Yeah, Write

Embarrassing Photo from My Past

Why am I sharing this?

Good question. Well, it was a runner-up for inclusion in my article for the March issue of Scrapbook Ellaments, but it didn't quite make the cut. While I have plenty to say about this layout, I think I'll keep most of it to myself, because the commentary on the page itself tells you far more than you really wanted to know in the first place. It's just a good thing that I had these traffic stickers on hand, because they really add something, don't they? (And I'd rather not define what that "something" is.)

But I will say this: I had completely forgotten about story #4 that I shared on this page. A guy named Chris fixed The Poo Van's flat tire in a WalMart parking lot in my college town. He got my phone number so he could make sure I got to my apartment all right, and then he called and sang "One Enchanted Evening" to me on the phone. I never heard from him again, and I was okay with that. (This is why we write things down, folks. It's because of treasures like this.)

And I will also say this: Enormous sunglasses were so NOT the trend when this photo was taken in 1998. I remember making endless fun of my mom for wearing such gargantuan sunglasses. Well, she has since been vindicated. She was about 6 years ahead of the curve. Go mom!

Big Sunglasses Today


Rachel Gainer and me stopped at a stoplight in Centerville in 2007. Note: car was NOT in motion. Driver's eyes were open. Driver was appropriately safe and cautious.

My sister Michele, me, and Gilli-beans on the beach in California. Wendy snapped this picture just after the CHA Winter tradeshow in February 2009.


Some tv personality named Mark who crashed a li'l hotel-room get-together that some friends threw at CHA Winter 2010. Wearing sunglasses. I believe he was brought in to surprise someone (maybe Stephenie?) who is a big fan of his, but I don't think he got the reception he expected. He burst into the room grandly. People looked over for a second, and then went back to their conversations and photo-ops. In the end, everyone managed to make him feel welcome. I think.

Oh Yeah!
Don't forget to pop over to Ella Publishing Co. today to read the latest edition of Scrapbook Ellaments. It's always entertaining. Always informative. Always free.


(Note: This is the reason I started this post in the first place, before I got distracted by the style evolution of summertime eye wear. Eh, I just went with it.)

In Conclusion

The random winner from Tuesday's UR2 Cre8ive contest is...commenter #1! (That never happens.) Go Stefani Meyer! Coupon code coming atcha.

How I Lost 10 Pounds in One Photo

While Wendy and I were at CHA, we stopped to chat with Julie Comstock of Cosmo Cricket, which is always a delightful experience. But the best part was when Julie described (and then demonstrated) exactly how to look 10 pounds thinner in a photo—a tip she learned from her photographer sister. You can read the complete and illustrated set of "skinny tips" by clicking on this link. (And don't forget to check out Julie's blog too!)

So, while Travis and I had the tripod set up to get some pictures of us on our anniversary, we decided to try it.

Um, I think it worked.

With my arms held straight against my sides, my body appears as wide as my arms are. And I'm not so sure that this is the most flattering shirt ever.

Ta-da! By swiveling my hips away from the camera and creating a window with my arm, I appear to have lost a good 10 pounds. Now I'm feeling much better about the shirt.

p.s. At certain times of the month, I have a tendency to carry up to 5 extra pounds of water weight, most of which is apparently IN MY FACE. I sure feel lucky that this event coincided with my anniversary this year. It's so great to be a woman.

e-everything

e-video
Would you like to see how much bigger Jovie got while I was in California for the week? She outgrew her cute orange collar! But she's as adorable as ever. Spend 1 minute and 15 seconds with Jovie and me in this quick video. (And I just dare you to try to talk to/about a puppy as cute as this and NOT regress into baby talk. It's impossible.)

e-radio
I promised I'd post the link to our CHA Paperclipping Roundtable episode, and here it is! If I remember right, it gets off to a slow start, but it gets pretty darn funny towards the end, so hang in there! (I'm too scared to go back and listen for fear that I said something embarrassing. So be kind and don't point it out if I did, deal?)

The Paperclipping Roundtable (a weekly crafting podcast) is great to have on in the background while you scrapbook, vaccuum, carpool, jog, wash the dog, etc. So subscribe through iTunes!

