My family- and some photo shoots.

I've been doing a lot of photo shoots lately. I love photography. It's not my passion the way that the Cocoa Cozy is, but I still love it and it still brings me joy to see, take, and edit fantastic pictures! Here are a few from my latest sessions. I've decided teenagers are my favorite. They are so much fun to work with, follow directions, and have great ideas of their own!!

Here is Nancy:

This is my friend, Jennika!

Seliina:

May 2012 STS Color Challenge

I'm loving digiscrapping again, although I SO wish I could see how many downloads I have. That's why commenting is so important. I have no download count whatsoever!

Over at Stuff to Scrap, they have a monthly color challenge. They provide the colors and you either make a mini-kit or use one provided by the designers participating in the challenge. This month had some fun happy colors, so I made a mini kit. I mean, it really is a MINI kit, but still fun!!


Hello! My dropbox was full. If you'd like this kit, please e-mail me. imafishtank at gmail dot com and I'll send it to you!

Here goes nothin!

Alright, I haven't designed any digi-kits in..... like a year, but I decided to try again now that I'm feeling back to myself. I'm scared out of my mind to share this with you because- what if it's TERRIBLE?!?! I've asked a few people for feedback, but haven't received any yet, so this kit is free, BUT I'm pretty much begging for any feedback, pictures of pages done using my kit, or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism (JUST the constrictive kind, please. I'll cry if you're mean). Ok, ready? Are my rules do-able?

First, please download the TOU HERE

Ok, here it is. It's called GLIMMER

Here are the papers (clicking the picture will start your download)ATTN: Apparently I'm generating too much traffic at dropbox, so it will be down for a few days. Please download from 4shared HERE. Sorry 'bout that!

And here are the elements (clicking the picture will start your download) ATTN: Apparently I'm generating too much traffic at dropbox, so it will be down for a few days. Please download from 4shared HERE. Sorry 'bout that!

Time's a Tickin'

I need to start working on party favors for the boys' birthday parties. Vaughn decided he wants a Harry Potter birthday party. I wish he'd said something 2 weeks ago when jelly beans were like.... 10 cents, lol! Oh well. Part of it will be easier because some of the things he can have the same as Xander. I am cheating and getting a few things through oriental trading.

I have no clue how to make the decorations look AMAZING, though. I have some ideas on Pinterest. I just hope I can pull them off. Things like this scare me! Any ideas? Backdrops for BOTH Harry Potter and Magic??!

A post that makes no sense

It has been an interesting..... week, month... year so far? for me. I've been learning a lot about myself. About what I want. About what I want to do....

It started with Xander. Realizing that public school is just not working for him. The teacher he has is INCREDIBLE with him and has done wonders for him. But that comes with a price. I don't feel that it is fair to her or to the other kids in the class for her to need to be as awesome as she is. She makes sure he has extra work to do while the rest of the class is re-covering math lessons and what not. She is patient and forgiving when he says things that he very much shouldn't. She remembers to send him to get his second dose. She really is wonderful. And then there is social. He has very few friends. Mostly because he only wants to hang out with a few specific people- ones that I haven't heard very nice things about. Here my son is WANTING to hang out with the bullies. Joy.

So I put his name in the drawing for the charter school. He didn't get in. And that made me a little excited, because that means we're going to go through the K12 program. He is excited about it, I am excited about it. Hopefully it will work out well. I think his personality fits it. He is a self learner. You give him the basics, teach him how to do something, and he RUNS with it! He loves to learn and loves the idea of being able to choose what order he learns things in.

I was hesitant at first. I'm not exactly known for my patience. But through mounds of prayer, I feel really good about the decision. And ever since I said, "Ok, we're going to do this!" I have felt more patient with him. More understanding. More in tune with what he needs from me. I have enjoyed being around my kids more since I decided that he will be doing his work here. Juliana will keep going to school. She loves school and is flourishing there.

