When I walked passed Holly's room tonight I heard both her and Heather saying "Twining" and it made me smile. Then they wanted ice cream so I happily made them each a bowl. They then asked me to take their pictures which made me very very happy. Here is the end result of a few quick photo's taken during their twin bonding which they call "Twining". I used a Kerri Bradford template for these photo's.
Until Next time!
This is Bear he is Misty's puppy that she got at the end of January and he is so cute and has the greatest personality. He loves to play ball for hours on end.
I have been working on learning more about my photo editing programs as well as working on learning to take better photo's. I didn't edit these photo's other than to put them into this template. I am really trying to learn to get better images straight out of the camera so that I will not have to do much editing unless I just want to play. Life is just too busy right now to get to sit at the computer much.
I will have to come back soon and share photo's of Kayley's new dog as well. Kayley and Aaron adopted a dog that was abused and mistreated and he still is having a bit of a time getting use to other people although he loves Kayley and Arron. They named him Nikko.
Until Next time
It was a tough choice this year but I have finally settled on my one little word for 2012 and that word is LEARN.
The definition of Learn is:
I am so open to see where this one little word will take me this year. If you haven't tried this I would highly recommend it. It just may take you somewhere you otherwise wouldn't have gone. And it is so much better than making resolutions which I have never been too good at anyway.
I also am once again going to attempt project life. So far so good and here is my favorite photo from today.
This is my sweet Lexie who I can't believe is 12 already. She has such a fun personality and I love her chipped nails in this photo.
Until next time
I can't believe it is 2012 already. I am once again choosing a word for the year instead of making resolutions. I haven't decided on my word quite yet but I will before the week is out and let you know. There are a couple of words bouncing around in my mind right now but I really want to focus on just one of them for the year.
I have been working on my photography and have not been truly happy with my focus lately but today I nailed it.
This is my cousin Kim's daughter Gina. Her eyes are beautiful. I wasn't too worried about composition on this photo I just wanted to get great focus. This shot is SOOC (straight out of camera) with no editing. I decided to crop the photo to follow the rule of thirds, below is the cropped version.
Which one do you like best and why?
Until Next time
Even though my girls are a little old for trick or treating they still like to dress up and hang out with their friends. So tonight this is what they looked like.
Holly and Micah looking really cute. Holly made her own costume this year and Micah's light saber was really cool when it was lit up and the sound was amazing.
Heather and her good friend Hailey made a cute kitty and bunny!
Kayley working on Aaron's makeup.
Here is the result of Kayley's art work! Aaron really looked quite scary.
And believe it or not here is Kayley's fancy art work on her own face. She looked amazing.
Cute Kitty Heather!
Holly (Iforgot the name of the charater she dressed up as but she looked good)
And here is their little group before heading out to meet up with more friends.
And it wouldn't be Halloween without a photo one of our neighbors hand carved jack-o-lanterns so here you go....
Happy Halloween hope you had a fun filled night with lots of treats and not too many tricks!
Until Next Time...
Last Monday we went and watched Holly's V.O.L. Golf Tournament. It was held at Pine Mountain Lake Country Club and I have to say it was such a beautiful course. There were lots of hills and the girls had to walk up and down them for the entire 18 holes. The teams in front of her got off to a slow start and it ended up taking about 6 hours for them to finish the course. There was plenty of wild life on the course as well. I thought I would share a few photo's of her day with you and I must warn you for the most part these were taken in Auto mode on my camera. After looking back at them I wish I hadn't been so worried about messing with settings because my favorites were not taken in Auto mode go figure LOL.
And here are a few of the wild life that was all around the course.
And here is Holly getting ready to put the flag back on the 18th hole after a very long day! We are so very proud of her.
And this last photo is of her with her team mates on the 18th hole at the last match they played on their home course.
I am calling these girls the fabulous five! They are the best of friends and I am sure they will be for many years to come.
