soccer + sneaks

Can I just say I love this time of year?

For some reason this season, this year seems better than most. Maybe it's because I've spent more time outdoors lately. Maybe it's because the Olympics are underway. Maybe it's because I'm loving where I'm at in life right now. 28 is a great year.

Plus, we've done some fun things lately. Yes, that is my husband with 4 teenagers and a fire hydrant. He was asked to be the driver for a photo scavenger hunt. They had to go around town and take pictures of various items and they got bonus points if they were all in the picture with the items. Some of the funnier items were:

• a picture of the team in a bath tub
• a picture of the team eating a sandwich
• someone in a bath robe
• Big Red (WKU's mascot)
  

Also this past week, Greg's been coaching Noah's soccer team. Something tells me Noah didn't like the instruction he was receiving.....
I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but this boy is my favorite. I can just look at him and smile. Isn't he a cutie? His name is Patrick and he gets so excited. He's both a player and a cheerleader for the team. In this picture he had just scored a goal and was coming in to give all the "fans" a high five. His victory lap :)
Look at that form!
And, to get the kids to come back to center field after a goal, the kids give Greg "running-high-fives": a phrase coined by Greg himself.
Finally, the Studio Calico sneaks. These are from the Marilyn and Sophia add-ons.

And below is a stamp from Marilyn and the rest from the main kit.

an action winner + opening ceremonies

The winner of the PSE action is

love scrapping said...

I have Photoshop Elements but haven't used actions before. I like the Vivid Color the best!

August 5, 2008 8:37 AM

courtesy of Random.org

Send me an email and I'll get your Vivid action.

One of my favorite times...the Olympics. As kids, my sister and I never watched TV. Rarely would we even watch 30 min of Sesame Street, but during the Olympics, we would watch for hours. We even thought we were gymnasts and would practice our "skills" on the deck railing. I'll see if I can dig up a picture of that for ya.

Anyway, for our 16th birthday, my parents got us tickets to see this. I will never forget it. Because of that, I have grown to realize that life isn't about an accumulation of possessions, but an accumulation of memories. Love them for that!




So, naturally, I watched this tonight. I must say (setting political/anti-communism views aside) I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies. They said there were 15,000 individual performers and let me tell you, they were at the top of their game tonight. I especially loved the martial artists below. Perfect circle and each move, perfectly in sync.



As I've said before, I'm not an emotional person, but when you see an athlete on top of the podium listening to their national anthem after years and years of struggle to get their, I can't help but tear up (shhhhhhhh, don't tell Greg, I do have a slightly soft side :)

PSE Actions Installation Tutorial

First of all, I have PSE 6.0. The directions for installing the PhotoBlast actions from PolkaDotPotato only go up to version 4.0, so if you're using a more current version, this might be of help to you.

1. When you get the email with the download link, click it and select "save." On my computer, they were automatically put in a download file, but you could also save them to your desktop for easy access. There are 2 files to download: one is an exe file and the other is not. You need to download both of them.
2. Make sure PSE is not open on your computer before you do the following steps.
3. Open the exe file and double click on the icon to run the installation. Just follow it step by step, there's no real directions to follow here.
4. Once that's complete, open the other file you have downloaded (it will look like a file folder icon when you open it)
   
5. Now, go to the "my computer" file and find the PSE folder.
6. Open that folder so that you can see the files it contains, then drag and drop (or copy and paste) the Photoblast Action folder into that file.
7. Now it's time to open PSE.
8. If you've done the installation correctly, it will take a few minutes for the program to open.
   
9. Check to see if you've installed the action correctly by going to Window>Effects. You will see the action next to all the other actions with the apples :)

Hope this helps. If you have any other specific questions, post in the comments and I will try to answer, though I'm certainly no technological genius.

Oh, and if you're reading this before Friday, be sure to comment on the post below to win your favorite action.

photoshop actions....playing around

I admit, I'm very very new to the whole photoshop action craze, but boy do I love them! They're so neat! Below is the photo as it was originally taken (by the fantabulous photog Greg Foster).