Next- religion. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but I think I take that for granted. I go to church every week, I pray with my children, I pray with my husband, I pray on my own. I try to serve others. I watch General Conference. I obey the word of wisdom. I don't watch Rated R movies or MA tv. But I'm not doing all the things that actually encouragage growth. I'm not steady in my scripture study. We suck at Family Home Evening. We don't read the scriptures as a family. This has gotten me feeling a bit down. After last week's General Conference I realized it's time to change. I have done a little bit better. But not enough. Then I found THIS blog. I want to be like that. I want to actually LIVE a Christ centered life. I need to go to the temple more often (I'm nursing though, so it won't be TOO often). I have had a few opportunities to teach my children gospel principles on their level more often, though. We had a great real life lesson about repentance the other day.... ;)

I suppose what I struggle with is that I'm torn between this WANTING to be all of that and not having the focus or ability to concentrate or connect thought to action. I suppose part of that is baby blues. Which, I don't feel like I have the right to have when so many amazing people I know struggle with infertility. Sometimes I wonder why I am so blessed to have four beautiful kids and these other people who would be the best parents in the world are not receiving children. I have to just remember that the Lord knows what he's doing. He loves us all and has a plan for us.

Then there is my weight.  I hate working out. With a passion. But I need to- desperately! When I had Paisley, I looked DANG good. But I've gained a bunch of weight since then and feel nasty. So, I was delighted when I found a pin on pinterest that suggested you pay yourself $1 each time you work out and earn something. Roger and I haven't had a night alone since I was pregnant with Juliana. He needs to work out, too, since he has high blood pressure. So we decided to give this a go. Earn $200 so we can go to Anniversary Inn for a night. The first 2 days, we did AWESOME. And one day since then. Boo! Why can't I just DO it?

I know this post is a lot of rambling, but I feel so confused about myself. Am I good enough? Why am I not trying harder? At the same time, I have had a lot of mega accomplishments lately. I've been amazing in the kitchen (which is VERY new for me) and have ENJOYED spring break with my kids.

The Easter Bunny came to our house today. My kids were the ones who reminded me that last year he came on Saturday so we could remember Christ on Sunday. So we decided to do that again. But I have nothing to back up my actions. Just an article to read.

Alright. Rambling over. Have a nice day!

For Janelle

A Jedi and a baby

TARDIS balloon

I made this for a friend's birthday. I need to get it printed so I can send it to her. That kind of stuff takes me AGES!

IF you'd like your own print, click on the image to see it full size, right click and Save As, then please leave a comment on this post letting me know that you'll be getting some use out of it. Print them for yourself, or your kids, or friends. But please don't sell them. This took plenty of time and effort. Oh! And a tip! UPS stores and newspapers often do full color prints for less than $.25!

Newest DigiScrap pages and a photo shoot

I did something I RARELY do! I did a digiscrap page without a challenge or prompt. Crazy, huh?! Here it is. All papers and elements by Summer Driggs (the kit is called So This Is Love)

 

This next one was a Stuff to Scrap challenge. It was a font challenge.

I love this one, too. Also a challenge at Stuff to Scrap. This one was a Scraplift challenge.

This one was a challenge at the Studio. It was a  challenge called "Clutter It"

 This was also a Studio Challenge. The theme was "There is nothing I hate more than..."

 This one was a template challenge at the Studio

On a completely unrelated side, here are some shots from a photo shoot I did for my friend, Debi!

 This last one is my fav. Mostly because my Bean is in it!

Back on the train!

I stopped doing Pinterest updates because nobody was really reading them. I still DO lots of pinterest stuff, but I'm not as crazy about taking pictures of them.

I got back into something else that I've abandoned, though! Digi-scrapping!!! Here are my most recent pages. They were done for challenges at Stuff to Scrap.

The first one was for a template challenge. I was grateful for it because I was nervous to start digiscrapping again. The actual template is from AmyDane Designs.

 I used Three Little Monsters kit called How Much More
Font is Ali's Hand

This one was for the color challenge!!

Papers:
Queen wild Scraps- happy march
Magic Moments Scrapped- Peaceful Storm
digi scrappin mama- Going Green
dhariana- Spring Theme

Paisley- A-Manda Creations- Spring Air Mini
Lace- A-Manda Creations- Spring Air Mini
Stitched border- Queen wild Scraps- happy march
Flower- digi scrappin mama- Going Green
Awesomeness- dhariana- Spring Theme
Staple- dhariana- Spring Theme

New Camera

I shot some Senior Pics for a friend the other day on my new Canon Rebel EOS XS. It's a fun camera. It has a couple quirks since I bought it brand new, but I'm starting to love it. We did this photoshoot in the evening, so I was a little frustrated with the fact that the flash is kind of slow, but I don't think I'd have this problem during the day. Wanna see?

Naturally, I wanted to play in photoshop a little. That resulted in these: