Weekend happenings

We went to my first hockey game on Saturday night with Jeanette and Cal. We had a very yummy dinner and sat at the rails and watched a very uneventful game. But we had a good time! Thank you, J and C!
I went to a craft sale with Terrell, and then on to Michaels and hold your hats, I didn't buy anything. I didn't find anything I wanted or needed. And no, I'm not sick.
We had dinner at my parents last night and got all caught up with the F family from Thursday's shoot.
We've, and I use that term lightly, gotten a bunch of Christmas shopping under our belts.
My can-dented foot is causing me pain. I wish I didn't have to work today, I'd like to sit around, get caught up on Y&R and put my foot up.
I mailed my Christmas cards on Thursday, some people got them on Friday, I mailed them TOO early, what was I thinking?

I never said I was perfect

I am learning that I should always go with my gut, you know, those little niggling feelings that this person isn't right, this isn't what you were looking for, first impressions are usually the right ones, and as Maya Angelou says "The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them." Why, oh why didn't I do that? I need this tattooed on my arm! I give second chances, which seems human, nice, the right thing to do, but when it happens over and over again and I get burned, I should learn from that. I should listen when other people give warnings. Shame on me. I apologize to those people that I did not listen too.

I also believe communication is a big thing, you have a problem with me, tell me. Deal with me.

If you don't agree with this, or you think it's aimed at you, remove me from your blog list, don't come here any more. Maybe while you're at it, remove MY pictures from your blog.

Little D

I met with the F family for a little photo shoot. I'm trying to build up my portfolio, and get some practice too. It was great to see them again, it's been a year or two since I saw mom and little D. I grew up with little D's mom, we've known each other since she was probably little D's age. Our moms are BFs.

Little D is such a handsome guy. He does the same sideways eyes that Shaun does, always checking out what is going on around him. Here's a few of my favourites. I'm really loving the Pioneer Woman's 70's action.

And how cute is Button? She is such a good dog, not like my monsters.

Would it be too weird to put this kid on my Christmas cards? If I hadn't already mailed them out, I might think about it! Heck, I'm thinking about making more just to send one out with this cute face on it!

American Thanksgiving

I am dedicating this post to some of our American friends. We've never met. I think I found her blog through some scrapbooking site, maybe SISTV, I don't remember. She 'lives' at Disneyland. I love Disneyland. Her guy likes Subarus, Kerry likes Subarus. We started emailing, facebooking, and sending goodies back and forth.
Today, on U.S. Thanksgiving, I got a little heavy box full of goodies, Subaru, scrapbooking, dog themed and chocolate. Hershey's kisses, the kinds we Canadians can't get. Specifically Candy Corn, which I thought was pretty darn good, and Candy Cane, which is good too, but the best darn things are the Pumpkin Spice kisses. 3 bags of them. Which is darn good because I could eat one of them myself and no one would be the wiser, I'd have a stomach ache but what else is new?

Anyway, I want to wish my American friends a very safe and happy Thanksgiving. And to Amy, David and Trevor-Two-Thumbs-Up a very big "I'm so thankful I have the Internet and it led me to friends like you!"
This is totally mushy, must be the endorphins brought on by the wicked box of chocolate!
Thank you!!!

How a few little words can brighten your day!

Kerry has never been a get-the-point-across kind of guy. He needs a shirt that says "Riddle me this!"
Last night he told me that the guy on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon had changed his name to Ochocinco and that the guy, Chad, was number 85. And I said "What does his jersey number have to do with anything?" and he's like "Don't you get it? Isn't it stupid?" and I still didn't get it. So I said "Tell me again what it is you are trying to say?" And that's when he said "Ochocinco is like Spanish for 85!"
Today, he sends me a cryptic email one that says he'll be shopping for bike parts on Dec. 15th instead of in the Spring. To which my usual sunny self replied "Says WHO?" and then I hit the send button, that's when the mental link we married people seem to acquire at "I now pronounce you man and wife" kicked in and I got it, maybe bike parts go on sale!
Ya, they don't and let's just say he can get his bike parts and I'll pay off my camera and lens.

My friend, Nancy, gave me a make-your-own-photo-coaster kit a few years ago and I was always too afraid to try it, but then Marg said she was making some stamped coasters and it prompted me to get my kit out. I headed off to Office Depot to get the images colour copied. And it worked! The kit came with 4 tiles, and more than enough of the other supplies to do at least 4 more tiles. I see many photo coasters in my future.

My December Daily

Good points brought up in the conversation between me and myself yesterday, as I tried to decide if I was going to make a December Daily album :

Do I have time to commit to documenting our daily life in December?

~No, I probably don't.

Will I remember to jot something down everyday?

~No, probably not.

Will I take a picture a day to put in the album?

~Yes, I might.

Will I get the family to contribute to the album?

~I will try, I will yell, I will bribe, and then they will.

If the pictures get taken, if the words get written down, will I put them in the album right away?

~ I think so.

Will we cherish the album forever if I do commit to it?

~Yes, we will.

I will add embellishments and days of the month as I add photos. I will also add the year to the cover. I have to tell you, this was much easier than I thought it would be. I started yesterday mid-day, worked on it a few hours and then a few more this morning. I pulled everything from my stash that I wanted to add to it, trying to keep with the colour scheme of the Fa La La Making Memories paper I bought in the summer. By the time it is full, I will have to replace the binder rings with larger ones.

Longer weekends, please.

I think that I might have to start taking Monday and Tuesday off. This time of year gets so busy with classes, I'm not complaining, but by the time Monday rolls around I'm tired already.
I had my Christmas Cocoa Card Tote class and it went great. I love this littel tote with it's cute cards. Good thing I made two.

Next Sunday is the Christmas Jingle Trifold album class. It's easier than it looks and makes a great gift. It's also easy to duplicate so you can make more. I will be making a few of them. I'm offering a choice of Christmas or Baby theme. I can't decide if I want to even start a Daily December album. The idea is that you make your album out of pretty much anything, it's very eclectic. I have so much stuff that it really shouldn't cost me anything because I could pull stuff out of my stash. And then you are supposed to photograph and journal your month of December. This is from shopevalicious.com. This is Ali Edwards' album. I love the hodge podge feel of the albums, I love the documenting. I don't know if I will love the work. I can take pictures every day, I know I can do that, but of what? 30 days of Linus and Sally will get pretty boring. Maybe I should make mine a Weekly December album or Every Other Day in December.

I also want to make an advent calendar. So many things, so little time! By the way, where did the year go?

A good reason

Last night was UFC 106. What's that to you? Probably not much. And a year or so ago, it wasn't anything to me either. My dad has a group of friends that get together at his place to watch Ultimate Fighting. Kerry is a regular, unless Brock Lesner is fighting, then Kerry doesn't really care to go, or so he says. Anyway, I don't like blood, so I didn't care to join in. But then my friend Misty-Rae and her husband Dave were regulars too, and I was hearing all about how much fun it was. So I went to my first fight, it was between George St. Pierre and some other lowly fighter. I liked it! And George, GSP, was something else. He's smooth, he's calculating, he's fast, he's yummy, he's Canadian.

It's always a full house at dad's, about a dozen or more. You have to get there early to get the good seats. Mom hides out in her sewing room or goes to Grandpa's. When I first started going, there were never any snacks. I like snacks. We did a pot luck once and it was awesome and ever since then, there's been snacks, nothing fancy, bags of chips, pretzels, Doritos. And it's mostly guys, only 3 girls, but I think us 3 girls know more about fighting then half the boys. Any of us girls could take on most of the guys.

I learned a few things last night, like...

1. GSP will be trying out for the Olympic wrestling team. If he makes it, he will be the only reason I watch 2012 Olympics. They interfere with regularly scheduled television programs.

2. Lightweight guys are scrappy, I want to be scrappy and lightweight.

3. Crazy Eyes, if a fighter has them, he'll probably win.

4. You should never ever poke a guy in they eye or pretend to get poked in the eye, the cameras tell the truth and Crazy Eyes probably poked himself in the eye.

5. UFC fighters have no idea what a good hair style is, when it doubt, shave it off! Take GSP for example. Ladies like him, this guy for instance, Josh Koscheck, sure he won, but he's got crazy hair and crazy eyes.

