drew barrymore??

its celebrity look-a-like week over on Facebook... also known as "doppleganger." (cool word eh?)

so what do you think?? do i look like drew barrymore??
just for fun!
enjoy your friday night!!
<3 shaina

{things i love} thursday
january 28, 2010

thursday is here already... how do the weeks fly by so fast??
here are my most recent flickr faves... i've taken to using these as the wallpaper for my desktop at work. its fun to change it up every week. :D
the two sunset ones were found during The Pioneer Woman's most recent photography contest. great photos... i could get lost looking through all of the entries.

1. Road Sunset, 2. Untitled, 3. praise, 4. Back To The Future With Polaroid, 5. One us... (W2/52), 6. .

for the last couple weeks we've had a little family come over on thursday nights to watch American Idol with us. we just DVR the episodes and save em to watch on thursdays. its been a lot of fun having a bunch of kids running around our place. the littlest one always makes a big mess somehow, but that's kids right?? we've been enjoying our thursday evenings with them.

then after that we go out to sing karaoke. it starts at 9pm here in our little town. we've got our karaoke contest finals on saturday night so i'm eager for some more practice time~!! i've decided to sing "sand in my shoes" by Dido. totally love this song...



another thing i'm {LOVING} right now: green tea lemonade from starbucks!! :D


how are you all this week?? what are you {loving}??

i was tagged yesterday on Flickr by the delightful and talented roseymama. (check out her photos...seriously!)

so here we go: 10 things about me

1. i have a large birthmark on my left inner arm. the doctors told my mum it would fade as i got older, but it never has. that's okay with me...i kinda like it. it changes colors with my body temperature. :P
2. i am the oldest of 7 kids (one full brother, 2 half-sisters, 2 step-sisters and 1 step-brother) growing up was a lot of fun!
3. my husband and i were born on seperate sides of the continent: me in northern british columbia, canada and chris was born in hollywood florida!
4. scarfs are my favorite accessory... i love them!!
5. i collect elephants and have them throughout my house...not in an overpowering way, but once you know they're there, you'll see them in almost every corner.
6. i am deaf in my left ear. i was born that way. i've learned to compensate for it...i can read lips and i have learned American Sign Language and help as an interpreter at the Kingdom Hall.
7. i am very dexterous with my toes...i can pick things up with them and use them for pinching! ;)
8. most people know this, but i LOVE to sing and go out to karaoke at leaste once a week.
9. i am in the middle of a medical transcription course and i'm so excited to get started in that field. i'm hoping that will enable me to be a better support financially and be at home more to take better care of our home.
10. my 3 year anniversary is on June 22nd. time goes by so fast and i fall more in love with my husband every day.

there, that was fun!! did you learn anything new about me??
link me up if you decide to do one of these yourself. i'd love to learn more about you too!

scrap neutral

that's the latest challenge over at THe CrEatiVe TyPe. i've been helping out in the background on the design team over there for the last few months (due to my class) but i really wanted to create something for this prompt. so instead of pulling out my paper and glue, i decided to go digital! thanks scrapblog for letting me create again!!

please come play along with us! the prize is full of COLOR!! ;)

a lovely time

with monday being a holiday and chris and i both having the day off from work we decided to do a trip to Omak to visit my mum and dad. its been sooo long since we were here. im glad we took the opportunity.

my mum and dad recently got the internet....like within the last week. let me tell you, i NEVER thought they would make that jump! lol. but dad needed it for his work, so that was their reason. but what that opened up for my mum is the wonderful editing world known as http://www.picnik.com/. :) so that's what my mum and i did for the last two days. she is a fabulous photographer who loves to take pictures of flowers especially. so we played for hours with her photos. here are a couple of my favorites.

this last edit was my idea...to put my ttv frame on it. i love how it turned out!!
we also took some pictures together during our visit. i'll upload some of those later, probably tomorrow.

and my mum is involved in my 52weeks shot for this week!!! that' coming tomorrow too. :D i'm excited for this one. :D

thanks mum for a lovely couple days and a special visit. and thanks chris for bringing me.
:D

{things i love} thursday
january 14th

i've discovered some really inspiring photographers on flickr lately... here are some of my favorite images from them. please take a peek! you'll be inspired too. :)

1. Butterfly Series - 3/100, 2. 10-365, 3. HBM- January 4, 4. Untitled, 5. Winter-Suffering, 6. pola heart

seriously, how cool is that heart of pictures?? my dear friend jamie did one of those recently too. take a peek at hers HERE. she's just too stinkin' creative! :D luv ya girl!!

