a wink and a smile | -m's- weblog

2009

goodness gracious...where did time go!?!!  I need to at least post something here as my side calendar, at the moment, is stuck in August 2008!!  LOL!!

...more soon, hopefully.

Happy New Year!!  :) 

it's august?

...seriously.  I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...no, not quite, but summer has been pretty crazy, busy and fun.  I guess one good thing about summer almost coming to an end is that I get to have some time for myself in the mornings again (read:  more uninterrupted computer time) LOL!!  But, conversely, I'm going to be missing the wacky kids in the mornings.  We are all pretty excited for school, however, so that's a good thing.  And, as far as scrapbooking mojo?  what's that?!?  'nuff said.  It's almost painful to put together a layout using templates...seriously, it's that bad.  :( 

I was able to scrapbook, however...

**note that the photos used in the above layouts are stock photos of the event.  Full-size photos were available on the Rheinland-Pfalz Tag website.  So, special huge thanks to the event website, since I didn't take my camera with me that day, and yet, I have photos to accompany the experience.** 

On this second layout, I used one of Anna Aspnes' awesome templates.  She really does have the best double-page multi-photo templates.  I took so many photos (no exaggeration here) during our trip to the Netherlands in 2007.  Here are the first two pages.  A LOT more pages to go before I'm done with this trip. 

I have so many un-scrapped photos from our trips.  It doesn't help that I'm also so snap happy, and always think, "take photos now, delete later."  The {beauty} of digital photography, right?  With the busy summer, I've just added hundreds upon hundreds to those un-scrapped photos.  Yikes, I know!  The good thing is, just before aunt-il's visit several weeks ago, and also before our NYC trip, I managed to scrap all the photos from our trip to Metz, France back in 2005.  That goes to show, I guess, how slow I have been, but at the same time, that trip to just that one city was scrapped in nine pages with over 100+ photos!!  Finishing it *is* an accomplishment in my book.  Despite thinking "what I was thinking taking so many photos," and then being ambitious enough to scrap each and every photo...I look at my finished pages, and I could not be any happier that I took that many photos.  Pure happy memories.  I love it.  :) 

Again, I used Anna's multi-photo (in review) templates on all nine pages... 

...so yeah.  It all comes down to that.  Makes me so happy.  Keep snapping.  Keep scrapping.  :)  

**credits:  all scrapbooking papers, elements, templates are from Designer Digitals**

RAK'd...

Birgit at Catscraps rak'd me with her new awesome kit Summer Breezes!  Like all her design, this one is great—she is one of my favorite designers, so I was totally tickled to get a surprise from her :)  I wanted to do a beach-ish layout, but alas, I've got no beach photos :(  ::so sad::    Anyway, here a layout I did using the kit.  I actually put this together earlier last week, but haven't had the chance to share it.  Summer has been crazy awesome so far :)

*credits* Summer Breezes kit - Birgit; bracket frame - Kasia Designs (dressed with Summer Breezes paper); stitch holes & messy alpha - Katie Pertiet; title "the little things" - Ali Edwards; font al uncle charles.

Anyway.  It's not going to be the only layout using Birgit's kit.  It's such a great kit—great colors and elements.  Thanks again, Birgit!! 

-m

rockin' movies + new digis

We just saw Kung Fu Panda tonight!!  The odd part?  We bought tickets for the 8 o'clock show, and we were given 7:04 showtime tickets.  We didn't realize this error until we walked in the numbered cinema stated on the tickets (thinking we were early) and the movie was already in progress!  LOL!  It was quickly resolved, and we were led to the correct area for the 8 o'clock show.  Who knew that you can buy tickets for a show that has already started!  I never knew that!  Well, I guess we have never tried to buy tickets for a show that has started 30 minutes ago!  LOL!!  Anyway, Kung Fu Panda is so awesome!!  It's funny and so adorable :)  I am not really a huge movie person, so we don't go to the movies a whole lot, but this one was not to be missed!  Funny, however, the last movie we saw wasn't that long ago—actually on Mother's Day.  Anyway, I digress yet again.  So, we thoroughly enjoyed the show—beginning to end.  After the movie was over, my children asked if we could buy the movie when it comes out, LOL!   And, I have every intention to :)  Two thumbs up for this totally adorable and hilarious movie!  Big "YAY!" for pandas!!!  I *heart* pandas :)  Always have; always will.

So, what's up in the digi-world (the digi-shop I ct on, anyway...)  Gina (DDE) has a new kit out called Parker.  So awesome and great colors!  Here's a layout I did using the kit:

I know that the title {un-cool} is kind of odd, but it was a joke on ds...and the "un-cool" is referring to the joke, LOL!  Poor kid!!  LOL!  Anyway.  Everything used on that layout is from Gina's Parker kit.

