First day as DT!!!

Today was my first official day as DT for Treasured Scrapbooking. It still shocks me to think that I'm actually on a DT!!!!! For our first day we had to post one layout with the kit we received from the store, a sketch and a monthly challenge. Here's what I posted....


The above is my layout and sketch for kit #2--I am in LOVE with this kit!!! I love all the colors!! Not too themey but definitely great for Christmas and winter layouts!


The last one is my challenge to scrap your "little pleasures" that are not family or friends....kind of a "self indulgence " for the holidays :) Mine are: coffee, my blanket from my Grandma, my ipod (specifically NPR wait wait don't tell me podcasts) and wool socks! There is journaling underneath each of the pictures telling how each of these help me function on a daily basis!

Treasured Scrapbooking 12 Days of Christmas Cyber Crop

So the new DT over at Treasured Scrapbooking is hosting a 12 Days of Christmas Cyber Crop!! There will be all sorts of challenges, make and takes and prizes to be had!! It will be a great time! Come on over and check it out to see what's in store!! You'll probably be able to finish some Christmas gifts if you want as well! The link is over on my list of "places I visit"!

Treasured Scrapbooking 12 Days of Christmas Cyber Crop

So the new DT over at Treasured Scrapbooking is hosting a 12 Days of Christmas Cyber Crop!! There will be all sorts of challenges, make and takes and prizes to be had!! It will be a great time! Come on over and check it out to see what's in store!! You'll probably be able to finish some Christmas gifts if you want as well! The link is over on my list of "places I visit"!

Kitchen renos!!!

Well, today is the day we begin installing our new cabinets!!! I'm so excited! We are very literally DOUBLING our counter and cabinet space in our tiny little kitchen! I'm just praying it all goes well and easily! We also have a dishwasher just *sitting* in our kitchen begging to be installed!!! Too bad none of us know how to plumb so we're at the mercy of a friend who's a plumber and works midnights....

My parents and little brother are coming up to visit and I'm VERY excited to spend time with the three of them!! It's been fAR TOO LONG!!! I've been quite homesick lately so this will be just what I need!

I did some scrapping last week but it was all DT work for Treasured Scrapbooking so I will have that up next week!

Well the cyber crop over at Treasured Scrapbooking was a huge hit!!! In fact, I feel like I actually have a Scrapbooking hangover!!! I stayed up and did challenges Friday and Saturday....I got 6 layouts done and I'm really happy with what I got done!

But today, I have to get back to "real life". We're having our kitchen wired on Tuesday so I have to pack up half of the kitchen to get it out for the electrician to work! It's exciting and I can't wait to get the kitchen done!

BEYOND EXCITED!!!

So Treasured Scrapbooking had a Design Team call....I almost didn't apply cause if figured I'd never get it but something kept edging at me to just do it! So.....I did....and....I MADE IT!!!!!!! I am SOOOO excited!!! It's my first application to a DT and I got it! I LOVE Leslie and the board and I still can't believe it!!!

My term lasts 6 months and starts December 1st! the current DT is hosting a Cyber Crop over there this weekend so pop over and check it out!

Oh--AND I'm spotlight member of the month so I'm featured on the home page!!

So, like Mom said...apparently those two years of an art major were worth it!!!

http://www.treasuredscrapbooking.com

GIRL POWER - an essay in Photos

GIRL POWER - an essay in Photos

Over at Fancy word for Simple the challenge is to show where you learned about girl power with a photo.....

I learned about Girl Power from my Mom....she is one of the strongest women I have ever met. She alwayys taught me to be independent and, at times, hard headed ;) Here's a Layout I did of Mom and I--one of the only pictures in existence of us together....along with a layout with some words she had written to me on the eve of my wedding.

http://fancysimple.blogspot.com/2007/10/girl-power-essay-in-photos.html

Here's the topic for today at Fancy Word for Simple blog http://fancysimple.blogspot.com/2007/10/girl-power-questionairre.html

Today's challenge? A Questionairre. Twenty Questions about being a GIRL.

