Blog Award

Thanks Kristi!

Here are the rules: 1)Post 10 honest things about yourself and post the award on your blog. 2) Give this award to some people who follow your blog.

10 Honest things about me

1. I hate my toenails. Yep, I admit it. I don't paint them on a regular basis and I've never had a mani or a pedi. Oh the horror!
2. I love wrap around jewelry: bracelets and rings. Silver and platinum are my fave. Gold just looks funny on me.
3. I love the color triad Purple, Orange, and Green. I'm going on 6 years of loving this color combo.
4. I can't get enough beach glass. I get the biggest high from finding it, especially if its cobalt or aqua. And even better if friends or family are searching with me.
5. I talk way too much. And I know it. I think of it as a character trait.
6. I love to listen to audio books while I drive. Music is great too, but there's nothing like a good book. I try to read them before I listen to them.
7. I tan really well when I spend time in the sun. I haven't spent much time in the sun since my backing trip through Europe last Fall. I'm super bright white. :D
   
8. I am not a light packer. Even though I went to work today and plan to go to a birthday party after, I managed to pack three canvas bags of things I needed for today.
9. I enjoy writing lists. And crossing things off of lists. And reading lists. I even love combing lists together too.
10. I'm always drastically behind in editing my photos. I still need to go through my people photos from Europe. I got tired of editing and now I think its time to get back to it!

I tag anyone who reads this and wants to play along!

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.

Winner, Pages, and Easter photos

Well I can't believe how quickly time is passing these days. It's hard to believe that it's practically May already. I have a ton to share! First, I want to announce the winner for the MME card kit. I used a random number generator and the winner is #2, MandieGirl! Congrats. Please contact me with your mailing address. Thanks to everyone who participated.

I fell in love with Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel line the moment I saw it at Everything Scrapp'n. I have been meaning to scrapbook my photos from my Kauai trip in 2003 since I began scrapbooking in 2006. This paper was just perfect for my photos. If you have any summer photos you've been waiting to scrap, this paper is for you! And I love how distressed it is. To see my full post, check the ES blog.

Onto the rest... I just found the time to look through these past two weeks of photos and pick a few favorites for a quick update. Easter weekend was my first weekend to borrow equipment from my job and I was very excited that a Nikon D700 was available for me to test. Look for separate posts on how I like the cameras I try in the future.

I was so excited that I drove straight to Sutro Baths to shoot before the sun went down. I was using a Nikon 70-200 VR f/2.8 lens for this shot and what a wonderful lens that is! I was so lucky that it was such a beautiful evening too. Later that night, Kelly came over to visit and we goofed off looking at photos from her birthday and catching up. It had been a while since we had seen each other. Of course, we were lucky to hang out for a bit the following day at Lynne's Easter party (Saturday). The food is always so delicious. Here is a photos of us taken by Dan.
After a short visit, Dan & I went to our second party for the day. We headed to San Francisco for a lovely dinner at a family friends house in San Francisco. I found a favorite new salad of mine. I can't remember what its called, but it is spinach, apple, and candied walnut. YUM! I was very happy to have Pellegrino too.
We held the Easter party at our house on Sunday. Zena made really fun and colorful jello jigglers and jello jelly beans. I love these!
I took a TON of photos and thought I'd just share food because that's what I really want to talk about. Valerie brought her niece's pastry chef friend who helped her bake INCREDIBLE bread. It was gone before you could say oh yum! The table was so bright and filled with food. I love documenting little things like that. The holiday was wonderful and relaxing. We were surrounded with many loved ones.
The rest of that week was a bit of a blur. We shipped out a record number of boxes at work. I scrapped when I had time (I've already shared). Dan & I went for a walk on the beach in search of beach glass. I got my car back from the transmission shop! I'm really happy to have it back. I had my first shoot for a house being listed on the market shortly. It was such an incredible house and a great experience.

Friday night I borrowed a Canon 50D and then drove to this great ladies' house:
Managed to take the whole night making these ATC's for the Scrap Gal monogram swap.
I pretended to scrap and we lazed around a bit. Kristi took this really fun photo of Dan & I taking a break.
Saturday night we went out to buy My Spanish Coach for my Nintendo DS and ended up having dinner here. I devoured their Apple Harvest Chicken salad. Here is a photo of my mom's ever growing backyard garden:On Sunday, Jenny & Ken stopped by to hang out and chat while I created a quick layout. It was so much fun, I laughed until I fell on the floor. We call Ken "Moses" and he tells such great stories.

