The outside. I tried to keep it simple.
The inside, slightly blurring, again very simple.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Happy Anniversary—to us!
It's very early in the morning on August 27. Today is our anniversary. Twenty-one years! We have our ups and downs like everyone else, but we're doing okay. Since I won't be home until sometime after 9:00 tonight (my class goes from 5-8), I figured I'd better get this up now. Below is the card I made for Jeff. I used our wedding colors of forest green, soft yellow, and cream. For all the exact details on the card you'll have to visit the other blog.
The outside. I tried to keep it simple.
The inside, slightly blurring, again very simple.
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The outside. I tried to keep it simple.The inside, slightly blurring, again very simple.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Elementary school
In Illinois where I was raised elementary school, is called "grammar school." After living here on Pluto I have learned to call it elementary school. I remember those years. I had two first days of new school in a row as I attended private school for nursery school and kindergarten and then public for first grade. Then we moved the day before school started in second grade.
As my friends reflect on sending their children, whether the first or last, to kindergarten, I am reminded of Deirdre's first day seven years ago. The switch to kindergarten wasn't that much of a deal in our family. She continued to attend the Child Development Center at Snow College. We dropped her off there and they took her to school and picked her up from school. Her life changed, but as a whole the family's life didn't much. Now the next year was a different story as the Lab was no longer an option for first grade. We now were in charge of getting her to school. That's when D received a cell phone. She biked to school and sometimes walked home or to Snow alone. The cell phone was for emergencies only. Now she texts and calls all the time.
Flash forward to last year and the first day of sixth grade. Now that was a change. Seven days later or to be more precise a year ago tomorrow, we were contemplating the move to seventh grade. Did we do it? or did we continue to be frustrated and perhaps end up with a "problem" child. We did it, as I talked about here.
First day of kindergarten—August 21, 2002
First day of eighth grade—August 24, 2009
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As my friends reflect on sending their children, whether the first or last, to kindergarten, I am reminded of Deirdre's first day seven years ago. The switch to kindergarten wasn't that much of a deal in our family. She continued to attend the Child Development Center at Snow College. We dropped her off there and they took her to school and picked her up from school. Her life changed, but as a whole the family's life didn't much. Now the next year was a different story as the Lab was no longer an option for first grade. We now were in charge of getting her to school. That's when D received a cell phone. She biked to school and sometimes walked home or to Snow alone. The cell phone was for emergencies only. Now she texts and calls all the time.
Flash forward to last year and the first day of sixth grade. Now that was a change. Seven days later or to be more precise a year ago tomorrow, we were contemplating the move to seventh grade. Did we do it? or did we continue to be frustrated and perhaps end up with a "problem" child. We did it, as I talked about here.
First day of kindergarten—August 21, 2002
First day of eighth grade—August 24, 2009You will notice the tree next to her. She has grown quite a lot in seven years; the tree not so much. She is now taller than her grandmother, although I doubt my mother will ever admit that. She looks a little nervous there in kindergarten. Monday—not so much. As a matter of fact it was the first day that she planned on not having a parent either take her or come to her classroom with her. Unfortunately that didn't happen as she had a flat tire on her bike that I luckily noticed before I left for school and could take her.
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Friday, August 21, 2009
A striking resemblance
Last night (Wednesday), we watched Marnie with Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery. As a family we've been watching Hitchcock movies all summer. Psycho is next, but I won't be watching it with Jeff and Deirdre. I have a very low threshold when it comes to horror and blood, etc. While watching Marnie, I noticed a striking resemblance from Louise Latham to my grandmother. Now Louise Latham was made up to look older than she was, but the resemblance was startling.
The below picture is of my grandmother and father at his graduation from Northwestern University in 1964 (the same year Marnie was released).
This picture is of my grandmother, father, and sister at his graduation from The University of Chicago in 1967.
There was something, besides the facial resemblance, in the mannerisms that just seemed similar. I'm not sure if it was the slight southern accent that my grandmother had or the tilt of the head, but watching the movie brought chills to me. Is the smile from the first picture to the last picture not almost exact? This is how I remember my grandmother, not the pictures of her with white hair and stooped over with a Dowager's Hump.
