[serendipity]

hello monday!

Wow. What a weekend! Could I eat any more stuffing? We decided we need to make stuffing more often. It's just too good to have like twice a year. Why do we do that? Well, maybe it's because I've only maybe made a Thanksgiving dinner about four whole times in our married life. Usually we are at a family member's house, but this year, since everyone was kind of doing their own thing, so did we. So we invited Dan's parents over and got stuffed! And don't even get me started on the sweet potato souffle and the homemade apple crisp--made with some of the freshly picked apples I froze a couple months ago. I've been dying to use them and they were ohhhh-so tasty! Yum!

Saturday was the BYU-Utah game. Dan's parents came over again. I will root for whoever benefits by beating the other team in the football poll. However, this time, they were both evenly matched (we root for TCU this year since they are number four in the poll and in our conference). So, since they were playing at BYU, that's who most of of rooted for . . . sorry Jordan. ;) Also, Zach's high school football buddies play on both teams, so it's hard to decide.

Saturday I also did a little of this.

 

Small world moment. Miss Kristy Banks asked if I'd take these photos of her soon-to-be niece-in-law and when we all got together, we found out that her mom works at QuicKutz! How funny . . . and convenient! :) The bride-to-be was beautiful and such a sport to have me trapsing her through all these glorious photographic places! I've taken photos here before, but never noticed the nooks and crannies like I did today. I think that's because it was a popular spot for the "ol' family photo" this Thanksgiving weekend and so you had to find the nooks and crannies. All the better for us! :) What you don't see is the oblivious people standing in the background of that first photo. Thank heavens for Photoshop!

Zach's birthday was Saturday. He's the big 2-0. How weird that we didn't get to celebrate it with him. But I did break out into the Happy Birthday song that morning. And then that night, Aladdin came on tv. We saw this movie on his 3rd birthday during Thanksgiving down in California. Haven't watched it in years. But it's amazing just how much you realize you still have it memorized after watching it 842 times because the kids watch it over and over when they were young.

I also did a whole lotta work this weekend to gear up for the new line from Silhouette . . . RHINESTONES! Here's a full on shot of the little teaser I shared a bit ago.

You can iron on a bit of glitz and glam with heat transfer rhinestones to just about any project! T-shirts, scrapbook pages, jean pockets and legs, curtains, Christmas stockings, backpacks, hats, cards . . . you name it!  

Here's a page I shared on the Silhouette blog last week that sported these rhinestones . . . unbeknownst to the viewers. ;) (Isn't that little Santa dude the cutest thing ever?)

 

There are tons of rhinestone templates in the Online Store. Soooo much fun! And today is the last day of the sale. .99 downloads in the Online Store and 10% off your entire purchase from silhouettemachine.com--just use the coupon code GOBBLE.

Go check out the Silhouette blog for all the juicy little rhinestone details!

Oh, and for those that asked, the font I used on my Seniors page is High Society with a little tweaking. I widened it and used a lowercase "r" instead of the capitol. I like mixing things up that way. :)

Susy girl! I checked out your blog. AMAZING! Love what you did . . . and do! Great blog!

Well, I think that's enough for today. lol Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

'what to use' wednesday: seniors

I am giddy as a school girl!

House of 3 is collaborating with the Silhouette artist team to bring you fabulous diecut designs that work so well with their line of digital and craft products! I can't wait to see all their creations!

Here's a page I made to share on the Silhouette blog today.

House of 3 shapes used--and in the store now: chickie_C20091124124726_23444, branches_with_berries_C20091124124653_23444, swirled_vines_C20091124125231_23444

I absolutely LOVE that chickie! How stinkin' cute is he?

I also used several of their digital brushes for the border around the large collage photo--which, I made with one of their collage story boards. LOVE those things! Makes these photo collages so much easier to do than the old way...which took me for-e-ver! And all their elements went so dang well with these photos. I couldn't wait to use them!

Ohhhh, isn't life grand? :)

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend! And be sure to check out all the stuff going up in the Silhoeutte Online Store over the weekend. And tune into the Silhouette blog on Monday for something you won't want to miss . . . I guarantee it!

P.S. Thank you all for your kind comments about my lack of being around. I appreciate your patience as I've been so busy and been a slacker. ;)

i have been so bad

My apologies for not being around much of late. So much going on and there just hasn't been enough hours in the day. I hope that after this week is over that life will slow down just a wee bit. It's not like me to keep up with my blog and it's bugging me. ;)

I've been plugging away with some amazing things with Silhouette, so if you haven't checked out the blog lately, go do that. There are some giveaways happening this week even!

Jordan had her birthday last Friday--even got to go see New Moon on her birthday. I need to post some photos about those. She's the big 1-5 now and can get her permit. Yikes! Happy Birthday Jordan!

Hope everyone is doing well. I promise, I will be back to normal soon . . . really . . . no, really . . . yuh huuuh . . . ;)

LOVE is literally in the air

This morning, as I was driving Jordan to jazz band (at 7 a.m.), we just missed the light. Now, normally I don't like getting stopped at that stop light because it's the cross street of a busy street and that usually means a longer green light for the busy street and oddly, more red light for us.

