Featured Again!

Woohoo this time one of my pages is (somewhat) featured over at the Weeds & Wildflowers blog. Their products are truly gorgeous, so I suggest you check them out!

In case you don't feel like clicking through, this is the page they featured:
One of my new faves, in fact. :) You can see credits here.

Some other new pages feature my favorite blonde (outside of my family), and oh yeah, my brother:
Yes, I realize I used the same photo twice, but how can you not use that adorable photo for all it's worth?? :) Credits are here and here, respectively.

In other news, had a very enjoyable weekend, although the 90+ degree weather we had here was enough to wipe out anybody, let alone us ladies (me, mom, Roseann and Lisa) who marched around old town Fullerton on Sunday for their annual Garden Tour. Super fun, but ridiculously hot. Photos will be posted later this week!

Oh, and my dad is in China on business for a week, so keep your fingers crossed he doesn't get caught up in some protest march and wind up in jail or something! ;)


~T

Happiness Bearers

Lots of things making me happy right now, so it's time for another round!

1. Our new place. Seriously, its just a gazillion times better. Not perfect, but much better. And I'm of the opinion that for the location, area and quality, you couldn't find a better place to rent (damn, that's my old real estate advertising job kicking in). And one of the biggest differences? The pup is most definitely happier - eating more, jumping over the back of the futon sofa with ears flapping (which he wasn't able to do the way we had it before), hanging out in the sun on the patio (when we're home during the day we just leave the sliding door open so he can go in and out to potty, and now I catch him just sunning himself. Will have to invest in a doggie door) and, as of last night, FINALLY sleeping in his crate...just because. I think going to puppy day care at Petsmart all day had something to do with it, though. And this photo is also good proof of the better lighting we have! :)
2. I love lamp. I apologize for the murky photo, it's straight-out-of-the-camera. And it's solid red, but because of the reflection looks like it has white on it. Anyways...I got it at Pier 1. Mostly because we clearly needed something to fill the space between bookshelves, and I'm totally in love with it! Also got these awesome storage bins to go in the third bookshelf (not pictured) that are made out of recycled magazines. How cool is that? I would link you to them but Pier 1's website kinda sucks and clearly doesn't have all of their merchandise.
3. Geeking out because Cathy Zielske mentioned yours truly on her blog! Just go check it out while I try and hold off a panic attack. I love her approach and books so much, I'm thrilled she even responded to my question.
   
4. iLife '08. It's about time we upgraded! For those of you I share my photos with, the cool part about this upgrade is I can publish my photos to a web gallery that lets you download them at full resolution. Way easier than clogging up email accounts!
5. Seeing comedians live. Just went and saw John Pinette, an old favorite, again Sunday night at the Brea Improv along with the entire Glowin gang. So much fun! His opener was really good too, so it was a solid 2 hours of laughing. Our cheeks hurt afterwards. Hurt so good. And I'm also planning on seeing Wanda Sykes when she's there the weekend after next with the family. Woo!
   
6. Petsmart's Doggie Day Camp. They make it oh-so-easy! Jacopo was there yesterday and today since Chris is down in San Diego (not on my list of happiness-bearers) most of the week and I'm at work all day. We figure it's only fair that he get to go and play instead of get locked up for 8 hours for at least part of the week (never fear, SPCA, I do go home on my lunch hour to let him run around and eat lunch). Plus today while he was there he got a bath and nail trimming. Oh, the luxury. :) But after our experiences last summer, now any time Chris is away during the week he makes sure the gig pays enough that we can afford to do day camp at least a couple days.
7. Cool siblings. Five years ago I probably wouldn't have believed it, but my brother (the one that is only two years younger) and I can now say we hang out regularly - as friends. Crazy, I know! Admittedly it has a lot to do with the fact that his awesome girlfriend Roseann and I are total buds now, but they're just fun to hang out with! Last night they came over to just chill with me while Chris out of town, and the good company was mucho apreciado.

What's floating your boat right now? I'd love to hear!

