Ninjas & Tongues

When you're 6, and your mom wants to take your picture, it's important to do some cool Ninja moves. Looks like maybe some gang signs are thrown in there, too. Not sure.
When you're 3, and your mom wants to take your picture, jump around a whole lot and make sure your tongue is sticking out. Everything is easier when your tongue is hanging out.
 

Pretty Sweater

I've been admiring this sweater since I first saw it at Target. Well, yesterday when I was there, they were 50% off. I think she can wear a heart on her sweater anytime and not just at Valentine's Day. Anyway, they were $5.00. Can't beat that! 

Upload for the 15th

I spent a good part of the day hanging with Kiersten from Peek. We went to lunch, then we went to the LSS, then we went to pick up Trent from school. Trent was most excited and took her into his classroom to see it. It was fun day!

The theme at Peek this time around was paint. Here are my uploads:


I painted around a 6x6 template to make a little frame. I also did a little dry brushing and dabbing with white paint around the edges.


We were in the airport the day I left for CHA taking some pictures and hanging out. I took this picture of the kids jumping over the line on the floor. I thought it was kind of fun. I made the title (in paint) match the picture.

Thanks for looking. :D

...more

Of course when Trent came home from school, I had to play with my camera again... 

Playing with Custom White Balance

I just did this and I'm so proud of myself. heehee I've had a gray card for at least a year. I've been meaning to try custom white balance and I just never got around to it, I guess. Anyway, today I decided to pull it out and give it a shot. I am AMAZED at the difference. Totally AMAZED! Both of these pictures are right out of the camera. They have been untouched except for making them smaller to fit on blogger. The first picture is just regular shooting with auto white balance. It looks blue to me. My pictures always look blue or red to me. Skin tones always seem off. The 2nd photo is with custom white balance. Her skin tone looks so much more natural to me. I am very excited!

So, what do I do now? Just carry around my 8 1/2 x 11 inch gray card everywhere I go? I can hear the snickers already.
 

Dreamy

Dream Street Papers are going to be here this week at Peek. I just love this line. It's called Nostalgic.  

Pretty Vintage Cards

I found these at an antique fair over the weekend. They were 13 for $5.00. I think they're so pretty. The detail is just incredible! Some are embossed, some are pierced, some even have the handwritten sentiment still inside. The birds are the prettiest. 

Back

Actually, I've been back for several days now. It's just been hard catching up.

Here's a picture of me with two of the Technique Tuesday gals, Mary and Angela. Everyone there was sooooo nice. It was such a pleasure meeting them. I couldn't wait to get started with all the stamps they gave me. WOW! That's another reason I haven't updated in awhile. I've been stamping. :D I have to admit, when I found out I made the TT design team, I panicked. All of a sudden, I couldn't think of a darn thing to do with a stamp. "Stamp? What's a stamp?" I had to get over that hump and do a couple things with them. Now I'm feeling a little better. I've even come up with some ideas and I've written them down in the "Good-bye Day" book that Trent made me. I knew that little book would come in handy.



Here's my other favorite place. :D We didn't really get too much of a chance to chat with them. They were really busy. I just LOVE what releases they have coming out. I seriously don't know how they keep coming up with so many cute designs. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE Sweetwater? ;)





UPLOADS FOR PEEK 1/31/07



The theme this time was chipboard. I painted and sparkled up the WeR chipboards. The layout is based on another time when Katrina had 10 seconds to herself. Poor thing. She thought sunblock was hair gel.

I mixed up some BasicGrey lines and used some Heidi Swapp and Cherry Arte chipboard. That tag on the bottom left came from a hat and gloves set I bought for Katrina from Target. I swear, I save everything.

Good Bye Day

I'm off early tomorrow am for CHA. I'll be gone until late Wednesday afternoon. Don't panic if you don't hear from me. ;)

Trent made me this notebook/journal for my trip. I'm supposed to jot down notes and important phone numbers. He made a cover and a back to this little book. It has about 5 sheets of lined paper (all different directions) and it's all stapled together. He even wrote out the title all by himself. I'll translate it for you:


It says" Good Bye Day".


 

This child...

Has to be watched non-stop 24/7.

Today as I was packing for CHA, she came in with a pound of cheese in her hand. I could see there were little slices in it from where she had tried to cut off a piece (with a knife) for herself. Because I didn't respond to her, "I want cheese" command right away, she thought she'd help herself. When she couldn't get a slice cut for herself, she just started taking bites out of it.

We will have to stop using liquid soap in the bathrooms. Each and everytime I fill up the bottle, she somehow empties it out and fills it back up with water without a single sound. It's only until I want to wash my hands that I discover it's full of water. I know it's her.

