her vision. family. art.

starting to come together

The elements in preparing for Memory Trends trade show are finally starting to "gel". -In place and ready to go! It's been a fUN, stressed out, learning experience for me! -LAFF. -It's all good. This is my first trade show going with Captured Elements. Going to the trade show as a business owner vs. Artist/designer puts a whole different spin on things, and a LITTLE more pressure. Again, -It's all good ;-) Now that the somewhat larger details are in place, I can get back into my element and just create. Doing what I do best, pushing deadlines! I now have a week 1/2 to create 30- or so booth samples! No worries, right.....   I get a little more creative on CRUNCH TIME. so...... these are two layouts I've done. The first is on a design from the new line Earth Spice, designed by the fab Em Falconbridge! (the new line images will be up on the captured elements website in 2-3wks). I love this. The focal photograph is on the shell of a hardback book that opens to expose journaling ( I have yet to do that part ;-), and the closure piece is an antique pearl clip earring. fUN piece. And I've used cut out book text with my dear friend, Heidi Swapp's tape. This was a pretty quick layout to do. The second is done on my Captured Elements football definition paper. It's been around for a while, and I'm still loving it!! I'm overkill on the image tape transfers and spray paint, I know, but it's so much fun!

Purpose

Everything happens for a reason. There is no such thing as Bad timing. This I know.

I did this photoshoot tonight in a trendy area of downtown Kansas City; Westport. Very hip. The photos are of a girlfriend of mine and her boyfriend- or just friend? Well...    my girlfriend just got out of a long, serious relationship. The relationship she thought would last forever, and out of nowhere it ended. And not by her. A couple of weeks later some of her friends drug her out and she ran into James. They went to grade school together, and she hadn't seen him for years! They connected, but in a really cool way. Knowing the chances were that they wouldn't have a life-long romance, James coming into her life helped her through a very difficult time. Don't get me wrong, they are crazy about each other, but James has helped Ro discover things about herself that she didn't know existed, and these things have helped her grow as a person. They are both very cool souls. So why this photoshoot?? James' family is from CT, and he's going back to live there this fall. Ro isn't a scrapbooker, but wants to make a book  for him. One that has photos, and journaling to tell him just how much he has meant to her. How cool is that?...   I doubt he ever forgets her, but he will always have a visual of their relationship. Great photoshoot.

Katrina in relation to HS Homecoming

This weekend is our high school homecoming. Tonight we had the Varsity/Freshman dinner, then afterwards the moms' stayed and decorated the players' hallway lockers, and the football locker room ( THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAVE BEEN IN A BOYS' LOCKER ROOM, AND NEVER WANT TO GO BACK. )! stench. Now that I'm home I am laughing at us moms' covering our faces up to our eyes with our shirts to help a bit..   pretty dramatic. and the players..... I'm sure just walk in/out every day, and it doesn't even phase them!

It's Friday Night Lights tomorrow!

The whole time we were junking up the lockers/locker room I kept thinking about one very important element, #19. He came to our school a couple of weeks ago. He's a NOLA transplant that Katrina put here. He came here to KC and is living with his uncle. One cool thing about it is this, at our game on Wednesday, ( W-34-27! ), I couldn't help randomly watching his uncle and little cousin, who was maybe 5. Totally into the football game,they were loving every minute of it! My thought was how happy he apparently was having the opportunity to watch his nephew play football in person. It's such a bittersweet situation. I can't help think about all of the kids who have been embraced by school systems all across the map. How awesome it is. As I'm sure a lot of other teams have, our team has welcomed #19. It made me happy that we were able to decorate a locker for him. It makes me happy that he is fortunate to have a football number. A community to embrace him. A family to come to...    when it's so disheartening that so many don't.

I just feel that him being here has given more meaning to our Homecoming. I mean, how cool is it that he gets to have a Homecoming.......   

*Photos are of the boys' jersey numbers that I spray painted on my Captured Elements football definition paper. The numbers were spray painted with 6" number stencils; first with red, then layered with gold. ( that's my garage floor..... can you say OVERSPRAY?!!) 55 players.    -I know.....   long day! but...    it was worth it. I hope they're stoked when they get to school tomorrow and see the hallways, lockers and locker room totally junked up!! I know we had fun doing it, and for once, we don't have to clean up the mess !!! woooooooo.. ko..I'm maxed

i'm just a girl who wants to.... so?

These are my 2 favorite ( so far ) pages in my altered NYNY travel journal. ummm..  from my trip to Manhattan and Long Island in August/2004. Ok, better late than never! I get so wrapped up in scrapbooking what "I have to" that I don't take a day here and there and just do what I want to do. And lately I've been so wrapped up in preparing for Memory Trends that I am about to loose it! So today, I'm working on my new york book, because I want to. I swear I am going to complete this book! One way or another...   

This is an old hardback book that I bought at my favorite local used book store, and it's about NY. I covered the page with a piece of pattern paper in my new line Earth Spice ( Em Falconbridge/designer ) -love this design! The right side is actually 2 pages that I bound together with ribbon and beeswax; just along the side and bottom to create a pocket that holds memorabilia. notes. pretty fun stuff......    The best part about this book is how it looks when it's closed. I love all of the "bulk"; tabs, etcetra coming out of the side!!

TIME with my guys; random but quality

It's late. I'm getting a late start in the studio tonight, but for good reason. Earlier I was down here and Eth comes in and says -Mom, I need you to come upstairs now-...    of course I go upstairs, and my son has popped popcorn, and has a football game on the television. Our hometown football team is playing Sunday night football. So Eth says -sit down, we're watching the game together; the 3 of us-! WOW. Pretty powerful stuff. And he's 15! I don't know if he felt guilty because earlier in the day, I jumped on the foam bag with him while he was playing his XBox. NCAA06. I tried to talk him into teaching me how to play it. And very matter-of-factly; no drama, his eyes didn't even leave the tv as he kept playing his game, said -No. Just no. So he either felt guilty, or just needed some "mom" time. Well, for whatever the reason, I was happy to hang out with the guys and watch the game! and eat popcorn! It's so random for the 3 of us to be in the same place, at the same time. Bobby is either at work or out running around, and Eth is at school, football practice, or, I have half of the freshman football team in my basement playing football games on XBox! The quality, daily time together isn't as regular now that they're older, so tonight was a good night. Simple, quality time. The whole universe must have felt the vibe, because my phone didn't even ring!       laff.

Earlier today I finally uploaded some of Eth's football action shots! Games of the '06season. I will add photos randomly. His freshman high school action shots. The comradery of this team is so amazing. Seriously. ...You won't be seeing anymore blue and gold Wolverine scrapbook pages and journals.....   now it's RED and BLACK! Trojans! It's a welcome change because I've been doing Wolverine colors for 6 years. Great stuff, but it's fun to be working with a new color scheme. #43. Check it out.

*Eth intercepting a pass in our second game. sweet.

*Trojans 2/0    

Blog

Friday. Out of control 2 weeks. Seriously. Breathe.

So this online journal thing is pretty cool. Bare with me, I'm still in the learning stages of the "Blog" world, and am working on adding more fun stuff -which could get out of control and look like one of my altered journals. Totally out of control. Interesting....