BFS - Prompt Three

Good Saturday morning to all
I have had a beautiful slow morning as my DH and diva junior went to go watch big brother play hockey this morning, so I had a lay-in, relaxing cup of coffee and some surfing time.  I'm also playing catch-up, so here goes for prompt three:  my 10 favorite things as recorded and scrapped in 2009, but never blogged.  I did this as part of a Book about Me, which is still a work in progress.
I hid the 10 favorites in a tag at the time, not sure why I did that, but here is my list and it is still true now in 2011.

1.  Diva Junior - she's the best part of me and amazing to have conversations with.

2.  Movies - all time favorite "Pretty Woman" - not very deep lol

3.  Music - especially jazz

4.  Food - sushi at the moment (salmon roses) yummy!

5.  Scrapbooking (no random order)

6.  The Beach - living in CT is such a blessing

7.  A day at the Spa - reflexology, Indian head message mmmmhh

8.  Experimenting with my hair (it still hasn't fallen out from all the chemicals I nail it with)

9.  Seduko (this has taken a back-seat of late in favor of craft magazines)

10.Travelling (domestic and international), planning a trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe for Easter break.

I'll hopefully have time to post promp four later today.  Its diva juniors birthday tomorrow, she'll be 10 years old and we are having the family over for lunch.  I still have to go hit the shops for groceries and a gift.  She's into Wii at the moment, she's had it for two years, but I think she's only now really getting into it.  So I'll buy some Wii paraphanalia and additional games and stuff.

Have a great Saturday all and thanks for all the lovely comments you gorgeous ladies are leaving.  My cup runneth over!

Hugs

Natalie

BFS - Prompt Two

So yes, I'm a bit late with prompt two, but I still really want to do it.  This is my take on thinking back to a time when I was really happy and scrapbook something about it?  And you might think this weird, but I've been reflecting a lot lately on my late father.  He's birthday was on February 26th and he's been gone for almost 20 years now.  I am at a place now where I have really happy thoughts about him, instead of feeling sadness.  Before his birthday I was really missing having him around, and for some reason I looked around old photo's as we sometimes do when we get nostalgic.  I then came across my Mom and Dad's wedding photos.  I knew immediately that I had to scrap them as vintage is very in at the moment lol.  
Regrettably, in 1962 (the year my parents got married) they didn't have digital photo's where the photographer could take hundreds of pictures and you could take your pick.  It was mostly a few selected studio pictures, a few in church and a few in the gardens.
I looked around on the internet, as I normally do for some inspiration.  And came across the tutorial by Cathy Files  (scroll right to the bottom of her blog post) of Paper Phenomenon, of a wedding mini she's made of her own wedding.  Coincidentally I had the exact same paper line she used and so this mini album was born which is a testimony to the love and commitment my parents made to each other, so that my two brothers and I could have the lives that we have today.  So this post is NOT sad, its HAPPY.  I'm in a good place, my Dad is in a good place, we are all in a good place.  Here is celebrating HAPPINESS.
This is the cover of the mini album "Always and Forever", inspired by Paper Phenomenon.
 
 I used vinyl for the cover, Tim Holtz buttons for fasteners, bling and a bride and groom.

Here you get a glimpse of the bride and groom pages.  Its a gate-fold album.

 Brides pages ...

Bridal bouquet ...

 The wedding cake ...

 The grooms pages ...

 The ring bearer pillow ...

Love and happiness to you all ...

Natalie

Card for Max

Here is the card for Max.

Hugs
Natalie

Scrap Dreams: Max-A-Million

Scrap Dreams: Max-A-Million: "I received this email today: PLEASE HELP US FILL A STUDENT'S WISH!!! Received a request this morning to help a child with cancer. Max..."
When I read Cheri's blog post today I was immediately moved into action. Last week-end I made a boy card, which I rarely do as I have a girl and lots of girlie birthday party invites that require girlie birthday cards. But I made a boy card. When I saw Cheri's appeal I immediately knew that I had the right card for this brave boy. Here is the card that I've already written the iside message and address on the envelope, ready for the mail room tomorrow. Okay, somehow I published this without a photo and when I wanted to add the photo the computer didin't respond, it was just staring at me. I'll post the photo in the next post, sorry!
Off to bed now, so sleep well to all those on my side of the hemisphere.
Hugs
Natalie

Off to Johannesburg tomorrow

I'm off to bed now as I'm flying out to Johannesburg tomorrow on business. It will be a 1 day trip which is always exhausting, but not so taxing on my family life.
Hope to have bags of time over the week-end to catch up with some of the Blogging for Scrapbookers promps. Its day 3 today, and I've still only done promp 1, so I need to catch up.
Laters
Natalie

Blogging for Scrapbookers

Hi fellow bloggers
I started taking a class by Shimelle Laine from http://www.shimelle.com/ on Monday this week called Blogging for Scrapbookers. My intention since last year has been:
a) to become a better blogger as I enjoy the outlet it gives me in terms of creative expression as well as articulating my feelings and emotions on my life journey
b) in order to become a better blogger, I at the same time took the challenge of also becoming a better photographer (I'm a Nikon babe!)
c) lastly, all of above was born out of a love of SCRAPBOOKING! It is scrapbooking that led me into these two disciplines a) blogging and b) photography. I must admit though I am not very technically savvy. In fact, as I'm sitting typing this post I am so FRUSTRATED because it seems I'm challenged with both these passions that are turning into nightmares. I guess I put too many irons in the fire at the same time, because I never have enough time. I don't even have enough time to just do the daily prompts of this course! The same happened with the 10 week photography course thats coming to a close this Wednesday, and I am far off from even producing decent photos with the right lighting settings etc. etc. I will have to move off manual back to Auto untill I have head space to figure this all out, just so I can have SOME photo's because at the moment my scrapping has come to a standstill because I don't have decent photos to scrap the meories. And BTW, who wants to scrap a blurry photo. Ever heard of Depth of Field? Agggh!

OK, so enough of the wining now, but I just had to put it out there and get it out of my system or else I won't be able to sleep tonigh LOL (which will be in the next 10 min). Learning a new skill is very HARD! But we LIVE and we LEARN. Its much better than being anaethesized by the TV.

So wish my luck on my journey. I'm going to try and keep up with the pace, but if I don't ... I don't. And I need to take advise from the Master Scrapbookers like Shimelle, don't STRESS!! I'm STRESSING!!!!
Laters
Natalie