Simply Me

Time to close it down

I've finally come to the conclusion that I'm not up to blog writing like I hoped. I keep meaning to come back and get started again, but it's just not happening.  And to try and force it is not going to do anything to help matters.  I simply don't have the desire anymore.  I will likely leave it up for a time using the free version, just in case I change my mind.  If the desire to write doesn't come back by year's end, then I'll close it down altogether.  Thanks to everyone for all the support you've given over the last several years!

Wow! August almost gone??

Sorry for the lack of posts in August everyone!  

We've been busy...a trip to Colorado, getting one kid ready and off to college, 

another ready for high school, getting the last of the veggies from the garden, 

taking a last day at the beach for the summer, etc.  Another week to get the 

first week of school under my belt and then I'll be back with lots of fun stuff. 

In the meantime, enjoy these peeks at what we've been up to:

Photo Find Fridays

As Sarah and I look forward to our upcoming trip to visit family in Colorado, I couldn't help but share this photo I found today:

This was March 2003 as we awaited our flight home at the Denver Airport. Tom surprised me with this trip to visit Colorado family. Casey was 4 and since he was not in school, like Sarah was, he went along. It was his first airplane ride. We flew Frontier Airlines which had some of the first in-seat tv monitors with DirecTV.  It cost me $5 each way but he loved it and it made for a great flight.

Man does this seem just like yesterday. 

Oooh! Look what came to visit us!

Sarah was in the kitchen yesterday morning, startling me when she loudly exclaimed:  "WORM!"

Of course, it's not a worm, but a catepillar. And according to the info I found on the web  (by googling YELLOW, GREEN, BLACK catepillar), it will eventually turn into this:

This is a male black swallowtail.

This is the female Black Swallowtail.

In reading about these butterflies on Wikipedia, I learned that the reason we saw this little dude is that they're partial to parsley apparently. Ummm...that's MY parsley Mr. & Mrs. Black Swallowtail.  It's not your personal nesting ground!

:::: sigh :::: 

I guess I'm going back to buying my parsley at the store.

 

 

Journal Jar Time - 07/30/2012

This is harder than it seems!

Tom:  Reliable, patient, selfless.

Sarah:  Animated, talented, special

Casey:  Brave, opinionated, thought-provoking

There...your turn!

 

 

Project Life - Week of July 15

Wooohoo! I did it!  I got another week done today. And that was on top of making this week's grocery list and menu, cleaning out the stalls twice, feeding the horses, and making dinner.  I'm feeling pretty accomplished today :P

The week of the 15th was a quiet one as Sarah was out of the house at camp. My photo taking slacked off. Are the two things related? I hope not...otherwise, these pages are going to be sorely lacking after August 23rd!

Who knows whether this one page PL layout will be a ongoing thing or not, but I'm satisified with it either way. 

All papers and elements from The Daily Digi "Celebrate a Year of Memories" kit.

 

 

 

Project Life - Week of July 8

Another week has come and gone.  Time to try and catchup on my Project Life layouts. Despite spending the majority of my day doing just that, I've only managed to get one week done today. I keep telling myself it's only because I'm so rusty at scrapping and with time, I'll get faster. I sure hope I'm right!

During the week of July 8th, I captured the following things from our daily life:

• The kids and I attended our first minor league baseball game at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen
• The crop dusting helicopter made its annual appearance
• Another trip to the orchard and brought home a basket full of delicious fruit
• Sarah and I both are too silly
• Missy and I prepped for our last show of the 2012 season
• My flowers are looking really good right now
• I discovered a new puppy cam

I'm learning that taking the pictures is the easy part.  I'm trying to not do so many instagram photos because they can be difficult to work with in the templates. Or better yet, taking the image full size and THEN manipulating and sharing in instagram. That way, I have more options available to me later.

Click on image to see larger version in another window

This is the kit I used for the papers/embellishments:

Part of The Daily Digi files in June 2012 (#42)

If you like it, let me know!

 

Digi Scrapping / Project Life

I'm hoping I have time today to work on the last two weeks of layouts for my Project Life project. I've been taking photos with increasing regularity which is making me happy.  Last week's horse show kept me from working on anything last week, so now I need to try and get two accomplished this week. And I'm up for that. Keep checking back for the results!

