10 Things

I think it's about time I did anther round of (cue music):

10 Things Making Me Happy (Right Now)

1. My new zoom lens. Now I know what you're thinking, "A new lens already??" But hear me out - the lens I got initially is a 50mm fixed lens, aka no zoom. For most instances, it works great! But if I'm trying to fit a lot of things in the frame and can't back up any more, I'm stuck. Or if I want to photograph something without it's knowing (i.e. pets), that's tough. So on and so forth. Besides, a standard photographer's kit includes at least 2 lenses, depending on what you photograph the most. Just ask Scott Kelby. ;-) So I finally decided on the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 zoom lens. I hardly had a chance to really test it out Tuesday night, but so far it's handling great!!
   
2. Adobe Lightroom. I had heard about this program before, but finally decided to download the free trial after people started raving about how quick and easy it makes photo editing. And I have to say I agree!! Definitely going to invest in this one (using a student discount, of course). It has one-click presets that are either built in or there are tons you can download all over the internet, which can yield stunning results that would have taken me a LOT longer in Photoshop. There are certain things you can't do, such as remove imperfections, whiten teeth, or blur messy backgrounds, but it definitely streamlines the whole process. Plus the presets are totally customizable - they could take just one click, and/or you could modify the effects yourself. Here's a few examples of the same photo with different presets applied (from Kelsey Smith and Traci Reed) that I did the other night (click image for larger version):
3. A moving possibility. We're in talks with our property managers to move to a fully upgraded apartment instead of renewing the lease on our current place. Very exciting! Those of you who have visited know our place could use some spiffing up. :) The one we're looking at is in the units across the street, has its own washer & dryer (huge improvement!!), everything has been gutted and redone, and just a slightly different floorplan that I actually like better. The increase in rent will be minimal, for what we're getting (plus we were due for an increase anyway with the renewal), and I'd really like to stay in the area as long as it's feasible. Plus, in terms of my current photography cravings, it's on the second floor so we get more/better light, and it has more wall space so I can start hanging my own stuff instead of somebody else's! ;-) Jeez, I've gone off the deep end now.
   
4. A charitable contribution. Granted, it was only $8, but I still feel it's a nice way to start the year! It was through this awesome digital scrapbooking shop that started last year called Songbird Avenue. It's run by two super designers, Jan Crowley and Meredith Fenwick, and every month they create a big scrapbooking kit along with a guest designer and all the funds go to a charity of the guest's choosing. I've bought kits from them before, but when I saw this month's I had to get it right then and there! Their guest is Shabby Miss Jenn, another designer I really like, and her charity is the Lupus Foundation of America. Check out how cute it is:
   Right? Now go make some donations! :)
5. "Ghosthunters" is back! Except our cable box and internet have been down since Wednesday, so I don't think it recorded the premiere last night. So that's not making me happy! But I'm sure I'll be able to catch one of the repeats. Such a cool show to watch, if you're into that kind of thing.
6. Aaron Brothers' 1 Cent Sale. If you love having your photos out and framed, get over there now! Such an awesome sale. Not only do they have the "buy one, get one for one cent" thing going on, but they have many of them on sale to begin with. I stocked up on scrapbook frames, plus some basic black collage-style frames to start hanging more of my own photos. I filled one of them last night with photos of Jacopo (surprise) - between the Lightroom effects and the new Epson photo paper I got, they looked awesome.
   
