Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Angie!

Today this post is dedicated to my former co-worker but more importantly someone who was a dear friend Angie Werner. Angie was taken from us on Wednesday October 10, 2012 in a tragic accident. I am still trying to come to terms that I will no longer be able to just pick up the phone or text her just to say hi.

 Angie was a bright star in my life. She was always positive and was as just as friendly as could be to everyone she came in contact with. Today would have been Angie’s 49^th birthday. To celebrate her I have attached just a few pictures to celebrate a wonderful person.

 

Great American Scrapbook Convention

I can’t believe it has been January since I have last wrote on my blog and that on Sunday we will actually be in July.

I have had a lot of changes going on and that is part of the reason for the disappearance. As you have heard me say before my job was just hectic and not a happy place but one phone call from my former Director of Accounting changed everything. In March I left my old company and started a new job and that was the best decision I have EVER made in my life. Trust me I was absolutely worried about the change and leaving all of the great people I worked with and my boss who will always be a close friend but change was what I needed and was sad to leave the people but not sad at all to leave. My boss on my last day could not even look at me for most of the day as it just made her sick to the stomach.

 But let’s get to what this post is really about. This past weekend was the Great American Scrapbooking Convention (GASC) in Chantilly, VA and me and my cousins (Robin Shakoor, and her daughter) go every year. This year I took a class that was being offered by Clear Scraps to make a banner and it was so much fun.

We also found this cute little die that we bought to make little cards for down at my family reunion. I tasked my little cousin with doing this as her summer project while at home from college at the summer.

I will be back soon with more projects as I now in the mind frame to actually do some scrapbooking and also have a deadline to get some stuff done for my family reunion which is in like 3  weeks and have not started a thing. Nothing like waiting until the last minute J

52 Photos in 52 Weeks

As I have mentioned that I will be really getting into my photography this year more and in that commitment I have found some photography challenges. This challenge is 52 photos in 52 weeks.

Week 1 theme: New

This is the new barbie I got for Christmas. I LOVE HER!!!!

Week 2 theme: Shine

Every year my Aunt gives all us girls bedroom slippers and these were my new slippers this year. Ever since I was a child we had a theme of what we got. It's fun ever year to see what she type of slippers she has found this year.

The theme for this week is: COMMUNITY



Hello Monday!

I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing weekend! I relaxed on Saturday while my husband was at his figure drawing class and did some much needed chores like washing clothes and then we went to see Red Tails the movie about the Tuskegee Airmen. It was such a good movie and the line to get into the movie looked like the Santa Claus scene from "The Christmas Story" movie. I usually like going to matinees but we knew that if we wanted to see it this weekend we had to go Saturday night because on Sunday I had my first photo safari at one of the airports near me (more on that adventure later in the week).

As promised here is another of the tags that I did using the Dabber Effect. I really like this one and how the butterfly just looks like she is floating. I love that stamp. I believe I found it at Michael's or A.C. Moore.


I didn't get to do any crafting this weekend nor take down my Christmas tree (YES!!! my tree is still up). I hope to get all of that done next weekend since my rule is usually take it down when it snows and we had a freak snow shower and snow and ice this weekend so I am more than overdue to take it down LOL!!!!

Dabber Resist Tag

UGHHHHH!! I return back to work today but I did enjoy my 4 day weekend of getting my hands dirty with ink and trying new techniques.

I have not had much of a scrapbooking mojo and unless I needed to get on the computer in my scrap room I just walked past it but no more. On Saturday I spent part of the day inking up and trying something absoutley new to me. I had gotten the Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities book and looked thru to see as a tag beginner what I could try that would be easy.

Well on page 37 I found it "Dabber Resist" technique. It was so much fun that I made three of the tags with that technique. Now my tags are nothing compared to what Tim Holtz does and what I have seen other people doing but hey I am just starting out and I am proud of what I did.

Hope you enjoy!

Spend more time Exploring

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday so far. I am just relaxing and trying out some new techinques with tags which I will show this week.

My husband and I say every year that we are going to explore our city and vist many of the sites that Washington, DC has to offer in monuments and memorials.  Every year we end up not doing it due to life getting in the way and other obligations. Well this year we will be exploring more or the Northern Virginia area.

Here is a picture of our exploring Old Town Alexandria the other weekend when it was seasonably warm. I loved the way the sky looked and just spending time on the waterfront.

My resolution is to capture more pictures like this

Happy Tuesday!

