Prizes?!?

Yep. Prizes for participating in the October Nerdy Victorious Scrapbookers Challenge!

All you have to do is make a creation inspired by this:



Then post a link at NVS. Then you could win this:


Follow a link to see the fabulous creations made by the design team for even more inspiration. Now hurry! You can't win if you don't participate!

NVS Challenge!!

Nerdy, Victorious Scrapbookers are back! Here's the wonderfully nerdy collage for the month of October:

I loved that peacock and tried to work with it, but couldn't find the patterned paper I knew that I had with a peacock on it. Oh, the sadness of owning too much paper! So, the colors are what truly inspired my layout this time. It really made me think of Autumn. I decided to go digital this time. I'm a newbie with digital scrapbooking, so my layout is rather simple. I think it works for this picture. I took a picture of my street during the fall and the picture turned out fantastic. I let that be the focus. I tried to work some peacockish looking swirls in to further use inspiration from the collage.

Now it's your turn. Use the collage, use my layout, look at the layouts produced by the nerdy girls at Nerdy*Victorious*Scrapbookers and post a link to your creation. It doesn't have to be a layout. It can be any crafty thing you are inspired to make! Let's see those creations!

Back in Business!

My new camera has arrived!! I'm going to have to develop some muscles to use this powerful piece of photographic beefiness. I am a Nikon devotee and was debating replacing my stolen D70 with either a D90 or D300. After waffling for quite some time, my husband talked me into the D300. It will have a learning curve. There's so much I can do with it and it will really push me to be more creative and knowledgeable. It is quite a bit heavier with the metal casing instead of plastic, but that also makes it a lot more weather proof. It has so many buttons, right now, I can figure out about 1/3 of them on my own. Hopefully I can develop into a photographer worthy of such a tool. With that, here are the first pictures with the new camera!

Bees and Basil - Bees are extremely difficult to photograph, especially at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. They are busy and in almost constant movement. I also met a nice little spider, actually he's rather large, and he was really enjoying all the bees present.

Really missing my camera

I've completed my 2009 scrapbook. It is a great sense of accomplishment. Now I have nothing to scrapbook because I haven't printed any pictures from 2010. I'm also feeling lost without a camera. There's this lovely, special photo shoot I've had planned for several weeks now, but I have no camera! Well, I have a film camera that a co-worker has let me borrow. But, it won't work for the shoot I have planned. I need digital! I was trying to wait for the insurance; however, I think the insurance is trying to see what the investigation comes up with. And, as much as I watch CSI, real investigations are apparently nothing like CSI. They have not wrapped up our robbery in an hour. Heck, it's taken a couple of weeks to work through the fingerprints. I may only be able to last a little longer without a precious digital camera. There are fleeting moments I need to capture!

Realization of Friendship!

After being robbed, it's a horrible feeling to leave your house and return again. I'm not sure when that feeling, as I open the door of dread, will leave. I actually breathe a sigh of relief when I enter and see everything in its correct place.

Friends, neighbors and coworkers were very supportive. Everyone asks how we're doing and if we've heard anything yet (nope). We made new friends with a neighbor about 4 houses down the street. She has this amazing son that has such a wonderful heart. I'm so glad the incident introduced us.

I even had one co-worker give me an old film camera that "he just had sitting around". I haven't taken any pictures yet. The film concept seems so foreign after several years of digital. I will though. I'm afraid of the outcome, but also remember the excitement of not knowing exactly what you were going to get when you picked up your prints!

We are also going to use this as a way to upgrade my DSLR. I had a wonderful Nikon D70. It took great photos and I learned so much while I had it. I'm now looking at D90. One thing to be thankful for is that they didn't take my back pack full of lenses. Replacing the camera will be much easier than replacing the lenses I had gotten as presents or saved up for. And, the D90 works with all of them!

Not sure when I'll order a new camera. Definitely before the wedding we have to go to in October. So, the blog may be picture-less until then.

Terrible News

Our house was broken into yesterday. While they took every single dang camera I owned, what is really upsetting is that strangers were wondering my safe haven while we weren't home and how unbelievably easy it was for them to get in! But, we're turning this stressful situation into a positive one. Several wonderful neighbors and friends came or called to check on us and even offered a place to sleep for the night. One neighbor and her son think they may have saw the teenagers who did it and came forward to talk to the police. It takes situations like this to realize that there are more people that have your back than you may think!

Catching up...

I've been waiting for my headmistress to put up the new challenge at Nerdy Victorious Scrapbookers. I hope everything is going OK for her.
I am almost finished with my 2009 scrapbook!! I just need to get a couple more page protectors and choose a picture for the front cover! I'm hoping to have it finished before I have to go back to work on Wednesday. I'll post pics of the finished album when it's all done.
I'll leave you with a little scrapiness for now...
This is a digital page I did for the 2009 album. The goal was to include as many pictures as possible, so it is not the most creative page but, it fit my purpose. I'm still trying to figure out the whole digital world.