Justin and Amy...these are for you!

I have been a busy girl editing photos!! Here's a peek at a few of them (these are some storyboards that I made up that are 5x7's or 8x10's...I love them!) I'll try to post some other pictures soon!





(I also made one of these without the words...or you can add whatever words you want)





These are just a few of the hundreds of pictures from that day...I'll try to get them finished up by next week & get them out to you!

And for those of you just reading the blog...I'd love to know your feedback on these! See where it says comments below this? I'd love for you to leave me one (good, bad, ways to improve, etc!)

To prove it really is a cool program...

click on Jen Caputo's blog here and look at her pics. I don't know how to zoom in on my pics like this...but those pics on her blog really show how neat this program is! (I just wanted to prove that I wasn't making it up!) :)

I love photoshop...and neat image, too! (Thanks Jen Caputo!)

I helped Dad photograph Justin & Amy's wedding last weekend. He shot film, and I did the digital. I've been up to my eyeballs in editing...I've been spending HOURS on it each day. The lighting was really tough in the church and my pics were SOOOO dark and when i ran a photoshop action over them, they got really grainy. I panicked and them remembered I read something about a noise reduction program over on Jen Caputo's blog. I bought the program she recommended and man...it made such a HUGE difference. I don't know if you'll be able to tell much by these pics since they are smaller files, but in real life it's AMAZING!! All digital cameras leave you with some "noise" in the background...and this program fixes that! I highly recommend buying it at www.neatimage.com It was a lifesaver for me! Also, I have a bunch of actions from various places and they have helped fix the lighting problems in the pics. Check this out! You'll have to click on the pics to enlarge it in order to be able to tell a difference in the pics (And by the way...doesn't Aunt Tresa look beautiful?)

Original:


With "Lighten Up" Action:


After running neat image on it:


I obviously don't have everything "centered" and perfect, but I figured I wouldn't mess with that until we knew what sizes to crop everything to.

Edited to add...Ok, I realize that you can't tell a huge difference with these pics. But, take my word...that program will clean your pictures up in an amazing way!

Hmmm...can you tell a difference in these pics?
Original:


Lightened up:


Filtered:


I'll post some more of their wedding pics after I get them edited and pic out my favorites. Amy was such a GORGEOUS bride. She made taking pics easy! (And next time Dad wants me to help out at a wedding, I think I'm shooting the film and letting him do the digital...talk about a TON of work editing! But, it's fun to watch the progression from "before" to "after." I'm so thankful for photoshop!)

Pics you've been waiting for...

Here you go! (I've been a busy scrapper) :)


Click here for credits!


Thanks Jessica for this sweet pic! Click here for more credits!


Thanks Travis for this sweet pic! Click here for more credits!

I'm in love with this page below. Gina Miller's papers are so pretty & worked great with these pis!!

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Hello!! It's been awhile...

Do I have any blog readers left? I am so sorry I've neglected you! I'll try to make up for it today! :)

First...in case you didn't know I was a dork already...here's some more proof. (and I'll go hide my head under a paper bag while you look). I did this layout for the Digi Dare Ya challenge over at www.thedigidares.blogspot.com You had to take your own picture, so that was pretty funny! I got to know my tripod and self-timer really well! :)

This layout uses a ton of stuff by Ashley Olson (more on her in a second), and other goodies by Gina Miller, Tiff Brady, Shannon Carlson
and Amy Martin.

Ok, I'll get the digital scrapbooking news out of the way (because I know you're really here to see pics of the kids). I realized that I never told you all some of my biggest news! I'm a member of Ashley Olson's Creative Team!! She sells her amazing stuff at www.thedigishoppe.com I've been on her team for a little over a month now and am loving it! She is great!!!!

Millie had her shots yesterday...four of them! She was not happy with me or the doctor and let us know it! She now weighs 20 pounds, 7 ounces, so it's time to upgrade from the infant carrier seat to a bigger car seat. I can't believe how quickly this is all happening. Wasn't she just born?

Last weekend we had our "Tacky Christmas Party" with our Sunday school class. We all had so much fun dressing up and then playing our white elephant gift exchange game...it gets vicious! :) Here's a pic from our night (yes, that's a poinsettia in my hair, and jingle bell earrings in my ears!):


We still have to do some Christmas shopping...we're going tonight to try to finish up. (And the kids are going to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa...thank you Kay & Lee!) I can't believe Christmas is only four days away!! It hasn't really felt like Christmas this year. We've been so busy!

Last night the youth group went Christmas Caroling at the hospital & then we went and visited Helen Cockrum at the nursing home. She was thrilled to get visitors and really seemed to enjoy hearing us sing (even if we can't hit all of the notes on Silent Night!) She sung right along with us. It was really a precious time with her.

