Fall...already?
My, this year is just flying by at lightning speed! How is it fall already? Before you know it, it'll be Thanksgiving and Christmas...and we just can't have that yet! Between the wedding next year, moving, and not knowing what to buy for people, I'm just not ready for Christmas! It might have to be a very crafty gift-giving holiday for me. I know I thought that to myself last year, but I didn't have the time or ideas to make things. This year I actually have a stash of things from the Target dollar bins (remember the little metal tins and coasters to alter?) and some frames I could throw together.
REMINISCING
Wow, it just dawned on me...this time last year was when I discovered digital scrapbooking! I can't remember how I stumbled upon this addicting little hobby, though. It was probably a strange reason like trying to make a new banner for my blog and wanting scrapbook elements for it. Actually, I slightly remember seeing some websites in a paper scrapping magazine for fonts and stuff that people had downloaded from the internet, and I think my search for fonts took an unchartered turn...and viola! I do recall that Scrapbook Bytes was one of the first sites I found, and back then they had the gold mine of free stuff!
I think I downloaded everything I could get my grubby little hands on, and then I realized that I needed a way to organize it all. Like some newbies, I organized it totally wrong! I thought to myself, "Hey, I'll organize it like I do my paper products...by solid papers, patterned papers, different elements, it'll be genius!" HA! After I spent the good part of a month organizing all of my stash, THEN I realized that I was making a huge mistake! With everything lumped together I couldn't find a thing, and had no idea if anything went together! So, the backtracking began. All of those things that I just divided up had to be put back together again...humpty dumpty anyone? In the process, though, I got to delete a lot of things that I didn't like or wondered, "how the heck did that make it into the market?"
Along with SBB, I also found a ton of other sites and my first digi-home, The Digichick! Ahhh, memories. Of course, Dan was always encouraging with my paper-to-digi switch. I wasn't taking up his office or living room floor with my supplies, and he would make sure to roll his eyes each time I organized and re-organized my files (which I did at least three times a week...heck, who am I kidding, I'm still organizing constantly!). I also heard questions like, "Shouldn't you be working on your Master's paper?" The men have such respect... :)
SCRAPPING
While I'm on the topic, I really haven't scrapped much in the last month. I completed a layout with the DST exclusive kit that Holly made for gold members (which I love...mmm, rich colors that's ALL I can say!), and I have a few other on the hard drive that have been started that I just don't like. I'm in a scrapping funk and I need to get out of it soon. All of my ideas for layouts are the same anymore and I want something different. I look at magazines and get so much inspiration, but I can't translate the darn ideas into a page. I've tried to do some lifts, but the layouts I love in the magazines have doodles and lines that I can't do without a Wacom tablet or something *hint, hint.* Woe is me...
Here is some beautiful stuff the Holly McCaigster has magically created lately! Loving the colors and elements people! You must go to Plain Digital Wrapper and grab these!
Paper packs
Kits
Actually, I remembered that I did a couple layouts at the end of August that didn't make it into my last post. You can check the credits here.
DADDY'S ROOM - me in my dad's radio/computer room!
ONE YEAR LATER
WEDDING
Last week Dan and I met with two photographers and we're stumped on who to choose! Both guys seem like they would do a good job and we're pretty comfortable with both of them. I think we need to add more photographers to our shopping list so we really know our options, but we're running out of time! Here, if anyone actually reads this, I'll let you decide! If you want to check out their websites for albums, send me a comment!
Guy #1
20+ years experience (if I remember correctly)
Only photographs weddings
Does the entire day by himself (pro or con, not sure)
Offers a coffee table book in his packages
Will give us a DVD of all our photographs
Will throw in an engagement session
Takes photographs in JPG format
Guy #2 (cheaper, but no coffee table book)
About 5 years experience in area weddings
(Hobby in photography for much longer)
Does weddings, senior portraits, etc.
Does the entire day with his wife assisting (using extra flash)
Entire day means that he will even go to salon, etc. beforehand for shots
Will give us a DVD of all our photographs
Will throw in an engagement session
Takes photographs in RAW format, and converts them to JPG
Oh, and you remember that save-the-date that I posted on here after I redid it a second time? Yeah, well I redid it a third time. I have a sickness really. I see so many cards that I love, that I just can't have just one. These things need to be in the mail already! :)
Ooooh, and if you look at the date today...in exactly 8 months I will be Mrs. Victoria Rye, hehe.
