A few goodies...

It's that time of year when new scrapbook goodies seem to flow into the store at such a rate that I can barely keep up. It's great inspiration and I've completed several layouts over the past few days. So here's the first one...

My poor scanner had a hard time matching up the edges of the paper. I love watching Nolan and Shane blast through the water on the innertubes --- such a great summer tradition. Hopefully, I'll get the rest of the layouts scanned and merged so I can post more throughout the week.

In other news...

I've been blog tagged. If you have a blog it's only a matter of time before you'll get tagged. So the rules are... you post 7 things about yourself and then tag 7 new folks. So here goes...

1. In college my friends gave me the nickname of 'random girl'. Regular readers of this blog will know that nothing has really changed...my mind tends to wander and is filled with completely random thoughts...like why penguins and polar bears should not star in the same commercial.

2. I love the sound of the wind and if it's a warm wind I love to stand outside. I love the power of the wind.

3. I read romance novels--- ok not the super cheesy Harlequin types with damsels in distress on the cover, but not literature by any means

4. I watch SouthPark on a regular basis. I sometimes channel Cartman or sing the theme song when the teachers at work start driving me nuts.

5. Pink and white jelly belly jelly beans are the way to my heart.

6. I used to dance around in my living room everyday after school and broke my ankle 2x doing so(beware if a Pointer Sisters' song comes on, I can't help myself, I get 'so excited')

7. I have long term memory problems and can't remember many things from my childhood through college years. Doctors have said it's a result of post traumatic stress and some minor concussions sustained from falling off horses...helmets weren't a big thing in those days.

And on that note...the recess bell has rung. No more time for tag.

Rule of Thirds?

Those who have ever read a photography book or taken a class have come across this 'golden rule' of photography. This week's assignment for my photography class was to look through our photos for examples of this rule --- I honestly thought I was fairly decent with composition aspect of photography(the rest...aperture, shutter speed, etc I have some issues) until this assignment. I looked through lots of photos and decided to take these...



I loved these photos long before I knew they were following a composition rule. It's nice to know why. I was a little intimidated...there are people in the class with some serious gear --- thousands of dollars worth, and I've often thought what are you doing in this class...why would you spend so much money before you knew how to use things. I guess some people are just able to buy 'the best', lucky them. The refreshing reminder was that for the most part their photos weren't any better than mine and even in the digital age of cameras and 'anything is possible' photoshop there is still a place for the creative photographer with a knack for getting just the right shot. I hope I can continue to develop my skills to become such a photographer.

On a humorous note...do you notice anything similar with the portrait pics? Perhaps that they're all profiles with one eye showing...thanks to my fab and amazingly talented instructors (check them out) I have a new nickname 'one eyed girl'; we all had a good laugh about my potential market and clientele.

Do you ever...

finish a layout and are suprised (in a good way) with the results? That was the case last night when I finished this layout.
It was if all the pieces fell together effortlessly, it came together so quickly and turned out better than I could have ever planned. I guess there is a reason for leaving scraps out in the open.

The cutie in the pic is my youngest nephew Connor. Can you feel another lesson on my family coming on?

Connor belongs to the baby of the family, my brother John and his beautiful wife Lisa. Sorry I couldn't find any recent pictures of them together. They are just about the cutest couple you will ever meet and are great parents. Julie and Shelley take credit for this, saying they helped John get in touch with his femine side as a child. They tormented the poor kid, 'dress'ed him up and put makeup on him frequently(sorry all evidence of those days has mysteriously disappeared). I, of course, was an innocent bystander. I can still remember the first time we met John and Julie, when the blend started. He was just 6(he could barely tie his shoes) and the plan was to go see a movie together. His first words to use were...'there's one, where's the other girl?' We went to see the 'Care Bears' movie, great for John, for me at 12...not so much, I was mortified. (if you think I'm moody now, you should have seen me at 12) John has always been the cute one and as siblings we all took advantage. If we wanted to go somewhere fun, have pizza or needed money from the parents for something...we would always send John...and it always worked. He lucked out and met Lisa in highschool or maybe just after, I can't remember. Together they are the outside junkies of the family and are usually talking about a hike or making plans to get back to Juneau where they went to school.