In 2012 I want to take my photography to the next level so I have signed up for a few seminars for this year already so you will be seeing more pictures on this blog beside some scrapbooking. I am even thinking of doing some photo challenges like "Project 12" or "52 Photos in 52 Weeks". Next year I may even do Capture your 365 where you take a picture everyday.

I want to show you some of the pictures I took in my class last spring. The first five pictures will be from the field trip we went on and the game was to take 5 photos that told a story.

Yesterday it snowed here in the area when they forcasted rain. Boy did all those weather people get it WRONG!!!. Here is a picure of the snow out of my office window. I am hoping this is the most snow we get this season but I know that it won't be.

NEW WORKS Exhibition

Hello All! I know that I have been very bad at blogging lately but life has gotten in the way and before I knew it we were at the holidays. Time has definitely been flying by. I hope everyone had wonderful holiday's and were able to relax and spend quality time with family.

I had a very excitable weekend one that goes down the book of big accomplishments in my life. I had a photograph of mine accepted into an exhibition at this place in my area called “The Workhouse of Lorton”.

Last spring I took a class there called “Storytelling with Photographs”. It was a great class that taught me to look at my pictures in a whole different way and want to definitely approve my pictures. A friend asked me is it hard to have your pictures critiqued? My answer to her was NO it actually helped and makes me take better pictures.

I have loved taking pictures since I was given my first camera as a high school graduation gift and it was all it took to get me hooked and I have not stopped taking pictures ever since. My cousin Robin actually calls me “paparazzi” because I always have a camera not too far away that I can grab.

Here is a picture of me and my submission at the opening reception on Saturday night. My picture is of the LA port at night. I took this picture several years ago on a John Mayer cruise.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I wish you and your family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY THANKSGVING

I wish you all a Safe and Wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. May it be filled with much joy of spending time with family or friends.

Halloween Pictures

Happy Friday!

As I promised here are some pictures of my niece and nephew on halloween. The weather was just great and we had fun walking around and collecting all of the candy.

 I had to get the picture of her shoes. They are just adorable and went perfect with her cinderella costume.

November Already?

I cannot believe that we are already into the 5th day of November already. I swore that October had just begun the other day and it has already left. October is a very busy month for me especially as it is my birthday month and I LOVE to celebrate my birthday. I do a countdown to the actual day and on the day I pull out my Tiara (seen in picture below) and pick what purple shirt I will be wearing that day. I have to wear my most favorite color on my most favorite day.

This year one girl at work said that when she had her birthday this year she was all sad and could not wear her crown cause turning 30 was depressing to her and I had to explain that the reason I am so happy and can celebrate like this every year is due to the fact that I don’t focus on how old I am turning but that this day symbolizes that “IT’S ALL ABOUT ME” it is the one day of the whole year that it really is all about me and nothing can get me sad or angry on this day.

This year I was absolutely surprised when I went to work (YES, I do work on my birthday no one is at home to wish me happy birthday LOL!). My co-worker had come in over the weekend and put almost 200 balloons in my desk. I could not even sit there that day I had to sit at another desk for the day until I had to break in and then my other co-worker got me a Tiffany’s cake and this bakery is the only other place that can replace my favorite cake which is a giant yellow cake with white icing.

My Desk:

Tiffany's Cake:

I am sure you are wondering what I did with all of those balloons right? Well I moved what was containing them in my desk to the corner and that is where they sit and will stay until they all go down. It gives me joy to look at it

 
I will be back to showing you pictures from halloween and from my photography class outing this week. Have a great Saturday!

Happy October!!!

I can’t believe that summer is officially gone and we are already in October. Boy was it cold yesterday and today. Even though I LOVE the month of October because I get to celebrate a very special day “MY BIRTHDAY” is on October 17th and every year for family and friends I do a birthday countdown to my actual day and today I am 15 days away

Since yesterday was Card Making day I thought I would share a card I had made a while back that I had not yet posted.

Well I am off to help celebrate my brother-in-laws girlfriend's birthday. She just turned 30 on September 30th.

Dream

I hope that everyone is enjoying their Saturday so far! I am in the process of doing the regular chores like wash clothes.

I took a little break so that my wonderful cousin Robin Shakoor could help me out and teach me how to download a digital package into my creative memories storybook creator.

I chose to pick up Fairland Purple by Melancolie at http://www.shabbypickledesigns.com/boutique/home.php. I did this quick little digital layout of my niece just to play around. I hope you enjoy it.

Enjoy the rest of your day!!!

