Little Corner of Ania

The layout
Soooo the skirt-picture kinda did inspire me and as the photo for the assignment I originally was supposed to work on didn't really turn out that great and I didn't find out until late and thus had to wait for today to retake the photo I figured I might aswell get started on that (skirt) photo instead. So there! I was challenged to do the All About Eve challenge (scrap your booty) plus I wanted to do the ScrapJack #2 (Meghan Dymock), so I did both challenges in one and same layout - what is that called? When you manage to do two things at once/fit two things in one ...eh..something..? Anyone?

Anyways. Kinda like how this turned out, and I esp LOVE that I was able to use (to me) real OLD stuff on it - the pp is from an old Scenic Route collection (Harvest), and the alphas from Lil Davis - I LOVE them but they keep sitting on my shelf like, forever...esp the big blue ones...other stuff include the big Heidi Swapp photocorners & blingborders...and the MM alphastickers..

There was a question on Minneriket about styles - she asked if we felt we made layouts in diff. styles according to the theme/who we were scrapping for - separating the styles of pics of the kids and pics of ourselves. I hadn't really thought about that, but now one thing hit me; yes - aside from the thing that I sincerly feel that I do a lot of diff. styles randomly I have noticed that most if not all of my layouts for such blogchallenges as the Dares, ScrapJack and OLW have been on the more.....hm...what to call it....whimsical, laidback, urban-street-kinda-style-side. Kinda? For contests and assignments however I usually stick to the more "nicer/prettier" style... hmm... I think. Ohwell. Something to think about?

Things to come
Tomorrow is sunday, and sunday = pencillinesday. Tbh I'm not too satisfied with my own layout - a bit too boring (but the theme is an important one to me), but -- I'm very very excited to see what the (fab!) guest-designer have whipped up - and ofcourse the other ladies interpretion of the sketch - which was a bit interesting one designwise - at least to me :) So make sure you tune in to Pencillines tomorrow - and please ignore my poor layout :p

And aside from the Bad Girls Patrol there's even more stuff planned for Bad Girls everywhere - now, I hate the word (I think it's overused) but I really really am thrilled to see how that will turn out. It will be rockin' for sure :)

Moar photostuff!
Intriguing - photography is dead, and here's the proof. Thanks to stalking Scott Kelbys blog I keep finding lots and lots of cool photolinks - like finding this exciting photosite called The Online Photographer, where both of the above links could be found plus the link to the Wedding Photography 101 (one of the most amazing and most informatical (is that a word? :p) reads) and many more. Oh yes, I'll be stalking this site from now on! No, I have no real illusions being a real photographer, but it sure is damn fun reading up on such stuff and maybe maybe like 0.05% of this will actually stick into my brain and help me further. Besides. I think it's fun read :)


Det er virkelig gøy å være med på diverse blogutfordringer - men når utfordringene en har så lyst til å være med på blir alt for mange så er det enda gøyere å kunne flue de sammen, sånn som på denne layouten her. All about Eve hadde en utfordring som gikk ut på å scrappe rompa di (vel, jeg følte ikke heeeelt for akkurat det men det ga meg en ide til et tema og bildet er da rimelig "snilt" eller hva :p), og denne ukens ScrapJack gikk ut på å lifte en ganske så kul layout av Meghan Dymock. Så - da slo jeg bare sammen begge utfordringene - lagde en scrapjack med AAE tema. Me smart! ;)

Ellers er det søndag imorgen og det betyr seff. ny Pencillineslayout, og jeg kan ellers fortelle at foruten Bad Girls Patruljen som jeg skrev om igår så er det en del ting & tang som er under planlegging hos Bad Girls og jeg kan iallefall love dere dette er tøffe saker!

Ps! Lindakvakk - ja - jeg husker deg - samme klasse/trinn som Andreas eller noe sånt? :) Veldig hyggelig at du synes det er kjekt å lese bloggen min og det jeg gjør på :)

Ahh..this fall will be filled with lots of fun stuff happening - that much I can tell you!
It's like things are brewing ...like...everywhere!