In other scrapping news, I've been organizing my hoard of digital scrapping supplies. Boy howdy has that been a task and then some! So far, I've reviewed my files and deleted things I know I'll never touch again for whatever reason. Then I decided to start by creating folders for the various types of supplies I have. For example:  paper, elements, alphas, templates, quick pages, actions, brushes, etc.  I'm maintaining all my kits in their original collections for reference later, but felt like putting everything of a like type into one folder was a good place to start in "tagging" for future use.

The evidence is clear:  I have way too much stuff!  In the paper folder alone, I have 4,053 images or "papers".  Of that number, 372 is blue in some fashion, whether that be solid (122) or patterns (250 -dots, stripes, stars, flowers, plaids, etc.).   These are the ones that I believe are truely blue. I have so many "green blue" or "teal" that I've decided to label them in their own category.

Ridiculous, right? Still, I had such a good time really looking at some of the things in my "stash". There is some truly beautiful stuff in there, created by some insanely talented individuals.  As I continue to get even more organized, I plan to share some more of my favorites.  Like this little guys:

How sweet are they???  This came from this kit by Erica Zane called "Never Forget":

This kit was rec'd as part of my The Daily Digi June Files (#42).  I had yet to even open the June files. I can't wait to find something to make with these baby elephants!

Now, it's into the wee hours of Sunday and I've got a lot on tap for tomorrow so I'd better get so sleep for now. 

Of Romeo and Juliet and my lacking education

There are some areas in which I feel very lacking some days. One of those areas is classic literature. I feel like I'm missing out by not having a broader exposure, let alone, a better understanding of such things.  In particular, all things Shakespeare.

I've often thought of trying to educate myself in some way, but never have taken a step in that direction. I'm not sure if I didn't think it was possible to do it on my own or felt I wouldn't learn what should be learned by doing it that way. 

The thought of doing something about this came to me again this past week. I'm not even sure I can tell you why it came to mind at this time, but I'm glad it did. I decided to check on Audible's site to see what they had to offer in the way of recorded versions. That's how I discovered this:

And here's the description that grabbed my attention:

"Combined for great value! The multi-award-winning SmartPass study guide with and without commentary options. Full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis for any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. The poetry of Shakespeare's star crossed lovers is poignantly performed and expertly explained in this unique production: "Passion lends them power.""

Since I had a credit available on my account, I went ahead and put this in my "cart" and got it downloaded on my iPhone. I started listening to it on my drive up to get Sarah from camp today. Well, it appears I have struck gold with this! It is *exactly* what I needed. A good production of the play, interspersed with commentary that explains what's going on at the moment. It includes lots of relavent background information that helps the listener understand better why a particular phrase used by Shakespeare is important in various places. The tone of this commentary is light and conversational. Nothing too heavy which makes for delightful listening, despite the tragedy to come, as even I know is coming, despite my lack of previous in-depth study.

I remember going to see the 1968 movie version of Romeo & Juliet in 9th grade (1980). The town where my high school was located still had a small, old theater in town within walking distance of the school and it was showing this movie. My English teacher, Ms. Ruckman, arranged for the whole 9th grade class to walk to the theater to experience this production. I remember being taken by the beauty of Olivia Hussey, the girl who played Juliet.  You can see the original trailer as well as photos from the movie at IMDB.

And it seems like my timing was also good in that a new Romeo & Juliet movie is currently in production.  Looks interesting:  images from newest Romeo & Juliet movie.

If you're like me and have always wanted to improve on your Shakespeare knowledge, I highly recommend this option!

ETA:  SMARTPASS WEBSITE

Photo Find Fridays

I haven't had much time to think about what photo I might want to post today. I tried to decide whether I should just pick a drive and a folder and go from there. Then I thought..."Hmmm...what about that binder full of CD's from the early  days of my digital photo life?" What if I grabbed a random disc, browse for a bit and see what I find. 

Here is the the answer:

This is the second day of school, August 2003. One of these adorable kids is starting high school this year. Another will be a senior. And the remaining two are off to college for a whirlwind of new adventures.

I need to scrapbook this...SOON.