Verbally Challenged

She makes me smile.

Well I managed to meet all of my deadlines this month…BARELY. And the one I was WAY late on so I’m not sure if that even counts. It was just a really hard month to get things done creatively with you’re away for a week and come home to every member of the family getting sick – all at different times. Definitely a challenge.

Another challenge was FINDING my creativity. Honestly, my heart wasn’t in it this month and I tried and tried…but couldn’t get in my groove. I blame the five pounds of snot in my head…great visual I know.

So here are some things that I accomplished over the past couple of weeks:

For It Kit Studio using the February kit (with an AWESOME new scalloped Fiskars punch):

And then these pages…one using new Piggy Tales paper with a little american Crafts and PageMaps sketch:

and then some new BasicGrey with more American Crafts goodness…

And now I can hopefully play for fun for a few days and my creativity will come rushing back. It’ll happen, right?

Either I spoke too soon or I should have knocked harder on some wood as it turns out…we’re not entirely healthy. On Monday (well it started on Sunday) something happened to me and I could barely keep my eyes open as my head hurt that badly – not good at all. And then yesterday when I picked up my little man from school his teacher commented on his pale complexion. Liam later told me that it hurt when he closed his eyes…um….ok. And then he spiked a fever in the 101 range – that’s where we are today. I’m thinking that HE now has what the three of us had already and that’s just not good. He’s a trooper though and we’ve been able to manage him with some meds.

So last year it was January that was horrible – we visited the doctor (and the ER) A LOT! This year, February is our month. Next year, I’ve already decided that we’re skipping town and going someplace tropical in March. We’re going to hide so that none of the nasty winter sick bugs can find us and we’ll be spared weeks of sleepless nights, sweats, chills, empty bellies, runny noses, coughs and overall ickiness. Think it’ll work? It’s worth a try.

So for now, this is part of what keeps me going:

It’s not the “perfect” shot (it’s underexposed a bit and her arm is clipped) but the funny thing is that I wasn’t trying to photograph her at all…yet. I was setting up my camera and she just crawled right into the frame with a cute little smile – I had to snap it.

Finally, a bit of good health and a clear mind – for all of us. Whatever we had spread through the family like wildfire and it wasn’t pretty. We’ve been home for a week and are just now regaining our strength, energy, appetites – you name it. I hope we’re in the clear for at least another year now.

Now to catch up on here. Let’s talk CHA. What a fun place to be with all of the creativity buzzing in the air! I got to meet up with some good pals and visit some of the folks I only really get to talk with online. I spent a good amount of time with my friend Becky who I am so proud of. She was promoting her new book (definitely check it out) PageMaps, based on her fantastic sketches. A year ago she asked me to be one of the contributors to the books so I have a bit of my work in there – so exciting. I got to see this book while at CHA and it really is well done. It’s hardbound with a deck of cards in the back that can be punched out and placed in a little box. It is loaded with artwork and she really covered her bases on artists – there is definitely something in there for everyone. It’s just so exciting to see this dream of hers come to life – I’m like a proud mama!!!

And the product there…oh the product…LOTS of fun stuff that I need. I realize that everyone has an opinion, a style, or a direction that scrapbooking takes them. But based on what I like, here are some of the things that I’m hoping to get a hold of:

Piggy Tales has a new rock star line that is perfect for little boys. And the really cool thing is that this company has gone green! So it’s all environmentally friendly paper and ink being used – now that’s cool! And something else that I liked are these little Pig Tails that’ll add dimension to a project – quite literally. I can see them being used on canvases or cards for a really neat little touch!

Basic Grey released some fantastic new lines. Archaic is the cutest little dinosaur line and Cupcake a birthday line with rockin’ colors – great stuff! And definitely check out the rub-ons!

Another fab paper line that caught my attention (again) was Sassafras Lass. They had these amazing posters hanging throughout their booth and I honestly could have framed them for artwork. Plus, something new they’ve done with their papers is leave the little barcode edge as a decorative diecut. So the papers are 12X13! LOVE that idea of having one funky edge…and I didn’t have to do the work!

I had no idea that Chatterbox was back – but it is and I really thought they were looking good! The mini-albums are beautiful…have you seen them? And some of their stuff is not so…Chatterbox…with the soft linen look (we all know I don’t do soft all that well). I love the new edge they captured with some of their new stuff.

A new company that debuted was Pink Paislee and they had some really cute things! Again, the paper with the die-cut edging (so I can put my xacto knife down) and alphabet stickers in a font that is so whimsical and cute! Plus the booth was just adorable – sucked me right in!

And now my mind is failing me and I can’t think of more product…but I know there is more. Maybe I’ll continue this later!

