My life...just not on the road I expected (but it's still dang good).

She.

1. She likes to make faces like this anytime she sees me with the camera.

2. Her favorite song is Knick Knack Paddy Whack (give the dog a bone).

3. She's going to be three in a couple of weeks.

4. She says she'll start going potty in the toilet when she turns three.

5. The little strawberry hemangioma she had on her arm when she born is almost gone now (and I kind of miss it).

6. Whenever she wakes up and her Dad's not home she calls him on the phone and says "But you didn't kiss and huuuuuug me."

7. She likes to call people stinker-pots.

8. She still rarely sleeps through the night - I hear her little feet pounding down the hallway multiple times a night hollering "Mom I'm scared, can I crawl in bed with you?"   (and I usually cave in until she starts kicking me or talking in her sleep and then I carry her back to her own bed). 

9.  Every single one of her babies used to be named Cassie.  They're all named A.K.  now.

10. When I put her in time-out the other day she hollered, "Well...you're a BRAT mom and you're not going to Kids Zone with me EVER AGAIN!" (she threatens me with not being able to go to Kids Zone all the time).

11.  I heard her hollering at all her babies that they weren't going to Kids Zone either because they weren't behaving the other day.

12.  She's really loud and opinionated and likes to repeat the same thing over and over and over (and over) again.

13. When I kiss her or hug her she say's "You're kissing me because you really love me, huh Mom?"

I sure do.

Pebbles & Bam-Bam.

It's school spirit week and Cali is full of school spirit. 

Ross?...not so much.

He is also having some issues with being "whipped" enough (his quote, not mine) to agree to dress up as a character duo per his girlfriend's request for school spirit week.

Me?...I'm quite amused by it all.

A Year in the Making.

This is going to be the last kit from me for awhile. 

I actually hadn't planned on offering this one but after teaching this class on the cruise a couple of weeks ago, I've had lots of requests for it (the only in-store location I'll be teaching this class will be in March at Pictures in Time in Orange Park, Florida/904 213 7891).

One of the layouts will highlight all of your favorite memories from 2008 and the other layout will be a layout in progress that you add a photo and notes to once a month during 2009 so that by the end of the year, you have a single layout that details all of your memories from 2009.

This one is probably my favorite layout I've ever designed for a class...

If you've ordered kits from me in the past, a couple of differences with this kit:

- I am out of the zipper bags that have my logo on them so these will just be in boring old ziplock bags (disappointing, I know).  I will however make sure that you still get your M&M's.

- I will be emailing a PDF with the instructions rather than including a CD like I used to do (too many problems with CD's not copying correctly).  You can expect your PDF instructions the day I mail off your kit.  If you don't receive this PDF for any reason, please email me so I can resend it (karencrussell@charter.net).

And as usual, you'll still have TONS of supplies left over after you finish these two projects.

You can see a few more images by clicking on the 'Order a kit: A Year in the Making" over there in the right column of my blog and can view ordering info. too.

Is anyone...

Is anyone a Stampin UP demonstrator?  I've been needing to place an order but would rather give my business to a demonstrator rather than ordering direct from the website.

I'll just plan on placing my order with whoever I hear from first (so please leave your email address).

Thanks a ton!

Sometimes.

Sometimes when you're a mom, you get unexpected little gifts...

Like looking up from a sink full of dishes to spot something like this outside your kitchen window (Coley - taking a minute from playing basket ball with all the neighborhood kids to love on his sister). 

CHA Winter 2009

Just wanted to share the images from my CHA Winter collection.

I've mentioned before, but I'm taking a hiatus from product design so this is going to be my last collection for awhile.

Decided to get wild and crazy and change the cream & black collection I've been doing for the last few years to cream & brown (yes, very wild, I know).  It's called Sepia.

 

     

 

   

And the new colored collection is called Lily Lane.

And did you noticed that I also put a new spin on the old negative strips that I had originally introduced back in 2004?  Very excited about those.

And the cardstock frames are all embossed.  Very excited about those too.

Getting my scrapbook room set up at the new, old house (it's my biggest priority) so I'm hoping to be scrapbooking (for fun) very soon.

The little stuff.

Seems like life has been so busy lately that I haven't been taking time to document the little, daily happenings.

So I took care of that tonight...

Coley reading Double Fudge by Judy Blume in his underoos on the couch (kind of looks like he's wearing make-up...I am quite confident he is not though).

Courtney Lee working on some homework.

Josh Downs reading a book on the elliptical.

And this little one who was in time-out for like the 8th time tonight.

Ross, was at his Drivers Education class.  However, he just walked in the door as I was typing this and gave me a big ole' smooch on the shoulder, an impersonation of the German exchange student that he befriended during class (they swapped numbers so they can start texting eachother) and asked me if I saved him any spaghetti.

So there you have it...the little stuff.

No need to put out a missing persons report...I'm here.

I did not mysteriously disappear while on the cruise ship.  It's just hard to get caught back up with home and work after being gone for a week.

And my presence might be a little hit and miss until I get caught up with everything.

Finally got some of my pictures downloaded though and had to post this shot.

My Sister and I rented bikes (that's my Sister in the background) and toodled around town most of the afternoon while in Key West.

Much to my Sister's dismay, I kept getting side-tracked with wonderful things (like free-range roosters) to take pictures of.

I decided to take my old camera rather than my new one and one of my older lenses that I don't use anymore.  I also decided to complain about that bad decision the entire trip.

