Vikings, Readers and Wall Decor Phobia

Okay so still no photos of the new place, but you can forgive me right? I'm hoping to get some night daylight photos this weekend, even if we still have things all over the floor.

Our first weekend settled in was jam packed: a relaxing night in Friday night and early to bed, since we both had to be up early the next morning. Chris for work, and me to go to the Nordic Symposium up at California Lutheran with my parents. It was really very cool and totally worth the $40 (or whatever it was for the day), but excepting the college students I was the youngest person there! Which was kind of depressing, because it meant people weren't able to get their kids/grandkids interested in their heritage. Being a first-generation I'm much more inclined to be interested, but still it made me wish more people were clued in on their heritage! The speakers were really great, especially this woman who is the director of an archaeological project at Avaldsnes, which was the seat of the Viking kings of Norway for about 500 years. The best part is that it's not far from where my family is from (and where we always stay when we go home), so we're definitely going to spend a day exploring up there during our trip this summer. :)

Sunday was spent hanging out with Nikki and indulging in Chipotle, some scrapbook shopping, manis & pedis, and finally finishing Heavenly Sword. A super awesome day, indeed.

Some other things going on right now:

• Crazy-ass weather. It's been pretty chilly, then it started warming up this weekend and was near 80 on Sunday, then yesterday it started getting cloudy and chilly again, and drizzled overnight. And now today it's back up in the 70s. What the blank??
• Boo Time Warner Cable. I was *this* close to getting DirectTV. It's been almost 2 weeks (without internet or TV at home!!!), and they're finally getting their act together. Every time we called it was one excuse or another, and then when the guys (subcontractors, no less) finally showed up it turned out that the connection had been cut somewhere in the neighborhood. So then they had to send out their construction guys to run our cable line to the main box or whatever it is, and they finally came today. Thank Thor!! All I have to say is this: Quit acting like the monopoly you are, and behave like a regular business and hire more employees to meet the growing demand. As my old boss would say, "it's that simple!"
• Google Reader=making life easier. I've really gotten into reading people's blogs in the last year (it all started with digital scrapbooking ones where they would give away freebies, but you really can learn a lot from what people share these days!), and now I have quite the list going. So rather than go to each one every couple of days, I now use Google Reader, a free program that tells me which ones have been updated since I last checked. Super cool timesaver!
• The last week of Jessica Sprague's awesome "Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop" online class. I've seriously learned many cool tips and tricks - not so much how to do a certain thing, but more how to do it quicker and better! Plus I just love seeing her at work. :) I've created some really lovely pages, but more importantly learned how to be faster and better at this craft.
• Ali Edwards' super cool idea for a punch collage. Well, when doesn't she have a super cool and gorgeous project idea? But I was really drawn to this one, will have to start collecting the materials for it.
• Wall decor phobia. I have all this gorgeous framed stuff that I know I want to hang, and we're at the point to do that in our new space, but now I'm terrified I'm going to start hanging things and hate where I put them/how they look. Or that *gasp* I won't have enough wall space for everything! It's such a bother to get them up on the wall in the first place that I would hate to have to re-hang stuff (especially since that means more holes to fill when we move out). I know we'll get there - thanks in large part to Chris' eternal patience with me - because I hate the sight of bare walls, but am I the only one on the planet that worries about something like this?

That about does it for me...I'll have to share a cute hybrid project I've been working on as soon as it's finished (since I now have internet at home, thankyouverymuch).

~Trude
Quote of the moment: "All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Wow.

It has truly been a whirlwind month! I can't believe we're almost upon Thanksgiving here...where did October go?? I'm exhausted, but also in a great state of mind from all the great things I've been up to since my last post.

Fire-y Experience

The effect of the wildfires here last month was incredible. Red, apocalyptic skies like this:
Gross, huh? We (including the pup) pretty much didn't leave the house unless we absolutely had to all week! Luckily our apartment was never in danger, but we were very close to the Santiago fire (just over the hill, really) and at times we had ash all over everything.

The biggest worry was my uncle's house in Rancho Bernardo, since it was in the thick of the action in San Diego. Luckily his house was okay, although Donna's daughter (now his stepdaughter, yay!) Jen was evacuated in the middle of the night since they were out of town. Poor girl! It was an especially big worry because of the wedding that was coming up, which we just had last weekend. Luckily everyone involved was okay and things are slowly getting back to normal down there.

