Smell of fresh cut grass

Today is seriously a beautiful day! I woke up with the sun streaming through the windows. It's warmer than normal for this part of the year here. I had my sunroof open on my way to work. I felt the sun on my face and smelled the freshly cut grass on the side of the road! What a way to start the day! Thank you God for this beautiful day. That you for the renewal of life that spring brings.

A bit down

I'm feeling a little bit down right now, yet I don't know why. 95% of the time I'm very upbeat, enthusiastic, and joyful. And I do thank the Lord for that. I'm not naturally that way, but the Lord and Todd have helped me over the years to become this way. :) I know it's normal every once in a while to feel a little bit down. Because of this, I didn't scrap a page today. And that's okay too. Today was gorgeous weather-wise though! Sunny, clear blue skies, and temperature in the mid 70's. It didn't even get cold when I was going home at 6:45 after aerobics at the gym! Usually in San Diego winter the temperature drops drastically as soon as the sun goes down. I think I'm going to go upstairs and get ready for bed, read my Bible, and just relax.

Photo featured at Pink Ink Studios

My friend and photographer Melissa Koehler's photo of me and Todd is the Photo of the Day at Pink Ink Studios! Congrats to her! We will be voting for photo of the week on Friday and Saturday, so I'll come back and post the link so you can vote and help Melissa win!

Rain Again

It's been raining almost this whole weekend. Yesterday morning we went running at the beach, during the only non-raining hours! It actually was pretty nice when we went. We ran our usual route for half an hour, then we went to Bongiorno's in Solana Beach for a pizza lunch. I LOVE Bongiornos! We love it so much that we've been going there once a week for like 4 weeks now. It's NY style pizza and the crust is all thin and crispy, and the mozzerella cheese is totally fresh. The toppings are great too. I wish I could eat one now! :) Then last night Todd and I went to eat dinner in Hillcrest, because he wanted to go to Bread & Cie to pick up his birthday brownies that his sister Amy "sent" him. We got there around 6:15 pm, and they were closed already! They must have changed their hours because before they used to be open until 7 pm! Todd was crushed that he couldn't get his birthday brownies. Then we went to eat dinner at Mama's Lebanese Deli on Alabama Street in North Park. But guess what? They were closed TOO! On a Saturday night?! We were sad, but we ended up eating at a philly cheesesteak place down the street. It was pretty good, and the owner seemed to have a lot of regulars. I got our photos from Melissa Koehler, and they're really gorgeous! They were really good to begin with, but after she processed them, they took on a life of their own. I really enjoy looking at them. I've already scrapped a few pages with them because I was so excited to get them. And we were chatting via email a couple of days ago, and I found out she's a Christian too! I was so excited and happy. Also, I got 46 of my 12x12 digital scrapbooking layouts printed at ScrapbookPictures.com! They're having a sale through the end of February and the prices are really good at $2.49 each, and shipping is just $2 no matter how much you order! I can't wait to get them and put them into my 12x12 albums! Here are a couple of pages Idid this weekend using Melissa Koehler's photos of us.

Full credits can be seen here.

Full credits can be seen here.

Are you ready for some rock n roll?

As you know I have been selected to be on a few creative teams for digital scrapbooking designers. One of them is Mirranda Reinhardt at Scrapbook Graphics. She came out with Messy Papers today and I thought they would be perfect for some kind of rock 'n roll layout. Good thing I have lots of photos of that, from when Todd was in rock bands! So I whipped this one up. It's kind of a messy style and it's not my usual style, but I think it works with the papers. Now it's bed time and I'm tired!

Credits can be seen here.

Short post

to say that I'll be getting some awesome photos from Melissa Koehler soon! Looky here!

