more about the 365 project...

i use photoshop elements for editing my photos. i fix my pictures (if i can), add journaling (at least the date), borders and whatever else i feel my picture needs. i actually started off last year trying to be kind of fancy and have ended the year on a much simpler note. i think i prefer the simpler way. it ends up being more about the picture and less about what i've done to it (plus i am lazy). i also have PLENTY of not so great pictures which i completely embrace because for me it's about the story and not about perfection.

borders...a simple way to dress up your photos.
if you want to purchase borders to use in elements i recommend designer digitals. two peas in a bucket and polka dot potato (who's website is having issues right now) also have some great borders.

actions...a fun & easy way to perk up your photos.
polka dot potato and ez actions have really fun and easy to install actions. i think the actions on both sites are actually made by the same guy and that he owns the ez actions site.

you don't need to have elements to do this project. you can chose to do nothing to your pictures and just let your photos tell your story. you could also use the resources on the fabulous website picnik to write on your photos and do basic editing. one great advantage of picnik is that it connects right up with flickr.

i also wanted to make sure you know that becky higgins has a 365 kit that's for sale starting january 1st on the ck site. it won't be added to the ck site until 1/1, but becky has a lot of information about it on her blog. i am choosing not to do the kit but i am sure it's really nice.

just for fun you should check out big huge labs. i love using that site to make mosaics. they also have lots of other fun things to try.
let me know if you have any questions i have failed to answer. also feel free to make any suggestions.

christmas came late this year...

at least part of it.
we were supposed to drive down to portland on christmas day to see jason's brother and his family, but the snow forced us to reschedule. so we went yesterday.

we always have a great time seeing the "portland mcgaws". maud made delicious food, we opened gifts and played with them, tromped around their new property and got an idea of where their future home will be. we also played the game set and just hung out. we all had a terrific time.

snow & christmas morning...

i am getting pretty tired of the snow. but i must say it's beautiful as long as i am inside a warm place such as my home or even the car with jas driving. snow coming down christmas day felt magical and lovely. who hasn't dreamt of a white christmas right? i enjoyed it being around for a short while, but now i am ready for it to be gone.
christmas morning at our house was small (well smaller) this year. the girls had chosen to give their money from my parents to homeless children and i think that helped them to appreciate all they have even more.i hope your christmas was as wonderful and filled with family and love as ours was.

365 anyone?

so i am ALMOST done with my 365+1 project and have decided to do it again for 2009. kial and my friend ally are going to join me. is anyone else interested?

i have to say this has been a GREAT project for me. i can look back at all my pictures from this year and see how it has progressed. yes, there were times it got trying and YES i should have avoided taking starbucks pictures weekly. but i love looking back on it and i am excited to do it again.

this past month i have had a theme to work with. i made sure every picture i took represented something i was thankful for. for me, the theme made it more personal and more fun. after talking with ally we thought that might be something to incorporate in the group...but not required, it's only if you wanted to do it. we would change the theme monthly and allow everyone to make suggestions.

for 2008 i formatted and printed all my pictures in 4x6 size and used the american crafts modern album to hold it all together. since i still haven't decided how to embellish the outside i am going with something more basic for 2009...the we r memory keepers 12x12 black classic leather album.
i am going to stick with the same we r memory keepers page protectors the next time around. they have worked well.
i have created a private family friendly flickr group room where we can post our photos and view others from the group. if you haven't used flickr before let me assure you that it's super easy AND will allow you to keep your photos as private as you'd like. for the group i chose to make it private, invite only so that just members or invited friends can view our photos.

so now all you need to do is let me know if you are interested. i will send you a link that will "invite" you to join and we can start sharing in 2009.

it took some doing...

but i am now officially done with christmas photos!
now i just need to figure out how to get these picked up from costco without getting stuck in the snow!

say yes...

to yes man!
jas, ceb, kial & i went to see this last night and LOVED it. there is one extremely inappropriate part near the beginning that made me worried about the whole movie, but that turned out to be the exception. we all laughed out loud many times and had fun talking about it afterwards. i just can't get over how cute zooey deschanel is. i loved her in elf and now even more in this movie.

stock up on joy...

i know this is a commercial and if you've seen twilight then chances are you have already seen it but i still LOVE it.
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you can download it for free here!
Enjoy!

did you know...

