One Year Ago

One year ago today was the first time I posted a blog. Thank you for stopping by to check out my photos and projects. I hope that I have inspired creativity or taught you something you didn't know about photography.

I tried making a digital layout for the first time today over at Scrapblog. One of my biggest problems with digital is that you never step away from the computer and you don't get that creative mess on your table. I have to admit that I did have fun playing around. I don't like that they only provide you with a 72dpi jpeg. There's not enough quality to print larger than a 4x6! So I did my first hybrid digi lo for the One Little Word challenge.



What happens when you leave your scrap stuff on the table to go take a quick shower? I come out to find Tiffany & Jenna wearing my ribbons. Of course it makes a perfect photo op!




Exciting mail just arrived moments ago! Thanks to Dani, I got some of these cool things from the SIS TV boutique:


EBB had a sale over the holiday weekend. I am trying to cut back on shopping so I bought the must haves only.


My May Dozen's kit arrived today too! So I plan to play with some scrappy stuff tonight over at Dan's. I'm suffering from really killer allergies and don't feel like doing much else. We did go to Chevy's last night so I don't feel bad for staying in tonight. Hope you have a great weekend!

Words of Advice

The newest challenge is up over at Say It In Scrap. The challenge is to scrap words of advice. I hope to see lots of participation over there. These challenges have been really really fun to do. So fun that I am trying to do more challenges in general. So here is my take on it.


I really enjoyed reading Ali Edwards blog and found this list really inspiring. Just a short post for today. :)

Some pretty pictures

Warning: Its a long post!
Happy 18th Birthday to my cousin Christina! I know we'll have a blast celebrating your achievements on Saturday!

A lot has been going on around here lately. For those of you who don't already know, my last day of work in Campbell was on Friday. The gas prices and lengthy drive took too much of a toll on me. I miss my coworkers already but I know it was for the best. This week I'm playing catch up with friends, deadlines and sleep!

Friday night we celebrated Natalie & Nick's graduation from SFSU masters program. Sadly, I didn't take photos. Saturday night we celebrated Andy's graduation from SFSU Cinema program. Andy is one of those incredible people that makes you laugh non stop over anything! He also introduces each person as though they are a celebrity. I was thrilled to find out that he will be staying here for good! Photo taken by Dan. left to right: Marlon, Andy, me.


Andy's grad party was out near the ballpark in San Francisco, right on the bay. It was pretty cool that we were able to walk out onto the little pier. I couldn't resist taking some night photos. That is the Bay Bridge in the background.



Congrats to Amy and everyone else that graduated from SFSU this past week!

Lucky for me, Liz was in Berkeley celebrating a relatives graduation. I can't believe we've known each other so long but that this was our first time to get meet IRL! She & Dennis were so kind to meet & have lunch with me during my lunch break. What more could I ask for? More time to hang out next time of course! I really enjoyed them both and was so happy! Oh and just because I know you're curious Liz, Michelle & I are 5" apart in height. ;)


Monday I spendt some good ole quality time with the family. Went with the parents to San Francisco's Botanical gardens. I had no idea how close it is to Park Chow!

I have to admit I'm not a huge plant/flower photographer. I think they all look the same after about an hour or so. I took over 300 photos in the gardens. The first photo I want to share was something that caught my eye while I was talking to my mom.


We spent a good two hours at the gardens walking around. Saw a lot of beautiful plants, most of which my mom owns somewhere in our garden (either front or back yard). We don't have water lillies yet, but I think they are beautiful.


Can't remember what these are called but I do remember they are from South Africa. Loved the mix of colors and shapes. I spent a lot of time photographing trees and getting very inspired. I hope to have something in my etsy shop in just a few weeks time.


Tuesday I visited my Grandma in Walnut Creek. I had fun sharing photos, playing scrabble, and catching up with her. I am so very fortunate to see her so much. Dan & I saw Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I haven't seen any of the other ones but I was slightly disappointed by the ending.

Today was spent playing with Eva's kids Elizabeth & Josiah while Eva got her hair done. Josh will be graduating with a BS this coming weekend. Congrats Josh! Had a photo final with yummy dinner tonight. Have one more photo final tomorrow evening.

Scrapjacked: Kate O'Brien

Happy Memorial Day. I hope everyone had a chance to take a moment and think of all of the people who have served our country.

I took today as an opportunity to participate in the Scrapjacked challenge. I was really inspired by Kate's work. I enjoyed looking at her blog and finding out that her favorite font is teletype (seen on layout below).


Lots of photos & things to share this week.

Social Butterfly

Challenge 15 is up at Scrap Mojo. The challenge is to use fashion as inspiration. I used my pj's as inspiration. The second part to the challenge was to use some sort of tape on the lo.


I lifted the title idea from Sally Hana. I stepped outside of my comfort zone, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Thanks to Jenna for the super cool vintage button!


