September Blue

Photo Shoot: Havana

Let me first begin this post by saying that I do not consider myself a professional photographer at all! I have always had an interest in photography. I remember the first time I dabbled with it was in high school. I was the feature editor on the school newspaper staff and needed to take photos to go along with the stories I wrote. Of course we were using film back then, DSLR cameras were only a figment of our imaginations. I remember the anticipation of waiting for film to be developed, hoping I was able to use a few shots in the feature spread  If there wasn't, that meant I had to come up with more words to fill the space and I didn't want to do that! Thank goodness for the instant gratification that cameras give us nowadays!

Being a graphic designer, digital artist and scrapbooker, my interest in photography has only grown stronger over the past few years. I've taken classes both in school and online and even interned with a photographer while in art school to help gain a better understanding of the craft and to help develop my skill. And developing that skill takes practice. So I jumped at the chance when my friend Bethany asked me to photograph her sweet daughter, Havana, at one of the local parks here in Riga. 

Bethany mentioned she absolutely adores the above photo.

I snapped this picture of Havana as she was going down the slide at the park.

Havana & her Mommy.

The shoot was so much fun to do! I ended up taking over 500 pictures. Of course I deleted over half of them (I'm an amature remember), but I learned a lot in that 90 minute adventure in the park. When I downloaded and started the editing process, I was laughing the entire time. Little Havana has the most adorable expressions and personality. Her smile is contagious. You just can't help smile when you look at her pictures. Once I finished selecting and editing my favorite photos from the shoot, I posted them on Facebook and tagged Bethany in them. She saw them first thing Saturday morning and she was texting me, saying she had tears streaming down her face. She was so grateful for capturing the joy her little girl has in the photos. Her comments totally made my day. I was thrilled to be able to give something like that to a friend. It makes me want to do more and I can't wait for another shoot!

Thanks for reading!

 

Personal Project: Gymbag Trainers

Almost a year ago several women at the embassy here in Riga started working out with personal trainer and lifestyle weight management coach, Lisa Biffin. Lisa ROCKS! She keeps up motivated, provides us with valueable information in diet & exercise and most importantly makes working out FUN! Our little group has a private blog where we post our weightloss victories and setbacks, links to helpful websites, healthy recipes and my favorite feature–custom workout programs created by Lisa–which brings me to my personal project: Gymbag Trainers.

When not working out with the group, I would print off one of the workouts that Lisa created for us and bring that to the gym with me. I got tired of stuffing 8.5x11 sheets of paper into my bag and carrying them from machine to machine. I wanted something where I can have all custom workouts in one place, yet small enough to throw in my bag and not be a nuisance to take into the gym. So I created these personalized, 4x6 flip books that fit nicely into our bags and are easy to have with us during a workout. 

Right now there are 3 workouts in our books and each one is color coded (pink, black & purple). For example, in the photo above you see the first page of our "30+30=60" workout is done in pink. All subsquent pages for this workout are in the same color. Other workouts will be added in the future. I have plenty of binding coils so it will just be a matter of removing the coils, adding the pages and rebinding.

I gave these to the girls about a week ago and they loved them! The Gymbag Trainers will definitely help keep us on our road to a healthy lifestyle!

Project Life Freebie: Word Art Titles Bundle Weeks 27-32

Crazy-busy. That is the only way to describe this summer. My visions of a nice warm summer filled with lazy days at the beach, designing on my computer, working on getting a digital store open and catching up on Project Life have instead been replaced with formal receptions, luncheons, farewell parties, a 3-week visit with my in-laws and wonderful trips to Estonia, Helsinki, Lithuania and Poland (more on that in a future post). It's all been a good kind of busy, but I am ready for things to slow down a bit. 

I feel terrible for those who have been waiting for me to post my free Word Art Titles that I've been creating each week for my Project Life album. Thank you for your patience! I sat down last night and created another bundle of them for you to download. 

Click the link below to download weeks 27-32. Each week has two titles. One coordinates with the Clementine Core Kit and the other coordinates with the Cobalt kit. Enjoy!

Download SeptBlue_WordArtWeeks27_32

I am actually going to have some time to work on my PL album today! I am soooo far behind! I left off at Week 18! Yikes! I think what I am going to do is work on the current week as well as week I left off at until I am caught up. So hopefully I will be able to post 2 weeks of layouts within the next few days or so! Wish me luck!