they don't cancel soccer games for snow? well we found that out today. ceb's soccer team, the bluejays, is playing in the regional playoffs and today's game was played on a snow & ice covered field. and they totally rocked the field and WON! the next game is tuesday night! if they win tuesday there's just one game left to determine the regional champs...we are keeping our fingers crossed, these girls deserve a victory.some great parents cleared off the field lines and the goal boxes. there were also hot drinks and blankets aplenty to keep the girls from freezing. i think the parents on the sideline were in much worse shape than the girls at the end of the game. not only was it freezing it was also a little windy. it took me about 3 hours to warm up (with an electric blanket)after standing on the field for 2 hours watching them play.
i can't even begin to tell you what a great team this is. not just as players, but as people. the girls are so supportive of each other and just seem to be out there having fun. i feel so happy that ceb lucked out and got on this team 3 years ago and has been able to stay with them. (by the way i did not take the above photos. one of the team parents braved cold fingers to get the photos of the day.)

on a different topic...
i thought you may be interested in seeing an updated photo of kial's arm. it's all healed and just a big scar now. it looks smooth but when you feel it it's surprising deep under the skin. she still likes it and the attention it has garnered her at school.

well, i am off to find WARM socks for tuesday's game!

i love PETE WENTZ...

not really, but i do think he's awesome! thanks to my good friend rob we scored tickets to the sold out kiss 106.1 jingle bell bash featuring fall out boy. i took cebastian, kial and kial's friend ella.
the girls LOVED every minute of it. like being able to hang out in the "paramont club" eatting cheese and drinking jones soda. having great seats in the front row of the 1st balconey so no one was blocking their perfect view. having only 3 acts so each band played a long set. seeing pete wentz blown up bigger than life on the screen. (plus, kial and ella were the envy of their friends at school...you know they enjoyed that.)
i loved watching all the teeange girls (not just the 3 with me) screaming and dancing and just having fun. it kind of made me feel young, but also happy to no longer be young...weird i know.

i enjoyed the 1st 2 acts but once FOB hit the stage it was obvious who the stars were. ok star. pete wentz kind of steals all the spotlight. he's insanely charismatic and engaging. one of my favorite things with any live act is when they strike up some banter with each other and with the crowd; pete was great at that. and i have to say patrick's voice is great. i was impressed that he sounded as good live as he does on my ipod.

it will be fun to hear their new album next tuesday!

maui was...

really beautiful! kial and i had a really great time.
the camp was a little ghetto (not so clean, dead mice in the kitchen, one working shower for the girls), but by the end of the day the only things i cared about were getting a shower and into my bed to sleep. we arrived in maui at night just as a storm did. we had pouring rain and gusting winds on and off for our first day. but in between the rain bursts we saw so many rainbows. the air was warm so we were still able to enjoy ourselves while it rained.

the less than perfect weather didn't stop the kids from wanting to jump into the water. unfortunately the 1st time kial got in she was promptly (literally moments after she sat down) stung by a jellyfish on the inside of her upper arm. luckily we had carolyn (one of teachers) who was all prepared for this possibility. she doused kial with vinegar and dosed her with benedryl. it still really hurt but kial was thankfully able to participate in the days activities.sweet girl that kial is, she felt bad for the jellyfish because it lost some tentacles since they were stuck to her arm. we found out later that when it's windy jellyfish are more likely to get blown in near the shore.

thankfully this did not stop kial from jumping back into the water later that day and having the time of her life.

kial's arm looks much better now than it does in the last picture above, but she will most likely have scars on her arms for a few years...though kial's hoping they never go away (yeah, she's only 13).

we had fun at the beaches and kial had fun in the water. she loved snorkeling and swimming and just hanging out in the waves with her friends. i liked the beach. i did try snorkeling for about 2 seconds and that was enough for me.
we had a lot of fun out of the water as well. the maui ocean center was fun, especially the shark tank. we went to the top of haleakala to see the sunrise, but a cloud settled on us right before it was time. we still had fun listening to nanette in the visitor center tell us about the hawaiian culture. later that day we visited paia, a beautiful little hawaiian town, where the girls had shaved ice and i had gelatto (sourcream...don't crinkle your nose it was amazing). we shopped, ate great food (gail did a wonderful job with the menus), had a few squabbles and worked them out, swam for hours EVERYDAY, laid in the sun, talked, laughed, saw sea turtles, octopus and many fish in their natural habitat and in general had a FABULOUS time.

i would LOVE to go again with jas and the girls! there was just so much more i would have enjoyed exploring! but next time i want a hotel room!

christmas pictures anyone...

not really, i am done for the year (except for my sister's family). I actually really enjoyed taking pictures for the lees, the shuldas (my brother), the minughs, the embreys and kiki's posse. it is NOT something i would like to do full time though. it's just TOO STRESSFUL worrying if i actually got some shots they would like.

