Monday- new lesson

Today is Monday which means that I am on to lesson 2 at JessicaSprague.com. I felt a little more adventurous this week and change out the paper and fonts to make the LO my own. (It is interesting to look at the online gallery and see scads of LOs all the same!)



Since this particular layout is from the 2006 Vegas trip it should probably be in the following post, but hey, scroll down or click the link to see the other pages!

This is the companion page done the following week. Lots of learning fun.

Vegas 2006 - a work in progress

I am finally digi-scrapping our Oct 2006 girls' getaway in Vegas. As I get more pages I will continue to post them here... so check back often...

I am such a lucky girl to have such good friends!!

(Isn't it about time for another girls' get together?)

I'm glad we all got the memo that this was PINK day!

Serious OCD/Addiction

This is the Saturday- Today- Start to Finish Challenge.

1. You'll take a photo of the assigned topic (this is the start part)
2. You'll edit your photo, and create a page with your photo using the prompts.
3. You'll save your layout and upload it to the gallery (this is the finish part).

The trick? From start-to-finish (well, I'll let you have your photo taken and open, and your papers chosen and open), you've only got 30 minutes. :D I want you to get out your timer, and you can have your paper open and your photo all ready to go, and even have your font installed and ready to use, but from the Start of your layout to the Finish, challenge yourself to 30 minutes or less. P.S. This layout must be from scratch - no templates...

I find that since I am in MT and JS is in ET I get my emails about 11-12 at night. I thought I would just glance at it last night so I could gear up for today.

Well... this is where the OCD comes in. I HAD to do the LO right then! It was fun, but I don't like having to work within a 30 min time limit.

" It is only an addiction if you are trying to quit!"

I saw this quote on someone else's post for this assignment.

Wednesday Challenge #1

The Wednesday Challenge for NWR was to do a layout about ourself using elements from a wonderful kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs. It is a great kit. It took me a couple of days to complete mine since I am gone all day on Wednesdays to the Temple. It was fun to think about who I am and locate photos of myself. At first I was going to document the whole hair saga, but decided to take this avenue instead.

The challenge was this-
Challenge #1:

* Use at least two patterned papers from our new Carnival kit
* Use a photo that contains an area you've selectively recolored
* Use at least 4 photos on the layout
* Make the layout about yourself
* Use column journaling
* Install and stamp a new brush you've downloaded (try Googling "free photoshop
brushes", or pick some up from your favorite digi store).
* Round at least two corners of an element on your page using the corner rounder
eraser from Lesson 1

Challenging enough? If you're up for it, give it a try! :D

I am thoroughly enjoying this class!

Back in Class

I decided I was going to take an online digital scrapbooking class at JessicaSprague.com. I'm in a four week class - Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop. It is an intermediate class... just right for me. I am excited about all the things I am going to learn. Of course there is the huge learning curve when I first get started.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening doing this layout about Harley and Roxie. They came over for 3rd Sunday dinner. Roxie was so cute. She wasn't afraid of Harley, but blinked each time he came in for more doggie kisses. Sadly she is allergic to dog-slime and started breaking out in hives. A quick face wash took care of that problem.

One of the things I learned was how to use saturation/hue to make a sepia-tone photo and then add back in the color. I was very pleased with how easy it was. I just wish that Harley's tongue had shown up more.

I did my second layout in half the time it took for the first one. This time I manipulated the layers and added some more "torn" paper for this layout of little Riley. I am always amazed at how much he looks like Spencer.

But then I uploaded this photo of Spencer when he was 8 months old and I see how little Riley looks like his Mama too. He is so lucky to have two such good-looking parents... how could he not be cute?

The best part about scrapbooking is I have some of my favorite subjects to scrapbook about. Family is the greatest!

"Grammie... you live in a freakin' forest!"

Last Thursday our friend Shan dropped for a visit. When she was ready to leave at about 6:30pm we walked out the front door to find the "swine-deer" all over my yard and eating the ivy!! Shan exclaimed, "Grammie... you live in a freakin' forest!"

Most mornings I will come outside to find that the deer have been having a night-time snack and have dragged much of the snow off the ivy and onto the sidewalk. They don't seem to like the stems, but love the leaves. I guess it is a good thing that you almost can't kill ivy!

This is not the first time they have come down from the very close mountain to raid my front yard for food. (Fortunately, the backyard is fences and they don't know they could jump over!!)

They are not a bit shy about coming right up onto porches to get a better grazing spot.

We have a whole herd of resident deer that live here with us on Spring Cove Drive (aka 975 South). They are very adept at adapting to all of us humans that have moved into their neighborhood.
So yesterday I looked out my work room window and here they were by daylight. I sneaked outside with my camera to get some photographic evidence of their blatant activities.

I have to laugh just a little when I look across my front yard and see that they have worn a trough in the snow, their little highway to the ivy and treats beyond.

Sadly, this means that they will in all likelihood be back this spring to eat all of my tulips... oh well, isn't that what photographs are for?