Pushing My Boundaries

I am happy to report that I have joined my very first creative team, working for digital scrapbooking designer Penny Springmann! (You might have noticed the blinkie to the right, as it's been there for a few weeks now because I couldn't wait to share!) This is really exciting and flattering for me, because it not only means free products (woo!) but also that my hard work at improving my digiscrap skills is paying off. Penny is an awesome designer who recently started selling at Sweet Shoppe Designs, and thus far I'm loving this "job"! I had originally applied for a guest spot for the month of November, but she liked my work so much she asked me to become a permanent member.

For those of you not in the "industry" (haha), a creative team (aka CT) is a common practice among designers as a way of showing off and promoting their products. CTs will create several layouts each month using the designer's newest products and typically post them in several online galleries. Other duties vary, but it's a total win-win situation for everyone. Designers have a team to bounce ideas off of and help expand their business, and CT members get access to great products and also expand their skills and exposure to the process.

Here's a few pages I've done thus far with her products:

"Lil Pumpkin"
"Oak Glen"
"Just How Much"
and "Rock On"For credits and details, click here, here, here and here.

Fun Visit(or)

Our good family friend Cheryl came down again this year to visit us right around her birthday at the end of October. I just love spending time with her! Not only has she known us kids since we were tiny babies, but she's been a counselor for years so you can't put anything past her. ;)

We had so much fun over the weekend just before Halloween! Unfortunately Chris had already booked jobs all weekend so he wasn't able to play with us, but I brought Jacopo along instead. ;) I played hookey on Friday, and she and I met up with my mom to go to lunch and then went to play in Downtown Disney. On Saturday my brother's awesome girlfriend Roseann bravely came along with my mom, Cheryl and me to the Historic Home Tour in old town Orange. I've done the walking tour before and was really looking forward to it, since it's different homes every time. We had so much fun with just us girls! Although after a yummy lunch at Felix's and walking around all day, we were all ready for a nap by 4pm. :)

On Sunday my dad had the great idea of going to the annual apple festival in Oak Glen, and that was a blast! We took a bunch of photos that day, but I think my favorite one has to be this one:
Funny, huh? The best part was I didn't even notice the sign behind us saying "No Dogs" until I was uploading all the photos to my computer! But of course there wasn't anybody saying "get out of here with that dog" or anything. In fact, just the opposite - everybody wanted to say hi to him! I warned Cheryl of how much we might get stopped, but it takes a day of walking with him to fully understand. I must have spoken to 30 different families that day! I suppose I'm used to it by now, seeing as we can't even go to Petsmart without someone wanting to pet him or ask what kind of dog he is. I guess that's the price you pay for having an unusual dog!

But I digress!

Viva Las Vegas

Then I had 3 short days before I left for Las Vegas for a girls' weekend! Since we left early Thursday morning and Chris was working, I didn't bother going out for Halloween; I just spent the night packing and handing out candy. :)

Then we were off! Nikki, Katie, Mindy and I drove together to meet up with Katie's boyfriend Colby, and Heather joined us Friday night. We just stayed at a cheap place in downtown/Fremont Street, but it didn't matter much since we were out and about most of the time. I think it's the best time I've ever had in Vegas, and this was my 4th trip with friends! We're all pretty easygoing travelers and share similar interests, so I'm always up for traveling and vacationing with my girls. :)

We were pretty low-key this time, no shows planned or anything like that. We went to the Hoover Dam, Mindy and I went and saw the baby dolphin at the Mirage's Secret Garden (highly recommend it!), did some vintage shopping, ate at the Bellagio's buffet, gambled, and generally hung out. It was great!

We took a ton of awesome photos, but I have to share some of the highlights from my photos:

Baby Dolphin!
Katie, politely shielding my redness from drinking that ginormous margarita:On the road to the Hoover Dam, we stopped off at a vista point overlooking Lake Mead, and laughed so hysterically at these signs that were posted everywhere that we took this photo in front of one, and I think it's my fave photo that I've taken in a long time!
Such an awesome trip! Thanks gang, for making it great!

