Ever since I installed a new Blogger template (thanks to the lovely Katrina at Powered by Pastries), I'm kinda digging the whole "everything in lower case" vibe- at least for titles and headers. Her template even has the text in my Twitter feed converted to lower case- no idea how that happened, but I kinda like it!!

So, henceforth (or until I get tired of it), all blog post titles will be in lower case.

I'm still blogging from Sam's Club, but luckily I'd stockpiled some layouts over the last few weeks to share (they're even photographed and ready to be linked up here!), so I'll be bring those to you over the next few days until power is restored.

I'd like to share one of those pages today- my first all-digital layout!!

I've done digital projects before (like this summer photo book last Christmas), but this was my first time starting with a blank canvas and building from scratch. I totally dug every part of the process except the drop shadows (I think I'll get faster at them as time goes on, though).

I used a couple of kits on this layout- Sorriso by Paisless Press and Nostalgia by Jen Allyson- and the stitching is by Anna Aspnes (received in a kit from Ali Edward's Yesterday and Today class). I'm really used to mixing up supplies from different lines on my paper layouts, so I guess I carried that right over to digital, too.

One big strike against digital scrapbooking? I can't do it while the power is out unless I pull out my laptop (and Photoshop is a huge drain on the battery)!! I'm looking forward to getting back to it in a few days, though. :)

Friday Favorites: Live From Sam's Club!!

Hola from still-out-of-power northern Alabama!! I'm currently sitting at Sam's Club (where they have an internet connection and wifi) taking a few minutes to send emails and read up on current events. I'm also getting my first glimpse of the destruction that happened not too far from me (I want to reiterate again that we're absolutely fine with no damage whatsoever), and holy wow, it's incredible. I know that the rest of the world has had access to these images for a couple of days now, but with limited communications and even more limited power (basically generator only), we've only heard about it on the radio and hadn't seen it before now. Kind of crazy- we're smack in the middle of it, yet we know less about it than probably anyone else right now. If you'd like to help out with the relief effort, I'm sure that donations to the American Red Cross would be much appreciated right now.

We've been trying to keep life normal and enjoy the days off work as much as possible. We even picked up some new plants at Lowe's the morning and have been doing some gardening at home! And, of course I've been scrapping when I have daylight or when we run the generator (we don't keep it on 24/7 to conserve fuel) and I can turn on the lights in the scrap room.

And, thankfully, since my work schedule has been a bit hectic lately I'd already prepped today's Friday Favorites collage earlier in the week, so all I need to do is link everything up! Are you ready for some pretties? :)

 

From left to right:

• These photo cards are a quick and easy way to turn your favorite pictures into beautiful greetings! Get the scoop at Ella Publishing.
• Pink Paislee shares several ways to use their printed tissue sheets, including these cute mod flowers.
• My travel-obsessed self thought that these passport themed wedding invitations featured at Paper Crave were just too cool! 
• October Afternoon has a great article on shaped cards with step by step instructions.
• These mini Polaroid magnets are too cute for words! Learn how to make them yourself at Ambrosia Girl.
• Oh Happy Day has a great post showing how to make these super-fun confetti-filled invitations.
• How sweet is this doily and patterned paper mobile? I must make one soon! Learn how at Tater Tots and Jell-O.
• Elle's Studio shares this amazingly fun mini album on their blog- I'm in love with all the colors and the Instax photos!
• Lisa Dickinson has a guest post at Scrapbooks, Etc. showing how she took inspiration from a catalog cover for a scrapbook page. 

Okay, that's all from me today! I hope you guys have a great weekend!

The Day After

If you've been watching the news, youve probably heard about the outbreak of hurricanes tornadoes (yes, I mixed up my natural disasters) that swept across Alabama yesterday. Darren and I are okay, and aside from having no power at the moment, we didn't sustain any damage or injury.

We were lucky- a lot of people weren't, and they could really use your prayers and support right now.

It's estimated that power will return in 5 days (our nuclear plant was hit and the main feed lines are down), but we have a generator at our house and will be fine. I'm a little lost without internet, but we're currently in line at Sam's picking up a few things, and I was fortunate to find that their wifi is working and wanted to get a post up while I could.

Posting will, of course, be sporadic for a while, but I'll be back as soon as I can!

Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop: April 2011

Yes, that is a photo of a flower (columbine, to be exact), and, yes, you are in the right place for the Counterfeit Kit Design Team blog hop.

So, why the photo of flora at the top of the post? It's there to give my Mom fair warning that if she doesn't want to see her Mother's Day card, she should stop reading now. :) You see, my project for this month's challenge was born out of a need for two things...the first and most obvious was to have something to post for the hop, and the second was the fact that I'll need a Mother's Day card in a couple of weeks. Thus, Mom's card is on the blog today long before she'll receive it.

Are you still reading, Mom? Because I'm giving you one more flower photo before I show the card! :)

The hop challenge for this month was to find inspiration for a project on one of the other Master Forgers' blogs. I chose this post on Shazi's lovely blog because of the gorgeous yellow and pink color combination. As soon as I saw her creation I knew I'd found the boost I needed to get my Mother's Day card made!

I want to take a minute to confess something. Those yellow flower and butterfly die cuts? They weren't in my original kit!

Oh, yes, I said it. It's on now!!

