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I was in the mood for photography today, and I got some really good shots! I'm really finding that if I don't try so hard, and don't worry about if a shot is going to turn out, they DO turn out, and I'm much happier with them. Make sense? So anyways, here are a couple of my favorites. I'm going to get a big print of the ribbon one made for my craft room.
I can also now post the sign I made my mom for her birthday...it's a big one for her, everyone send her many wonderful 'Happy 50th Birthday' vibes tomorrow! I love you Momma! So, I was inspired by Ali Edwards on this one...I think it's something we all need to remember and have hanging on our wall:
And can I just say how much I LOVE black with white polka-dots? Whether it's paper, ribbon, whatever! It just looks so happy.
We're planning on going out to a friend's house tomorrow to hang out by the pool...we're supposed to get rain, but we'll see how it goes. Have a lovely Memorial Day, everyone, if I don't post tomorrow!
Favorite hairstyle you ever had: I LOVED my hair my senior year of high school when I used to wear it straight. The photo above is my Senior yearbook photo. My hair was long and all pretty when it was straight...but ALOT of work. My mom had to help me if I wanted it to look good. Wash hair, blow dry straight (she had to wear gloves because my hair had to be so hot to get it straight!), then go back over with a flat iron, the curl the ends with a curling iron, or put hot curlers in the whole thing (like we did here). But if it was damp or rainy....can we say AFRO?! Chad likes my hair curly, though, and DETESTS it when I straighten it. I guess I just want what I don't have! I've learned to love my curls.
Favorite song on the radio that you just love right now: Well, I listen to XM, so the songs I hear on the radio are a little different. I lovin' 'Tension' by Aqueduct (this week, anyways). It's kinda funky, but my kinda thing. I just downloaded the album off itunes, and I just keep listening to it!
Favorite TV show: Desperate Housewives, VERY closely followed by the original CSI.
Favorite musical artist: This one is always hard for me, as I don't have just ONE favorite. As I said above, I'm really digging Aqueduct right now, as well as Neko Case, Sufjan Stevens, Annie, and Archer Prewitt. If I had to pick a band whose every album I have and would buy without hearing...that would be Modest Mouse.
Favorite thing to eat for supper: The first would be Mac and Cheese. The Kraft Deluxe kind. That's my comfort food, and the thing I can always count on being able to eat if I don't feel well. My second all-time favorite would be Dirty Rice- that Zattarain's kind that comes in a box- made with sausage (the kind in the plastic wrapper that you cut into breakfast patties) instead of hamburger meat. Yes, I can appreciate a home-cooked meal from scratch, but for some reason, my favorites are straight from the processed food isle.
Favorite movie: Again, I don't have just one. My most long time favorites are 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and 'Yellow Submarine'. I have recently added 'Napoleon Dynamite' to that list. Any movie that has a ton of one-liners that you are quoting YEARS after it comes out is a good movie to me. Hehee. Yeah, I like the crazy ones. Oh, and of COURSE I like all the Harry Potter movies.
Best date you ever went on: That would have to be my third date with Chad. We just did some totally random stuff, like go to Wal-Mart, watch a movie, and play scrabble at his place. We decided to walk across the street and go for a walk on the beach at night. It was January, so it was still WAY cold in Fernandina. He gave me one of his coats that was WAY too big for me. We were standing on the beach, and he asked if he could give me a kiss. Our first kiss! It was wonderful...and not to be corny, but you DO hear music in your head when you've found the perfect man. Hmmmm....so dreamy.
Your most favorite friend: My family. Don't get me wrong, I love my unrelated friends, but I seriously LOVE hanging out with either of my parents, especially since I don't get to see them all too often. My sister is 8 years younger than me, and we have ALWAYS been close- I hate that I'm missing her High School years, and all her Horse/Barrel Racing/Roping stuff. And I'll never pass up an opportunity to get to spend time with Chad!
The best Christmas present you ever received to date: Well, there's two I'd like to put here. Christmas 1994, when I was in 9th grade, my parents got me my VERY FIRST CD player. I just remember how excited I was...I even remember the CD's I got: Dookie by Greenday, In Utero by Nirvana, and Nirvana: MTV Unplugged. Yeah, I was going through my 'freak' phase. I still listen to them , though! The other one would be Christmas 2001, when Chad got me my Nikon N80 film SLR. I only had an old manual up till then, so this was like FLIPPIN' AWESOME! He gave me a new camera bag, which I thought was for the old camera, and, get this: a CHIA PET! I was kinda like, okaaayyy. Just before he walked out the door to go back to work he said, "You have one more present, but you have to FIND it!". And when I found it, there was my camera and a new lens!
