Day 273, 2010

This is the first day of our girls weekend.  Robyn arrived from Florida today and after lunch at Hacienda we headed down to Plymouth and camped out with Lori and Jodie at Lori's house.  I wouldn't exactly call it roughing it.. you should see this camper she has... Flat Screen TV, Fireplace, lazyboys.... crazy!  :)  We had a great time.  The photo shows from Left to Right... Lori, Me, Robyn and Jodie.

Day 272, 2010

And here we go... tonight I made the batter and frosting and cut these cute little wrappers with SCAL.  Saving these for my girls weekend.  Everyone shows up tomorrow!  I'm so excited!!  I tried one.. they are HEAVENLY!!!    If you'd like the recipe you can find it at Kevinandamanda.com click  HERE

Day 271, 2010

Saw this amazing recipe for cookie dough cupcakes with cookie dough buttercream frosting.  Step one.. make cookie dough bites and freeze (so they don't cook when you bake the cupcake)... Here's my cookie dough.. going into the freezer... tomorrow I make the cupcakes.

Day 270, 2010

Nothing exciting.  Practicing with manual mode some more.  This is a bit too dark for my liking, but I worked today and have been busy, busy doing the "guest is coming cleaning... Geesh...so I haven't had time to take fun pictures.  I promise humans will be back in my photos soon!!!  :)

Day 269, 2010

Katie and Daisy have taken to kissing sessions.  I don't know exactly if that's what they are doing, but they will lay like this and just kiss each other for 20 minutes or so.  I think it's so funny... but disturbing at the same time!  :~P

Again, Ashlea and Richie were over today for dinner, did I take a photo?  NO!  What's wrong with me?  I don't photograph my kids, but my dogs kiss and I'm out with the camera like a mother with a newborn.  I think I have issues! :(

Oh!!! I just remembered.  Doug and I went to the movie this morning at 10AM.. (first time we've done that).  We saw the new Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps... EXCELLENT!  Loved it.  I did take a picture with my purse camera.. I'll post that later.  Duh, Lorrie!

Day 268, 2010

Doug watched the Notre Dame/Standford Game and I played with  my camera.  I have full manual mode figured out now.. YAY!  It finally clicked this morning.. so I was excited to practice.  I set the camera up on a tripod and used the remote click to test out my settings for this one.  

Other than that, all I did today was clean for my Girls Weekend.. this weekend.  So Excited!!~

Day 267, 2010

Did you see this crazy Harvest Moon tonight??!?! Wow.. It's HUGE!!!  I took about 15 shots and this is the most decent of all!  LOL  I'm still learning!

Day 266, 2010

Ashlea sent me this picture... that's Me on the left, Alex and Ashlea... she's so funny sometimes!  I just love my "bare belly!"  LOL

Day 265, 2010

And today... I worked on this blog background... it needs something more.. but it's a start.  I've also got to change out my post siggy.. but one thing at a time.. right?!?  :)

Day 264, 2010

So, I was so not interested in this thing... at all.. I really mean that.. but now I keep seeing what everyone is posting and all the cuteness being created... I'm caving!!  It's too expensive for right now.. but maybe after the first of the year.. hoping the prices come down.  I rarely use my Cricut.. think this would push me?

Day 263, 2010

I've been messing around with my other blog background.  Here's a screenshot.  I guess I'm in a hurry to get Halloween here!  LOL  It still needs some tweaking... I'm working on it.   I'm going to redo this blog next.. still kicking around ideas in my head.

Day 262, 2010

Today is one of my BFF's Birthdays... Happy Birthday, Jodie!!   We celebrated Friday night.  I got her the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher and a bottle of her favorite wine.. .:)     Jodie is the one who got me into scrapping.   She and I have known each other since we were in third grade.  She used to live down the road from me.. Or I lived down the road from her!  ha ha.   Anyway.. she's a lot of fun and the most incredible involved mom ever.  She's a boyscout leader, a girlscout leader and every other school related leader you could be!  :)  She also is crazy busy with her husband, two kids and four horses and a whole lot of camping.

Day 261, 2010

Doug hung my Bygel Rods in my room.  I just love them.. but for some reason they don't seem to hold as many punches upstairs as they did downstairs!?!?!  : P  ????

Day 160, 2010

I went to Jodie's to crop tonight and don't you know it.. I forgot to take a POTD.  Jodie and Lori were both there and we celebrated Lori's birthday which was on the 15th, and Jodie's birthday which is the 19th.   So... all I have for you..(and me)  is a picture of one of the layouts I did.... I hate it when I forget to take a POTD!

Day 259, 2010

Here's the latest on the road.  We just got the concrete this week.  Still can't get into our driveways yet.. but at least we don't have dirt on our end of the road.  This is the LONGEST project ever!!

