Lesson 12 and done!

Lesson 12 done and now the class is finished! I feel this class has been one of the very best Photoshop classes I have taken. Saying that I started yet another class last week call The Art of Digital design and upgraded to Photoshop CS5. CS5 the big brother of Photoshop Elements which I have been using. It's going to be a learn curve taking a new and somewhat demanding class and learning a new program at the same time. The class curriculum we will be covering is designing patterns, brushes, stickers and alphabets. For the past week I've been making pattern "paper" and I keep surprising myself on how much I've learned since last May when I did not even know how to open Photoshop.

Butterflies

Last week was the Spring school break here in southern Ontario. My daughter and her family were at at resort near Niagara Falls and my husband and I

drove down for the day to visit the Butterfly Pavilion with them. It was magical!

Hundreds of butterflies swoop through the air landing at times on the visitors.

This butterfly was huge at least 12" wide.

There were feeding dishes all throughout the pavilion where you could get a close up view.

And best of all there was time to smell the flowers.

Home Stretch lesson 11

This layout for lesson 11 was inspired by my trip to New Orleans in the fall of 2006, 15 months after hurricane Katrina devastated the city. The Junior League of New Orleans send out a call for help to their sister Leaguers to come to New Orleans for a rebuilding weekend. They expected about 50 maybe 100 replies since the attendees would be paying their own way. 1000 of their fellow Leaguers signed up! We came from England, Canada and all over the United States. Before we started our work weekend we were taken on a bus tour to see what had happen to the city and how little had been done at this time to rebuilt. It was truly a sorry site! The pictures we had seen on TV did not do justice to the full amount of the devastation.

The first workday day found me mixing and pouring cement in the Musicians Village with Habitat for Humanity. Musicians Village was being built to try and get the wonderful musicians of New Orleans to come back home. Day two was digging up and shifting bricks in the lower 9th Ward. Not a great job but one that needed to be done.

What a wonderful experience and sense of satisfaction it was to be able to help and know you are making a difference in someones life.

Now we are 4

Now we are 4, and lesson #10. My little grand daughters turned four yesterday.

They had the "kids" party on Saturday and a family dinner last night including candles to blow out again and a loud rendition of Happy Birthday to you. Their cakes were copied from the felt tooth fairy pillows I made this summer and gave to them at Christmas. You can see the cakes in the corners of the photo layout. Each pillow has a girls name on it which I took out for this posting.

When I asked the girls if they felt different being 4 instead of 3 their answer was that they are "now are grown up". I had to hide my smile and respond with you are almost grown up.

100 Years

100 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY

As women who's shoulders do we stand on!

Clara Zetkin who founded International Women's Day and believed in equal rights and opportunities for women.

Emily Pankhurst and fellow suffragettes who went to prison and fought for the right to vote for women.

Nellie McClung and the famous 5 who fought for the rights of women to sit in the senate and hold public office. She worked for and believed in workers rights, womens suffrage, and married womens property rights. Who said "get it done and let them howl"

And lastly I salute the Volunteer organization that I have been a proud member of for 31 years The Junior League founded in 1901. The Junior League is committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. I am proud to say my daughter is a member as well and I look forward to the day when my grand daughters who turned 4 today join.

So my women friends as Kelly Kilmer wrote on her blog today:

STAND STRONG! STAND PROUD! and especially STAND TOGETHER!

And three cheers for us we have come a long way in 100 years.

Strutting

Another day and another lesson completed #9. One of my classmates posted today that she feels as if she is running a marathon. Very appropriate and I do agree.
I thought it would be fun to put into this layout my camera and bag. I'm taking a on-line beginners photography class and cameras and photos are very much on my mind.

This beginners class is being taught by Candice Springham at Jessica Sprague.com. It is heads and shoulders above the class I took earlier this month. For one Candice is on the forum answering questions daily, we are given a video each week which I find very helpful as well as a weekly PDF file of material to download. Daily emails arrive from Candice and live pod casts twice a week for us to ask questions and get answers in real time. There are two "official helpers" to answer questions on the forum daily who have a super knowledge of photography and cameras. This class is the best value for money around!

