I just can't stop.....

Some more scrapbook pages ... I am SO addicted!





Most of the credit goes to designer Ali Edwards. I used lots of her digital scrapbooking stuff on these pages: templates, word art, etc... Get her designs at Designer Digitals. And/or read her blog at: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/

Memorial Day Weekend

We were all set to go to my Mom's beach house in Stone Harbor, NJ for the memorial day weekend, but then Emma got sick and missed school Wednesday through Friday and still wasn't feeling good on Friday so we cancelled our trip. We certainly didn't want to bring any germs to Mom or to my sister and her kids who were also going to the beach. As much as we were sad not to see everyone it was nice not to have to drive six plus hours each way on a holiday weekend.

Emma started feeling better Saturday afternoon thanks to the penicillin so we decided to go to a housewarming party we were all invited to. Emma went next door for dinner and a sleep over with her friend Diana and Jim and I road our bikes over to the party about 3-4 miles away. The party was given by a Danish couple who I met through Newcomers. They throw great parties and love to entertain. (They had a great Christmas party with traditional Danish food and beverages). The weather ended up being really nice though it rained in the morning. They even cooked frikadella (not sure of the spelling, but these are sort of a cross between meatballs and hamburgers). All the kids were in the yard playing and the grown-ups had time to chat. Jim and I had a fabulous bike ride home from the party. We went by the Barrington Beach through that neighborhood which still has lots of smaller beach cottage type houses some of which have been added on to. Then we headed out Nayatt road along the shore by the golf club. There was a lovely sunset and breeze. I felt truly very lucky to live in this place and to have this time with just Jim.

Sunday we had a lazy day at home, thought Emma went to a birthday party in the later afternoon. I got out to buy some mulch, but then lost interest in actually mulching. To my credit the weather was very unstable: sunny one moment, then raining, then thundering.

Monday's weather was much much better and we all headed over to my friend Jen's on our bilkes to watch the Barrington Memorial Day parade. She on one of the small roads that run off of Maple Avenue and deadend at the bike path. She invited several families over and we had a yummy brunch with a break to walk up to the end of the street to watch the parade go by. The parade was the perfect length for the 2-9 year olds watching it. There was a fife and drum group, the High School band, the Middle School band, girl scouts, boy scouts, fire trucks -- that's about it. All the kids had flags to wave and most of them were wearing red, white and blue. Jen's daughter was just adorable with her hat and braids.

Around noon we headed home -- I was finally in the mood to work in the garden and cleaned up all the porch furniture, planted, weed whacked, etc.... Jim and Emma went off to buy roller blades. Emma had an IOU for roller blades left over from Santa at Christmas and Jim wanted to try them. At the moment Emma is much better than Jim, but we will see how long that lasts. We all walked up to the end of our road to the big parking lot at St. Luke's and I watched while Jim and Emma skated around. On our way back down the street we were invited to an impromptu Memorial Day picnic at Emma's friend Kayla's house and many of our neighbors and there kids were there. It was probably one of those things that happend when you are all out watching your kids play and just decide to eat together. I met a neighbor that just moved recently and her son -- so that was nice. She had made the most delicious blueberry crumble. Another neighbor contributed hamburger patties from his freezer. So, after working all afternoon in the garden I got out of cooking dinner too!

On top of all this I also managed to find sometime to write my column for the Technical Services Law Librarian. Nothing like waiting until the last moment, but I am pretty happy with it. I wrote about Twitter for Law Firm Librarians.

Perfect weekend -- now I just have to recover!

New Digital Scrapbook Pages and Holmes house happenings

I just created this last night. The great thing about digital scrapbooking on a laptop is that I can scrapbook while lying in bed with a sick child hugging me. That's what I was doing last night. I finished the second half of the Easter layout I did called "Hunt Eggs". It was pretty easy because I had already decided on colors and which template to use when I did the earlier layout. I just had to choose the photos I wanted. Thanks for the influence of Ali Edwards and other "life artists" I decided to include the photo of Emma trying to kiss Nicky which I thought wasn't the greatest photo, but I liked the story it told. The journaling on the layout is:
"Easter was full of other little blessings besides the egg hunt. Clockwise from top left: Amelia fascinated by church, Emma trying to give Nicky a big kiss, Baskets from the Easter bunny waiting to be discovered, Easter presents from Nana, Amelia letting Emma hug her, the table all beautifully set and ready for the delicious lunch cooked by Mom. Yes, the twins got tired & whiney, and the day wasn’t perfect, but it was blessed."