Blogger isn't cooperating with me and letting me add any more images. I'll have to post again with pics of the kids! (You don't mind waiting, right?)

Just updating the old blog!

Well, things are still really cold around here, but we are supposed to start warming up tomorrow...40 degrees is going to feel like summer! Last night I made my mom's yummy homemade soup & made fresh bread...yummo!! Mason went to town on the soup...he loved it! Want the recipe? Ok...here you go!

Donna's Homemade soup:
1 lb ground beef, 1 c onions, 1 c potatoes, 1 c carrots, 1 c celery, 1 T Beef Bouillion, 2 cans tomatoes, 4 c water, 1/2 t basil, 1/4 t thyme, salt to taste, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 c rice, 1 c cabbage

Brown meat & onion, drain. Add remaining ingredients, mix, and bring to boil. Cover & simmer until veggies are tender...about 1 1/2 hours.

It's the perfect soup for cold days!

I've been scrapbooking (I know...surprise, surprise) and have a few layouts to show you! But first...I have some fun scrapbooking news to share with you! I was picked as gallery of the month at www.thedigishoppe.com Go to the site and scroll down and you'll see it! I was totally surprised and honored to be chosen, plus they gave me a bunch of goodies, too! YAAYY!! Also, Tiff Brady (from www.plaindigitalwrapper.com) asked me to be on her creative team this month as a guest spot (it's also her last month as a designer...and I'm so going to miss her goods...she makes such fun stuff!!)

I love this picture of Mason & Millie:

Click here for credits!

Aren't they sweet??

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My little princess (This uses a ton of Tiff's stuff!):

Click here for credits!

Welcome to the world Miss Lucy James!!

Congratulations to Corey, Stephani, Lily, and Libby!! Miss Lucy James made her appearance this afternoon at 2:18pm. She weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces, and looks absolutely perfect!! Lucy and Stephani are doing great! It's amazing how wonderful a newborn baby feels in your arms...she is so sweet!

Here are some pictures from today:

Mason & Libby in the waiting room:


Miss Lucy James:




Proud Daddy:


Proud big sister Lily:


Proud big sister Libby:


Proud Grandma:


Proud Aunt:


Am I not the sweetest thing?:


A foot picture (it's a little blurry, but who doesn't love baby feet?):

We'll miss you Grandpa!

Grandpa Malone passed away early Wednesday morning. We are all definitely going to miss him but we know he is having the greatest time up in Heaven!

Last week was the craziest week...Mason got the stomach flu on late Saturday night and then decided to share it with Tyler & I early in the week. Poor Kay, Lee, and Aunt Ruthie got it, too! Then, Grandpa passed away and the ice storm came the following day. Thankfully, everyone arrived safely that was able to travel. The funeral went really well...I think Grandpa would've been very proud of his family!

By the end of the week, we were all wore out!

A little scrapbooking seminar for you...

I think I could have held a few scrapbooking seminars this weekend! :) I'm so glad people like what I'm doing...and want to learn how to do it, too! One warning though...it's addictive!!

Ok...grab a pen and jot down some notes (or do it the easy way and copy & past this blog post!)

First thing you'll need is an editing program (maybe Santa will hook you up with one!). I started out with photoshop elements. Any of the photoshop programs will work, or you can use paint shop pro, Digital Image Pro (and there are others out there, I'm just forgetting!) There are pros and cons to each program, but you can definitely do a lot with any of those.

Next...the best thing you can do for getting started is to read a couple of tutorials on how to make a layout. There are some great tutorials located at www.twopeasinabucket.com (click on digital scrapping and then click on tutorials) and also at www.scrapbook-bytes.com The ones at scrapbook-bytes are really great for the various programs! There are some tutorials on this site for how to make your first layout. The first couple of layouts you make will take awhile, just because you are learning your program. Once you've made a few, it will go so much faster!

Now, the fun stuff...downloading goodies! There are so many amazing kits out there that are FREE!! I just recently have started buying some stuff...mainly because I just love certain designers!

Sites to go to for free stuff are:
www.twopeasinabucket.com (go to digital scrapbooking kits...scroll down & they are on your left hand side)
www.shabbyprincess.com
www.scrapbook-bytes.com
There are TONS of other sites out there, but these will get you started. Also, you can google "free digital scrapbooking" and you will get loads of sites!

Once you have some kits & a program, you can begin making your pages. I am addicted to using templates on my pages. Go to www.jencaputo.typepad.com and click on her sketches. She has several on there for free, plus she sells some great ones! You can also google for digital scrapbooking templates and find more. (I don't want to overwhelm you with sites right now!) Using templates just saves so much time. You just "fill in" the spots with the papers & your pictures & presto--scrapbook page completed!