Until Next time
Quick post tonight. Holly came home from her golf match tonight so excited because she had shot a 52 and earned medalist honors. All of her hard work is paying off and I am so very proud of her. And here is a shot of her golf equipment that I took awhile back.
Until next time!
Yesterday I took a trip with my friend Tiffany up to Clarksburg, CA. We had signed up to particiate in one of the Scott Kelby photo walks. We had to meet up with the group of 50 photographers at 7:00 a.m. in Clarksburg which is about an hour away from here so that meant I had to be up at the crack of dawn, oh who am I kidding I was up at 4:30 a.m. before the sun even thought about coming up LOL. I woke up to realize that I had gotten pink eye once again but luckily I still had some drops left so I started using them right away and decided that even with pink eye I wasn't going to miss this trip. Once we arrived at our destination I was pleasantly surprised that we would be taking photo's at an Old Sugar Mill. Part of the old mill has been turned into a winery where they even hold weddings. It is a really great location and I want to go back to take some portraits of my girls there someday. Here is my favorite shot of the day.
I just love the way the sky looks in this photo.
We had to sign a waiver to beable to go inside the Old Sugar Mill because there were giant holes in the floor and broken stairways. But I signed the waiver and ventured inside and even went as far up inside the old spooky building as I was allowed. I am still learning photography and I was determined to keep my camera on manual mode so most of my photo's were blurry. I am sure this is because my shutter speed was way too slow but I did manage to get a couple of shots inside the building which you can get the general idea from.
It really was quite creepy inside the building but I am still happy we got to go inside and check it out. It was special because it's not open to the general public and in order to go inside you have to get a permit first and then sign a waiver.
When we first arrived I really felt intimidated because most of the photographers had top of the line equipment and here I was will my Little Canon Rebel xti. I have also never considered myself a photographer I have always just loved taking photo's. I relaxed as soon as I started taking photo's though because I was doing what I enjoy.
We even got to go inside the area where they were making wine.
The smell of the wine was overwhelming when you first walked in but soon you became use to it. It was quite the experience.
And while I am still not that great at photography I am enjoying learning more and more about it.
Until next time!
Saturday Ron and I decided we just wanted to have a fun day so we took Heather and Holly to Pleasanton for a fun game of miniture golf. We all shared some laughs along the course and a few were cheated out of their hole in ones LOL. I did not want to carry around my camera while I was playing but lucky for me Heather brought her camera along so we got some photo's too which of course made my day :) and while they are not the best quality photo's they still are precious memories that I am glad we captured.
Next we headed over to the IMAX theater where we were going to watch a movie however the price of an IMAX movie almost made me choke. They wanted $19.00 per ticket so I asked "well then how much for a regular movie?" to which they replied $12.50. So we decided instead to head down to Piedmont to one of our favorite spots Fenton's Creamery. We took the girls here once before and they loved it. Ron and I use to go here when we were dating years ago. I did manage to take my camera in so that I could share these tempting photo's with you.
This was Heather's burger.
And this was Holly's burger. I didn't take a picture of Ron's crab sandwhich or my grilled ham and cheese.
We saved the best for last LOL. This is the Banana Split that the four of us shared and can I just add one word to describe it? Yummy!
Until Next Time
Holly had to attend an Art show called "Visions in Clay" at one of the local colleges here for one of her assignments in her AP Ceramics class for school. We went today and it was actually kind of fun. I thought I would pop in here on the blog that has been so neglected the last few months and share a few photo's from the show but first a photo of Holly and her friend Micah.
and one of Heather who joined us too!
Some of the Art pieces were interesting and some were rather scary looking to me but we still enjoy each piece as a unique work of art.
Until Next Time!
I decided since I have two of my best friends birthdays this week as well as my wonderful step mom's birthday this week I would make a few birthday cards.
I fell in love with this cute digital image from Bugaboo and knew I had to play with it along with my copic markers. Here are the cards I came up with.
Here is a close up of the one I am giving to one of my BFF's Laura Vegas!