Dan & Zena's cousin Peter, was here in San Jose for the Adobe conference last Thursday. He is a super cool Adobe expert and we love seeing him when he comes to visit from Oregon! Left to right: Peter, Helen, Zena, & Dan. We had an entertaining dinner at Thai Time in San Carlos.


Friday was my day off! I drove to visit my Grandma in Walnut Creek. It was around 99* by 11:30am. It was so nice to visit with her. I also got a chance to stop by My Daughter's Wish and have a little in store shopping. I was really happy that Sheri (owner) was there.

I headed over to SFSU in the afternoon for Animation Finals. Each year the Animation Society edits select animations and puts on a show in the Coppola Theater. Two senior thesis projects really impressed me. I will definitely post links to them once my friends wake from their well deserved, overdue naps. :D Here is a photo of a professor, speaking with the family that set up a scholarship fund for the Animation Department.

Friday night I went to Redwood City to celebrate Syttende Mai, which is constitution day for Norway (May 17th). Zena was performing with her dance group and we thought it would be fun to see everyone. Here they are in their Bunads:

Saturday was really special because Kelly, Jessica, & Brice met Dan & I at Dolores Park in San Francisco. My friend Amy organizes these really fun get togethers once a month that she likes to call Social Squittens. She did research and found out that Wizard of Oz was going to be played during movie night. They project the movie onto this really big bounce house-esque screen.


It's not San Francisco without a drag queen Dorothy!


A bunch of Animation friends:


I got a picture with Amy (thanks Eric) before it got too dark. We were so lucky that Dolores park was last to get hit by the fog bank. It was so weird for us since we had a heat spell for 5 straight days!

Happy Thursday!

I'm happy to spill that Queen Kat Bloggers Club decided to interview me and do a little post over at their blog. Please show some love! I am so flattered!

Last Tuesday, the Pacifica Tribune had an article on Hoffman's Fine Wines & Spirits and how they are celebrating 10 years. I was mentioned in the article because I designed that wine label last August! I got a few emails from friends & family so now I have a little article to add into my album.

So the bay area is having a heat wave! It is already 85 degrees as of 9:30am. It is supposed to break 100 not that far from my work here in Campbell. I hear that its supposed to be 80's on the coast where I live. That's so rare!

I am really looking forward to my day off tomorrow. I asked for a day vacation because my last day off was April 5th. Not that I'm keeping track or anything. ;) I'm planning to go visit my grandma in the east bay. It will be super hot but I miss our visits terribly. The SFSU Animation Finals are taking place tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait to see what my friends have done this year!

Finally got to watch Sweeney Todd last night! I love Tim Burton's art direction and Johnny Depp amazes me. It really reminded me of Corpse Bride and then I realized it was because the main characters are the same people. I really enjoyed the musical aspect of it and think it was a terrific movie.

It's Graduation Season!

Celebrated Kelly's graduation from college on Saturday. I'm so proud of everything she's accomplished. You're going places! I was the unofficial photographer of the event. Some of my faves from the afternoon:

Tiffany, Kelly, & Jenna at the party


Kelly's fam (left to right): Scott, Kelly, Barbara, & Steve


Kelly's lovely dress
Dan & I went to Marlon's birthday bash next. Needless to say, I barely took any photos since I was exhausted. We had a great evening hanging out with some friends from college. It had been a year since I'd seen Abe! We did take a few polaroid photos, so I'll add those later to the post. It was really cool to see Marlon's 1 week old apartment in Pacifica. His set up was pretty fun!

Sunday I met my family at La Lanterna, a little Italian restaurant in San Mateo when I go off work. It was nice seeing everyone, especially since Dominique just returned from LMU.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

I was blog hopping today and came across something shocking. For any of you that call yourselves artists and actively use the copyright law that was put in place in 1976, please read this. This applies to all of you bloggers & flickr posters as well! Once you've skimmed this, check out the link in that post here.

After reading both of these posts I decided to go to flickr and begin my removal process. I was switching my photos to private when I noticed a link below the photos on the right that says change licensing. You can find out more about licensing at Creative Commons. I had heard of this through Ali Edwards blog but didn't really understand that concept. I decided that today I needed to do some research. You will notice that I choose an Attribution-non commercial, non derivative license as well.

Say It In Scrap #3

I have some exciting news that I've been waiting to share. Kristi at Say It In Scrap has asked me to guest design for the month of May! Challenge #3 was posted today. You are supposed to scrap a feeling. I had such a blast doing this challenge and playing with my April Dozens kit. Yummy!

Scrap Mojo Challenge 14

Scrap Mojo Challenge #14 is up! The challenge is to recycle. I recycled paper and pictures from a lo I did about 2 years ago. The other part of the challenge is to use 5 items in honor of Cinco de Mayo.