2 days ago, she decided she wanted cool hair. Somehow she got a hold of Daddy's hair wax and put a TON of it in her hair. There was probably a tablespoon removed from the container. We can't get it out of her hair and it looks like she has dreads. I had my hair cut yesterday and I showed the stylist what she did. She suggested a clarifying shampoo. She was so nice and gave me a teeny tiny bit of what was left in one of her bottles. I tried it on Katrina today and although some of it did come out, her hair still looks HORRIBLE! Giving Katrina a shampoo is not easy. She kicks and screams and hits. The only one that is allowed to touch Katrina's hair is Katrina.

Today, as we were leaving to pick up Trent, I opened the entrance/exit door to the garage and hit the button to open the garage door. I realized at the same time that I had forgot to set the alarm. I said to Katrina, "stay right there", and I closed the garage entrance/exit door, hit two buttons on my alarm pad, opened the door and discovered Katrina riding the garage door as it opened. By the time I ran over to her, she was almost near the top.

I don't think she'll be doing that again. She was pretty scared and I was pretty mad. It took less than 2 seconds for her to that.

I'm worried how she'll be at my Mom's while I'm gone. 

Snow in Tucson

Ok, so this really isn't Tucson. It's actually Mt. Lemmon. The kids have NEVER been around snow before. So, that means I've never taken pictures in snow before. The pictures turned out darker than I wanted so I really messed around with them in Picasa. I added lots of fill light, saturated and de-saturated the photos, added tint...all kinds of fun stuff. ALL of these photos have been messed around with. I still think they're kinda fun, and MUCH better than their darker originals.

So, even though these pictures were taken on the mountain where there was snow, our schools are closed today. A little snow and a little ice and the whole town goes crazy. Believe me, there is no snow where I live. It was icy, though! I couldn't get the car door open this morning as it was iced shut. CRAZY!


 

Uploads from the 15th

Ooops, I totally forgot to do this!

A Peek Into Yesterday's theme was Valentine's Collections.



Scribble Scrabble Loverly Collection. Hey, she didn't say it had to be Valentine's pictures. ;)



Everytime Katrina sees bare feet, she always says, "Eww, STINKY FEET". I thought it was funny when she said it about her own feet while we were looking at pictures.


...more like stinker.

Thanks for looking. :D

Excited!

Can I just tell you how excited I am?!?!?

I was chosen as a new Design Team Member for Technique Tuesday!!!!!! YAY!!! There were so many beautiful entries. I am just beyond thrilled and so very honored. I can't wait to get started. I was already drooling over their new catalog.




Thank you so much!!

Shopping Day

I was having an itch to get out of the house today. I love to go thrift stores and look for little treasures. I found this cute little bookplate/library set. I don't know exactly what it is, but I was quite excited when I found it. It's filled with library cards and pockets and stamps and ink. That "For Reference Only" piece...is a stamp!! The whole set was only $5.00

I'm bored with my plastic bins. They're ugly. I'm moving into something a little prettier. I bought these 2 pieces of pottery to store clips or tags or tickets or miscellaneous things I want to keep in site. Not only are they prettier than plastic bins, they're also cheaper. $4.50 for both of them. They're even handmade. There are initials on the bottom. I just love the blueish-green glaze on the one on the left.



My Manto Fev order arrived today and I've already stuffed the pottery full of some of these little goodies. Some of these items below are bus tickets, soap labels, sheet music postcards, a Zettiology stamp and my favorite are those little price tags. I took a close-up picture of them because they are so cute and sweet.

Did you hear? Balls do grow on trees!

My dog likes to pull the oranges off the tree in the backyard. She thinks they're balls. Poor thing. I better get to Petsmart and get her some new toys.
 

Stupid cat

I thought I'd share a picture of my cat, Coil. Normally I like to pretend she doesn't exist, but I thought she looked kind of cute sitting next to the snapdragons Erik and the kids bought me for my birthday.  

While I wasn't watching

atKatrina smeared cherry Chapstick all over her bedspread. It doesn't come out. She was supposed to be napping.
She painted directly onto her shirt instead of the paper. We were in the same room.
She somehow turned my entire computer screen a 90 degree angle. It took me forever to figure out how to fix it.
She moved files around in my computer.
She locked her father out of his own computer. That took awhile to figure out, too.
She shaved her face with shaving cream and her My Little Pony Spinbrush.
She climbed on the counter, helped herself to a bowl from the cabinet, got herself a ladle and fixed herself some hot soup right from the pan on the stove.
While up there getting herself a bowl, she decided she needed to help herself to some Vitamin C tablets as well. (I caught her first)
She dumped an entire box of packing peanuts on the ground and shuffled through them like they were leaves.
She dumped a nearly full container (2.5 quarts) of Downey into my washing machine. I didn't discover this until I started the machine.

and this was all within the last week.

 

Shaving

Today I caught Katrina shaving her face with her new My Little Pony Spinbrush. Can you see the look of panic on her face from having been caught? *sigh* 

Alphabetica entries

First, here is Beth's. Her theme was about doors. I thought and thought about it and I kept coming back to "Opportunity Knocks" which then morphed into "Suffrage".



This one is Sue's. I was to pick my favorite quote. Who else but Madonna?