Happy Birthday Laura hope you enjoy your day :)
Copic Markers used: (C00, C1, C3, C5) (R22, R24, R27, R29) (Y11, Y15, Y17) (V12. V15, V17) (YR00, YR04, YR07) (E000, E00, E11, R20) (RV21, RV23, RV25) (E31, E34, E37) (B91, B93, B95, B97)
I cut the image out after I colored it and replaced the digital string on the balloon with baker twine. I also used crysal laquer to make the balloons really shiny and you can't tell here but I used a spica pen on her bow. It is so sparkly in real life just couldn't get it to show very well in my photo's.
I also learned how to make these fun easel cards by checking out some Youtube video's.
Until Next Time
I fell in love with this cute digital stamp called Oscar and Balloon from Digi Stamp Boutique. I knew right away that I had to use it for my neighbors birthday card. Of course I wanted to play with my copics and this image was perfect for that too.
Go check out Digi Stamp Boutique and tell me what your favorite image is.
Until Next Time
Not too long ago I found an author I really like. Her name is Terri Blackstock and she writes Christian books. I have long loved mystery and romance books and Terri mixes them together so wonderfully. I really got hooked on her books with the Cape Refuge Series. I think it is one of my all time favorties and I am a little sad that there is not a fifth book in the series LOL. Here is a look at the four book that make up this series.
Currently I am reading her book "Predator" and so far so good. I will be back with a review of it once I am finished. I will tell you now that I am a very slow reader but with that being said I can tell you that with the Cape refuge series I just couldn't put the books down and finished them quite quickly. Here's a look at the cover of Predator.
Until Next time!
The girls and I were talking and remembering one of our very favorite Easter memories. We were at Grandpa Tom and Grandma Jeanne's house and the girls were getting ready for the big egg hunt. Grandpa Tom told all of them that one of the eggs had something very very special in it. The girls were running around like crazy gathering all the eggs they could find. When they were done we headed into the house so we could see who had found the very special treasure hidden within one of the eggs. They took turns opening their eggs and lots and lots of money was being found. Some had gold dollars in them some had 50 cent pieces others had dollar bills and there were even a few with five dollar bills in them. Heather found the special egg! What was in it you ask? A silver colored nut , we are talking a metal nut that goes on a bolt. We all stared and Heather said "Grandpa what is it" and he replied "It's a nut just like you". We all laughed at his joke but Heather took a piece of red satin ribbon and tied it around her little stuffed leopards neck and very seriously said "his name is now Nut". Grandpa Tom and Grandma Jeanne had previously given her the little stuffed leopard that she has carried everywhere with her even on our vacations.
This is Nut today looking a little worn but dearly loved and as you can see he still has that little nut tied around his neck with the very same piece of red ribbon! I am so happy that the girls all still remember this little nut and the story behind it. Funny they can not tell you how much money they ended up with that day but they can all tell the story of a simple metal nut that turned into quite the treasure because of a great man and his fun loving sense of humor!
May your Easter memories be as special as ours and may you have a wonderful Easter today!
Until Next Time!
My girls went to the Prom last night and had a great time. Holly asked her friend Mason to go with her and Heather decided to go alone and just have fun. They were going in a large group and one of the guys didn't have a date either so Heather and Andy took pictures together. Here are a few I took before they left. Not the greatest pictures but at least i got a few.
Our good friend Cary felt bad that Heather wasn't going to have a corsage so she went out and bought her one. Heather was so very thankful and it really meant a lot to her.
Until next time
One of the happiest days of my life happened 17 years ago today! My precious twin daughters Heather and Holly were born at 11:58 and 11:59 p.m. from the first moment I laid eyes upon them I knew that our family was complete. I love them more and more each day. All they wanted for their birthday was to get their belly button's pierced and even though it is not something I could ever see myself doing I was ok with it. I think it was hard for their daddy because it's just another sign that his baby girls are growning up. They had it done yesterday and they both look so cute. I will have to take some pictures and post them soon.