Man, I am so long winded on these challenges, but they're fun! Hope I didn't wear anyone out with all my babbling...
I did this one of my sister today. Didn't get to do any others, cause this one was pretty time consuming, but well worth it! I checked out the FreeStyle Blog and this week's challenge is hand stitching. Perfect timing considering I had already planned to do it on this page...cool! The flowers are cut out from Gin-X paper, then I hand stitched the swirls. The other stitching is machine sewn. I can't tell you how much I love these layouts I did this weekend!
Hello everyone! Work has been so crazy this passed week since we got back from vacation. I still need to go through and organize my pictures. I really didn't take as many as I would have liked, but I was too busy enjoying myself! I discovered a new favorite artist in one of the galleries down there, too. Her name is Suzy Pena- her website is SuzyPena.com. Her work is absolutley amazing. I think she does it all on photoshop. I got a couple small things (I'll post those later), but I'm definitely going to save up for a big one.
We got to do all kinds of fun stuff. We went out on a big catamaran for a snorkeling trip. I've never snorkeled before, so that was sooo cool! Poor Chad, there was a whole SCHOOL of Tarpon just taunting him. He'll get a big one soon...! For me, the highlight was that we got to see a stage production of Rocky Horror! OMG it was SO AWESOME! Chad and I were 'Virgins' to the show, so we didn't dress up. Seriously, Key West has got to be one of the best places to see that. They're so laid back and NOT uptight about stuff like that. It completely amazed me how those guys could dance in those platform spike heels.
Okay, so I FINALLY got to scrap again yesterday! It's been almost a month since I've done a layout. Melissa (BellesMommy) organized Pub Day over at 2 Peas. It was an awesome all day crop with lots of challenges and RAKs. I've never done an online crop before, and I gotta say, it was SO much fun! I hope they do it often! I didn't get to participate in National Scrapbooking Day, so this was great for me. So, here's the layouts. I'm SO happy with them, I just can't stop looking at them!
This one was for the "Don't be Serious, Have fun with Yourself" challenge. These photos are from my senior year of High School- I was 16 in the top, and 17 in the bottom, but they were just perfect for this. I used alot of stuff from my Jenni Bowlin May kit here. I've only stitched on one page before, so I decided to give it a go again....I'm flippin' obsessed! Alot of my pages will probably be stitched now. One of the best comments I got was "This is an nice FreeStyle page you've got here!" How cool is that!? Okay, so here it is:
The next one was the "Defining Words" challenge. You take a photo of yourself or someone you love, and think of words that describe them. I've been wanting to scrap this photo, so I used it. Plus with Father's Day coming up, I've got Daddy on the brain. More stitching on this one...told you I was obsessed! Everything but the black MM stickers are from the Jenni Bowiln April kit.
I can only scrap until about 3pm today, though, because our friends (the ones whose daughter's wedding I photographed) are taking us out to dinner as a thank you. We're going to Buca di Beppo. World's best tiramisu, here I come! Yum!
Jenni Bowlin's May kit is up! I swear, each month is my new favorite! I just love how she photographs the kits, too- makes them EVEN MORE appealing. This one has so many flowers...right up my alley, and the colors are just gorgeous. Our embellishment boxes are just going to be crammed full this month with even more flowers. Mine should be waiting for me when I get back from vacation next Friday, just in time to scrap over the weekend before I have to go back to work.
My stack of 'To Do' stuff here at work is getting smaller and smaller- almost done. I have 1 kitchen to price, another to design and price, and 4 installation packets to do for smallish jobs...nothing too complicated. It will be so nice to leave here tomorrow and not have anything weighing on my mind.
I made this for a guy I work with who's retiring. He just LOVES his Ticonderoga pencils. He refuses to use anything else. So, I thought it would be funny (and useful!) to give him a big ol' cupful of them. There's 104 there. He's still going to be doing some pricing and sketches for us from NY, so he'll get plenty of use from them. He said he'll leave some to his kids and grandkids in his will. He got a real kick out of it. To make the 'plant stake' for the card, I just unfolded half of a large paper clip and stuck the end into one of the erasers, then clipped the card on. This would make a cute teacher gift, too- for those that have kids!