That said.  I'm excited for this weekend.  Not only is Ali Edwards debuting her designs at Designer Digitals, there are also many new awesome goodies coming Sunday (every Sunday, actually).  But this week, seriously, I'm not sure where to start!  LOL!  There are so many goodies I want to use...like...right now!  LOL!  The good thing is, it's official Summer—in regards to the school year, anyway.  Although I expect it to be busy—like going-places busy—I'm hoping that not having to wake up too early gives me more flexible night-scrapping time.  And, speaking of night-scrapping time...it's late!  No scrapping time for me tonight, but I'll be sure to have some this weekend.

Happy weekend!!

~heat wave~

The title says it all.  It's so hot, so humid, so icky out there.  I actually planned not to go out of the house this weekend.  I could literally walk out the door and start sweating right away—argh...not cool!  Anyway, since we've been on house arrest, LOL!, I've managed to catch-up on making some layouts!!  Unfortunately, there was a storm that came through a couple of days ago, and those things do a number on our internet/phone service—which is starting to reallly bug me!  LOL!  Having intermittent internet is no fun; it's quite irritating, actually—especially when it's the xxth time in the last year!!  It's awful!   

Alright...quit with the complaining, I know.  I can't even blame the heat for my complains since I've been inside our cool home the entire day!  ha..ha!!  Well, funny enough, someone rang our doorbell a couple hours ago, and I had to open the door and let the heat in—it's that hot out—anyway, the gentleman reluctantly says something like, '...is your mom home?'  LOL!  Yep, I get it all the time.  At which point I answer, "I *am* the mom."  LOL!  The funny thing is, people are always so apologetic afterwards.  I say 'funny' because, dude, when someone is creeping into their mid-30s, being mistaken for a young(er) adult is awesome!!  HA!  LOL!!   And, seriously, when most everyone thinks that my dd is my sister—I love it!  LOL!  The funniest thing is when dh is mistaken for my dad!  It doesn't happen too often, but it has happened a number of times—more times that he cares to remember, anyway.  LOL!

Anyhow...back to digiscrapping.  Got several pages done, and although I'm a bit behind my initial goal of 'at least a page every other day'...I'm still doing quite well.  It's just so awesome to have scrapping time, especially when there are so many fabulous goodies out tomorrow at DD, and on the 15th is the debut of a new designer at DD...Ali Edwards!!  She will be exclusive to DD, and she has several templates and word art ready for release.  A peek of her debut release is on this post on her blog.

Here's my three latest layouts...all using all DD products:

**so, I'm totally in love with twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower.  Just thinking about it makes me so happy! :)

• credits: {Kellie Mize} - Tortuga Template 17; {Anna Aspnes} - Mama page set stitchings; {Katie Pertiet} - Glen Moore kit, LetterBox Clusters 3, and the Supersized alpha; {Font} - tw cent

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**I love how this photo came out.  The best part was, they were so mesmerized by the sting rays that they were very still, and I was able to capture the shot (in a really dark place!) and it came out pretty decent.

• credits:  {Katie Pertiet} -  Watery Overlays, Messed Up Overlays, Flagged Emotions, Stitching Holes Borders, Vintage Photo Frame-Large, and Dated Journaling; {Pattie Knox} - Staple Its; {Fonts} - courier new, arial narrow

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• credits: {Ali Edwards} - Layered Template no 5; {Rob n Bob} - Clementine paper pack; {Kellie Mize} - Floral Overlay; {Jesse Edwards} - Fabric Overlays; {Pattie Knox} - Absolutely Acrylic; {Font} - CK Ali's Handwriting

::crossing fingers that my internet doesn't quit while I'm posting::  LOL!

recluse

I know it's a bit sad to look forward to a day of just laundry and cleaning.  Yeah, I get that; however, to me, today, it's quite the contrary.  Today is quiet, and 'just' laundry and cleaning day.  In fact, I woke up this morning with a huge smile on my face.  It's been such a crazy week—semi-crazy weeks have preceeded this one and the crazy ones to follow—all leading up to Summer!  So, I'm just going to fully enjoy today...laundry and all.

I wrote up a huge entry sometime ago...I can't even remember when—I think it was earlier this week...Monday, perhaps?  Anyway.  Typepad froze on me, and I lost the entire thing.  :(  It's terrible!!  It was so much blabber, anyway, I guess.  From AI (yay, David Cook!), Grey's (satisfying season finale!), DWTS (pretty cool!), my new bind-it-all (LOVE this thing...I can't believe I waited so long!)...and a whole list of whatevers that I can't even recall.  On top of that...

Several (Digital Design Essentials) things I wanted to share here:

...check out the goodies, including my freebie doodles :) 

...also, MA Googly Bear, and MA Smiles have been added to the font download section at DDE! 

...and, one more.  Which also means more new and extremely adorable art stamps coming :) woohoo!!

 

oh...one more thing, LOL!  I knew I was forgetting something really important...argh!  It's still in the process of being put together, but I want to add it here to my blog:

Alrighty.  Hope you're having a fantastic day!!

crazy week!!