However, as we were sitting there, we noticed the predawn sky looking towards our majestic mountains. In the sky there was a little haze--I don't think it was a misty cloud because there were no other clouds in the air. But in that haze, there must have been some little jet stream that actually made an outlined shape of a heart within a large span of the hazy sky. It was as if someone ran their finger through that mist of sky to make a giant heart shape.

Now that was really cool.

A sight unlike anything that I've ever seen. 

I've been moving a hundred miles a minute and that stop light forced me to take a breath--to take a moment from the hustle and bustle of my crazy daily life--and enjoy that little moment with my daughter.

I can feel the love.

somethin' new a-happenin'

Starting today the Silhouette releases will occur every Tuesday! Yahoo! So rather than one big release every other Thursday, Silhouette will be releasing a smaller group of the designed-in-house images on Tuesdays. Now you can see something every week!

Today's release revolves around the whole "new year" theme. You know, a few little items to get you going with your New Year's resolution of keeping up on recording your history. Just a few little images to help you get your pages done in style.

Here's a one image. It's a grunged up instant photo. But there is also a solid piece to it, so you can use them together or separately. Here's an example of them working together. There's both a rounded corner and a straight corner version as well. Nice.

And then this is a free download for this week! Totally reminds me of "Go Dog Go", my favorite book as a child. But I didn't make it with that in mind though. ;) Go grab it now while it's free this week!

(phrase_go_2337)

Also, Silhouette America is now on Facebook. Go be a fan here. Even my husband became a fan. ;)

i'm so mean

Just thought I'd taunt you with a little glimpse of something that's coming out from Silhouette. I'm not sayin' nuttin' else. :)

Have a great weekend!

 

a conversation with kass

Kass: “Hey dad, do you think I could be a photo journalist? And take pictures of skaters? I don’t want to work for a newspaper.”

Dad: “Of course! You’d be a great photo journalist. You don’t have to work for a paper, you could be a news correspondent . . . and work in Iraq!” (he says jokingly, of course)

Kass: “I don’t think I could handle working in Iraq, there’s too many spiders....”

Mom (interrupting & laughing): “I think that the spiders would be the least of your worries.”

man, i miss working with this girl!

For two years Loni Stevens and I worked together creating fun products for the Creating Keepsake's Kit of the Month program--brainstorming, laughing and just having waaay too much fun. And, we've been friends long before even that.

Yesterday we had lunch and a chance to catch up. Of course discussions of work occurred. There's nothing better than bouncing ideas off each other. We do it well. Miss it.

Loni darling, one day . . . we'll be together again  . . . platonically and workingly speaking, of course. ;)

And if you guys haven't checked out her blog lately, you should. She's such an amazing photographer!

(and that photo ain't too flattering of me. it was a spontaneous "let's have lunch" moment. i was lucky to have done my hair . . . kind of. ;) )

work? or play?

So my Saturday was full of "work" . . . a few hours of taking photos for my niece's high school production of Guys and Dolls (at my alma mater where I was once in the orchestra pit for My Fair Lady). But, I must admit, there was also lots of play. Some of those kids really got into the photo shoot, so there was a lot of laughter going on. I must admit, it's really easy to shoot "actors" because they get into it. There not afraid to do anything. Makes my job so much easier.

Sadly though, the lighting wasn't the greatest. And when the spotlight was on, it did light them up, but also provided a lovely blue hue. Good thing I have Photoshop. ;) Helps. But it's time like that that I wish I had some studio lights. Oh well, the show must go on. Oh, and Kassidy was there taking photos too. Great help! Great to have a back up as well as help out with individual photos.

Here's a few shots.

The Gamblers

And if you're wondering what the guy is in the pink suit with plant, it's because they are cross promoting Little Shop of Horrors in this play. The two main characters (my niece is Audrey) are extras in this play since it's the same time period.

"Sky Masterson"

"Nathan Detroit"

"Sarah Brown"

"Miss Adelaide"

Stealing a kiss. These two aren't really a couple (wink wink).

The main gambler group. That's my money and my dice. I made sure I counted all of it before laying it out. ;)

The City People

"Nathan and Miss Adelaide"

And I have to say, these two were a hoot to shoot. During this particular moment, the "Sky Masterson" character was really into posing. And was just saying random things as he was doing the motions, including placing his hat on his chest and saying, "Me Tarzan." Then directing his hat towards her and saying "You Jane." Point his hat towards the floor and say "Floor." Just random stuff. I was laughing quite hard . . . and told him "You're not suppose to make the photographer laugh!" It's awfully hard to shoot that way. lol And this was a photo that Kass actually took because she was standing and I was sitting and since we for some reason forgot to take one just of the mission people, this worked the best for a group shot, whereas I was taking one of just the two of them. Nice to have backup. ;)

Good kids. Still have the dress rehearsals to shoot too, so we'll see what happens then. :)

don't forget!

Just posting a quick note to say don't forget to check out the new Silhouette images in the Online Store today! You might just miss this little guy. He's one of my faves.

 

And this little Print & Cut baby!

And if you didn't check out the Silhouette blog yesterday, go now, my friend! Exciting stuff a-happenin' over thar!