Here are a couple of pictures that Chris Lenoard took of the girls recently (they are Senior class representatives for his photography business).
Aren't they beautiful?
I love you both more than life itself and want nothing but the best for you always! Happy Birthday girls may all your dreams come true!
Until Next time!
When I saw this layout by Nichol Magourik (she's one of my favorite designers) I knew I had to use her design on one of my layouts. Nichol used one of Kerri Bradford's (she's another of my favorite designers) templates which luckily I had already purchased so it worked out great for me. Here is the layout that I made based on Nichol's design.
I altered one of Kerri's templates just a bit so it would work with my photo's. In the bottom right corner I ended up using one photo instead of two and I love how it turned out. To purchase Kerri's templates go HERE. If you end up purchasing any of her templates I would love to see what you do with them so make sure to drop me a line and let me know. I am proud to say I used my silhouette once again. I am really trying to focus on using my silhouette more and also using what I already have in my stash instead of going out and purchasing more.
So what are you working on this weekend?
Until Next time
I have really been wanting to do some type of regular post but I just hadn't found or thought of an idea that might work for me, so when I saw this idea on Kelly Xenos' blog I knew right away that I wanted to give it a shot. So here is to my first Flashback Friday :)
November 14th, 2006 I remember this day so clearly. It was the day I started my chemotherapy and I was scared out of my mind because I didn't know what to expect. They tell you all the side effects that you might have and some are quite scary. I remember thinking that I had to focus on the positive and not think too much about what could happen. Over the next 6 months I did have some of the side effects but I was able to get through them by keeping a positive attitude and with the knowledge that there was an end to the treatment in site. I am happy to say at this time that I appear to be cancer free and I am praying I will stay that way.
I am hoping to have these flashback friday posts at least twice a month to start with and I would eventually like to make it a weekly thing. I just don't want to promise anything until I am sure I can follow through with it.
Until Next time!
I really love this silly photo's of the girls so I thought it would be fun to play with it in photoshop. I used one of Kerri Bradfords photo masks that she shared on her friday freebie post that you can find here. I added one of the colors from Kayley's crazy colored scarf and thought it turned out pretty cute. If you have photoshop or photoshop elements you definately should go grab this freebie and try it out. Thanks Kerri for a wonderful and fun mask!
Until Next time
I married my best friend. We were only 19 when we said our vow's and I don't think either one of us realized just what they would come to mean. We have been through so much over the years some of it good and some of it not so good but we have stuck by each other through it all.
Happy Anniversary to the man I love!
I could go on and on about him and our life together but I will save that for another day!
Until Next time
I am going to try to commit myself to blogging more regularly. I signed up for a class by Shimelle called blogging for scrapbookers that she offered in the past and I did't take full advantage of it as a matter of fact I didn't take advantage of it at all. I just didn't commit the time to it so when I saw that she was offering it again and that it was free to past students I was so excited and decided that I really needed to commit to it if I want my blogging and my scrapbooking to improve and here we are.
If this is your first time visiting my blog, thank you for stopping by. I would love for you to leave a comment and if you have a blog a link to your blog so that I can stop by and say hi. If you are one of my few regulars, hi to you too and thanks for not giving up on me or my blog LOL.
Until Next time
A quick family trip to Reno. We are sad that Misty couldn't join us on this trip but she is waiting for a call for a possible full time job. We stopped in Roseville to have lunch with Grandma Audrey and then got back on the road and headed to Truckee where we stopped to take a quick picture and get some cold drinks and then once again it was back on the road to Reno. When we arrived we made a quick stop at the Eldorado to buy our tickets to the show "Buddy" before heading to the Atlantis to check into our rooms. The only showing of Buddy was at 7:00 and it was nearly sold out so we had to take the only seats left which were in the 2nd and 3rd row. The show is based on the real life story of Buddy Holly. The girls absolutely loved the show and even want to go back, which just makes my heart so happy. During the show the lead performer who was playing Buddy came to our side of the stage and told Heather that he liked her glasses. The funny thing was when Heather bought these glasses she had no idea who Buddy Holly was and I thought it was even funnier that today of all days she decided to wear them on the way here to Reno. After the show the girls got the chance to meet Buddy and of course I didn't bring the camera because I knew they were not allowed in the theater (darn it). But I did have my cell phone and here is the photo we captured with it. Not the best but it will have to do.
