!!!” and turned to the lady friend he was with, introduced me, and said “We’ve known each other since she was like ten years old!” I said “Yeah, we go waaaay back.” We exchanged cellphone numbers, and voila!

Fun. Always good to reconnect.

And as if that wasn’t enough: after dinner, on the way to our cars, Jun, Abby, hubby and I were walking and we chanced upon J.M., who was overseeing the opening of the Paul Smith store at this new mall. He said hello to Jun and Abby, and when Jun turned to introduce me and hubby, he looked at me and said “Hey, I know you!” to which I answered, “yup, we were at the beach together years back, with C., T. and L.”

Another blast from the past. That makes two in one night!

And then… not five minutes after… as we were standing by the driveway of the center of the mall, the car in front of us drove up, and who was about to get into it? Another friend from college days, now married to another showbiz personality. I had briefly spoken with him at the launch of the Our Father book, and reintroduced myself then… (one of those rare bold moments I had, but I was extraordinarily courageous then… after all, that was OUR launch. haha!). Anyway, he and his sweet wife were about to get into the car, and I said hello. And this time, I didn’t have to reintroduce myself!

And that, folks, completes Round Three. Three amazing blasts from the pasts. Hey, I should’ve been in Vegas. Maybe the slot machines would’ve made me rich tonight, given the three hits at adventure I got in just one night! 😆

Connections. We are all connected to each other in various ways. I think it’s amazing when events like this happen one after the other; makes you really consider what a small, small world this is.

Capturing images is an adventure: I want to play a lot with my camera and learn a lot more about what I can do with it. I drive my hubby crazy when I attempt to lug my Lowepro slingback wherever I go. The few times I am successful at resisting the urge to pick it up before I go out the front door, I end up regretting it (“Oh wow, do you see the lines that those eaves make? Geez! Wish I had my camera with me! See the pattern of the leaves’ shadows on the pavement! Geez! Wish I could take that, if I had my camera with me!” ). Yesterday, of course, was one of the few times I left Cameran at home (and regretted it), and so I was demoted to taking photos of lines and lights that amazed me with my cellular phone. Oh, the humiliation! 😆 But, it was the best I could do at the moment!

Speaking of Photography…

Have you seen this take of Annie Leibovitz’ shoot with the Queen of England? I found it very interesting, mostly because it IS the famed Annie Leibovitz, amazing woman photographer, best known for her photo of a very pregnant Demi Moore in her birthday suit on the cover of Vanity Fair way back. Another reason for my interest: it took me back to the time when I was in the fifth grade and knew all the trivia there was to know about the Royal Family (this coincided with the engagement of then-Lady Diana to Prince Charles, and with my first attempt at a short hairstyle a la Diana… eeeeuw! how embarrassing! 😆 )

Oh… have I introduced you to the royal fam? That’s Anne, Charles, The Queen, Prince Philip, Andrew, and the Queen Mum… and me, in front, with my very proper, English, royal smile. (Long hair tied at the back will tell you this was way back in ’97)

Meet the Royal Family