and see that second image in my collage?? i just adore that font. so i asked the artist what it was, found the font, and then created my own special image with it. i love how it turned out. i used one of my favorite sunset pictures from my September Sunsets set. :)


so what do you think?? pretty great. the font is called: Santos Dumont and you can find it HERE for free. create something and link me up! i'd love to see how you incorporate it. :D

so what are you {loving} today?? i'm loving being back blogging again. yay!

my tweet cloud

just for fun..... :)
create your own here: http://tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com/

do you tweet??
follow me here. :)

*proud wife*

this boy is a winner!!!
last night chris and i entered a local karaoke contest. its a 12 week competition with 2 winners from each weekend and then a semi-finals in may. and the winner from that gets to go on to vegas to compete on a larger scale.
and chris won last night!!!
i'm soooo proud of him and excited for him. we've so been needing something to boost our spirits and replenish our souls. we needed something to be super excited about. and here it is!!

he sang the song "mourning" by Tantric. i adore this song and could listen to him sing it all the time. here is the original song for you to enjoy!


we're really excited.
the judges also encouraged me to come back and try again...so maybe another weekend soon we'll go back up there and i'll sing again.
but, there is another competition here in ephrata tonight that i'm thinking about entering.

we both love singing so much, and its fun to have something like this to share and enjoy together.

this is the song i sang last night, and its one of my favorites to sing. "black horse and a cherry tree" by KT Tunstall. :)


just a fun thing i wanted to share and record.
i think that really is a huge part of blogging for me...recording day to day happinesses and keeping track of when and what happened. i really enjoyed reading back through my blog for my 2009 in review post, and it made me ever more excited to get back to blogging.

and i'm glad you're along for the ride too!
so please, stop by, say hello. been missing you!!
<3

***edited to add: chris and i are BOTH finalists for the local karaoke contest!!! we go back for the finals on the 30th of this month. so so excited. :) for all my local friends: come out and see us! :D

{things i love} thursday
january 7th 2010

yay!!! my first thursday back on the blog! wahoo! feels good. :)
here are my current flickr favorites:

1. Untitled, 2. Week One: hats, 3. everything's easier when you're beside me., 4. Untitled, 5. Mary, 6. Untitled, 7. [159|365] Submerged., 8. [2.365], 9. Untitled

finding inspiration..... searching for concepts and ideas for my 52 weeks project and these are some of my favorites.

yay for self-portraits and yay for thursdays.

i'm also stinkin excited to find out that 2 of my favorite ladies are doing a 52 weeks project too.
KimmieB and Rhirhi! i can't wait to be inspired by them even more!

looking forward...

there are so many things that i'm looking forward to in 2010...
the first one being my 52weeks project! and today my first picture and poem went up.
here is my picture for week one:
to read the poem that goes with it you'll have to pop on over to my other blog 52 weeks. please do!! i am so excited to hear what people think. this project has so many ideas and words running through my head. i feel invigorated and present in life.

i am also looking forward to getting back to my scrapbooking. i'm still finishing up my medical transcription course, so there won't be too much time for creating, but at the very least i want to go back to being an integral part of the design team over at THe CrEatiVe TyPe. we've got a new challenge up now, and its a fun one. i don't have a page this time, but look for me to play with paper for our next prompt! :D

what sorts of things are you looking forward to in 2010?? i'd love to hear all about it!

*2009 Year in Review*

January 2009
-chris and i went to oregon for our friend's derek and nina's wedding

-drove home in the middle of a crazy snow storm!!
-spent a day scrapbooking with marta and lisa and created so many pages that are still favorites of mine
-did a "month of diptychs" with the darlin Dani.... they can be found HERE.
-went to an Adele concert in Seattle with Marta and so started a new close friendship :)

February 2009
-continued to create many scrapbook pages
-i was asked to join the team over at Scrap Outside the Box

March 2009
-i joined the {things i love} thursday group on Flickr and made it a (almost) weekly post here on my blog. my flickr faves are found HERE.
-the spring crocuses bloomed
-i had fun playing with pola-droid and polyvore editor
-my friend Abi asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding and we had her bridal shower
-i cleaned and organized my scrapbooking "closet" and had lots to donate

April 2009
-i designed a few more blogs for friends and design teams. see a complete collection of them HERE.
-i rediscovered my mum's old film camera and took some pictures that i just love
-i won a couple blog giveaways and challenge blog prompts this month and received some awesome prizes.
-chris and i went to whidbey island to visit his grandparents. we love road trips!!
-we took fun pictures during our trip


May 2009
-i colored my hair red! LOVED IT
-Nate and Abi got married and chris and i were both in the wedding party
-i did my very first photoshoot with Marta.