(Pictured from left: Noell Hyman, Ana Cabrera, Nancy Nally, Stacy Julian, moi.)

e-book
Have you seen the newest Ella eBook, now for sale at Ella Publishing Co.? It's truly amazing. Click on the picture to get your copy! And if you participate in Six Weeks of Sketches contest happening now at The Daily Trumpet blog, you could win a Cricut Expression cutting system (a value of $349!).

I'm e-xhausted!

A Quick Contest
The first person to listen to the Paperclipping Roundtable episode who can answer the following three questions correctly will win a free pair of Fiskars Micro-tip scissors that I picked up at CHA. (Get it? Paperclipping? Scissors?)

Here are the questions:
1. Who was the second guest on the show?
2. What was Izzy's pick for his favorite thing he saw at CHA?
3. Which panelist chose the Martha Stewart trimmer, adhesive, and fringe scissors as her product picks?

Two Words

If I had to choose two words to describe little miss Jovie Lucas at this stage in her young life, I would go with "indignant" and "impetuous." She frequently emits the canine equivalent of a "hmpfh!," and she makes sure to let us know when she is most seriously displeased. It's adorable.

Our dearly departed Ruby, on the other hand, would be better described as "gentle" and "soulful," even when she was a puppy. (I'll never forget my Ruby, that's for sure.)

What two words describe your favorite pet?

Travis did manage to capture a shot of Jovie when she was in a quiet, reflective mood. It kind of looks like a 1970s Olan Mills portrait-studio photo:

Do I hear an "Awwwwww!"?

This is what she's usually like, though:

To see a little bit more Jovie in video (plus lots of funny stuff from Wendy and me), make sure to watch our first episode of "Ella TV" over on the Ella Blog by clicking here:

Welcome December

December, I'm so glad you're here. 

I'm ready for crackling fires, mittens, and hot cocoa. 

I'm ready for twinkling lights and Christmas carols. 

I'm ready for Elf, A Christmas Story , It's a Wonderful Life, A Claymation Christmas, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which sends me instantly back to 1983). Want to see me in 1983? 

I'm the one with the brown hair (obviously). And by the way, how tight is Santa squeezing my little sister? Maybe she was on the naughty list this year.

I'm ready to try my hand at another obscure Christmas recipe. (We vanquished the Figgy Pudding in 2008. This year, perhaps...sugarplums?)

I'm ready for presents, given and received.

I'm ready for peace on earth and goodwill toward men.

And to be truthful, I'm ready to say goodbye to 2009 and hello to a fresh, sparkling New Year. 

Let's kick off the month with a layout, shall we?

This is my December Write. Click. Scrapbook. contribution. The photos aren't technically wonderful, but I love them because I love all of these people, so this layout makes me smile.

Here's a challenge for you this month: while you're taking photos of all the adorable kids running around at family parties, snap some pictures of the adults in your life too. They may protest, they may hide behind the Christmas tree, but hunt them down and snap their pictures. You'll be glad you did. (Maybe try convincing them this way: "Chances are you look far better right now than you will next year, with aging and such. So you might as well let me take your picture now.") 

Other favorites from the Write. Click. Scrapbook. gallery this month: Rachel Gainer's, Erin Sweeney's, and Emily Pitts's. 

Bring on the merry making!

Consequences

It seems there are consequences to spreading oneself too thin and blogging in three different places over the course of one week, and the consequences are: one can only manage to squeeze three blog posts in for the two weeks following (with two of the three being about "can milk").

I've had so many things swimming around in my head, but they haven't quite made it to blogland yet. I've been musing about:

• My family's weekend retreat to the Red Cliffs Lodge in Moab. Hiking, four-wheeling, sight-seeing, muffin-eating, photo-taking, license-plate counting, dinosaur-bone-seeing fun.
• The mutant carrots we grew in our garden that are as big around as soda cans!
• The regrets I feel over not photographing our wheelbarrow full of homegrown pumpkins before giving them away, carving them, or eating them. They looked SO cool in that wheelbarrow! Mental picture. (Click.)
• Halloween traditions like three-way carving contests, dinner-in-a-pumpkin, toasted pumpkin seeds, and sorta scary movies.
• The most amazing and thoughtful gift I received in the mail from the sweetest people on earth. (I'll for sure share this one with you later this week.)
• The Ruby-sized hole that has been left in my heart.
• The long-awaited return of 30 Rock. How I missed you, Liz Lemon.
• Horrible, rotten, mean, dirty, no-good Twitter hackers.
• My layout for November's Write. Click. Scrapbook. gallery:

Click here to read my thoughts about my layout (the scan sure lost a bit of clarity in translation), and click here to see everyone else's amazing designs. My favorites this month? Cheryl Overton, Rachel Gainer, Katrina Simeck, and Jody Dent-Pruks.

