Little Corner of Ania

Hrm. They called from the kindergarten. Amalie's sick. Ohwell. She's just a lil hot, but otherwise her normal, active self. I went down to the kindergarten to fetch her. Nice excuse to bring the camera along no? *smile* Just wish I was able to get her whole reflection in the little puddle..need to practice thinking like that....thinking about the whole frame kinda during shooting..

She loves her wabbit. It was lost for a while but refound after some months - dirty and all but still just as loved...

I love how she has such superb taste - I think she's starting to be as addicted to Gwen Stefani as I am!! She loves singing to her songs..... so cute to hear (and watch :D)...and sometimes her timing actually hits ;)


Anyways. Seen the news at Bad Girls? Starting with the Dec kit; if you're a subscriber or you purchase any of the current addons/project-kits....you can join the monthly challenge and get a chance to win one of those aprons.....which are very exclusive - they will be available through this monthly challenge only...12 of these..... and apparently it's not regular rhinestones, but 100% Swarovski crystals.... for more information, read the official challenge-info on the boards here :) Me wants!!


And uhm. Yikes?? Is this really the last day of November?? *faint*
I've put up the Christmas-light for the window...opted to go for a little lightglobe from Ahlens (Sirius) instead for the normal star thats more common but now that it's up I think it's a lil too small. Hmm. I also need to fix the Advent-lights before this sunday (no I don't have any. shame on me) and put up the Christmas calendar and uh. I guess I should look for more Christmas-pressies as I'm far from done. *sigh*

Anyways - happy Advent everybody - I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning - to watch and take photos (*teehee*) of the kids opening their calendars (my kind mother always does the calendar for us) and to the start of a new Christmas - it's truly magical through the eyes of the children...(sappy I know but it's oh so true!)... as we'll be home this Christmas my aim is to try and do at least 4-5 traditional Christmasstuff together...I really suck at keeping traditions kinda but am tryin to redeem myself!! :)

Ps! HUGE congrats to Iris!!! She made the cover for the MM Magazine's January-issue.... check her blog to read her cute lil inspirational tale :)

Ps2. Will post a layout or two tomorrow ;)

Alright girls. LOADS of peeks today.
Some of them will be revealed soon (like the Bad Girls december-ones), some of them won't be revealed until like two months into the new year. Sooooo apologies in advance for being such a tease but I just really wanna show I *have* been working on stuff lately ;)

Ps. Dexter!!! Holy shit did anyone watch this the other day???? Omg. Wtf. Omg! I seriously went wtf when they ended it like that....helloo...now I have to wait another week?? Grrr..... so.good!
Ps2. Sorry for the language but really. The last ep was that great :p
Ps3: oh. first peek is just the bad girl candy I got in the kit....which the others got in the november kit for halloween...totally cool Bad Girl m&ms!

Ahhh I think I found the perfect Holiday-family-movie!! Or well....I've yet to see it for real myself, but I fell in love with the trailer *blush* on the Disney site and the quotes provided at IMDB.com...anyways...the name's Enchanted.. looks like a fun and sweet movie no? I find the moves of Giselle pretty cool and sweet.....like, real Disney-princessish..which is kinda cool... Talking about movies, I've yet to see Stardust..grr...must.fix.soon. And now the other Gaiman-movie's out too, Beowulf.

Anyways...I was rockin' to Gwen Stefani with Amalie on my lap and then she fell asleep to Early Winter...hmm.. she did claim she liked the music tho before she started snoring :p Adrian's also into music, he totally loves High School Music 2 and has been wanting the CD w/the music...

Hrm. Was supposed to scrap lots but am a bit limited w/the sleeping one on my lap...need to whisk her away :p

(yay she woke up immediately after being placed on the couch. Ohwell)

Addin some photos from Ål - there wasn't snowing there until Thursday - the day before we were leaving. Ohwell. Amalie had great fun in kindergarten that day :)

Am workin on some peeks for upcoming layouts - I've been pretty much into Papirfest-photos lately - like 4 or 5 layouts made with photos from there now the last week. Funfun! Can't show some of these until like, anything from a week to next year and stuff, so I'll share some peeks soon just because...uh...to prove I've been scrapping! ;) (I feel like I suck if I don't have layouts or anything SB-related to show in my posts kinda :p)

