hello...

i don't really have anything to say, except that the heat is killing me(*sigh* it makes me even more anti-so-cal right now)...but here are my studio calico layouts. unfortunately, the kit sold out in a day, but i think you should check out all the eye candy in the gallery.







have a good one :)

day 4 + photos

basically, my norcal trip was a whole bunch of eating, walking, and shopping. good times.

day 4 - grabbed indian food for lunch (i hate that we don't have an awesome local indian place down here, so when i go up to norcal, i grab some indian), and then headed over to point reyes. i was anticipating lovely, sunny weather unlike last time (when it poured). unfortunately, when we got there, it was foggy and chilly. apparently the fog rolls in around 2 - the time we got there. i apparently have horrible luck when it comes to fog. *sigh* it was still pretty though. we went down to the lighthouse - which required us to climb down 300 stairs. going down was fine, but i was dying on the way up. apparently, it's equal to climbing stairs in a 30 story building. we then hiked over to chimney rock, which is this cliffy area. it was on the cover of the park guide and it looked awesome. unfortunately, the fog made it look a bit drab, but it was still gorgeous. went out to a couple of beaches after that - nothing too special...probably because i was freezing at the end. ha.

afterwards, we went for dinner (sushi) and headed over to fenton's. got the 3lb. banana split again this time, and no, we didn't finish it again. it was yummy, though.

flew back into LA this morning. i am feeling a bit anti-LA right now. lol. i just really love norcal.

anyways. here are the photos:
(from saturday)










(from sunday)













catching up on e-mails and scrapping tomorrow! :)
have a good one :)

norcal: day 2+3

]i kind of like having my laptop on the road. hooray :)

day 2: went over to daly city to meet up with a family friend. we went to eat some vietnamese noodles, and then went to daiso - my favorite japanese dollar store. i loooove going to that place when i'm in japan. they have EVERYTHING. it's HUGE. i was quite excited when i found out there was one in the bay area. picked up a bunch of cool labels and mesh-y stuff. afterwards, went into SF for some shopping. mission: to find a dress for my cousin's wedding. did that at forever 21 (and bought other things), then hit up old navy. i'm hoping everything fits in my luggage monday - when i was packing for the trip, i tried to leave some room for stuff i buy, but it didn't happen. whoops. somehow, i'll make it work. headed back to elaine's place, then went to zachary's - best chicago-style pizza EVER. yum.

day 3: went over to scrapbook territory and did some damage. in my defense, i haven't gone scrapbook shopping since the last time i was here (back in april). walked around the area - grabbed a cup of coffee and a cupcake and sat and people watched. love norcal. people are chill. love it. then headed up for dim sum...then walked the golden gate bridge. we all thought it was longer than it actually is - 1.7 miles....totally do-able. it was a nice walk - and the sausalito side of the bridge has way nice views. went down to baker bridge for a different bridge perspective. very cool. headed over to the fisherman's wharf area...went to the buena vista for dinner. AWESOME irish coffee. yum :) walked around and then went over to ghirardelli for some sundaes. yum yum :)

on the agenda tomorrow - point reyes. fortunately, no rain on the forecast, so i don't anticipate getting poured on like last time. lovely :)

will be back later with photos and such...here's one to hold you over. from baker beach :)


have a good one :)

thank you.

for all the sweet comments
for all the MB posts
for all the congrats
for all the e-mails
the wall posts.

i am overwhelmed.
THANK YOU.

made it here to norcal earlier this evening. was rather upset that i ended up at the airport 2 hours early - which left me with nothing to do. so i paid $4 for their wifi. ew. anyway, made it to oakland, and took care of the first order of business - pigging out (at top dog, la burrita, and the crepe place). on the agenda tomorrow is hitting up SF for some major shopping (or maybe not because i have no room in my luggage), and then awesome chicago-style pizza at zachary's. can't wait.

i'm exhausted so i'm off to bed.
have a good one :)

who, me?!

so....i'm a 2008 master.

monday morning started off like almost every other morning this summer, with me sleeping in until about 10-ish. i was vaguely aware that calls would supposedly be starting that day, but MMM calls are not the first thing on my mind when i wake up. it's more like "where the hell is my coffee?" i heard my cell ring, and i ran to get it...unfortunately, i wasn't sure where it was so while i was rummaging for it, it stopped ringing.

