Welcome Jaren Jorgenson

Today Jaren Jorgenson entered the world at 7:42 a.m. weighing in at 6 pounds 4 ounces, 18 inches long.

 

Month of Memories Update

The assignment was to turn a picture into black and white (I did sepia print). This farm is along Scotch Ridge Road between Carlisle and Hwy 65-69.

The assignment was to scrap an accomplishment or something I've done that I'm proud of...need I say more?

This assignment was to photograph something to do with power, strength or conviction. Went up to the capitol to photograph the war monuments for conviction, but ended up using this picture of our beautiful state capitol and where I worked for 16 years.

My latest layouts

It is Sunday morning and I've been working on a layout for Jeremy's birthday. Supplies used include

Styles: Christy Skaggs: Blue
Actions: Pioneer Woman Action set 1 on photos
Papers and elements are from Doreen Stolz Kit: Rustic Fields

Month of Memories Update

Day 18 was a landscape. I am really pleased with how this turned out.Today was a group shot so I took a picture of my favorite group.
The assignment for day 16 was changing your point of view.
Day 15 was honoring the Fathers.

Day 14--What color are you

Saturday's assignment was to take three pictures of the same color family. This is my pictures and layout. I did a two-page layout for this one.

Father's Day

Spent a nice quiet Father's Day at home with Roger. Met the kids and their families for lunch at Famous Dave's--always a favorite with the men. I meant to get a group picture of the guys and kids, but forgot to do it beforehand and then Jeremy and Sarah left a few minutes before us. I have pictures of everyone except Sarah--she was in the bathroom when I was taking pictures. When we came home Roger laid down for a nice long nap, sleeping until almost 10 p.m. Of course he has to go to work while I sleep.

I took one car load of equipment and files down to the office and unloaded this afternoon while Roger slept. I've also been scrapping. Today's assignment was honoring fathers. Here is my layout I did for this assignment. I did the first one and then later decided to add the name badge to the layout. Not sure which one I like best.



I also scrapped a couple larger layouts--one honoring the Fathers and the other one of me and Luke. I don't scrap many pictures of myself and decided I should be in the albums too.

Friday, the 13th

Today's assignment for my Month of Memories was to take a picture of my house and scrap it.

Jeremy's Birthday Celebration--You're a Winner

To celebrate Jeremy's 29th birthday, we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner followed by bowling afterwards. These are a few of the pictures I took.

Month of Memories Update

Here are my days 11 and 12 of my Month of Memories class. Day 11, which was Jeremy's birthday, was creativity. I think it was a pretty lame creativity photo, but had to work with what I had. Day 12 was called Peaceful Easy Feeling or what brings me tranquility.

I'll post in a bit some pictures from Jeremy's birthday.

Day 10: Action Photo

Today's assignment was an action photo. Since I had been up since 2 (my mind wouldn't shut down coming up with plans of action in case our office would flood), I went out before work down by Sec Taylor Stadium (for us stubborn people who refuse to call it Principal Park) to take some action photos of the river and perhaps catch some sandbagging. When I got to work we had an Email from our management company saying because of the improvements implemented after the 500 year flood in 1993, we were in no danger. Went to lunch at noon and when I returned at 1 learned that we needed to move everything out or at least six feel off the floor. I ran out to buy as many boxes as I could get my hands on. The Health Department asked for 12 volunteers to come assist us--they were a lifesaver. Luckily I had my camera with me and took a few seconds to catch some real action shots.

Hey, Good Lickin'

Today's assignment for my Month of Memories class was take a picture of an animal. Took several of all the dogs this morning, using treats. Then tonight I took Molly out in the front yard since she is the only one I can tell drop and she will do it. Max wants to investigate the camera and gets right in your face; Maddie, well Maddie is Maddie. I took several pictures, playing around with Manual mode versus automatic mode. The picture in this layout came as quite a shock to me when I looked at them. I was in rapid shoot mode--just kept shooting--and this picture was one of them I caught. Quite a tongue she has.

First Page in Jaren's Baby Album

I got motivated today and scrapped the first page in Jaren's baby book using a few of the pictures I took tonight.

Day 8: New Beginnings

When I saw today's assignment I right away knew what I was going to shoot. I spent the morning working on my layout, and all I needed was the picture. Jeremy and Sarah came over tonight and I took several photos. I had to shoot them inside because it was raining and the lighting was not what I wanted. I made the photo black and white and while moving it onto my layout and create a clipping mask to my photo holder, I realized I loved it the way it looked--the photo with my journaling on top so I just left it at that.

Month of Memories, Days 2-7

I was going to post daily my assignments for the Month of Memories Class, but have taken way too much time creating my layouts (plus it has been a very hectic week). The following pictures are in reverse order.

