September Blue

Project Life: Week 16 + Freebie

I hope your Week 16 was a great one! My week had it's ups and downs, but I am happy to say that it ended on a high note. I had a bit of a personal setback in a design opportunity that I really hoped to be part of. Unfortunately that was not meant to be. Sometimes disappointment can get the better of people. Sometimes it can empower them. I chose to be empowered. So instead of hanging up my Wacom Tablet and pen, I decided to push forward and keep on creating & designing. It makes me happy. It relaxes me. It's what I do best. A sneak peek of some papers I am working on are in this week's layout:

This summer I am taking part in a blog hop and have started to create a mini kit that will be available as a free download for my contribution to the event (more details on that in a future post). Instead of using paper from the Clementine or Cobalt Core Kit for the title, I used one of the papers I am creating for the kit. The paper is by no means complete-I still have some distressing to do, but by including it in this layout, it gives me motivation and provides a teaser for you of what's to come! The color of the Word Art Title Tag coordinates with the Cobalt Collection. You can download tags for both collections by clicking the link below.

Download SeptBlue_Week16

This week's layout uses Design A and the 6x12 divided page protectors. 

The plaid paper in the photo above is also paper I have been working on for the blog hop. Again, I still have distressing to do, but I am loving the way it is turning out! It reminds me of a pair of plaid shorts one of my boys wore when he was a toddler :) The journal card in the middle pocket is one I made myself. Be looking for a new set of Four by Six Journal Cards in the next week!

I was glad I had a few more photos to scrap from during the week rather than just photos from the weekend. Chris was gone all week and I do not sleep well at all when he isn't around. I think it goes back to when he was flying helicopters and would be gone on deployment-I was both the mom and the dad, taking care of everything from runny noses to rotating tires on the car-always aware of every little bump in the night. You would think that with the kids out of the house I could relax, but that is not the case. I was lucky to get 5 hours of sleep each night while he was gone! I snapped the photo "after midnight" with my iPhone one night (of course) when I was tossing and turning. Because we go by a 24-hour clock instead of 12-hour clock using AM or PM, the midnight hour in Europe registers as "0." I couldn't resist taking a photo of that!

I liked what I did with the left half of the Design A Page Protector-I used it for photos and journaling to document one event. Liela Talka is a European-wide event that means "The Big Cleanup." It just happens to coincide with Earth Day. It is basically a big community spring cleaning of the outdoors! The Public Affairs Office at the Embassy organized a cleanup of the grassy areas that surround the Embassy. Saturday morning Chris and I worked for a few hours and helped with the effort. Afterwards the Marines had a BBQ and we hung out at the Marine House with friends listening to music from the 80s Hair Bands. It was a great day to be outside!

Have a wonderful Week 17. I know ours started out great. We took the dogs to the beach for the very first time. I can't wait to scrap those!

 This post is linked with The Mom Creative

Project Life: Week 15 + Freebie

Before I get into Week 15, have you seen Becky's video for new Project Life plastics that are coming in July? Check it out on the YouTube video below! I am soooo excited about all of it! Three cheers for 4x4 pockets!

 

Update on my 2012 New Year's Resolution(s): I am taking Kayla Lamoreaux's "Finding Your Photo Flow" Class over at JessicaSprague.com. I am so excited about this class. I really need to get a grasp on the number of photos I take and come up with a system of downloading, tagging, organizing & storing them on my computer. I'll post periodic updates to let you know how it is all going!

Okay onto Week 15. The layout is small, but I like it! Quick and simple!

I know I posted the Word Art Titles for Week 15 in a quick post last week, but you can download them again by clicking the link below. I used Design A and the 6x12 divided page protectors and a combination of papers from both the Clementine and Cobalt Core Collections.