Yay I'm home!!
Being away is nice and swell but coming back home....ahhh :)
I did have quite an enjoyable time - I got to meet mom, my stephdad and my uncle - I got to teach scrapbooking all day (and got quite a few projects done aswell in the evenings in the apartment while Amalie was asleep - 2 PL-Lo's and 1+2 secret project-LO's wrapped up! ;P).... I got to watch Amalie do more and more signing each day... I got to see how well she bonded with her grandma....whom she doesn't get to see too often as she lives in Oslo (and we're at the other side of the country).....

but truth to be told...I've missed home. I've missed my regular scrapbook-corner (had to postpone two projects because I needed photos or stuff at home :p), I missed my very own bed and I missed my hubby & kiddo. Oh, and having my own pc with my own inet-connection (can you believe - we didn't get the wireless network to work until the last evening before going home. Duh. Ohwell. Prob why I got so much done in the evenings anyways being wo net) :p

Anyways. At home my Bad Girls December kit greeted me - YUM! Seriously I don't know where Wendy gets that from...she always finds those fabulous RARE stuff for her kits..... totally in love with the gorgeous trims......... ahh..... I shouldn't say more - I just know I'm totally looking forward to like, do stuff with this kit this weekend.........:)

Anyways.
I'll leave you with a photo of the canvas I did for Sri's class at the Christmas Workshop - totally LOVED this idea so I made all my students do this project aswell on uh, weds :) They came up with all sorts of creative ideas for this one :) Anyways. My version. Orange. Yum. Love to make those colors spill kinda...Hambly, AC thickers, embossed AL stamp & a delicious ribbon which was a leftover from a previous Bad Girl kit :) I made a blue version of this one for my class aswell but forgot to photograph it - it's now in Oslo cause it's gonna be a pressie for my grandma,...ohwell :)

Anyways. Bedtime. Will see if I can put up some more photos tomorrow - haven't unloaded the photos from this week yet (what's wrong with me? :p)

Grr...the wireless network that's here just won't work on my stephfathers laptop, so I can't post some of the photos from here...ohwell...we're having a great time here - Amalie is totally loving the attention she gets here being the only child around....and she's so into grandma..... tailing her everywhere...grandma doesn't mind cause she only sees her like thrice or so a year...

I was looking forward to snow but there ain't much snow around here strangely enough...ohwell....

Anyways - as I don't have any photos to upload (yet - haven't given up the laptop...am sittin on one of the school-pc's) I'll show my pre-prepared layout from last sundays' Pencil-Lines-layout.... I tested out the vaseline-distress-thingie on the stars that's on Emily Falconbridges blog (thanks Anam for looking that up for me!) - not quite the effect I wanted then but it's still a very very cool one don't ya think? :) Also, the hedgehog (I LOVE THEM :D Aw too cute!) is one of the "buttons" I printed from the Pixelfarm-font (after an idea by Kal Bartesky). The kiddo kinda can't sit straight - always sits in funny angles & stuff...:p

Oook gotta run class has begun !!!

Ok, not really fishing, but off for a week of scrapbooking and stuff at Ål :)
I'll be accessible when it comes to the email at least, no idea how good my netconnection will be though - depends on wheter there's wireless access there or not I guess. Anyways - I'm loaded - Christmas Pressies (for my relatives in Oslo - will meet mom & stephdad in Ål too - sis: I hope you appreciate this! your pressie takes like 80% of my bag!!!!!!) - check, extra materials for my class - check, clothes for me and Amalie - check, scrapbooking-stuff & piccies for myself - check (am not leaving my apartment while Amalie is in bed so I'm hoping I'll get a lot of personal scrapping done in the evenings. We'll see. Things never go as planned :p)

I'm also excited because Amalie will be attending a signed/mixed kindergarten while I'm teaching at Ål. I've tried to use signlanguage to her some (I really sucked at that dep with Adrian so I'm hoping to make up for it with Amalie) and she does sign some on her own - so it'll be interesting to see how she'll do in that kindergarten - and all week as we'll be staying in a sign-language-environment pretty much 24/7.

I have prepared some piccies for upcoming blogposts - if I'm lucky I'll still be able to share stuff during the week whenever I get my hands on tah Intarwebs. Me smart! ;)

None I can share atm though, so I'll leave you with a piccie of me and my hubs taken with my cellphone on friday...we had one of our very very rare twice or thrice a year-going-out-partying-occasion. ;) lousy quality but I still like it :)

NB: LONG post and photo/PS-heavy. Scroll down to next post if you're just interested in seeing a layout cause there's one below this wall of text™/piccies..well..after the YouTube-vids :p

By popular demand. The photos from the layout in the post below, unedited (just resized):



Tbh I think the color's a bit dull - I'd prob want to increase the contrast at least.
Sunny piccies = washed out colors normally.