7. One+One. Its a new inspiration blog that some gals in the digiscrap community started up, and so far I've really loved what they posted. It's just one little thing every day, but a really nice blog to check in on every once in a while when you need some eye candy.
8. Books, books and more books. I'm practically surrounded by new books! They could each be a point on this list, I swear. I was given two gift cards to Barnes & Noble and two to Borders, and I've already used them all. Plus I ordered some (photography and scrapbooking) online through Ideabooks4u that I couldn't find in the store. I won't list them all, but some of the ones you guys might be interested include Cathy Zielske's Clean and Simple Scrapbooking-The Sequel (serious inspiration there!), Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure (a must-have according to many trusted sources, including Scott Kelby himself!), Laurie Notaro's The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club (for when you really just need a laugh, her other stuff makes my sides ache!), and one of my all-time faves, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. I read that one last year, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for days. Just amazing prose. I think its already been through several printings - not bad for your first fiction work. I can't wait for her to put out another book! But I had originally borrowed it from a friend, and I just had to finally get it for my own library. :) There were a bunch of others - darn Borders' buy one, get one half off table! They always have good ones! I'm sure I'll share if any are worth reading.
9. Good deeds. Last night I helped a woman who works in the office next door jump-start her car. Lucky for her I have jumper cables (and know how to use them)! She didn't have cables or AAA - and that's just not right! You gotta have one or the other. :) I'm pretty sure I racked up some karma points, and that always feels good.
   
10. Shopping with other people. It sounds silly, I know, but last weekend I did errands with my mom, and the weekend before that went shopping with my best friend at the post-Christmas sales, and I didn't realize until then how much I missed shopping with another woman! Usually I avoid malls and such on the weekends, so my shopping is done after work, alone. It was a truly welcome change to have such good company!

So what's making you happy? If you have to think more than 30 seconds, you need a break from whatever you're doing!!

~Trude

Quote of the moment: "One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats." ~Iris Murdoch

Good Reads, Top 10, and More

The summer is just flying by - I can't believe it's almost August already! But that's good, because I'm much more of a spring and fall girl, anyways. Although I did finally buy a pair of shorts from Old Navy, Nancy would be proud of me. :)

10 Things

So Jessica Sprague did this on her blog again, and I think it's time that I did another list of 10 things that are good/amusing/happening in my life right now!

1. GoodReads.com ~ Actually found out about this site through Jessica too, and since I am such a bookworm I just had to join! There are several of you that I know read at least as much as me (:cough:NikkiMindyMomNancy:cough:), so join up and add me as a friend! I always like to hear reviews from "real" people. Here's the link to my profile: click here.

2. (Nearly) 4 weeks down, 5 more to go ~ Chris has been gone for just under four weeks now, and it's really starting to get old - for both of us! I wish he was back already. Right now he's in the middle of a 12-shows-in-12-days stretch, and exhausted already. If it's even possible, I think he's going to come back skinnier. For those of you that know him, that would mean a walking skeleton. ;-)

3. My new Back to Basics conditioner ~ I got the Vanilla Plum Fortifying type (at Costco, of all places, meaning I nearly break my toe every morning because half the time the ginormous Costco-sized bottle slips out of my hand) and it makes my hair sooo nice and smooth and smells like cotton candy - muy delicioso!! And I've actually noticed that fewer hairs get pulled out when I comb through after showering. :)

4. My parents ~ Because they're just freaking awesome, period. And I'm feeling extra grateful that I live so close because they can puppysit for me, like they did last Thursday night to Friday night, since I had my work's "Day at the Races" event on Friday and wouldn't be getting home until late. Plus, they still let me do laundry whenever (like the loser and cheap bastard that I am), and have been putting up with me and the puppy quite often since Chris has been gone, as it's a comfy place I can hang out where they feed me for free and Jacopo can run around 'til he can't stand up anymore. :D So cheers to them!