Download SeptBlue_Week15Titles

My "Better late than never" photo is of a box that was delivered through our mail system. Nice isn't it? Back in the beginning of March I ordered decorations for our Beach Party we were having at the end of the month. Given that I ordered the stuff 3 weeks before the party, I figured that was plenty of time for it to get here. Boy was I wrong! For several weeks our mail was being routed through Istanbul which brought delivery of bulky packages down to a trickle.  There is only one or two flights a week to Riga from Istanbul, but by the looks of my box, you would think it traveled by rickshaw! But there is good news! Our mail is now going through Stockholm and there are daily flights from there to Riga which means our mail will get here much faster. And that has already proved to be true. I received a box in the mail yesterday that was shipped from the States on April 10! Six days-I think that is a record!

Although the temperatures need to warm up just a little bit more, spring has sprung here in Riga. We know this because all of the restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs are constructing their outdoor patios and opening them for business! On Saturday Chris and I strolled through Old Town and stopped for lunch at one of our favorites-No Problem. It felt so good to get out into the fresh air! (I got a new "do" this week as well. Totally happy with it. It's now my new FB profile pic!)

Saturday was also the 20th Anniversary of the Latvian Navy. There were several navy ships from Latvia and other countries in port for the celebration. After lunch, Chris and I walked off our food and drink and went to the port to tour some of the ships. Good day!

 This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama

Project Life: Week 14 + Freebie

Nothing much happened at the beginning of Week 14, but it ended on a high note! Chris had a 4-day weekend and we took a little trip to Vilnius, Lithuania. He's been super busy at work lately and we just needed to get away for a few nights. My layout for Week 14 documents the trip.

I know I posted the Word Art Titles in a quick post last week, but here they are again! Click the link below to download them. Designs A, B and the 6x12 divided page protectors were used.

Download SeptBlue_Week14

Embellishments in this layout were kept to a minimum. I would rather focus on the photos than worrying about the enhancements! 

Since I so many photos I wanted to put in the layout, I needed sacrifice using too many journal cards. But that didn't mean I was sacrificing my journaling! In the 4x3 photos above and below I did my journaling in Photoshop before I printed the photo. 

Other than reserving a hotel room, we went to Vilnius without any plan. We didn't have a schedule, didn't know what we were going to see-we were just kind of winging it. By not having a plan or being tied to a schedule allows you to just stumble upon little treasures and finding them yourself instead of following a guidebook. This is what happened when we came across Literatu Gatve. We accidentally walked down this street and I fell in love with it! It's a street that has a permanent outdoor art gallery dedicated to past and present writers and artists that left their mark on the city. There are over 100 pieces of art-mixed media, drawings & paintings-all from local artists-displayed on the walls along the street. The photos above show some of the works displayed. We walked down the Literatu Gatve several times during the day and the evening. It was such a picturesque little street. I love that we found this treasure together!

Instead of labeling some of my photos with tags or stickers, I labeled the photos in Photoshop before I printed them. 

Again, more journaling on the photo. Vilnius seemed to have a big Italian influence. The city was full of Italian restaurants, Italian bakeries, shoppes and of course Catholic churches (beautiful churches). Fiorentino's was a restaurant located around the corner from our hotel. The chef is from Tuscany and the decor in the place made me feel like I was in Italy! The food was fantastic! I would love to go back and visit this restaurant in the summertime. Our waitress told us they have outdoor seating behind the restaurant in a beautiful courtyard. She took us back there, and although it was cold and dark, I could imagine how beautiful it would be in the summer with flowers tumbling over their containers from the balconies that surrounded the courtyard. 

It was a great getaway. I can't wait for our next adventure!

Project Life: Weeks 14 & 15 Title Word Art FREEBIES

I have been having some computer issues over the past that I believe are due to the 20,000+ photos I have in iPhoto! Instead of working on PL, I have been doing some quick re-organizing of iPhoto and moving photos off of my Mac to an external hard drive. This is obviously taking a bit more time than expected, so I wanted to let my readers know that you can expect my Week 14 and 15 to be posted together by next Monday or Tuesday! However, I thought I would post the Word Art Titles for both weeks now so you don't have to wait! Click the links below each set of photos to download. Each zip file contains png files for both titles that will coordinate with both the Clementine and Cobalt collections. Thanks for your patience!

