{open & honest}

This blog is moving-- to a new site!

****I HAVE MOVED******

PLEASE PLEASE take note that my blog is moving to a new location.

www.AngieSvoboda.com  will direct you to my new self hosted WordPress Blog. Typepad has treated me well over the last 3 years- I just want a little more control of my blog. (I sure hope that does not sound like I am a control freak!)

I have been playing around with the wordpress software now for several months and really like the features. Wordpress has two options. You can use the www.wordpress.com site and get a blog free hosted by them or you can go to www.wordpress.org download the free software and host it on your own site. I picked hosting it on my own site. I have to give Holly McCaig a big thanks for all her help. 

Same stuff - just a new look.

Oh and a cool feature--- I can blog from my phone!!

My friend Cathy posted this video on her blog today....

Grab a tissue...... and send it on to a friend. Or better yet call a friend today!! Thanks Cathy!

Driving home from Spearfish South Dakota...

Driving along the interstate (using my husband Alltel internet card)- heading home from a long weekend of Little Britches Rodeos. It was a good rodeo for all the kids...   Jet placed 1st in the Jr bullriding, 6th in the breakaway calf roping and 1st in the ribbon roping. My little girl made friends with a cute little girl from South Dakota and ran a good run in the barrels (even her brothers cheered her on!) and George got 3rd place in the ribbon roping with his friend.

We are now driving home and should arrive around 3am.

Skiing was great in South Dakota!

We had a wonderful time today. The base at Terry Peak was over 25inches and they has 5 inches of snow yesterday. I have not been snow skiing in over 14 years (before my oldest was born). I stayed on the snow carpet and greens with my little two today. My husband took my oldest off on the blues. This was his first time skiing and he took to the big slopes! Gotta love that kid! We only shut down the lifts three times!  LOL

leaving for south Dakota

the truck is loaded and we are leaving our friends house and heading for spearfish south Dakota. tomorro we snow ski and then the kids rodeo on the weekend.

Blogging on the backburner...

I have been a bad blogger. So much is going on with my work and personal life right now that blogging has been put on the back burner. It is to bad I let this happen because when I am busy I should be documenting all that is going on in my life. Otherwise I forget it all. Which is what I feel like I did this last two weeks. I have forgot everything....

I did finish our Christmas card today. Here is a copy for you to read. Just click on it and a PDF (printable) version will load. Merry Christmas.... 
 

I also added a video of Cole's last wrestling match of the season. He ending the season with a 11:5 record. He will start basketball in a few weeks. I think when he gets to high school next year in will have a hard time deciding if he want to wrestle or play basketball.


 

Baby it's cold outside....

...this picture tells it all. It is darn cold outside this morning. I took this picture with my phone.

 

A look into my past.

This is a the view from my parents back yard on Thanksgiving day.  They built this home 14 years ago, I grew up in the homestead which is barely visible towards the back of this photo. I think it is one of the most beautiful places in Nebraska.

My brother and sister-in-law live in the house I grew up in. They have raised their 4 children in this house. I love going back to this ranch. It is located on the edge of the Nebraska sandhills (affectionately call the gateway to the sandhills). My Dad is a very proud rancher. When I was growing up we always had Herefords cattle and I was brainwashed to think the Hereford meat was the best. I still love a good Hereford steak. Guess what was standing right outside Dad's back door....

.... a Hereford bull.

On Thanksgiving Day my family was the first to arrive so I helped a little with the meal preparation. My Mom had the majority of it prepared, and as always it was delicious.  Take a look at my favorite pan in my Mom's kitchen...

This pan has been around longer than me. Check out the top lid- I remember my Dad replacing the handle when I was little. When I was little I used this pan to pop popcorn in. I would add oil to the bottom and pop away. We would eat popcorn as our family meal every Sunday night.  I may have to fight my brother and sister for this pan some day. They also have fond memories of foods cooked with this pan.