Cute Pics...Mia Familia Part 1

I took these pics of Sienna last week and just found the fun effects you can do on Shutterfly. I'm currently in love with the soft focus and blur edge. I splurged on some prints, I hope they turn out as cute as the look on the screen. This was her first time in a dress and tights --- way to big tights.

I've been harassed by those that didn't know how many brothers and sisters I had, and I tried to rememdy by posting a couple of pics last week --- or the week before. Time flies at 35. The problem? I only posted two siblings and they were holding Sienna. I promise I'm not biased, I am totally grateful for all of my family.

So here's the first in a series of posts about my wonderful siblings and their families. We are the perfect example of how great a blended family can turn out to be. After 20 years, the term 'step' has vanished from all of our vocabularies.

This pic is my older sister and her family, we call them Team O'Brian. My sister is Rhonda and she married Patrick about 2 weeks after I graduated from high school.

The tall creatures are the OGs(original grandchildren) of the family. Nolan and Shane are twins and are totally eleven year old boys. They live in sunny California, clearly not pictured here. Nolan and Shane are the most caring and loving boys you will ever meet. They bring joy and light wherever they go. They are a reminder to all in our family that miracles can and do happen everyday. I know that every healthy birth is a miracle, but these guys are extra special. Rhonda is a DES baby, DES was a drug mothers took in the late 60's to prevent miscarriages. Sounds great, except 1 in 100,000 of these babies developed cancer --- uterian cancer. Rhonda is the 1 in 100,000 and at 19 had to say goodbye to the dream of carrying her own children. Enter modern science(invetro) and a spiritual force(clearly God's hand at work), fertilized eggs were placed in Rhonda's 50 year old mom(yes the one who took the miscarriage drug in the 60s) and not quite 9 months later Nolan and Shane were born. It's hard to imagine it now, looking at these gangly rowdy boys, that they were once smaller than Sienna.

A few random things...

From the I didn't think it was possible file... Thunder, lightening and snow all at the same time?

I thought I was losing my mind last night when I was working on a couple of layouts when I saw lightening flash in the window. Then I heard the thunder...of course there is some fancy meterological term for this, I just thought it was strange.

Speaking of layouts...We just received some great new goodies from Making Memories. I have been waiting for these to come since I went to the Memory Trends show with MaryKay in September --- that's a long time. I wasted no time to make samples starring the fabulous Sienna. It's hard to tell in pics, but the paper has cutouts.

Still trying to make sense of the Presidential race? Chosing a candidate it tough, especially when they all seem the same. I found this great website...www.selectsmart.com. You can complete a survey and how your ideal candidate would feel on the issues and rate the issues of importance. It cross references your answers and comes up with a list of candidates whose views are closest to your own. I thought it was kind of fun and found the answers interesting, but not suprising.

For those of you...

drooling over the new MacAir and if your not why not? Ok, so maybe it's a little on the spendy side. Considering the cost of my last LO, I'm not really one to talk. Until we all win the powerball so we can buy this great machine, here's a little video to make you smile.

The most expensive scrapbook page ever...

Looks simple enough right...would you believe that it's true total is $171.00. Crazy! So how did something so simple become so costly? I love the font used in 'our' and 'ladybug'. Usually I wait for alphas to get a little old and people of tired and put them up for sale on eBay and pick them up for cheap. But for this one, I just couldn't wait. My original plan was to cut it at the store, but then the Revolution (great table top tool) went on sale and I just couldn't resist. I bought it too. So much for being better at saving money in the new year.

What Kind of World Do You Want...

Have you heard this song by Five for Fighting? It touched me the first time I heard it and made me stop and think...then I was sent this link by Tara and immediately thought I needed to share this with everyone.

http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/408214 Sorry, I can't embed the video like I usually do, but I promise it's worth the extra click. Not only will you hear this song you'll also see powerful images and words regarding autism and the need for early intervention.

Plus... whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com will pay $1.00 per view of the designated charity’s videos - how cool is that.

A few new pics...

