Photo Travels

Welcome 2010!

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:38:00 +0000

I went to bed pretty early last night, so Warren and I didn't officially ring in the New Year; however, he was up anyway watching Public Enemies with Johnny Depp.

After waking and eating breakfast this morning, we set out to do a bunch of clean-up. We've lived here in Newmarket for almost a year and a half and we've been meaning to clean out our storage area in the basement (throwing away a lot of items we don't need or will never use) and moving some other things that were in our apartment down to the storage area. It feels good to start off the New Year in this way! We're going to head to the Unfurnished furniture store tomorrow to buy a Hope Chest (and finish it in the basement) and also rearrange our spare bedroom for our guests (anyone want to come visit?).

I don't typically make huge resolutions for the New Year, but this year I'm going to focus on a word...wellness. I'm planning on having my oral surgery (hopefully in the month of January) and this is just going to kick off everything else down the line for the rest of the year.

I hope everyone has kicked their new year off to a fantastic start!

Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:43:00 +0000

So, we've gotten into this habit lately of pre-ordering movies. It's a lot cheaper than going into Best Buy on the day that it comes out AND we're getting BluRay movies for the price (or less) than the regular DVD sells for in stores. Score!

Yesterday, we watched "The Hangover". A friend from work told me (repeatedly) when it came out in theaters that I had to go see it, but I never did. All I have to say is...HILARIOUS. Definitely one I'll be willing to watch again...and again.

This morning, while Warren and Titus were still in bed, I watched "Julie & Julia." A wonderful movie. Meryl Streep is a FANTASTIC Julia Child. I was encouraged (by Warren) to order Julia's cookbook, so I ordered the boxed set on Amazon this morning. I guess we'll call it a Christmas present to myself?

Anyway. :) Yesterday, we ran a bunch of errands in Portsmouth. The cupcake shop (Old Stove Bake Shoppe), Portsmouth Brewery, Flatbread (for a late lunch), and River Run Bookstore. We tried Barnes and Noble for this book Warren wants Dad to read, but they were out of stock. River Run will have it in stock on Tuesday for me, so we'll pick that up when we run our leftover errands on Christmas Eve before heading to Maine.

I have a few more Christmas gifts to wrap today, and Warren is planning on making Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Mascarpone Cheese frosting. Adrienne made them at Thanksgiving and they.are.marvelous. I'll try to get some food photos.

It's snowing...off to watch Titus bury his nose in the freshly fallen snow!

Thanksgiving...and lately

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:29:00 +0000

Thanksgiving this year was a blast. This was the first time ever I haven't spent Thanksgiving with my family, and I'd definitely do it again. Warren and I left for NY Monday morning and came back on Saturday. Adrienne cooked a wonderful turkey dinner including turkey, roasted veggies, mashed taters, squash soup, cranberry sauce, and a marvelous stuffing. Desserts were the hit this meal, with a square pumpkin pie, apple citrus pie, red velvet whoopie pies, and Mimi's fudgecrackers.

Titus had a marvelous time while we were there as well. He and Luna ran themselves ragged. Three days in they were so exhausted that mentally, they wanted to play, but they didn't have the energy to do so. They definitely kept each other (and us) on our toes.

We came home on Saturday and hit a bit of traffic in Mass. That gave us Sunday to wind down, do some errands (including grocery shopping) and prep for going back to work. It was SO nice to have a week's vacation...I could get used to that!

Marker Club - November

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:56:00 +0000

This month, Holly is the hostess of Marker Club. She rounded up a group of ELEVEN people for tonight's workshop! WHEW! Go Holly! So hopefully it's successful and everyone likes the two projects.

The suggestion from my group of four core girls was that they wanted to use GLITTER this month. So, after searching around (and wanting to focus on Christmas), I CASE'd a card that I found on SplitcoastStampers, using the Dasher stamp. I love this stamp (it's super versatile). We used iridescent ice embossing powder all over on top of the stamped dasher image AND on top of the snowflakes. WHEW! That's a lot of bling!

Secondly, we used Delightful Decorations to make a simple card. Sentiment comes from the hostess stamp set, Christmas Punch. There are lots of way to "hang" the ornaments, but instead of choosing ribbon or glitter on sticky strip, I decided to use the bow from Berry Christmas. This is by far the easier card of the two, but it will be a good balance with 8 people; don't you think?