Download SeptBlue_Week14

 

Download SeptBlue_Week15

Project Life Week 13 + Freebie

I kinda lost my creative mojo yesterday so my layout wasn't posted like it usually is on a Monday. To be honest, even though the layout is complete (well, almost, but more on that later), I still haven't found it yet. Maybe the two big events at our house this week sucked it all out of me or maybe it was because I wasn't happy with the way my pictures turned out from Saturday night (more on that later too!). But just because the creative wheels weren't spinning was no reason not to work on my Project Life. That is the beauty of this system. You can be as creative or uncreative as you want.

This week I used products from the Cobalt Core Kit along with Page Protectors B and G. You can download this week's word art titles by clicking the link below.

Download SeptBlue_Week13

I mentioned above that we had two events at the house this week. An Admiral was in town and Chris hosted a dinner in honor of visit. There was a mixture of 12 American & Latvian military officers in attendance and the occasion was catered by Restaurant Line 36 in Jurmala. I met the restaurant's chef, Lauris, at one of the Latvian cooking classes last fall I attended and he was more than happy to cater the event! I was a bit disappointed because I wasn't able to be there though. There are times when Chris hosts dinners at the house and I just need to disappear (who wants to stick around and listen to all that talk anyways?). So I went out to dinner with my friend Anna, had a mojito and a few glasses of wine and great conversation. We haven't gone out in a while and it felt good to reconnect with her! 

The rest of the week was spent prepping for our beach party Saturday night. Several weeks ago I ordered awesome decorations for the party as well as a fun tropical skirt for the event. The mail system here has been unbelievably slow lately and it's been taking stuff 3-4 weeks or longer to arrive from the States. It's driving me crazy!!! Thursdays seem to be a big mail day and when we got a note saying we have a box, I was jumping for joy! Good news and bad news...

The skirt I ordered from Title Nine came in (along with a bunch of Mary Kay stuff I ordered), but the decorations did not. Grrr!!! My friend Robyn said "Well at least you'll have something to wear and your make-up will look good!" (she cracks me up). That may be true, but what was I supposed to do about decorations for this party?

Cricut to the rescue!

Instead of using my Thursday to scrapbook with the girls, I was making plumeria flowers with the Cricut machine. A lot of them. I had them hanging from door frames, light fixtures and the fireplace. They worked out great! I wish I had more photos of them, but I don't...

...why? Well, all of the photos I took of the evening I took with my iPhone. I know I have raved about the pics I get from my iPhone, but the iPhone isn't the best in low light. I should have taken the time to run upstairs and get my point and shoot, but with everything going on that night, I hadn't a moment to spare! So, as I mentioned in the beginning of this post, this spread isn't totally complete. I am waiting for several of my friends to forward me some photos from the evening and when they do, I will print them and place them in the 6x12 divided page protectors. Once I get those printed, I will include them in a future post!

I wanted to make a horizontal, bi-fold journal card to journal about the night. The photo above shows what I did. And the photo below shows how I placed it in the slot.

The night was a blast! We had invited the Attaché community as well as several friends from the Embassy. The foreign diplomats weren't sure what to expect, however! The Russian Attachés were a little confused on the dress for the evening (totally tropical). They kept calling Chris' secretary asking for clarification. But once they arrived they all had a good time! Lots of photos were taken by the palm tree and hanging garlands. I got a letter from the wife of the Swedish DATT saying how much they enjoyed the evening and how nice of a change it was from the formal receptions we usually attend!

In typical diplomatic protocol, the Attachés stayed for about two hours and left, but the Americans hung out for a while! We moved furniture around, cranked up the music and turned the living room into a dance floor. Beach balls were bounces and the margaritas were flowing. We had a great time dancing the night away! Again, I will post more photos when I get better copies from my friends!

Whew! I am so glad last week is over though! This week (week 14) marks the beginning of Candice Stringham's "Oh Shoot" Photography Class over at JessicaSprague.com. I've been wanting to take this class for a few years now and am looking forward to learning more about getting out of auto mode on the camera! 

Have a great Week 14 everyone!

 This post is linked with The Mom Creative and One Happy Mama