Seriously, though- I've read posts from more than one scrapper participating at Counterfeit Kit about how they wished they'd included an item in their kit so they could use it on a project, and to that I want to say it's all good. Really, we have enough rules imposed on us everyday without making up more ourselves, so if I find something later in my stash that I think would work well with my kit, then gosh darn it, I'm gonna use it!!

My philosophy is this- if I were subscribing to a kit club,  I'd more than likely still pull items here and there from my stash to use on layouts, especially if I knew I had the perfect item for a page. The same should go for kits that I made from my stash in the first place!!! Are you with me???

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now and send you over to Sherri's fab blog, where she's got a great project to share with you. Thanks for stopping by, and Mom, if you accidentally saw your card, let me know and I'll make you a new one. :)

Layout: A Lovely Visit

I promised I'd be back today with another layout, and here it is!

Yet another page that I made with my April Counterfeit Kit, and a continuation of this one in which I share the story of my parents visiting me shortly after I had knee surgery.

I certainly had fun with mists (Studio Calico's "Orchard" Mister Huey) and glitter on this layouy! Oh, and with buttons, too. Whenever I'm unsure of what kind of embellishment to use on a page, I usually just stick a button on it.

I have one more project in the works with my April kit that I'll share tomorrow for the Counterfeit Kit blog hop. Stay tuned for lots of fun goodies tomorrow from all the girls on the design team!

Project 12: April 2010

I seem to be forgetting a lot of things the last couple of days. Or maybe just last night. And maybe just two things (but they were important). The first thing I forgot was to put my cell phone on the bookshelf next to my bed (it's my alarm), so I slept straight through BodyPump this morning (which makes me grouchy). And the second thing I forgot last night was to post this layout, so you'll be getting two posts today!

My excuse for forgetting things? I got so darned excited last night about the next Scrapbook Update article that I'm writing- there are Stormtroopers on the accompanying layout!

But this particular page? No Stormtroopers, just me running in the rain and several other assorted things that happened during April 2010. This layout is part of my Project 12 (if you don't know what that is, go here) for last year- the year I'm still playing catch-up on.

I also have a confession to make- I'm still having a really hard time with the two-page, multi-photo layouts that have been the main staple of my scrapbooking for almost three years now. I feel major changes in my process and pages coming on...but more on that later when I have time to write about it.

But one thing I am still loving? These little banners! It seems that once I made my first one, I couldn't stop making them! This one is from the Fancy Pants "It's the Little Things" chipboard, which was part of my April Counterfeit Kit (all the supplies were). So much fun to use!

I'll have another layout up tonight, and hopefully next week I'll be able to post more about the scrapbooking style reboot that's been going on around here!

Beth's Birthday

I found myself on the road again yesterday morning, headed back to Tennessee to spend a few hours with family for Beth's (my sister-in-law) birthday party.

Any event with Beth and Jon now also means that we all get a chance to see miss Sophie again.

She's learning to high-five pretty well now! And she totally loves my Dad.

And of course my Mom. :)

She basically got passed around to everyone so we could oooh and aaaah over her.

And in the middle of all the baby-sharing, we set up tables for food and started grilling. It was really windy, though, so Dad and Jon moved the grill up to the porch so it wouldn't blow out.

I was so happy that my aunt Tina came, too!!

And my sweet cousin, Michelle.

How about more Sophie? She's teething, so she noms on everything in site.

Speaking of noms, we had lots of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers.

I think that Dad passed on the grill-master genes to my brother, because he did a great job cooking!

My aunt Lina also came (yay!!) and brought the cutest Garanimals tub for Sophie.

L'il bugs took to Linda instantly!!

Beth's family also came to visit- we haven't all been together in a long time! This is one of Beth's grandmothers with my Mom.

And Beth's other grandmother with Sophie.

And Beth's mom, Ellen.

Someone (maybe Ellen? I don't remember) brought Sophie her first Easter basket, so we all went nuts taking photos of her playing with it (mostly I think she wanted to eat the plastic grass!!).

She proceeded to dump out the entire contents...

...which gave me the perfect opportunity for a cute baby foot shot.

Linda snapped this photo with her phone- everyone thought it was hilarious that I was laying in the grass to take photos.

I couldn't resist a close-up of the eggs.

And also of my brother's shirt. I have to get one of these!!

Lunch was served buffet style...

...and most everyone brought something to share. Mom made some of the best salsa I've ever had (and I'm totally not a salsa person!!)...

...and you can almost always count on my Grandmom to bring deviled eggs.

Back to Sophie, who decided she wanted Dad's hat.

So he gave it to her. :)

And then it was time for Beth to open presents. It was her party, after all. :)

That didn't stop me from taking more photos of Sophie, though!

And then going back to Beth for a little while...

...and back to Sophie. :)

Both families chipped in and bought Beth a really, really nice sewing machine. She loves to quilt, and her old one has been driving her bonkers.

There was one last shot I had to get as everyone was packing up to leave...Michelle got her first car earlier this year, and it's a del Sol like mine!! Hers is a year newer and black (mine's the blue one), but we still say we're "car twins."

And here we are with them. :) I've had mine for almost nine years now!!!

And then it was time to drive back home.

I almost didn't go up for the party because things have been so crazy at home, but I decided to at almost the last minute (9pm the night before) and I'm so glad I did!!