Sienna grows so much each week...here are a few from last weekend. I was talking to my friend Mary Kay tonight and she mentioned that I don't talk about my brothers and sisters very often, although I do talk about there cute kiddos. So for the record...here are a couple of pics of my brother John (for those of you keeping track of my crazy family, he is married to Lisa and they have the adorable 10 month old Connor)

And here's my younger sister Julie (married to Brian, mom to Ben and Grant)

Emptiness...

It's gone, I finally took down my tree on Tuesday night. It's an easy process physically, but I still hate the void it leaves in my living room. My desperate need for curtains and better lights is evident without the tree. I was so disappointed to find that I didn't take a full picture only this close up as I was trying to learn more about my camera.

On a happier note, I'm super excited because...

The Daily Show is Back!

I was starting to resort to watching actual news channels --- desperate times call for desperate meaures, right? Thankfully Jon and the crew have rescued me from Lou and Wolf, hopefully no long term damage has been done.

Finally a project post...

but not the kind most of you are expecting. No new LOs or paper crafts. Instead one of the projects I'm most proud of completing, a hand knit dress for Sienna. It's still to big for her to wear, a couple more months and it will be perfect. Here's a quick snapshot in the meantime.



I love the process of knitting, ...how each stitch connects with the other and how a project comes together with each row. It never ceases to amaze me the that a few different stitches combine to create unique patterns. This project was a big step for me, for the past couple of years I've stuck with fairly basic projects, scarves, hats and a few purses. Now I have the confidence to try even bigger projects, maybe a sweater for Sienna's 1st birthday --- since I'm not a speedy knitter, I should probably get started now.

A little video fun

It seems like everywhere I go I hear about Wii and how fabulously fun it is. Perhaps someday I'll discover for myself and maybe by then there will be Tetris for the Wii.
In the meantime, I'll have to think about this video...



Is it wrong that I kept waiting for them to score the big points by lining up for rows?

Clearly I haven't figured out the banner problems yet, but am trying out the pink template.

Blasted Blogger

Has my banner pic and title always been off center when you view with a PC? I hope not. I was just taking a peek at comments...wondering if a random stranger took the my Hillary bait. Just my sweet friends...can't wait for the next crop to discuss further.

My exciting news for the day is my dryer is finally back to life. It's so one of those things you take for granted. I think I especially do since I have a little shopping problem that results in seemingly endless amount of clothing and 'unmentionables'. What I learned is that I have about 6 weeks worth of the latter. And realized my dryer was broken nearing the end of the pile. Panic...hand wash? go to a laundry mat? where is a laundry mat? Luckily I camped at my sister's house and snuck in a load while the maintenance guys took their sweet time to fix it.

Moral of the story: Be nice to your dryer.

Why Women Might Not Vote for Hillary and Other Random Thoughts

Disclaimer: I know most of you who are so thoughtful to spend a minute of your day reading my blog are here for my 'creative genius' :)(such as it is), no creative goodies today. My inner politico is coming out so you can indulge me or stop reading and it won't hurt my feelings.



No surprise that our social studies teacher is a very politically oriented young man. I tend to indulge him and actually listen to his various epilogues on politics in America. I remember being that young and full of belief that one person or a particular party (in his case the dems) could solve all of the problems if they had complete power. Since I have become so disillusioned, I tend to listen and not actually have a dialogue --- it would be pointless. So yesterday of course we needed to discuss the Iowa Caucuses (which I personally feel like should be labeled carcases since some political careers die at this point).

He was still surprised the O'Bama won --- Iowa is the whitest state he said. (which I think is wrong and told him that) My pithy response was don't underestimate the power of Oprah. If we read books, lose weight, eat food, buy gifts all because Oprah said so, why would we not vote for a president. Heck ,if O did run for president we all know she would win. So then he said he was surprised more women didn't vote for Hillary. I said the are some reasons why women might not vote for her. He asked if there was an underground movement in women against her. I don't think so, at least I haven't been invited to any meetings. I offered a couple of light weight reasons.
1. People want real change (personally I believe impossible) so we Hillary as someone who was in the White House for 8 years and Congress since then. No change there
2. There are some women who don't understand why she didn't leave Bill other than for pure political reasons and find this slightly disturbing. And if you apply that slippery slope argument to other aspects of her career you have to wonder? Right

That satisfied my teacher for the moment and I thought me, but I woke up still thinking about this...I'm not sure if it's ignorance or arrogance for folks like my teacher and politicos across the land to make the statement 'Women will vote for Hillary because she is a woman' I'm sure we've all heard this a zillion times and not thought much about it, but this am it really made me mad. It assumes that:
1. I don't care about the issues or worse make assumptions that because Hillary is a woman she automatically feels the same way as I do on issues
2. I'm incapable of independent thought (ok maybe a stretch)

Grr...if the tables were reversed and there were 9 women and 1 man would the same statement occur? Unlikely.