We all had such a fun time! We then decided to walk around the Eldorado, the Silvery Legacy and Circus Circus before heading back to our hotel. The girls all tried one game but the prices of the games have gone up so much that we decided we would rather spend our money else where. We went to Wendy's drive through on the way back and spent a total of $16.32 for the 5 of us not too bad. We can't wait to see what's in store tomorrow!
Until Next time!
Today I thought I would share the Valentine's Day cards I made for my husband and my girls this year. I used some digital images and my copic markers. For one of the cards I actually used a sketch from I heart to stamp. I don't always use sketches but some times I find it make the process much simpler.
This first card is the one I made for my husband who is such a big kid and likes to poke at me all the time so I thought this image was appropriate and of course he is my prince :)
It didn't show up in the photo too well but the crowns were colored with a Spica gold marker and really sparkles.
Next up are the cards I made for each of the girls. The first one is the one where I used the sketch from the sketch challenge.
I hope you all have a wonderful fun filled Valentine's day!
Until Next Time
Last weekend was Heather and Holly's Winter Formal dance. They looked so cute and I was in such a rush to get some pictures that I didn't take the time to check the settings on my camera and there fore most of my pictures were way too blurry and unusable and it really made me very sad. This is the one that came out the best of the two of them.
I still think it's cute and shows off their funny personalities LOL. My Friends Ann and Cary both took some of the girls with friends so I will be getting copies from them. Lesson learned for important photo's leave the camera on auto until I learn to use it better.
Until Next Time
I was so happy to finally finish up my second layout using the last of my christmas photo cards from 2010. Also a very big thank you to my friend Carla for teaching me how to scan my layouts. I need more practice as you can see but I think they came out pretty good for the first try.
I have really been enjoying using my silhouette with my latest projects.
This first page I used the silhouette and cut out the intricate Christmas tree design and I really like how it came out. I think I am going to start an album just for my Christmas card layouts and I intend to add to it each year from here on out. Thanks again to Nichol for this wonderful idea!
The second page I kept pretty simple just lined up all the photo's I still had from friends and family. I had a little space where another photo could have gone but since I didn't have another photo I put flowers there instead and I like how it came out. Just like my last layout I chose to put the names of everyone on the back of the layout.
Most of the products used on this layout are from Making Memories but I also used products from Papertrey Ink (bakers twine), Silhouette (Christmas tree) and Tim Holtz (tiny staples).
Until Next Time!
Here is the first layout that I made using my 2010 Christmas photo cards. I love getting photo cards and seeing how everyone changes from year to year, I think it's my favorite part of Christmas. I got the idea of cutting the pictures off the cards and turning them into a layout from the talented Nichol Magourik. Sorry for the not so great photo's of the layout I really need to find a better way to photograph them. The colors seem too washed out but I promise you the colors are much richer in real life. If you sent me a photo card and your not pictured on here don't worry I still have another layout to complete with the remaining photo's.
I decided to add the names of everyone on the back side of my layout because I liked it just the way it was. I used my silhouette to cut out the words and numbers "Christmas cards 2010". I got the word Christmas and the 2010 from this Kerri Bradford kit. I really love my silhouette and how easy it is to use.
Pattern Paper, flowers, brads – Making Memories
Bakers twine, scalloped circle die cut – Papertrey Ink
Tiny staples – Tim Holtz tiny attacher
Title cut using Kerri Bradford’s Yuletide Greetings and the silhouette
Until Next Time