Catching Up

I spent today catching up with the lessons from the photoshop class that I am taking on-line with Jessica Sprague. I got very little done while I was away, even thought I did bring my laptop with great expectations that I would put some time into keeping up with the class. It has been quite a stretch learning so many new skills with each lessons and exciting as well. I just hope I can remember them! I find that one lesson takes several hours to complete. Some of the tasks are complicated (for me) and I have to watch the video several times to get it right. But what a sense of accomplishment when I finish.
This layout is from lesson 8 and uses photos that I took in California last year at Zuma beach in Malibu.

Home Again, home again jiggity jig

Looking out of my office window - and seeing gray skies, and little color - home again to winter. I am already missing the blue sky, green grass, flowers, and color of Calif.

I had a long but uneventful flight back from Calif. Only bit of bother was a pat down going through security. I was wearing a pedometer clipped to my waistband and I forgot to take it off. You would have though it was a bomb the way the security people reacted!

My flight was late in taking off and I did not arrived home until 1:00 AM EST. My DH kindly picked me up at the airport and my boy Sam was waiting at the door to give me a ecstatic greeting.

I was tired my first day home and did not get around to unpacking until today.

This carrier bag is full of art supplies I purchased while away.

Brimming over with ribbon, paper, and wonderful goodies that I will be playing with for the next little while.

Now back to real life, obligations, and work.

Last Day in LA -Venice Beach

My last day in LA was spent visiting Venice Beach. The last time I had been to Venice Beach was in the nineteen sixties to visit an elderly cousin. I remember it as being somewhat run down and scuzzy. What a difference the years have made! I found on this visit it to be funky, upscale and making me want to come back again. Albert Kinny Blvd. was teeming with trendy shops and café's. The purpose for our visit was to buy a pedestal plate and dome for Nola at Bountiful.








Bountiful is crammed full of pedestals in every color and size with glass domes to match












The inside of the shop if full, right up to the ceiling with pedestals. Table after table stacked with pedestals. I was terrified that if I took a misstep they would all come tumbling down on me. Or god forbid a little tremor of a earthquake, we would be buried under tons of glass!








After much deliberation on color and size Nola found the perfect set, paid and I gave a sign of relief to be out of the shop. What risks one takes for a friend ;-)











After all the shopping I had been doing I was determined not to buy anything else! Well that lasted about a nanosecond after I spotted this necklace in Just Tantau. Designed by a local artist Heather Ramsey the necklace is made out of metal washers and I felt a must have.

We continued along the Blvd. to GJelina to have lunch. Wow was the food wonderful. I had a goat cheese and mushroom thin crust pizza drizzled with truffle oil, heaven! Nola kept laughing at my face as I took bite after bite.

After we finished lunch we continued strolling along looking in windows, stopping in art galleries and enjoying the sunshine.

Last stop of the day was my favorite coffee bar - The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Ocean Park, Santa Monica. I love the way they make their Chai tea latte.
A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Books, books, and more books

Yesterday Nola, Ute and I took a Journal class with Kelly Kilmer at Zinnia's in South Pasadena. South Pasadena is a beautiful city, lots of trees and interesting architecture. Mission St. where Zinnia is located is full of interesting shops that just tempt one to go into. Zinnia itself is a treat to visit. It is full of wonderful goodies! One of my finds yesterday was a lunch bag (see photo below).

Our class was 4 hours that went by in a flash. Kelly is a natural teacher, fun, and extremely generous with her knowledge and supplies.

We started the class making our hard covered Journal. The cover and inside are made out of Japanese paper with a mat board backing. I am delighted on how my journal turned out. The journal pages are made of 140 lb. Wausau card stock .

We hand stitched the signatures to the book with a simple 5 hole pamphlet stitch. Kelly gave us all of the supplies we used during the class for both the journal cover and the pages.


The remainder of the day was spent on making our journal pages with Kelly leading us thought various layouts.

One of the very best things about this class is that although we followed the different layout styles each journal page was a reflection of our own style of journaling rather than a copy of Kelly's.

If you ever have the chance of taking a class from Kelly go for it!




Ute, Nola, me and Kelly.

Two of my journal pages in progress.



I have a link on the left side of this page to Kelly's blog, check it out if you have a chance.