Next month, I think we'll focus on a 3-D project. Suzanne is the hostess, so it will be a fun time doing this whole thing in Gorham...most likely the last time that I'll visit that house (they put in an offer on a new house)! Scary!

Holidays in Hand - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:11:00 +0000

Our goal for Holidays in Hand today is to focus on what we want to get out of the class as a final project. Jessica suggests documenting our Values and Goals. She's challenging us to write/craft/document 20 minutes/day EVERY day in December so everything can come together once the holidays are over. WHEW!

My goals for documenting Christmas:
1. Show family traditions

Stockings
Dad Being "Santa" on Christmas Day
Christmas Breakfast
Segee/Laustsen Christmas

2. Document past traditions

Caverly Holiday Party (Morgan Lane)
Stockings for the dogs
Hiding presents in the Christmas Tree

Discuss future traditions. My favorite parts about the holidays. Segee/Laustsen Christmas dinner and what there HAS to be on the table. Mimi's fudgecrackers. Family photos.

I think that's it for now!

The Yellow Dog's Barn

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:23:00 +0000

On Saturday, after my Stamp a Stack at Julie's (photos to come later), Warren and I traveled to Barrington, to check out a new doggie daycare. The place is called The Yellow Dog's Barn, and the people there were super nice. They were offering "family" photos with Santa, so there were a good amount of dogs and people in and out throughout our visit. We got a tour of the facility, an idea of what the dog schedule is like, and their outlook on the business. Warren and I were both impressed, so we scheduled a "trial" day for Titus. The trial day is both for us and the daycare; we get to make sure that it works for Titus and they get to make sure that Titus is right for their business.

So, I drove to Barrington this morning and dropped Titus off. Joann (one of the co-owners) encouraged me to call around 1030a this morning to see how he was doing (that's right at nap time), and to see if they suggested that I pick him up at lunch time (often times, dogs get stressed out in a new place on the first day) or if I could leave him there for the day.

I called at 1030a this morning, and they had great things to say about Titus. He was a little shy at the dog by dog introductions this morning, but once let loose in the pens to play, he played HARD. Joann said that not only did he play hard, but that she really enjoyed his "time-outs" every now and again where he'd trot over to her for some love. Definitely sounds like our man! We were interested to hear how nap time was going to go, as they have many crates set up for the dogs, and Titus has been in a crate in over six months. She said he trotted right into the one they'd set up for him and went to sleep. Where did this well behaved dog come from? :)

The Yellow Dog's Barn is more than happy to continue to have Titus as a client of theirs, so he'll attend TR during the weeks to wear himself out. So happy!

Titus and Doggie Daycare

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:34:00 +0000

As many of you may know, that shortly after we got Titus, we decided that putting him in doggie daycare 2x/week was the best option, both for him, and us. Originally, he was attending a place that was on the campus of our Veterinarian, Great Bay Kennel. They were really great with the dogs, Titus liked it there ok, but it was realy dirty inside (so Titus came home very dirty), and when he was six months old, they refused to continue to take him until he was neutered. Due to the fact that we didn't want to fix him until he was a minimum of 9 months old, we started to look for a new daycare.

I stumbled upon K9Kaos just by doing an internet search. When I called them, I was excited to learn that one of the employees had a great dane that was only 6 weeks older than Titus (Fifi). They were more than willing to accept him without being neutered and had many "plus-es" to offer over Great Bay, including the fact that the had more play area, were cleaner, and broke the dogs into groups by age and play style. Recently, though, Titus has been coming home with a good amount of battle scars (last week they don't know how he got hurt, but he had a dime sized boo-boo near the top of his left front leg). So...because he can't tell me what's really going on at K9Kaos, we are, in fact, looking for a new daycare.

Fifi's mom has graciously provided a suggestion that we're going to check out tomorrow, called The Yellow Dog's Barn. I called today to see if we could swing by tomorrow, and the co-owner that I spoke with on the phone was extremely knowledgable and friendly. Hopefully we like what we see! It'll be a little more out of my way in the morning, but only about 5 minutes extra each way, so it's worth it! I'll let you know how it goes!

October Marker Club

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:21:00 +0000

So, tonight was our second of four marker clubs. Valerie was the host tonight and before the girls left last month, we talked about any special requests that they had for holidays/cards/techniques for the following meetings. It was an overwhelming response to do Halloween tonight, so we did!

