Sunday, May 31, 2009

Two Years

It's been two years! I just realized this moments ago and I'm surprised at how much has happened since I started blogging. I have lots to update on but things have been hectic so It will have to wait a bit longer. We just moved our office at work and I'm excited to be in a bigger space. I leave you with a photo I took of a shadow on our wall (with a Sigma 4.5 fisheye lens).

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

ES Blog Hop!

We are having an Everything Scrapp'n blog hop today, so be sure to check it out for a chance to win an awesome RAK and to see some incredible inspiration! All you have to do is check out the Design Team blogs and then head back to the ES blog and comment on your favorite pages and the person who designed them. The winner will receive a Rusty Pickle Brass Knuckles mini book.
Here are my creations. A photo from Easter:
Products used:
Kraft cardstock paper
American Crafts Backyard-Squeak paper
American Crafts Backyard-Twitter paper
American Crafts Craft Fair-Rose McGrain paper
American Crafts Remarks journaling shade sticker
Hambly journaling spot rub ons-Brown
Pink Paislee Enchanting sticker book sticker
American Crafts Thickers Roller Rink-Taffy

Making Memories Tiny alpha stickers-white
Stickles-Lime Green

I couldn't help buying this adorable Fancy Pants die cut paper. Its perfect for spring/summer layouts. I was so excited to finally use the yellow trim that I picked up at a craft store in Amsterdam!
Products used:
Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts Turquoise Grid paper
American Crafts Backyard Chomp cardstock
American Crafts Backyard Peep cardstock
Hambly Wings overlay-white
Hambly Frame Wallpaper overlay-white
American Crafts Backyard journaling spot sticker book
American Crafts Thickers Lullaby-Sunflower
Pink Paislee On Schedule clear stamps
My Little Shoebox tiny alphas-mint
Making Memories orange staples
Embroidery floss-light blue
yellow trim found in craft store in Amsterdam
Please check out the rest of the Design team work and don't forget to comment on the ES blog with your favorite designs!

Denise

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Shopping Weekend

Well, It has certainly been a shopping weekend for me. I have been working such long hours that I haven't really had much time to spend any of my earnings. Until this weekend that is! Friday night I spent a good deal of time taking advantage of Heather's awesome deals (35 % off) over at Everything Scrapp'n. I'm most excited about the doodlebug alphas that came in recently.
I also replaced my alarm clock that died a few weeks ago. I purchased an iHome iP9 in silver and just love how cute it is. Don't mind that I set it all wrong this morning and it didn't go off. I've gotten accustomed to living without my regular alarm clock so I've been setting 2-3 each day in hopes that something will wake me up. The learning curve for these things in the beginning can be so irritating. But I've fallen in love with the alarm clock program that I downloaded from Apple's website recently. My favorite feature is the easy wake and easy sleep.
Victoria's Secret semi annual sale is going on right now and I bought several tees and tanks because my summer clothes have mysteriously dwindled. Its such a great feeling to finally have my transmission credit card bill finally paid off. I hate being in debt.

If found more time to go shopping, I'd probably hit up H&M in the Westfield Shopping Center in downtown San Francisco. I'll save that for another time. I'm also still debating on whether I want the Nikon D300 or the Nikon D700. Working with camera gear constantly has made me fall in love with the more expensive, better quality, and heavier equipment. We shall see. There is still plenty of time before I can afford either of those.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Garden

I've been excited to see how well everyone's gardens are doing. All the photos on their blogs inspired me to share an update of how my mom's garden has grown recently. Last November I posted photos of her new potting area but they didn't really show how much detail.
If you look closely you can find a ton of owls. Our family friend & contractor, Jeff, crafted this beauty out of a lot of recycled materials that both my mom and him found. The wood paneling is made from our previous fence and the wire work is from screens that were purchased at a flea market. The counter tiling was purchased from a garage sale and the list goes on.
I spent a good deal of time in the garden on Sunday evening, photographing all the color and garden art. Some of my most favorite photos are from low angles. Some of these plants are taller than me and I'm 5'9"!
Here is the path to our front door. Our garden has a ton of color right now. I can't wait for the sunflowers to bloom. They are my most favorite flower.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Around the house and then some

