Book Club

The book club met at Starbucks to discuss "Life of Pi" and it was a great discussion. A couple of the ladies didn't finish the book and I was almost one of them. I really enjoyed talking with the ladies about their interpretations.

I have just started reading "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and so far I am really liking the story. It's about a lady named Henrietta Lacks who had cancer; a researcher was able to get some of her cells from a doctor so that he could try and grow the cells outside of Henrietta's body. They are famously call the HeLa cells. I'm learning a lot of scientific background and terms.

I'll post when I finish the book and let you know what I think at that point.

Life of Pi

So I just finished reading "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. I don't know why, but it took me the longest time to get into reading the story. I almost put it down several times thinking I wasn't going to pick it up again. But, it's for my book club, so I kept at it. It became very interesting about half way through. All the time I was reading it I thought it was a true story! It's not - haha. Jokes on me! It ended up being a good book - about half way through I didn't want to put it down! I don't think I would re-read though. When I read the description of the book, I thought it would be about a boy who knew everything about zoo animals. Turned out, for me, it was about religion and relationships, and overcoming hardship.

Paradise Cove

Kelly and I spent the afternoon at Paradise Cove yesterday. It was a little hotter than it's been, and very little breeze, but was very relaxing. I don't know why I haven't gone down to the beach more often since I haven't been working.

Isn't this a great photo? We had our umbrella shade, although I did get a little bit of sun, and a perfect view of the ocean.

A good day indeed!

School

Today was the first day of Fall semester at Moorpark College. I'm taking an online Journalism class - Writing and Reporting for Media. We had our orientation online and it's pretty darn cool! I am going to be VERY busy reading, writing, rewriting . . . wish me luck!

Don't know how much scrapping I'll get done over this semester. And my book club may kick me out if I don't read the books we will be discussing! But I'm looking forward to learning about the writing for media - should be challenging. I have to start a blog to go along with the class as well. I'll post a link once it's up and running.

Good night - I'm off to sleep :)

Book Club

I attended my first book club meeting tonight! And I had a great time meeting new friends and talking about the book - Snowflower and the Secret Fan. I think I'm going to really enjoy this; I just hope I can keep up with all the reading! LOL!

Big Picture Classes

Big Picture Classes is currently having their Big Idea Festival and I love participating because it makes me think outside the box and pushes me to scrap things I might not have thought about. This year it's all about "Words to Live By." Each guest teacher gives a word and a sample layout they've made and then challenges you to create a layout with their particular word.

Here's what I've done so far:

Day 4: Give

I give thanks to God every day for my family.

Day 3: Less

With me looking for a full-time job, that would mean I have less time to scrapbook :(

Day 2: Wonder

I have always wondered how a fax machine works. I mean, it's incredible you can send letters, photos, etc. from one machine and it ends up at another machine in tact!

Day 1: Share

I love this picture of me, my sister and niece at the M&M Shop in Las Vegas - I was sharing my love of M&M's (the blue one especially!) and my love of Vegas!!

So far, I have done all of my pages digitally. I kind of want to keep it going to challenge myself to learn the PSE program better. It's fun and frustrating at the same time!

Moving and Scrapping!

It's Thursday, August 11, 2011 and we are settled into the new rental (2 moves in 2 months is not fun). My craft room is pretty much settled and I've been scrapping as much as possible! Yay!

I made this mini-album for our trip to Kauai in November. I'm going to use it to log our daily activities/itinerary. I'll have a ton of photos so those will go in a larger album.

This is a layout using "wood grain" product - my paper is called Woodland, by Basic Grey. These are old photos from a camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park. I think Michele and Tyler were 7 and 5 . . .

This is the 2nd challenge in the "Book of Me" challenge. This one was to scrap your bucket list. So much fun - I'll be able to go back later to see if I can scratch any off the list!

I found these great shots of Glenn's dad fishing in the Rogue River. The challenge was to use at least 3 layers of different texture, and also use a campfire song title or lyrics. I used Fish & Chips & Vinegar since Pops was fishing! LOL! Honestly, I don't remember that as a campfire song . . .

This card was for a challenge to use eyelets. I always forget about using eyelets. I love the way they turn out, but somehow don't remember that I have them in my stash.

This layout was for a challenge to use colored pencils on your layout. I used them to color in the title, and to outline the letters and around the title spot. I also used them to "stitch" around the owl.

I've had these school photos of the kids on the wall in frames for at least 10 years. They are glad that I've finally taken them down! Hopefully I can replace them with more current photos!