1. Name--JoEllyn
2. Pink - Love it or Hate it?--pretend to hate it but i've been buying it a lot more lately.
3. Signature shade of lipstick, lipgloss, etc.--burts bees chapstick
4. Do you have a best girl friend?--Brenda!!!!
5. Do you have a woman mentor?--MOM!!! and Grandma!!
6. Are you a woman mentor to someone else?--I hope to most of my clients
7. Tomboy or Princess?--Tomboy -- all the way
8. Favorite Girl Band--Evanescence
9. Are you a mom? Do you want to be one?--Nope--eventually yes
10. Do you and your mom have any rituals?--Talking and drinking LOTS of coffee
11. Fashion magazines - yea or nay.--NAY!!!
12. Do you have a feel good outfit?--Not anymore--but kind of...does a bridesmaid's dress count?
13. Have you called your grandma or special aunt, or special older lady lately?--ugh no.
14. Signature Scent?--Calgon Body spray
15. Favorite female tv character--Detective Benson (Law and Order SVU)
16. Favorite place to hang out with gal pals?--in the woods
17. Did you ever ditch your girl friends to be with a guy? Do you still?--Yes cause I'm married. But i also ditch him to be with girlfriends too!
18. Friend you call when you need a laugh?--Brenda
19. Friend you call when you need a shoulder to cry on?--Brenda
20. Have you reminded your friends of how much they mean to you lately?--I hope so...called and vented to her last night

So over at "A Fancy word for Simple Blog" the theme is Girl Power....
This week’s theme: GIRL POWER

What do you love about being a woman? What do you despise?
I love and despise that we tend to be the nurturers. Sometimes I HATE the responsibility of taking care of people, other times I absolutely love it.

What are some of the challenges faced by women?
That's a question answered just by looking at history. We've gone from being expected to be homemakers and housewives alone to now being expected to do it all...So I guess it's always a challenge. I don't even have children but already feel the pressure of working and trying to take care of home life. It's a tough balance and I'm trying very hard to keep a working balance now so I can make sure and keep it when we do choose to have children. I SO admire mothers!!! I don't know how you all do it!!

Where have we been as a gender? Where are we headed?
I kind of answered this above....but I think we're headed in a great direction of being women of power who also are able to be the mothers of children and wives of husbands, or whatever path you choose. I also *hope* that we are going to be respected and get more help with these responsibilities!

New blog I found

Someone over at Treasured Scrapbooking posted about this blog and it looks VERY interesting so I'm going to post some stuff related to that on this blog and over there--but check it out if you want!!!

http://fancysimple.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-hell-really-matters-to-you-anyway.html


So first I will be posting on this:
What are the five things that are at the core RIGHT now of your life. Don't sugar coat. Don't hide from it. Tell us what really matters to you.

1. Work--I don't like it to be the center but lately it is, unfortunately.
2. My husband and dogs
3. My family
4. God
5. Pursuing my hobbies of photography and scrapbooking.

More to come....I was behind on the blog so I'm going to do catch up....

We went hunting a few weeks ago and lo and behold, for the first time when I've been along and we've had both dogs, we got one!!!!! It was Maya's first experience with a grouse on trail so it was pretty exciting!!!!! We sent the dogs in after the bird and we were all looking for it way back in the woods. After about 10 minutes, they came back out and the dogs were CASHED. It was hot outside and they were panting incessantly. Well, Aspen managed to find it -- right in front of where I was standing!!!! He didn't pick it up but did show us where it was...he was panting too hard to pick it up! So we had to then show it to Maya so she would get excited for the next time!!!!












After running around like crazy they both were really hot and we couldn't find any puddles for them to hop in...so we had to head back to the truck. Well, as you can see, we managed to find one!!!! Maya decided that she had to immerse herself in order to feel "better"!!!! They were so excited and it was so fun to see them get one!!!!

We went to our friend's wedding last week up on the Gunflint Trail at Wilderness Canoe Base where I used to work with the Bride. It was a BLAST!!! It was so good to see people we hadn't seen for a long time and to see our friends that we've been all too busy to hang out with this summer! Tim and I got our boats in the water for the FIRST time all year!!!

I took a ton of pics, unfortunately most of them had a lot of noise in them so I'm in the process of editing them which is very tedious because I don't have photoshop--I have to do it with two different free programs......argh.

BUT here are some that I did take!