Apparently George grabbed my camera when I was helping Mom in the Kitchen. That is me guarding over my favorite pan.


The rewards of all my Mom's hard work.  Yummy!  From left to right- my Mom, George, and twins Matt and Michelle (now in college).

It was a day to be Thankful for!

Looking for a great deal on a printer?

I found this great deal online at Staples- an Epson Artisan 800 all-in-one printer for $229.00  Thats a great Black Friday deal!! I love mine! I have it networked with all three computers in the house for wireless printing and scanning!

thanksgiving drive

my baby is driving is us to thankgiving dinner. keep your eyes on the road!

A long day in the pharmacy...

It was a very busy day at the pharmacy. We are short staffed due to illness and I came close to breaking a record in the number of prescriptions filled. I am very tired and I am in a little bit of a bad mood. But this post by one of my favorite bloggers made me laugh out loud....  Ok maybe you just have to be a pharmacist that came home after a long day at work to appreciate the humor. But man- it brought tears to my eyes!

Enjoy------ oh did you exercise and take your vitamins today?

How to make a hybrid scrapbook page.

I taught at Scrapbook Paradise a few weeks ago. One of my classes was on hybrid scrapbooking. SEI was nice enough to help me out with some wonderful physical project and a downloaded kit. I taught about 25 scrapbookers how to use Photoshop Elements 7 with a digital kit and paper products to make a fun layout. I made a 8.5x11 Photoshop template for the photo part of the layout. Here is the download for the template if you are interested. Here is the seven page handout of the class. The handout explains how to use a template in Photoshop Elements (use of a "group with previous" or "clipping mask") using a digital kit by SEI. Then print this 8.5x11 image and use traditional SEI matching paper and stickers to complete the hybrid scrapbook pages.

I made a boy version (using the "Such a Boy" product line)



Here is a girl version (using the "Such a Girl" product line)



Enjoy!

Back in the day...

The other day I traveled to Omaha- a place I lived for 5 years, a place I dearly miss, and the place I got my college education. The college education is the reason I traveled there. I was asked by the College of Pharmacy to talk to the students about pharmacy practice in a rural setting. I am an associate professor at the University of Nebraska College of Pharmacy. I love to try and influence young minds.

Here is a picture I took with my blackberry.

It seems like yesterday I was a stressed student at the college. I was taking over 18 credit hours a semester, working 20 hours a week to pay a few bills, and studying every free moment of the day- and I mean every free moment. I remember not wanting to go home to see my family on weekends because it meant I would lose 8 hours of study time (it was a 4 hour trip there and back). The college of pharmacy is a 4 year program. Before getting into the college you must complete at least 60 semester hours (2 years). Most student take at least 90 hours before they apply to get into the college. It was a 6 year commitment for me. Then I did a one year residency for a total of 7 years. I ended up with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree.

So after I finished my talk to the students I noticed one of my old professors had walked into the auditorium. Dr. McGuire was the instructor that got me interested in transplantations. He was the reason I almost did a two year fellowship in transplants. During my education and residency years I took 3 months of transplantation rotations (2 months with liver and 1 month with bone marrow). I actually scrubbed in and helped with one liver transplantation. I guess the surgeon trusted me. I remember the surgery lasting over 8 hours- I was so tired when it was all done. I wonder how my patient and her new liver are doing? It is funny how I can't even remember her name now? But is was 19 years ago.

Back to the story of Dr. McGuire. He looked aged- I guess I probably looked old to him also. LOL When he walked over to me I asked if he knew who I was. The college has 60 students in each class- so in the last 19 years he has taught 1,140 students. Well he did remember me- we chatted for a few minutes about our families- come to find out he also has kids similar in ages to mine. On the way home I could not help be wonder what would have happened to me and my husband if I had taken the transplant fellowship? Would I be a professor at a large teaching university now? Would I have my three kids? Would I be a digital scrapbooker?

