Pink Saturday ~ New Blog Header ~ Photoshop Tips

Happy Pink Saturday! If you haven't noticed, I have a New header up there. The best part is I did it myself. I had some help from Miss Tara's wonderful book Blogging For Bliss, which you should pick up if you blog or are thinking about it. I love the book because it has loads of pages of creative blogs to check out & tons of important information. I've been blogging for 3 years now & have learned so much!

This is another banner I made above. I used Photoshop Express to create it. I selected photos I had taken & placed them into a new blank file. Once the photos are placed, you may size the photos within the space. I can't get over how much fun this is! My current header has some of the cutest pink & black girlie cabochons with bling. I used the text button with fonts that came with the program. It's going to be fun to change!

Besides using the Tara's Blogging for Bliss book, I've also used the following links for digital fun:

• Rhonna Farrer Rhonna is a rock star digital designer. I've purchased some digital brushes, kits, & even my blog background from her company House of 3. Rhonna's blog & the House of 3 blog has lots of tutorials & Q&A's. I learned a lot by just reading them. There are even videos available.
• Deviant Art I googled free digital brushes & stumbled upon this site. I've found so many fun ones. The artists there are so generous to share their designs. I played around with the free brushes before I bought some from House of 3.

If you want to see more pink go visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. Enjoy your Pink Saturday!

A Short Goodbye ~ But Not for Long

Passports ... Check

Visas ... Check
Tickets ... Check

Yea, we're finally ready to go. Well, I'm not ready yet. I have a ton of packing, mailing, laundry, organizing, stressing out to do still. I'm getting a bit sentimental again ~ as I have been for the last 2 & a half months. I keep thinking about all the things I'm going to miss: the great nature scenes, my favorite places to get old junk, our dogs. Those dogs are my first pets & we've had them for 10 years now. I'm Really going to miss those little princess mutts!

It's great having this blog. I don't really have to say goodbye to my blog friends. Just, I'll have some really different pictures & stories to share. I think that's what I'm most excited about. I'm going to be living in another country on the other side of the world for 2 years! I get to share the experience with my husband & my 2 sponges of kids :) I hope I'm not gone too long!

I do promise to do a post on some of the digital things I've learned. I've just started to scratch the surface, but I was asked for some tips for beginners & I'd be happy to share what I've learned by playing around. Junque Couture, I'm doing that post especially for you!

Till next time :)

Pink Saturday ~ August 8

I'm going to make this post short & let the pictures do the talking. I'm *bit* on the exhaused side. I had to travel back to Charlottesville today to pick up our passports & visas & travel back home. All this happened after 5 hours of back to school shopping.

This week I had a chance to visit a dear friend of mine, Anna Harding. She lives in the most creatively beautiful house & has a wonderful studio & garden. I am lucky that our paths crossed in the short time we lived in Easton. She was my life coach & helped me find some balance in my life. It was a wonderful experience & I got over quite a few humps in my way. These are photos I took in her outdoor environments. Enjoy! There are more picture over on my flickr account in the Maryland folder.

Make sure to visit Beverly & take a look at the list of all the Pink Saturday participants. Beverly has been hosting Pink Saturday for over a year now! Thank you!

Why I Blog for Bliss

Welcome to old & new friends! Thank you to Kari for hosting & Tara for writing an incredible book Blogging For Bliss. I already bought my copy & have it, but can you believe I'm waiting to read it? I'm saving it for the upcoming 12 hour plane ride. I'm like a kid at Christmas when I new books & magazines :) Make sure you visit Kari's blog & look at all the participants on her sidebar.

Blogging opened a new world for me. I started blogging July 2006. Wanna see my first post? (Scroll to the bottom of the page on the link) I don't even know if I want to show it. I've come a looong way!

I began blogging that summer because of my husband's deployment. I was transitioning not having him around, moving to FL, selling 2 homes, becoming a SAHMomma, & suffering from postpartum depression. I was pretty much a mess. I turned to art to find something. What I found was this world of blogs. It was this creative soul, Gina Armfield, that introduced me to blogging. I was hooked. There was a whole world of creative people that had stories to share, friendships to give, shopping trips to take & loads of inspiration to look at. While I am no longer in that difficult stage of my life, thank goodness, I still read blogs to escape. I find such joy reading about what finds someone scored at an estate sale or what they made with their new supplies.

I blog personally for a few reasons. Being in a military family & living all over the place it gives me a place to share my artwork & a few family stories with family & friends. When I was younger I kept journals & as I've grown older I stopped. My blog has been a visual & written diary of my creative journey.

Blogging has taught me new things:

I take much better pictures now! I also have my camera with me at all times. Right now I'm enjoying pictures of the outdoors. (I'll have another post this week of my friend's beautiful garden.) I've even taken pictures of my food.