Lucas out!

You Know You Want It

Check out the photo book that I made on Shutterfly.com:

Wouldn't you like to create a book like this? This is the new 7 x 9 size with a soft cover (just $15.99 starting). They also have 5 x 7 and 8 x 8 soft-cover photo books now, too! And 8 x 11 photo books with hard photo covers. And you can get one for free! Just keep reading...





Mine was really easy to create. I chose the black background (to make the photos really stand out), selected the layout arrangements I wanted, and dragged my photos into place. It took me 90 minutes tops, and that includes the time it took me to narrow all my photos down to these AND decide how I was going to organize them. (When I say "my photos" I really mean "Travis's photos," since he's the one who took them. Check out more of his stuff here.)

My favorite part? It's super simple to reorganize your pages after you've dropped photos in—an important feature for a second-guesser like me. Caution on the black backgrounds: fingerprints do show up quite easily, but they also wipe off easily, just in case you're ever implicated in a photo-book related crime of some kind.

 

These are my big brother's kids. Adorable, right? Which one's your favorite? Just kidding, don't answer that. This was just a very fortuitous gene-pool combination, because they're all gorgeous. They set the bar pretty high for the rest of us; that's all I'm saying.

And guess what else? I have a FREE COUPON code to give away! ONE lucky winner will get a coupon code for a 5 x 7 soft-cover photo book from Shutterfly. So leave me a comment, any comment, and I'll pick a winner. (The catch: the code expires at the end of November, so after you win, you'll need to get a move on.)

p.s. the winner from last week's Better Photos for Your Scrapbooks magazine contest was commenter #16, Cris! I'll be contacting you for your address.

p.p.s. I have to say I was blown away by all your sweet words about Ruby. I've been reading your comments over and over again, any time I need another cathartic cry. The quotes you shared, the sympathetic thoughts, the stories of other lost pets...all of it has brought solace to my soul, and I am deeply grateful. Her ashes are now resting beneath the apple tree, which is exactly what she'd want.

So Long, Good Friend

We had to bid farewell to our Ruby yesterday. She went rapidly downhill from Thursday onward, and the kindest thing we could do for her was to let her go. She was such a joy to be around, and we'll miss her forever.

Trav got this shot of her on Saturday, settled down in her favorite place. Jeremy wants to scatter her ashes under our apple tree, which is very appropriate, I think.

Besides the three of us, Grandpa was her favorite person on earth. (Her tumor is quite visible in this shot; there on the right side of her jaw.)

A little kiss for mommy.

Ruby and Jerm, ever the best of friends.

Hmm, I wonder what he's whispering in her ear? If I've ever had a rival for Trav's affection, it was this girl.

My gentle giant. There will never be another like her.

"Dogs' lives are too short.  Their only fault, really."
 ~Agnes Sligh Turnbull

Concert Highlights and MORE!

Today, I just gathered six random, unrelated things that I'd like to share with you. Hit it!

#1. Jim Gaffigan
Last Friday, we took Jeremy out for Greek food (his first authentic souvlaki) and then to the Jim Gaffigan show at Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah. This bit had me laughing my heinie off:

#2. The Killers
On Saturday, I went to The Killers with my little sis, and now I have a temporary big-girl crush on Brandon Flowers. Here was my favorite moment from the concert (please excuse all the off-key singers surrounding me, possibly even including me):

#3. Dog Food Concoctions
We've taken to feeding Ruby soft puppy food, often mixed with scrambled eggs or corn muffins (her absolute favorite!) with a fork. Hey, whatever princess wants, princess gets, since we don't have much time left with her. We even scrape the food off her chin and feed it to her, baby style.