Here is my College of Pharmacy graduation photo. Don't you LOVE my hair! (What was I thinking?) I dug it out tonight and scanned it using my new Epson Artisan All-in-one. Wow- I have aged!

Then I played around with the Epson Artisan scanner and made this color-book image (no Photoshop used- really. The scanner has the feature built into to it). I really love this new all-in-one.

I would not change a thing about my life. I love how it all turned out. (Other than the color-book image above "scary"- I think I should change it!)

My famous friend has written a book....

Let me introduce you to my famous friend Lain Ehmann. This is Lain on the Oscars red carpet in 2007.
I was in tears as I watched her accept her award. The tears were not from excitement of winning an Oscar - the tears were from laughter. Lain is one of the funniest people I have ever met. I was lucky enough to meet Lain last year during the CHA show in Anaheim, CA. She picked Anna Aspnes, Stacy Julian, and myself up from our hotel and gave us a tour of Hollywood. Plus she has the cutest rag top red convertible. She shared so many funny stories with us.

She has a BOOK!!  It is called Snippet. It visits the nuttier aspects of scrapbooking in a series of delightful essays exploring everything from getting started and making time for the hobby to stalking scrapbooking celebrities and yearning for a magazine worth scrapspace. You have to to see the sneak peek.

It is now available for order. I think it will be a great stocking stuffer for any scrapbooker in your family.

A very busy weekend

It started Friday night- we left to watch Jet wrestle at a meet in Gibbon. There were about 1 million jr.high boys at the meet and Jet's division was the last to finish. There are not very many pins in the 107 weight division.

After he finished we loaded up, headed home and loading up the horses, overnight bags and headed out to Rapid City for a little britches rodeo. We drove all night long (through ice and deer) and arrived in Rapid City 6am. I didn't drive, my husband did all the driving. We hit a deer on the road around 3am- thank goodness no damage occurred to the pickup or trailer.

Then the fun began. George started the weekend off with two great goat tying runs. In this event you ride your horse as fast as you can down to the goat (which is tied to a stake), jump off and then tie three legs together on the goat. (Similar to calf roping- but without the rope and calf).

Then older brother Jet competed in breakaway calf roping. (Again similar to calf roping- but the calf gets to run free after it is roped). Unfortunately he was not able to get the calf roped- although my picture looks like he did.

Then little sister ran her horse in barrels. She did not do so well the first day. Buck (her horse) knocked over two barrels. But on Sunday she ran her personal best time. She was so excited!

Together the boys competed in team roping. This was the first time Jet headed his steer (was able to throw the rope around the horns and then dally the rope to his saddle). George did not get the rope around the steers back legs so they did not get an official time. But I was very proud of them!

Then the real excitement started! Jet was entered in Bull Riding. And would you believe he was matched up with the same bull then put his little brother in the hospital last year! You can read about it here. And the stinking bull did the same thing. He fell down on Jet. Jet was not hurt, the judge gave him another bull to ride since the first fell down. He bucked off his re-ride. But on Sunday Jet did ride his bull and placed 6th in the rodeo.

This is the bull he scored on.

After the rodeo finished on Sunday- we packed up and headed home. We pulled into our driveway at midnight. As you can see it was a very long weekend! The kids loved every minute of it. Me not so much- it takes me a long time to catch up on my missed sleep.

Need help with your Holiday cards this season...

If you are like me and find yourself running out of time to get out fabulous holiday cards- I have the answer for you. Check out this service offered by a good friend of mine.  She is custom designing holiday photo cards, she will even hand-address them for you!!  Check out Molly's service on Craigs List. Plus she is one of the coolest people I know!!!

Updates on my blog... I loaded a bunch of digital scrapbooking tutorials....

I moved my old site awhile ago and I finally got around to moving some tutorials over.... (oh- a few links don't work- they are from my old site)

Click on the Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials link on the left side.....  enjoy!!

Tomorrow I will teaching two digital scrapbooking classes in Albion at Scrapbook Paradise. I will take some pictures and share next week.