we went to the park with eric, delaney & grant. the kids had fun running around and shimmying up the climbing wall. kelly & rob picked the downtown seattle library for their location. it was VERY cool and loaded with fun spots. thankfully rob & kelly both had some great ideas of what they wanted. afterwards they took jas & i to juno for lunch...the turkey sandwich i had was too die for, i can't imagine anything being better. for amy, clark, baylie, rylie & baker we visited their gorgeous new house, which is still in the process of being built. can i just say I AM SO JEALOUS...except that they are living in BFE! we had a blast exploring with them and getting an idea of what the finished house will look like. they took jas, kial & i to changs for lunch...so good! until 2009!

a family of actors...

cebastian, kial, adam and my dad were all in the ward play this year. my dad's been in the plays for years but it was a real priviledge for the kids to be able to participate, and they all had a blast doing it. though it did get a little stressful at times when practices made finding time for homework hard!

maui...

kial and i are heading to maui on a school field trip next monday, nov 17. it feels like the time has flown by since we signed on to go. i must say i am really nervous about parts of the trip (like dealing with 19 teenagers and snorkeling). i am also a little apprehensive because we will doing all the cooking, snorkeling and especially because we are staying at a campground; camp olowalu. i am not a camper and hearing about the limited showers and rodent problem doesn't make it any more appealing.

and did i mention the snorkeling? i have huge issues about the ocean to begin with. honestly i have issues with any water that creatures live in. it just freaks me out. i like to view fish and whatnot from the safety of the "other" side of the glass...if you know what i mean. any glass will work like the tv, aquarium or a glass bottom boat. the beach also works great for me. i really like the beach.

i also have a HUGE fear of sharks. i think this can be attributed to my babysitter forcing me to watch jaws when i was 6. don't get me wrong, i am as fascinated as anyone when shark week comes on the discovery channel, but of course they are SAFELY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLASS.

luckily for me the snorkeling is not required so i am going to play that one by ear. i'll let you know if my nonexistent pluck kicks into being.
aloha!

moonlight ladies...

we had our bi-annual scrapbook retreat up on whidbey island at near the end of october. it was nice and relaxing with a lot of time spent just relaxing. i didn't get much done but i did enjoy the hot tub, playing catchphrase and all the delicious food!i always have a great time with these wonderful ladies. i did miss kelly & amy though:(

pumpkins and the lake...

we carved pumpkins with jason's mom. she had never carved a pumpkin on her own before so we decided to make that happy. jas didn't even participate and i must say my participation was lackluster as best, i just drilled a bunch of holes in mine with an apple corer (yeah i'm a copycat). the girls were excited about carving pumpkins for one reason...roasted pumpkin seeds. the day after we carved pumpkins we went to my aunt & uncles house on lame margaret for a welcome back celebration for my cousin geoff who has been in bolivia with the peace core.when we got there kial headed right for the lake, which was freezing. i wish i had gotten a picture of her face when she jumped in; it was so cold it took her a second to get her breath back. it was seriously hilarious...yes, i know i am evil! luckily there is a hot tub to get warmed up in between trips to the lake.

we are so lucky that auntie barb and uncle norm are so generous with their time and their home. it's like a whirlwind when all 8 shulda grandkids desend upin them, but they always seem happy we came! and we all love going there.

growing up too fast...

kial got her braces off last wednesday and she looks gorgeous.

is it weird that i feel a little sad about it? i WON'T miss the food filled smiles or finding tiny rubber bands EVERYWHERE, but i'm a little heartbroken because she looks so much older with her brace free teeth.she says she will always be my baby, but i can't stop the panic i am feeling about her growing up way too fast.

i know, i know...

it's whacky, craziness but i REALLY love it.i am not sure why but i am completely intrigued and charmed by this etsy site. i would NEVER want a dead animal on my wall, but i'd be all over a felt one. feltidermy is the way to my heart!

a little celebrating and...

kelly, amy and i got together to celebrate kelly's birthday friday night. we had a great time eating dinner at sharis (sliders, loaded waffle fries and onion rings), going to see the movie ghost town, and finishing off with dessert (shakes & apple crisp) at billy mchales. i am so lucky to have been friends with these ladies since high school. you will never meet two more wonderful people!on sunday jas, kial and i met ally, travis, kiki and kiki's kids down at the seattle waterfront to get a jump on christmas card pictures. we had fun running around and working hard on getting the perfect picture.afterwards we all walked down to red robin for an early dinner.

happy little things...

this weekend jas and i had a mid morning date (movies are cheaper then) and went and saw nick and norah's infinite play list. it was so cute and sweet; just my kind of movie. i was also very excited that they FINALLY have coke zero at the alderwood 16. it's those little things that make me happy.