Bittersweet Valentine

Today is Valentine's Day. I didn't really know how to spend today. For those of you close to me, you know that my mom passed away last year on Valentine's Day. It's hard to believe it's been a year, because in many ways it still feels fresh. I love her and miss her a lot. Of course I still think of her every day, not just today. Tomorrow Todd, Dad, and I are going to Rose Hills to visit her and bring her some flowers. Saying "visiting" her is kinda weird, since as a Christian I believe that she's gone to heaven, so it's just her earthly shell at the memorial park. Of course it's still very special to go visit her earthly resting place and commenmorate our love for her, and how much she meant and still means to us. I'm really blessed to have such a great family and a super-awesome supportive husband. I know I'm blessed and it brings joy to my heart every day, not just Valentine's Day. :) On a separate note, Lisa Habisreutinger announced her creative team (of which I am honored to be a part of) on her blog today. You can see it here. :)

Tired but happy

I've been working the 2008 budget at work still. Somehow the numbers are still moving around even though we're already in February! I can't wait until the whole 2008 set-up process is done. Then we just have to get our monthly processes together. On top of work, I've been a busy bee working on scrapbooking layouts for a few designers' creative teams. Today I'm tired but I'm productive and happy. :) This first one is a LO I did for Lisa Habisreutinger, who is a designer at Plain Digital Wrapper and Divine Digital. You can see the credits here.

Second LO today is for Sherrie Piegdon / Pixel Gypsy Designs. It's a page about Sally's wedding back in July 2006. Credits can be seen here.

Both of these designers are awesome and I love creating for them!

I can see clearly now

the rain is gone! This weekend was the most gorgeous weather yet this year. Yesterday the sky was so blue and clear that I could see the ocean from the end of my street! And I wore shorts and flip-flops for the first time this year. Today it was even warmer, in the mid-70's I think. This is when I'm glad to pay the big bucks to live here. Hee hee. Something really exciting happened to me today. I had been competing in a digital scrapbooking competition called "Who Wants to Be a Gypsy Girl?" at Pixel Gypsy Designs. Over 7 days we had to create 7 layouts for 7 different challenges. They were all vastly different and they really stretched me to use different techniques and try out styles that I'm not used to. Guess what? I WON! I get to be a Guest Gypsy Girl for the next two months, creating for Sherrie Piegdon / Pixel Gypsy Designs! Here's the blinkie that I got: Pretty cool eh? Here are my layouts for the 7 day challenge. Day 1: Scrap something that impacted you in 2007 Credits can be seen here. Day 2: Scrap a layout with white space and using 7 elements or less. Credits can be seen here. Day 3: Scrap a favorite photo that you've scrapped before, but doing something totally different to the photo. Credits can be seen here. Day 4: Scrap-lift Whit's "Bagged" layout. Credits can be seen here. Day 5: Scrap a picture of someone you don't know. (Scrap without baggage. LOL!) Credits can be seen here. Day 6: Scrap your daily journey. (But not just what you did, but how you felt, and the significance of it.) Credits can be see here. Day 7: Scrap something funny or messy. Credits can be seen here. Whew, I got tired just putting these on my blog! But it was such a valuable experience to be a part of this challenge at Pixel Gypsy Designs. I really enjoyed it!

Super Todd Tuesday

It's Super Tuesday today. Did you vote yet? I voted a while ago because I vote by absentee ballot. Interested to see the outcomes... It's also "Super Todd" today. It's his birthday! Todd's parents are in town and we're going to take him out to dinner tonight. His mom made a cake too! I'll have pics to show soon. :) This is the second time that it's "Super Todd". Two years ago his birthday fell on Super Bowl Sunday and we had a "Super Todd" party to celebrate his birthday and watch the game. I guess he's just super all the way around! One funny thing... Todd's parents played the sports games on Wii and they love it! Especially his dad. :) In other news... I've applied for a few Creative Team (CT) positions for digital scrapbooking designers, and I've been accepted by a couple of them! I'm so excited. It's the first time I've actually "competed" with my scrapbooking, and it's nice that others feel that my designs are worthy. So what's the job of a CT? You use the designer's items in scrapbooking layouts and upload them to various galleries so that other scrappers can see the items in use. It's me basically promoting the designers. In return, I'll get the items free of charge. I think that my creativity has been increased up a notch after doing the daily layouts for the challenge at Big Picture Scrapbooking for 31 days. I really needed to come up with a few different ideas when I was making a page a day! I'm still making a page a day and it's been fun. I've even pulled out older photos to scan and use in my designs.