Penny Lane

I finished another page Sunday evening. It works well to scrapbook while you are waiting for the dryer to finish and get those permanent Press shirts out fast.

It is always fun to use new paper and I am liking the new My Mind's Eye Penny Lane line. It is also a bonus to be using photos from the past year!! The flowers are from K and Company and Bazzill. Remember when metal was the rage?? Well I came across some in the stash and so I am restarting the fad again. Dig out those metal embellishments ladies!!

David and I like to take the bicycles out for a ride on Saturday mornings. I take my camera knapsack and stop often for photos - David is very patient with me. I think he just appreciates the opportunity to catch his breath. hehe

So here we are along the river paths - just one picture of me because I am the one with the camera.

the journaling reads...

David and I enjoy our Saturday morning dates. Usually it is a walk up to Intermission House for a coffee and biscuit. But when the roads are clear of ice and snow, we get our bikes out and go for a ride. On this summer morning we headed north on Central Ave and then headed down to the paths along the Saskatchewan River. The hour out on our bikes is a good enough work out for us and always involves a stop at Rob’s Intermission House for a coffee before heading back home and into our day.

more Bisous PDQ Shabby line

You know, the trouble with this line of paper is that both side are so gorgeous and I want to use them both. I hate to put the back side face down in the album. What a waste of beautiful paper.

I hear this often at the store and I have told numerous customers that "you just have to get over it".

I should take my own advice, but I am having trouble doing that this time. I love the other side of this paper. I may just have to get some and use it!!

OR figure out what will go next in the scrapbook and scrapbook the back - however I do dislike being limited to where I put my pages and this efficient method does that to me.

Isn't this just fun paper?? I just have so many ideas for it and I love the colors...so I am going to have to buy this again because right now this beautiful paper is on the back side of my recent two page layout. What a shame. Do any of you struggle with this??

This is the other side and what I started with....

I had eleven pictures to squeeze on to two pages so a lot of neat stuff was covered up. But c'est la vie ~ another 2002 summer afternoon up at Emerald lake eating too much food, sitting in the sun and water skiing is now in the archives.

The end result.... Friends, Food, Fun Emerald Lake 2002

Penny Lane from My Mind's Eye

I managed to squeeze in one more layout and this time I used current photos and the new Penny Lane line from my Mind's Eye. Love the girly colours in this line and so much fun to do.

Allison got a nice bouquet of Gerber daisies from her fiance.

My scan cut off the bottom a tad.

bZoo PDQ means Pretty Darn Quick!

If you are in a bit of a creative funk...or even if you aren't, I have THE line of paper for you. bZOO (bisous) PDQ "shabby" line is pretty new in at JSI and it really does all the creative thinking for you. Just find the best place to lay your photos, distress the edges a tad and then add your own embellishments and you have a layout 'pretty darn quick'(ly). :)
Rub-ons, flowers, tags, a little felt fusion - just go through the stash and have fun!

I had some old photos from 2002 that left much to be desired and this paper just brought them alive! I love all three of these layouts and was very surprised at how well these old, poor photos turned out.

...love this fun birthday page. I had only three pictures and was really wondering how I was going to make Mark's birthday into something fun - voila!

I used alcohol ink on the heart to tie it in with the word 'family' on this tag from the stash, added some rub-ons and she was done.

And the irony of it all? Do you know where I got my inspiration from? The back cover of the recent Canadian Scrapbooker Basics vol 3. I noticed a cool layout on the back cover and wondered how they had done the layout - bZoo paper with added embellishments.
Hey! I thought. I have that paper.
I had three layouts in a couple of hours. And if you are stuck for embellishment ideas, bZoo has some chipboard embellies that match the paper (just above the paper at JSI). Now, how easy and cool is that?

I am working this evening and so you know I will be grabbing a few more papers for my 2002 photos.

And a HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY to all of you.
Our background will be green today....or until I have time to change it back!

Who was St Patrick? He was a missionary to Ireland between 457-492. He used the indigenous shamrock (three-leaf clover) to explain the Trinity to the Celts. Three leaves, one clover; three persons, one God. Smart guy!

The Monitor Wins!

I got my new monitor.... a Samsung SyncMaster T240 24-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor.
London Drugs had a very nice sale on in the computer department this weekend and I was able to get a my new monitor at a great price. My sweetheart also picked me up a 500 Gb portable external hard drive (I hinted - actually I phoned LD and had it put aside because the price was an incredible $130.00).