CELEBRATING
Two weekends ago, my friend Sheri had her bachelorette party. She had a slumber party at her house on Friday night, for which I should win the Miss Drowsy pageant award...and on Saturday we woke up much too early (like 8:00am) and went to Cedar Point. That weekend couldn't have been more fun!...well, it could have, but we'll leave the part out where I felt like giving the landscape my lunch and went back to the hotel early. The theme song for the weekend - "Sexy Back" by Mr. Timberlake.
Last weekend was Sheri's wedding and it was beau-ti-ful! After seeing the way her reception was setup I think I want to lift some of the ideas for mine. Dan and I have been thinking about a videographer to go with our photographer, but didn't really want to spend the money. After seeing the "love story" slideshow with later-added footage from Sheri's ceremony, we might be bound and determined to have some video cameras. We may have to fork over our first born child, but darned if we won't have a video of our wedding for years to come!
MOVING
Yep, the moving weekend is upon us. Two months ago we couldn't wait to start packing and get into our new apartment. Now, the time slipped out from under us and we don't have squat done! Okay, so I lie...Dan packed up his collection of DVDs that take up like 13 boxes alone, so it looks like we have a lot packed. I don't let that fool me. Dan has been real trooper, though, and stayed up later than me the past couple nights to get extra things done. If I stayed up that late you'd see my claws in the morning.
We DID, however, paint a few select walls of the new place! We were allowed to go in on Sunday and paint after we bought our colors last week. I'll give you three guesses as to what those colors are......... got them yet?
Actually, we didn't pick these colors on purpose, but they are purple, olive, and brown. No surprise, right? I really wanted a purple accent wall in our spare room/office, but not a bright purple...more of an earthy purple if there is such a thing. We were going to go with a brown accent wall in the dining room to match our couch in the connected living room, but decided that with a wood table there would be too much brown, so that color ended up as an accent wall in our bedroom. The olive was originally the idea for our bedroom, until we decided that it would be too much with a green duvet set and curtains. If we get a new duvet set and curtains from our registry it will go well with the green wall, but for now - no go - the olive ended up as an accent wall in the dining room. Is that confusing enough?
I really love all of the colors, and since the three rooms only have one wall done as an accent we're not overwhelmed with color. Personally, and I think Dan would say this also, I love our bedroom with the brown wall the most. The apartment walls were a light beige to start with, so the brown coordinates perfectly. It's very serene. The olive turned out great, now we need to find a cute table runner to match. The purple turned out darker than we thought, more of a dark grayish purple, but I like it and think some decorations and light will bring out the purple more. Pictures will be taken soon, of course!
I think that's it for tonight...I actually wrote this post earlier to paste in here and I've been packing all evening. Sigh, I'm ready for bed! Time to shove some more stuff in boxes before I can cuddle up in bed.
REMINISCING
Wow, it just dawned on me...this time last year was when I discovered digital scrapbooking! I can't remember how I stumbled upon this addicting little hobby, though. It was probably a strange reason like trying to make a new banner for my blog and wanting scrapbook elements for it. Actually, I slightly remember seeing some websites in a paper scrapping magazine for fonts and stuff that people had downloaded from the internet, and I think my search for fonts took an unchartered turn...and viola! I do recall that Scrapbook Bytes was one of the first sites I found, and back then they had the gold mine of free stuff!
I think I downloaded everything I could get my grubby little hands on, and then I realized that I needed a way to organize it all. Like some newbies, I organized it totally wrong! I thought to myself, "Hey, I'll organize it like I do my paper products...by solid papers, patterned papers, different elements, it'll be genius!" HA! After I spent the good part of a month organizing all of my stash, THEN I realized that I was making a huge mistake! With everything lumped together I couldn't find a thing, and had no idea if anything went together! So, the backtracking began. All of those things that I just divided up had to be put back together again...humpty dumpty anyone? In the process, though, I got to delete a lot of things that I didn't like or wondered, "how the heck did that make it into the market?"
Along with SBB, I also found a ton of other sites and my first digi-home, The Digichick! Ahhh, memories. Of course, Dan was always encouraging with my paper-to-digi switch. I wasn't taking up his office or living room floor with my supplies, and he would make sure to roll his eyes each time I organized and re-organized my files (which I did at least three times a week...heck, who am I kidding, I'm still organizing constantly!). I also heard questions like, "Shouldn't you be working on your Master's paper?" The men have such respect... :)
SCRAPPING
While I'm on the topic, I really haven't scrapped much in the last month. I completed a layout with the DST exclusive kit that Holly made for gold members (which I love...mmm, rich colors that's ALL I can say!), and I have a few other on the hard drive that have been started that I just don't like. I'm in a scrapping funk and I need to get out of it soon. All of my ideas for layouts are the same anymore and I want something different. I look at magazines and get so much inspiration, but I can't translate the darn ideas into a page. I've tried to do some lifts, but the layouts I love in the magazines have doodles and lines that I can't do without a Wacom tablet or something *hint, hint.* Woe is me...