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These two pictures (above and below) are of Louise Latham in Marnie.
The below picture is of my grandmother and father at his graduation from Northwestern University in 1964 (the same year Marnie was released).
This picture is of my grandmother, father, and sister at his graduation from The University of Chicago in 1967.
There was something, besides the facial resemblance, in the mannerisms that just seemed similar. I'm not sure if it was the slight southern accent that my grandmother had or the tilt of the head, but watching the movie brought chills to me. Is the smile from the first picture to the last picture not almost exact? This is how I remember my grandmother, not the pictures of her with white hair and stooped over with a Dowager's Hump.
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
more PhotoShop for Carrie
This time I saved the dps of the "zoom" and opened it in PhotoShop. Then I used the eyedropper tool to select the background. I made a new layer, selected all of it, filled it with the new color. Then I moved the new layer below the original layer so that the picture of my daughter sat on top of the background from your zoom dbs. That was fast and pretty easy. Probably the way to go.
PhotoShop for Carrie
Original photo:
Photo after I cropped it, but before I put it in a new file window.
After putting it in a new window. I see that the white box is still around it when I uploaded it, even though in PhotoShop there isn't a box. I saved it as a .png which is what I use for my siggy, but it isn't working here. I'm not sure what program you are using. Can you place your photos and then do a new layer for the background? I really like your layout and would hate to have you change it.
I'll play some more and see if I can accomplish anything.
Photo after I cropped it, but before I put it in a new file window.
After putting it in a new window. I see that the white box is still around it when I uploaded it, even though in PhotoShop there isn't a box. I saved it as a .png which is what I use for my siggy, but it isn't working here. I'm not sure what program you are using. Can you place your photos and then do a new layer for the background? I really like your layout and would hate to have you change it.
I'll play some more and see if I can accomplish anything.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
A new blog
I set up another blog for my crafting, stamping, scrapbooking ideas and "stuff". So this blog will just be for family events and happenings. I'm sure there will be cross over every once in awhile. So for the next little bit the blog will be changing as I delete and move widgets that are for crafting to the new blog. I won't delete any of the old post, so those will still be available. I'm going to leave the link below also in case someone actually does want to place a Stampin' Up! order. My siggy will probably stay the same for right now, although I'm creating a new one for the new blog.
To see what is happening in that world click here for access to my "Stamping with Kate" blog.
This means that instead of a blog, a personal website that is basically for school, and a troop website to maintain, now I have another blog and my Stampin' Up website. Sometimes I really wonder.
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To see what is happening in that world click here for access to my "Stamping with Kate" blog.
This means that instead of a blog, a personal website that is basically for school, and a troop website to maintain, now I have another blog and my Stampin' Up website. Sometimes I really wonder.
Click here to place an order
The new craft room
Along with all the changes that have been happening upstairs there have been a few downstairs as well. No one really expected that we could only do one project at a time did they? So, my new craft room is pretty much finished. Okay the border isn't hung and the walls probably have to be repainted, but the furniture is where it is going to stay and it is usable. The first picture is what you see when you walk into the room. I basically stood in the entrance to take the picture. Yes, that is my family from 12 plus years ago in that picture. We've been hiding it in the former guest room since we had it taken. No one knows why.
Like my punch bars? I borrowed the idea from Erin, who I guess borrowed it from someone profiled in Stampin' Success. I only know this because when I commented to someone about how much I loved her punch storage, that person was really nasty about letting me know exactly where Erin had "stolen" the idea from. Some of you may know who I am referring to, but I'm certainly not going to state names.
This picture looks back toward the entrance to the room. Jeff finally hung (okay, I hadn't really asked him until D knocked the whole thing onto the floor including 71 ink pads) my 72 ink pad and ribbon holder for me. It is full and I have my craft pads (those that aren't Whisper White and Very Vanilla) and a couple of duplicates and retired (from '05) ink pads stored. This is certainly not all of my ribbon either. The dresser has my Big Shot, Cuttlebug, cutter, and a holder for 8 1/2 x 11 paper (mainly construction and white) on top of it. In the dresser drawers are my smaller cuttlebug folders and Big Shot dies. Plus it holds crafting supplies: pipe cleaners, wooden spools, pony beads, etc. Yes, Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips are wearing almost no clothing in the picture in the background. It is a movie poster for Valentino from 1977. Nureyev was my favorite male dancer before he died of AIDS about 10 years ago. His death is not the reason he isn't my favorite anymore just that new dancers have come along since then.
