Took a little break to upload a new playlist for your blog listening. I know at least a few of you listen to it now and then (Nikki). The current set is quite a mixture based on the little bit of the CMA’s that I caught and VH1′s top 20. Especially loving Natasha Bedingfield’s new song and Alicia Keys who has a new album coming out tomorrow I believe. And who knew that Santana had collaborated with Chad Kroeger from Nickelback?! Great combination. I’ve also noticed recently that I seem to like just about every song that Fallout Boy comes out with. So there’s a little country, a little spanish rock, some pop/soul and my current fave song from Christian radio. How’s that for a well-rounded playlist? Only a couple more weeks till Christmas music playlists. :)

And because I can’t post again without some sort of image or video here’s a song from a movie that I’m still totally captured by. I’m not really a big dvd collector but I’m pretty sure I’ll be adding this one to my small collection once it comes out.

Kay, here are some random things I’ve been giving a lot of thought. Well, partially random. I guess they all have to do with things that I enjoy doing. And they all have to do with ways to make a little extra spending money. So I guess they’re not completely random. I have two part time jobs that I love. I don’t really want to give either of them up because I know I’ve got it GREAT at both. Flexibility, great hours (although more would be even greater), great pay, a kick butt laptop that I can use personally (more than I even do at work)… I’d really be a fool to leave either job. They pay the bills (although sometimes JUST) but it would be really nice to find a way to make a little extra without giving up either of these job and doing something that I enjoy doing. That’s everyone’s dream right? So here’s my random thoughts on the various things that I love:

LOVE sewing them. LOVE picking out the fabrics to sew them with. LOVE hearing how much people *heart* them when they arrive in the mail. Not a huge fan of doing the custom order type stuff. Really just not my thing I guess. What I love is making something that I would carry myself. At the same time obviously it’s important to make something that people out there just HAVE to have.

So, here’s where I’d love some feedback. If you were looking to buy a handmade bag what styles are you drawn to? Are there colors or patterns that you’d love to see? Is there a certain size that’s just right? Would you be looking for something a little more unique? I’ve been playing around with embellishing some of my newer bags (to be posted soon I promise). Do you think that makes them a little harder to sell since I may be narrowing my audience a bit or is that just what someone would be looking for when buying handmade goods? These are the tough decisions that come along with trying to make money at something you love, right?  I just thought maybe getting some feedback might help me with what direction to take the whole purse sewing thing.

 

At one point I had big dreams of doing digital scrapping for hire. I even had a website darn near ready to go live. It was going to be sort of a collaboration with myself and a few other scrapping friends where people could choose which of us to work with on a project based on which of our styles best matched their taste. Seemed genius but I think life just got busy and there were a few questions that we never really got ironed out so it got put on the back burner. Still would LOVE to do this but not really sure how to find the clients and there are so many questions of commercial use policies that I wonder if it would be worth it. I’m someone who tends to use many different designers on a single page. I could see myself scrapping a page and having a tally of 5 kits that I’d need to re-purchase for the clients project and I would think that would eat into any profits pretty quickly. I haven’t really checked recently if there’s still a list of commercial use designers out there. Anyone know? To me if I couldn’t scrap the pages for others the way I normally would for myself then  a) I’m not sure I’d enjoy it and b) I would think the client would be disappointed in the end-result if they hired me to do an album based on my current style. Wouldn’t it be great if things could just be much simpler? Have any of you done scrapping for hire at all? I’d love to hear your experiences with it and how you handle some of the issues involved. Another avenue I could take with this particular idea would be to offer wedding album design. I’d like to find a photographer (ideally locally) that has a photography style that would be fun to work with and team up to provide an album for their clients that’s a little more personal than the typical wedding album style. I was lucky enough to play with some of Shari’s amazing wedding photos a couple years ago and it was definitely something I would enjoy doing more but having great photos to work with makes all the difference.

I’ve also done some digi-scrapping classes. Love doing these and it’s so fun seeing people get so excited about the hobby. I know there’s some others of you who do this (Kari). How do you reach new clients? I think it would be great to teach these classes at a local scrapbook store but are they more open to that now days? I’ve considered contacting one that’s right near my apartment but I’m so intimidated by it and I’m not really one to sell myself. Gotta work on that. Do any of you teach at an LSS? I’ve noticed there are going to be seminars on just that at CHA this year so maybe they’ll start embracing that after attending some of those classes. :)

Another idea I’ve been tossing around is blog banner design. Do you think people would love to have a custom designed blog header? Enough to pay maybe $20 for one? And then the question again is how to advertise such a thing. I could add a little blurb in my side-bar but I think probably 90% of the people who visit this little ‘ol blog are perfectly capable of creating their own blog banner. I’d imagine most of you are also digi-scrappers and very familiar with graphic design. Hmmmm