Pencillines will soon turn one year old - and I would assume that when you turn one year you'll throw a birthdayparty or something like that ;)

Bad Girls Kit-club just introduced a fun concept - Bad Girls Patrol! Every friday, starting next friday (17th), we'll go Bad Girl Hunting - that is - looking around blogs & forums for Bad Girls to club them down and drag them by their hair to our cave and...er..no..that's wrong... well, one lucky Bad Girl will get a goodiesurprise from Bad Girls! Now, how will we recognize a Bad Girl you may ask? Glad you asked! We'll simply look for anybody with a Bad Girl blinkie in their signature or blog. Head over here to read more about this patrol & to grab a blinkie for yourself! :)

I'm also in the middle of finalizing my classes for this fall; the dates for Bergen are ready: September 19th and October 3rd and 17th. Possible dates for Oslo and Stavanger will be announced as soon as the details are good to go - hopefully very soon!

What more? Oh. I was challenged by Heidi to lift this layout. Gee. Lovely and totally ultracool layout, but I don't really feel like mine came anywhere close. Ohwell. LOVE this photo of my beloved & our little one. She's *such* a daddys girl. And I love the papers and diecuts from Rogue de Garance (& a lil Scenic Route - ofcourse :p).

Yay! Her kommer en liten oppdatering på norsk og!
Det er en god del ting som skjer for tiden -- og som er under planlegging -- blant annet Bad Girls Patruljen - et nytt konsept som går ut på at hver fredag (fra og med neste uke) kommer Bad Girls teamet til å lete etter blogger og innlegg på forum som inneholder blinkien fra Bad Girls. Den heldige får en pakke med goodies fra Bad Girls! Funfunfun! Alt du trenger å gjøre er å gå inn her og legge til blinkien du finner der -- hvem vet - kanskje du blir den heldige en fredag...?

Kursene mine for høsten er under intens planlegging - foreløpig er datoene for Bergen klare -- 19. september, 3. og 17. oktober. Ta kontakt med meg på ania krøllalfa papirloftet dot no om du vil vite mer. Det blir også kurs i Oslo og Stavanger -- men datoene og detaljene der er mer uklare -- kommer tilbake med mer info så snart jeg vet! Lover dere en liten go'bit her...nesten nesten helt sikkert...:)

Ellers da? Tja, jeg la ut en konkurranse på Papirprat der oppgaven gikk ut på å dekorere en postbound/ringpermalbum. Ellers har Catrine lagt ut en layoutkonkurranse som går ut på å scrappe hverdagen/hverdagsbilder. Ta en kikk på den også :) Kule premier er det iallefall til begge!!

*smiles innocently*
Had a short & fun photosession w/Eli today outside Hobbykroken -- can I just say one thing...... remember to turn that &/%&/¤&%¤%& ISO down to 200 after you're done with adjusting it!! Grr!! Turned out the cam was set to 1600ISO *blush*. Sigh. Ohwell. Got a number of cool piccies (yeah - that's me....*blush*) though and will use them nevertheless - thanks a bunches Eli!! The photos are for a challenge I got from Kathrine (she's so sweet with those challenges you know :p) about joining the All about Eve's challenge Scrap that Booty. Hm. Right. Well, I got the piccies now....we'll see if I manage to complete next step :p

So. Why am I bad? You see -- I've been so incredibly lucky to join the bad ass design team for Bad Girls Kits. Seriously. First, the kits looks fantastic fabulous, second, I LOVE the concept behind the whole Bad Girls theme, third, Wendy Rago, the owner behind Bad Girls is such a darling (granted, I don't really know her but she seem to be really really cool and nice despite being Bad Girl and all ;p), and fourth....look at these ladies..!?!? And I was lucky to be picked to be with them?? Omg. I mean - look at this intro of the DT...wow!!!! (and lookie -- my fellow Pencillinesgal TRacie H is also among these bad ladies! yay!!! A familiar face! /waves :D)

So yeah! I' m bad! :D

Btw, added two new links -- do check them out -- Neil Gaimans blog -- can't wait till Stardust is out here in Norway (and I NEED to kick myself into getting Anansi Boys, Stardust and Good Omens - which is coauthored by Terri Pratchett...you know..the dude behind Discworld). Second - I went down memory lane and looked through the quotes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ahhh. It was such a GOOD show. Talking about TVshows, I'm currently watching Dexter. Although I don't really like the acting at times (too stiff, too stereotypical) I do find myself drawn in to the story. Intriguing. Maybe I should buy the book(s?) too. Hm.

The new Pencillines sketch & layouts are all up on the Pencillines blog. Yay!
I like how my layout turned out this time - struggled some with the sketch then suddenly it all felt right kinda. Or maybe I like this so much because I love the picture..hmm...nevertheless..