~Trude

Christmas Is Upon Us...

Does anyone else feel like this week is totally dragging? Well, it goes fast once I get home and work on all the stuff I need to do personally, but at work it's just creeping ever so slowly...

Today's Funny

At any rate, Jessica Sprague, scrapbooker extraordinaire and one of my fave bloggers, posted an especially funny blog yesterday about how her very young son has managed on more than one occasion to make calls using her iPhone - and not just random ones, but to dad and grandpa! :) It just cracked me up; if you have a few minutes its a great read!

It got me thinking too - my generation is one of the first to really grow up with computers (c'mon guys, Oregon Trail?)(not that it makes us any better at using them!), so we consider ourselves pretty savvy. But my brother, who is seven years younger than me, grew up with what are considered "modern" (read: not-DOS) computers and is a true whiz. Granted, he's a total geek and incredibly smart, but still he and his friends all type faster than anyone I know and can figure out any gadget in 2 minutes or less. So maybe Jessica's son represents the next generation - the ones that can easily use an iPhone to make a call (which takes 4 distinct steps, mind you) by the age of 3? It's an interesting thought. Imagine what my kids might grow up with!

Scrappin' Stuff

The reason I haven't posted much lately about scrapbooking is due to me working away at a top-secret Christmas thing which has taken a lot of my mojo and desire to even discuss scrapbooking! However, I was totally inspired this week to use one of Bree Clarkson's new templates to make this page, entitled "Christmas Cookies":


And now, come to think of it, I never "officially" announced the other creative team that I was asked to join! Geez! I'm terrible.

This one is for the awesome (and aforementioned) Bree Clarkson, who, like Penny, also recently joined Sweet Shoppe Designs. She primarily does scrapbook page templates (and other templates, like cards and hybrid projects, etc.), and she's awesome at it! What's really great is that they provide "mojo" when you want to make a page but don't know where to start, and they're totally customizable (you'd be surprised to see how many different variations the CT can turn out using the same template!). At any rate, it's a great CT to be a part of and I'm loving it! If you want to check out her products, you can do so here. And here is where you can see pages done using her stuff.

...And More Photos

More than anything lately I've been playing around with my camera and the awesome photos it's turning out. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm capturing what I was seeing at the time! I'm even thinking of taking a class at the local JC. Next thing on my list I think is Adobe Lightroom, which can do some amazing effects with just a few clicks, such as this. (And don't gasp at the price! If you're a student or a parent of a student you can get it here, for MUCH cheaper.)

So last Saturday my girlfriends and I spent the most of the day in old town Orange, drooling over antiques we couldn't afford (although Nikki and I both bought vintage 50s clutches, for a whopping $15 each) but would totally go into debt for. My only problem is lack of space! Eventually, when I'm grown up, I'd like to have more antique furniture than new in my house, but that's going to take a while!

They dutifully posed for a few photos for me in the Orange Circle, which has this great fountain in the middle (click for larger):
And I love this one - they were waiting for me to take some photos of this awesome building in old town, and right as Mindy turned I snapped. I just love how her face seems to say "Oh for Christ's sake..."On Sunday Chris and I went over to his parent's house for a photo session on the beach with his family, which his mom is having put on canvas for Grandma Kaye (Chris' dad's mom). We froze our asses off, but I'm hoping they turned out well! We were supposed to do it the previous weekend, but the death in the family bumped it. When we got back to the house I decided to do a few photos of my own up on their balcony since it was pretty sunset light:
I know Chris looks kinda evil in this one, but I still love the intensity of his gaze. Plus Jacopo was actually paying attention too! :)Then after that it was up to Whittier to have dinner with Grandma Kaye for the family December birthdays (Chris' dad and brother).