This spring there was a massive wildfire at the camp and it burned over 30 buildings at the site. The bottom pictures are what USED to be my cabin when I worked there and another one called Listening Point where several of us spent most of the summer because it was too hot in our cabins--this one had electricity and a ceiling fan!

We went camping this weekend and I really didn't take a whole lot of pictures--nothing spectacular came out of the weekend as far as shots. I was having fun just relaxing in camp with our friends!

We saw a moose that I tried my hardest to get a shot of but we were in the boat so I just could NOT get it!!! By the time we got close enough it started moving around because it heard us! Here's some other pics from the weekend....The lake we were on and my dog playing with a log in camp...

I went to a free photography basics class last night and learned a TON!!!

Challenge from Elsie's blog

I saw this on Eringudge's blog--it's a challenge on Elsie's blog http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/ to write about things you want to do before your next bday...

So...the 28 things I want to do before I turn 29.....
(in no particular order)

1. try out for TS design team
2. Take photography class
3. make a plan to eventually own a Rebel!!
4. Take a REAL vacation with DH!!! No dogs allowed!
5. Blow up MY pics to hang on my wall
6. Paddle (canoes are STILL in garage--it's august....grr)
7. Quit smoking!!!!
8. Get my teeth fixed
9. Make big steps to being out of debt
10. Get DH to try something TOTALLY NEW AND DIFFERENT!! (with me of course)
11. Start a Children's mental health program at work
12. make a plan for going back to school
13. Decide what to go back to school FOR
14. Try something new
15. Plant bulbs on the side of my house
16. Learn how to keep those plants alive for next year
17. Show someone "important" my pics
18. Spend more time with my family
19. Spend more time with my friend's kids
20. Buy good Christmas presents for everyone--stuff they'd never expect
21. Get a cricut
22. Get a tripod
23. Learn how to blow off steam from work without bringing other people down
24. GROW CLOSER WITH GOD
25. Go on a retreat with Church
26. Feel like my house is designed well and not just "put together for the time being"
27. Be happy with my house and what I'm already blessed with
28. BE ME!!!

What a contest

What a contest

Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!

Well I made it to the next round of the Treasured Hunt contest at Treasured Scrapbooking!!!
Check out the rules at: http://www.treasuredscrapbooking.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7323&start=0

The next challenge was posted and it's all based on the #1....I worked on it some last night and I will post it in a day or two just to make sure that I don't want to add any more to it.

I'm really excited because it's pushing me to work really hard on my LO's and the grand prize is $250 in scrap supplies--oh how I would LOVE that!!!

This is the layout I posted for the first round....

Elizabeth's challenge form Treasured Scrapbooking

The challenge is just to update our blogs with anything we're led to write about....

I guess really the big thing on my mind is the tragedy in Minneapolis. I thank God that all our friends and family are ok. I also keep thinking it could have been much worse but unfortunately that doesn't make it any easier for those involved and the families of those missing or already confirmed dead. My prayers go out to those who are involved in this tragedy as well as everyone in the Twin Cities right now that are reeling from this.

As far as photography and scrapping go....I have been a little slack in the area of taking lots of pics. I have some from a few recent events to possibly post but my computer needs to go in for work so I've been hesitant to put any on my laptop. I've been putting them on my back up hard drive...Hopefully I'll be posting more soon!

Some silly pics

Here are some pics of a bachelorette I was at....It was just a weekend at the cabin with the girls....but it was a blast!

The first one is of my friend "showing" us something from her dream she had. The other is of the bride with, yes, inappropriate sunglasses on her head doing an impersonation of someone....

My good friend asked me to take pictures at her wedding....if you notice there are very few pictures of people in my album.....it's NOT my strong point. I do have some but they are mostly work related hence the reason they are not up on my blog. I am really nervous but I'm going to practice and hopefully pick up a tripod to work with prior to the wedding. Wish me luck!!

All right....so I'm more than a little obsessed with these little guys....they're a fun challenge to get shots of because you have to definitely have patience!!

Some of my first pics

These are pictures of Artist's Point in Grand Marais I took when my husband and I were up there for a weekend. I love it because Lake Superior is NEVER this calm here! You can't tell where the lake stops and starts!

Hello everyone! Thanks for checking out my blog. I will try and keep this updated as I attempt to take at least one picture per day to hone my skills!