Here's some of the actions from PolkaDotPotato at work. Love these and picked them up by reading Karen's blog. She's an amazing photographer and knows so much more about actions than I so go read her blog if you want some good advice.


Vivid Color
Midnight Color Pro
Polaroid Transfer
Pro Black & White

Since I've been having fun, I'd like you to have fun too. Here's the deal. First, you must have Photoshop Elements, then post a comment telling me which action you like the best. Then, on Friday (my favorite day), I'll pick a winner at random and I'll buy you that action.

And, while I have your attention, I stopped by Jason and Jessica's today to see Riley. She is just so cute and precious, but she slept the whole time I was there. Jessica called me about 20 minutes after I left and said she woke up and had been alert as soon as I left. So, I'm afraid she doesn't know who I am, so I'm going to have to stop by again on Wednesday so she can properly meet me. Then, I will have pictures.

back from my blogging hiatus

So, I haven't been the best at blogging lately. Maybe it's the summertime, maybe it's the craziness that equals my life right now, and maybe it's because I haven't really had time for scrapping. Last week was spent in ATL for a leadership meeting. I'm so glad I went. A man named Alan Zimmerman spoke, who has a doctorate in psychology and is a speaker (I can't even imagine what we paid him to speak) for various businesses. Anyway, I learned a lot and have a few things I want to work on, namely asking others more questions and also being more tactful. Now there's something for me to work on!

As soon as I got back from ATL, Greg and I headed to Paducah (2.5 hours away) for their 65th Wedding Anniversary.

These are Greg's paternal grandparents and are some of the sweetest people I know. 65 years!!! What an example for us all.

And a picture of the family that was able to come before we had dinner at Kentucky Dam.
And, me with a photo taken by Greg. I just bought some Photoshop actions from here and wanted to play around with this photo, since it's a bit overexposed. I'll post later in the week the progress I've made with learning said actions :)

Finally....
Greg and I had a chance to go antiquing and I got this sucker for $20!!! Isn't she a beaut? (doesn't that sound like something the Griswald's would say?)
The "a" doesn't work, but I've figured out the issue and I think Greg can fix it relatively easily.

Also, we picked up lots of other goodies that you'll just have to wait to see inside future Studio Calico kits. Perhaps Scarlet will let me show a sneak for you at some point, but for now, trust me that the next few months are gonna be grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

One more thing, I've been remiss in updating you regarding the friend of mine who went into early labor. She ended up having the baby (Riley Marie) and she was 5 lbs. 2 oz. A bit small and ended up having a feeding tube for a few days, but after about a week in the hospital, mom and baby are home and guess who I get to see tomorrow???? You guessed it. I'm heading to Cincy for work and me and my camera are taking a trip!

some sneaks plus some prayers

In my last post, I gabbed about our fun weekend up in Cincy with Jason and Jessica. Although we had a wonderful time, what we didn't know was that she was in labor the whole time. She was admitted to the hospital on Monday and will hopefully be released tomorrow. After that, she will be on bed-rest for the remainder of her pregnancy (hopefully 6 weeks). I could go into the details, but it's relatively serious and so your prayers would be appreciated.

Onto a lighter subject...it's sneak time at Studio Calico!!! And, we have a new sneak forum if you'd like to see more from the design team, plus see what our members have guessed so far.

Below are some PPs from the main kit in Aug...yummy, summery colors.
And some more from the main.
Here's a small sneak from the Raspberry Truffle add-on.

And, my favorite, the Mint-Chocolate Chip add-on. The ribbon and KR paper are in the main kit. The sticker is in the Key Lime Pie add-on.
Kits post at 12:00am EST on the 28th, but really, we have a lot of fun the night of the 27th!!! So come join us!

weekend happenings

This weekend, we went up to Cincy to see some college friends, Jason and Jessica. They're expecting a baby in 6 weeks, so the purpose of our visit was to attend a shower, but really, we made a whole weekend of it, including playing some rock band!