The first card is created with Pumpkin Patch as the stamp set, Pumpkin Pie cardstock base, Old Olive, the pumpkins are "markered" onto Whisper White Cardstock, and the grass is made with Versamark. My favorite part? The Pumpkin Pie ribbon. This ribbon is the softest ribbon I've ever felt. I love it!

The second card is created with the Twick or Tweet stamp set. All "ink" that you see on this card is made from Stampin' Up Shimmer Paint. Night and Day DSP covers the Basic Black cardstock base, and I cut out the scallop square using a die. With just a hint of ribbon, I think it really brings this card together.

What do you think? Are YOU dressing up for Halloween? Do you get trick or treaters? We don't...but oh well!

Stampin' Up Regional - Portland

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:16:00 +0000

So last Saturday, (October 17), Julie and I made the trek to Portland, Maine, to attend the afternoon session of the Stampin' Up! Regional. I think that this may be the first? time that they've come north this far, and Julie and I had a great time. We didn't do swaps (well, I brought digital cards with me, but no one was interested....MDS anyone? BOO!), but we met a lot of great ladies, heard some excellent demonstrations, and had a wonderful time scouting out the idea boards that they had set up at the back.

They did a bunch of giveaways, but neither of us won anything. Oh well! The three projects that we did revolved around the Berry Christmas set that is in the Holiday Mini. I wasn't so crazy about this set pre-Regional, but now I like the way that they combined colors and the stamps for Christmas.

I would definitely go back again, I wish that they would come to this neck of the woods more often!

The photo that you see here isn't one of our projects, but is instead one of the cards that they had displayed on the idea board. Image is copyright Stampin' Up!.

Richards' Wedding - Oct 10

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Yesterday, I had the joy of witnessing the marriage of Suzanne and Chris! The ceremony was in a beautiful church in Loudon, NH and I do believe that Suzanne found a GEM of a reception place in Chichester. No detail was overlooked; Suzanne did a lot of crafty work to decorate the reception area, including making drink tickets, name tags, table cards, a welcoming framed sheet from the Richards'....it was just amazing. The centerpieces were PERFECT, ranges of low to high berries, wispies that you would see in a field, etc, all placed in Bell Jars. Just absolutely astounding and fitting in with the whole country feel extremely well.

The reception was great, the food was fantastic, and catching up with everyone from UMaine was AWESOME!

Reed Island Bridge - Camp, Week 1

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:18:00 +0000

So Warren and I headed up to the middle of nowhere Friday morning (aka Millinocket, 4.5 hours North of us in NH) so that he could help my dad and the other TL Camp Owners Association volunteers with the rebuild of the footbridge that goes out to the island that my family's camp is on.

Half of the day yesterday (Saturday) was spent carrying all of the supplies from the parking lot where the lumber truck dropped them off down to the waterside, a hike of about 1/4 mile. There were about 90 2x12x24 feet long pieces, over 600 2x4's. This doesn't include all of the other building supplies. Once the pieces were lake-side, the men carried over to the island what they'd need that day to do two spans worth. They tore down the two spans and started to reconstruct. When we left this morning (at 7am), it looked fantastic!

Construction will continue through today and hopefully be finished when they pick it back up next weekend. We didn't stay today, as it was get off the island before deconstruction started at 7am, or not be able to get off the island until about 7pm. We chose the morning departure!

Welcome to the Digital World!

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:38:00 +0000

So, recently, Stampin' Up! released their new digital product, called My Digital Studio. This will be available to customers on October 1. The plus, is that for those of us that already have an image manipulation program (such as Photoshop), we can buy the digital elements that are made for MDS. I had my first opportunity to play with some of those elements last night. Not only did I have a FANTASTIC time creating these items (and putting my newly learned PS skills to the test), but I'm also LOVING how I can change the size of SU! stamps (such as Upsy Daisy used here), because the Brushes that I purchased (as stamp sets) range in size from 1 px to 2000+ pixels. What options!

Let's see...I started with Tempting Turquoise as a base, added WW ribbon (with bow, two seperate digital elements), used a scalloped oval punch, connected a distressed piece of night of navy with the punch shape, added the "Thank You...For Your Friendship" stamp from Upsy Daisy (and erasered out the ...For Your Friendship), and used two colors and two sizes of the flowers from Upsy Daisy. Finally, I added brads to the ribbon. I used shadowing in Photoshop to add a little dimenson (to make it a little less flat). LOVING these digital SU! products!