5. My new cordless keyboard and mouse that are currently in transit to me ~ Hurry up, goshdarnit! Don't get me wrong, I'm seriously in love with my Mac, but even the Mighty Mouse can be found to be seriously lacking. It's one of the few areas that PCs have way more options and choices than Macs do, and I miss having a mouse that forms well to my hand and has easy forward and back buttons right where the thumb rests (and they're not just for web browsing either! Those buttons help when you're trying to find where you saved a file). The difference is especially drastic when I use a nice set all day at work and then come home to do scrapbooking or something. With all the time that I spend on my home computer, the mouse and keyboard had better work well and against the encroaching carpal tunnel I feel!
**Update: I got the set today, and I LOVE it!! I don't know why I bothered with anything else. Especially since when I was a PC girl I always changed to some kind of Logitech product from the stock keyboard & mouse, so why not with a Mac? Anyhoo, they're all installed and working perfectly, and I especially like having a "cleaner" desk with fewer cords running around. :)

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ~ I'm not even going to bother linking to it, because you shouldd already have a copy. And if you don't, run to Barnes & Noble now. Don't walk. I pretty much got nothing done this weekend (besides hang out with the girls Saturday night) because I had to finish it.

7. This new photo of me and Jacopo~I love it so much, I'm almost hesitant to try and scrap it, because I want the page to be perfect! I'm sure inspiration will come to me soon...I hope!

8. Jacopo finally healing ~ We've been dealing with skin issues he has pretty much since we got him, and I finally got fed up with the vet that we were going to originally (not seeing the same person twice, not really addressing our concerns, overcharging, etc.) that two weeks ago I decided to start taking him to the vet my family has gone for many years in Placentia. They had always treated my parents' menagerie well, and they were nice and small, and I felt I would get a fair deal there. I couldn't have made a better choice! Not only did she (yup, the vet is this woman that probably should have been a model) truly address my concerns about various skin problems he was having, but they charged me just over half of what the same thing cost at the other place and the new pill and ointment she prescribed actually worked. And right away too! Its so amazing, I had been using this other ointment from the old place for weeks and didn't see anywhere near that kind of result. So, long story short, that weight is off my mind and I'm sooo happy. And you can tell he's happy too! :)

9. My best friend Nikki ~ We hung out last Wednesday (like we've been doing pretty much every week since Chris left, and now I don't think I can make it through the week without at least one night of hanging with her!) after work, and I just have to give her huge props for being willing to go with me to the pet store to get more of Jacopo's food, and then suggesting we go to the Lazy Dog cafe (small local chain of restaurants that welcome dogs - on their patios, of course) instead of our fave sushi place, which really worked out since we already had Jacopo in the car with us. It just made my day that she totally understood how much guilt I felt leaving him alone even more than he had already had been that day, even though I was perfectly willing to leave him for an hour or so for dinner. And the restaurant turned out to be pretty good, and the service was great, although they didn't have any signs up as to how you were supposed to get seated if you had a dog and couldn't go inside. Might be helpful in the future. ;-)

10. Dreyer's Slow Churned Light Ice Cream Bars ~ Need I say more? And they were on special at Albertson's....it was fate! :)

Randomness

Other than that, just hanging out and getting through the week. Nancy came over the Friday before last to catch up and have her first official lesson in digital scrapbooking - another convert! Hopefully I helped her some...I can get so indecisive (which is really not like me) when I'm putting together a layout, mostly because I have so many options! Between all the different layouts I've seen, and tricks I've learned, and products I have, if I don't know exactly what I want to do it can be a tedious process sometimes. But we persevered, and together made this page:Cute, huh? I really liked how it turned out. For credits and more info you can go here.

Friday I'll be hanging out at my family's house, hopefully my uncle and his girlfriend will come over as well as our old family friends, the Brinkmans, since they're all going to the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna the night before. They're all so much fun! :)


~Trude

Quote of the moment: "If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal." ~ John Lennon

Foreigners, Books, Obedience and More

Where does the time go?? Even though my life has felt a bit quieter than usual lately, I still never have enough time in the day to do everything that I want to. Maybe it's because I always want to get a million things done, but that's besides the point (Chris). :) At any rate, lots of stuff going on, I think it's just because when I get home it's only me and the puppy that it feels quiet.