On the flip side --- republicans not that much better, but if you think of the Hollywood title "Mr. Huckabee goes to Washington" or just hearing about President Huckabee you've got to smile.

Oops

Shocking two posts in a row I know...don't get your hopes up. I realized late yesterday that I put a link to baby girl that requires a password...here you go

again the link is
and the password is christmas07

Here's hoping my new modem comes today so I can have internet at home after 3 weeks.

SHE'S HERE

Our family welcomed my beautiful niece 'Sienna Christyn Grice' on Saturday Dec 22nd 2007 at 11:33 am.

She is the best Christmas present ever...as precious as can be.

Second best Christmas present ever I gave to myself a Nikon D40 a wonderful camera to take pictures of this beautiful girl to share with all.

You can see more of the first couple of weeks of her life here http://siennagrice.shutterfly.com

Fashion Cents

So I ventured out in the snowstorm around 11 am yesterday...I should have held out for a couple more hours by 2 o'clock the sun was shinning and the wind had died down (still nippy though).

At any rate I was rewarded for my troubles when I got to Target --- I spent more than my usual 5 min in and out just perusing the aisles. I was so excited to find a cute dress for $14 bucks(on clearance of course).

Next on to the tights section(thanks to Tanner who decided to 'alter' my brown tights to a toeless version) Tights are clearly en vogue this year there were at least 20 different varieties. As a tight lover I personally don't think they should ever go out of style. I couldn't help myself I picked up 5 new pairs.

And just in case you're wondering --- I didn't forget the dog food. Thank goodness!

Don't you just love getting ready for work when you have something fun and new. I am and I guess I wasn't the only one who spied the dress on the clearance rack, one of our temp workers had the same dress on and paired it with the same color top. Imagine our surprise when we ran into each other in the am. Later in the day my friend Tina said she had also picked up the dress. Crazy, huh.

Fall Snow

So it's 8 am on Sunday and I'm excited that I got my fireplace going...I love the gas fireplace! It was one of the things that attracted my to this apartment. I love that I can flip two switches and have a cozy flame and a little bit of heat.

So why do I need a fire so early in the morning on a Sunday? Because outside it's doing this...

Yep it's the annual fall snow storm. They predict 3-4 inches over the day. I thought they were wrong early this morning --- Tanner woke me up at 6:30 and it was only raining. But over the next few hours the rain turned to snow.

It's amazing how fast you forget that snow can be a normal part of life...it is possible to drive and do things. But --- right now I'm content to sit in front of my fire with my cozy fleece blanket and knit the day away. Unfortunately I'm almost out of dog food so that won't be the case at some point I will have to venture out.

The good news is that tom. in true Colorado fashion will be sunny and a warm 50 degrees and that's why I love Colorado.

A Couple of Layouts

Work has been crazy the past month, but hopefully now that the funding count window is complete it will get back to normal.

I've been trying to do something creative everyday to maintain some sense of balance.
Here are a couple of my favorites from the past few weeks.I've had this picture for almost four years and have scrapped before, but it's one of my favorites and I found this quote and thought it would be perfect for the pic.


These are some of the pics I took in Vegas last month --- yes I did glue each of those circles individually. Crazy!

Tanner is...

totally pissed and not talking to me.

Why? Today he spent the day at the vet's getting his teeth cleaned. I dropped his off at 7:15 this am, poor guy had to go under anesthesia. True to his 'charming' self he had everyone in the office falling in love with him. So much so they let him out of the kennel when he was awake and let him have the run of the back office area.

But as for me, none of the charm --- he's sleeping in the other room and avoiding me. It's so strange to have him be so mellow.