It takes us about 3 hours to get to Cincy plus they're an hour ahead, so we didn't get there till about 8:00 on Friday night. The first order of business was to eat some Mexican food (my favorite, except they still weren't serving pico de gallo, so that was annoying). Then, we came back to the house and endoctrinated them with Rock Band. I thought we'd never get it hooked up to their TV, but finally, we did. We rocked till 1:00, then the guys stayed up till 3:00 bringing down the house.

On Saturday, we went to Jessica's baby shower while Greg and Jason played golf. It was so fun meeting all her family and friends and we played a game I've never seen before.

Do you see what Jessica's doing here? Inspecting a diaper filled with something edible. We had to guess what was inside. I was HORRIBLE at this game. Let's just say I do not have the nose of a bloodhound.
Jessica's sister, Allison, who works for St. Jude's.
A flattering picture of Jessica. We worked really hard on the angle so now Jason can take pictures of her during the last few weeks that she will be proud of!
And, her baby room. All shades of pink/brown.

Finally, the four of us before we had to leave. I would give you the full image, but, well, sear-sucker pants are wierd in photographs. (note to self)

quick post

So said for her that her hubby will be gone for over a year. But, on a brighter note, the girls at Studio Calico were kind enough to organize a send off of sorts to let her know we're thinking of her family while Jimmy's away.

This was made using the VIA AIRMAIL and LONDON kits from July.
There's something about glossy accents and chipboard that I love.....swoooooooooooon.

busy 2 weeks

In the past 2 weeks, the following has happened:

• good friends of ours had their first baby
• 7 people stayed at our house for a lectureship that was in town (all of which had been on our Egypt/Israel trip, so there were many late nights there)
• reveal night at Studio Calico
• my friend Sabrina's wedding reception
  
• Greg volunteering at Thunderfest (Kiwanis charity fundraiser festival)
• friends of ours playing bluegrass at said festival
• wife of banjo player staying at our house this weekend

And, if you add our full-time jobs to the list....it gets hairy!!!

Anyway, don't Greg and I look like proud parents here?

And, Stephanie, the new mommy here with baby Garrett weighing in at 9 lbs 2 oz. OUCH!



This is Corey, Meagan, Raven (4), and Tori (2) who stayed with us during the lectures here in Bowling Green. They were so much fun to hang out with and I still miss them not being here. They're the perfect couple friends to have. Greg gets along great with Corey and I with Meagan, and when you put all of us together (especially when we're playing Rockband) it's a wonderful combination.




Then, July 3rd was Thunderfest at the Corvette museum here in town. Greg helped to put together the event and some friends of ours, the Farewell Drifters played. They've recently been signed by Keith Chase in Nashville (that's big-time stuff) and after they played to a rainy crowd here in town, they went up to Lexington for 3 shows, one each night Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, plus a radio spot. Funny story. Trevor, the banjo player left his wallet in his car at our house for the weekend, so the band stopped at a farmer's market to play and sell CDs. While there, they made enough money in tips for Trevor to have some spending money so he didn't have to starve!



Some pictures of the band and their wives. But first an apology to Dean, the bass player that I have no pictures of you at all. Don't know what happened there.

Below, Trevor (banjo) and Amber
Clayton (guitar prodigy) and Ruth
Josh (mandolin) and Lisa
Zack (lead singer/guitarist) and Marna-Jane



And, lastly, Trevor and his wife Amber have a new puppy, Moose. We've fully confess to converting them from "big dog" people to "min pin" people. They house-sitted for us when we were in Egypt and Israel and fell in love with Addy and Jett. Amber is probably the most dedicated min-pin fanatic alive and she researched breeder after breeder and finally got Moose in Alabama. He's 12 weeks old....






While at our house this weekend (Amber stayed with us when Trevor left for Lexington), Moose learned to use the potty outside. We're so proud of him!

Greg also tried to teach him to sit, but ended up just feeding him a bunch of ham. I'd say the potty "trick" is the best one anyway!