Darn Insomnia!

So I have been up since 1 this morning. I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I wasn't stressed about anything or keyed up... just couldn't get back to sleep. I think I was trying to hard to fall back to sleep. So anyway... I haven't felt too scrapbook creative today and won't get my P365 layout done today but oh well.... hopefully this weekend I will.

Another set back in getting my photos shot for P365 this week was that my battery died while I was trying to get some of my shots. That makes me so frustrated when I spend the time to set something up for photographing and then zippo on battery power. I had some Staples Rewards to use and found that online I could order a battery for my camera. Ever since I got this camera I have only had the one battery and it always dies at the most inconvenient times and then takes 3 hours to charge. So... now I can always keep a spare charged and ready to go. I am so excited!!! I also had enough rewards to order a card reader so that I don't have to drain my camera battery when I load my photos onto my computer. And one more goodie.... I got another Compact Flash card for my camera too. I am almost giddy to know that I'll have all these conveniences in a week. Whooot!!!!

Another recent purchase for my camera was a 50mm 1:1.8 lens. I am loving it! It lets in more light and makes a nice blur in the background of the subject. It is also a great choice if you are looking to get another lens because it is inexpensive - only about $100.

Scrapbook Layout Share

Just hanging out watching the Olympics & American Idol but I have never been very good at just "sitting" so I have my laptop handy and thought I'd post some of my latest scrapbook pages. Each page is linked to it's place in the galleries so you can click on any of them that you want to see credits for. Thanks for looking.

Sewing?

Yep... I did some sewing today. I don't do very much sewing but I have seen a few people sporting these darling camera straps and then happened across a tutorial online and thought... hey I can do that! If you want to do it too then to to I Heart Faces HERE and check out the tutorial for yourself. I ended up making two different ones. FUN!

As I was surfing around I saw this darling project and snagged a photo from the blog Noodlehead to show you. WAY cute!!! I think I want to try and take on this project sometime soon. She is such a talented gal and shares the tutorial on her blog if you want to take a peek HERE. I think I just may be getting my machine out a little more often. When I went to JoAnn fabrics they had soooo many darling prints.

P365 Week 7 & some Valentine Photos

Here is my latest page for P365. I enjoyed taking some photos of the kids for Valentine's season. I set up a little home studio by turning my couch to face the big window and draping a sheet over it. I also picked up two Valentine shower curtains (who decorates their bathroom for Valentine's day?) at Target for $5 each the day after Valentine's. One had multi colored hearts (behind Morgan) and the other had large flower graphics in pink (behind Cheyenne) I think it will be fun to use the pink one for Easter shots too. Clayne was an excellent Valentine and came through with a bouquet of roses and dinner at Jaker's. Dinner was soooo good. It was a prime rib and seafood buffet. I ate LOTS of crab legs & didn't feel the least bit guilty for doing so.

Credits: all products By Carina Gardner
AFFECTIONATE-Papers, Design 365 Masks v3, Design 365 A Month of Number Stamps, O CHRISTMAS TREE-Ribbons

So like I was saying I did some photo shoots of the kids. These were some of my favs. Savannah's is taken with natural light but then Carson complained about the sun in his eyes and so I decided to try out Clayne's old flash. He used it with his manual Canon SLR and he has had it from before we married 20 years ago. I wasn't sure it would work with my Nikon D70 but what do you know - It worked and I like the results. I will definitely be playing with it some more. I was thinking I needed to by a speedlight flash but didn't want to ding our budget to purchase one. It is always nice when you find something "free" that works.







That will be all for now... I want to do some scrapping. I hope to share some of my latest pages with you this weekend. Are you enjoying the olympics? I watch them as I scrap on my laptop.

P365 week 6 & the kids' Valentine cards

This was a busy week of crafting and baking for Valentine's Day. I finally got my week 6 layout done for P365. I also wanted to share the Valentine's that I made for our kids to give out in their class parties. Carson wanted his to be a crazy picture & I think he succeeded. It shows his personality quite well I think. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I know I have eaten a few too many sugar cookies. How about you?

Credits for this layout are the same as for Week 5 in last week's post.

Savannah's valentine is made from Jen Allyson's Smitten kit.

Cheyenne's Valentine was made from a freebie Pretty In Pink by Verena Designs.

I made Morgan & Carson's Valentine's from the One Love kit.

A Valentine Project and a little scrap info

Before I go start cutting out sugar cookies, thought I'd make a quick post. Today will be busy getting the kids class Valentine's ready, making Valentine boxes... (I also have scouts today and Savannah's piano lessons...whew) I wanted to let you know about an event that is coming up at Scrap Orchard. Show another hybrid Valentine project I made this week. My scouts will be making this project today. (you can click on the image to go to the kit I used by Carina Gardner - you can buy it as a complete set or broke into just the parts you want.) And last... there is a preview of a kit that you can get for free at Design House Digital so go ahead and click on it to pick it up in the store.

A Valentine Project

I can't believe it will be Valentine's Day in less than a week! I decided I better get busy on some of the projects I want to complete. Being the thrifty gal I am, I picked up these chocolates on after Christmas clearance for next to nothing and figured since they were mostly red I could use them for Valentine's for my kids. I think they worked up pretty cute. I used Lovestruck Paper Pack and Lovestruck Elements by Audrey Neal.

P365 Week 5

Just a quick post to catch up on my P365. Hope you are all having a nice weekend. I am not a sports girl and we don't watch TV on Sundays (much to my son Morgan's dismay) so we are not watching the superbowl. I did enjoy stocking up on some great snacks for good prices due to the event though.
credits:
The Day Dreams Collection - Sunset Backgrounds By Meredith Fenwick
The Day Dreams Collection - Sunset Elements By Meredith Fenwick
Heart Frames By Spencer Nugent
template from Design 365 Color Kit 2 By Carina Gardner

Photography Tips

Today I wanted to share with you a few video clips I watched over at YouTube by Erin Manning. I just requested her book at the library and look forward to learning more from her. I like her approach. There are more clips by Erin at YouTube as well so if you like these, go do a search and watch more.



Although I use my digital SLR most of the time I do sometimes still use my point and shoot and I found this clip interesting. I liked the tip for using the oil blotters over the flash as well as the tips for using sunglasses or a magnifying glass.