Monday night we finally had a chance (since we just got our Christmas tree on Sunday morning!) to take some photos for our Christmas card. That was a trial! Luckily I also got a remote for the new camera (only $20, I highly recommend it!), otherwise I think I would have been sorely tempted to smash it, or anything within reach, really. Trying to frame it just right (in front of the tree, of course) and get the right aperture and shutter speed settings, and then getting the puppy to stay still long enough on top of that proved to be just a bit too challenging. But we wound up with some pretty darn funny "outtakes"! :)

Such as this one, where the camera seemed to love Jacopo more than us:Or this one, where I was just taking test shots before finalizing the settings. Pretty intense, que no?And then there's this one, where Chris was like "Honey, quit fiddling with your camera and take this damn photo I set up for you!" You're the best, babe. ;-)
I made my traditional Christmas fudge last night - so hard to not get into it right away! But my recipe calls for it to sit for 24 hours, so tonight: watch your back, fudge. I'll be picking at you in between the gift wrapping!

~Trude
Quote of the day: "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy people enough to make it worth the effort." ~Herm Albright

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

Touching iPods & Too Much Scrapbooking

Yet another Friday post...

My New Obsession

So usually I'm not the biggest techno-hoarder (don't get me wrong, me loves the new toys and developments, but I don't need to be the first person to have them), but the new iPod touch has got me shakin' like a junkie who needs a fix! It is just the coolest gadget ever...or at least since the iPhone. :) Do I even need to go into why it's so cool? Just look at it!! I would never bother with the iPhone, especially since I'm locked into my plan and don't want AT&T, but THIS one I do want!! So pay attention friends and family, since my birthday and Christmas are both coming up! :) Now I just need a new car that I can run my iPod through directly....

More and More Pages

Been on a scrappin' kick lately, and participating in online challenges and stuff to get my creativity going has really helped! Plus the photos I've been taking lately were just screaming to be scrapped. :)

So first we have "Still the One", which I framed for my mom's birthday two weeks ago:
Then this one was just for fun, because the photos my dad took were so amazingly expressive I had to use them!

I made this one for the Hodge Podge challenge, which was to "Get Naked". So fun! :D

I also participated in the last two weeks of challenges over at The Digi Dares, which are always so much fun but sometimes I just don't have time. Here's "Somewhere In Their Smiles":

The title is a play off of a Beatles lyric - big hug if you can guess what it is! :) I also did this one too, which really took me out of my usual box/style:

And then today I was rather productive! For some reason, some days it just flows for you, others it doesn't. And today it did, because I'm seriously in love with this new layout:

Gotta love beach photos! And then I did this, because I finally caved and bought this kit I've had my eye on, specifically to use this photo (although it'll come in handy for other pages, I'm sure!):

Phew!! You can view credits for all of them either here or here.

In Other News

My brother's birthday (Eirik) was Wednesday, and tomorrow night everyone is getting together at my parents house - both to celebrate and just because! :) I can't believe he's 22 already...and that means I'll be 24 in less than a month! Holy sh*tballs! But I'm looking forward to seeing everyone - even my uncle and his girlfriend are coming up from SD, and hopefully my cousin Sarah too. Plus Ross and Lidvor are back from their little jaunt to Thor-knows-where, so it'll really be a big get-together. I'm planning on getting photos of everybody and everything with the D40, as part of a brilliant idea I've had for a gigantic time-consuming project Christmas gift for everyone (thanks in part to Simple Scrapbooks). But I can't say yet what it'll be...

Last weekend we took Jacopo to the dog beach in Huntington for the first time, and it was sooo awesome. We all had a blast (albeit at the expense of exhausting ourselves), and Chris and I were super proud parents because Jacopo behaved so well off-leash and was perfectly obedient. My favorite photo from the day is this one (no editing, I swear!):

Then Sunday we went to a BBQ at our friends Angie and Christian's place, which was a blast, especially since we brought the puppy with us and he got to go in a hot tub for the first time. Oh yeah, and the people were cool too. ;-)

Hope everyone else had a great week!

~T

Quote of the moment: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit still." ~Will Rogers

He's Baaack...

...and sporting a hilarious piratey/70s/crazy mustache, no less.

