Giving credit where credit is due

I have done my share of commentary of my feelings toward Steve Jobs.  That behind me, I have to praise this little piece of sunshine... my iPhone4.

I know.  It's just a phone.  Yes.  But, allow me to give you a piece of my thought process over at least the last year.  I have kicked around getting a point-and-shoot that I could carry with me, as having the Nikon strapped around my neck is not always convenient.  When I want pictures that POP, absolutely.  But when something comes up in my every day, not so much.  I have an older Cool Pix, but was never 100% happy with my use of it (I think the camera is fine... it was my use of it as a photog that lacked... or at least that's my story).  I was also looking at purchasing a Flip video camera for those ever so cute things that happen in life that require everyone on Facebook to see.  My first gen iPhone had no video, so I was looking in to other options.  Note on cost: a point-and-shoot was looking to run me between $150 and $200 if I got a decent one on sale.  A Flip video... depended on the ads for the week... usually ran between $100-150 depending on the quality of video I wanted.

Sometimes, friends, it's good to wait.

My iPhone 4 is about as big as a standard iPod.  It takes amazing pictures.  It has the same limitations as a typical point-and-shoot as far as optical zoom.  You want a good zoom that's not super pixelated when printed at 300 dpi?  Use the Nikon not the point-and-shoot.  However, I just printed some day-to-day shots and, I have to say, WOW.  Just WOW.

The video is pretty great, too, although I must say we have been pretty spastic with it.  You have to be cautious as to how you hold it... you can actually video upside down (ask me how I know).  And, it saves the video in HD in .mov format.  What does that mean?  Large file sizes that have to be converted if you plan to edit, unless you use iMovie itself.  However, it works for our purposes.

So, there you have it.  One of the reasons, as a scrapbooker, that I love this phone.  $199 rather than $300 for two different pieces of equipment, and the same bang for the buck.  This merely scratches the surface of what this little baby can do!

Ella Publishing

Back in January, I mentioned a new love of mine: Ella Publishing.  I dig Ella and the name it is making for itself in the industry.  Plus, I can see the smiling faces of the gals whom I used to see on the pages of Simple Scrapbooking (sigh).

Ella has named its first nominees for the "Most Influential Scrapbooker Awards."  Now the fun begins!  On Ella's blog and the blogs of these wonderfully talented scrapbookers, for the next few days, they will have a blog tour.  They introduce the scrapbooker with a brief bio and send you to the scrapbooker's site.  That's where you can take a peek at the site/blog, as well as have a chance to win some SERIOUSLY fabulous prizes.  Ella's blog itself also offers some fun.  To comment on Ella's blog, you need to log in.  An account is free and painless, and very much worth the time.

So, the first person to be honored today?  Yes, rock goddess, Cathy Zielske.  If you have followed my blog, you know I am a HUGE fan of Cathy's.  Yeah, let's see how many tags I have for her...oh, yeah 41 (this will be 42).  All of the designs for the layouts you see using this tag are her layouts.  Cathy's blog is humorously delightful to follow.  It's about her life, not just scrapbooking.  She frequently offers some freebies just for commenting, but it's like icing on the cake of following her blog.

So head on over to Ella and Cathy's blog and see about winning some great stuff!  The giveaways take place for a limited time for each scrapbooker.  I'll try to share the spotlighted scrapbookers on this site as well.  Might even inspire some scrapping out of me!

Project Life

I was laying pretty low in Project Life, alas, and I was feeling behind.  Then I saw the amount of pages I HAVE completed, and I embraced that.  Gotta keep the "glass half full" mentality, as it makes me happier than the other alternative.

Tonight, I finally got a Zumba page completed, which has been on my docket for a while.  I used some pics that Krystal had taken way back in January/February (for the life of me, I cannot recall... I know it was a Monday morning when we had off.  I think it was in January.) and uploaded to Facebook.