OH, and I’ve not really shared any California stuff – photos, stories, nothing. But I did look at the photos and have some cute ones. For now I’ll share these two since…well…they’re the ones that I’ve edited so far! HA!

Miss Adeline loved the beach – walking, crawling, eating the sand – she’s SO 13 months!

And this is classic Liam – running around the beach looking for seashells and squealing when the water touched his toes. He was in heaven.

I’ve learned that shooting on the beach is not easy! I’m just not used to full sun and clear skies!

More later!

Aka breakfast, lunch and dinner. While in California Nate got sick. Unfortunately, his sickness was at its worst on the day that we went to Disney. But he was the biggest trooper that I know, stuck it out and the family had a great time. Well, Nate wanted to curl up and die but the rest of us had a great time. And today (well it started yesterday), I have what Nate had. It feels a lot like bronchitis – fever, aches, pains, chills, cough, congestion – misery. And for the first time ever (I think) since having children, I felt like I couldn’t take care of them. Thank goodness that I have an amazing husband who stepped up and let me rest. Taking care of the kiddos and not complaining one bit. Honestly, he’s amazing.

I actually have quite a bit to say about our week away and lots of photos to share. California was soooo beautiful. The weather – I’d love to call it mine permanently. It made me so happy. CHA was amazing and I’m so proud of my friend who launched her new book (more on this later). Plus we had a family photoshoot on the beach. Lots to talk about.

More coming soon when I’m not living in a fog, shivering and sweating like a lunatic.

Life with 2 kids, Valentine’s Day, CHA, deadlines, photography and family stuff has kept me pretty busy. We’re headed out to California on Sunday so I may or may not have time to post while away – I WILL have my computer though – because I’m nerdy like that!

I went back through January and addressed any questions that were asked. I didn’t address the private emails since that would take way long to weed through (and I’m not very organized). But as always, feel free to ask whatever you want!

Question: Your recent layout about Liam (We Blinked) really had me at hello! I am totally loving it! I’d like to try and recreate it and was wondering if you could give me some pointers on how to trace the patterned papers so well to fit within the CI scalloped paper?
Wendy I meant to email you back with the answer sooner…I’m sorry!!! And thanks for your comments on the page. My trick for this page was to cut the solid center from the center of the CI paper, leaving the decorative edge. Then I built my page on the normal square and would place the scalloped frame on top periodically to give me an idea of my edges (this is where the BG magnetic mat helps). I glued everything down and then cut the excess papers away – anything outside of that decorative edge. Hope that helps!

Question: On the fish photo: How and where did you take this? What processing, if any did you do.
Well, I took the fish photo in my living room! It’s WAY to could outside to be messing around out there…although it WOULD have been neater since my gal is a water freak. I used my green seamless that I got from Calumet over a year ago (bad Marla). I have the whole paper holder set-up and everything but my very lazy self decided to drape it over the cardboard castle in our living room in front of some windows. For processing, it was very minimal. I copied my main layer and did a screen adjustment, reducing the opacity. I then did a curves layer pulling to create a slight s-curve. I think that there was a bit of yellow in her face (color casts drive me crazy) so I did a saturation adjustment layer, selected yellow and reduced the saturation.

Question: Are you self taught, or did you take a class? Have any pointers for someone just starting out???
I sent Amy an email when she left this comment. In fact, I mostly personally respond to the comments instead of doing blog posts but since this IS a q&a I’ll answer. Aside from a few photography classes that I took in high school I am self-taught. Before digital, I used my trusty Pentax. In college I kept a darkroom in my apartment to do all of my own processing, film and prints. I started digital once Liam was born and now I’m trying to learn the quirks that go along with it. My only pointers is to read as much as you can. Learn your camera, read the manual and try to shoot on manual. And practice, practice, practice. I try to shoot something every day – I still have SO much to learn!

Question: I HAVE to know what you are using, what camera, lens, settings…EVERYTHING!
This is another question that I responded to in email (hi Lisa) but I’ll add here – just because. I shoot with a Nikon D80. And most of the photos that I’ve been posting were taken with my 50mm 1.4 lens. I LOVE that lense!!! The settings vary depending on the photo but are all done on manual.

Question: Did you use blue paper for Liam’s hood picture?
Believe it or not, the photo of Liam was taken against my kitchen wall. Two walls in my kitchen are cobalt blue and has great light in the afternoons!

And because I can’t ever seem to post with out a photo, here is one of Liam looking like a small teenager. He’s wearing his rockstar shirt – it came with the elastic tie – impressive huh? He’s against that blue wall in my kitchen in full sun. Not ideal but I liked the mood it made.

And then one of Miss Adeline in her room:

More later…and hopefully that doesn’t mean more than a week!