Then there’s…

 

 

I LOVE creating slide shows. For the life of me I can’t figure out how to save them in a way that they can be inserted in a blog post but I WILL conquer that task. I just finished creating one the other night and have done a few others in the past. You can check them out here. The three earlier videos I’d actually love to redo now that I’m more comfortable with the software. I, for one, have such a love of music so something about seeing my photos set to a favorite song or one that reminds me of the event the photos were taken at just makes it so great. There are certain things that I think are so difficult to capture everything in a scrapbook page or even a whole album sometimes. Like a vacation or even something as simple as going to see Disney on Ice or a birthday party. I’ve never been good for some reason at scrapping those types of things but I can put together a slide show that makes me feel like I’m right back in that moment. Anyway, it’s something I enjoy doing and have gotten pretty comfortable with the software for it so I’d love to find a way to do it more often and make a little extra spending money at the same time. :)

And then not entirely unrelated there’s my love for…

 

 

 

I need to bring my camera in for a minor repair but after that I would LOVE to start doing some local photo shoots and get some practice to start building just a small side photography business. I have a great camera, a couple great lenses and some amazing professional actions for post processing work. Currently I seem to have to take about 100 photos to get 3 or 4 spectacular ones but with some practice, and a bit of studying what works and what doesn’t, I think taking photos for other people would be immensely rewarding. I already have my first guinnea pig family lined up, just have to firm up a date that works but I’m really excited about the idea of making photography something more than just a hobby. :)

So that’s the random ideas that I’ve been tossing around in my head. Would love to hear any advice or feedback on any or all of the above.

And this is where I should really start a completely separate post because now it’s going completely random and waaayyyy too long for anyone to possibly still be reading but oh well.

Here’s a recent photo of Pixel (per request)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the look she gives me after she’s just been scolded. Like ‘what? what’d I do?’. Typically lately I’m scolding her for any number of things like sneaking into my bathroom and getting my shower poof to chew on, or into the bedroom closet to find a flip flop ‘cuz apparently they’re the preferred type of shoes or her most recent silly adventure that seems to just make her SO happy is going into the spare bathroom and grabbing the last piece of tissue on the toilet paper roll and running as far down the hall and into the living room as she can get. It’s amazing how much toilet paper I’ve gone through from this little stunt of hers. Ugh! It’s a good thing she’s crazy cute.

I think it’s been about a week now since I’ve finished a LO. I was on a really good roll there for awhile and hoping to get back to it maybe tomorrow. I did have a pretty exciting morning though on Tuesday on the scrapping front. I was wondering why there seemed to be an unusual # of comments left on an older LO in my gallery at SisTv. Have I mentioned this site before? LOL Still infatuated with it and quite possibly even MORE this week :) So I started thinking that maybe my sweet friend Jayne was pimpin’ me in the forums there again. That’s what friends are for right? So I head over to the forum and scan through the threads on the first page and see a thread announcing that the new catwalk was posted and I thought ‘NO, GET OUT! I couldn’t be on the catwalk’. But YES! I WAS on the catwalk. And chosen by none other than Big Sis herself the founder of the site. Pretty exciting stuff. Made my day. :)  You can see the LO that was picked here. Funny cuz I wasn’t even sure I was happy with how it turned out and figured I’d likely go back and make a few changes. Guess maybe not. :)

Kay, believe it or not I had more to blog about but since almost the entire post has been sitting on my computer for over a week now I guess I better just post it and blog again later. Hope everyone’s having a great weekend. Mine has actually been pretty lonely and pretty crappy so I guess it’s a good thing I wrote most of this on a much brighter note. Also not looking forward at all to the holiday week ahead which I know is completely bizarre but weekends and holidays lately are not my thing. I actually prefer the work week where I keep myself busy. Fortunately I do have a busy work week ahead so that’ll help.

I do have a little tutorial to post that should’ve gone along with this post a week or so ago and maybe I’ll be back to post a LO or two if I get some scrappin’ time in after church tomorrow.

So, as Brittany says…Until

I was looking through my book of scraps over at two peas and I stumbled across this gem and thought I’d share here. I think eventually this will make it onto a scrap page but at the moment I’m stuck on how to best do that. I’ve got another post started but I’m too tired to finish it tonight so for now here’s some advice that I thought was priceless:

How to Quit Life & Start Living
Jim Allen

1. Recognize that LIFE is what you get when you’re born. . .
. . . LIVING is what you do with it! You can sit back and wait for life to happen to you or you can make it happen yourself. As Maya Angelou once said, "Life likes to be taken by the lapel and told, I’m with you kid. Let’s go!"

