new camera!

Time for a new toy camera! I ordered a Holga because it takes vignette photos and you can also get a fish-eye lens to go with it for cheap! Today it arrived. Officially it's my anniversary present which is in a few days.

I can't wait to start taking pictures! It uses film which is kinda weird.

P.S. Holga is by Maria Diamantes.

Happy 1st Day of Summer!

The Sweetest Dream is by thedreamygiraffe.

Happy Birthday!

Someone I love very much was born 39 years ago today. He loves Legos.

P.S. I found the picture of those candles on inspire me now.

Dear Mary Murphy,

It's so nice to have you back on So You Think You Can Dance!

XOXO,
Captain Nick Sparrow

P.S. I found your cute boots picture here.

they're so cute!

I had a revelation a few months ago: I'm base.
The dogs run around like wild, chasing and tackling each other.
One jumps on my lap and takes a breather.
The other dog waits, tail wagging.
Lap dog jumps back into action.
I am base.

head over heels

This week the challenge at Scrapping the Music is to use the lyrics from "Write a Song" by Dave Matthews Band! Today is my niece's 1 year anniversary so the line "head over heels" grabbed my attention. I decided to scrap some of her wedding pictures.

And then I made a companion page:

All together now:

They are so cute!
That was 1 year ago today. Happy Anniversary Laura Beth & Clayton!

last day of school!

Today was the last day of my most challenging year teaching. I thought I'd be doing the dance of joy but I got teary-eyed as I was saying goodbye!
It is crazy being a teacher.

P.S. Complete is by shirae.

upgrade

This month at ARTastic the challenge is to use "Argenteuil" by Edouard Manet as inspiration. As an additional challenge we are to use two people in the photo, striped patterned paper (pp), and include a boat somewhere on the layout.

The painting:

My page:

When I thought about including a boat somewhere I thought of doing a pirate page with the dogs (and I may do that still), but then I remembered when we donated our Rodeo to the Sea Shepherds in 2008. The season of Whale Wars following our donation featured a new boat for the Sea Shepherds: The Ady Gil. Corey and I joked that they used the money from our car to buy it. We felt like it was a pretty good upgrade.

I printed the photo of the Ady Gil off the internet for my ship (and I added a pirate ship sticker for eco-terrorism). At first I thought there were 2 volunteers on top of the ship, but there are 3 so I lose a point there.
I positioned my striped paper horizontally just like the stripes in the man's shirt in the painting. I love using striped paper; it makes it so easy to line up pictures and stickers, and provides a good guideline for journaling.
I feel like my eyes move clockwise through the painting so I tried to duplicate that movement in my layout.

Save the whales!

P.S. Did you see the new episode of Whale Wars Friday? Gojira is pretty rad.

P.P.S. The Ady Gil picture I used in my layout came from Lifescape.

quote of the month

Me: Will you help me trim Strega Nona's nails?

Corey: Can we do it tomorrow?

Me: Ok, but you have to give Strega Nona a raisin.

Corey (turning to face Strega Nona & in a slightly louder voice): Because I have to call Michael.


P.S. Bet you haven't seen many pictures of a guinea pig running before. I call this one "Heading for Cover."

spring

A month ago These Are a Few of My Favorite Things challenged scrappers to scrapbook their favorite thing about spring. That's easy for me because it's my favorite season. I decided to use the Palo Verde pictures I took in April.

Check me out, I used another rub-on (the title). Maybe I'm starting to get the hang of it.

What's your favorite season?

Senior Prom

This month at From Screen 2 Scrap the challenge is to use the movie poster from Love Actually as inspiration for your scrapbook page. As an additional challenge, scrappers are asked to include a red bow, a journaling note, and add names to the peoples pics that you love. I love that movie.

I realized prom season has come and gone again and I'm still not done scrapping all of my prom pictures.


I've got a red bow on my radish corsage, I'm using my prom invitation as my journaling note, and I loved adding names with my little alphabet stickers.

3 day weekend means I can keep scrapping!

I got to go to prom with my friend so we had a good time. Cool car, right?

I think these are my favorite.

eye candy

This quilt is by Janet Fogg and is the winner of Quilt Your Colors 2010. I first saw it today in a Jo-Ann flier. Wow. That's all I could say. Wow.
It kind of makes me wish sewing didn't piss me off so much.

She also made a quilt inspired by one of my favorite books, Chocolat:


To be continually dazzled visit Janet's website.

My mom made me a quilt inspired by another favorite, Gone With the Wind:

Sweet!

sweet

This month at ARTastic the challenge is to use "Mother and Sarah Admiring the Baby" by Mary Cassatt as your inspiration. As an extra challenge you can use a single photo of a mother holding a baby, lace somewhere on the page, and something orange.

I decided to bust out my baby book and salvage some of the photos from the dreaded magnetic album.

Of course they were stuck tight, but luckily for me I have un-du which is the best for getting your photos out in one piece.

I scanned a few photos of my mom and I so I could do some cropping and color correction. I know the challenge asked me to use a single photo, but most often I like using lots of photos on one page (Corey's favorites are always ones with multiple photos too. He's cute.).
And I know the challenge asked me to use lace, but I had a frame that looked like lace so I used it. Also if you look close you may be able to see the lace curtains in our old living room.
Since these photos are from the 70s I decided to combine orange, pink, and green: orange for the challenge (and I love it), pink for the cute one month old girl, and green for the groovy couch we used to have (and I like how the green and orange look together in the painting)!
Rick rack, paisleys, and a felt flower complete my homage to the 70s!

The title is a rub-on. I hate rub-ons because I usually mess them up. But I have a bunch left from when I was buying them and not using them, and someone gave me a good tip...don't use the popsicle stick they give you with the rub-ons. Use a bone folder instead. I have had better luck with the bone folder, but I still refuse to buy another rub-on!

The journaling I did with the tiny letters is what my mom wrote on the back of all the photos.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Last night we went with friends to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in 3D. We liked it, and it made me want to share this hilarious song I saw on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago:



My only critique of Pirates of the Caribbean is that I wish there was more about the mermaids. They were pretty cool.



P.S. The Siren's Song is by Anne-Julie Aubry.