:FUN STUFF: Who do you think can bring real change to Washington??

Don't be afraid. Enter your name. Then watch...it's true!

AARP 08 Video

Enter your name to see who can bring real change to Washington. First Name: Last Name:

Send a singing love telegram...from Altoids?

You just never know where you're going to find fun stuff on the web! Here's a good one if you're looking for something silly to send your honey on Valentine's Day.

Altoids Singing Telegram

I'm 83% wired...

for creativity, that is!!

83%

How 'bout you? Take the quiz...leave a comment with your percentage (or a link to the blog post with your results).

Can You Pass 8th Grade Science?

What can I say...it's been a long time since 8th grade science. Give me an English test!!

I Do Dog Tricks

Every once in a while you run into something cute in email forwards...this is one of those times. I got this one from my mother-in-law a while ago...just getting around to sharing it. Thanks, Ruth! It still makes me smile!

Type in a command (sit, roll over, down, stand, sing, dance, shake, fetch, play dead etc.), click submit and see what happens. It's also very cute if you type in a command that's not recognized!! Make sure you type in "kiss" too, but do it last.

I Do Dog Tricks

i ges i kan spel...

I Scored a 100%!

Way Funny! Courses for Men & Women

I found these on James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door and just had to share...some are just way too funny. Simply for your enjoyment, I've highlighted the ones for which I feel my hubby should sign up (I apologize if it's a little too much information on a couple). I am sure that he would certainly be able to highlight a few he wishes I would take, too, but we won't talk about that. :-)

Courses for Men
Taught by women, for men.

101 - Combating Stupidity
102 - You Too Can Do Housework
103 - P.M.S. - Learning When To Keep Your Mouth Shut
104 - How To Fill An Ice Cube Tray
105 - We Do Not Want Sleazy Underthings for Christmas - Give Us Money
106 - Understanding the Female Response To You Coming In Drunk At 4 AM
107 - Wonderful Laundry Techniques (Formerly "Don't Wash My Silks")
108 - Parenting - No, It Doesn't End With Conception
109 - Get a Life - Learn How To Cook
110 - How Not To Act Like a Butthead When You Are Obviously Wrong
111 - Spelling - Even You Can Get It Right
112 - Understanding Your Financial Incompetence
113 - You - The Weaker Sex
114 - Reasons To Give Flowers
115 - How To Stay Awake After
116 - Why It Is Unacceptable To Relieve Yourself Anywhere But the Bathroom
117 - Garbage - Getting It To the Curb
118A - You Can Fall Asleep Without It If You Really Try
118B - The Morning Dilemma - If It's Awake, Take a Shower
119 - The Weekend and Sports Are Not Synonymous
120 - How To Put The Toilet Seat Down
121 - How To Go Shopping With Your Mate and Not Get Lost
122 - The Remote Control - Overcoming Your Dependency
123 - Helpful Postural Hints For Couch Potatoes
124 - How Not To Act Younger Than Your Children
125 - You Too Can Be a Designated Driver
126 - Honest, You Don't Look Like Mel Gibson, Especially When Naked
127 - Changing Your Underwear - It Really Works
128 - The Attainable Goal - Omitting %@#*! From Your Vocabulary
129 - Fluffing the Blankets After Farting is Not Necessary
130 - Real Men Ask For Directions
131 - How To Take Illness Like a Man

Courses for Women
Taught by men, for women.

101 - Avoiding Walking in Front of the TV
102 - Doing Housework Without Complaining
103 - Shopping: Buying What You Can Afford, Not What You Can Charge
104 - Going to The Washroom Alone (formerly Coping Without My Friends)
105 - Understanding the Male Response to "Do I Look OK?"
106 - Exercise: How it Keeps You from Looking Like Your Mother
107 - Learning How to Initiate Intimacy
108 - How to Apologize When You Are Obviously Wrong
109 - Understanding the Male Response to "Am I Fat?"
110 - Dishwashers: Rinsing Before Is Not a Must
111 - The Toilet Seat: I Can Learn to Put It Down Too
112 - Using the Thesaurus: Alternatives to "Make Love"
113 - "The Weekend" and "Long Boring Walks" Are Not Synonymous
114 - How to Go Shopping With Your Mate and Not Embarrass Him
115 - The Remote Control: Don't Touch What You Can't Handle
116 - You Too Can Be the One to Hang Up the Phone
117 - Honest, You Don't Look Like Kim Bassinger - But You're Acceptable
118 - Hairspray: The Effects On The Ecosystem (formerly One Can Is Enough)
119 - Runs In Your Nylons? It's Not the End of the World
120 - Fishing: Being Able to Bait Your Own Hook
121 - Intimacy: More Than Just Lying There
122 - Learning to Choose What to Wear In Less Than Four Hours
123 - Vacations: Doing Without 4 Suitcases
124 - Makeup: The Less is More Theory
125 - Nagging: Stop the Insanity!