I brought the camera with me one morning when we were walking down to the kindergarten - Adrian forgot his sweater at home so he ran back to fetch it while Amalie and I continued....once she heard Adrian run towards us she turned back and asked "Adrian?" (okok, she said "Aian?" cause she can't pronounce his name right yet)...loved that I was able to photo this cute moment just as she turned backwards :)

Sassafrass Lass and 7gypsies pp, Hambly rubons on white cardboard, cut out and inked and put on the pp with foampads, Bazzill/Heidi Swapp flowers, Sassafrass Lass and Cherry Arte stamps and Heidi Swapp alphas :)

Looks like I've missed blogging badly since I came home from the vaccay -- this post is the third one in three days....and there will be another post tomorrow as it's a new Pencillinesday too...

Anyways - finished this layout last night -- it's for the DareJack -- aka ScrapJacks tributechallenges this month. This week they jacked Kristina Contes - yay! I love all the Dare-girls so I'm *so* looking forward to play along this month! Must. Find. Time! :) Played some with Rogue de Garance 12x6 paper (seems like theyre starting to grow on me these papers - finding their way to a number of my layouts lately :p) and a number of little bits I had lying on my table. Funny that. I'm such a messyhead and whatever I let stay on the table keeps getting used over and over again - too lazy to reach into the drawers to find something else to use ;p

Been missing scrapping so as you can tell. This was my third layout since I got home four days ago and I've already finished a fourth and started think about the fifth. Obsessed much eh.... :p

Wrapping up this post with a little nugget from the Indie Art Photoblog; she's a photographer and also the lady behind the Indie Actions - (I've got the Rich set - it's a steal for only 20$ :) ). In this post she shares some of her editing "secrets". The color-balance trick to add warmth is an interesting one - it sounds so simple.... I haven't fiddled too much with that option yet - maybe it's about time to experiment some more :)

And oh yeah. Happy Bday Hubby! Had a lovely dinner and am soon about to have a yummy cheesecake too! =)

Midlifecrisis?
Sooo as I was about to pull out my brand new Dior lipstick my hubby eyed me with such a funny expression on his face in the doorway. "What!? I wanna start being a real grownup and start wearing makeup every time I leave the house" I told him. He kept looking at me like I was very very silly and to tell you the truth, I was. Sigh. I don't know what it is - maybe it's me realizing I'm really really soon turning like, old and stuff and that this is serious this time....like some kind of midlifecrisis. I dunno. I've been thinking about trying to make an attempt to learn how to put on makeup for real kinda. It oughta be handy when you turn old no? Not the kind of heavy makeupstuff (although it does kinda look cool once in a while I guess), but the subtle kind that you don't really notice but which kinda do help your face in a stealthy way. I think it there is such a way. I did however realize how silly I was this time and put the lipstick back on the shelf and went out as my normal self with a sigh.

You Go Girl!!
Waddayaknow. I'm so proud of you and what you actually accomplished in mere three days while being sick and all - gee, I did feel a bit mean in between but you know....it's all for the greater good no? *snicker* So huge congrats to Smultringen (Ingunn) as a SOY-finalist!!! Us Norwegians are soooooo happy & proud of you now! Weeee! Can't wait to know more at Memory Trends!! **hugs**

A tribute?
So while I was working on this layout last night it suddenly hit me - gee - it looks so Smultringsk. Once I realized it I decided to go the whole nine yard; one of her (to me) trademarks is the way she does journaling: serif in white text on colored background. I didn't add any primas though ;p

A sneakie!
I love looking at other peoples sneakies, personally I usually find them so much fun to watch....so maybe I'm not the only one thinking sneakies are fun, and hence should do some myself too..? At least when it comes to DT work it's ok I guess...so...here's a sneakie of this sundays Pencillinelayout...which actually features a Guest DT who's on the other DT I'm also at, Happy Scrappin' Scrapbooking. How fun! :D

Sigma vs Nikkor
Okok. It's unfair to compare the old Sigmalens I've got to the new Nikkor one, as they do have different specifics, but still.. dang....the Nikkor one looks *so* *so* promising! You see, I bought a new 18-200mm lens. From Sigmas f/3.5 - f/6.3 to Nikkors f/3.5 - f/5.6 with SWM and VR. Faster focus and vibration reduction that is. That being said; Sigma recently came with a new 18-200 lens that's more close to the Nikkor one with both better focusing and VR aswell if I'm not too mistaken. Still stops at f/6.3 though.

