Elinjanne’s Weblog

…It took me a long time to figure out what”the cool people” talked about. If you, like me, don’t fall into the cool category, mojo is a word used for inspiration. Greeting the new day at 5 am six days in a row kills the mood. I had to take a nap when I came home from work this afternoon.

It has been a warm summer day. Even the machines needed to be showered with cold water today. I have just been downstairs and checked that all the freezers worked. Knock on wood, everything still worked. The machines just don’t handle the heat, and that makes me dislike the summer. That again makes me feel even worse.

Close to midnight we have a beautiful sunset, making a perfect scene for the couple celebrating their wedding across the street.

Even though I haven’t been doing anything creative today, I have been working a little on my photography skills. I still don’t have a clue of what I am doing. The only thing I like when I empty my memory card is some weird photos, like this one:

A kind of sunset....

…photographing today. My nephew Tor was so kind to take me out there so I could use my camera somewhere outside my doorsteps. I had fun, but of all the photos taken, I only got a few that I was happy with. Among all the tourists at the Atlantic Road today I met this little happy guy;

A happy tourist on The Atlantic Road

One more happy tourist.

Tourist?...No, I think I know this guy....

Freedom Friday challenge was Tina Bennett’s to give. And what a fun challenge that was. I picked the only photo I was happy with today. Not because it was good but because I liked it.

Freedom Friday with Tia Bennet - front page.

...and the back...

Tomorrow I will read the small print in Barbaras lessons.

…I think….

I feel a little intimidated by all the photo specks and I have no idea what Barbara is talking about. I try to keep up with what is going on at the message board and read her critics in the gallery. Reading the critics and study the photos helps a lot. It has been cloudy and rainy days since we started the class so there has not been so much photographing. Since there are no happy kiddies, dolls or teddy bears in my home, I am pretty much depending on going outside. To day I have been outside for a few moments.

Our first week challenge was the word BLUE. This is my blue…

Challenge week 1 : Blue.

The second week challenge was metal. Lucky I did find metal just outside my doorsteps.

Challenge week two: Metal

Challenge week two; more metal.

There is no end to the metal outside my home….

Challenge week two; Metal.

Maybe it is time someone took care of all this metal….

I am so happy that Tor promised to take me on a photo shoot at The Atlantic Road tomorrow. We have a three hour gap between our shifts tomorrow and it is going to be a beautiful summer day. That is going to be so much fun.

Wacky Wednesday week 3: Kelli Crowe.

I really enjoyd Kelli`s ideas and I think I share her love for punching….

…for “wacky Wednesday” was …..kind of special. My first thought was; ..no, I am not doing this one.  During the last week it has become clear to me that this girl love punches….but…hundreds of them? I really meant to skip this one. A few moments later I was …punching, and I am having a good time…punching….. I might be finished punching tomorrow…or, sometime before Christmas. 

Last night i finished Kelli’s bonus idea for “Funday Monday”. I have done something similar In “the becoming more” class, but this was meant to be a double 12×12. The punched photos was supposed to be 2×2 but my photos was to big, and I did not have a punch that size anyway. So my pages ended up being a little different, but that is okay. The photos I used was taken in July last year. Baby Kristian is 6 months old and is showing us a little personality for the first time. And grandpa is there with his camera. Actually I think there is two cameras involved.

When I ordered the prints from this happening i could not choose which one to order. So I did plan to make a mini album. Never got around to do that. We also had an accident with some ice cream eating. So I had to make two more pages.

When the ice cream fell grandma was there in a blink, grabbing the ice before it hit the ground and showing it into her mouth. So there was not any time to get cranky about this. Look at the boys face during the action.

Well, I better hit my bed. There is a lot more punching to do tomorrow. Also, I am a little exited to see what the next guest teacher on Stacy`s list have for us tomorrow.

…

…so….why do I need a new lens for my camera? Good question. Someone decided that I needed one. And that someone is my brother. He likes to be in control. I love shopping on the internet. Ordering Sunday night and have it delivered Tuesday pm. It is so great. So the Canon EF 24-105 mm f/4L IS USM came today. I just put it on my camera and tried.

It is a heavy lens, but with the Canon D40 it feels okay.

All I have to do now is to find my camera manual. I am talking a lot about that…..

I did have other plans this evening. I started out working on my Funday Monday layout. As always there was something missing in my tool box. We were supposed to use a 2×2 inch punch. Did I have that? No. So I had to do it myself. I was working happily when the mail came in, my prints from the wedding had arrived.  I just had to pick them up…

It took me three hours to get the photos in the albums.

All 600 hundreds of them.  And there is more to come.  I am not sure whats next, but I better let the bride look through this and make some decisions. There is some beautiful shots here, there are some not so good,…. and the photos that will haunt her forever. I can`t wait to work with this, but I might want to use the long winter nights to work with those happy moments.