Did anyone else happen to notice that there are fewer offerings under 'Courses for Women'? We must just need less work! :-)

A Little George "W" Bush Humor...

just couldn't help it...all in good fun, of course! :-)

Personal DNA - I'm a Dynamic Architect. What Are You?

This isn't your average, everyday multiple choice personality test! Check it out!!

To read my description, go here: Dynamic Architect

Google Alert from Penguin's Igloo: Life's Little Notebook-The Scribbles

Google Alerts are great!

I got an alert today that I (more specifically, my blog) was mentioned somewhere on the web. I followed the link to find that I am listed in someone's top 10 favorite blogs (Penguin's Igloo: Life's Little Notebook-The Scribbles).

I am not at all familiar with Window LiveSpaces (like, never even been on it before today) and wanted to leave a thank you to the author in their comments or by emailing them, but couldn't find any way to do so (without signing up for a hotmail account or something and as I'm sure you can all relate, I don't need another email account through which I get primarily junk mail!).

Anyway, so I am hoping that the author will come back here (since I am in their TOP 10, after all) and see this big THANK YOU for the mention and this PS - if you dream of living on a ranch and love horses, you definitely need to check out this blog. I think it just might make your top 10...as long as it doesn't knock me out, that is! :-)

Sunday Spur for Scrapbookers #17 - Color in Motion

Today's spur for scrapbookers is a lesson in color inspiration...or as the website states it "an interactive experience of color communication and color symbolism."

This has certainly got to be one of the most unique websites I've ever come across and is just simply a lot of fun.

It can also be extremely useful. Have you ever wanted to convey a particular emotion through a layout and not known quite what color to use? This website can help with that and much more.
It's called Color in Motion...

Your challenge today? Sit back with your Sunday morning coffee (or other drink of pleasure) and enjoy. Play. Be color inspired.

Sunday Spur for Scrapbookers #15 - Enhancing Photos w/ Filters

In honor of National Photo Month, your challenge this week is to play...play with your photos that is. In Thursday's post, I gave a list of online resources for taking better pics as well as ways to enhance them. For an example, here's a photo of my daughter I took back in February:


Now...here are six variations of the same photo that I created Photoshop Elements 4 using four filters included with the software (there are dozens more to choose from) and two additional filters that I uploaded into Photoshop from optikVerve:

Graphic Pen (left) -- Saturation Reduction (right)

Diffuse Glow (left) -- Film Grain (right)

OV Fall Colors (left) -- OV Rosy Look (right)

Don't have Photoshop Elements? No problem! Most of these effects, or at least something quite similar can be achieved with Picasa - Google's FREE image editing software!

Have fun with your photos!! Be careful...this kind of play is certainly addictive!

It's National Photo Month!

May is National Photo Month!! What a perfect time to focus on taking more and better pictures...I definitely have some photo shoot ideas in mind for Miss Kaitlin this month!

I've come across some great photo tips and resources online (like here and here)as my interest on photography has developed. Some principles might seem 'basic' (the rule of thirds, use of natural light, etc.), but it never ceases to amaze me that my favorite photos ALWAYS employ at least one of them.

I've also learned that there are some really great ways to 'enhance' good pictures and even save bad ones through the use of you computer. There are some really great filters (like here) and actions (like here) out there. Best of all...the ones I've listed here are FREE!

There are also other very easy to use and free programs that can be downloaded from the Internet (like Picasa) that offer some great effects with a simple click of the mouse.

I have added all these photo resources to 'Inspiration & Resources' link above.

What's your visual DNA...

Swiped this cool website through Jessica Sprague's blog, who swiped it from her friend Michelle's blog, who swiped it from her friend Judi's blog. Hey, I guess us scrapper's are all just a bunch of swipers, but at least we give each other credit!! (I also seem to have the sound of Dora, the Explorer going through my head right now saying, "Swiper, NO SWIPING!" Can you tell I have a young daughter?!)

ANYWAY, this website is so cool. It takes you through a series of photos for which you choose the one that most appeals to you based on the topic (i.e. 'My Treat', 'My Freedom', 'That's Gross', etc.) and it develops your 'Visual DNA'. VERY COOL! Here's mine:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Of course, I think some of my choices were from the 'ideal' version of my life instead of the 'real life' version of my life (i.e. notice two of my choices involved passports and I've barely made it outside the Midwest in my entire life), but maybe someday I'll be able to live more of my dreams.