Here is some beautiful stuff the Holly McCaigster has magically created lately! Loving the colors and elements people! You must go to Plain Digital Wrapper and grab these!
Paper packs
Kits
Actually, I remembered that I did a couple layouts at the end of August that didn't make it into my last post. You can check the credits here.
DADDY'S ROOM - me in my dad's radio/computer room!
ONE YEAR LATER
WEDDING
Last week Dan and I met with two photographers and we're stumped on who to choose! Both guys seem like they would do a good job and we're pretty comfortable with both of them. I think we need to add more photographers to our shopping list so we really know our options, but we're running out of time! Here, if anyone actually reads this, I'll let you decide! If you want to check out their websites for albums, send me a comment!
Guy #1
20+ years experience (if I remember correctly)
Only photographs weddings
Does the entire day by himself (pro or con, not sure)
Offers a coffee table book in his packages
Will give us a DVD of all our photographs
Will throw in an engagement session
Takes photographs in JPG format
Guy #2 (cheaper, but no coffee table book)
About 5 years experience in area weddings
(Hobby in photography for much longer)
Does weddings, senior portraits, etc.
Does the entire day with his wife assisting (using extra flash)
Entire day means that he will even go to salon, etc. beforehand for shots
Will give us a DVD of all our photographs
Will throw in an engagement session
Takes photographs in RAW format, and converts them to JPG
Oh, and you remember that save-the-date that I posted on here after I redid it a second time? Yeah, well I redid it a third time. I have a sickness really. I see so many cards that I love, that I just can't have just one. These things need to be in the mail already! :)
Ooooh, and if you look at the date today...in exactly 8 months I will be Mrs. Victoria Rye, hehe.
CELEBRATING
Two weekends ago, my friend Sheri had her bachelorette party. She had a slumber party at her house on Friday night, for which I should win the Miss Drowsy pageant award...and on Saturday we woke up much too early (like 8:00am) and went to Cedar Point. That weekend couldn't have been more fun!...well, it could have, but we'll leave the part out where I felt like giving the landscape my lunch and went back to the hotel early. The theme song for the weekend - "Sexy Back" by Mr. Timberlake.
Last weekend was Sheri's wedding and it was beau-ti-ful! After seeing the way her reception was setup I think I want to lift some of the ideas for mine. Dan and I have been thinking about a videographer to go with our photographer, but didn't really want to spend the money. After seeing the "love story" slideshow with later-added footage from Sheri's ceremony, we might be bound and determined to have some video cameras. We may have to fork over our first born child, but darned if we won't have a video of our wedding for years to come!
MOVING
Yep, the moving weekend is upon us. Two months ago we couldn't wait to start packing and get into our new apartment. Now, the time slipped out from under us and we don't have squat done! Okay, so I lie...Dan packed up his collection of DVDs that take up like 13 boxes alone, so it looks like we have a lot packed. I don't let that fool me. Dan has been real trooper, though, and stayed up later than me the past couple nights to get extra things done. If I stayed up that late you'd see my claws in the morning.
We DID, however, paint a few select walls of the new place! We were allowed to go in on Sunday and paint after we bought our colors last week. I'll give you three guesses as to what those colors are......... got them yet?
Actually, we didn't pick these colors on purpose, but they are purple, olive, and brown. No surprise, right? I really wanted a purple accent wall in our spare room/office, but not a bright purple...more of an earthy purple if there is such a thing. We were going to go with a brown accent wall in the dining room to match our couch in the connected living room, but decided that with a wood table there would be too much brown, so that color ended up as an accent wall in our bedroom. The olive was originally the idea for our bedroom, until we decided that it would be too much with a green duvet set and curtains. If we get a new duvet set and curtains from our registry it will go well with the green wall, but for now - no go - the olive ended up as an accent wall in the dining room. Is that confusing enough?
I really love all of the colors, and since the three rooms only have one wall done as an accent we're not overwhelmed with color. Personally, and I think Dan would say this also, I love our bedroom with the brown wall the most. The apartment walls were a light beige to start with, so the brown coordinates perfectly. It's very serene. The olive turned out great, now we need to find a cute table runner to match. The purple turned out darker than we thought, more of a dark grayish purple, but I like it and think some decorations and light will bring out the purple more. Pictures will be taken soon, of course!
I think that's it for tonight...I actually wrote this post earlier to paste in here and I've been packing all evening. Sigh, I'm ready for bed! Time to shove some more stuff in boxes before I can cuddle up in bed.