The colorful drawer unit used to hold most of the items I needed for Scouts, but now that we don't hold meetings in my dining room (YEAH!), I rearranged the items. D and I cleaned it out and moved some of the things to the dresser, some to the trash, and rearranged what was left. I also have drawers used for stamping items like the designer paper sampler, the punch sampler (thanks Erin for picking that up for me at Convention), and the ribbon sampler. Next to it holds the small tote with the items I use while working all the things that don't fit in my Pampered Chef tool holder. It sits on my desk and is in constant use. I deliberately left the top shelf empty to hold things while I'm working and don't want to put away right that moment. I also have my cd player, two Stack & Store caddys right where I need them. My desk is small, but it pulls out to another five feet or so if needed.
This final picture is of the stamp sets that have been labeled. In May's (I think that month) Stampin' Success a woman was profiled who labeled all her stamp sets. So I've started. Most of the retired sets do have red dots on them and all the holiday stamps are labeled. I also read online about people who photograph what each stamp set looks like and put the photographs in binders. This way they don't have to pick up each stamp set to figure out which one they want. A clever idea that will eventually happen.
Click here to place an order
Like my punch bars? I borrowed the idea from Erin, who I guess borrowed it from someone profiled in Stampin' Success. I only know this because when I commented to someone about how much I loved her punch storage, that person was really nasty about letting me know exactly where Erin had "stolen" the idea from. Some of you may know who I am referring to, but I'm certainly not going to state names.
This picture looks back toward the entrance to the room. Jeff finally hung (okay, I hadn't really asked him until D knocked the whole thing onto the floor including 71 ink pads) my 72 ink pad and ribbon holder for me. It is full and I have my craft pads (those that aren't Whisper White and Very Vanilla) and a couple of duplicates and retired (from '05) ink pads stored. This is certainly not all of my ribbon either. The dresser has my Big Shot, Cuttlebug, cutter, and a holder for 8 1/2 x 11 paper (mainly construction and white) on top of it. In the dresser drawers are my smaller cuttlebug folders and Big Shot dies. Plus it holds crafting supplies: pipe cleaners, wooden spools, pony beads, etc. Yes, Rudolf Nureyev and Michelle Phillips are wearing almost no clothing in the picture in the background. It is a movie poster for Valentino from 1977. Nureyev was my favorite male dancer before he died of AIDS about 10 years ago. His death is not the reason he isn't my favorite anymore just that new dancers have come along since then.
The colorful drawer unit used to hold most of the items I needed for Scouts, but now that we don't hold meetings in my dining room (YEAH!), I rearranged the items. D and I cleaned it out and moved some of the things to the dresser, some to the trash, and rearranged what was left. I also have drawers used for stamping items like the designer paper sampler, the punch sampler (thanks Erin for picking that up for me at Convention), and the ribbon sampler. Next to it holds the small tote with the items I use while working all the things that don't fit in my Pampered Chef tool holder. It sits on my desk and is in constant use. I deliberately left the top shelf empty to hold things while I'm working and don't want to put away right that moment. I also have my cd player, two Stack & Store caddys right where I need them. My desk is small, but it pulls out to another five feet or so if needed.
This final picture is of the stamp sets that have been labeled. In May's (I think that month) Stampin' Success a woman was profiled who labeled all her stamp sets. So I've started. Most of the retired sets do have red dots on them and all the holiday stamps are labeled. I also read online about people who photograph what each stamp set looks like and put the photographs in binders. This way they don't have to pick up each stamp set to figure out which one they want. A clever idea that will eventually happen.
