Happy St. Patrick's Day!

“I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work,

the more I have of it.”

~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd U.S. president

:LIFE: Bad blogger...

I apologize for my lack of posting lately.

It's not that I haven't had the time considering I'm stuck at home nursing this broken leg (read about it here or here)...I just haven't really been in the mood.

Not sure why...it's not like I'm going into a depression or anything.

Hopefully, I will get out of this little funk that I'm in soon!

:GIVEAWAY WINNER: When Life Give You Lemons by Sherry Steveson

"oh, my blury or over/underexposed pictures never get pitched.the thing that has worked the best for me has been to try and remember why the photo was blurry...was i running to catch the fast little toddler? maybe we were on a ride at the fair?it helps me find a starting point for my journaling and i go from there.

this book looks amazing. i hope i win!"

What a GREAT perspective, Debbie...and Debbie...YOU DID WIN the free copy of When Life Gives You Lemons: Turning Sour Photos Into Sweet Scrapbook Layouts!

Random Integer chose you! Congratulations!!

I will be contacting you shortly by email with details on how to claim your prize.

:REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: When Life Give You Lemons by Sherry Stevenson [CONTEST CLOSED]

Does anyone else think that it's a little ironic that the next book I am reviewing is called When Life Gives You Lemons considering recent events in my life (event 1, event 2)? :-)

While this book is unlikely to help me recover from broken bones or a financial crunch, it IS likely to help me in my scrapbooking...which, actually, might help me stay sane while dealing with the above! :-)

There is a little more to this book as the subtitle reads, Turning Sour Photos Into Sweet Scrapbook Layouts, and it is a great resource to any scrapper. The author, Sherry Stevenson, clearly has a lot of greats tips and techniques to offer.

Although I can say that my own photography has improved greatly since I began scrapping, there are still certainly situations where it can be difficult, if not impossible, to get the great photos you wish for.

I think all scrappers have been faced with that dilemma at some point or another. Do you leave the photos in the computer since they are less than stellar or scrap them anyway?

This book offers a very resounding "SCRAP THEM ANYWAY!" and offers a wealth of options for creating memorable layouts with even the worst photos.

Blur, clashing colors, undesirable features of the subject, poor framing, poor lighting, and red-eye are just a few of the photo issues addressed in this book.

The book is divided into 4 chapters:

CHAPTER 1: Try Old-Fashioned Recipes
This chapter offers ideas for using traditional techniques for minimizing, disguising and working with your 'lemons' such as embracing the flaws, focusing on the story, highlighting the positive and masking imperfections.

CHAPTER 2: Design with a Twist
Good design is a huge element of modern-day scrapbooking and you can use it to your advantage to preserve the memories in less-than-perfect photos by calling on color theory, creating energy and movement, embracing the age of photos, designing around the flaws and more.

CHAPTER 3: Take a Byte
Photography has come a long way in recent years and in this chapter, Steveson shows us there are many ways to help improve poor photos in photo-editing software. Techniques such as going black and white, correcting lighting, color and contrast and more are discussed. In this edition, Steveson mainly references Photoshop Elements 3.

CHAPTER 4: Make Lemonade
Although there are examples throughout the book, this chapter is an additional gallery of layouts utilizing the tips and techniques covered in this book. Some layouts utilize two or more techniques to show how they can work together.

In addition to Steveson's designs, there are also layouts by 7 other very talented scrapbook artists including Kimber McGray, Janet Ohlson, Nic Howard, Suzy Plantamura, Hillary Heidelberg, Kelly Noel, and Linda Harrison.

WANT TO READ MORE OR PURCHASE?
Visit the When Life Gives You Lemons page at Amazon.com. You can also read more of my reviews for other recommendations.

GIVEAWAY:
I have one copy of When Life Gives You Lemons to give away to one lucky reader!!

To enter, submit your vote in the poll below and then leave a comment sharing a little more about your relationship with your less-than-stellar photos along with the following information so that I can contact you if you win! (US residents only please...international shipping is just a little too steep for my budget right now.)

FIRST:
EMAIL:
SHARE:

Take the poll:


Leave your comment by Thursday, March 12th, 2009, 11:59 PM (CST) in order to be considered to win.

I will announce and contact the random winner via email on Friday.

Upcoming Review:

I have several great new scrapbooking idea books in my 'to-review' pile...not sure just which one will come next, so stay tuned!

:LIFE: An update...

Hello, all!

It's been a couple days now and it's been a challenge, but we're getting by. My hubby certainly has come through for me in my time of need. He played plumber and put in a hand-held shower head and got me a shower chair and has been a great help in that area. He's also keeping me fed, even though my appetite isn't quite 'normal' yet.

In a strange way, it's actually a blessing that he's not working right now because I don't know what I'd do without him right now.

The pain has gotten much better in the past day or so and am going to try one pain pill every four to six hours instead of two, so hopefully I'll be a little more coherent now.

I have some x-ray photos to share, but I don't think I will post them directly in case anyone prefers not to look at them.

If you'd like to see the break before surgery, click here.

We got several comments at the hospital that this was the worst break they'd seen in quite a while from a slip on the ice. I guess when I do something, I make it worthwhile! :-)

Here are the x-rays after surgery and it's in three pieces. The first is the section just below my knee, the middle section is where the main break was and the bottom section is just above my ankle.

Guess I won't have a quick pass through airport security anymore, huh!

I hope to get back to some scrappy stuff tomorrow...stay tuned!

:LIFE: Laid up...

Well, I've been MIA for a couple days, so thought I'd better let you know what has been going on.

I had planned to post Tuesday night as usual, but when my husband and I went to pick up our daughter from play practice, I slipped on some ice and broke both bones in my lower right leg. It required surgery and a metal rod in my leg...not fun.

Talk about bad timing...

I was able to come home today, but things are going to be a challenge for quite awhile. Recovery time is estimated at 3-4 months.

So, my posting might be a little sporadic in the coming weeks...or it might actually be more as I can't really do much of anything else at home right now.

Anyway, I do hope you'll stick with me...

:QUOTES: by Dr. Seuss...

In honor of the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904), I thought I'd share a few of my favorite quotes by the infamous Dr. Seuss.

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."

“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way.”

"Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you."

I have actually shared other Dr. Seuss favorites here before. What is your favorite Dr. Seuss quote? Have you ever used a Dr. Seuss quote on a layout?