Try a few pages with the free stuff before you buy anything just to make sure you'll actually use them.

If you get stumped on what to do, just post your questions in the comments section & I'll try my best to help you out! (or at least point you in the right direction!)

If you attempt to do a page, I want to see it! E-mail a copy of it to me!

Good luck!

Prayers for Grandpa...

Please keep Grandpa Malone in your prayers. He has little strength and hasn't been able to eat hardly anything. They started him on oxygen today...keep the rest of the family in your prayers, too. It is just really hard to watch Grandpa go through this...I know he hates feeling like this, too. I'm always amazed at the sweet smiles he gives when the kids are around, though! He still tries his best to act like his happy self. Such a sweet, sweet man!

Bronchitis, runny noses, blah!!

We have been pretty sick here in our household! I took the kiddos to the doctor yesterday and he said Mason has bronchitis so we had to start him on amoxicillin & breathing treatments (which he HATES!) He gave me a prescription for Millie to start on Saturday if she isn't better. Her nose is still really runny, so I'm going to start her on her medicine tomorrow. I don't want my kids to be sick for Thanksgiving...we have way to much going on!! On top of the kids being sick, I've had a sore throat & must have gotten the colds from them (I guess that's what happens when all you do is wipe snotty noses!) Zicam truly works wonders though!!

I'm sitting here at 11:30 at night browsing Amazon.com trying to come up with ideas for Christmas for the kids. What do you get for kids who seem to have everything? Here's some ideas for Mason--a train set (probably Geotrax or a thomas train), a tent, doodle pro (like a magna doodle), anything Elmo, Backyardigans, or Diego. I wish I could find some Wonder Pets stuff, but I can't find anything yet. I'll have to keep searching! Mason's kind of difficult because his birthday is 3 1/2 weeks after Christmas! From us, he's getting his "big boy bed & bedding" and a big Tonka Dump Truck & Fire Engine. For his birthday, we'll probably get him a train set & a couple of things for his room. (We're trying to decide between vintage rockets & vintage airplanes as the theme for his room.)

For Millie--She is the HARDEST to figure out!! She has all of Mason's toys...and they are all still available in the stores. The kid seriously has all of the really cool toys! Ideas for her are--The Fisher Price Baby Grand Piano, Praise Baby DVD's, soft baby dolls (Disney has some princess ones), Gund has a my first purse that's pretty cute. I just hate to get more "big" toys because we are running out of room at our house! I'll have to keep searching! :)

Tyler hunted and hunted while we were in Sesser, and didn't get a deer. But, I had a ton of fun hanging out with Jessica & the kiddos!! Thanks Jessica for letting us crash your house and eat all of your food!! Wait till you guys see all of the sweet pics she took of Millie (actually...go to her site www.jessicahollisphotography.com and go to the children & fun site. There are some on there!) I'm going to post a layout here in just a sec of some pics of Mason and I during the photoshoot. I'm so glad to see Jessica's business take off like it is...she truly deserves it!

Scrapbooking news...I know...just what you all want to hear about, but it's kind of what consumes my thoughts/time! :) The frog layout of mine won layout of the week for the digi dare site last week. (I can't believe I'm just now posting this...that was last Friday!) I was so excited to see I had been chosen again!

Did you notice the new design to the blog?? What do you think of it? The blog header was made with Nikki Meador's Inspire Me Mini-kit (www.scrapwithnikki.com) It's such a pretty set! (and those are some cute kiddos in the blog header, don't you think?) I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with the new blog layout, but it took a lot of time to do, so it'll be here for a little while!

OK...wanna see some new layouts??
I took this picture of Mason the other day & loved it!

Click here for credits!

These are some pics Jessica took. Mason would not cooperate & threw a huge fit. I tried to calm him down & that's when these pics were taken...just wish I had on make-up! :) I think they turned out really sweet!

Click here for credits (and to read the journaling better!)

Can't leave out Millie...here are a couple of her!

I don't think I've put this one on here yet...if I did already, forgive me! :)

Click here for credits!


Click here for credits!

Thanks for looking!!

Silly Mason!

I snapped this photo today & loved how he was "smooshing" his ear!

My chunky monkey!! & other things to share

Isn't she sweet?? She made for one cute monkey on Halloween! Mason went as a little fisherman...I don't have his page done yet, but hopefully soon! Click here for credits!

For the digi dare this week, we had to scrap our fears. I really pondered about what to scrap...fear of losing another child, fear of getting cancer...but decided to do a light-hearted page this week. So, I scrapped my fear of frogs!