I am calling it all part of the birthday package along with the monitor. Dear husband is happy that I am happy and I am happy that he is happy and it is all good! Everybody is happy!!!
Now not only can I see all the photos I am editing in Lightroom 2, I can save all those precious photos to a hard drive outside my computer because if I ever lost my computer - yikes - I don't want to think about it!

And isn't that all just so much more practical then a diamond ring??

My new monitor is, well, big and pretty and wow so fun to work on.

Aint she a beaut.

Spent an evening on the phone with computer expert son walking me through an upgrade for my graphics card to get er working. This 52 year old soon to be a grandma can now open a computer and tell you the difference between the motherboard and the graphics card ~ very proud of myself. Even more proud of the fact that I was able to crawl under my desk with a flashlight holding a phone under my chin- to figure this all out and get back out again without getting stuck - it was close I tell ya. Note to self - add a few more yoga classes to the gym schedule!

The specs because I know you are dieing to know!

• Resolution: 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA)
• Brightness: 300 cd/m²
• Contrast Ratio: DC 20000:1 (1000:1) (Typ.) THIS is good!!
• Viewing Angle(Horizontal/Vertical): 160º/160º (CR>10)
• Response time: 5 ms that's milliseconds - this is pretty good - but not so important for photo editing. Gamers on the other hand would be impressed but MY computer is off limits to all gamers. Ya hear? Off limits!!
• Stand function: Swivel, tilt

Birthdays are fun especially when you get to pick out your own birthday present. I have learned that waiting for a surprise from my dear husband does not bring about the best results... remember last years birthday???
So this year I was prepared!! And it worked out just fine!

Hard to believe another year has flown by. A few more wrinkles/grey hairs. A few more experiences. Many more blessings. But the best blessing of all - His son Jesus Christ. God is so good to me!!

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Cool photos

Photographer Neil Creek was invited into the town of Kinglake to photograph the destruction of the devastating bush fires of Black Saturday that engulfed much of Victoria, Australia.

Visit his blog and read his very interesting and humbling account of this photographic journey.

His article can also be found at Digital Photography School

Photo by Neil Creek

Planet S magazine is looking for the Best of Saskatoon ...and other stuff.

I know, I have been MIA...but with work at two jobs, workouts in the wee hours of the morning and working bees of cutting and gluing wedding invitations...well there has been little time at the keyboard; except for those wedding invitations and photo editing and all that stuff.
But it is Friday - YAHOO!! And I have an hour or so here. I also have a few piles of dirty laundry...especially that gym gear!

But on to the important things...

Planet S magazine is looking for your opinion on the “Best of Saskatoon.” Voting is easier than ever – you can submit your choices by email. Here are the rules:
1. Click on the email link below and then send.
2. They send a return message to your in box.
3. You Click Reply and a list of the categories will appear along with space for you to tell them who you are.
4. Fill out at least 30 categories, your name, address, phone and email.
5. Click Send!

You get to vote on all your fave places in this great city of Saskatoon...sorry this leaves all you non Saskatoonians out of the game.
Your ballot automatically enters you to win a food & fashion prize package.
More than $700 worth of Saskatoon’s best dining and fashion!
Here is the link: bestof@planetsmag.com


My birthday is on Monday - I will be 52 and proud of it!! Dear husband is wracking his brain about what to get me and I, being practical as I am, have my eye on a gorgeous diamond ring!! But as a backup I am asking for a new computer monitor so I can see all my work so much better as I figure out Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
I'll let you know the verdict on Tuesday. We are going to Truffles for supper Monday night!!

If you have any expertise in the area of monitors for photo editing, please leave me a comment with any suggestions, warnings or otherwise helpful ideas. And the budget is less than the diamond ring.

Speaking of Lightroom - I lied. I have been doing more than just typing wedding invitations. I have spent some time clicking my way around Lightroom 2 and many tutorials. This program is looking pretty slick!!

Now I am back to thinking about that Olympus E-3 again...or the E-30????

Boy, just how much stuff can you pack into one week. I feel like I need another holiday especially with the weather this week!! But it was good to see the temps inch their ways to the melting point today.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Get out and enjoy this balmy weather!

books, books, books!

David has been reading up a storm on our vacation, mostly but not limited to, Ken Follett books.... In the past 2 weeks he has red no less that seven novels. Two of these Ken Follett books he read before we even left because he bought them too soon before our trip and couldn't wait.

I wish I could read as vorasiously as he does. I bought one novel and am only half way through it. It is terrible. I have been reading another very Good Book though. In my book Paul just dumped Barnabas and took off with Silas! He's off to the Greece .

