Month: October 2008

I went to Mom’s last night and organized all of our Disney pictures (mine, Jerry’s, Mom’s, and Dad’s) into folders that will be roughly how I do the pages of the book. After that, of course I wanted to do some digital scrapping, so I did this layout — twice. Photoshop ate it the first time when it crashed so I had to do it again. Note to self: save as you go. Usually I’m pretty good about that, but my little Mac had gotten quite a workout in iPhoto last night and when I do a lot of file-moving, I’ve noticed that the big programs like Photoshop and Word get kind of crashy if I don’t restart the machine. Duh. In any case, I don’t remember the last time Photoshop crashed on me; probably during the weeks in July/August when I was doing the profile document for church and had to have Photoshop and Word open at the same time. Oy!

So. Without further ado, here’s my newest digital layout. It uses products from ScrapGirls (ABR HisnHers background paper and alphabet, STI Dynamic Spatter Brushes) and a photo frame freebie from an unknown source.

(Click on the image to see it 600×600)

Sarah tagged me.

The Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you (done above).

2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).

3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).

4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them.

5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

The Random:

1. I used to have perfect pitch until 1993 TMJ surgery necessitated a cut through both of my ear canals. Now I have strong relative pitch, but not perfect pitch anymore. Thank goodness. Perfect pitch isn’t really a blessing — when people sing off-key it used to be physically painful (to the point that I had to quit show choir in high school because of the always-flat teacher’s pet). I also have difficulty hearing conversations when there’s a lot of background noise now.

2. I took karate in college, mostly for the PE credit but also for the peace of mind of knowing a little self defense on a college campus in the murder capital of North Carolina. I had been in karate for about 7 weeks when I came back for the debutante ball, and my pectoral muscles are, um, kind of defined in my formal portraits from that event. And my dress almost didn’t fit over my biceps. That’s the only year of my life that I’ve ever had a 6-pack abdomen, too. Ah, the glory days.

3. I haven’t taken any art classes since 1989 (second semester sophomore year in high school). Everything I have learned I pretty much learned from my mother (who has a BFA in Fine Arts and is a wealth of information) or by experimenting.

4. Classical music has a strange power over me. I could not study to it in college because I’d listen too much and I’d get completely distracted by it. Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings gets me every time (it was in “Platoon” for those of you wondering… and the video I linked to was made 4 days after 9/11 so it’s also very very powerful). The moment when Helen was born, George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue was playing in the delivery room; it’s quite possibly my very favorite piece of music. Serenade for Winds by Mozart makes me cry. When Paul Potts sang Nessun Dorma on “Britain’s Got Talent,” I was overcome with emotion when he sang that first well-known phrase. And Andrew Johnston singing Pie Jesu on the same show… oh, my. If you don’t click on any of the other links, click on that last one and see if it doesn’t do something to you. *sniffle*

5. I will not eat sashimi. Too many biology classes. Not to mention I’m not especially a fan of fish to start with.

6. My favorite color to wear is orange, but my favorite color to use in my quilts and scrapbooks is lime green. It’s the new black, apparently.

The Next Victims:
Lissa
Sue
Kelley
Stacy
Nancy
Desiree

We just got back from a week in Disney World, and it was a grand success. I’ll post lots of pictures later, I’m sure.

By far, the absolute BEST thing that happened all week was when we took the girls to Animal Kingdom on Tuesday, and rode the Kilimanjaro Safari ride twice. We grabbed a Fast Pass and then jumped in line, rode the ride, and then used our fast pass immediately afterwards. The second time on the Safari was the truly amazing one, because a baby giraffe decided that he really really really wanted to get upcloseandpersonal with our truck. So he did, shutting down the ride for a good 5 minutes or more while our driver called the gamekeeper and asked for help distracting him.

He decided that our truck’s canopy looked really tasty, so he sampled it (click on any picture to see it larger):

NOM NOM NOM NOM!!

When he heard all of us giggling and carrying on about his silly behavior, he stopped and looked at us, as if to ask, “What? What’s so funny?”

In the meantime, our driver is on the radio, talking to the gamekeepers who assure us that someone is on their way to help out. All of us on the truck are frantically trying to take pictures without standing up and without alarming the little guy (little!? He was about 7-8 feet tall, probably)… So the baby giraffe went back to his snack:

And finally the gamekeeper drove up in his truck, instantly attracting ALL of the giraffes in the vicinity (I think there were 4 nearby at the time). They must hand out treats from these trucks because every single giraffe turned towards the gamekeeper, and our ride was allowed to continue.

I’m very glad that we were on the second time through the safari when this happened and not the first, because the overly-scripted sorority-girl voice of the first driver would have made us INSAAAAANE for that extra bit of time. The driver we had was extremely professional, calm, and quite amused by the whole thing.

And the girls, of course, were totally and completely enchanted by the chance to be so very very close to a baby giraffe. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and had a view of the savannah, so giraffes were walking by all day long, but usually at a minimum of 40 feet away. So less than 10 feet? HUGE treat for them — and for us. What a great day!

I have taken several digital scrapbooking classes at jessicasprague.com and have to say they were money well spent. I feel pretty good about my abilities on Photoshop now, and it’s largely due to her video tutorials.

She’s offering a FREE CLASS on her site, and registration starts October 20 (and class size is unlimited). You don’t have to be a scrapbooker at all to participate, and I think that any of us who like to tell our stories could benefit from it.

Seriously. Check it out. Sarah, Anjali, Kelley, Ra — I’m talking to you. I reiterate — you DO NOT have to be a scrapbooker. You DO NOT have to be using Photoshop. You just have to want to tell your stories, which I know you do. 🙂