Wedding Bells

Then I had a few days last week to try and recover (ha) before my uncle's wedding to his fiancee Donna, during which I had to put together a slide show of over 100 photos since my mom didn't have time. Fun! But it worked out, and I can proudly say I've increased my skills in iMovie and iDVD. :)

So I took a half day on Friday so that I could get my act together, and Chris and I drove down to the hotel we were staying at around the corner from Karl and Donna's house. We met up with my parents, and then we all trooped over to their house for a pre-wedding get together. Which was great! It was a chance to see everybody from out of town, and meet people from her side that I hadn't met before. We (meaning me, my mom and my dad, the unofficial photography team for the weekend) took a few really bad flash-y photos that I just have to share, because I didn't post them in the official Flickr album. :)

I just love how the boys all made the same eyes at the camera in this one (and I really don't think they pre-planned that!):Alex and I getting into the amazing marzipan cake that mom made:
Elissa enjoying the cake:

And the next morning it was THE DAY. Mom and I got up extra early so we could go over to the venue ahead of time with the wedding party (aka Karl, Donna and their kids) and take some photos. We got incredibly lucky with the weather - it had been cloudy all week, but the sun came out for them, without the temperature getting too hot. Perfecto! Apparently the brewery had previously been a Chinese restaurant, so they had this awesome view out onto a koi pond with beautiful landscaping and a little bridge and waterfalls! It was actually a great choice by them, you'd never know where you were and it made the party feel very private and isolated. Plus the staff was really great and helpful.

Anyways, you can go to my Flickr album to see the whole shebang, but here are a few highlights (as always, click for larger).

The table setting:The wedding party:The location, as described above:
The recessional:
The first dance:
It was such a beautiful event! I'm so happy it turned out well for them, since they are two people who truly deserved it. And now I have a new auntie! How cool is that??

And since it was a daytime wedding, we all went back to the house afterwards and had a great time doing an "afterparty." :) I won't name names, but certain people definitely had a "better" time than others!

And now I'm spending a quiet night at home with Chris and the pup, and looking forward to a very subdued weekend...

~T

New Page

Finally had a chance to do a new scrap page now that Chris is back and I'm not contantly distracted by the pup. And I actually went outside my "safety zone" this time and chose some really bright bright colors.

You can view credits and details here.

In other news, I took Jacopo to work with me again today since the guys are all gone most of the day and Chris is at work anyways. He's been very happy running up and down the length of the office. :) Thank Thor its Friday. Hopefully Chris and I will actually go out and see a movie tonight!


~T

Peace

Ahhh...the sounds of silence...all is quiet at work right now, and I'm in a very good mood today thanks to the kindness of my boss letting me bring Jacopo into the office for the day! It was actually his suggestion. It all started with the pup finally showing signs of anger and depression at being home alone during the day for over a week (even though I've been going home for lunch every day), and I was telling my boss about my woes of cleaning up after him, and he suggested I just bring him in. Apparently he's a huge dog lover, which he definitely demonstrated today. :) Too cute! So that relief, added to the fact that I finally got time to really clean the apartment last night (I find it theraputic), and its Friday, AND tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day so everyone is having huge sales....I'm feeling pretty good right now.

This is what has goten me through the week to today. Everyone loves a Tootsie Roll! Lucky for me I'm the one that buys all the office supplies and I make sure we've always got some kind of sweet thing around - usually the big 5 pound mixed bag of Tootsie Roll products since they're fat free and won't melt. And I'm not the only one who eats them either! The two mice in the back help me go through a bag pretty quick-like. ;)

Just had to share these photos I just took of the pup chillin on our couch here at work. Its right by my desk in the entry, so I can keep an eye on him:

He's such a goof...I love how he's practically rolling his eyes like "Geez, mama, not another photo??"

Well that'll do it, just a quick post to share. Can't wait for the weekend...just a few more days until Chris finally comes home!!

~T

Good Day

Today has been a good day. Although I am tired as all get-out and currently resisting the urge to go to Starbucks (yet again this week), this gorgeous rainy weather we've had today has been awesome! At the moment the parking lot looks like a bad 80s hairband video because it was raining up until a few minutes ago when the sun came out, causing great amounts of mist and steam. Too cool. [See, non-Californians, we here in SoCal have to appreciate it when we get actual variations in our weather. It happens so rarely. Especially this year, I think our current rain level is negative or something.] Plus, I got to wear my kickass pirate-y birthday boots.

Goals for this weekend include introducing my mom to the wonderful world of digital scrapbooking, fleshing out my Flickr account that I started this week, taking Jacopo to the dog park (keeping my fingers crossed that it will be nice and I can get photos) and spending time with Chris before he leaves Sunday evening. We'll see how I do.

In world news, I read this article in the Guardian today. Is it just me, or does that sound like the dumbest thing you've ever heard? It reminds me all too much of other such walls in the past...and we know how great those all worked out. And of course I haven't heard anything about it in the American press.

But I digress. To end on a happy note: Its FRIDAY! Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend!

Quote of the day: "I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace." ~Helen Keller

~T