I also added this link to my 'Inspiration Resources' page.

Now, go find out your visual DNA...don't forget to come back and link to me.

A pennies worth of history...

Here's a fun website where you can view "Penny Postcards" (postcards from the early 1900's that cost $.01 to send) from your state...maybe even your own hometown. There's only one from mine - Tabor, SD. It is and always has been a pretty small town. Here's what the main street looked like in the early 20th century...

Obviously, the bigger the city, the more postcards you'll find. This could be fun to use in some heritage scrapping.

She's a Dancing Queen

I recently started fiddling around with the video function on my digital camera recently and have something to share with you that I hope you will enjoy!



It is my sister, Lynn, that told her to "shake it." Several things run through my mind as I watch this clip:

• She's certainly fit right during the trip to Hawaii that she keeps asking for (I don't really know where this interest in Hawaii came from...her other destination of choice is Canada...hmmmm...Canada or Hawaii).
• Evidently saying "Hula, hula, hula" enhances this native dance.
• Either we have been watching entirely too much "Dancing with the Stars"...or not enough!
• And last, but not least...boy, I wish my butt was that cute when I 'shook it'!!

New Scrapblog...St. Patty's Day Kaitlin

Here's a new Scrapblog I made for some pics I took of Kaitlin on St. Patty's Day...

Sunday Spur for Scrapbookers #11 - Scrapblog

In light of Easter tomorrow and a day full of food and family, I am posting this week's Sunday Spur a little early...

This has been my dilemma...with the rise of scrapper's blogs, online galleries, etc., more and more publishers have been requiring that scrapbook layouts submitted for publication be 'never-before-seen'. In other words, not posted in these online formats. I can understand their point of view...why would people subscribe to their magazines or buy their books if all the layouts can be seen for free elsewhere? Still, this has always been difficult for me because sharing is half the fun of the creative process.

However, it's usually really about the pictures and I think I have found the perfect solution for my conundrum! It's called Scrapblog and it is an online service that allows you to create a 'photo scrapbook' of sorts with ease. They actaully just went live with a 'new and improved' version which is a lot of fun. They are still working out a few bugs and are very receptive to sugesstions, etc. Actually, I did have a little trouble getting my slideshow embedded in this entry today, so I emailed them...not expecting to get a response until at least Monday. Well, I went back and forth with a guy named Alex several times until we got it figured out (it was a Saturday, mind you). That's what I call customer service!

It will allow me to still share my photos (and actually sooner as sometimes I don't actually get them scrapped until months after they are taken) and I won't have to risk not getting a publication request because I have already posted my layout on my blog or other gallery.

That said, I will certainly still post my layouts if I don't plan on submitting them for publication or have and they haven't been called in or I just get tired of all the rejection!! :-) There are just so many GREAT scrappers out there, it really is a competitive arena.

Here's one I put together in about 20 minutes (my first time creating one, so I think it could be done even quicker as one gets used to the program) of a photo shoot of Kaitlin back in February...love these pics!

Obviously, this is a little small to read the journaling, so if you want, you can click on full screen to get a better view. If you click on slideshow, you'll even get to listen to some lovely music while you view!

Now for your Sunday challenge:
Create your own ScrapBlog and when you're done, put a link in a comment here so we can check it out. Happy ScrapBlogging!!

A tag from the Sprague Lab...

Today's entry was inspired by Jessica Sprague's blog. She challenged her reader's to list the top 10 things that make you happy right now...

My list:

*Three-day weekends!! Whoo-hoo!

*THIS FACE!


*My new found love of Bloglines...making it so much easier to follow my favorite blogs all in one place - it even has a nifty little 'notifier' at the bottom of your screen that tells you when new content is available.

*The new Daisy D's rub ons I have on order from A Peek into Yesterday.

*Getting a great picture.

*The creative imaginations paper also coming with my Peek order...

*My computer! Email, blogs, photoshop, online scrapbook shopping...oh my!

*Computer Tricks for Scrapbookers Book also coming in the order from Peek. (I'm not just saying this 'cause it's your creation, Jessica! Although I'm a paper scrapper, I use my computer all the time for titles, journaling and more and I KNOW you will give me some great new ideas in this special issue!)

*That I've gotten back on the treadmill...I've been walking anywhere from 30-90 minutes a day for the past week. I've been getting up to do a 1/2 hour before work everyday and then walk again in the evening if possible. Getting the TV downstairs (in front of the treadmill) has REALLY helped. Now I don't have to count ceiling tiles anymore...

*Finishing a scrapbook page. I have one down so far today...hope to do 2-3 more.
TAG - your turn...what's your TOP 10??

At last...a magazine for married men...

He, he...