Julie & Julia

Its Friday night and I'm sitting at home blogging. We went and saw Julie & Julia. I loved it a lot. I can understand a lot of it and well... its a chic flick. After watching this I got the urge to try something new. Well I've seen the Marie Callenders Frozen pasta dishes, even had a few. In the shopette they had the new Al Dente line. So I grabbed two. If I hate one I can try another. I've not been feeling well and don't feel cooking at 10 at night. Rating this dish... its not fresh pasta as it describes, but its not another flavorless frozen pasta dish either. Personally, I'll probably keep a few around for when I don't wanna cook and its just me. I'm hoping to find a favorite few to stash in the freeze, specially with winter coming.

Well I've got more news to share tomorrow, so if your following... check back :)

Luckiest mom

I'm the luckiest mom in the world. I have two of the most amazing kids in the world. They are independent, curious, loving, smart, funny... okay I'll stop bragging. Time for new photos!

Ali is my little model. She loves to pose for the camera whenever she can.

Xander has learned a new.... hmmm what to call it. Well his father taught him how to play air guitar. LOL

P.S. I have exciting things coming this weekend!

Freebie qp and my layout

So after asking the wonderful Kay, I have created a new QP with her new kit. Check out the kit, I Can See Clearly Now.

Here is my lovely daughter and handsome husband-

And for all those that love Qp's heres we go-

Download it here.

Artsy

So maybe I am Artsy. I hate being labeled. Its like being stereotyped in some political way. I prefer to just be me... well my reasons for my rambling was to introduce my newest layout, but I got sidetracked sorry. With out any more commericals here it is-

Credits: Autumnal Breeze by SAS Designs

Gamer

So, we got brave. We took the kids to their first in theater movie tonight. We went and saw Gamer. Great great movie. Kids loved the action, they sat and watched whole movie, no issues. This is great, we should be able to see New Moon when it releases here on Nov 28th. (I know it comes out the 20th in the states. Trust me I wish I could see it then!) I'm just happy its only 8 days later, and not months!

Templets

Do you love templets? Do you love to blog hop?

I have a totally awesome friend that makes some really neat templets! Just Jessa Designs has freebie templet tuesdays. This weeks templet you can find on her blog here.

My take-

Gotta be a fair mom

Can't post about one kid and not the other right?

Well here's my trouble maker looking slightly less mischievous than normal. I swear he's only 4, but some days I could mistake him for older. He sure is a fun kid!

Credits: Caution: Kids at Play {a Sassy/SteelCity Collaboration}
(stitching)Fading Summer by SAS Designs

My daughter

I may be biased, but I still had to share. We got some winter hats today, and I found this hello kitty hat for 2.99. I thought it fit her head perfect and had to get it! Well we came home and Alicia put it on right away. We ended up doing a whole photo shoot! I couldn't adore her more in this hat!

The good news!

So I've got two good things to share, lets start with the new news!

ACOT has gotten a few new designers recently. Sassy Designs was my favorite. I talked with Sassy herself and was offered to be her new CT Leader!!! YAY! She has her own store here. A very cute blog too! And her stuff at ACOT here. Everyone should check her out!

She has some awesome new paper packs that I've already indulged in.

And I'll be back soon with more!

internet issues

Sneak Peak

I've got a new

Tomorrow I will share the good news that I was promising and what my sneak peak is! Be sure to check it out!

I got Freebies!!!!

So who loves freebies! I do!

Well today's freebies come to you by--- me! I made up two quick pages today. One boy and one girl version. They are slightly different. I wanted to thank Sassy Designs for letting me use her kit to create these for everyone. I've been in love with her new kit Punkified. With out farther ado-

Boy qp-

Girl qp-

Monsters!!!!

A blogger and my old friend Keeley, Keeley's Kreations has some adorable Blog Candy she's offering! Check it out! Just click on her blog name! She has all the in's and out's about how to get them for free!

A new sketch/templet!

So my only follower/friend has been so kind to let me scrap her son. Her son's name is also Xander :)

I made this layout titled Come fly with me from SAS Designs new kit named New Day should be released Oct 16- here.

From this layout I made a sketch for the paper girls and templet for the digi girls.

Sketch-

Download the templet here.

photo editing

Okay so just to share....

I love to photo edit. I wanted to help out some of those that don't do this often and wonder what is done to the picture to make it look like that. I'm using Adobe Photoshop CS3 if ya want to follow along.

Orginal picture-

my first step is always adjusting my levels-

From there I have selected the couch as it's my biggest distraction point, using quick selection tool. After its completely selected, I click select at the top, scroll down to inverse.

I click on Image at the top and scroll to adjust. Moving my curse over I chose Black & White and say okay to the default settings.

Although that makes it a little less distracting, its not enough for me. So with it still selected I chose Filters at the top and scroll down to Blur. Sliding my cursor over to surface blur. I chose to keep my blur fairly light as I'm not trying to cover the couch, just make it less distracting.

And last but not least I click on Image one last time and scroll to adjust-Hue/Saturation. I pull my saturation some to really give it the full color I'm looking for.

With out further ado-

Credits: Antique Film Frames by Julie Mead
Painted Wings by Julie Mead
Little Pretties Kit Designs by Laura Burger & Simply Scrap Designs

His birthday was last week....

I try to forget the sad days. Try to push them from my mind like a bad dream. I know a part of me will never forget. I relish the good memories but hate that its all so bittersweet.

My father is now 53, not much special about that to most I'm sure... just another year. For me its another year that he missed in my life, my kids life, his own life. I know he lived life to the fullest, but a part of me is still greedy. Still wishes for him to have more. For me to have more.

I know he lives on in me and in my children.......

Created using Punkified, Designs by Sassy.

New newsss

I got new newssss..... but ya gotta wait for it :P

I know

I've been a bad girl and haven't been blogging much... Sorry.

I don't have any really good excuses. The weather has been changing to fall here. I've been out walking around quiet a bit. Its helping my mood I think. Its a pretty country when you look threw the cracks. My neck has been killing me a lot so I finally sucked it up and got some BioFreeze. Anything that may help right?

Well, hubby's been teaching me to play Mass Effect on the Xbox 360. Its not bad, but I feel I am slow and suck. I feel bad like I'm wasting his time, no matter how hard I try. Oh well. He did help me with a scrappy layout :)