i am also happy that the new snow patrol cd will be out on oct 28! it's been so long since we had new music from snow patrol and i have high hopes for this album.i swear i am so obsessed with music recently...it's actually a great way for ceb and i to connect. other than her bizarre aversion to the beatles we enjoy a lot of the same music.

a few more little things i am looking forward to...mll scrapbook retreat in 2 weeks, halloween, hawaii (mostly) in nov, thanksgiving, decorating cookies with amy & rachel, christmas morning and just being with my family.

sometimes it amazes me how lucky i am. my life is far from perfect, but i feel that since i have jas and the girls it just doesn't matter!

and...

there's a newly licensed driver on the road!

of course ceb is very excited.
i am very nervous and worried even though i know what a good driver she is. there seemed to be no way to prepare myself for her to suddenly (can you call it that after a year of driving with us) watch my baby drive away all alone... and SO happy to be doing that!

a few things...

i finished brisinger on thursday. i had a really hard time getting absorbed into the book until almost the end. i loved eragon and truly enjoyed eldest. i am disappointed that i can't even say i like this book. i don't dislike it, but except for a few times it did not move me the way the first 2 books did. i really hope the last book revives the pleasure i have felt in reading this series.

i actually have tickets to go to a book signing event next monday and i am not even sure i want to go. maybe my expectations are just too high?

if anyone else has read it i'd love to hear your opinion.in other news, kial's soccer team won their very 1st game in all the years they have been a team. some of the girls have been playing together since 6th grade and now in 8th grade they finally won a game...i bet you can guess how excited they were. and all us parents who've been watching and cheering from the sidelines were pretty dang excited too.
lastly, we had ceb's 16th birthday party (only a month after her birthday) at whirlyball in edmonds. it was so much fun. cebastian, the kids and jason all had a blast. i was worried that 90 minutes of playing time would be too much, but it just sped by in a heart beat, even for those of us just watching. as we left the facility most of the group was planning and plotting their next whirlyball adventure.

our next big adventure is ceb going for her driving test tomorrow...wish her luck!

dr horrible...

and other awesome things.

have you seen dr horribles sing-a-long blog? because if you haven't you REALLY should take a peek. ceb and i are madly in love with it. makes me almost want to sign up for an NHP (neil patrick harris...ya know doogie howser) fan club! ceb and i love the show and the soundtrack. we listen to it all the time. check it out an let me know what you think.in other news...stonewall kitchen crackers are awesome. i am not sure why, but i love them. no more regular saltines for me. from now on it's tiny $6 boxes of crackers when i feel sick. they come in a good variety of flavors and they all taste pretty dang good, but my favorite is the plain old sea salt. jason thinks they taste stale, but that just means there's more for me!and last but not least mac and cheese. not plain old kraft mac and cheese, but real homemade delicious carlanna's recipe mac & cheese that gets cooked in the crockpot. now i am not much of a cook, in fact i pretty much hate it and rarely do it, but this recipe was so easy that i know i will make it again. kial took some with her for lunch one day this week and her friends ate most of it. she ended up promising to bring a bunch more next tuesday, so i guess we'll be making more this weekend.
here's the recipe especially for shannon:)

carlanna's crockpot mac & cheese
8 oz pkg dry macaroni (cooked)
2 TBSP oil
13 oz can evaporated milk (fat free works)
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp each-salt, pepper (fresh is best) and dry mustard
3 cups shredded cheese-cheddar, american combo (i used medium cheddar & colby jack))
2-4 TBSP melted butter (i think 2 was plenty)
2 TBSP onion (dried minced onion works great)

in crockpot toss cooked & drained macaroni with oil. stir in remaining ingredients. cover and cook on low for 3 hours (check yours at about 2.5 hours mine was done).

so simple and so good.

can't wait for saturday! BRISINGER and i will be spending the evening together!!
take care...

can you hear the music of the night?

well i got to and i loved it.

jas and i joined kelly, rob, amy & clark for a fun evening on friday night.

we meet at juno the restaurant attached to the arctic club hotel. let me just say i would recommend juno to anyone who likes to try new things. the food was terrific and i loved the flavor combinations. rob and kelly ordered an assortment of appetizers for us to try. they were all really delicious even, much to my surprise, the duck rillette. my favorite was the beets! for the entree i had the carrot and chickpea socca which was so incredibly good.

after dinner we literally rushed to the paramont to see the phantom of the opera. i really enjoyed the musical. there were a few parts that i didn't love, and some spots seemed kind of long, but i still found it riveting. i truly love the music; it has captivated me since high school when i first heard it. poor jason did not enjoy it so much, not that he was expecting to.