I used the following supplies:
Template 4 pack no. 1 pg 2 from Ali Edwards from Designer Digitals
Spring Hand Draw Words from Ali Ewards from Designer DigitalsCK Ali's hand official font for journaling(from Ali Edwards -- I can't remember where I bought it)
Paper from Kate Pertiet Carefree Seasons Mega pack from Designer Digitals

Since Emma is home sick today I actually have some time to post to the blog and do some other at home things -- as long as they can be done with her sitting next to me and touching me I'm golden. Whenever she is sick it's hard for her and a bit hard for me -- but it reminds me of when she was a much littler girl and was always next to me cuddling me. Now days when she feels well she is almost always going at full speed ahead and doesn't have nearly as much time for cuddling and hanging out with me. Age nine is a complicated age -- at least these days -- maybe when I was nine too -- Mom might remember better. At nine you are still little girl, but also finding your way as an individual -- part of a long long journey -- in fact I think I am still on that journey -- life is probably that journey.



In order to learn how to use Photoshop Elements more effectively for digital scrapbooking I have been taking a self paced course which I highly recommend. It's by Jessica Sprague and it's her introductory course called Up and Running with Photoshop and you can find out more about it at Jessica Sprague.com. The layout above was one of the exercises for week 2 of her class and uses the digital scrapbooking supplies that you get free with the course tuition! The journaling reads:
* Enjoys the water
* Takes YaYa everywhere
* Prefers to wear dresses
* Loves the color pink
* Has a terrific smile
* Talks and talks and talks

I have really been enjoying and learning a lot from this course. It's a great way to do just what the title says -- get Up and Running with Photoshop. Below are two other layouts made in this class. Enjoy and let me know what you think.



Journaling:
"Nicky had a great time sliding at Byrd Park in Snow Hill. He went down over and over again all by himself. I was able to get this great shot and several others to remember the day by. We would have stayed longer but it started to rain so we headed back to Papas with Emma, Mia, and Hannah who came to the park with us."



Journaling:
"My nephew and godson Nikolas
is more cautious than his sister Amelia
He is also more sensitive to noise and temperature
He never made it past the steps into Papa's pool
the water was just too chilly
it was early May after all."

Well it's time for me to sign off now and make lunch and get ready for the AALL Webinar I am attending from home from 12-1 on Law Libraries and Social Networking.

is at work investigating litigation alert tools

Just set up a Ping.fm account and am testing to see if it posts where I ask it to. I found out about it at: http://ping.fm/sNpf1

New Addiction

I confess -- I am addicted to scrapbooking and right now I am particularly addicted to digital scrapbooking using Photoshop Elements on my beloved Spring Green laptop. I love that I can buy neat digital paper and embellishments for very little money and use them over and over again on my pages -- and now that I have found a site (Scrapbooks to Share) to print out 12 x 12 pages for only $2 I am really in heaven -- though I hate waiting for the printed pages to arrive and waiting to print them. Since the shipping and handling is a reasonable $6 flat fee I wait until I had at least 12 pages to print.

So, why am I addicted. Well, it's a bit like why I enjoy this blog -- a chance to share photos and write about what's going on in my life -- only with the digital scrapbooking I can be much much more creative and I can easily print and share multiple copies. It's also so much easier to add text and journaling to these pages without worrying about legible handwriting or getting the computer printed text to fit on the paper layout. I can do it anywhere and the supplies don't take up any physical space though remembering to backup frequently is a must.

I can easily spend an entire evening creating a page or two and lose track of time -- which doesn't happen to me that frequently. I still love paper scrapbooking too -- there is nothing that compares to the actually feel of paper and cutting and pasting but it is fun to have another alternative.

My favorite designer, Ali Edwards, does both traditional paper scrapbooking and digital scrapbooking and her work is a source of inspiration for me. I also love her "Life Artist" philosophy. You can check out her work on her blog {A} and her digital scrapbooking designs for purchase at Designer Ditials.

I've also posted some of my pages in my Facebook photo albums for those who you who are my Facebook Friends. You can also see some on this blog: Farewell to the Apple Car and I Love This Color and Teddy Goes to NYC

So, if you see my head "buried" in my laptop -- I am probably creating -- not surfing the web. Playing with photos, stories and colors and documenting history as it happens.