The biggest noticeable difference to me (besides the faster focusing :p) is actually that while you turn the lensring to the left on the Sigmalens to focus you turn it towards right on the Nikkor one. Gee. I guess it'll be a while until I get used to that! :p It's also slightly heavier and bigger - it's 72mm I think while the old one is 62mm.

Love the way it focuses - it's way more silent and feels so smooth. Like it fades in and out kinda - very fast - very smooth. Dunno. Maybe it's not very noticeable but I do notice it because I'm looking for differences from my old lens.

Qualitywise I'm positive I do see a difference -- although -- it may very well just be in my mind kinda and it doesn't mean the Sigma one is that badly off - it's good - the Nikkor one is just a notch better. And after all....it is a new lens -- wait a month or two when it starts getting worn out and gets a dirty coating on the lens and stuff.....? I dunno...I do know that I need a better cleaningsystem for my lens for sure. *cough*

All in all I'm happy about my new allroundlens..now, time to start saving up for the next one............... :p

My little article about basic Photoshop editing is out now in the newest "Vi Scrapper" mag. Tbh it feels more embarrassing than cool *blush* Wonder if what I wrote actually made sense? I added a lot of pictures, but only a few came through. I have to admit one thing though. You see, I'm *still* learning about photoshop, and I can't understand how in the world I've missed this one when briefly mentioning the use of actions in the article.


When using actions, you can actually decide wheter you want to automatize it or if you want to follow the steps actually seeing and being able to adjust stuff step-by-step. I thought it was random wheter the "authors" wanted us to be able to know that or not, but obviously, it's all about toggling an option on or off - namely the dialogue thingie - see above. Go ahead, if you don't have an action - make your own (it's not exactly rocket surgery (okok, wow-humor) - I'll show you how later if you wanna) or head to the free action-centre and get one and test. I promise you'll learn a lot from this - especially if you really wanna ..eh..learn :p

/nerdmode on
Oh. While I'm on the subject of Photoshop -- have I mentioned how much I love CS3??? *smirk* I was wondering where they put the "feather" option (aside from the toolbar) -- well, hello Refine Edge. Too lazy to go back to CS2 and check wheter it was there or if it's a totally new feat, but dang, I love it!!! Seriously neat and cool and all the help-pointers...dang...CS3 I love you!
/nerdmode off

And oh. I've been tagged by the amazing Hetal - gee - to mention myself among the other awesome scrappers - thanks Hetal!! Wanna know a little secret? Hetal was actually my very first Idol in the scrapping-world. The first scrapper I recognized and thought "Dang I wanna be like her....how in the world does she do that!" *blush* The first time I "met" her in a MSN chat I was close to speechless, hardly saying anything because I was like, ooo I'm actually in the same chattingroom with Hetal (and all those other to me "Big Norwegian Scrappers".....*blush again* *hugs Hetal*

So. Who to tag that she didn't?
Letseee...

Kathrine ofcourse. For being such an amazing scrapbooker and a wonderful scrapperfriend. I love being one of your thoughts ;) True, she doesn't really update her blog too often *sigh* but when she does...especially with her layouts......yeah...you gotta check them out.

And then we have Catrine. She's way better than Kathrine when it comes to bloggin (sorry Kath ;) ) and she's always got those beautiful pictures and layouts. And she herself is also one of those who are beautiful both inside and out - at least the way I know her. Who knows. Maybe she isn't as nice as I believe she is deep inside but heck, anybody with four girls is allowed to have a secret, dirty outlet no ;)

And then we have those I don't know at all. Except that I love stalking their blogs. I doubt they know of my excistence at all. But I'd like to mention them here nevertheless.

Tongue in Chic-Kayla-Aimee-Terell (wonder if I got the name right?). She's fab. LOVE her blogposts. Love her personality and style. She really got style :)

And this beautiful woman behind Tongue in Cheek. Love her entries and pictures and thoughts and precious little gems and the fact that she's sharing it all with us.

And ofcourse Jessica Sprague. She's Da Woman. The Wizard with Photoshop. An amazing scrapbooker. And so on. *smile*

There! (okok, I think I was only supposed to mention four, but heck, I never claimed I could count eh )
Once again I'm sure I was supposed to say something more but ohwell, I'll just go back to my ubersecret project - which has just taken a turn for the better....I think......we'll see....soon enough...