I even had to shoot with a disposable (gasp), underwater camera when we went on a couple of water-related excursions. 

Just so you know...shooting with a disposable camera just about killed me.

Didn't take a ton of pictures.  Kind of sad about that.  Sometimes though when my kiddos aren't around, I just don't feel so inclined to shoot.

So if you happened to be on the cruise and you happened to get any great shots that you want to share (and don't mind me posting here on my blog)...you can email them to me at karencrussell@charter.net (don't miss the 'c' between my first and last name).

Kind of scared of any photos floating around out there from the last night on the cruise though (the one where I had five drinks and sang karaoke with those crazy Norwegians)...

Heading out.

I'm teaching on a cruise next week.  In fact, my flight leaves in a couple of hours.

It's a Caribbean cruise.

When I decided to teach on this cruise, I had grand visions of dropping 15 pounds, hitting the tanning beds and shopping for some really cute clothes.

Those things didn't happen.

I'm actually up a couple of pounds (about seven in fact...which may not seem like a lot but when you're 5'3...it's a lot) and haven't managed to do any shopping other than a quick trip to Old Navy yesterday.  I did manage to go tanning twice (though I couldn't stay in the beds for any longer than 4 minutes each time for fear of frying my lily whites) so I'm just a slightly lighter shade of pasty white.

If I were normal, this wouldn't be all that big of a deal.  But I'm not normal.  I actually somewhat abnormal and have quite irrational issues with my body image. 

I don't even own a pair of shorts.  That's how deep my sausage leg issues are.

Ridiculous, I know.

I've actually spent the last couple of weeks hoping that I had made a mistake and that when I received my travel documents that I would find that I had actually signed up to teach on an Alaskan cruise.

Because I feel most comfortable in a parka.

I'm working on mind over matter though.  I found some capri's at Old Navy yesterday (finding capri's in January in the state of Oregon is no easy task).  And though capri's may be too hot for the Caribbean, there just going to have to do.  I even packed some tank tops (oh ya, I have irrational issue with my arms too).

On the bright side...

1. I've never been on a cruise before

2. Heidi Swapp (myfavorite scrapbooker in the whole-wide world) is teaching on the cruise too

3. My Sister is coming

4. I get to hang out with a bunch of people who love scrapbooking and photography as much as I do for a whole week

5. I think it's going to be fun

Back on the 19th.

A new baby.

Santa brought her a new baby (and a new stroller that Santa and Grandma Bev worked on together).

So I had big plans of uploading the remainder of my Christmas shots today but it's just not looking like it's going to happen.  Too many photos to edit and not enough time to do it in (I think this exact same thing happened last year and I still haven't managed to edit last years Christmas shots yet either).

Oh, and that's inside the new, old house.  I just painted those olive green walls in the background white and then up above the olive green walls, I painted a color that is lighter but similar to the rocking chair you see this shot.  It's looking really pretty.

Ok and to answer some more questions...

1. The yellow cast that you often get indoors is a white balance issue (not a lens issue) and is easy to adjust on your camera (just look in your camera manual).  You can also create custom white balance settings if none of the different white balance settings on your camera are giving you the results you want.  If you shoot RAW, you also have more adaptability with your white balance settings.  It's all something that's covered really thoroughly in my classes.

2. When I do get time to scrapbook, I just choose to scrapbook photos that either make me laugh, stir up a good memory or make the hair on my arms stand up.  If a photo doesn't do one of those things for me, I don't scrapbook it.  I don't scrapbook chronologically and I don't worry about being caught up.  Makes scrapbooking much more fun for me (when I do get the time to do it).

3. Sadly, I haven't recorded any video on my new 5D Mark II camera yet (even if I had, I wouldn't have a clue how to post it on my blog though...I'm not too tech savvy).

4. The house we live in right now (which is where I took the Christmas shots that I posted yesterday) actually has really terrible lighting (the new, old house has wonderful lighting though).  I just made sure the kiddos were facing the window to help illuminate their eyes in the shots I posted.

5. I'm not attending CHA Winter this year.

6. Since I don't use Photoshop Elements, I'm not all that familiar with what actions work with that program (Totally Rad Actions do not work with Elements).  If anyone knows of any good actions that work with Elements, could you please leave that info. in the comments section for those that are looking for good Actions to use with that program?  Much appreciated!

7. I primarily use fixed lenses (even though they don't zoom) when I'm shooting indoors in low light situations.  It's one of those "can't have your cake and eat it too" situations.  There is no single lens that works in every shooting situation and you usually have to be willing to give up something in order to gain something with lenses.  For low light indoor shots, I am usually willing to give up the convenience of shooting with a zoom lens, in order to benefit from the wide aperture that prime/fixed lenses (lenses that don't zoom) offer.

8. I shot the Christmas pictures that I posted yesterday with a 50mm lens which is what I primarily use indoors.

9.  I shot the pictures of the kids out in Jacksonville with Santa with a Canon 24-70mm f2.8 which I use for most of my outdoor, everyday shots (Tamron makes a cheaper version of this lens that is still a good quality lens - it's the 28-75mm f2.8 for about $400).

10. I love talking photography and I am happy to answer any questions that I can.  I just have to limit the questions that I answer due to time constraints (something I was having big problems with a few months back when I found myself spending 2-4 hours a day answering photography questions via email) and also because I can't really be charging my students for all the photography information that I am teaching them if I'm giving that same information to others for free.  Hope everyone understands.