Click here for credits!

I love this layout of Mason...he's getting so big!

Click here for credits!

Let's see...what's been happening in the life of the Penns? The church sent Tyler & I out of town Sunday night for Pastor Appreciation to The Chateau in Bloomington. The kids stayed with Kay & Lee and I know they loved getting spoiled by the grandparents! Tyler & I enjoyed our trip...except we both got sick on Sunday night! Ugh! That's just our luck!! Monday we were both feeling better & spent the day shopping in Bloomington. I was determined to buy myself some new clothes, but walked away with one $10 sweater. Mason got a couple of Christmas presents & Millie got some new clothes.

Tyler has been getting ready for hunting this weekend. He's been practicing with his bow and is hoping to get a deer or two (If he gets one, I am going to have to learn how to cook with deer meat...yucky!!)

Millie is full of smiles these days. She has a sweet little giggle & is such an easy baby. She's eating baby food & you can't feed that kid fast enough!

Mason has to be one of the funniest kids out there. He tries to think of anything silly that he can do. He also tries to think of things he can get into that he's not supposed to. The other day, I told him "no, no!" when he was pulling things out of the drawer in the bathroom. He walked into the other room and came back into the room about a minute later and shook his pudgy finger at me, gave me a "serious" look & told me "No, No!" It was hard tell him he can't tell Mommy no without cracking up! I think the terrible two's are rapidly approacing!

Cruisin' with a hot chick!

I love these pictures of Mason & Maddie Kate Hollis! Can you believe she's already in Kindergarten?? We are going to get to visit them next week...and I can't wait!



This layout uses Nikki Meador's Girlfriend's kit which is available soon at www.thedigishoppe.com Also, the sketch is by Jen Caputo & can be found at the same shop!

I just realized that I didn't post credits for the heritage layouts. If you'd like to know who the designers were on a particular layout, just let me know!

Some heritage layouts...

I've completed some more heritage layouts...but I haven't shared them on here yet. I really need to get organized & go through my files & label the one's I already have on here...but who wants to be that organized? That's precious time away from scrapping! Since the kids are napping, I'm going to take advantage of sharing some layouts! :) These are all of the Malone side of the family.

October was breast cancer awareness month...

...and I made this layout in honor of my mom. She was so very brave while she battled breast cancer. The other night, I had a dream about mom. We were shopping & having so much fun together. She was laughing at Mason & bought him some sprinkled cookies while we were shopping (she loved her sweets!) I woke up and was so sad that she's not here to have moments like that with me and my children. It just stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so grateful for all of the breast cancer research that is happening and hope for a cure soon.



Click here for credits (and to read the words in the journaling)
Mom...I love & miss you!

I won!!

I did the layout of Millie with the fro for a Gina Miller sketch challenge & it won! Yippee!!! I was so excited when I found out this morning! (www.ginamiller.typepad.com) Can you tell I am having a lot of fun scrapbooking??

Millie...or Aunt Abbie??

Millie looks a lot like how Aunt Abbie looks when she first wakes up in the morning! (Sorry Abs!! But I have seen your hair look like that a time or two!) This is actually Tyler's wig from his Halloween costume that I just had to put on her! The poor kid is going to need counseling some day!

Click here for credits.

I hope you all have a fun time tonight! We are having trunk or treat at church which should be a ton of fun! (I've got my camera ready to go! :) )

My little corner of the world

Here's the layout I did using those pics I posted! :) That was a fun challenge!



Click here for credits!

My Digital Muse Challenges

I've participated in a challenge at www.mydigitalmuse.com These challenges are designed to get you to photograph outside what you would normally photograph & try to improve your skills along the way. I know I still have a LONG way to go, but this was a lot of fun! The next part of the challenge is to create a layout using some of these pictures...I hope I can create something that flows together using these pics...we'll see!

Day one--first thing you see when you get up


Day two--How do you get your news?


Day three--Your front door (I hate my front door!!)


Day four--Where do you work? (Well, I work at home...and this is one of the best parts of my day! :) )


Day five--A priceless object (These are Miles' footprints that Valerie surprised us with--Thanks Valerie!)


Day six--Nature where you live


Day seven--Where do you relax? (at my computer...scrapbooking/surfing the web!)


Day eight--What's in your fridge?


Day nine--Tools of the trade (Since I'm a digital scrapbooker, my computer is the tool of choice for me!)


Day ten--Something you did today. Mason was sick on this day, so we spent sometime watching Baby Einstein...can't you tell in those sweet eyes that he doesn't feel good?


Whew!! That was a lot of uploading pics! Thanks ladies at MDM for the fun challenge! I look forward to hanging out with you all more!