Montreal Canada

Happy Monday!
Today I bring you pictures from my recent business trip to Montreal. This is such a beautiful country and glad I was able to get the opprotunity to make this trip. This may be a little picture heavy

 Delta Montreal Hotel:

Courtyard at the hotel that my boss and I got our selves stuck in. That is my boss on the phone calling the hotel trying to get someone to come open the doors to the hotel for us. Only us LOL!!!

 Downtown Montreal at Night:

  Homemade Sugar Pie: This was the BEST thing ever

Mt.Royal Overlook- From here you can see the whole city

Will show you more pictures tomorrow!

Thank You

Hello Everyone! I hope you are all enjoying this 3 day weekend. I thought I was going to have to work today since it is a payroll week but due to issues I get to enjoy the day which is fine for me.

It has been a very hectic two weeks and I am enjoying my time to relax between my husbands table at the comic book convention and my business trip to Canada the next Thursday and in between all of that we had a earthquake.

Today I bring you a digital layout I did of my nephew Tyler this week as a thank you gift to his baby sitter. My sister-in-law called me Tuesday before I left work asking if I would help her get this together as it was going to be his last day on Wednesday.

We took pictures from each stages of his life to put in the layout for him.

I took time this morning to sort thru my pictures from Montreal and I will show you more pictures in the up coming days but here is the best picture ever.

Since my boss and I were there over the weekend we did a bus tour of the city that you can hop on and off of. I knew I wanted to see Notre Dame Basicalla (YES there is one in Montreal Canada also besides the one in Italy)

This is just the most beautiful place in the world and the emotional feeling I got being in here is just unexplanable.

I am off to upload and edit my pictures from the comic con. Enjoy your day

Jaydin't 1st Easter

Happy Friday! I am so glad the weekend is here even though I will not get any scrapping time this weekend. For of those who followed my blog for a while will remember last year my husband got his first table at the Baltimore Comic Con to sell his drawings. Well this weekend we are doing it again and one of his biggest idols is going to be a guest Stan Lee.

I am hoping that I will be able to show pictures this weekend especially from the costume contest they do and it amazes me the time the people take to create their costumes and then there are the ones who threw the costume together in about 5 minutes and you can absolutely tell who those people are LOL.

Today I am bringing you a super cute layout I did of my little cousin Jaydin that I took at her first Easter this year. Since her dress was pink and I didn't have any pick flowers that exactly matched the soft pink of her dress I took some while flowers and sprayed them with Tattered Angels Pink Bubblegum and put stickles around the die cut.

I used the Swirlydoos April  kit “Bella Volo”

Supples: 

Paper: Bo Bunny 12" Gabrielle Romance, Gabrielle Mocha Die Cut, Gabrielle Cut outs
Prima Pink Crystals
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Pink Bubblegum

40 Years of Marriage

Happy Sunday!
I hope everyone is having a great Sunday so far. I am doing the usual weekend duties of washing clothes and cleaning. I will also be doing some scrapping in between.

Today I am bringing you a layout I did of my In-laws that I took on their 40th wedding anniversary. We took them out to dinner at a nice restaurant and then outside we took this picture of them. I couldn't ask for better in-laws and love them to death. Again I did that pesky fussy cutting again on the butterfly and glued a trinket as the butterfly's body.

I used the Swirlydoo's April "Bella Volo" kit for this layout

Supplies:

Papers: Bo Bunny 12" Gabrielle , Bo Bunny 12" Gabrielle Cut outs

Petaloo Velvet Hydranges

Bo Bunny Gabrielle Brads & Trinkets

Happy 1st Birthday Jaydin!

Happy Wednesday! We are half way thru the week YEA!!!!

Today I bring you a special layout of my sweet little cousin Jaydin who today is celebrating her 1st birthday.

This is a picture I had taken at our family reunion in July. It was Jaydin's first trip to our family homestead and as you can tell by the picture she was just excited to be there.

I used the Swirlydoos April "Bella Volo" kit for this layout. I fussy cut out the butterflies that are at the bottom of the page and as much as I admire it when other people do it I am NOT a big fan of it but it just so fit on the page I had to do it LOL!!!

Supplies:
Paper: 12" Gabrielle Stripe, 12" Gabrielle Unwritten, 12" Gabrielle Flight, 12" Gabrielle Cut outs, Enchanted Complements Moonlight Aqua
Zva Creative CRB-04CA-145 embellishment
Dusty Attic Decorative Gate-DA0289
Distress Ink- Wild Honey