Monday night was so pleasant due to the heat wave that my mom and I decided to go for a walk on the beach, and we ran into Jenny & Ken. We had fun trying to search for beach glass in the fading light. Dan met us there and we had a very summery night. Photo by my mom. ;)
I have more to share from last weekend, but that will have to be for another post. Happy Hump Day!

*Scrap Mojo 32* The Big Whopper

Well I'm a little tardy in posting this blog. Each night I set out to post and then I get distracted. So on with some fun pages!

The newest Scrap Mojo challenge is posted. I used my sister's imaginary friend for this page. We challenge you to scrap your imaginary friend from your childhood. If you don;t have one, you can make one up now. Use an animal crackers box for inspiration. Due April 15th. For more inspiration, check outwww.scrapmojo.blogspot.com. I used the Sept-Oct. Dozen's kit for my lo.

We hung out at Kristi's apartment on Saturday night. Watched a lot of movies and pretended to scrap a little. I always love hanging out with her!
Andrew surprised the heck out of me as we were leaving. He arrived with a gift for me. Last time we hung out, I made him watch Robert Pattinson in Harry Potter since Twilight wasn't out on DVD yet. So he purchased a magazine with him on the cover-just for me! I have a photo of a fantastic prie that is being offered over on the Everything Scrappn blog right now. Its over $90 worth of great My Minds Eye product. You can enter to win by participating in the challenges on the blog, through out the month of April.
I have a challenge posted on the blog here. The challenge is to use the newly release My Minds Eye products and layer that all up onto a page. You have until April 30th to enter. I scrapped a polaroid taken of Ali Edwards & I from Winter CHA 2008.

Lots o fun

Been going to a lot of parties these past few days. My dad and Jenna have their birthdays spread exactly one week apart. Friday night started out with me taking BART and meeting Dan out near his work, then driving to Fremont to hand out with our lovely friend Kristi & pals. We scrapbooked a little and goofed off a lot. Dan took this fun polaroid and we just love it (courtesy of Kristi).
My Dad's family birthday celebration was on Saturday night. Dan & I got placed at the kids table. Its been a while since that has happened. We had way too much fun and laughed ourselves silly. I don't think Dan will be eating green beans for a long while. ;)

I always love seeing my cousins because they love to give input on my scrapbooking and of course, its nice to catch up with the fam. I love this picture from dessert time. I Wish I could remember what they were laughing about.
Sunday night I met a bunch of the PVS family (mostly mine anyways) for a 10 year anniversary party for a few of the employees at PVS. They had a beautiful get together in the swanky pool house. I especially loved that Rocket the girl turtle made an appearance. Of course, the food was delicious.
I spent much of Monday procrastinating on this little piece of paper. I guess the proper word would be experimenting. I've been nervous to break out that glimmer mist and finally make a mess testing it. I found that silver under purple is my favorite look. This is a lil sneak for the upcoming Mojo challenge.
What a day Tuesday was! I was definitely kept busy the whole day. Our cousin Jeff met us and took us out to lunch at BJ's. Jenna & I ordered a berry cider and then Jeff got carded for taking a sip! The dude that ran over acted like a power hungry police officer about to make a big arrest. Silly him-Jeff's 25! We laughed pretty hard at that one.

Jeff had to go to work, so Jenna & I continued on to shop at the mall for a few hours. Due to complete exhaustion, we skipped the bike ride in the rain. It was pretty good that we did since it hailed twice yesterday afternoon. We relaxed some before dinner. I made Jenna a card while completing the audio book of Twilight (our book was out on loan). I was so glad to compare Bella's version of Twilight to Edward's version of Midnight Sun. Good thing he's good looking. :D

Our evening was laid back with chatter and a little bit of Wii bowling before we remembered that American Idol was on. Had some goofy pictures and dessert before passing out from complete exhaustion. Jenna had a great birthday!
Some how my to do list has grown in monster size proportions so I am off to slash it back down. Happy hump day!

Its A Long Story

The new challenge is posted over at Scrap Mojo. We challenge you to scrap the title "For the love of _____" and to include hearts on your lo. Due February 30th. The prize is being offered by the awesome Jenrenee. We have two new DT members and I'm super excited to be working along with Chataqua and Theresa K!