I have a page to share. My cousin Dominique's boyfriend, Kenny, was so excited to have our family meet his new puppy Nika. She was so full of energy and just adorable. Our family fell in love fast. This lo showcases product from the online store Everything Scrapp'n.
Products used:
Pink Paislee
American Crafts
Making Memories
Stickles
MLS
Love Elsie
Heidi Swapp

The following photos are a very eclectic grouping that represents my life right now. My mom's obsession with owls has not faded in the least. I've been meaning to share our kitchen decor and here it is in morning light:
And our beautiful backyard about 1 1/2 weeks ago:
I had another photo gig with a real estate agent's new listing. Here is one of the photos that made it to the promotional brochures. I'm published! ;)
Last Saturday I met Abe in San Francisco and we had a photo shoot with lots of gear in Golden Gate Park. We spent most of our time between the buildings of the Academy of Sciences and The De Young Museum. It was a beautiful day. I taught him some basic photography and he took this great photo of me preparing to photograph him.
Then I shot this photo of him. This happens to be one of my favorite moments that I captured. I shot the majority with film for my photo class. I have finals next week, so I needed some material. He was a great model. I'm always looking for models since I love doing portraits.
This past week was a complete blur. I was really disappointed that Danny Gokey was voted off of American Idol, but I am thrilled that Kris Allen pulled through with his awesome rendition of Heartless. I love it, even more than Kanye West's version of the song.

The weather has been very hot and summery lately. It was really quite hot, especially on Saturday. I had the genius idea to visit Kristi in Fremont after I got off work. Fremont during a heat spell = OMG! I think it was topping out in triple digits in the afternoon.

I had the pleasure of taking out a Nikon D3 this weekend since I worked Saturday in the office. Oh its a beauty. A little too heavy for my taste, but oh how much fun it was. I also took out my fast favorite Nikon 14-24 AFS, along with the Nikon 24-70 AFS and Nikon 16mm fishy (both new to me).

Kristi and I were testing out the gear in her apartment and she took this silly photo of me. I love all of the art she has framed in her apartment.
I captured this moment of Dan with Kristi's cat Kodi. He's goatee is making a second appearance. I do love the quality of these images!
It was so hot that we found refuge in an air conditioned restaurant. I love salads when its hot outside. And frozen drinks really make it bearable too! When we returned, I got a picture of Kodi wearing his tie.
Thankfully, the weather is cooling off a bit!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

10 things right now

I'm still finding it difficult to balance out my life right now. And I think its okay, as long as I acknowledge it and try. I really admire Leo over at Zen Habits and really look forward to his inspiring posts. I feel like making a list today, so here goes. I'll be back with photos when I'm home. Oh, and school is out in two weeks, so my schedule will normalize a bit after then!

10 things right now

1. Summer clothes: definitely time to go shopping!
2. Air Conditioning
3. Bright colors
4. Frozen drinks
5. Salads
6. Mini albums: this and this have really inspired me today.
7. New prints
8. Pro camera gear
9. relaxing
10. Hambly wall decals!!!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Photo recap

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Hope you have a great weekend celebrating your accomplishments.

I have a winner for the NSD gift certificate. The prize goes to redmom a.k.a. Lisa! Congrats!
Kristi & I are holding a DT call for the challenge blog Say It In Scrap. Head over to get all the details. The main stuff is that we are looking for 6 talented girls to scrap a page once a month (alternate) and help us brainstorm some new challenges. Submit your take on one of our previous challenges to the blog. Hope to see you trying out! The deadline is May 15th.