2. Define life. . . it leads to the fine life.
Life is not a slogan, no matter what Nike, McDonald’s, ABC, NBC, or any other media giant might have you believe. While those "Life is. . . ." t-shirts are often witty, the philosophy they propose, like the shirts themselves, are rarely "one size fits all." Define life and living on your own terms and you’ve a better chance of getting both.

3. Take charge of your life.
Geoffrey Abert said that when you take charge of your life, "there is no longer need to ask permission of other people or society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life." To start living your life, you’ve got to be in control of it.

4. Little things mean a lot.
Life throws a lot of little negative things in our way that must be dealt with or else they will greatly diminish how we enjoy our days. Stephen Vincent Benet said it best: "Life is not lost by dying; life is lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways." 

5. Employ the power of positive quitting.
Most of us view quitting as something negative, but it’s not. "Winners never quit," we’re told, when, in reality, winners quit all the time: choosing to stop doing things that aren’t creating the results they desire. When you quit all the things that aren’t working for you. . . When you quit tolerating all the negative things that hold you back. . . You’ll create a positive "charge" in your life as well as well creating the space in your life for more positive experiences.

6. Charge into your future!
As you recreate this positive force in your life, take big, massive leaps into your future. Be imaginative, bold, and brave! The results may surprise you.

7. Use everything.
You are blessed with a particular set of skills and talents that NO ONE else has. Use every skill and talent to live your life as joyfully and abundantly as possible. Leave this life as Erma Bombeck wished to: "When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.”’

The afternoon at the beach yesterday was GORGEOUS. The weather was perfect. Quite warm but at the lake there was a perfect breeze that made it completely bearable. Unfortunately we went for location and chose a beach closer to home which meant teen-age central. Seriously, I think the ladies in the photo above were the only other people on the beach over 20. Ugh! Not so great for the self-esteem, let me tell ya. The sad thing that I was thinking yesterday was that as much as I was looking around wishing I had a body like theirs they were probably all doing the very same thing. Not at ME mind you but at all the other perfect bodies on the beach. If they only realized how beautiful they are but at that age girls rarely do. Sad. Personally I wouldn’t go back to that age for anything. If I did I’m sure I’d do alot of things differently but I actually much prefer 34 to 17. Anyway, I’m really hoping to spend another afternoon at the beach soon and capitalize on the little sun that I got yesterday before my tan is gone again. We’ll see. And hopefully more pictures next time so I can actually have enough to scrap a beachy LO.

Thought I’d post a link to my etsy shop here since I’ve started posting bags over there and I’m trying to decide which shop works out best. I’ve marked down a few of the bags too so go check ‘em out. :) And I posted a couple new bags in Jill’s too. More coming later tonight.

Back to work. Happy wednesday everyone.

 

I know I’ve mentioned this site before (probably a few times) but I love it so much.

I love the gallery…

I love that it’s full of amazing pages that inspire me to create more.

I love how supportive the other scrappers are.

I love that when I hover over a thumbnail in the gallery it expands so that I can see the LO better before clicking on it. I love that when I DO click on it the LO is a great size to see all the little details but even better, depending on the size a person uploads, I can click on it again and see even MORE detail.  Or how some people upload additional detail shots that I can click on along the bottom of the LO. This site has been so generous with their gallery uploading guidelines. I LOVE that.

Or how ’bout that anywhere on the site that I see a tiny avatar of another scrapper I can hover over it and see an actual reasonable size version of the avatar. And if I click on that avatar I’m taken to a page perfectly designed for me to learn a little bit about that person.

I love that the bio pages have fun questions to get to know the users beyond just seeing their scrapbook pages. I love that if they have a blog or website there’s a link right in their bio to get to it. I love that I can see who inspires THEM thru their list of ‘favorite sisters’. Or how poeple can leave little messages right there in the bio page the same as you can in an individual LO.

I haven’t figured out yet how to view others pages as albums. I know I sorted my portfolio by albums but I seem to be the only one who can view them that way. But it’s a new site so I’d imagine they’re still sorting some of those things out.

I love that when I log in and view my profile page it shows me right there if anyone has commented on any of my pages since I last logged in. I love that somehow people seem to comment on pages long after they’re posted. In my experience in other galleries people typically comment only on the most recent LO posted. And even then it seems like after a few days you’ve likely gotten the last feedback you’re going to get on that LO. At SisTV I seem to receive feedback even on pages I’ve posted almost a month ago when the site first opened.

I love that in that same profile page I can also see any new pages listed that my ‘fav sisters’ have posted since I last logged in so that if I don’t have time to browse through the gallery I still don’t miss any new pages from my friends or those scrappers that especially inspire me.

