:: announcing ::

I am a Design Team member at Scrap Your Story -- a new challenge blog!  You can see the official announcement here.  I encourage you to head on over there to check them out but the idea is: each Friday a new challenge will be announced and "due" the following Thursday at 11:59 PM (CST).  The challenges will rotate between a challenge that asks you to use something specific, base your LO on a theme, use a sketch, or use a particular technique. The rules are posted here.The first challenge will be announced this Friday, March 1st -- please join us and tell your friends!

project life :: week 4 & a new challenge blog

Holy busy week, Batman! This Project Life thing is fun!

week four :: page one

I apologize ahead of time::  for some reason many of my photos on this post are quite wonky! I took the photos while there was still light, and by the time I had a chance to check them out and see that they were wonky -- it was too late to reshoot!  

week four :: page two

Guess what?  I have an insert this week (it's becoming a habit).  This week I just needed an 8.5x11 insert for some err...uh....paper.... I got a speeding ticket.  Ugh. In our community we have these traffic cameras that catch ya -- and they caught me!  Bad part was, I didn't even know I was speeding!  Argh!  Oh well, I haven't had a ticket in a zillion years, so I suppose I was due??

The other side of the insert is a print out of this blogpost and several instagram photos of other blogposts -- to document the fact that although I had a very busy week this week, I still posted on the blog four times -- no wonder I got that speeding ticket, right?

Insert close up (back)

I love my quote this week!  And B.  Oh B.  Why won't you ever keep your clothes on!?!

Favorite pocket this week:: these cards!  I cut some cards to the right size and put them in B's art area.  Then all I had to do was wait until she made something for me.  YAY!  I will do this again.

 Favorite Story for Week 4 :: Hiding and eating candy

New Challenge Blog :: With a giveaway!  If you look to the right...there are a few new buttons on my sidebar.  One that I would like to highlight today is a new challenge blog -- Scrap Your Story Challenges.  I stumbled across the blog yesterday, and it looks exciting! Their first challenge will go live on March 1st, but you should check it out now because they have a giveaway that could be yours! 

Coming soon :: I have several Project Life pages to share and of course a layout or two.  Let's not forget that lovely new Silhouette Cameo -- I have several things to share involving that....
And one more thing....I have an announcement that I am bursting to share.......oh so many fun things ahead!  :-)

Later taters!

:: another goal ::

I shared a couple of goals with you in this post and this post, and how they link to my one little word in this post.  I have another quick one to share with you today!

In 2011 I set out to get better at taking photographs. The biggest action step that I took toward that goal was to join a 365 group on flickr.  Although I didn't complete the 365, I did take a lot of pictures and I watched my photographs get better over time. So I consider that a success, not a failure.  This continued in 2012, and I added a few lenses to my arsenal along the way (thank you, honey!).

Now, I want to step outside my comfort zone once again and learn a few more things in the areas of taking and editing the photos.  To accomplish this I've purchased a few books and magazines to get me started, and visited several websites. Here were the things I started working on in January:

• taught myself how to make a banner in Photoshop (FUN)
• experimented with black and white photos
• used manual mode more often (will be upping this now that I feel more comfortable with it)
• experimented with contrast -- specifically during processing, mostly black and white photos
• more selfies and "in the process of ____" photos (like while cooking, for example)

A few results:

It's difficult to believe we are already over halfway through February!  Coming soon: project life share (still lovin' it) and Silhouette Cameo fun (plus a few little projects I'm working on)!