Jack and Jill - Suzanne and Chris

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:09:00 +0000

I drove up to Farmington yesterday afternoon for Suzanne and Chris' Jack and Jill party, planned and hosted by VALERIE!

The party was great; Valerie had purchased these coasters that had random questions on them (on one side) and on the other, we got to try to answer the questions. Tracy and I had a great time being funny and reading other people's responses. Of course, family and friends from both families were there and we were all pulled together by Beer Pong, Foosball, Poker (which happened after I left), AND Fireworks that Chris and Mark just HAD to light off!

The food was fantastic and it was great to see people from Suzanne's family that I haven't seen in quite a while. Of course, Miss Lexie was there licking all of the crumbs dropped off the floor, cleaning out people's beer bottles, and even sneaking food from tables!

Suzanne and Chris focused on asking for money/gift cards, but a few people brought gifts, so they opened the few that were there. Someone had made them a shadow box with their Save the Date, Invitation, and a bunch of flowers that was fantastic and Tiffany bought Suzanne a sewing machine! (So exciting...now Suzanne and I can learn together?)

It was a great time and I can't wait for the Bachelorette Party in Portsmouth in October!

Marker Club - Sept 11

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0000

We had our first Marker Club meeting on Friday, September 11. Suzanne, Holly, Valerie (and Brian!) all came to my apartment in New Hampshire. Brian entertained Titus while us ladies crafted.

We did two projects. The first, more complicated, used the Branch Out set, and focused on the Watercolor Wonder Crayons and using a large eyelet as a "tire swing". I think the girls really liked the crayons, which is good, because I do too!

The second project used Happy Blessings. We embossed a pumpkin with white embossing powder, used two coordinating pieces of DSP, and then colored in the scarecrow with the SU! chalks and blender pens.

We had a lot of fun and I can't wait until next month! We're going to make Halloween cards!

Don't forget about your challenges, girls, to win a set of the In Color Markers!

Dogs on the Run

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:03:00 +0000

I got the great pleasure of meeting Miss Lexie yesterday. Suzanne drove down from Maine, with the intention of introducing Titus and Lexie and then us hauling them off to the dog park on Peirce Island in Portsmouth.

The dogs got along amazingly well here at my apartment. Titus was extremely gentle with Lexie and she just chased after him in a super cute way. I didn't take any pictures of their meeting here, but I think Suzanne did.

Anyway, we loaded them up in my car, Titus in the back and Lexie in the front (we tried them both in the back, but I think Lexie wanted to be with us) and headed off to Portsmouth.

When we arrived at the dog park, Suzanne was pleasantly surprised that it was a HUGE off leash area, with no fence! That's what happens when you're on an island! Anyway, we let the dogs out, and they ran around together for a bit; then they socialized with a few other dogs there, including a 2 year old male boxer (fawn) that was pretty cute. Lexie did an awesome job, and she even put her paws in the water...no interest in swimming though, just like Titus!

Jandreau Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:49:00 +0000

Warren and I headed back up to Northern Maine this weekend for Kenny's wedding. Warren and I switched off on taking photos, as of right now, we only have one SLR body. I took this picture and (hate to be biased) it's one of my favorites out of the bunch. This ceremony was the first catholic ceremony I've ever attended and boy was it long! You could tell when Kenny watched Kristen walk down the aisle in her absolutely gorgeous dress the love that he has for her. Warren and I were also lucky enough to be able to stop up to their new house in Holden before the wedding. Kenny gave us the personal tour AND I got to meet Maycie! Such an adorable dog!

Titus and the GTO

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Warren went out yesterday to take some photos of the GTO, as a potential buyer is flying in from PA to come and look/buy it today. He showed them to me last night, and I thought it might be fun to use the selective color technique I learned in Jessica's first class to color in the car and leave the rest of the photo black and white (which obviously puts focus on the car). Didn't take me too long this morning to make this idea come to fruition, as the color detail in the car isn't too intricate.

On a side note; isn't Titus handsome? He loves to sit pretty.

Brushabilities - Lesson 10

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:40:00 +0000

Today we learned how to make our own brush from an image. Jessica provided a leaf image that we first desaturated, and then changed the black level fro 0 to 115. We selected the leaf with the rectangular marquee tool, then edit -> define brush preset, and named our brush. It was that easy! The photo here has the original image on the left (taken by Jessica Sprague) and the brush that I created from that image, stamped in a greenish color. Cool, huh? Jessica also showed us how to manage our brushes loaded in Photoshop and how to export a brush that we've created as an .abr file by going to edit -> Preset manager.

