Julie Cortens Photography

Thursday, 16 July 2009

Wedding Photos - Finally!

LOVE this shot! Melina you rock!

I think he adores her! :)

Very beautiful bridesmaids.

Our gang

The bride with her three big brother, who BTW each did a wonderful job of the toast to the bride! Made me laugh, made me cry. Love em!

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

What do you do when you have an EDO? Besides laundry, ironing, a gym class and grocery shopping, you scrapbook with the new Basic Grey and some of the stash. And get FOUR more pages done from 2002. YEAH!!

You take an oath, you sign on the line, you shake the captains hand and you are in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve Communications unit! Lots of journalling about this short (and rather miserable) phase of Paul's life.

Ah, I remember the days of 20 people for lunch after church on Sundays - and all the preparations the day before - no wonder I was always stressed! Lots of journalling all hidden behind. And yes there were 20 people here that afternoon.

Using up the stash on this page with a BG background from the new Basic Grey Designer cardstock - I could use a LOT of this!

I wanted to record all the Christmas Eve traditions for the kids to remember.

Allison's 13th birthday (this is the Allison who just got married to Sammy) Celebrate with your best friends - all Basic Grey - June Bug and Designer card stock along with an assortment of BG letters (love em) and one piece of stash - turned the word GLOW from some old We R Memory Keepers chipboard into Blow - cause glow didn't work but blow did! hehe

The June Bug is starting to GROW on me. LOL

Click HERE for a video on the Basic Grey designer card-stock and HERE for a video showing the Basic Grey June Bug.

Then come back and tell me what you think!

Monday, 13 July 2009

The June Bug arrived!

For those of you not remotely familiar with scrapbooking, this is not a beetle of great dread who will eat your trees. No, I am referring to the new Basic Grey line of paper that many have been waiting for with great anticipation.

The Basic Grey June Bug arrived today along with a few other goodies.... too bad I have to work tomorrow.

New stuff is always so inspiring!

First let me say though that I think the recession in the US is far greater than I realized because I think BG fired their usual designers and hired someone on the cheap.

I am disappointed with this line. They have had so many incredible, timeless lines in the past but this one ....well I'll just say it doesn't tickle my fancy.

However! I am always up for a challenge and hey I can use red plaid (vintage plaid) along with cabana on a layout with the right pic. And this picture of Mark with the big old red wooden carriage wheel worked.

...and get this, I used eyelets! Remember them? They were so perfect with this. Took me a while to find my eyelet setter, but there they are and you know what? Placing eyelets on the dotted card stock was just too easy to line up perfectly!

Journalling reads....

You sure do take a good picture Mark!

One cool dude!

Handsome, nice guy, talented, kind, a good cook, gentle and a strong brave fire-fighter as well. How come some girl hasn't swooped you up?

I know, I know – you are waiting for the perfect wife... and that is a very good thing. I know she is out there and she will love the Lord like you do. Every day Dad and I pray for you and for your future wife, whomever she might be.

My plan is to attempt some of the more floral June Bug papers as soon as I can. More challenge!!! But I love a challenge.

Have you caught the June Bug yet?

I want to know what you think.

Sunday, 12 July 2009

2002 layouts

I know you were expecting wedding photos but I chose to get the 2002 album out of the way, packaged up, gone from the scrapbook room, before I tackle uploading wedding photos.

Then I have to decide which ones to print and what size.... watching for those Blacks and Don's specials..... then the wedding scrapbook begins. Can I get it done by September when the grandbaby arrives? I think not - but perhaps well into it.

Here is the weekends efforts....

Thanksgiving 2002 - no guests... since our usual guests were off having Thanksgiving with their families and we have no extended family in Saskatchewan - but we still had all the fixin's!

I love this page - I like all the subtle stuff on it - the way the page picks up on the guitar - the music stamp on the journalling tag, the mesh with the black line - like the guitar. It just came together when the house was quiet except for the washing machine and dryer and I had a hot cup of decaf - ahhhh....love having time like this. I have been waiting all week for a morning like this.

There he is my son Paul - my guitar-man - like his Dad - and brother Mark come to think of it.

Coca Cola Crazy - only Paul could take the Pepsi challenge - tell the guys that one of them was just awful and the other fabulous knowing all along which was the Coke. Nasty boy!
Lots of Basic Grey on this page - so glad I stowed those leftover Coke papers.

Okay so as bad as these photos were I felt pretty good about the layouts... but this last one had horribly faded photos and there were abut 12 of this Christmas church event - and so few of my kids.. but I know the kids will want to remember this fun talent night. So here it is. I pulled out the Christmas stuff and gave it a shot.

A lot of cropping went on to make these fit. And the scanner cut off the bottom - it really does have a bottom border.

Four pages done... six more to go and I am finished 2002.

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Easter 2002

These dark, out of focus, turquoise pictures from 2002 are starting to get to me. At this point I just want to finish the year off. I only have about 10 more pages to go and 2002 is all recorded and in the album. Thankful that Allison kept a great journal of all the things we did back then - YEAH to home schooling!

However, sometimes it is hard to come up with something I like with these old bad photos.

But it isn't about the photo quality, right? It is about recording the event .... and I think from 2001 until 2005 we had someone around our dining room table very Sunday after church - in fact I am sure we did. That is too much scrapbooking of food and I am going to have to pick and choose what gets into the albums.

This I can live with so in the album it goes.

The good news it the wedding photos arrived last night and oh my, oh my, oh my.... Melina did a FANTASTIC job and every minute outside of sleep and work is going to be spent on having fun with these. (and getting the 2002 album done so it is out of the way).

People, I am out of commission for anything other than scrapbooking, work, sleep and the gym for the next two months!

I will try to post some picks in the next 24 hrs.

I have to get them into Adobe Lightroom, organized and ready for blogging (sized).

But here is one for you today!

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

God is in Control

I feel sad and heartbroken ....I read the headlines and I ask myself.... can this fallen world get any worse? Unfortunately, the answer is yes and it will likely get worse.

Home from work, groceries away, supper on, ahhhh sit and open my e-mails and get the headlines....

2 Canadian soldiers die in Afghanistan helicopter crash

China's Xinjiang province put under curfew

Suspected U.S. serial killer shot by police

UN condemns North Korea's missile tests

Teen who killed rugby opponent spared jail

Snowbird pilot's death blamed on 'false-lock' problem with lap belt

Body of fallen Canadian soldier returns home

I read this and I am in tears. I sit hear heartbroken - am I just tired? No I am sad, so many mourning, so many to pray for, so many need His peace and comfort at such horrible times.

It is just the news.... but somewhere two mothers just lost their

sons. I imagine the moments of terror for these two young men as their helicopter spun to the ground, knowing that this was it. Were they ready to meet their Creator? I imagine their mothers imagining the same. I think of the oppression in China. I wonder what demented turmoil in a person would cause them to go out and randomly kill. Yes we hate the killer - but what was going on in his life? How did he grow up - what in this fallen world made him like this? How do the families who lost loved ones to this rampage deal with this? How does the teen rugby player live out the rest of his life knowing he killed another player - what was going on in his life that made this happen? There is another story that is untold here. Are the family of the killed snowbird pilot reliving the grief all over again with this "story"? Could I ever cope with the horrible experience of standing on the tarmac to wait the arrival of one of my son's bodies from what to me is a senseless war in Afghanistan?

And yet.... God IS in control. Yes

He is in control of all things and that is good.... that is soooo good because I am weak and sinful and lost and hopeless and I am mortal and I too will die one day. I cannot change any of these events. I am helpless, but God is not and He is in control and I know (and scripture continually reminds me) that He is GOOD and He is righteous and He is perfect and while I may not understand why or how these things happen... I trust and know that He does and one day I will understand and it will all make sense.

Oh that all people suffering today would know the grace and love and goodness and perfectness of a God who is in complete control of this world.

sigh....back to reality - supper has to be readied, put a smile on my face and carry on. Something weirdly hypocritical in this...

Your thoughts??

Sunday, 5 July 2009

Another 2002 page

I decided that the weekend was not going to pass me by without getting at least one page done. And so, besides getting a whole bunch of laundry finished, 26 items ironed, guests for lunch after church this am (do Sammy and Allison count as guests?), a new banner made (you like?), I did get a page done.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a 12x12 scanner that didn't cut the bottoms off my pages?

The Basic Grey Wisteria has the perfect colors for this page and besides - time to use up the old stock in preparation for the arrival of the new Basic Grey - June Bug!!

Saturday morning bike ride.

Our Saturday morning bike ride this week took us down to the river and what a beautiful Saskatoon summer morning it was. The farmers market was abuzz with people, vendors, food and entertainment. We really must make this a regular Saturday morning adventure. We picked up some lemon infused vinegar, BBQ sauce, arugula for tonight's salad and fresh onions. All organic and very healthy of course.

We stopped at the Bess for breakfast - waaay over priced and we won't do that again - what did they think? .... corporate office was paying or something?