A few Friday's ago I met Courtenay, Kristi, Sandy, Marie, and Crystal at Picture Me Perfect. I love how welcoming Suzy is with all of her customers. We had an AMAZING time. We celebrated Sandy's birthday by grabbing some gelato a few doors down. I was super excited because I made bank on the most recent garage sale. I bought a ton of Hambly and then decided that I needed to fan all of my new Hambly out. I didn't buy all of this in one night. ;) Photo courtesy of Kristi.
Suzy took some goofy photos of us. I took out a D200 with an SB 800, along with a Nikon 14-24mm lens, and Nikon 10.5 fish that weekend.
I did this page for a Round Robin challenge last weekend (NSD) for Scrap Gal. I don't have a title for it and I think that its okay without one. If you are inspired with a title, let me know and I might change my mind.
I had a ton of fun lifting Chez and playing with some new Hambly. I discovered how difficult it is to photograph overlays when they are the main part of your page. I photographed this using my photo cube that I got for Christmas from Calumet. Saturday evening we drove to Sausalito for Joss's 60th birthday party. It was held at the Presidio Yacht club and it had a great view of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sunday night we relaxed and watched movies while eating pizza. I played with a fish eye lens of course.
Lately, work has been overwhelmingly busy. Lisa captured this moment of me being completely buried by boxes. Its great for the company and that makes me thrilled. We've been having record numbers lately. I can't wait until we move into our bigger building at the end of the month.
Wednesday was a chaotic day for me. After work I met one of the new owners of Borrow Lenses at O'Neill's in San Mateo. Then I drove to meet Dan's father's family at the Cheesecake Factory across the bay. Franchesco turned 15 so we had quite the celebration. After dinner, we went home and watched American Idol. It was so hard to believe that Adam was in the bottom two. WTF? We had cake at 11pm at night before passing out.
The next morning I drove to visit my grandma, and catch up with her. It was fun, but too brief. I headed into work and met a new co-worker and got trained in some greater aspects of the company. We got in a lot more new equipment and one of the lenses was a Nikon 600mm! Look how huge that is! We had way too much fun, goofing around and taking pictures with the new lens. Now its making its way through Alaska!
Kristi came to our house on Friday night. I was so glad that she came to us because of how long my week had been. I took out a D300 and the Nikon 14-24 lens again, along with a battery grip (MB-D10) for the weekend. I can't remember why they were pointing at each other but we had a fun, silly night. We were supposed to scrap but we didn't make a damn thing.
It was raining on Saturday morning when Dan & I met Lisa and her cousin Sara at Ocean Beach. We went in search of beach glass. We found two bigger pieces, and some beautiful sand dollars on the beach. I took a small sand dollar and left the rest for others to admire.
It wasn't a bust, because I had so much fun taking photos.
This one made me wish they were in a band so we could put this photo in a CD booklet or something.
Windblown Lisa & I:
Due to my hectic schedule, I had to step down from my design team position with Scrap Mojo. I'll be back with lots more photos soon. Thanks to those of you who still stop by.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Happy NSD & a giveaway!

So many fun things are going on this weekend in celebration of National Scrapbook Day! I'm super excited about the incredible sale that Everything Scrapp'n is having. 50% off all Hambly and 20% off the rest of the store. Hambly? I'm there! If you spend over $25, you will get a surprise gift in your order. There's also a chance to receive a tote with other surprise for each increment of $10 spent after that. Be sure to place your order by Monday for these great sales.
In honor of NSD, I have another prize to offer up. How cool is Heather? Yep, its a $10 gift certificate to her store at Everything Scrapp'n. Wanna win? All you have to do is post in the comments section of this post and I will do my best to choose a winner on Monday. Tell me what you are doing to celebrate NSD this weekend or your plans for this weekend in general.

I'm working on a lift for a red robin challenge now. After, I'm hoping to meet a friend to search for beach glass in the rain. Yes, we're hard core. ;) Possible movie later tonight, with some hanging out with more friends. I'll be working on Sunday, but I'll probably bring my scrap stuff to play with anyway. Hope your weekend is productive!

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