Julie's Blog

One path to heart-peace and rest.

2009-11-28T16:39:00.000-06:00

“There is no royal road to rest of soul. Let that never be forgotten. There is only one way to the Father – Jesus Christ. One door into heaven – Jesus Christ. One path to heart-peace and rest – Jesus Christ. By that way all laboring and heavy-laden ones must go, whatever their rank or condition.
“Kings in their palaces and paupers in the workhouse, all are on the same level in this matter. All alike must walk in the ‘old paths’ and come to Christ, if they feel soul-weary and thirsty. All must drink of the same fountain, if they would have their thirst relieved.”

~ J.C. Ryle

The Upper Room, “The Good Way”, 89.

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Reminder: If you have not yet signed up to win Ryle’s 7 volume commentary Expository Thoughts on the Gospels on Monday, 11/30, then click HERE.

If I win, it solves one Christmas gift for the son in law - pastor/electrician in training. :)
The photo BTW is one of my first attempts at HDR photography. I took this photo at the Willows golf course and converted it to HDR using Photomatrix Pro.Click on the photo to see the full effect.

Blushing Bride

2009-11-27T22:17:00.003-06:00

Another wedding page done.... getting bored. I guess that is a good sign.

My wonderful Brothers.

2009-11-27T05:40:00.001-06:00

Quite enjoyed doing this page - at 2am... that's what happens when you spend three days in bed. You come to a point where you just can't stay there any longer and you get up! And scrapbook!
BTW I fixed the crooked 'love' button in the middle of the flower.
Love this photo and love this page. I even painted chipboard for this page and I haven't done that for a long time. (mostly because I dislike the clean up) the mess is still on my desk.
Now I am taking some gravol and heading back to bed. This LOA from work would be fantastic if I didn't feel so lousy. This too shall pass.....

Catching up.

2009-11-26T06:42:00.000-06:00

I have been bed ridden post surgery this week - so not much is getting accomplished - actually nothing! And amazingly I am okay with that.
Like who cares!
DH brings me food when I can eat it. Then he leaves for work and I sleep. and sleep.... and read a little and sleep some more.
I am feeling a tad better now and am happy to be able to make my way to the MAC and my cushy, swivel chair for a few hours at a time.
The plan is to get some scrapbooking done on this 6 week LOA from work..... since I am not allowed to lift anything heavier than my EZ runner (big smile - that's two sided tape for you non scrapbookers) but for now I am just uploading some digital pages from the past month.This is easy and about all I can muster right now.
Here they are.

Hope to be able to get going on some pages with real glue soon.
And I do promis to get to my 365 soon- I have the photos but they have not been uploaded.
Blessing to y'all.

Cold but fun day

2009-11-22T22:55:00.001-06:00

Well Saturday was a tad cold but these little girls didn't seem to notice. They were full of giggles and energy and kept the rest of us distracted from the cold.

Rooibus

2009-11-21T19:26:00.002-06:00

Further to the African Frog..or Red Velvet Cape,
visit THIS site for all the 'good for you' stuff in Rooibus!

Amazing!

You can get it at Intermission House on Central.

Tell Rob I sent you.

Thanks to Helvetica for the link.

And that's all the links you get today!

I am on a roll...

2009-11-17T10:13:00.009-06:00

I am on a roll with these wedding pages. YEAH!! This is the leftover stuff from the old stash I used on yesterdays posted page. Am I efficient or what. Actually it was close at hand and worked. This was fun! And quick and easy.

The Rings

2009-11-16T09:42:00.004-06:00

On a roll with the wedding album. It is truly amazing what you can get done when you know where everything is! Loving my clean creative space and it was worth the 6 hrs it took to get it in order last Sunday. Got this page done yesterday afternoon....while the guys watched the football games (that's plural) Two of them - I can get a lot done when they watch two games. I kind of like this football season distraction.

And I like this page too. I used Basic Grey - it is all stuff from the stash. You can't see it, but there is an acrylic heart over the ribbon in the bottom rt corner.

Have a great week everyone.

African Fog

2009-11-15T06:07:00.004-06:00

Check out my recipe for an African Fog - the alternative to my morning decaf after to a week of horrible dizzy spells from caffeine and salt overload...or something.

Goes really well with this.....

The story is here.