My favorite parts of this page:
-Pictures of my peeps
-Zumba ribbon (formerly wrapped around a Zumba beach towel gift from KK)
-A sample "playlist" of songs from classes
-The fact that school was out and we were at Zumba at 8:30 AM on a Monday in the winter

More July crafting, and some "new" furniture

Last week, I participated in some summer inservicing for math. As much as I wanted to craft, there just wasn't the time. I did, however, get to attend my dealer's Open House for the new Stampin' Up! catalog. I thought I would showcase her awesome make-n-takes from this event. I do not have the specs for the cards, so, Karen, if you are reading this, feel free to comment on that.

I took my photos of the cards on one of my new end tables. So I have also included some pics of our living room. I am in the middle of deciding what to do with the walls (vinyl decals dance in my head), but I thought I would share my furniture story.

We sold our almost-20-year-old furniture at our garage sale this spring. We have had an empty room, which has driven my husband close to crazy, but didn't bother me much. As he was driving around the neighborhood on Thursday, he noticed a neighbor setting up for a garage sale. He spied our new furniture and rushed home to show me photos.

This entire set was bought for $300. It's a couple years old, and there are some wearing and tearing, but in all, I think it looks pretty great. The sofa retails for $1000, and the love seat retails for $800, so right there, I think we got a nice deal. The coffee tables are really sturdy, so I know they were not cheap either. Anyway, I thought it rocked, and I will try to show, as the days go on, the metamorphosis that occurs with the room. We had the hardest time figuring the arrangement. You may notice my husband's other garage sale find, the wood divider, has been brought in. There are pockets of the room that, to me, just look empty (by the windows). I think, after 8 years, we are finally going to put window treatments in the windows. I LOVE how the windows look, but I think it causes our summer electric bills to be outrageous.

Enjoy!



This next one is Max's favorite card. He kept walking around the house with it. I kinda like it a whole lot, as well. Simple, yet very cute. Showcases some new colors.

Is it just me, or...

...do other people let photos that they want to frame pile up? Yeah, it's probably just me.

Today in "crafty July," I spent some time doing some framing.

We went through a period of time when, if it wasn't the cleaners, it was Max bumping a picture from my craft area onto the ceramic tile foyer 15 feet below. I took some of those pics and combined them in a collage frame (not very much like me, but I like the way it combined some pics in one frame). I also framed some 8 x 10s of the boys that were waiting for a frame. Now, all I need is to hang them.

A little digi-scrapbooking?

We have been on the go for the past several days, so my craftiness has consisted of taking photos and video of our excursions. I have some blog archiving at this site. Many of my pcs and videos are on Facebook for my friends there.

Happy July 4th to all!

July 1 - The crafting crazies begin

The time has arrived. It is, indeed, the first day of July, and I am making good on my goal to complete some type of craft each day. Today? A card to start July off right.
Each year, when July arrives, my country celebrates its birth. I have said it before, and I'll say it again: July 4th is one of my favorite holidays, if not my #1. It's summer. I'm relaxed. I still have some summer ahead of me. Life is usually pretty good.

I also take time to remember and pray for those who risk their lives for the world's freedom. Those who are overseas trying to keep peace in conditions we cannot even imagine. To those individuals, I dedicate today's card.

For this card, I partially CASEd my idea from a card on the cover of the new SU! catalog. I like how they used the Sizzix die but had different strips of paper. I had in mind less of a pattern and more randomness... I had read strips and star patterned paper... but my inner sense of linear order won out.

Size: 4.25 x 5.5" (or really close)
Cardstock: SU! Textured Night of Navy and Basic Gray
Patterned Paper: from a slab I bought at Hobby Lobby
Twill Ribbon: Stampin' Up!
Star Brads: one of the first embellies I ever bought... no idea who the manufacturer was
Stamp: SU! Teeny Tinies
Ink: Stampabilities Pigment Ink
Die: Sizzix Top Note by Stampin' Up!