Oh yes.
I'm home. Rejoice. Or something like that ;)


So How Was The Trip?
Dandy! One piece of advice though. Vacationing in big cities isn't really advised when you're dragging two kids along. But we had a jolly good time (ha..I love saying that..it sounds so...jolly :) ) and I believe the kids had aswell. We went to a number of random playgrounds and stayed there for a good while when we could, went to some amusementparks (although the kids preferred to enjoy the more simplier installments of those parks, like the trampolines and the sandboxes). Ah. Simple joys.

Fight!
It totally rocks getting to visit and meet people though, did I mention that? So much fun. Maybe especially the BBQ Sel threw together and let us use his arsenal (and it was HUGE!!!) of RPG-weapons. So totally cool!! The kiddo had a freakin blast runnin around fighting with all those grownups also fighting around playing having fun into the wee hours of the night...

Snob!
And at a point I had a little debate with myself. You see, I've been a bit of a natural-light-snob. I don't like using the cameraflash at all, and I didn't bring my external flash with me. So when I started getting too blurred pictures even at 1600ISO I just put my camera away. Simple as that. However, I had to remind me as to WHY I was taking pictures this trip. Hello Dumbass Me.... you're taking pictures to preserve the memories right...not to sniff about the yucky cameraflash making harsh and stupid pictures. Without it I woudln't have had the proof that Amalie indeed joined in with the swordfights a bit, loving the throwing daggers especially and carrying around the big sword way bigger than her for a little while. Still. I had to wrestle with myself for a bit about the useage of flash. I'm so silly, I know... (speaking about flash, seen Scott Kelbys latest weddingpics?? With no only natural light useage - he used the SB-800 flash..?? Wow. I so need to learn how to do that too)

But I digress. Hm. I had a bunch of stuff I was gonna mention on this post but now I forgot them all. Ofcourse. BLeh (I can assure you I always have very witty things to post when thinking about it....but these thoughts just keep disappearing somewhere between my brains and the screen. Always. Somehow. Hrmf.). Anyways -- although I really really need to start workin on the deadline-stuff I now have I just *needed* to like, scrap just because - you know - rusty skills and all ;p Hence this hotel-room blues layout, which I think came out alright apart from the title....I think it's the stickers I used as stickers - I was too much of a cheapass to use the (to me) cooler alphas so I just thought I'd try spend these "not-really-me" alphastickers. Bleh.

Jeje. Off to start workin on something really really fun. And secretive. *snicker*

Oh by the way....
78%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Alright. Vacationing is swell and dandy, but seriously, I'm not used to be this long without teh Intarwebz. My only connection to the Outer Civilisation (sp?) atm goes thru my cellphone, where I can access gmail and thus post blogposts when bored, like now. Had to go home early to the hotel w/the kids bc well, its late and they should be sleeping but no, their sleepingpattern is pretty much screwed but hey, its vacation right. Jeje.



Tomorrow we'll leave for Budapest where we'll stay for two days. Again we'll have our very own pocketguide for the city. (yeah i know, brag brag ;p) He'll actually sit w/us from Debrecen.



So can't post without a pic - heres one taken just now... Roadmaps are so the new cartoon..



Wish I could post a layout, like the one out now for pencillines, but I guess you'd have to check the pl blog for it. As far as I recall it's just scenic route pp..and tbh i cant decide wheter i like how it turned out or not..leaning towards not...I think..its one of the layouts you'd swear looked way cooler in your head before you started on the actual work :p



-Ania mobil

Cause we're now stuck in a stupid traffic-jam in the Hungarian highway and the sun is burning and the sky is merciless blue.



Ohwell. At least amalie is asleep (for now anyways) and we've been having a blast in Vienna. Everybody we've met has like, been going out of their way to help us and stuff. We've had our own private cityguides (thanks sory & roth), been to a lake outside of vienna (tulln), ate at a heuriger and been BBQ'ing at Selinas place w\really yummy food & stuff. In short, we're floored and humbled about everybodys' hospitality and general niceness (and to think it's all bc of a game).



Anyways, on our way to Debrechen now where we'll meet some of the guys who also went to Vienna to join us + meet new people and stuff. If only we could get anywhere atm!



So, just need to second myself again, thank god for ac & sleeping kiddos!



-Ania mobil