July 08, 2009

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!

Vintage-lauryn-web-041609
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:

Divine-girls-web-0609
I took this photo with my iPhone, so the quality isn't the best!

xo,
e

June 28, 2009

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:

Box top 062709
Box 062709
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:
Cards in box 062709
Card fronts 062709
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.
Backside 062709
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

June 25, 2009

he...

Photo 9

Photo 7
{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

June 24, 2009

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} heaven on earth...

June 15, 2009

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

June 03, 2009

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...):
Round up graphic may09 last
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,

May 28, 2009

in one week...

...I'll be here

Cabo-san-lucas
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

May 19, 2009

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)
IMG_0283
{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