Tonight is a big night for the local girls Volleyball team. We play in the district finals - if we win we go on to State..  I will be there with my camera. :)

My Halloween Treat....

I have not mentioned my Halloween treat awaiting me at my door step on October 31st. My good friends at Epson have recently released the new Artisan 800 (all-in-one) photo printer. This bad boy is a photo ink-jet multifunction device that can print, scan, copy, fax, and print directly onto ink-jet printable optical discs like CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. Perfect for smaller digital/hybrid projects like the current project I have in Digital Scrapbooking Magazine.



But the coolest feature it you can connect the Artisan over a wireless network connection. Oh- this is cool! That is exactly what I did- and I got this little beauty installed and on my network within 45 minutes (over my lunch hour).  So I can now print and scan from my laptop and desktop without having to mess with cables.
Let me tell you a little about the Artisan 800.  It is a flashy unit with a combination of shiny and flat black surfaces with silver accents. It has a big 7.8-inch touchscreen, which I can navigate the menus and settings, dial fax numbers, and view and edit 3.5-inch previews of photos from inserted camera cards or USB thumb drives.  This is perfect from my husband who will never touch a computer to print photos.
It comes with two paper trays, one for holding up to 120 sheets of plain paper as large as 8.5 by 14 inches, and one for either 4-by-6 or 5-by-7 photo paper. Of course I loaded up my trays with Epson Glossy Photo paper.

I tested out the scanner and it works beautifully over my wireless connection. I scanned from inside Photoshop. It pulled the 4x6 photos right into Photoshop. The scanner has a maximum 4,800 dpi optical resolution, with an 8.5 by 11.7-inch flatbed. I put it to the test this weekend and scanned some old baby photos I am using for a project for the magazine.

Speaking of faxing- this may seem like outdated technology, but I speak from experience that not having one can sometimes cause a real headache. I have never had a home scanner and I always have to use my work fax machine (and I hate sending personal info from my work fax).  I have yet to receive a fax at home.

I love this all-in-one. I just wish it could print a borderless 8.5x11 image although it can print up to 8x10 borderless.

It is a nice home office/crafter gadget to have around.

Here are a few photos from Halloween night.
The boys were out of town so I took my daughter out for some fun. After school she walked to my pharmacy. I had set up a little photoshoot area for the little kids that were walking around the town square for treats. I had no idea I would take over 130 photos!!  We are giving free 4x6 prints to all the treat or treaters that stopped by our store.  I guess when you say it is free- they will stop.


My neice stopped by for a flu shot (my nephew chickened out!)- so of course I had to get their picture! My neice is getting her RN degree. So I then let her give me and my daughter our shots.  Did you get your flu shot yet?



And we stopped by the nursing home to visit my husbands Grandfather. He is not doing so well right now so I am really glad we stopped by.

 

If you live in the country...

If you live in the country in Nebraska when your kids turn 14 years old they can get a student drivers permit. This permit allows them to drive to town for all school events. To me 14 years old sounds so young to be driving, but I remember the day I turned 14 and drove myself home with a brand new license in my hand. Jet turned 14 on the 23rd. The DMV is only open once a week on Wednesdays in the town we live in. True to Jet's personality he waited until Tuesday night and decided he would take the DMV exam so he could drive. He read through the manual ONCE! I was a little concerned about him passing so we booted up the computer and he took the practice DMV exam about 6 times.

So I picked him up at 3:30 after school on Wednesday. We arrive at the DMV and the examiner asked for his birth certificate... I forget to bring along! I said I would run home to get it. She informs me she closes the office at 4:00pm. So I rush home (we live 2 miles out of town), rush back in (of course driving the speed limit) and can't find a parking spot in front of our court house. Now we live in a small town and I have no ideas where all these cars came from... I finally find a parking spot, run in and hand over the birth certificate. The whole time I am thinking.... Jet is going to panic and freak out and not do well on the test. Especially since her only has about 10minutes to take it.