Reading is what David loves to do on vacation. It is going to be hard for the two of us to get back to the daily 6am grind.

We are somewhere over the Pacific when you read this post...or maybe sitting in the Minniapolis airport...me trying to snooze, David reading his tenth Ken Follett

Pali Pan

Here are a couple of panoramics I stitched together in Photoshop from some photos atop the Pali Hwy look out. It is quite a beautiful view of the East side of the island.

Kailua Beach..a short visit.

After a great time of fellowship with our friends and International Baptist Church this past Sunday morning, David and I headed over the Pali Hwy to Kailua Beach.

Kailua Beach is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The sand is so soft and the water a gorgeous turquoise.

It has been a rather windy this week and the "windward' side of the island was particularly windy today. So despite it's beauty, Kailua Beach was blowin' up a storm.

This meant that lying on the beach was not too enjoyable.

However the guys out sailboarding and para surfing were having a great time and we enjoyed watching them (with our sweaters on).

They were pretty impressive.

Hawaiian Turtles are BIG!

Look what I saw off our lanai just after sunrise Monday am.







You can also see the shadow of our condo building on the water. The sun rises directly behind us - which means it sets directly off the lanai. I will post some sunsets.


But this was sun rise at about 7am and this is the first time I think, in my life that I have seen both ends of a rainbow. The left side went right down to the shore and I was looking for that pot of gold, but it wasn't there.

I just love how my wide angle lens captured this image and I think the polarizing filter helped make the ROYGBIV all the more clear. Okay quick test how many of you remember what ROYGBIV is?

After breakfast I drove David off to the golf course to golf 18 holes while I headed for a workout on the beach. I tell ya my calves have never worked so hard. Walking briskly in wet sand for 45 minutes is a great leg strengthener. I was watching for turtles during my whole walk and didn't see one.

But wouldn't you know it? As soon as I got back into the condo and looked out the lanai ...well there he was. A nice big one.

A quick switch to the zoom (wish it were a telephoto) lens and I got him when he came up for a little air.

Try clicking on the photos to get them in larger size. Not as clear as I would like but pretty darn good for 10 stories up! Then again had I had that telephoto.....

I was off to pick David up at the golf course and have lunch with him there. It is such a beautiful spot to eat out on the terrace overlooking the golf course.

We had....gee this is getting kind of embarrassing....want to guess???

You got it!!

It is just so darn tender and delicious.

We spent the afternoon Monday hanging at the pool and going for a dip in the ocean. Oh I wish I could capture that on film. So warm and the waves so much fun... but very salty and after a while those waves keep rocking you back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.....and it is time to get out and try to stand in one spot without keeling over.

I can't imagine being lost at sea. Man, would I do a lot of throwing up!!

It's hot dogs for supper tonight- got to start cleaning out the fridge. So sad....

Time to phone home and tell the kids to clean the place up and order in some warm weather to Saskatoon.

Get on that would someone please?

Ah ...... experience Waikiki

We came for the food....

What?

More fish?

We'll be growing fins soon!

Well, we just can't get enough Ahi tuna. It is one of the big reasons we come to Hawaii.

Along with some fabulous grilled Opah fish. OPAH!! no, wait, that's Greek!

When in Hawaii eat fish - it is fresh, fresh, fresh and it is what the Hawaiians do best.

Trust me - do not order beef on this island.

Okay, the drinks are pretty darn good too and sooo pretty to look at.

No, Murray we didn't order the back scratcher, but almost!

And you and Cherl along with Jan and Larry should have been there with us!!

But the dessert....

It is about 6 spin classes worth of calories....

Do you know how good this tastes on a hot day on Waikiki beach???

I knew you would want to see it from a few different angles.

...and we ate it all!

Besides great food and drink, the surf and the sun, Waikiki is about people watching!

I love to people watch and at Waikiki you see it all - they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and they are NOT afraid to show you.

Yes Waikiki is all about people - scads of them lining the beach soaking up the sun's rays before they have to head back to shovelling snow and their cold dark homes somewhere up north.

..and there are over a mile of them... all ages, all sizes, all colours, all shapes....just hanging, relaxin, soaking up the sun and doin NOTHIN! Some of them are wearing the craziest things - and they DON"T care. This is THEIR vacation!

This guy is feeling no pain!

They come to get the tan and pay big bucks to say they surfed Waikiki.

The sensible ones take lessons because it just might not be as easy as it looks!

Some of them surf well into retirement.

And then there are the "normal" people who just come for more Ahi tuna!

and volcanic ice cream cake.....

Have you been to Waikiki Beach?

Share your experience with us!