First off.  Is it just me, or has typepad been re-organizing/re-designing stuff?

I can't believe it's friday!  This week just flew!  I can't believe summer is just around the corner.  The kids are so excited about it, so I'm gearing up for it, too.  I wanted to look for a place that provides swim lessons, but I haven't had the chance to look around.  I was always swimming, as a kid, but I've never really been a "good" swimmer.  Funny, however, I grew up and became not so crazy about water and swimming.  I find that so odd since I enjoyed it so much as a kid!  Weird!!  But, it's because it my lack of confidence in my swimming skills that I want the kiddies to be good swimmers.  The hubby is a great swimmer, but there is only one of him, LOL!

Anyway.  So fun stuff on the digi-scrapping front...

How cool is this challenge??

...and as you can see, Gina's got a new fun kit!  I love the name :)  Despite the hustle and bustle this week, I was able to squeeze playing with Penelope.  Here's my layout about Dorothey, the ladybug...

I actually recolored one of the papers (the dk blue, as seen above). 

Alright.  I have to cut this way shorter than I intended.  Phones rang...had to go...just back, but gotta go again.  So, before I forget—something I always do—I'll go ahead and post.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!!!

-m

wonderful world of scrapbooking

I'm attempting to get my scrapbooking back into gear—actually, into the right gear (you know, the one that actually gets going) LOL!   I've decided to just go for it and really work on catching up.  Since I've been out of it for a bit, I have lots to get caught up from.  I have literally every occasion...event...moment...whatever, there are.  Seriously.  It's no joke.  The only consolation is I never have a problem matching a new kit/design with at least one photo that's unscrapped.  So, in a way, it's a good thing, right??!  If you scrapbook, you know there are plenty of times when something really adorable comes out, and you just have to have it but "I don't have a picture that would go with it!"  Soooooo not a problem in my case, LOL!!   And I'm not even one who takes photos everyday moments—not very often, anyway.

I'm challenging myself to do at least a layout every other day.  That seems pretty feasible.  I think!?!...  Oh, and I'm starting way back.  As a paper scrapbooker, I've always scrapbook chronologically.  I'm pretty finicky like that.  Yes, I admit, I am mildly anal-retentive; athough, dh might argue that "mildly" isn't the case.  LOL!  Anyhow.  I digress, as I do often.

'nuff about that.  I managed to put together two layouts in the last couple of days!!  Woot!  I'm off to a great start :D   These photos were taken with my very first digital camera (before the xt and 40d days), so I'm really loving using blending on these, just because the photos are small and noisy.  Blending saves every "bad" photo, LOL!!   Which is probably why I LOVE blending, LOL!!!

**All elements used on both layouts are from the DD shop **

...crossing fingers...wish me luck.  I'm hoping that the motivation stays for good!

Happy scrapping!!  Have a great weekend!!  I LOVE FRIDAYS!! :D  -m

crossword alpha

...isn't that the most adorable thing!!  I totally love it :)  I'm actually planning to get the kiddies to do something remotely close to anything that would let me be able to use that alpha, LOL!  Also, DDE's April idea notebook is out!  Another cool notebook from Gina.  I actually were able to scrap with the April idea notebook already; here's my layout with it...

...don't you just love the colors??  So pretty and fun!

Alright.  Survivor is back on, gotta run!! LOL!

years in the making!!

I've moved my MA Fonts blog to typepad -- check it out here -- MA Fonts

I've been wanting, since the beginning, to try and make my downloads available on my own site.  Of course, it isn't that easy to do so, especially for someone like me who doesn't know much about these things.  In the past, I tried several times to see if I am able to do it without having to spend too much.  I actually started building on e-snips, googlepages, geocities...etc, but none ever when public because I really didn't know (still don't, LOL!) what I was doing!  Fast forward several years, here I try again, but this time, it's published on the web and have my fonts available for download on my own—I think.  This is all a trial, as, again, I'm no expert and am just crossing my fingers that this will actually work :)   My MA Fonts blog on blogspot will remain, but will probably not be updated unless my typepad one doesn't work out.

In addition to my "new" blog.  I have finally decided to make my two fonts, MA Smiles, and MA Googly Bear, available once again.  They were available as a gift for a short-period for Art For Asher back in 2006.  My personal MA Font folder consists of several unfinished fonts.  My plan is to, hopefully, finish some up and add maybe a new font or two in the next couple of months or so {no promises as I've been a bit having a hard time keeping up with everything}. 

So, anyway, for now, I'm pretty proud of myself, LOL!  My ma fonts blog is nothing much, just a simple blog for simple fonts.  If you decide to visit, I hope you enjoy looking around.  Also, if you decide to download some of my fonts, I hope you enjoy using them :) 

Thanks!!  Have an awesome Sunday!!

-m