Before
Now

I'm learning Photoshop & doing some fun digital work!

I'm obsessed with old chippy rusty things & musty old paper. Who knew? It's funny, as I really started getting into estate sales & flea markets I found myself interested in the same things my mom is into. Ten years ago I would have been bored out of my mind :)

I've had the privilege to participate in many swaps & make tons of friends along the way!

I was excited when I finally met a blog friend live in person earlier this year. Also another first, I went to my first art retreat! Cindy Dean that was you!! We both met through a blog event, One World One Heart, & were both published for the first time together in an article about the event!

Thanks for visiting & getting to know me a bit better if you didn't already. I'm really looking forward to this party. If you haven't already, get the book. Not only is it total eye candy, but there is technical information in there. Yes, I'm really going to read the info on HTML codes. You'd think I would have figured it out by now. And make sure to visit Kari to see a list of all the partiers.

Pink Saturday ~ Pink ATC downloads for you

Happy Pink Saturday! It's been so long since I've been able to participate. My laptop took a little 3 week trip to be repaired, I've been preparing for this move that seems like forever, then I just needed a little break :) So now I'm back. Please go visit our hostess Beverly & take a look at the participant list.
One of the things I did while I was gone, was play with Photoshop Express. I've had such a good time. I'm ready to make downloadable goodies all the time. Unfortunately things like laundry, dirty kids & hungry family members need to be taken care of first! Really, do you have to eat when I've found a bunch of cool vintage brushes to download?

What I have for Pink Saturday is a set of ATC front & back downloads. You can click on the pictures & get the true size (2.5" x 3.5") to download & save to your computer. I also have an 8.5" x 11" page with 8 ATC fronts & backs here. I hope to make some cards & labels too! Oh, the fun! Maybe I can make more downloads during the 12 hour plane ride! Just a note, these are to be used only for ATC's & personal use. The brushes used to make the backgrounds are not commercial.

Hope you have a wonderful Pink Saturday & make sure to visit Beverly!

awww, thanks!

Imagine my surprise when I opened up the Lollishops home page last night & found my sweet lil store as the featured seller. Thanks Sadie!

Have you heard? The Lolli website has a new unified look. So sweet! AND Lollishops & Glitter & Grunge are forming an alliance. We're doing Silver Bella together , among other things :) Definitly cool stuff.

Downtown DC

Air & Space Museum

National Museum of the American Indian

The dudes

The Butterfly Gardens

The Natural History Museum

Last week, we spent the day at the Mall in downtown DC. We were able to visit 3 of the Smithsonian Museums. It was a nice visit as the family has been on a 48 hour notice for our move. We're just waiting for 1 more item. Hopefully, we get it sooner rather than later. I'm ready to go & start this new journey.

My personal favorite was the gardens. I'm having a thing with photographing flowers right now. The group ditched me so I could take my time taking pictures. I had a ball. I took 240 pictures total for the day! I have more pictures on the flickr set.


Picture # 240. Happy Birthday little man!

Capture Your Dreams Workshop Week 1 Day 1 & 2

I've been iching to do lots of creative things this summer with the kids & with my "me" time. Yes, you moms out there know what that is, right? I purchased a spot in this workshop Capture Your Dream in late June & couldn't wait for July to get here fast enough. It's only day 2 & I'm having a ball! Avital is creative & encouraging. I think you can still join in on the fun if you want.

We are making a mixed media journal using all sorts of fun stuff & jounaling about our dreams in the process. I seem to be at a crossroads with my creative dreams, so this is perfect. What's not so perfect is I'm in the middle of this move & most of my artsy stuff is on some airplane/slow boat on the way to the desert. I figure I'll wing it until then, or go shopping :)


Since I'm so into this digital thing, I made an ATC of what photos I needed. Below are 3 of the photos I've used with some of the journaling. I still need to get the other 2 done. I was wondering how to unify all these random photos together. Some photos I just took today & others are a bit older. I decided to reverse saturate all the photos, use frames to emphasize some of the objects in the photos & journal right on top of them. I selected the strongest characteristic & used a different font.
This first picture is my jewelry. I was sorting & packing lots of pieces today & decided to take a picture. Just like my pieces, the materials, & the techniques I use, I love to describe myself as eclectic.
How could I not take a picture of my many bags & pieces of luggage I've been living out of. Not only have we been living out of luggage for the past 7 weeks, we really have never been settled since 2004. Before the birth of my second son (who turns 4 tomorrow!) we've had a move, cross country, cross base, up & down the coast. You name it, we did it. I'm not the most flexible person, but it's opened me up to lots of possibilities. I love a good adventure ~ especially when it involves looking for good inspiration & junk!

I LOVE this picture. I've been crafting all summer with the boys. They decided to draw a family portrait. I'll get the other 2 pictures up tomorrow. I may actually get to bed tonight before 2am!