Photo Favorites

Some of my current favorites from Flickr:
Credits:
1. Heart of Satan - What it looks like when fireworks explode inside of a storm cloud over a river, 2. Girly staff, 3. Sleepy afternoon....., 4. Little Island, 5. more scenery, 6. 20070704_Norway_Day2_2209_Bergen, 7. 20070704_Norway_Day2_2027_NorwayinaNutshell, 8. no parking, 9. Day 180, 10. Anyone got any chips, 11. Happiness, 12. IMG_7338, 13. Hus på Gjendebu, 14. Dan as Art, 15. Pool Pals, 16. Nice Tongues, 17. 00099, 18. night at the Gent's channels/ Noche enlos canales de Gante, 19. Untitled, 20. Quick call the bambulance I'm havin a cute attack, 21. Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770 - 1844), 22. dunstanburgh castle, 23. Fira, 24. Separation Anxiety, 25. storm today

I love seeing what other people are doing, and being inspired by it. And sometimes it's just good for a laugh or a smile - like when I saw the one of the puppy biting the hand that holds him. :)

Visitors From A Foreign Land

Last Saturday my parent's old friends Terje (pronounced Terry) and Liv (pronounced Leev) flew in from Norway. My dad met Terje way back when he was working for Mobil in Norway, and they've kept in touch ever since. Here's a photo of them (on the right side of the table) with us when we were in Norway last summer. They came down from outside Bergen to hang out with us in Stavanger. :)(I just love that you can see the fjord in the background of that photo!) They're such a cool couple, we always love seeing them. And I love milking them for information, since they travel all over constantly and are multi-lingual. :) Plus, it doesn't hurt that they always come fully stocked with all the Norwegian goodies that they know we love and miss. Liv also brought me some super-cute leather bracelets from Spain that are hand painted, so pretty! And yes, Nikki, they brought more Stratos. Saturday night we just had a casual dinner and let them go to bed early to try and beat the jet lag, and Sunday we took them down to Huntington Beach's Main Street to get some California sun, and then back home for a really yummy BBQ. Monday night I met up with them after work to watch Lars' summer league soccer game (since he finally had a night game that I could make it to!), and then we headed to the Whole Enchilada for dinner. Mmm...so I'm pretty sure I gained about 5 pounds this past weekend. :)

New Scrap Pages

I did this one mainly for my mom, as she wanted a cute page to share with everyone at the family reunion that she's (along with my dad and youngest brother) going to next month. Luckily between her camera and my camera we had taken a crapload of photos the last time we went! You can see credits for the layout here.

I also did this one last week, and I based it off of a layout that Jessica Sprague did for one of her Photoshop Friday tutorials (which I read religiously). You can view the original here.


This damn kitten is just so photogenic...too bad he and Jacopo can't help but play rough with each other whenever we go to my parents' house! As always, you can click the image to view larger, and go here for credits.

Obedience, Please!

Last night Jacopo and I went to our first obedience training class together, and he did so well! He's not the A+ student yet, but he's definitely not the delinquent of the group either. We'll definitely be practicing this week, even if the first class was just about training them to walk at heel, sit on command, and generally obey. :) He's a pretty obedient dog to begin with, but sometimes only when I have a treat in hand. And definitely not when there's distractions, so we'll be working on that too. I totally had a "proud mama" episode when class was over. And he was so tuckered out by the time we got home, he was ready for bed even if I wasn't! Too cute. :)

Feeding the Addiction

Last night Nikki and I headed out to see the new Harry Potter movie. Wooo! Just have to say don't believe the stupid critics, it's most definitely the best film version by far! I think they did a much better job of pacing this time, and fitting in as much as they could of an 800-page novel. Plus the filming is just gorgeous. But I'll leave it at that and try not to give too much away! Now my book #7 needs to hurry up and get here! :)

There's A (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble

That would be the title of the most recent book I finished, by Laurie Notaro. Such a great read! I'm definitely going to have to start collecting her other novels. It was a bit over-saturated with metaphors, but I was constantly laughing out loud. The woman has mastered the hysterically funny metaphor, I have to admit. Take this paragraph, for example:

A couple of decades later, Maye sat in Cynthia's living room calling up her "Mikado" memories as three of her neighbors - who were too old to be simply grandmothers without a multitude of "great"s being placed before that title, let alone schoolgirls - pranced and flounced with what marginal dexterity their Edwardian period limbs could permit without simply snapping off like dead twigs and fluttering to the ground.

