Eva's Birthday Party

Our Sweet Pea had her first birthday celebration with all her friends this weekend. Mommy and Daddy put on a back yard BBQ.

 

 

First birthday cake made by Mommy

 

 

 

 And yes I was there too but forgot to hand the camera to Mark. But I am sort of in the reflection in Mark's sunglasses.

Another busy day.

Oh boy these holidays are filled with activity. I return to work tomorrow. I know it will be busy, but I can at least keep some sense of order on my desk.

David was up very early this am to get the last of the dragonflies off the grill. 2000 km means a lot of dragonflies.

Then the gang settled in for the Riders game. Wasn't that an exciting game? The game aint over til it's over - especially with the Riders. How many times can you mess up a sure thing.

Then it was Too Tall Trifle cake to celebrate Mark's birthday. The whole gang sang happy birthday. (imagine three more shy people behind the camera).

Ken's Birthday

And what a perfect day for a backyard BBQ and a birthday celebration.

Yup! Ken is officially 50 - hasn't changed a bit.

Here is the Bible study/birthday party gang minus Allison who left before the group photo.

Allison's and Harold's Birthday 2002

I have a cold - it is the last thing I need or have time for right now so I am laying low - as low as I get.....I took two hours out from house and wedding prep on Sunday aft to scrapbook. I needed to just close my mind from the to do lists and think creatively. I also did some sleeping in on Sunday- something I only do if I am sick! Sleep helps! So does Neo Citron!

Not that putting together all this wedding decor is not creative....but with scrapbooking I only have to please ME....so I can do what I want on a page. YEAH!!

Basic Grey "Bitter Sweet" line, BG chipboard letters, K&Co pink flowers because they didn't get put away from the last page, bling, pebbles (new ones in at JSI - bigger) Creative Cafe rub-ons, white gel pen and voila!

And then Harold's Birthday in 2002 - he turned 21!! This was a fun 2 page layout to do - just pulled out a bunch of stash along with the BG marrakech line and these fabulous Theresa Collins family chip board "charms" I have to get more of those. 

I have been skipping the gym - cause my lungs say "are you kidding???!!" 

But that gives me an hour in the wee hours of the morning when I am awake to get this page done too. 

This is Harold's Birthday 2008 - I finally used that great BZoo paper along with these really fun Fancy Pants chipboard shapes. We have a whole bunch of Fancy Pants paper at the store and these chipboard shapes go with most of them...and with the Bzoo line too!

As you can see, the sparklers loose their excitement over the years, but Mom still insists on a cake and a photo!

Now back to that to do list! Oh yeah..and work!

The Monitor Wins!

I got my new monitor.... a Samsung SyncMaster T240 24-inch Widescreen LCD Monitor.
London Drugs had a very nice sale on in the computer department this weekend and I was able to get a my new monitor at a great price. My sweetheart also picked me up a 500 Gb portable external hard drive (I hinted - actually I phoned LD and had it put aside because the price was an incredible $130.00).

I am calling it all part of the birthday package along with the monitor. Dear husband is happy that I am happy and I am happy that he is happy and it is all good! Everybody is happy!!!
Now not only can I see all the photos I am editing in Lightroom 2, I can save all those precious photos to a hard drive outside my computer because if I ever lost my computer - yikes - I don't want to think about it!

And isn't that all just so much more practical then a diamond ring??

My new monitor is, well, big and pretty and wow so fun to work on.

Aint she a beaut.

Spent an evening on the phone with computer expert son walking me through an upgrade for my graphics card to get er working. This 52 year old soon to be a grandma can now open a computer and tell you the difference between the motherboard and the graphics card ~ very proud of myself. Even more proud of the fact that I was able to crawl under my desk with a flashlight holding a phone under my chin- to figure this all out and get back out again without getting stuck - it was close I tell ya. Note to self - add a few more yoga classes to the gym schedule!

The specs because I know you are dieing to know!

• Resolution: 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA)
• Brightness: 300 cd/m²
• Contrast Ratio: DC 20000:1 (1000:1) (Typ.) THIS is good!!
• Viewing Angle(Horizontal/Vertical): 160º/160º (CR>10)
• Response time: 5 ms that's milliseconds - this is pretty good - but not so important for photo editing. Gamers on the other hand would be impressed but MY computer is off limits to all gamers. Ya hear? Off limits!!
• Stand function: Swivel, tilt

Birthdays are fun especially when you get to pick out your own birthday present. I have learned that waiting for a surprise from my dear husband does not bring about the best results... remember last years birthday???
So this year I was prepared!! And it worked out just fine!

Hard to believe another year has flown by. A few more wrinkles/grey hairs. A few more experiences. Many more blessings. But the best blessing of all - His son Jesus Christ. God is so good to me!!

Have a wonderful day everyone.

Happy Birthday to me!!

Yup! It's my birthday today. I am 51 and I can say that because I feel like I am 41! :) (Most days anyways) I am a child of the King - so I have no complaints!

Didn't do anything too special today - church this morning and than an all afternoon church meeting and here I am indulging in some computer time this evening. I also finished the ironing and cut Harolds hair today - so it was productive! And I love productive days! It's part of being a type A I guess.

But I have to say the best part of the day was seeing the look on David's face (after dropping a million hints) when I said to him just after lunch that "umm today is my birthday dear"

He TOTALLY forgot and felt so bad. Poor guy. Then on our way to the meeting we stopped in at Tims for a quick decaf and I told the nice guy at the till - "It's my birthday and so I am going to have a Boston cream!!" He said "hey Happy Birthday!" and I said "thanks! Your the first one today to wish me a happy birthday!" He looked at David and I got to see that completely embarrassed and ohhhh soooo sorry look again. LOL

If you're reading this dear, I can say all this because you treat me like it is my birthday every day of the year (well, almost), so REALLY, it's okay!! However I do reserve the right to use this against you in any way I like. (wink wink) Anyways March 16, my day! :) Remember that dear because if you forget next year things may be different...wait a min as I recall my 50th....never mind.

Now to some altered projects. I was dashing through Walmart last week with the plan to be in and out of there in 8 min flat and eyed these really creative picture frames - grabbed two. They looked like this before I did a little painting.

I inked and shimmer sprayed the matting (to match my office/scrapbook/computer/create room) and then inserted some fun photos that I changed to B&W. On the laugh picture frame I altered the photos in Photoshop to give them a bit of a posterized look. They were "soft" photos and needed something funky done to them!

Now I just have to decide where to hang them!

Blessings to you all!

Julie