Day 258, 2010

I love all things Chef Ramsey and this includes his new series Master Chef.  Have you watched it?  Finale was tonight.  It seemed like a really silly show at first.. but it hooked me right in!  LOL

If you don't watch it... it's everyday people competing in different cooking contests for a shot at MASTER CHEF... $250,000, their own cookbook... not too shabby!

Day 257, 2010

Here's the lesson on Shutter speed.  I used my "famous" frog again... lol   The higher you set your shutter speed you will get more of a "freeze frame" effect of motion... notice the water on the right.   If you slow your shutter speed down, you get a blurred effect of motion (check out the water on the left).

Day 256, 2010

I've been taking the Oh Shoot Photography class with Candice Stringham.  I've been waiting forever to take this class and finally got in.  Anyway.. I've been taking tons of pictures and this week we are focusing on Aperature.  Notice how on the left the cat is in focus, but the background is blurred.. and on the right all is in focus.  The higher the aperature (f#), the more will be in focus, the lower the Aperature the more background blur you will get.  I really want to learn this because I love the effect.

Day 255, 2010

Simple Boo Card

I've been working on Halloween cards when I have the time.  I've got a fun weekend coming up with my girlfriends... (our annual weekend slumber party at my house)... so I know things will be busy up until then and I like to get them mailed out by mid Oct.   Here's just that I made today.

Day 254, 2010

I was sitting on the couch watching the Today show on 9/11/2001. I had just moved to South Bend and wasn't working, yet. I remember watching Katie Couric interrupt her story by saying... we just heard a plane or something has just crashed into the world trade center.. moments later they showed video of it.... I don't think we left the couch for two weeks. It was horrific!! As the events of the day unfolded, I waited and waited for them to send the kids home from school...but they didn't. I thought that was crazy. Today, we watched a lot of 9/11 memorial programs on HSN... remembering all over is hard, but necessary. So many wonderful moms, dads, sisters, brothers, friends, firefighters were so brave and are missed.

Day 253, 2010

Thank goodness for Facebook. Today was the longest afternoon of my life. Spent the afternoon on facebook waiting for the weekend to start.

Day 252, 2010

My dad and my brother, Tom's birthday today. My father died when I was four so I don't remember him that much... and my brother, Tom, was born on his birthday.... Happy Birthday Daddy and Tom.

Day 251, 2010

Today I was walking to drop the Fed Ex off at another building downtown... and I walked by this statue.. and it struck me (though I've walked passed it a thousand times).. what an odd place for a statue of a gorilla.. it's outside the South Bend Chocolate Factory. Sometimes you go by it and there is a water bowl sitting at it's feet..? I never ever give it a second thought... but today it caught my attention.. how curious! LOL

Day 250, 2010

I had another picture picked out for today.. but last night my phone beeped.. and it was this photo from Ashlea. She got home from work and had this waiting for her. Richie cooked Ribs and Rosemary Potatoes for her and set this fantastic table.. how sweet is that!??! I love the wine chilling in the black bucket. It was such a nice thing for him to do. Ashlea had to work till 9pm and she's been so sick with Allergies... he took care of her... LOVE it! :)

day 250, 2010

Ashlea and richie came over for dinner tonight and we Skype'd with Alex again. Here he is, under his bed/loft.... so fun!

Day 249, 2010

I signed up for Skype. How cool is this program?!?!? Alex is on it (he's the one who suggested it).. so last night, he texted me to tell me he was online... so I logged on and voila.. there was my baby boy in his dorm room talking to me like he was sitting right next to me. It's sooo cool. You can take pictures of the person talking (but being my first time I didn't figure that out till Alex had already hung up). So, for those of you who have family and friends who live far away... you should get Skype. It's 100% free, you can see each other and it's real time. It's not real choppy like you might expect. I love it!

Day 248, 2010

Notre Dame vs Purdue. First game of the season... Victory for ND. I'm not a football fan by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I was offered a ticket to this sold out game and opted not to go, but it's always fun when football season starts. This city South Bend is crazy when ND are in town for a home game. The stores are busy, the restaurants are busy, the hotels are all sold out. Anyway... glad ND won (I actually scrapped during the game and just checked on the score a few times). Their new Coach, "Coach Kelly", looks promising....?

Day 246, 2010

I'm experimenting with recoloring a selection of an image. I turned this photograph to black and white and just brought the color back in the poppies.. kinda cool.. but I don't think this is the right photo to practice with...

Day 245, 2010

I can't believe we've only had Daisy since June 24th. Look how big she's gotten! She was 4 months old yesterday. I took these photos today.




Remember this? That was early July.


I was going to post the cards I've been making, but decided I'd better celebrate Daisy's b-day instead. :) If you want to see the cards check out Lorrie's Story

Day 244, 2010

Another release from Ashlea's photographer. It's a picture of her ring... but I think it gets lost... that's Ash and Rich in the background, of course