Hysterical, que no? I really had a good belly-laugh the first time I read that! Next book that I've already gotten about 100 pages into is The Electric Michelangelo, by Sarah Hall. It's turning out to be a good choice, too, and I can see why it was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize! And the author hasn't even hit 30 years old yet! And for those of you that I know like reading historical fiction too, this one is extremely well researched. It's not about historical events, but she does a great job of accurately crafting the world around the main character.

Anyhoo, that should about do it! Time to finally go sit and relax.

~T

Quote of the moment: "The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." ~Benjamin Disraeli

Did You Notice the New Banner Yet?

Hope y'all like the new banner! :) Gotta love Jacopo and Puss when they "play" together. Lots of things going on right now, and things that I'm finally getting to sharing...I've decided to mimic Jessica Sprague's ususal blog format of using topic headers, since I've been ignoring that basic design principle for long enough. So that way it's easy for you guys to skip to what interests you, if anything. ;-)

Reunion T-Shirts

One wee project I've been working on, and which is now finally finalized, is a t-shirt design for my mom's family reunion this summer. Luckily they just wanted something simple and that would translate easily to a t-shirt, so it wasn't a huge project. But I think it came out particularly cute so I had to share! (As you can probably tell, they're very proud of their Scandinavian heritage...even though I can't resist reminding the uneducated that the Vikings never actually had horns on their helmets. But we go along with the joke. And someone always brings the silly plastic helmets for everyone to wear. Witness exhibit #2.)

They always have it at her cousin's farm, which is in Union, Maine. One of the most beautiful parts of the US that I've ever been to!

Exhibit #2: photo of me at the reunion the summer before last, courtesy of my auntie.

So that was a fun break from the usual photo editing and scrapbook-page-creating.

Jessica & Me

Also have to share a photo from 2 weeks ago now (already?!?!) of me with one of the coolest scrapbook ladies out there, Jessica Sprague, that I mentioned I was helping assist in her classes at the Creating Keepsakes University event. Well that event turned out to be really amazing, and I had a ton of fun helping all these women understand the gloriousness that is Photoshop! :) And I have to give Jessica some major props - you can't even tell in the photo that she was terribly sick that day with a stomach flu, but still managed to push right through those classes and impress everyone (and I duly apologize to her for not being able to get the glare off her glasses without her looking crazy-eyed!). One of the other volunteers, Nami, told me that she regularly taught seniors how to use PSE. How awesome is that?? Definitely something I wouldn't mind getting into. Jessica also gave us volunteers a little gift set from Bath & Body Works (yummm) - so sweet! I came away from the event feeling all creative-y.

Dog Obedience

Speaking of classes, Jacopo's obedience class officially started this week, although the first class is dog-free so the instructor can give basic information. I'm SO glad I signed up through the city rather than anywhere else! The park is literally 5 minutes from our place, the cost was half of what it is for the same amount of time at Petsmart, and the instructor has been doing dog obedience training for 30+ years. I can't wait to see the results of this! Especially after the demonstration the instructor and a few others gave at the end of class.