Our Wedding, Our Story

2009-11-11T15:50:00.002-06:00

Got to love a day off work and I have made use of it. Okay the laundry isn't done, but I have made two large lasagnas and a huge peach cinnamon crumble. mmmmmm We will have this along with a Cesar salad and some Italian bread tonight. Hoping the Bible study gang and some of our kids can make it. Still not sure on numbers, but its lasagna so it doesn't matter.
And the best part? My sweetheart was in the kitchen helping me the whole time.

AND this morning I finished this page which I quite like.

Cute photo of the just newly wed couple being greeted with bubbles and cheers by all their family and friends .

Sweet Love

2009-11-10T20:20:00.001-06:00

I do know that when I finally engaged in photography, it was like a black hole, an irresistible force that pulled me, my time, my energy and, without exaggeration, my every waking (and sleeping) moment. I had never known such a resonant thing. Joe McNally

Man I can relate to that! Do any of you sleep with your camera too? :) just kidding..... but darn close.

On to a couple of scrapbooking pages - real ones because I know y'all prefer to see the paper and glue kind.

A two page layout on that great DCWV paper. About 75 % done the wedding album.

so.... how do you feel about your camera?

A few pictures of our girl

2009-11-09T22:22:00.004-06:00

wedding layouts

2009-11-08T19:22:00.002-06:00

Two quick pages done today....

2009-11-07T20:11:00.002-06:00

I was checking out some links on Wilna's scrapbook site and came across this...

Wow - I could use a space like that - something to run a photography business out of AND scrapbook. A place to learn, study, discover and create - very inspiring. AND very organized! I think I would have to quit work it I had this at home to inspire me every day.

But back to reality - I swivle around in my second hand apolstery torn chair and see this....

and this...

hardly inspiring......
SIGH....I have been SOOOO incredibly busy I have only had time to sleep and throw in laundry for work clothes. So THIS mess has been on my list for AGES. I can barely get to my computer.

It was rather depressing to look at. I could have just given up but I knew I could not be productive in this once creative space as long as it looked like this. Sooooo I stole a book shelf from the living room and I got to work - took me 6 hrs of organizing today. The gang is watching the riders game... I am getting stuff done in here...paying bills. :)

But at this moment it now looks like this.... see the floor?

and this... see the desk?

and I feel sooo much better.
I found the utility bill too - yeah! and so now I will work through the pile of bills/receipts and other important stuff on my desk I HAVE to get through.

And I will deal with the pile of books and albums on the living room floor next week... maybe... if I have time. And the leaves in the backyard will have to wait until spring.

Tomorrow, if I have time, I will start into the pile of projects begining with Allison's wedding album. Now that I found all the wedding rub-ons and bling I can get moving on it. I have to edit and print off photos of our new grandchild for DH for his office ....that he has been asking for for weeks and I also nd to get a handle on organizing the 2003 photos (about 100 of them) because I am still playing catch up on the family albums....and getting ready for Mark's arrival home for his holidays.So looking forward to seeing him.

But at least I have a place to do all this and I now know where everything is. Feels good!

Hope you had a productive day today - something about the sun and warm weather is invigorating. Or maybe I am just getting ready for winter.

To Love Him Is To Know Him

2009-11-06T19:28:00.002-06:00

"The man who hung on the cross beside Christ new little more than that Christ was the Son of God and that God had forgiven his sins. And that was enough. But if you want to love God more you need to know him more."

Good short article by Tim Challies - check it out.

Designer Digitals

2009-11-02T17:30:00.003-06:00

My husband went to work on Sunday afternoon - normally I would frown at the prospect of spending the day without him, but it meant I could get 6 loads of laundry done, sort through some messes on my computer and then get distracted with some ideas from Designer Digitals - the most inspiring digital scrapbooking site EVER - seriously I have yet to find another digital scrapbooking site that even comes close to product and talent of such high caliber as Designer Digitals.
When you are ready to take the leap, head on over there.

The results of my distraction today are....

Took this photo of the Broadway St bridge about three weeks ago. I love it! So it needed to be scrapped - this page took 10 minutes using a 25 cent template that I just recoloured.
EASY!!!!
This page cost 25 cents!! The silver Saskatoon letters were a freebie and it cost $2.50 to get printed at Costco - sweetheart is picking it up as I type.

And then I went hog wild with the pink - just because I CAN!!

Aint she a beaut?
A real keeper I say!!
Nope! You can't have her!!
I miss her all ready!

If you care to see all my digital layouts, you can check out my gallery HERE
The "albums" have multiple layouts in them so go head and open them up.

Have a blessed day everyone and do take time to look at the incredible moon we have tonight!
Julie

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T21:17:00.004-06:00

Or is that scary halloween.