I can't think of a more lovely place to live... so close to nature and more of God's little creatures.

Meet Harley

After 10 months of grieving and healing over the loss of our Buddi we decided that we were ready for another dog. We've been looking for a dog for a couple of months now. We went and looked at a couple of American Cockers but things just didn't click. We even seriously considered a miniature Schnauzer, but decided against that as well. Buddi was just such a good little poster-child dog for American Cockers we decided we wanted to stick with that breed.
ordon started looking on KSL's online classified for Cockers. He sent me several links of cute little dogs. One of the links was broken, so I looked at the KSL ads and saw that they were having a pet adoption event at the American Fork Pet's Mart. We decided that it was worth a trip up there to see who was there and if any of those little friends needed to come to our house.
We are almost immediately drawn to the cage with Harley in it. The Lost Paws lady came and took him out on a leash so we could get better acquainted. I won't say it was love at first sight... but I knew immediately that this little boy needed to come home with us. He showed right away that he had some training and I had to ask myself again, "How did someone let this wonderful little dog get away from them?"
So we filled out the adoption request, had him micro-chipped, paid our adoption fee and brought him home.
Harley is parti-colored (in his case, brown, carmel and white) American Cocker. He, like Buddi, is small for his breed, only 18 pounds. He is longer legged and longer in the torso than Buddi and (sorry Buddi) smarter! We don't know how old he is. The LP people had him listed at 7-9 months, but his teeth had so much tartar build up that the Vet thinks is likely closer to 4 years.

His first night in his new home he showed quick learning skills on how to use the pet-door (remember this is a cat-sized door) and when it was bed time he went right into the crate when I tapped it and told him to go in. We have been on several walks (on our warmer days, you know, the ones in the 20's!!) and he walks quite well on the leash. He comes when called and let's see... loves to harass Simba. And Simba likes him just about as much as the last little interloper who decided to invade his territory!!

One of the happy things about Harley is that his previous people didn't introduce him to the pleasures of human food so his is not a begger-dog. We are so pleased with this lack of interest that we will not spoil him with table treats and hand-outs. And the other thing that I DEFINITELY won't teach him is how to jump up on the bar stools and eat at the counter with us. (Can you say Buddi-the-bread-snatchin'-dog??)

We are looking forward to many happy years with our newest little family member.

Grandparenting... it's the best!

One of the most wonderful epiphanies I ever had was several years ago when I had pushed my then little 5 year-old grandson into a melt down because I wanted to be his mommie instead of his grammie. It was then that I realized that I am no longer the Mommie-enforcer... I am the Grammie-spoiler. I love this new title. I don't have to make sure they eat their vegetables, do their homework, etc. I just get to love them. They still need to obey Grammie's rules, and they do when I am the one in charge. But that is the beauty... I am not usually the one in charge!

I got to spent 3 wonderful days at Disneyland with three of my favorite boys... Tadhg, Caden & Brock. How can life get any better than interacting with my grandsons at the "Happiest Place on Earth"?

This trip was the culmination of a wonderful 30-day adventure of visiting all 13 of our grandchildren. Sadly our grandchildren are spread from coast to coast. Luckily we can travel!

September found us in West Virginia visiting Makenzie and Preston. They are happily awaiting another sibling in May 2008.

Then it was on to Michigan to visit with Brandon, Melissa, Bryan and Braden. We got to go to their "fall festival" called Barn Daze and I ate quite possibly the best Kettle Corn I've ever had!

Fortunately, we have 3 little sweeties, Ashton, Christian and Roxie that are only 20 minutes from our house and we get to see them frequently.

We have another local married son and his wife that are expecting their first in May 2008. (Yes two in May 2008).

Then there is little Riley Tyler, what a sweet baby. I have been able to see him several times in his short little 5-months in our family even though he lives in CA... much too far away for this Grammie's liking.

So, I'm back to where I started... being a Grammie is the best! I love each one of these wonderful little people and I am so thankful that they each have mommys and daddys that love and adore them and discipline them and do all those hard things that I was doing not so long ago.

What flower am I?

I am a snapdragon... I liked the description. "Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

Cut my hair long!

I finally took the plunge... I have been telling Desi to cut my hair "long" for years now and she finally did! We actually did this over two weeks ago, but I have been slow in getting a good photo that I wanted to post. I am very happy with my new hairstyle. Many people tell me that it makes me look younger. I can like that! This photo was taken by Cindy at Jake and Cody Boucher's (my nephew) open house.





The funny/sad part is that Desi & I hadn't planned to do this. I actually went in for a perm and she had extentions so we went to Rock Star Hair in American Fork and bought the supplies. We went back to the salon and she worked on me until... you guessed it... HER OTHER APPOINTMENTS came!! I had to go kill 4 hours at the mall and Costco with a "mean-spirited-mullet". Definitely not my best look!



But I think that one of the interesting things about this new hairstyle is its similarity to one from long ago... as evidenced by this photo of Tony and I in May 1973. I was just a little pip-squeak of 20 and pregnant with Rebekah.