It's not that the pup is that ill-behaved, but I'd like to get him to stop jumping (cuz he's like a jumping bean and will use your chest as a springboard!) and to walk on the leash better. And just to be more calm and obedient in general. The cool part is, once you've taken the class you're able to come back for a refresher class anytime for free! If he does really well in this class, I'd like to sign him up for more advanced classes with the goal of him eventually becoming a therapy dog. He's such a people-lover, and after seeing what they can do for seniors and people in hospitals I would love to be able to give back in that way. Plus he fits easily into laps. :)

Departure Time

So it is officially Day 1 of the Warped Tour for Chris, although he's not actually leaving me until tonight. The first show is in Pomona, which is pretty close to us, so he drove himself up for the day, and late tonight I'll drive him back up and drop him off since the bus leaves for the next show at some ungodly hour tomorrow morning. Of course we'll be missing each other like crazy, but this is a great step in his career and (fingers crossed) will lead to even bigger things. So, for those of you living near me, please feel free to stop by anytime!

Seriously, anytime. Pretty please? Entertain me? Anybody??

But in preparation we got a fancy new video camera that he could take with him, because I can't bear to be without a camera. And because we've been wanting to get one for a while...and he can write it off as work-related.
How cute is that!?!? And tiny. Seriously. Chris can palm it. It made me giggle when I thought about my dad's old trusty video camera from when I was a kid. Seems like Chris made a good choice with this model, though, seeing as I figured out how to use it and review video in like 2 seconds. Plus you really can't go wrong with a Canon.

So what did we videotape first? What else but Jacopo at the dog park? LOL I was really surprised at how great the sound was - no wind blowing super loud into the mike or anything, despite the good breeze that was going. So hopefully when Chris gets back I'll have some cool video to link to - hopefully contraband performance vids. :)

Speaking of Shopping

Speaking of which, there have been a few recent purchases. We went out on a shopping expedition Monday night in preparation for his departure, and managed to squeeze in Target, Circuit City, Off Broadway Shoes (his old Converse finally died, so sad), Barnes & Noble, Beth Bath & Beyond and Chick-Fil-A for dinner. All in under 3 hours! Yes, I'm very proud.

Most of the shopping was for him, but I finally got a really nice fan for our bedroom, since between him and the puppy and our lack of a central a/c makes for very hot nights in the summer. We got away with not having one up until now since we didn't move in until mid-August last year, but even then it was pretty damn hot. The best part is that it has a remote, so when you wake up frigid in the middle of the night because your body has finally cooled down, you don't have to get up. :D And its extremely quiet, not that I have any trouble getting to sleep these days.

I also couldn't resist the sale racks at Barnes & Noble, and picked up some new reads since I'm almost done with my latest book. We also signed up, finally, for the membership club through B&N, which meant I wound up saving $25 this time, and the damn thing only cost that much in the first place for a 1-year membership! Gotta love a good deal. It's totally worth it too, considering how much we read (and yes, Nikki, you can use it when we go book shopping next time, it'll do you some good!). Out of 5 new books, the funniest title award has to go to There's A (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell. How can you resist a title like that? Anyhoo, I'll let you know how they turn out.

The Weekend

So, since Chris won't be around to amuse me, and Nikki's parents happen to be going out of town, I'll be heading over there Saturday to have some good ol' fun with the girlies. I can't wait! I'll be bringing Jacopo with me, of course, and that means he gets to play with Spikeus Maximus (aka Spike) - aka their American bulldog, who looked like this
once upon a time. Now he's just a weeee bit bigger. :) But still so cute! I think they'll have a grand ol' time together, barrnig any accidental squishing or something. But we'll keep an eye on them for sure.

And tomorrow night the consensus seems to be to see a movie, but we'll see how that turns out. I might wind up just sleeping in, at this rate! Haven't been sleeping all that well (surprise) the last two weeks.
But I do want to see Evan Almighty! It'd be nice to get out and about.


Next Week
Now all I have to do is figure out what I'm doing for the 4th! If a friend of ours is throwing a BBQ, I'm definitely there, cuz he's a great cook, but if not I might just have some people here. I'm so used to being out of town/the country for the holiday that I can't even remember the last time I had to make plans! And how much does it suck that it falls on a Wednesday? Oh well, at least it's one day off...

What are you doing for the holiday? Hmmm?

~Trude

Quote of the moment: "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." ~ Groucho Marx