I did some scrapbooking today!

I finally had a chance to get some pages done! I haven't done any scrapbooking since before Christmas, so I've been itching to get back at it. I've been trying to get my Germany pages done, since we were there in September 2005. Here is the result:

Credits:

Salzberg – September 05
Template: M Originals No 7 (turned)
Red paper: Wet Fish Designs “Called to Act”
Blue paper: K Lewis “Called to Act”
Background paper: G Miller “Called to Act”
Red strip: J Johnson “Called to Act”
Green paper: J Howard “Called to Act”
Font: Bernhard Mod (journaling) & Bernhard Fashion (title)
Tag: K Giarrusso “Called to Act”
Frame: M Bennett “Called to Act”

Paragliders – September 2005
Template: Jack & Jill Scrapdesigns #24
Papers & Buttons: Fayth “Dirtnsky”
Grunge Frame: Jessica Sprague
Font: Pica, Staccato

Thanks for looking!

Assignment #2: Shutter Speed

I'm on a roll today with the photography class! In this lesson, we learned about shutter speed. The higher the shutter speed, the faster the camera takes the picture. The assignment has us try this technique in our own kitchen sinks with running water. See how the water seems to have frozen in the second photo?

Photography assignment #1

So I've been trying to make time to look at the FREE photography class over at 2Peas. I was having a very rough time with it, but thanks in no small part to LivE, I think I finally got the first lesson handled!!

The lesson was on Aperture, and I used our Nikon D50 to illustrate the difference when you change the f/stop. Notice how the f/stop increases, more of the background comes in focus. For a beginner like me, this was super exciting!

Weekend FUN!

WE had a very exciting weekend. Here it is in a nutshell. We have been contemplating for a while now if we should buy a home here in Texas before our house in Utah sells. Right now, we are renting an apartment, and to say the least, it is small. We spent all day Saturday looking at homes, and then decided to make an offer on a smaller home right here in McKinney. Sunday, our realtor called us and said that there were SEVEN other offers on the table. After some serious pondering, we decided that this is the Lord's way of telling us not to undertake the 2 mortgage deal, and sign another lease with the apartment complex. :) SO here we are. I actually feel really great about it!

Also on Saturday, the PACKERS WON!! Yipeeeee! I have been a Green Bay Packer fan since I was growing up in Wisconsin. If you live in Wisconsin, you HAVE to be a Packer fan. Did you know that the GB Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned professional sports team in America?

AND, to make it even better, the GIANTS beat the COWBOYS last night, so the NFC Championship game will be IN GREEN BAY next week. The only downside? I'm going to be on an AIRPLANE during the GAME!!!! How unfair!!

I hope your weekend was extra fun!

I'm Green

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

Take this test >

I'm "IT" ...but not for long!

I've been TAGGED by both Dawn and LivE. So I have a question, since I was tagged twice, do they cancel each other out?!

I will play along. Here are the rules:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

It's hard for me to come up with random and/or weird facts about myself, but I will give it a try.

1. I love drinking from a straw. I carry straws with me in my purse in case where-ever I am does not have them. There is one exception to this rule...milk. You just don't drink milk with a straw...

2. I'm not sure if this is random or not, but I was *almost* born in Spain. Instead, I was born in Honolulu.

3. I am not claustrophobic, however I do get "island fever." If I am on an island for more than 5 days, I start getting antsy for the mainland. I would expect this is only true of small islands (Hawaii, etc.), but I haven't tested it on a large island yet.

4. I have lived in 6 states in the past 5 years. And two of them twice!

5. My favorite day of the week is Thursday.

6. My favorite holiday is Independance Day.

7. I like to rearrange things. Furniture, kitchen cupboards, desk drawers, etc. Usually I find something that I didn't know I had lost!!

AND NOW IT'S YOUR TURN!

Kari, Alee, Jen, Jennifer, Lisa, Lyn, and Amy.

Part 2 of Chris's Book

Christmas gifts...revealed

SO, I've been dying to post some of these pictures. But, since they were for Christmas gifts, I had to wait until after the holidays. :)

I gave this calendar to both my SIL Heather and my MIL Debbie (with different pictures). Here's a sample of what it looks like. You can download the template from Jessica Sprague here. I inserted pictures, cut, and had the whole thing bound at Office Max. I think they turned out great!


I also made a mini-scrapbook for our friend Chris. He has been traveling a lot, and hadn't had a chance to print any pictures, so I gathered them up and surprised him with this! I should mention that Chris's nickname is "hobbit", so for the cover page I photoshopped his head onto Frodo's body. The result is pretty funny! Shown here are about half the pages. Due to technical difficulties, I'm going to have to do a separate slide show for the other half. Stay tuned.

THANK you all for looking, and THANKS so much for your comments - they really brighten my day!!

Calendar Slide Show

My first slide show... thanks to Alee for challenging me to take the plunge. More slideshows to come, I'm sure!

Here is the calendar I created for my SIL, Jessica:

I used a template by Jen Wilson.

January 7th already??

I cannot believe it is already the 2nd week of January. I've been having so much fun reading about all your holiday adventures and new year's resolutions, I completely forgot to post my own!

I have been working on a couple of 2008 calendars (in Photoshop, of course!) for my sisters-in-law, who saw one that I made for my mother-in-law for Christmas. They both immediately requested one of their own. I FINALLY finished YESTERDAY. So I'm glad about that!

Here are a couple of my NYR's:

#1: Spend more quality time with my husband. Not that we don't spend a lot of time together already, but since I travel so much for my job, I feel like we are watching a lot of TV and movies, and not really much else. So we'll try and change that. :)

#2: Keep a journal. OK, so I've probably started a journal 10 times over the course of my life, and I have never kept one longer than 6 months. Most, actually, fizzled after just a few weeks...even days. This time, I am determined. Plus, I have inspiration: Dan's missionary journals! We dug these out when we were in Salt Lake for Christmas, and I started to read them on our drive back home. I figure, if he could do it, I can do it! Even if my life is boring, my goal is to write *something* every day. So far, I'm at 100%. :)

#3: Read the Bible. I got a link to Read the Scriptures in my email a while ago, and finally decided to put it to the test. You can make a goal of which book of scripture you want to read, and the date you want to finish it, and then they email you your assignment every day. Sounds like a plan, right? My first goal: the OLD TESTAMENT -- to be completed by July 1st. That is 172 verses per day, in case you're wondering. Once again, I am at 100% on this goal, so far. Wish me luck!!

Well, that's about all for now. More fun stuff to come, though, so keep checking back!! Happy 2008!