The little stinker passed! I was not ready for what came next.....

As we walk out to the car he asked for the keys! I guess I was not expecting to be his first driving instructor, I always thought that would be his Dad's job. And I had brought the mustang! A red mustang and a 14year old boy are not a combination I would put together normally. But he insisted he would drive slow and be very careful with my little red hottie car. And boy did he drive SLOW. I actually had to tell him to speed up a little when we hit the open highway.LOL

Jet has to drive for 2 months with a parent, log 50 hours and then watch out! He can drive on his own to all school events.

They grow up fast. 

Check out what you can make with your digital skills!

Show off your digital style with your very own pair of the official Digital Scrapbooking magazine sneakers! These unique Keds, made on zazzle.com, feature cool swirled brushwork for a hip design you won’t find in any store. Get your own pair here: http://www.zazzle.com/digitalscrapbooking



Or you can design your own pair.  Check out these cool sneakers Renee Pearson made.

I love them. I may give it a try this weekend. Did you know that Nov. 1st is National Digital Scrapbooking Day!!

grounded flight

cool view of the shuttle transport plane in Ellington.

he was bored

what 13 year old boys do when they are bored while shoping. and the crazy mom who takes his picture with her phone and blogs it!

New video tutorial....

How to use the Wacom Tablet and Brushes in Photoshop Elements.

Football- sneaky moves.

Sneaky move by my boy... number 10.

High Quality Video link here

Or Watch this lower quality

It is so beautiful....

MacBook Pro

I have been secretly wanting one of these beautiful Mac laptops for a long time. This new release really caught my eye. The MacBook Pro has a

• Intel Core 2 Duo
• 17-inch widescreen
• 4GB Memory
• 320GB hard drive¹
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB

I sound like such a geek.... 

I think it may be time to give my four year old Dell laptop to my 13 year old son.

How to get that burned edge around photos.

On my photography blog I had a question on how to get the burned vigette edge on photos.

This is a before photo-


Here is an after photo- with burned edges.



To burn the edges of your photo in Photoshop Elements:

• Open the photo you want to use.
• Press Ctrl+J to create a duplicate copy of the photo in a new layer.

• In the duplicate layer, set the blending mode to Multiply.
  
  

• Select a marquee tool and draw a border around the photo. Make sure that all important parts of your photo are selected.
  
  
  

• From the Select menu, select Feather. Add a ffeather of 20 or more pixels, depending on the resolution of your photo (if it is a full resolution use around 100).

• Press Delete or Backspace to delete the area in the middle of the marquee and allow the image in the backgound to show through. If the edges appear too dark, you can adjust the effect by lowering the opacity in the duplicate layer.

• Easy!!
  
  
  
  
  

Homecoming Week 2008.

So can you tell by the photos what the theme each day of homecoming week was? Cole had a fun week. I am one proud Mom. Especially the day he wore my 1983 (original) hat!!

So guess away.....


Day 1 and 2 (don't you love the 1983 hat?)


Day 3 and 4 (love the hair!)


Day 5 of the homecoming week.... with a bonus picture with his buddy at the pep rally.

When they learn volleyball

I love it that my little girl is playing volleyball. She is in 4th grade and was asked to play on a 5th grade team. Such a fun age to watch....

This is a cool video... it made me smile.

Take a few minutes and watch this video.... it made me smile. :)

Another football game...

Yes, my life is all about football right now. Cole had another game tonight. This one they lost 6 to 14. They grow boys big in Oneill, Nebraska. Our boys look tiny compared to them. :O Here is my boy getting in on a quarterback tackle...... go Cole!

Here is the gallery for all the photos I took tonight against Oneill.
Here is the gallery for all the photos taken against the St. Paul team.

Another boy playing football...

My fifth grader started tackle football on Sunday. He was so excited to finally be able to play with full pads....

Such a serious look....

He played a great game.