Before challenge:


After challenge:



Went to the new Century theater at Tanforan Mall last night. Dan & I were itching to see Iron Man after all of the great things we heard from friends. I have to admit that I'm not huge on comics or graphic novels. This movie was really well done! It is movies like these that really motivate me to hope that someday I might work on something so cool. The most exciting thing for me was to see the credits and find out that an acquaintance of mine had worked on it and he has a higher level job. Congrats to Colin!


My co-worker has this beautiful orchid in his window and I had to take a photo. I just love the reflection! This is an example of shallow depth of field.


That means the flower in the foreground is in focus and the background is out of focus. Depth of field is how focused the image is. You can change how much you want to blur or how much you want to be in focus by the distance you are from your subject, the type of lens you use, and the aperture you choose. If this has confused you (took me a while to figure it out), then you can read more on depth of field here.

The cool thing is that you don't need an SLR to play with depth of field. You can play with aperture priority setting to achieve cool results. If you look at your camera, look for A or AV to find aperture priority. Make sure that A is not Auto. You might have to go into a menu if its not on a button or nob.


What is an aperture? You'll just have to come back for my next post to find out!

The Decisive Moment

Happy Cinco de Mayo! My office had a party on Friday with music, drinks, snacks, and pinatas! Here is one of my co-workers right after he hit the pinata. This photograph is an example of the decisive moment.


According to Henri Cartier-Bresson, "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oops! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

Henri Cartier-Bresson's is best known for this decisive moment photograph. If he had taken the photo a moment earlier or a moment later the photo would have been very different. There is your photo history for the day!


Went to the movie theater on Friday night with Dan to see Baby Mama. Laughed my head off! For those of you who have seen it already, Dan & I formed a band on Rock Band called the Pam Users! :D


I worked in the morning at the Christmas store and then I joined Kristi for a little afternoon scrapping. Hope every one enjoyed (Inter)national Scrapbooking Day! I didn't spend as much time on projects as I had hoped, but I did have fun. Here is a sneak for the next Scrap Mojo challenge.


I get so inspired by reading Ali Edwards blog. I really want to make this! Misty, can you make that die cut circle paper with your silhouette?

Spent some quality girl time with Jenna, Tiffany, and Kelly on Saturday night. We went to see Made of Honor and it was incredibly sweet. I'm a sucker for those chick flicks! We hung out at In-N-Out for a little while with milk shakes after.


Saw an INCREDIBLE movie called The Kite Runner. A member of the Pacifica Rotary had a small part playing a doctor (the Russian, Dr. Starobin). The compositions are beautiful and the characters are thoroughly developed. I was so convinced by the acting that I got lost in the story. The Director Marc Forster has done it again. I highly suggest seeing this movie, but I must warn that it is on the disturbing side. Check it out!

Happy May 1st!

Played Rock Band with Jenna, Lisa, and Dan last night. We had way too much fun considering it was Wednesday. I seriously thought it was Friday. Found out that Lisa can carry a tune! We had some yummy Hawaiian pizza (my favorite) from Luigi's while we had a jam session.



I even found a little time to play a round of Bingo over at EBB Creations. I was so close to winning. Maybe next time. In other happy news, my Dozens kit arrived yesterday! I was able to snag one after all. That's just how I roll ;). I am super excited and can't wait to play with Michelle's adorable creations.

Here is a lil survey I got from Rachel's blog:

What was I doing 5 years ago?
I was taking Archery, Geography, History of California, American Sign Language, some ilk of Math, Biology and probably Art & Composition at Skyline College. I was getting excited about the semester coming to an end and going to Kauai for two weeks with the Childers.

Five things on my to-do list today:
1. Write a Statement of Work
2. Take lots of Airborne
3. Go to the dark room
4. scrap
5. sleep

Five snacks I love:
1. apples, strawberries, and grapes
2. night crawlers (sour worms)
3. rice pudding
4. cheese & crackers
5. cheetos (it’s a phase)

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. start up company & then hire my family to work with me
2. buy a house in the bay area
3. replace my car (as much as I love it)
4. buy some exotic plants for my mom’s garden
5. save money

Five bad habits I have:
1. talk to quickly
2. stay up too late
3. loose track of time (getting better at this)
4. make stories too long
5. try to fit too much in my schedule (goes along with #3)

Five places I have lived:
1. Pacifica, CA

Five jobs I've had:
1. Salesperson, year round Christmas store
2. Receptionist/Admin Assistant, Real Estate Agency
3. Photo retoucher, publishing company
4. Freelance photographer/videographer
5. Associate Producer, digital communications company

And because I'm feeling random...

Five Things I'm digging today:
1. My new glasses
2. relaxing music
3. Gatorade
4. Avast Virus Protection (for Mac)
5. text messages that make me smile