I am not into this whole halloween thing. I love to get dressed up and fully enjoy watching the kids in costumes pretending to be something. But this scary and evil stuff.. well I am just not there. And I won't throw any scripture at you tonight but ....why celebrate evil - in any way shape or form.
"Be happy" is my motto.

My son on the other hand loves to dress up and Halloween just gives him the opportunity to do that. So far he has been to see his old buddies at Burger King as Captain James Cook - dread locks and all. He showed up at work today in the full Darth Vader gear - and I mean FULL gear - sound effects, light saber, heavy helmet thingy and all. He WAS Darth Vader. Sent away for both these costumes.

And for tonight he was something....well, very evil. And to add to the effect he bought a fog machine to give the outside of our house a very eerie atmosphere to match that full moon. As a result, there were not very many very little ones at our door because he scared them all next door, stuttering and shaking crying "ddddid you see that thing with red eyes in the fffffog over there?" There were more than a few chuckling parents. And fortunately no upset ones. The very littlest ones, thankfully came well before my son set up shop.

Yes, my son loves to dress up and even the tough, in your face, 10 yr old boys were a little hesitant to come up the walk tonight - sending their younger sister in first to see if it was safe and the goodies were worth the risk.

So as much as I do not like Halloween and we have never "celebrated" it....

my son does.....

If you want a bag of potato chips at our house, you have to get past this.

One young man told my son "I know Karate you know!"

It took three tries to upload this photo - it just kept uploading blank..... do you think Blogger was feeling like those 10 yr olds?

A day with the grandbaby

2009-10-25T04:55:00.003-06:00

The day began with a fabulous cup of (decaf)coffee made in this french press - I have to get one.

Breakfast is our favourite part of B&B!

then off for a morning walk with Grandma and Grandpa and Mom

We were off to Great Grandma's house to see her roses.

and her of course

I think Tanis has something special going on with GG

Lots of cuddles with grandpa

and papa

A special new family. One blessed and loved little girl.

We had a great supper with Allie's parents and then headed back to the B&B.

This is the night time view of Whiterock and the ocean from our B&B The two lines in the sky are jets passing by - long exposure and no tripod.

Blessings!
Julie

guess where I am?

2009-10-24T08:43:00.002-06:00

Hard to believe this alert, smiling and attempting to talk little girl is only 5 weeks old.

Just like her daddy - in a hurry to grow up!

We are expecting wondeful music from these fingers. Just like her Mommy.

Can I hear it? Who is the # ONE grandchild?

Lightroom 2 presets

2009-10-20T18:45:00.001-06:00

I was working with tweaking some Lightroom 2 presets this past weekend and kind of liking the effect.
A work in progress. I thought I would post a few of this weekends efforts.
I tend to lean to being more of a purest with photos - trying for those accurate skin tones.... but sometimes a photo just calls for some fun!

also added a mask in Photoshop on this one.

Wedding Layouts

2009-10-19T18:35:00.001-06:00

Another wedding layout done. YEAH

And a digital layout as well.

Last days of fall

2009-10-17T18:52:00.004-06:00

We had one last bike ride of the year early this morning and it was a beautiful morning for it. We bundled up and headed down to River Landing with our bikes.

I am actually in this photo - but I am taking it - can you find me?

Back to Rivers Landing, home with the bikes and he was off to do his accounting thing and I was off to master Adobe Lightroom. Well, not quite master but I did learn about a few new presets. I also managed to get all caught up on my photo shoots!
Enjoy the weather!
Blessings,
Julie

Great Photography Quotes

2009-10-16T18:15:00.002-06:00

10 Photography Quotes that You Should Know

View more presentations from Ryan Coleman Design & Consulting | Freelance Information Designer & Facilitator.

Count Your Blessings

2009-10-14T22:10:00.001-06:00

And I have plenty of blessings.
Used up stash from about five different companies today trying to get another wedding page done.
Love this family picture. We are getting so big and now with grand baby Tanis, even bigger. Can't wait to have them all together at Christmas.

Parents of the bride and groom. Very proud parents. Very blessed couple. We start and end with family!

so in love

2009-10-13T17:33:00.003-06:00

Just love seeing two people in love, desiring to spend the rest of their lives together.
Here are a few pics from Mondays engagement photos. A beautiful couple who I had no trouble getting to snuggle in together.

and there it is.... the "leap"

Yippee! We are getting married!!