Brushabilities - Lesson 9

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:56:00 +0000

Today's class was to start off where yesterday's ended. We started with the tag, and then downloaded a stitching brush, provided to us in the class materials. We loaded the brush, and then set the spacing of the brush to around 300. doing the top and the bottom of the tag first, we clicked once (and held), held the shift key and then dragged where we wanted to go. This was repeated for each side of the tag by changing the angle of the brush. A slight 2px drop shadow was added to this layer to give it some dimension. Then, Jessica showed us how, by using the Angle Jitter-Direction type, that you can draw flourishes and hand drawn items with any brush; the brush rotates for you as you draw. Pretty sweet!

Brushabilities - Lesson 7

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:49:00 +0000

Lesson 7 was not guided, but instead a challenge from Jessica to take some of the techniques that we've learned thus far and see what we could do. I started with a canvas the size of an A2 card front. I first added a piece of patterened paper to the base. Then, I used a brush to ink the edges all the way around the card, from a color that I sampled from the patterned paper. Next, I added two flourishes (same brush) to give the card a little pizazz. I clipped these three layers together on top of the patterned paper to give some dimension. Finally, I added a quote a clipped a gradient layer to the quote to give the font some texture (color change). Pretty simple, but I like it!

Brushabilities - Lesson 8

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Today's lesson focused on making a tag. We used the custom shape tool to create a yield sign, and then used the rectangle marquee tool and put a rectangle at the bottom of that to add to the actual tag. Merging the layers down, the base was complete. We used the elliptical tool (under rectangular marquee) to create the ring hole at the top. Hitting the delete key removed the color. Next, we used a piece of blue digital paper, provided to us in the class. We clipped this down to the tag (Alt+Click). Next, we used two different distressed brushes on the edges of the tag to make the tag look inked on all sides. Finally, we added a flourish to the tag (soft light mode) to add a little pizazz. All of these layers were clipped down onto the tag to layer appropriately (with the flourish going under the inked edges).

Brushabilities - Lesson 5

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:51:00 +0000

Day 5 focused on brushes as clipping masks. I used a grungy edged brush for the borders and also used a quote brush that Jessica created for us, for the bottom. I added a little bit of a gradient to the quote to give it that extra zing. I'm not sure what I think about it; I don't think it's very readable in the full size version; so many it just adds more grunge? Just so everyone knows, Day 6 is based on Organization and Day 7 is a self-check, so I may make a project putting a bunch of these techniques together; we'll see!

Brushabilities - Lesson 4

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:59:00 +0000

Today was a very reusable lesson for me. We started with a canvas of a photo size that we had in mind, I started with 5x7. Creating a new layer, we painted it black. Using the rectangle marquee tool, we selected the majority of the canvas, leaving a frame around the outside. Then, we clicked the delete key to remove the inside. Deselecting the selection (control+d), we then used a bunch of brushes to add to the frame: A grungy distressed edge, which we stamped four times (one for each side, using the rotator of the brush tool to make it rotate) and a flourish to add an extra touch). We merged all the layers together, then used the sanding brush to make it all look like it fit together. Finally, I plopped in a picture of Lexie, Suzanne and Chris' new puppy. (She makes the whole project super cute, doesn't she?)

Brushabilities - Lesson 3

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:25:00 +0000

Today we learned a few interesting things. Did you know that you can use all of your brushes in the erase tool to erase that shape? Pretty interesting when you think about removing/adding color in layers. Today we drew a circle (holding shift to make a perfect circle, not an ellipse), removed the middle portion of the circle (control click on layer, then Select -> Modify, Contract...hit delete key to remove inner section). Then, we used a preloaded shape in Photoshop, a star, and sized it out to fix inside the circle. We added the text in a "You are Loved" font, and finally, used the eraser tool (just like a brush) to scuff up the image (to have the bg color show through). COOL, huh?

Brushabilities - Lesson 2

noreply@blogger.com (Katee) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:51:00 +0000

So today focused on using a Kraft "cardstock", a journaling brush, a quote, and then using another brush to make a "chalk-like" focal point behind the journaling to draw the eye in. I wanted to use a quote that depicted "Happiness" as it really shows where I am right now in my life...I love my job, my friends, the puppy, and am just overall content with all of the goings-on. :) Enjoy!