June 2009
-had some crazy summer rain storms
-did a photoshoot with marta and her sisters
-we moved into our new house!!!
-i started my 503photography workshop that i won... worth $200! totally learned so much. i would recommend this class to anyone!

-we celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the 22nd.
-my canadian family came for a visit and to see our new house


July 2009
-i modeled jewelry for a website and had a blast at the photoshoot

-my cousin whitney got engaged. :)
-i asked my friend mathea to model for me as part of my homework from my 503wkshp. here is my favorite picture of her:
-i participated in the Scott Kelby worldwide photowalk here in Ephrata. this was my entry for the project. i got first place for our town. :)
-my cousin hannah colored my hair again, adding some blonde highlights to my red
- i decided i am a scarf girl, and started wearing scarves all the time. still loving them!
-i learned how to add textures to my pictures in picnik. love editing my photos there.

August 2009
-i came to grips with a lot of things that had happened the last year. felt better about it then, and even better now!
- i turned 23 and completed my list of: 22 things i learned at 22. (to be scrapbooked!)
-i decided to take a break from blogging... :( read my "farewell" post HERE.

September 2009
-i created my favorite mini all about my collections. the tutorial for how to make it came from Rachel Denbow's "Steady Hands, Fauly Heart" class.
-Kaelah asked me to be her Maid-of-Honor in her wedding. she married brandon on sept 12th.

-i had so much fun and loved reconnecting with my canadian friends and making new Australian ones!! :D
-chris and i went to BC for my cousin Whitney's wedding. it was soooo beautiful! it was great to see all the family and canadian friends again. :D
all photos by carmen of Fresh Photos who i got to meet and totally love. :)

October 2009
-i discovered rollip.com and went crazy turning all my photos into "polaroid" looking pictures
-on Oct 10th my brother Michael's baby was born. her name is Riley.
-i did my very first paid photoshoot for SHADY*lane photography with the Anderson Family.
-i took Kimmie B and Rhi's classes called "MirrorMirror" all about self-portraits and art journaling. there were some aweosme prompts. my favorite was "alter-ego" here is my picture for it:

November 2009
-i joined Tumblr in hopes of feeling connected to the blogging world again. it helped for awhile and i like how my page turned out!
-a brother and sister in our congregation bought us a washer and dryer. i was soooo excited not to have to go to the laundromat anymore!!
-i delivered pictures to the Andersons and worked on branding for my photography company and created cd labels and business cards
-my sister Megan came back from Australia and her and katrina came for a visit. we scheduled a sister photoshoot with marta. i LOVE how our pictures turned out!!
-chris was in his first play in the local theater here in soap lake. he was Sir Luce in the musical comedy "Once upon a mattress" he had a blast and i'm so proud of him!!


December 2009
-i cut off all my hair and bleached it blonde!! totally glad i did!

-marta and i took more pictures of each other. she is such a great friend!!

all in all 2009 was an interesting year. lots of things happened that i will treasure, learn from, continue to use, invest in, and love.
but i am soooo looking forward to 2010.

and i hope you all will be there with me!!
thanks for coming along through my year in review. it was fun. and i got to post some of the things i missed while i wasn't blogging. :D

welcoming 2010

with a smile, an open heart, and an eager mind....

so for my first act in 2010 i am blogging again!!
i think these last few blogger-free months have been a nice breather for me, but i am ready to write again. while i've been away i took a class offered by shimelle.com called "blogging for scrapbookers." i didn't really participate in the prompts then, but i've been saving some of my favorite ideas to incorporate in my blog now. and if i run out of ideas, we were given a full year's list of blog post prompts!

another one of my undertakings for the year 2010 is a self-portrait project i'm calling 52weeks.

i have played a lot with taking self-portraits this last year, contemplated starting a 365 project (a picture a day) but decided that i would probably enjoy this format a little bit more. i will be sharing one self-portrait every week of the year. i have started another blog just for this project. you can find it HERE. my goal is to learn more about photography, editing, and myself through this project. i am also going to be writing poetry to go along with each photo. i want to dig deep and be creative with this project. sooo excited! so please follow that blog, and look for my pictures on Flickr as well!

i want to thank all of my friends in the online world for their continued support and friendship. it has been such a treat getting to know all of you better in 2009 and i hope that we'll stay close through the new year too!

HI ALL..... its so good to be back!

<3 shaina