I did not get to finish my layout to night, so I showing those I tried to upload last night. The first one is for the challenge at Scrapping.no, using some other persons handwriting. I had to peek in to one of my boxes and I found some old letters.

Where did we go?       Good question.      Memories from my youth.

1982.

We travelled the world.

We walked for peace.

We thought we could change the world for the better.

We were involved.

We cared.

We drank beer every day.

We loved each other.

And we sent letters written on bar notes.

….the good times…..

So, here is a part of what Stacy Julian said to my confusion about her Have more FUN class.: 

“I hope it is clear that for me, scrapbooking is NOT just a hobby or set of skills/techniques that I use to preserve pictures. Scrapbooking is the way I LIVE my life — it is the lens through which I am processing and sharing my experience as a human being. Scrapbooking and the creative process are to me, magical things that can teach you what is most important to you, before it’s too late.”

I knew it. I knew there was a message hidden in all this FUN stuff. I think one of the reasons I had a hard time taking in all this stuff is because this is how I do it already. When you start a new class you expect to learn something you don’t already know. Because all this is pretty new to me I don’t have any set way of doing it. I am ready to try anything. What I have learned in this short period of time is that; there is no right or wrong way to do this. And the most important thing is to enjoy doing it.

I finished my butterfly project. I got a cactus in my back trying to photographing this so you better like it. I may not survive, but the cactus did…

If you click on the frame you will see the pick……

I did a lot more today, but wordpress is having problems with uploading images so it will have to wait until they have solved their problems. While working with my pages I finished listening to my book. It is written by Anne B. Ragde and loosely translated it is called; a cold day in hell. If I should talk about the book I would say it was all about dogs and it was walking very close to porn. I enjoyed the listening.

….cutting butterflies. This week Kelly Crowe is teaching the Have more FUN class. She came up with this great idea for making a layout framed in a shadow box. We were to make the butterflies by punching them out of paper scrap. I never got around buying the shadow box. I remember them to be very expensive and I rather use the money for something else right now. And I could not find a small butterfly punch to buy on the internet. So what to do? It seemed such a fun idea so I looked for another way to do this project. I have had some frames of pressed paper for years without knowing what do make of them. So I started painting one last night. Thanks to the gesso I finally managed to buy, the acrylic paint behaved nicely and the frame survived the treatment. It did not survive last time I tried. Then I tried to emboss the poor thing. That did not work out so well…and I had to paint it all over again….

Kelly use to punch when she have a hard time finding inspiration. And when punching she is watching star trek. I found my scissors and some butterfly paper, put a book CD in the player and went to work. Lucky me found some paper that had butterflies. Since I enjoyed listen to the book reading the cutting took some time. And the result of that; I am not finished yet.

Stacy Julian gave us a download for us to colour. Me - I don’t have crayons. That is normal I think for a 47 year old without children.  I hope….. Instead I used chalks. Because chalks I do have….We was supposed to write down our 8 principals of FUN. And since it is well known that I do have issues with having fun, I am not ready to show you me principals. I am not so sure I am ready to look at them myself. Anyway…now they are up on the wall so I can see and think them through.

This was kind of fun. Maybe I should buy some crayons…or maybe not. Well, I better find my bed. Tomorrow is another working Sunday. Hopefully the paint and the repaint are ready for some butterflies tomorrow night.

….came home with the mailman yesterday. She was looking good as new. Maybe the wrecking wasn’t meant to be? So…she only travelled a few miles. Maybe I ought to send her out in the world?  Don’t think so, she better stay home with me. I have reach page 12 and just lost my big chance on getting my fat fingerprints all over her. My 25 year old, baby nephew Tor Helge, just came here with leftover pizza. I just put my teeth in the pizza and forgot all about my journal. Poor thing….

Ok, we will play more tomorrow.

I left work early today, determent to do some house cleaning. In order to do so I have to pass my “play room” and I never came out of there. I started to play with some paint and there was no way I was going to stop playing and start cleaning. One of these days I have to. At least I made my card number 20, only 32 to go. This is what I call fun. Learning something new everyday is fun. The lesson today was using chalks and water. With a little practice this could be a fun technique. 

Late this afternoon we finaly could detect some blue sky. It was raining all morning. The tourists are getting sick of this weather. So am I.

 Hulvågbroen…

IMG_6180, originally uploaded by thelge2.

I stole this photo from Tor Helges flicre account. He has turned into a camera freak and I love that fact. One of this days he got to take his old aunt out on a photo safari. Maybe if I am paying enough…..

I made my card numero 19 today. Tena Spenger showed us how to make our own transparencies. A good thing to know. I bought a pack of sheets going in to this class, and I never would have thougt about doing this. I am in “the mood” to night and focused on kissing….

Jan and Linda - kissing during their first dance as husband and wife.

I have stayed out of the funny department  today, and I had a good day. I need to think more about this class before going in again. The weather is still bad and there is no summer to see out there.