Erin and Casey.... the wedding!

This slideshow is of my beautiful niece and her wonderful new husband Casey. It was such an honor to be the photographer for their special wedding!! You will see that we had a FUN time. You better get a tissue before you hit play. I can guarantee a few tears. :) Click in the center to start the show. Give it time to load this slideshow has 133 images. To see all 660 images and for more information about ordering prints please go to the this link. Enjoy!! (hint- password is Erin's new name).

a day in my life

not an exciting day. reviewing over 100 charts in a nursing home. why are old people on so many meds? i need a mt. dew! blogging from my phone again.

My baby is playing football.

Well he is not really my baby since he is 13years old. But he is starting on the Jr. High football team. The team won their opening game of the season. They are so pumped!! Last year (when he was in 7th grade) they only won one game… so they have at least matched last years record. LOL.

Here he is on the line—- he looks so small.

But don’t let his small size fool ya!  Look at him sack the quarterback. Yep- that’s my boy!

He even had a reception…. only for 1 yard. But every yard counts- right??

Erin and Casey.... they did!

Yesterday was a big day for our family. Erin and Casey were married in Spalding and then had their reception in Ericson in a big tent. It was a big wedding party. Eight bridesmaids, eight groomsman and eight users. That was a lot of people to take pictures of. The photography went great, but by the end of the day I was totally exhausted. I totally understand now why wedding photographers get paid big bucks! I spend 14 hours shooting over 1400 pictures, filling up four memory cards and going through 4 batteries.

Erin and Casey were wonderful to photograph. Both were is a great mood and ready to have fun. And boy did they have fun. They danced until 5am. I finally gave up and went home at 1am. LOL

Here are a few photos-- I have narrowed the original 1400 to 630photos. :)

Tomorrow is the big day....

Tomorrow is a big day for my family. My niece Erin gets married to Casey. I took their engagement pictures and have been nervously awaiting this day for 6 months. You see- I am the wedding photographer. They know I am an amateur but they are tight on cash and I work for a great price (free).... LOL. I hope they do not get what they paid for...  I think I am prepared. I have three cameras ready, two tripods, my favorite lenses, and my flash equipment all primed and ready to shoot. The problem is I only have three 4gig memory cards- I hope I do not run into problems with memory (not my memory--- the card memory- silly!!) My sister is my assistant. She will help line everyone up.

The reception is in a Tent in Ericson (population 100).... which I think is super cool.  See the little church in the background? That is the little church I went to growing up. I took this picture tonight. I drove over there to check it out.


Just a few details....

Tomorrow is a BIG day for the family..... I am so excited I hope I can sleep. :)   

Win a Bamboo Fun tablet at Wacom....

Pen Scrapper with WacomCheck out the promotion of Wacom's new Bamboo fun tablet. I am one of 12 digital scrapbookers spotlighted using this tablet. I love mine. I have the white medium sized bamboo. I made several Travel/Cruise layouts and I have included step-by-step instructions on how I used the tablet--- and VIDEOS!  I made five videos- all using different techniques on how to use the pen and tablet. Promise you won't laugh at me. I used my Flip recorder and it looks sort of amateurish.

And a digital scrapbooking contest is going over at Wacom. Since they are promoting their new Bamboo Fun pen/tablet they want to give a few away. I You could win a Bamboo Fun and even a camera and printer.... Show your digital scrapbooking skills and enter today. I promise to vote for you.

Jason and Lacey.... 3years

Tonight I left work at 5pm and headed over to my home town of Bartlett. Lacey called me about a month ago and wanted pictures of her and Jason on their 3rd year anniversary. The cool thing is she wanted the pictures taken on the exact spot they plan to build a house on next year. And let me tell you it is not an easy place to get to. We drove 15miles back into the hills to reach the location. It is a beautiful place. It truly represents the beautiful sandhills of Nebraska. A place very dear to my heart. A place only 8 miles from a piece of land my Grandfather owned and now my Dad owns.