Day 7: Contrast was the assignment.

Day 6: Self Portrait. I played around with doing a "Wilson" from "Tool Time" but ended up showing my whole face:

Day 5: Funny. Wasn't finding anything too funny this day since I was up all night with Molly and was having serious thoughts how much longer she can go on with this level of terror of storms and fireworks:

Day 4: Journey. Mia's posed journey going for a walk in the neighborhood:

Day 3: Candid. Again, a posed portrait for the occasion. I'm terrible:

Day 2: Lucky. Not sure how much you could consider this a lucky shot since I drove directly to Gray's Lake to get a shot of the flooding. I guess it is lucky because hopefully if I went back there in August there would be no flooding.

Month of Memories

I'm participating in "A Month of Memories" class over at Scrapgirls.com, taught by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole. Yesterday was Day 1, and we could take a picture of anything, and this is the picture and layout I created. I had forgotten all about the class starting until late in the day and when I remembered I took this picture of Lukey with his boo-boo on his face.

I had had everybody over for dinner, and the kids were out in the living room playing, drawing, and watching TV while us big folks were sitting around the table in the kitchen. Luke comes running in crying and I picked him up. Carrie became concerned immediately because that was his I'm scared cry. I got him calmed down enough to realize he had somehow hurt himself. He had a small cut under his lower lip and a line on the side of his face. We had followed his sisters into the "office" (the room where my husband and I each have our computers set up) while they got a stapler. They left the room but he climbed up in grandpa's chair and was typing on the computer (probably trying to find Thomas), when somehow the chair spinned, moved or something and he fell hitting his face on the computer hutch.

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa, parts 2 and 3

Been a busy day today. We stopped at Best Buy to buy a Hannah Montana's Best of Both Worlds CD for the girls' listening pleasure while riding in my PT cruiser, then went and picked up granddaughter #2 for her bike ride. Asked her where she wanted to have lunch, and guess where she chose--Fazoli's. Had another nice long lunch spending some quality time with her. I managed to get spaghetti sauce all over my shirt and shorts so we came home so I could change. Grandpa laid down for a power nap, and Mia and I made a card for her to give her Mom. I then took her home and grandchild #2 was ready to go. He's 2 1/2 and has never gone bike riding with us. So the two of us set off to wake up pick up Grandpa and headed back to the bike trail. While riding with #2, there was a sign saying the trail was closed. I figured it was because the river was rising due to all the rain, but since we saw people had been through the area, we decided to go on ahead. At the bottom of the trail there was water on the other side of the trail, but then found it all over the water a couple inches deep. We made an executive decision to go to higher ground and walk the bikes. So when we set out with #3, we went another direction. After going almost three miles, we stopped for drinks. Grandchild #3 was looking kind of tired, and didn't want to go back. He wanted to go "three blocks that way." Convinced him to get into the cart and headed back the way we wanted to go. He quickly fell asleep. Brought him back to our house because he was hungry and wanted one of my smoovers (translation: smoothie). After he recharged, we got out his cars to play with until Mommy and Daddy got here to pick him up. They were going to Olive Garden and invited us along, but I didn't really think I could handle more pasta and breadsticks, although I love breadsticks and pasta. I think we will kick back, enjoy a little vino, and relax tonight. Took a shower and saw that I got some nice sun today. Well on my way to my summer tan.

I also reworked my Squirmy Wormy layout by changing the title to look like stickers; changed the stitching on the journaling box, took the worm out of the jar and placed it peeking out from under the journal box and added a lady bug to the jar. I also added a tag with "I love bugs" on it.

New Adventure for Grandpa and Me

Last night when I left work I was shocked to see the sun shining and no rain. So instead of heading to the gym, I thought I'd see if Grandpa wanted to get his bicycle out for a little ride. Then I thought, "we ought to use our bike trailer and take a grandchild with us." The bike trailer can fit two smaller children, which we've done with the twins, who are now 6 1/2 years old, but it would be a tight squeeze now. The problem was, all three of our grandchildren live in the same house with the same set of parents. How do I take only one? So I called their mother, my daughter and told her what I was thinking of doing, but that I couldn't decide how to choose only one. She put it to the grandkids. I could hear all kinds of screams of excitement and discussion. She came back and said that granddaughter #1 figured out a plan--she was the oldest by 20 minutes so she would go first, followed by her twin sister, and then their little brother. Sounded like a good plan, kind of how I worked out years ago which one of my brats children got to ride in the front seat (can you believe we used to let them ride in the front seat with no car seat ) with me and which one had to ride in the backseat--child #1 was born on an even date and child #2 was born on an odd date, so #1 rode in the front seat on even days and #2 rode in the front on odd days.