after the show was done we headed to the arctic club where rob showed us around a bit. i can't even explain the beauty of the dome room. the ceiling was so incredible and intricately detailed. it was great having rob there to tell us little details about the building. one day jas and i will have to stay there just so i can look around some more.

last but not least we went back to juno for dessert...all i can say about that is wow you have got to try it!

the best part of the whole evening was actually the people. i had such a great time hanging out with everyone. i loved the easy camaraderie, the familiarity and the laughter. i can't wait until we can find time to do it again! (jas too, just without the phantom of the opera)

never a dull moment...

ok, maybe that's not true, but this past week has been filled with some "interesting" and fun events.

the interesting event is that kial dyed her hair bright pink (with her aunt juju's help). she'd been begging us to do it for months but both jas and i were reluctant to let her because her hair was in such great shape from last year when she shaved it. that being said we did let her shave it last summer so how could we really say no? it's just hair after all, it will grow out again.
back to school is always highly anticipated around here. all the kids want to get back to the social network that school tends to be.

cebastian is now a junior at nathan hale.
there are 4 cousins going to summit this year.
adam & kial are 8th graders. this is the last year they will be at summit.
malieo & delaney are in 3rd grade.
mataio is in 1st grade.
grant is going to shoreline preschool as a real preschool kid this year and not in the daycare.
malakai is also going to be starting preschool, but i didn't get a picture of him since he hasn't started yet.my oldest nephew adam is turning 14 on wednesday, sept 10 so i took him out shopping on saturday to pick out his presents. he chose to go to barnes and noble. adam loves to read and that just makes me SO happy. we had so much fun picking out 5 new books for him and razzing kial because she hates reading as much as we love it.last but not least i got to spend a fun evening with some wonderful women to celebrate amy's birthday. we had yummy indian food at cafe india. the food was all delicious except for some scary nan we got accidently that was filled with raisins and almonds. after that amy, kelly, their mom linda and i went to see mama mia (it was my 3rd time and i swear it just keeps geting better)and then amy, kelly and i had dessert at the claim jumper. it was so much fun! amy's real birthday is monday so be sure to tell her happy birthday of you get a chance!

so what happened to august?

i swear the summer has whipped by so fast i barely noticed it's passing. i can't believe it's september and school starts TOMORROW. that's truly shocking to me.

no, i haven't been living in a box, i just let time and the summer run past me. we were actually pretty crazy busy throughout august. i am sad that it went by so quickly. is it just me or does it feel like summer is much shorter than when we were kids? part of it might be that we didn't really have much of a summer this year. yeah we got some great hot summery days, but it sure seemed like there was a lot of cold along with the hot.

we had almost every day planned with something in august. here's a list of the big things.

8/2 ceb came home from a week away at efy...she had so much fun.
8/2 i spent the day with my good friend ally & her bridal party getting ready and then attending her fabulous wedding. (my family met me there) it was such a great day for me. i loved being an insider at the event.
8/5-8/9 the girls spent 5 days at girls camp. kial brought her friend ella. all the girls had a blast.
8/6 i spent 5 hours in the er with my poor dad who fell and broke his patella while helping a friend.
8/9 we had a super fun birthday bowling bash for jas to celebrate his 41st birthday. his "fun" work friends all came and we shut down spin alley.
8/10 we celebrated jason AGAIN. this time we had a little family party at his mothers house with trophy cupcakes!!
8/13 jas and the girls took off at 5:41am to drive to halfmoon bay, california to go to his cousins wedding. it only took them about 13 hours to get there.
8/15 i flew down to california for the wedding (lucky me!)
8/16 india and jud's wedding. it was absolutely perfect and 100% them. i truly enjoyed every minute of it.
8/23 ceb took AND passed her knowledge (written) test for driving. it was close, she missed 4 of the 5 you can miss and still pass, but she still passed and we were able to get her scheduled for her driving test on 9/30. it's a lot further out than she was hoping, but i am happy to put off handing over the keys to her.
8/23 scrapping with mary ann, jen, carlanna, kathy, sherry and patti. we celebrated carlanna birthday belatedly with yummy ice cream pie! of course we actually did way more talking than scrapping but it was still really fun.
8/25-8/28 camping in leavenworth with the minugh's and hohenstein's. our annual trip was a little different this year with some unhappy moments but we managed to pull out a good amount of fun as well.
8/26 cebastian turned 16. i still don't want to believe that i could have a daughter that is 16, but it's true. cebastian is truly one of the best kids in the whole world. i am so glad to know her.


i actually love the fall and am looking forward to all the things we have planned in the coming months, but i wish i had gotten to sleep-in a few more times during the summer!<