I am a bit crazy for Nutella so I decided that I needed to document my new love that I acquired while traveling through Europe. I know, its a weird take on the challenge, but I don't scrap serious stuff often. I love the goofy stuff! Photos are taken by the very talented Dan Corcoran.
I'm way behind in sharing what I was up to last week, so let's start with a week ago, Friday. My awesome cousin Kelley wanted to help motivate me to work on my December Daily album (I know, I'm still not done with that thing!) so she had me over to play with some paper and photos. She cooked a delicious meal and Jenna & Logan joined us later on in the evening. It was oh so yummy!
I worked Saturday morning and then went to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop with Dan as part of our Valentine's festivities. I didn't have high expectations for it but I do love Kevin James. I was pleasantly surprised and was highly entertained.

Dan cooked me a delicious meal of my favorite burritos ever! Just thinking of them makes me hungry. I love when he cooks for me.
Its been raining here A LOT. Like, we can't possibly have a water shortage this year. It rained 2.5" in between Sunday & Monday. It didn't stop. The weather was so bad I had to postpone dinner with Eric on Sunday night.

With all this yucky weather, I've found time to clean up my photos and get them into Lightroom. I imported 38,500 photos and then managed to delete duplicates, blurry, overall bad photos on Monday. I deleted over 2,500 photos and I'm just beginning. I took a ton of photos in 2007 but didn't have much time to actually look at them, due to school. Its been quite a surprise for me to see them.

Tuesday I woke up with a raging migraine. I was not a happy camper. After sleeping a lot and taking pain killers, I managed to take BART out to Walnut Creek, where Dan met me and we visited my grandma for a short time. Then we drove to Dublin to hang out with his recently married cousins Kevin & Courtenay (Courtenay married into the fam). We ate pizza and watched the Sharks game. Both Courtenay & I were super exhausted so we fell asleep before the game ended. Dan took this lovely photo of Kevin showing off his rare Sharks jacket.
I took it easy the rest of the week due to after shock head aches. I picked up an extra shift at work (yay!), did flash homework for the next two weeks, and had an eye doctors appointment. My eyes haven't changed in the last year, even bigger YAY!

Friday, I drove out to Fremont where I met Courtenay. We went to Lake Elizabeth and I taught her a little about photography. Here is one of her incredible shots of the lake:And a photo I took of a tree with some pretty green foreground:
Then we went to Picture Me Perfect and I introduced Courtenay to my lovely world of scrapbooking. She has tried it once before on her own, so I was just giving her a little encouragement, feedback, and shopping in the store of Michelle's trunk. Yes, I packed a damn lot into my trunk! She almost finished her first page on her Bridal Shower. I didn't get a picture because she had to rush off to meet her movie for a movie.

Kristi joined me to scrap a little later. We shared the table with Nikki Peterson (she was kitting), Brenda, and Patty. I had some amazing Banana Walnut gelato and that made my evening. The impressive part of the night is that we actually scrapped! Kristi worked on her adorable birthday album and I worked on a page that is below.
I decided to join a photo swap over at Scrap Gal. Erin was my partner, so here is my finished lo for her. Its quite rare for me to finish a lo at a crop, I was thrilled! I think I'm going through a phase where I have this need to put a ton of photos on a page.
I'm waiting on a few photos from this weekend, so that will have to be in a later post. Happy Monday!

Happy Easter!

The best way to spend your Friday night is playing Rock band and Guitar Hero at Kristi's! We had so much fun it was amazing. I just happened to catch Kristi cracking up.


I love our goofy friends Bob & Krista!


Kristi on vocals, Bob on Bass, and me on drums!


I heart Fall Out Boy. Dan looked so cool as we were leaving!


I volunteered for the Princess Project on Saturday. I met Krissy and Janice and they were so sweet. I volunteered my photography skills. Hopefully they will be able to use some of my photos to promote the cause.


Zena was incredibly poplar with me today. She brought over Jello beans for easter! Such a pretty sight.

Had a total of 19 people at our house tonight. My Dad took the picture since he blinks if there is a flash in the same room.


And since dessert is my favorite part of any event, I thought I'd share our cute dessert table.


Hope everyone had a great holiday!