Or this guy, Dan Hardy. He's scheduled to fight George St. Pierre for the title. Icky hair, even ickier tattoo.6. Jumping on Kerry's back and trying to put him into a triangle hold with my arms while squeezing the life out of him with my legs and yelling "I'm scrappy!" at the same time will excite the dogs to no end and it will take a few minutes to get everyone calmed down and I may have peed myself from laughing so hard.

Blogworthy?

Not much happened this week.

Here are my highlights...

- did some scrapbooking for my dad

- got my hair cut and coloured

- made and ate cinamon buns

- am crazy busy with classes

- started Christmas shopping

- got new Soft Moc slippers

- have decided that there are only 2 things that I NEED/WANT in my arsenal, a fish eye lense, and a larger memory card, I'm a simple girl

- I'm not a simple girl, I'm a spoiled girl and I have everything else I would ever need and that's why I only need those 2 things

- ordered some stuff of Amazon, like the Glee soundtrack so that Kerry can put it in my stocking, just making sure I get what I want

- insured my camera and all my fixings, only to have my dad ask 'how much?', I made a face and then when I told him, he and Kerry discussed how a decent bike would be just over that amount. Why does it always come back to bikes? Who knows, who cares, it took their minds off the amount. The nice thing is that I didn't pay that much, the bulk of it being purchased used from a photographer that is switching to Nikon from Canon. Sad but true.

- having lunch with MR today, then a scrapbooking class and then fight night

So there it is, nothing too exciting.

Here's my picture of the day for you!

"I've already sat here for 4 pictures, just hurry up and take one more."

GLEEFUL!

It's Wednesday! It's Glee day!
I've started watching Glee, it's ingenious. I love it. I love the singing and dancing! I can't sing, but I know most of the songs they use and I will sing them, much to my family's dismay, and I have most of them on my ipod, okay, not the Thong Song. And on Christmas I will have the soundtrack, I bought it from Amazon.ca and told Kerry he can put it in my stocking. And I can't dance, and you can't really count the months of Latin American ballroom lessons we took after Emily was born, because Kerry has conveniently forgotten every single thing we were taught and ballroom dancing just isn't the same when only one person can remember only half of the steps. And I didn't love high school, maybe if we had Glee Club it would have been different.
So as you can see from the day's blog posts, I have been watching Glee clips on youtube.com. Not exactly productive, but it makes me feel good.
The actress that plays Sue Sylvester was on Conan last night, she's hilarious. She might be my favourite.
I've got a list today and on the top is Kerry's "We need 12-18 more red bulbs" so I guess it's a trip to Canadian Tire to get them. He loves his Christmas lights.

GLEE - bust your windows

This one was one of my favourites, I like Mercedes too, the girl, not the car, well, I'd like the cars but they are way out of my price range.

GLEE - "THONG SONG" from 10/21!

This is hilarious.

GLEE - Teaser: Single Ladies

I think Kurt is my favourite! This is probably my new favourite show!

Sometimes the hardest part about blogging is coming up with a title

I re-made my little Top Note album because someone asked for a special class. Now to find time between now and Christmas to teach it.

Stamper's group cards, the theme is black and white. The following cards are from last weekend's Stamp-A-Stack class. My favourite one is the penguin one!

Exhausted

The craft sale was awesome, even better than normal because I didn't have to plan it!

Took the dogs hiking and got some awesome action shots.

That good Sally, always waiting for me!

smugmug

In my effort to become more professional, I'll be using Smugmug . All my photos will be uploaded there and you can view them. It's got a cute name. But it takes forever to upload. Could be the size of my photos, could be that I'm just using the 2 week trial. I'm pretty sure I'll sign on, but I wanted to see how easy it was to use.
Keep checking back to Smugmug, I will be slooooowly uploading photos.

Friday the 13th

Emily was in the Memorial Parade on Rememberance day. It was the shortest 'parade' I've ever seen. They walked from this corner, around that corner and into the park.

I love love love a man in uniform. Not a certain man, but just any man.


This is where it gets sad, annoying, disrespectful. Dozens of Girl and Boy Scouts are in the parade. Sure they aren't all in formal uniform like the RCMP, Cadets, etc. Their uniforms are fairly casual now. But they are there in the parade paying their respects. But the people watching the parade don't have a clue and figured that after the Cadets parade was over and they started walking right behind them, infront of the Scouts. I just don't get it!
The park was packed with people. We couldn't see anything but these kids could. I don't know how many ended up in that tree, but it was a perfect tree for holding them all. Not one kid fell out.

