Catching Up

So much to post today! I have a layout to post for two of my creative teams! Check out the new kit (out today) by Kim Hill! This is called Blast Off and was the result of asking her for a new BOY kit. Very fun!!



And one of my fave layouts in quite some time uses You Picked Me by Michelle Underwood. This kit is found at The Daily Digi (and will be available in Michelle's shop at Two Peas soon).



And I am trying to keep up with my Life:365 photo-a-day project (though I already missed a day). Check out a few shots I have taken since I last posted:

This is my princess enjoying her momentary reign with the Tivo remote.


My older son patiently letting me practice for my photography class in the back yard.


S'mores. 'Nough said.

365: Days 5, 6, 7, 8

My son has far too many choices at The Cupcakery! He finally chose a "Rollo" cupcake, chocolate with a gooey caramel center. Yum!


My little guy was throwing a fit about something or other. I grabbed the camera which really pissed him off. I turned to take a picture of our foster daughter and he yelled, "No! Me!" This is the pout that followed. I love the Terrible Three's. Not!


I woke up to see my little guy had climbed in bed next to Daddy. Turns out he woke up before Daddy was ready so he was coaxed in. :)


I have vowed to be the subject of at least one photo a week during this year-long project. It's going to be VERY hard for me as I hate pictures of myself. Hate them. But I will give myself some slack for being a day late here... and it's kinda cute.

Bright Light City

Took the kids for a little ride tonight trying to get a creative POD (photo of the day) for my 365 project. We ended up at the top of the parking structure at Mirage, overlooking some city lights. Beautiful! Unfortunately, I couldn't get the kids up high enough over the cement barriers to take a high quality photo with the lights of the strip in the background. Ah, nothing a little Photoshop can't fix!

Before


After


I :::heart::: Photoshop.

A Sick Day

Well, I was sick today so hubby stayed home from work to care for the kids. Yay, hubby! Getting out of bed to take a photo of the day was a chore, but I did it. Unfortunately, I can't share it since it was a photo of my adorable foster daughter. She has been walking around with an old-style Little People dog in her mouth and I was lucky enough to catch her on film. The picture was fine and after some tweaking in Photoshop I got a great angle and a clear image. Yay, Photoshop!

I have been playing with presets in Adobe Lightroom but I really don't understand how to customize the program. I have a few favorite presents from Kelsey Smith and Holly McCaig that I use regularly but other than that, I am clueless. I've paid good money (thank you, honey) for some great Photoshop Actions from Nicole Van and Photo Blast, but tonight I hit the jackpot. I downloaded free samples of some basic actions from Totally Rad Actions and I am now eyeing the full product line. Simply gorgeous actions, even the freebies are helpful!

So, it's after midnight and my photography class has started. I say what the assignments are each and every day as I am sure that would be frowned upon by the instructor but I wanted to post an old photo I used for my first assignment. It is one of my all-time favorite photos of my boys in an old Nevada ghost town near Death Valley. It sums up our emotions at the time as we were adopting through the foster care system. We keep this in a deep chocolate sepia print at home and I am reminded every day that miracles happen!



No scrapping today, too sick.

LO: Smile

This is my first real layout for 2010! Yay, I am on a roll! I used the beautiful new kit from Songbird Avenue for January, Smile. It was created by Kari Hentzelt, The Queen of Quirk, Meredith Fenwick, Janet Phillips and Amy Wolff and all proceeds benefit Make a Child Smile.

I used a photo that means a lot to me, as a mom, my son shortly after he was placed in our home through foster care at 28 months. The smile just melted my heart but there was so much going on there. Poor kid. I used the lyrics from Smile (light up your face with gladness, hide every trace of sadness) and it turned out to be a rather meloncholy page, really.

Thanks for looking and please consider supporting Songbird Avenue and Make a Child Smile by purchasing this gorgeous new kit!

Life:365 Day 2

I decided I am certifiable and decided to try the 365 day photo challenge again this year. I gave up about 2 months in last year... then I discovered the fab incentives shared by Gina Marie at Weeds & Wildflowers and I am determined to try again this year and keep up. It helps that I am starting my photography class on Monday... I figure they'll go hand in hand and get me motivated to shoot more. Since I didn't blog yesterday, here is day 1 and 2:




Today was my first day back to the grind of homeschooling my six year old in Kindergarten after a long holiday break. He is such a great little student but I get distracted by the 3 year old and the baby. Imagine that! We should be about half-way through his language arts and math books by now... sadly, we're about a third of the way through at best. He is learning to read and he's a whiz at the math, he just has a distracted teacher. Poor kid.

And a big thanks to my friend Margie Lundy for pointing out the palindrome in today's unique date: 01022010. Pretty cool, huh? I know, I am easily amused.

Bring It On!

Wow, it has been a very long time since I've tried to maintain a blog. In fact, I tried to create this one tonight and found a blog I'd tried to start in 2005! It was interesting to read the 5 or so posts about my life before we had children. Strange thing, the internet.

For those who don't know me, I am Jenna. I am a homeschooling, scrapbooking, foster-parenting SAHM (stay-at-home mom) in the American South West who is addicted to my iPhone, Facebook, surfin' the web, my Kindle app and taking photos of my kids. That's my life in a nutshell! I am also blessed to be on Creative Teams for digital scrapbooking artists I love: Michelle Underwood, Kim Hill and Songbird Avenue. I was also a recent guest CT member for the super-fantabulous Jacque Larsen. I her creations. Am I a lucky girl, or what?

Next week I am starting an online photography class with Karen Russell. The class was a birthday gift almost 6 months ago from my hubby and as it gets closer, I am getting nervous. Can I keep up? Can I produce quality work? Can I work in manual mode? I'm skeered.

As I type this entry, I am looking for Blog Wear to spruce up my site. I plan to create my own eventually but I am being lazy tonight. Actually, it is almost midnight and I still need to get lesson plans together for my Kindergartener for the week. We homeschool Thu-Mon in our home... and even then, Thursdays are very light. I plan to use my blog to talk about my scrapbooking, my family, homeschooling and foster parenting... in other words: MY LIFE!

This really will be a cyber-room of my own, a true sanctuary in the new year. Bring it on, 2010! I'm ready.