Vegas is the name of Lacey's horse. Vegas just wanted to be in the pictures!


What a beautiful view.

I used to ride my horse through these sandhills when I was a little girl. Unfortunately at the time I did not appreciate the beauty- I just wanted to move to the city. Now I would never move to the city.

What happens when Mom is out of town....

This is what happens when Mom is out of town. Dad and the kids decide it would be fun to buy two horses! Not just one- but TWO horses! Oh my! I have to admit the kids were so excited when I came home from Vegas. When I got off the plane Cole called me and said I had to drive right to the horse sale (which happens to be our Brother-in-laws). When I arrived they had me drive them out to the pasture so I could see our new family members. They are named "Riley" and "Rocky" and they specialize in roping with small children. And for those two reasons they were not cheap. Rocky (the paint horse) is cute, he has one paint eye (a blueish color) and one quarter horse eye (brown). I guess the kids are now ready to hit the rodeo trail big time. Maybe the boys will now stop wanting to be bull riders and focus on roping. LOL

This photo was taken with my Blackberry pearl phone. Edited in Lightroom 2 using the new gradient filter (very cool new feature).

Back from Photoshop World...

Photoshop World was amazing. It was held at the convention center in Mandalay Bay. I was cheap so I stayed at Excalibur. But there is a direct tram that connects the two hotels. I actually think the Excalibur was a better choice. The line at Starbucks was shorter every morning compared to the line at Mandalay Bay. And when in Vegas you need a Starbucks every morning! LOL


Sorry about the poor quality of image- it was taken with my phone.

 
My wonderful traveling parters were April Anderton and Molly Newman. I like to call them THEapril and THEmolly.  THEy stayed at THEhotel at the Mandalay Bay. LOL  This picture was taken from the "Top of the World" restaurant in the Stratosphere Hotel. April is the best tour guide!

I spend the two days learning about studio lighting, how to work with the new Lightroom 2, and all the great things you can make with Photoshop CS3. One of my favorite classes was taught by Ben Willmore (Mastering Curves). Finally I understand the power of curves. I then spent time walking the trade show floor. I was very impressed with the new Drobo storage solution (with firewire 800 and USB 2.0). This is a external storage system that you can load multiple external hard drive in and it will back up all of them. If one of your hard drives starts to go bad it will warn you and you can simply swap it out with a new one. The Drobo takes care of it all for you. I really want one of these.

A company call ImageSpan also caught my attention. They have a system made for photographers to license their images. Then the system generates a thumbnail with a link that can be put on your personal blog or web site. The cool thing is there solution works with Lightroom and Adobe Bridge for easy uploads. Their system gives you total control on how you license your images and they keep a lower percentage compared to any other license company.

A program called FontAgent Pro 4 was also very intriguing. This software is one of the best font managers I have seen. It actually uses metatags to search your hard drive and on-line to help you find the perfect font. For example, let's say you are looking for a cowboy font, you simply search for cowboy and it will search through your hard drive and then on line to find fonts for you. But the best thing about this software is that it only installs the fonts when you need to use them. It runs in the background and when you load a digital scrapbook page that uses a font not loaded in windows it temporarily loads this font and allows you to work on the document. Very cool. Check them out!

I was very impressed with a program called Site Grinder by Medialab. This is a very powerful Photoshop plugin that generates a web page from a Photoshop document. And you don't have to know any HTML coding to make it work. SWEET! I can see digital scrapbookers using this program to make beautiful personal web sites.

A wonderful seminar- that I hope to attend for many years!

off to Vegas

can you tell by the picture. the best part is i am flying out of grand island. which is only one hour from my home. this is the first direct flight out of this airport so there is a big party going on. Photoshop world here i come.

Statefair or bust.....

After I get off work today we are heading for Lincoln. The Nebraska State Fair is going on and we need to eat a few corndogs. Well, maybe the kids will eat a few corndogs, I will just have a nice glass of fresh squeezed lemonade please.