Saw this on Veronica's blog and thought it'd be fun! A great way to take my mind off the white stuff falling from the sky.
One word answers only.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2.Your hair? coloured
3. Your mother? Short
4. Your father? funny
5. Your favorite food? potato
6.Your dream last night? none
7. Your favorite drink? water
8. Your dream/goal? debt-free
9. What room are you in? basement
10. Your hobby? Scrapbooking
11. Your fear? spiders
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Alive
13. Where were you last night? asleep
14. Something that you aren't? tall
15. Muffins? Warm
16. Wish list item? Money
17. Where did you grow up? Kelowna
18. Last thing you did? typed
19. What are you wearing? pj's
20. Your TV? off
21. Your Pets? dogs
22. Friends? Yes
23. Your life? Full
24. Your mood? tired
25. Missing Someone? Grandma
26. vehicle? large
27. Something your not wearing? Spanx
28. Your favorite store? camera
29. Your favorite color? none
30. When was the last time you laughed? morning
31. Last time you cried? forget
32. Your best friend? Kerry
33. One place that I go to over and over? bathroom
34. Facebook? yes
35. Favorite place to eat? Couch

Oh My!

Shaun picked up the new Ravin' Rabbids Go Home game. His Rabbid only wearing a Speedo so he decided to give him pants. And I said he's got no tail so he tried to give him a tail with spray paint. He also got to alter the Rabbid's head with special head shaping tools, you can see him inflating the eye of the poor Rabbid. The very funny part is that he's laughing while he does this. Warped kid!

Someone is going to be so excited when she gets home. This is her payment from her first drawing job. The envelope may also hold my payment from my first paid photo shoot.

Oh and because I am totally freaked out about this, I think I should share it with you...44 sleeps till Christmas! If you break that down into pay days, you will probably realize as I did, there aren't enough of them before the big day! Where did the year go?

Actions

I'm wasting a morning playing with some Photoshop actions. I love this one, I could "70's" all my photos. Just to be fair, because that's how we roll at our house, everyone got a 70's make-over. Back in the 70's...

She's thinking of a brighter day, when a Japanese company will invent a hand held video game system and call it a DS. And she will spend half her waking hours on this miracle device, and the other half on something called the 'internet'.

He's thinking of a moment in the near future that doesn't include thinking that the swing broke his ribs.

She looks a little like Drew Barrymore.

He can't imagine a future where he isn't riding his bike.

He hopes they have balls, apples and mamas in the future. He loves those things!

She hopes that in the future there are no Linuses.

I heard angels!

I MADE the family go to the park for a photoshoot today. I told them what colours to wear, which kind of worked out. I was a bit bossy, and a bit grumpy before we even left the house. I did not have high hopes.
First they had to play on the playground. 20 yr. olds like to play on the swings too.

And climb on the monkey bars. There were lots of leaves left on the trees and on the ground. They weren't all slimey like the ones at our house.

We stopped to take some shots on this grassy noll. Eeewww...kissing.

This is so her.

No family outing is complete without someone getting put in a head lock.

Both smiling, but it's a good thing we only have two kids, I couldn't imagine trying to get more than that to look at the camera at the same time.

Love this fence.

Emily is practicing her "I'm going to squeesh your head". The whole freaking time at the park the kids were quoting Monty Python. I'm sure that couple walking near us thought we were insane. Me telling them to stand up in that field, them talking in their bad British accents. But the best part was their version of the school of funny walks skit. This is probably the one that will replace the not so stellar school photo of 2009.Thoughtful Emily or Emily Trying not to Laugh Confused Kerry.

Emily right before my 'prop-make'em laugh' guy did this.

And then he just kept doing it, I'd be taking a picture and a ball of leaves would come flying in.

I think the background looks a bit Sears Portrait studio-ish. All-in-all, I think it was a pretty successfull afternoon. And it didn't take forever, and it only rained a tiny bit. Then we went to the mall so I could pay the little jerks in snacks. They should pay me for making them look like happy kids instead of the grumps they really are.

And... all shots are SOOC, straight out of camera, not photoshopped, and all are shot with my 70-200mm f/4. And that's where the angels come in. Love it!