e: is for elizabeth

jessica sprague photo editing: project two

For those of you who have never taken one of Jessica's classes, I really can't recommend them enough. Her teaching style is super simple and concise. Love it!

I've been wanting to learn how to create a vintagey (new word!), hand-tinted look so I'm super excited. I gave my baby sweet rosy cheeks!

Hope you're all having a great week :)

e

jessica sprague photo editing: project one

A few weeks ago, I signed up for Jessica Sprague's free online class, Photo Editing: Frame-Ups and Special Effects. Our first project was to add a .png frame and word art to a photo. Here's what I did:

I took this photo with my iPhone, so the quality isn't the best!

xo,

e

GOOD friends (OLW #54)

I've been missing my mojo lately, so I was so glad when my creativity clicked last week. This month's word over at One Little Word was "good". I immediately thought of how blessed I am to have SO many good friends; this is what I came up with:

I constructed this sweet little box from chipboard, covered the whole thing with gesso,then decoupaged the base and painted/embellished the top. All of the paper is from Cocoa Daisy's May kit (still one of my faves!).

Inside the box are these little cuties:

ATC-sized cards of each of my girlfriends (the names were added in Photoshop before I printed out the photos). I tried to decorate each of them in the style of each person, if possible.

On the back of each card, I listed 3 of my characteristics about them, where/when we met and where they live. This card belongs to the sweet Julie B  :)

I made the box large enough to add friends in the future. Fun!

xo,

e

he...

{proof that I was an early scrapbooker as well as a packrat}  

• was my first crush 
• was the reason for my love of music 
• made me to WANT to dance (even though I truly can't) 
• single handedly revolutionized the way music videos are created at least 2 times 
• was a fashion icon (i KNOW i'm not the only one who sported a red jacket with zippers!) 
• blurred the lines between pop, rock and soul effortlessly
• broke barriers before Oprah, Tiger, Halle and Denzel needed to (i stole that from Al Sharpton) 
• always had a twinkle in his eye (except for when he dangled Blanket* out of that hotel window) 
• was a genius 
• was an icon 
• will be missed 

* Mike, seriously. Blanket? I can kind of understand Prince Michael Jackson, but Blanket?

I was with my Mom today when I got the news (we were in IKEA). She said, "I guess he heard Ed McMahon: 'Heeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrre's Mmmmichael'". Thanks, Mom. I needed that.

May they (and Farrah) rest in peace.

e

still devastated...

...by the death of Michael Jackson.

I'm hoping that I'll have something wise to share later but, right now, I'm off to watch BET.

xo,

e

heaven on earth...

...is just a mile down the road. Wednesdays mean farm days for me; a day for me to pick up out produce for the week as well as snip herbs, greens and flowers. They also have a kid's garden. So when Lauryn's old enough, she'll be able to pick her own beets, carrots and lettuce.
Divine.

xo,
e

{post via iPhone}

urgh!!!

I've been wanting to update my blog header for a few weeks now (it says May 2009). I took me that long to realize that it's only saved as a JPEG, so I can't make any changes to it in Photoshop. DANG IT!!

Back to the drawing board....

e

may round up

Hey ya'll-

Can you believe it's June already? Yikes! Anyhoo, I stumbled across Katie's blog last month (if you're remotely into digital scrapbooking, I highly recommend taking a trip over to her blog - very cool!), and I noticed that every month, she does a round up:

"The end of the month is a great time to take a few minutes and roundup your memories. You can do this by looking over your calendar, blog posts, or whatever records you may keep, and simply filling in a few quick notes using a simple format. I've been doing this for 3 years now and I can't even begin to tell you how much easier it has made memory keeping for me! I am constantly referencing my monthly roundups for ideas for scrapbook pages and I always have material for journaling now. After I answer the questions I just post them to my blog and my roundup is done. If you don't have a blog, just save them on your hard drive or print them out." 

I totally spaced out and forgot to round up April, but I'm determined to do this every month, so here goes nothing (forgive me, I have tried resizing and I can't figure out why my little graphic is so large and blurry...maybe next month. Anyhoo...):

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

• Motif for Murder by Laura Childs
• Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels 
• Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster (partial) 

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

•  So You Think You Can Dance (finally!)
•  Season finales of Greys' Anatomy and Private Practice 
•  Nurse Jackie 
•  Glee (not happy about having to wait until Fall)
•  Weeds, Seasons 1 and 2 (I'm addicted) 
•  Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (cute movie) 

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

•  Girls' day with Sade, Julie and Chelsea to lunch, shopping and movie (fun!) 
•  A few 1st birthday parties 
•  Mother's Day at Maggiano's with the Hazeurs 
•  Watched little league baseball 
•  Baptized our baby girl
•  Overnight trip with Corey (just us!) to Tacoma 

What gifts did I give and/or receive? 

•   Gifts for the birthday babies (Luke Johnson and Naomi Grace) - gift cards
•   My cousin Andy's 4th b-day - gift card
•   My sister-in-law - $$
•   My BFF Jumoke's 35th - handmade guest book (more on that later) 

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

• business cards :) 

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

• I got sick for the 4th time since January (short cold) 

What were my accomplishments this month?

• I lost 3.5 pounds, for a total of 14 
• I learned a few bookbinding techniques 

What were my disappointments this month?

• I spent a little too much $$ preparing for my Cabo trip 

Anything else noteworthy?

• Just that the round-up is super hard when you have to do it from memory. From now own, I'm going to try to keep better notes during the month!

xo,

e 

in one week...

...I'll be here

Enjoying the sun; indulging in a drink (or three);bonding with a good friend and making a few new ones.

Until then, I have to:

• clean my house top to bottom (at least once)
• finish a birthday gift for Sade's BFF  
• find a sexy bathing suit that's made for curves 
• send my husband off on a business trip 
• attend a one year old's birthday party 
• find my passport 
• pray that the turquoise top I ordered from Banana fits (turquoise is  the official color of the bachelorette party)
• get my babies settled at our friends' house (until Corey comes home) 
• buy sunscreen 
• start my Adobe Illustrator CS4 class on Monday 
• buy some bras (seriously. it's not cute) 
• go to the gym at least 4 times 
• pack 
• drink some coffee 

I'm sure there's more, but....

xo, 

e

yup...

...I fell.

In the gym.

On the treadmill.

Off the treadmill.

Scraped up my knee (just in time for my trip to Cabo in 17 days)

{it's hard to see the damage on this iPhone photo}

I also jacked up my shoulder and twisted one of my wrists.

The kicker?

NO ONE (seriously, not one single person) even cared. REALLY.

Ass#%(es

e