Oh, and the other day I noticed that the location in my profile was underlined and realized that if I click on it I can actually see a list of all the ‘sisters’ who listed Michigan as their home state. There are quite a few AMAZING scrappers who live not that far from me. I swear I’m not at all the stalker type but it’s kinda fun to find out that a few of those LOs I’ve been raving about in the comments were created by people who live right near by. I know, I’m wierd like that. :)

Seriously though, they’ve thought of everything here. And I haven’t even mentioned the little videos that are really what this site is all about. I didn’t think I’d really get into them but I’ve watched almost every one. The most recent one is even about ideas for taking your scrapping outside with it being summer and nicer weather. The ideas they talk about don’t really apply to me but I HAVE been spending a lot of time sitting out on my deck with the laptop. :)

The only thing missing is a slew of digi-scrappers posting in the gallery. Right now there’s just a handful of us. So GO, check it out, set up a bio and start posting LOs and link me here or email me so I can add you to my favorites and send ya some love. You will seriously love it there.

And no, I’m in no way affiliated with the site. Wow wouldn’t that be a dream gig! I’m just their number 1 digi-cheerleader. :)

Kay, gotta spend some time in the studio this morning and get the car washed and vacuumed out and then it’s off to the beach for the afternoon. Gotta find my sunscreen and load a book and some new songs to the ipod. Current song at the top of my listening list is the new one by Incubus called Dig. Here’s the video since this post is lacking in the images department and ya know how that bugs me. :) 

Ooh, I can post one of these though for this morning (beach day ya know).

Oh and I almost forgot, I finally finished Kimmy’s blog header yesterday. This is what I came up with.

You can find the credits listed in her side bar and she even posted again. Check it out. :)

Have a great Tuesday!

 

It’s completely out of character for me to be this crazy about anything about myself but I really am loving this new haircut. I figure it’s okay to ‘cuz it’s not like I can take any credit for it. I just happen to have the best hair stylist on the planet. This photo totally doesn’t do it justice, nor is it even in focus but I should mention that the photo before it had remarkable sharpness on the rose bushes behind me. :) I’ll have to get more this week while the cut is still fresh but the cut, the color, everything about it is totally me. More me than any cut I’ve ever gotten. I love the blunt bangs and there’s even more of them than what you can see in this photo. It’s the funnest thing. If I pull back the longer pieces around my face like in a bobby pin *ta-da* more blunt bangs! How cool is that?! And even though it’s not long on my neck in the back and not too hot to wear down it’s still long *enough* to pull back in either pig tails or even a ponytail. Plus I can round brush it all under or flip one side up a bit so it’s asymetrical (which I’m a big fan of). Or I can tuck it behind my ears for a completely different look. All that plus enough short layers to give it volume (cuz I hate my hair flat). Seriously! Hopefully people like it cuz I tend to wear my hair pretty much the same for like YEARS and I don’t think I’ve ever liked a cut quite this much. :) Oh, and the color, finally a good combination of red in the top layers and deep dark brown underneath. I like it contrasty and it seems like it’s always too subtle. This time it’s perfect. Only thing that could’ve made it a touch better would be maybe a few subtle highlights at least during the summer but we didn’t have the time. Betcha didn’t expect a huge paragraph just about my hair did ya?! Can you tell I’m excited about it? :)

And Saturday morning I got a package from Maegan and Zoe with the sweetest gifts for Pixel. Thank you SO much Maegan. And thank you sweet Zoe for wrapping it so darn cute. I was so excited to open it that I forgot to get the camera out to photograph the package itself. :( Loved it though and so did my niece who was staying overnight. :) I did get some photos of Pixel wearing her new blingin’ collar and playing with her new ‘Chewy Vuiton’ purse. It’s completely replaced Eeyore as her favorite toy. I couldn’t get a picture of it yesterday but she actually carries it around like a purse. It’s too cute. Here’s a picture of my stylin’ pup…

Let’s see, other than that I ended up having my niece and nephew overnight Friday night, went to Fazoli’s with them and my ex’s mom for lunch on Saturday, went on a fun shopping spree at Target thanks to the generosity of some sweet local girls that I’ve been doing some digi-scrappin’ stuff with, did some sewing, some chatting with friends online, dinner at a great local restaurant and Coldstone ice cream afterward (both wonderful), a quick trip to the mall yesterday and a lot of hanging out with my 2 favorite dogs (had Koda pretty much all week while Scott was up north fishing). Oh and yesterday I had a hummingbird buzzing around that beautiful planter from the post below. I’ve seen them lots at my parents house but this is the first time I’ve seen one at my very own place. Sometimes it’s the little things, right? :)

Wow, I actually had lots more I wanted to blog about but this post is already ridiculously long. I’ll probaby be back with more later. :)