Another cool thing: Chad bought me an iPod on Saturday! I've been tooling around with the idea of just getting the 512MB shuffle (the cheapest one they make) so I could have some music at the gym. He got me the 60GB iPod video! Way cool. I have about 1/4 of all our CD's uploaded on it, and only have 2GB filled. And we have ALOT of CD's. Chad has every Jimmy Buffett CD ever released. Dude has released a CD (or two) almost every year since the early 70's. Such fun concerts...but that's off topic.
I have been so lax in my blogging lately! Work is super-nuts this week. I go on vacation next week (we're going down to Key West for a few days!) so that means getting LOTS of last minute stuff done. I've also been working away at home getting all the Mother's Day stuff done. My mom's is done...but I don't want to post it here, cause I don't want her to see it. I will say that it was inspired my Heidi Swapp's mother's day project, since my mom doesn't know who Heidi Swapp is (and DON'T YOU DARE google it, either, Momma! You have to wait. Neener, neener.)
I know my mom is sitting there thinking, "You little snot rag." Hehee.
This week for Studio Friday, we doodle...using our mouth! This was pretty fun, once I got the hang of holding on to the marker with my mouth and teeth. Chad walked in while I was 'drawing' this, and was like, "What the HECK are you doing?!" Hehee. I used a good 'ol crayola marker. I also added one I did by hand for comparison.
Complete these statements:
1. My current favorite song: Well, as of THIS particular minute, I'm really into Star Witness by Neko Case. I love her voice...kinda folsky, kinda rocker chic, kinda old timey country-ish, if all that makes sense. The sound of the song reminds me of some of the stuff my mom used to listen to when I was growing up.
2. The last book I read: As far as a sit down and read novel, it was Wicked by Gregory Maguire a couple months ago. Soooo good. I MUST see the musical now. Still haven't read the sequel though. The last art/inspiration book I read was Caludine Hellmuth's Collage Discovery Workshop (the first one, not the one with the poppets). So AWESOME! She actually TEACHES you how to do all the techniques, as well as provides alot of eye candy. I checked it out from the library, but I am definitely going to buy it. I want the new one, too. She's like, my new favorite.
3. What I'm wearing right now: A green (like a pretty limey color green) Signature Cabinetry polo shirt, dark khaki capris, and brown leather sandals. Man, I love that I can wear sandals to work. I used to wear heels, but that ended real quick after a few hours of standing on the marble tile floor in our showroom one day. Flippin' OUCH! I think my feet hurt for two days after that.
4. The last CD I bought: Give Up by The Postal Service. Chad and I both LOVE the song Such Great Heights (not the slow one on the M&M's commercial, the faster original), so I got him the CD. I still haven't gotten to listen to it yet.
5. The last gift I bought for someone: The CD I just listed and a candle for Chad's Easter Basket. Let me tell you, Old Virginia Candle Company's Farm Grown Soy Candles have got to be the best candles ever made. They melt down COMPLETELY, no wax stuck to the side of the jar, and they are strong, and smell so good! You can smell ONE all through your house. My MIL gave us one, and I swear, I will never buy another brand again.
Yep, so there's my long-winded answers as usual! Oh, and I got a call from our friends (the parents of the girl whose wedding I shot) Tuesday night....they LOVED the photos, and said the DVD made them cry. That really made me feel SO GOOD! I know I did my job. Plus, they're taking Chad and me out to Buca di Beppo next week for dinner. YUM! Still don't want to be a wedding photographer...
Boy, was Saturday a LONG day! We were there from 10am to about 10:30PM. I was so beat by the end of the night. I SO TOTALLY have so much more respect for wedding photographers, now. I was keeping the mother of the bride calm, while all day I was completely stressing out hoping the photos would turn out.
On Sunday, I LITERALLY made myself sick because I wasn't absolutely thrilled with the photos, and was so afraid that they wouldn't be happy with them. The wedding party pictures were only OK, and all the bridesmaids' hair was blowing in their faces. To top it off, I ended up taking over 500 photos (how the heck did THAT happen), so I had ALOT of editing and deleting to do. I kept trying to tell myself, "If they were so worried, they would have hired a PRO!", but it didn't work...and kinda glad I was doing it for free.