i found it and checked to see who it was. it was from the 513 area code. i also discovered that i had three missed calls from said area code. it had come at around 7:30 am my time, which is 10:30 cincinnati time...but...i'm a college student on vacation and i'm NOT up at 7:30. in fact, i'm not even usually up that early when i have class. i had been told last week that the calls would come from said area code. "could it be?" i thought. no way, right? i mean, they had to be calling about some stuff i'd turned in 2 weeks ago.

i wasn't exactly sure what i should do about it, so i went about my morning business. my mother she kept telling me to call them back, but i was hesitant because the whole point was for THEM to call ME. right? but i still had no idea what i should do - should i really call them back or should i wait for them to call me again? it was driving me insane, and i was thinking "if they don't call back within the next 30 minutes, i will REALLY go insane."

but the dilemma was soon solved. i'd logged into gmail, and an e-mail from patricia craft popped up. it said that she was trying to reach me and that she'd like to talk to me that day, so would i please call her back.

so i did. as it rang, i hoped that this was really it. patty picked up, i introduced myself, she made a comment about how it had been difficult to reach me and then said the magic words -

"congratulations, you're a 2008 memory makers master."

whoa...what? come again? are you freaking serious?

i literally didn't know what to say, so i started giggling nervously. you would think that since i kind of suspected what was coming, that i would manage to not sound like an idiot. but i did end up doing just what i was intending NOT to do. i was in shock. i didn't know what else to say or do except giggle. eventually i managed a "thank you." patty laughed and said, "some women were in a state of shock, some of them screamed in my ear, one woman cried, and you just laugh." the call is still kind of a blur.

and so...i kept this in for another 2 days. until today. and even though the news is official, i'm still trying to process it...it hasn't completely sunk in yet. i'm a 2008 master. that's crazy. in a good way. and you know what? i'm thrilled and excited beyond belief. i can't wait to work with and get to know my 9 fellow masters. i get to work with some of the best in the industry. whoa. i'm a bit nervous too.

all i know is that the next year is going to be one crazy ride. and that i am one lucky, lucky girl. i just feel really blessed right now.

anyways, to celebrate (well, techincally not, because i planned this way before any of this happened), i'm going up to norcal tonight. looking forward to spending quality time with elaine (and linda, since she's also moving up again this week), checking out her new place, pigging out and gaining 10 pounds (or maybe not since i plan on walking the entire golden gate bridge this time), attempting to finish that ginormous sundae at fenton's again, giving into my shopaholic ways in san francisco, scrap shopping at scrapbook territory, and checking out point reyes again - apparently it won't pour on us this time. oh, and i (actually, my lens does) look forward to taking lots of pics.

'til monday :)

a new toy

after talking about it for over 3 months, i finally pulled the trigger got a new lens for my camera. it's been a while since i started talking about it, that it's become known as "it" around here (the boys would constantly ask me, "did you buy IT yet?")

it rocks. it gives me more flexibility than my 50mm (even though i end up shooting with a focal length of about 50mm anyway), it's amazingly sharp, and the color is awesome. it's also fast, with an aperture of 2.8, which is awesome for its price!

we went out after i got the lens, so i got to play with it today. here are a bunch of test shots. most of them have no editing on them (except resizing and watermarking), which is really liberating...a few have a little bit of tinkering, though.















and these are from yesterday (with my old lens). it was our buddy allen's birthday, so we celebrated. lots of funny moments. hehe.






really excited because at this time next week, i'll be up in norcal, pigging out and not melting in really crappy weather. can't wait! :)

have a good one :)

meteors, red velvet, and sneakiness.

what i've been up to:

- i finally bought a router so i'm now wireless. it rocks. how did i live without it? (elaine says that now i'm really officially in the 21st century).

- we had meteor showers the other night. so we went up into the mountains to see them. we saw a bunch - but i couldn't make a wish because they went by too fast. blink, and you miss them. and i didn't get any on film because that's near impossible (unless you have a cable/remote release). i got some sky shots, in which stars came out as specks, but i think it's kinda cool:

- we had the urge to make cupcakes today (in this 90+ degree, humid weather). personally, i really wanted to use this and this (is that bad? hee). we went to every supermarket in town to find liquid food coloring, and finally found it at an asian market (who knew?)...but it wasn't enough, so our red velvet cupcakes aren't red enough. still good. i think cris did most of the work, but if me and amy did it...we would just mess everything up. hah.




good times.

the finished product:




- yesterday was the sneak peek day for studio calico so i get to share mine. i have to say that the september kit is AWESOME and i haven't really scrapped with anything else since it arrived -








have a good one! :)