Back to last night...we got there to pick up granddaughter #1 and all of them were in a good mood although they all said they wanted to go to. We promised them we would take them today and tomorrow. So we did our little bike ride, picked some flowers, caught some bugs, and then went to eat at #1's choice: Fazoli's. (Did I forget to mention we washed our hands first?) She was a little on the fidgety side at first, not knowing what to do with herself without her sister, but was also eating up the two-on-one time, chatting away, cuddling with Grandpa, and playing with her food. You would have thought we were at a fine dining restaurant with seven courses--we were there for over an hour and a half! Grandpa and I just kept looking at each other smiling, glad that we had taken the steps to spend some quality time with her. She also wanted to go get ice cream at a place in an adjoining town where her other grandparents live. As it so happened her parents and siblings were there visiting so I asked her if she would like to have them join us, which she smiled big time and shook her head yes. So after a phone call, we all met there and as soon as she saw her twin, they were in each other's arms hugging and dancing away. You would have thought they hadn't seen each other in weeks instead of 3 1/2 hours.

I meant to take my camera and can't believe I forgot it. Going to take granddaughter #2 today, but since I didn't take my camera yesterday, I can't do it today--got to keep it fair.

Squirmy Worm

This layout is in honor of Cailey's dead pet worm. The journaling reads "One day at school Mia found a worm and gave it to Cailey. Cailey put it in her coat pocket, where it stayed during the school day. When s he came home the worm was dead. She then made the dead worm a nice home in her but catcher.

"She loves to catch bugs and worms. While at Living History Farms her friend picks up this worm. I wouldn't let them keep it. As a compromise, I promised to take a picture of it."

I used Kim Hill's Girly Bugs kit, that my daughter and her family gave me for Mother's Day. I love the jar. I can think of lots of uses for these jars.

Nikon Family poster

Che-Guevara-Nikon-Family-poster-web, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Saw a great tutorial by Ariadna Wiczling in ScrapGirls.com Newsletter on How to Turn Your Photos Into Pop Art. I played around with a couple pictures of Roger and myself, both with our wonderful Nikon cameras. Scraplifting Andy Warhol's “Che Guevara” poster, I created our own little poster. Wonder if Nikon would be interested in it?

Pella Tulip Festival

Earlier this month we went to Pella with our children and grandchildren to enjoy the Pella Tulip Festival. I've finally gotten around to scrapping a page from this visit, thanks to some scrapbooking kits I received from my daughter and her family for Mother's Day. I used the Girly Bugs Kit from by Kim Hill.

Living History Farms Field trip

dj_LHF-12x12-double, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Last Thursday I went along as a chaperone with my granddaughter's kindergarten class to Living History Farms. I used Pioneer Woman's actions on my photos, and Doreen Stolz's Rustic Fields Kit from http://godigitalscrapbooking.com.

Soccer

2008-May-08_soccer_0392, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

I am still amazed the difference a year makes. The girls are right in the mix this year, with smiles on to boot. I shot over 300 pictures during their game. The hard part is choosing which ones to post. I've posted a few more over on flickr. Check them out!

New Soccer Shirts

Soccer_04 24 08_0162 edited, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Last night the girls had their first soccer practice of 2008. They wore their red shirts from a previous year and after the practice, which they did an awesome job at, they got juice boxes and their new blue shirts. They are the Bulldogs. Go Bulldogs.

If you want to see some more soccer photos, visit my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/queenshakenbake/

King of the Jungle

King of the Jungle, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

I was playing around with my PW Actions on this photo from Luke's and my zoo visit. Isn't he beautiful?

Last night I went to the girls' first soccer practice of the season. This is their 3rd season "playing" soccer. I think this is going to be a good year. They were right in there participating in the drills and they have a fantastic coach--Mike. He ran them through drills and took time to explain everything to them. They both showed a lot of interest and Grandpa saw Mia throw an elbow into Cailey trying to get control of the ball. Cailey really paid attention to what Coach Mike was saying and was probably one of the better ball dribblers on her team. I'll post some pictures tonight. Not a tear in sight!

I got an Email from nephew James last night with a link to his Flickr page. His lovely wife Lindsey recently purchased him a Nikon D80 camera. Check out his pictures.

City Jewel: Gray's Lake

The picture/poster above was done for the Bubble Gum Challenge over at Digital Candy, in which we were to use an ad as our inspiration. This month's ad was from my favorite store--Target:


I used pictures I had taken at Gray's Lake, which is probably the number one spot to go in Des Moines. I made it look more like a poster to promote the lake.

Grapes

Grapes, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

Hee is an "after" processing photo. The original was pretty great, but the actions really made this one POP.