At least he had shaved off the homeless-guy-style beard he had been sporting most of the tour, though! :)

The Lead-Up

As I noted, last week was pretty crazy, but I couldn't resist the Wednesday $2 specials over at My Digital Muse and wound up buying two kits - but they're such a deal!! Haven't had a chance to use them yet, of course, but still sooo cute!

Simplicity by Holly McCaig:

And Tour d' Eiffel by Royanna Fritschmann:I also treated myself to a day off on Friday, so that I could get everything done that I wanted to before Chris got home. It was craziness, I can't believe I managed to squeeze so much in! That night Nikki and I took out our former Team Leader, Nancy, as a belated birthday dinner. Surprise, we wound up at Honda-Ya, the awesome Japanese place near me, and then scooted over to Dave & Buster's in Orange for some chocolate fun-due for dessert. ;-) Big props to Nikki for managing to make me laugh like a lunatic every time I tried to eat a chocolate-dipped marshmallow. But I got her back, so I think we're even...for now...

The Big Day

I don't know how we would have managed on Saturday if the weather hadn't had a sudden downturn in temperature - if it had been the weekend before, they would have had to constantly be carting kids off due to heat exhaustion! But luckily it was nice and cool and cloudy for half the day, and got nice and chilly again once the sun went down.

So the lines were insane to get in, but luckily after waiting in a fairly short line for our VIP wristbands, we (meaning me, our good friend Parris [really Chris, but since there's too many Chriseseses we use last names], his sister Lena, and our friend Derek) were able to just walk on in. But I felt bad for the mile-plus-long line that everyone else had to wait in! It really made me remember why I don't do outdoor festivals like this, ever - that and the fact that there was no seating, and really no shade except in the vendor's tents. It's no wonder it was mostly under-20-somethings in attendance!

Once we made it in, I made a beeline for Chris' stage, which of course was the last one we found (they had about 6 or 7 stages in total so that there's always at least 2 bands playing at any given time during the day). Here's what Chris' looked like (click the photo for larger):
And yes, he really did get that brown. Some places were so hot (can you say the South in July??) he would spend the day shirtless, so he managed to even out the farmer's tan. :) Damn brat never burns. Here's another shot of him hard at "work" (j/k honey, j/k!):
So we basically spent the day either watching Chris work his magic or wandering around the venue catching other bands. The best part had to be Flogging Molly (of course) at the end, but there were several other good up-and-coming bands.

Here's Lena and I being sweet, with the port-a-potties adding a nice touch of sour to balance:
Luckily we had Parris and Derek along with, because for a couple of the bands the crowd was really huge and started really pressing on Chris' tent area. So here they are helping the security guard keep the railing from knocking all the equipment over:All in all a fun day (despite the sunburn) although we were all super exhausted by the time it came down around 8:30 that night or so. It felt like it was midnight or something!! But we managed to drag ourselves to In-N-Out on the way home, since Chris was craving it. :)

Daily Something

Since Chris got home, my Daily Somethings have really been him and I being able to spend some quality time together, and also he and the puppy constantly cuddling. You should have seen how nuts Jacopo went when we picked him up from my parents house on Sunday! I didn't think his tail could move like that! So they've been playing and napping together and being goofballs ever since Sunday. It's almost too much cuteness for me to handle.
I also managed to catch this shot with Jacopo's sleepy face clearly evident (finally!):Cute, que no?

In Other News

The house hunt is still on, I'm just getting sick and tired of spam postings and people not returning my calls. If the place is already taken, just let me know so I can cross it off!! Geez.

Our old friends from Norway, Ross and Lidvor, just got into town yesterday, and I can't wait to see them! She's my godmother, and they're the most awesome people. He's Scottish, she's Norwegian, and they both have the most awesome, witty, dirty sense of humor. They're a blast to hang out with. :) I'm sure I'll have photos to post soon!

I think that's officially the longest blog on here, so I'll leave it at that. :)


~T

Quote of the moment: "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to." ~Dorothy Parker