So, yesterday, I was feeling better, and Chad took the CD of photos over to the bride's Dad. He really liked them. I looked at them again with much LESS tired eyes last night, and I decided they're really not too bad. I picked out about 13 of my favorites and posted them on 2peas, which you can see HERE.
I also made a slideshow to music of all the photos for them on iDVD, which happens to be like the coolest program ever. It's amazing how setting photos to music on a black background can instantly make them look better. Cool. I still don't want to be a wedding photographer......
I'm all ready for the wedding tomorrow. This is the frame (see a few posts down) all wrapped up with a card. I found this way-cute bag at Target, then made the card with paper from the latest Jenni Bowlin kit. I TOTALLY got my gift bag technique (well, and gift wrapping) from my Mom. I remember the gifts I would bring to birthday parties when I was little would put all the others to shame!
I've got the cameras charged and packed....all ready to take some awesome photos tomorrow. I'm completely wired right now, but I know I need to go to bed! The wedding doesn't start until 7pm, but we're going over at about 10am. The girl that was supposed to set up all the decorations was in a car accident and might not get down here, so they asked if I'd help with that, too. It's gonna be a long day, but it'll be fun!
My first Studio Friday! This one sounded especially fun, so I thought I'd join in. Here's all my sparklies. Funny, I actually thought I had more than this, but the ones I have make me happy. I'm all about rhinestones...I don't think I make anything without putting at least one on there. Love 'em!
For this week's installation of Fun Fact Friday, we are to blog about fun things about our husband, pets, job, or whatever comes to mind. Let's see....
- Chad is the youngest Park Manager in the Florida Park Service (as of right now). He was 29 when he got the promotion this past November. He turned 30 in January. I'm so proud of his accomplishments!
- When she was a puppy, we trained out Lab, Marley, to ring a bell we hung on the door when she needed to go outside to use the bathroom. (We didn't want her starting a door-scratching habit!) She actually picked it up pretty quickly, it took her about a few weeks to figure it out. She still does it, now. Pickle took longer to catch on, but has recently (a few months ago) started ringing it when he needs to go out, as well.
- The most fun part of my job: Getting to tour the insides of multi-million dollar houses that we design cabinetry for. We haven't gotten a celebrity client, yet (they tend to stay well hidden around here!), but one of the interior designers we've worked with did a quote for Tom Cruise's mom's condo on Marco Island. Oh, and I get to photograph all our finished jobs, see above. That one is from about 1 1/2 years ago- I've gotten more experience and have a better camera, but that one's still one of my favorites! Still wish I had moved that paper towel roll, though. Ack.
Well, those are the first things that come to mind. I'll think on it to see if I have anything to add. Have a great weekend, everyone- I'm going to be super busy with wedding photos!
He reminds me of the bratty little brother poking his head in front of the camera and going "Look at ME!" Hehee....he's so cute. We took the kids 'bye-bye' with us last night to go check out the smoke coming off the 3,000 acre wildfire that's burning not too far from us (thank goodness it's under control! It wasn't close enough to affect us, though.) Unfortunately, I missed the good shot when I was coming home from work...the black smoke billowing up, and the orange sky. Oh, well.
I've been lazy about blogging the past couple days...I took a class at the gym Monday night, one where you do weights and work every part of your body. By today, I couldn't flippin' MOVE! I am in so much PAIN right now! I'm so proud of myself for getting through the class. Now if I can just get UNsore, I can go back to the gym!
Something kinda cool did happen Monday, though. I went to the Library during lunch, and Wink News (our local station) asked if they could interview me about the new online system our library is coming out with. I ended up being on our 5:30 news! The part they put on was something like, "I use the internet for everything, and this is great because I can look to see if something is in before I make a special trip." or something to that effect. So there was my 5 seconds of local fame. Hehe.
Happy Easter, everyone! I just thought I'd post a project I just finished. It's a wedding gift for the daughter of some friends of ours...the wedding that I'm photographing next weekend! I love these colors together. I'm going to have a hard time letting go of this! Hope she likes it.
I'm still a bit nervous about the wedding photos, but I've gotten the hang of my camera pretty well. I just want them to turn out nice. I want to be able to be proud of them.
I did some awesome (well, I think they're awesome) portraits of Chad Friday evening. You can see them here and here.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone, and have a great Easter!