This is a picture from last years State Fair Trip. You see, we never miss a State Fair..... I have only missed one year since I have been 10years old. And I was sad about it for months.

For the last 5 years of so I have been entering my photography in the open class competition at the State Fair. The kids have also started to enter the open class. Plus, both Jet and George had a total of 4 pictures qualify in the 4-H photography competition. So of course we need to make the trip to see how they did.


After we see our photography the next big decision we will have to make is if we want a fried Twinkie or fried Oreos? This is my brother-in-law last year trying to make this big decision. He went for the fried Oreo. Not really a good role model for his patients, you see he is an endocrinologist, not really the type of diet he shares with them. 

Tomorrow after the fair we the get to go to the opening game of the HUSKERS!!!!  GO BIG RED! Look for me on pay-for-view. I will be the one wearing all red. LOL

I have a new blog in the making----- more info soon. I have a very talented lady working on it for me.

Her talent amazes me...

How can someone be so talented?  Creativity just oozes from her....

check out her updated blog-

All Things Pink

Aug 26, 2008

drugs, drugs, and more drugs. i guess i should say medications, but it is not as easy to typemedication on my phone touch pad.

I am starting to think about fall.....

It is chilly in the mornings at 6am. And more important it is dark! This delays my early morning jog to around 6:30am. But it is still beautiful.

For lunch I made a bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich.... perfect fall food. I always crave a juicy tomato this time of year.

Have you been to this site?

If you are a digital scrapbooker that loves to work with hybrid projects you have got to check out this site
 

They have an amazing line of product.....  off to shop now.

 

Check out my cute little banner-
made by the very talented Amanda Dykan

The babes are back in school.

My babies are back in school and I am happy yet sad. They did a lot around the house for me this summer and I am going to miss my little maids. But on the flip side- I am thrilled to have my lunch hour all to myself again.

I tortured them again this year with a 1st day of school photo shoot.

This little guy is now in 5th grade. I hope he actually cracks open a book this year. His older brother and younger sister get a little tired of him getting A's when he never brings home a book to study.


This one moves to 4th grade. She was excited about her new "Limited Too" book bag and new shirt. I hope this is not a sign of what to expect in the future!


This one moves into 8th grade. He thinks he is a stud muffin--- LOL.  I think you have to be taller than 5'4" and have six pack abs to be a stud muffin.... but I let him dream on. I just hope he doesn't fit into his locker again this year. Maybe next year he will get his growth spurt.

Group Shot

Not to bad..... they are acting like they actually like each other.


I can feel the love........  sweet!


Opps- not so much love happening right now!

A beautiful morning....

I stepped outside this morning for my daily jog. This is what greeted me---

A misty magical looking morning. The fog was so thick it accumulated on my eye lashes when I ran and it felt like I was crying. When I got back to the house my hair was as wet as if I took a shower. Truly an amazing morning.

Tonight I grabbed a few paper scrapbooking supplies and made a hybrid layout and a paper layout.

My son took this picture.  I opened up a 12x12 300dpi page in Photoshop, placed a 8x10 rectangle in the layout, turned this into a path and then added my text on this path. I then printed the text out on the patterned paper by Scenic Route. Added a few elements and sticker letter and finished in a few minutes.


These beautiful papers and the journaling tag are from the "All Fall" collection by Fancy Pants. The ribbon is from Basic Grey (Hang 10 collection), clip from KCompany and the alpha by Bazzill. Photo is by Jet.

so tired

The Olympic games are killing me. I need sleep! Do i look tired? Oh, I sent this from my phone (gotta love the Blackberry). Very cool!  Back to work- need to drink lots of Mt. Dew today.

A couple of scrapbook pages finished.

Just a couple of scrapbook pages finished tonight. I used the CD by Digital Scrapbook Memories called "Family Ties".  This is a very nice CD full of family, baby, teen, wedding and heritage graphics.