#4. Sharing Machine
My friend  Tami Morrison sent me links to two funny grammar t-shirts. I may just have to invest in one or both of these:
Apostrophe's! Extra apostrophe's! Use 'em for plural's! One dollar!
I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!!!

#5. Layout A Day

It starts Thursday. A whole bunch of scrapbookers I know will be creating a layout every day in the month of October in exchange for prizes, daily challenges, inspiration, community, and more. You should try it! Even if you make every day your goal, but you only manage to create a layout every three days, you'll have created TEN layouts you wouldn't have made otherwise! This link explains how to sign up.

#6. Digi Days
Go read the Ella blog today and enjoy as I briefly ruminate about monkeys who can play video games WITH THEIR MINDS.

p.s. There's still time to enter yesterday's contest for the Simple Scrapbooks special issue, so go to it!

Shortcuts Rule!

I like shortcuts. Today I took a "shortcut" to my friend Rachel's house that got me there only 2 hours late! But usually shortcuts are meant to SAVE time. And here are a few that really do.

1. Page Kits
I did something I've never done before. I picked up a page kit at a recent scrapbook expo that visited my town. I figured, what the heck, I'd try it. And it was indeed super fast. I didn't follow the exact page design because I had an extra photo to squeeze in, but having all the pieces pre-cut and absolutely NO product choices to make was really quite refreshing for a change. 

I dare you to try it! Pick up a page kit at an expo or at your local scrapbook store, and just try it on for size. I've noticed that page kits can be somewhat hit and miss; there are some really cute designs, some that make you go "hmmm?",  and others that will send you right back to 1998 (and not in a good way). Styles can vary widely even from the same company. I chose a kit from My Scrapbook Zone, which had several winners in their booth. For example, check out this sweet and simple design here, or this very seasonally appropriate one here, or a cool school design here, or a "cute as a button" design here.

2. Digital Frames
Bias alert! These frames were my idea, my husband designed them, and they're now for sale at ellapublishing.com. Thus, I couldn't be more biased in favor of the Retro Digital Frames pack unless I had physically given birth to them. But come on, aren't they cute? (Not to mention time-saving!)

Hey, how did she get that masking tape on my computer screen?!? Oh, it's digital. I get it. Total time on this one? Less than 3 minutes. Four of the cutest dudes ever, all munching apples from grandpa Jeff's tree. From left: Payton, Tenderheart Bear, Travis, Derek, and Brock.

Now I'm getting fancy. This one may have taken me up to 9 minutes to complete. First I colorized the apple, thanks to tricks I learned from Renee Pearson's amazing NEW eBook, Special Effects for Digital Photos, which was released earlier today! Then I dropped it into this faux Polaroid frame, which has a vintage wash applied to the photo window. Too cute. (Feel like you've seen that photo before? It was on the Ella blog yesterday.)

These frames would be super fun to use on blogs, digital pages, and even to print out and use on physical layouts! I promise the process appears much harder than it actually is. And to make it even easier, we included a set of very specific instructions for how to use the frames with every download. Again, here's the link.

3. Brushercize
Because I think it's important to have at least three things in every list, here's another extremely useful shortcut for you. Do squats or leg lifts while brushing your teeth, a feat I have just dubbed "brushercizing." I do this almost every night. Having something to count (the leg lift repetitions) helps force me to keep on gently brushing for the requisite 2 minutes. Otherwise, the duration of the brushing is excruciatingly long. Tone those quads while you attack that tartar!

I've also tried reading my scriptures while assuming the dreaded plank position, but this I don't recommend. Perhaps one shouldn't excercise one's soul and one's abdominal muscles at the same time.

Now go forth and save some time!

p.s. Are you even a little bit intrigued about digital stuff now? Well, you could win a seat in an upcoming class from digital diva Renee Pearson by leaving a comment on the Ella blog here. 

p.p.s. I included a record TEN HYPERLINKS in this single blog post. Yowsers. How many of them did you actually bother to click on? I don't blame you if it was only one. Because seriously, who has time to follow all those darn links? I bet if you do squats while following the links, you'll feel much better about the time you spent online today. Try it.