Napa Valley Grapes

napa valley grapes copy, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

My favorite blogger--Pioneer Woman--posted a FREE set of actions on her site and I have been having so much fun playing around with them. The picture above will become one of my favorite beverages, but for now were just hanging around getting fat and juicy. The picture on top is SOOC and the one on bottom is after I ran fresh and colorful, boost, and quick edge burn.

Pioneer Woman Action Set 1

flower girls times 2 copy, originally uploaded by queenshakenbake.

The fantastic Pioneer Woman has created a set of free actions available on her site. The top picture is SOOC (straight out of camera) and the one on the bottom I've ran a couple of her actions on it.

Another Weekend is Over

Been a busy weekend. Started out with an exciting event on Friday. My Grandson got a casting call for an upcoming movie to be shot in Iowa: Paradise starring Ellen Page from Juno and Cillian Murphy who was in The Girl With The Pearl Earring and Batman Returns. We have our fingers crossed he gets selected for the role of 2-year-old Jack Ellen Page's character's son. For more information, visit "The Adventures of Cailey, Mia, and Luke" or Variety.com

Met up with Carrie, David, and grandchildren at Costco yesterday. Can't believe it has been over six weeks since we were there last. That is some kind of record. We drove the girls home with us and they took Luke and a brand new 47" tv home with them. DH and I had already eaten lunch but we joined them at Cheesecake Factory where I had a Peach Bellini (YUM YUM) while they ate and a slice of chocolate cake, which I shared with Luke and the girls. It was fun talking to Cailey about my favorite book, Misty (see previous post). Their kindergarten teacher has read them the book and showed them the movie and brought pictures she had taken of the island. It was fun talking books with my 6-year-old granddaughter.

Today I spent my morning scrapping and then we went shopping again. Later tonight I went and walked around Gray's Lake (I love that place).

Here is the layout I worked on this morning as part of a template challenge at digitalcandy.ca:


Supplies used include Template by Chrissy W; GDS_Buds_N_Bloom kit; and DMI_bitsy_spiral brush

My Favorite Reading Material as a Child

As long as I can remember, I have always LOVED to read. As a child, I started out reading (I believe) every one of the Bobsey Twins books. I know I read every one of the Little Women series books. I was big into series. Another series I really loved were the non-fiction series about Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.

I have always loved horses and always dreamed of having my own horse. That is probably one reason I am so hooked on Confessions of the Pioneer Woman.

Anyway, back to Misty, the pony on which the book was based. Misty of Chincoteague is the title of a 1947 children's book by American author Marguerite Henry, based on the true story of a Chincoteague Pony named Misty. Set on the coastal island of that name, the book tells the story of the Beebe family and their efforts to raise a pony born to a wild horse. The book won the Newbery Honor. Wikipedia Misty and her foal Stormy have been preserved and are on display at the Beebes' home. Sequels to this book include:

Stormy, Misty's Foal
Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague
A Pictorial Life Story of Misty
Misty's Twilight

These books brought me so much pleasure and transported me to the Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia.

Hanging out at home

Well it has been awhile since I've posted. Not much happening around here. I have done some scrapping this weekend for a couple challenges over at ScrapGirls.

For the Friday sketch challenge, I created the following layout:


For the Saturday Color Challenge, I scrapped this page from my visit to the zoo with Luke:


The journaling tells a cute story about Luke and the monkey that bit his toes. It wasn't really a monkey and it didn't really bit his toes--didn't even come close to him. It was a cool March day and after the class we participated in, we decided to tour the zoo. There was an enclosure and inside the enclosure was a building for some monkeys. Because of the temperature, the monkeys were in the building making LOTS of noise. Luke kept wanting to know what the noise was and I told him it was some monkeys inside the building. He wanted to go inside the building to see the monkeys. Awhile later, on our way out, we passed by the bird exhibit and a peacock had his tail feathers spread. It was beautiful and I was taking some pictures through the fence. Then I decided we would go into the area so I could take pictures without shooting through the fence. We were probably 25 feet away from him. I'm shooting away with Luke standing right next to me. Then the peacock, which was evidently flirting with an ostrich, hissed at us so I decided it was time to leave. Later that afternoon Luke was telling his father all about the monkey that bit his toes, the monkeys in the building were loud and they bit my toes. I kept assuring my son-in-law that although the monkeys were in a building and were very loud, we did not go see them and Luke's toes were not bitten. Later when my daughter came over, Luke and I were showing her the pictures I had taken and when I got to the peacock, he informed his mother that that monkey bit his toes. We told him it was not a monkey but a peacock, but he insisted it was a monkey. A few days later I asked Luke tell his Uncle Jeremy about our visit to the zoo. Luke said he saw a peacock but that he calls it a monkey. What a boy!

I've also been scrapping some 4" x 6" inch brag books for the grandchildren.