Click here to place an order
Monday, August 3, 2009
A new 3 x 3 box
I'm loving these boxes so much, I made another one tonight. I haven't made any of the accompanying cards for it yet, not enough time tonight. I used current colors for everyone, so if anyone wants to duplicate it they can. Once I made the first one, I have found that they go pretty quickly. Of course the 3 x 3 cards will take more time. I'll have to do those Friday afternoon when I get back from Gooseberry. By then my 3 x 3 envelopes will be here and I can stamp those for the previous cards and the new ones. I'm having a blast with all my stamping/crafting stuff.
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paper: Certainly Celery and So Saffron CS, Tea Party DP
accessories: So Saffron and Certainly Celery brads, Certainly Celery button, SNAIL, and Sticky Strip adhesives, Certainly Celery twill ribbon (from Sale-a-bration Spring '09)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Hippy Happy B-thisday Mother
It is my dear mother's birthday today. I called earlier, but no one was home. Mentally she is doing pretty good; physically she is not doing well at all. I have some things to ship to her that I am hoping will leave here before I head to Gooseberry on Tuesday.
Happy birthday Mother!
Happy birthday Mother!
3 x 3 box w/cards
I've been wanting to make this box with its accompanying cards for ages. I finally sat down last night and did it. I used the same paper and stamp set as the Splitcoasters tutorial. I really wanted to see how I was doing compared to the tutorial. Now I can go through my designer paper and choose something else. These were time consuming, but worth the effort. What did I do before I had an nestabilities? I can't wait to get more shapes. They cut down on time and add so much with just a little bit of effort.
After I took these pictures I realized that the adhesive isn't sticking as well as I would like. I re-stuck the ribbon on the one Kiwi Kiss card, but I just noticed the box and my computer isn't in my craft room.
I've been using a lot of retired colors lately, because I'm finally making cards and scrapbook pages and 3-d projects. It has been very nice to actually be able to see everything I have and can actually find things. When I was labeling all my stamp sets, I found that a ton of them are retired. I'm thinking of going through them and seeing what I really want to keep and what I'll be selling off. I have a few that I purchased off of e-Bay that I wonder "why did I buy that?" Those will definitely be the first to go.
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stamp set: Dreams du Jour and Sprinkles
ink: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Pink Pirouette (all retired '08-'09 In Colors)
paper: Raspberry Tart DP (ret.), Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Pink Pirouette CS (all retired '08-'09 In Colors), and unknown white CS
accessories: markers: Old Olive, Regal Rose, and Rose Red, Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, American Crafts Elements 1/2" white grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilities, dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Button Bouquet (Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red ret.)
After I took these pictures I realized that the adhesive isn't sticking as well as I would like. I re-stuck the ribbon on the one Kiwi Kiss card, but I just noticed the box and my computer isn't in my craft room.
I've been using a lot of retired colors lately, because I'm finally making cards and scrapbook pages and 3-d projects. It has been very nice to actually be able to see everything I have and can actually find things. When I was labeling all my stamp sets, I found that a ton of them are retired. I'm thinking of going through them and seeing what I really want to keep and what I'll be selling off. I have a few that I purchased off of e-Bay that I wonder "why did I buy that?" Those will definitely be the first to go.
Click here to place an order
stamp set: Dreams du Jour and Sprinkles
ink: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Pink Pirouette (all retired '08-'09 In Colors)
paper: Raspberry Tart DP (ret.), Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Pink Pirouette CS (all retired '08-'09 In Colors), and unknown white CS
accessories: markers: Old Olive, Regal Rose, and Rose Red, Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, American Crafts Elements 1/2" white grosgrain ribbon, Nestabilities, dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Button Bouquet (Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red ret.)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Deep breath
Well, I did it. I created my own Stampin' Up! website. I've taken the plunge. I want to get into it more somehow. I can't really do classes or clubs, because I don't have any spare time once school starts. But in searching the web, I've found many people who only hold classes for six people. It would be tight, but I think I can do that in my scrap/craft room. If I open my desk it will hold six people. So we'll see as the year progresses how or if I add this or not to my (our) life. I may even start a separate blog for scrap/crafts from the home blog. Again an idea just floating right now. One of the bloggers I follow has a class kit by mail, so all there is preparation not people in the house. That's a thought too. But for now there will be a "click here to place an order" on all most of my posts.
Click here to place an order
Click here to place an order
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