Alright.
From my fuss about levels and curves being totally basic. (see prev. challenge - post below :p)
I like levels and curves.

This is just a general thing dependant on the picture itself. Just to give you a general idea how to make it better..here when it comes to these kind of photos - that is - underexposed.

This is the orig file. Not that bad really. Just dark and a tad grey (I think ND-filters..or was it UV-filters? I keep mixin the diff. filters....enlight me if you know for sure please - are supposed to help a little on the "natural" greyness/dullness that's normal with most photos.)


Anyhoo.. look at it's histogram:
A histogram is kinda supposed to have all the black areas somewhat evenly spread all over kinda..or a nice modest peak towards the right area of middle.. (all those lines represent how much % of a certain color is represented in the photo ranging from black to while at the extremes...afaik anyways :p So a full 100% line at the total right means theres pure white somewhere in the photo kinda..a packed peak to the right = prob burnt out areas in the photo...). This one is kinda stuffed in the middle/to the left. Indicates some underexposment. So what to do? Pull the white arrow to where the info start - see circle. Or, if you're feelin bold, push it towards the red line, like I'd prob do. This means that some areas/colors will be really really overexposed (clipped I think it's called? Like..lost info. I think. Ugh. Don't quote me I'm tryin to understand and remember the lingo :p). Anyways. Your choice as to what to go for. Personally I don't really mind clipped areas that bad....depends on the overallphoto...yes I am babling and don't really know what I'm babling about so just feel free to ignore me :p


I decided to just pull the white arrow to where the info actually started. Decided to push the black arrow a lil to the right too - even tho it wasn't really necessary to go so far as I did. Lastly, the middle arrow was shot a lil to the left to brighten the middletones of the photo further.


See? Now we're starting to get a nice photo. Not that underexposed anymore and it feels brighter and thus prettier on the eyes ;p


Now, I wanna make the colors pop a little bit. Strengthen the contrast.
Cue the curves-window. I love CS3. I don't think the presets are there in CS2 (actually I haven't checked tho PS2 is still installed on the PC. Me lazy :p).
Normally I use Linear Contrast - sometimes Medium Contrast is needed (NB: Medium&strong contrast usually ain't good for faces/skintones. Use masks for these cases - paint over the faces w/ some opacity if you want to use medium/strong contrast but think the faces looks ugly when you do so but only the faces - the rest of the photo looks good. Also, use "add layer -> adjust" for easier&quicker access to the masks & easier editing of the curves even after you're done with it kinda). Don't have the presets? It's ok. Just make a slight S - see the circles as to where to put the points at approx. A medium contrast is heavier at the bottom - linear one is more stuck to the middle/slash-line.


Yey - a nicely contrasted piccie.


Now, I'm really into overexposing photos. Me like.
It's a personal preferrence. Copy the layer (ctrl-j. Or alt-j. Can't recall atm :p). Change the mode to screen. Lower the opacity - here I felt 65% was nice enough for this photo - but often an opacity of 15-25% is better as I usually overexpose my photos incamera when possible - hence having a brighter startingpoint already kinda.


Yey. Brightish photo. Me like.

Finish the photo with a lil sharpenin - now this part is pretty much nitpickin on my part - the difference is there but just slightly kinda...but ohwell.


Tedah! And to refresh your mind; here's the orig photo again:


Btw. I took an underexposed photo as an example to just show what I mean w/ the histogram "having" to fill the whole histogram-area kinda. Normally most of my photos aren't this bad... I think... I just shoot a lot of photos and delete the "wrong" ones unless I really love them and think they're worth tryin to save :p Hm. Which I often do. Hm. Jeje :) I also suppose you could just go straight the the screen-part then adjust the curves after you've merged the layers. Not sure what workflow is best and if you'd really get the same results :)

Anyways. I am no expert, I just try stuff and use what seem to work for me and often w/o really knowing what I do..like..the tech aspect (hence me tryin to learn the lingo properly and me babling....babling usually makes me think things more through...which I think is good..kinda...but which doesn't mean you should take the babling too seriously.) ..Im sure those of you who really know PS will just laugh at what I've just wrote cause some of my attempts on explaination prob is off and stuff and a real photographer would prob snort at my love for overexposing hence losing details/info in some areas in the pic so really, don't quote me on this whole thing! :p

So if you really wanna learn more about photo-editing; go to fotopia (for norwegians) - excellent site with good and informative tutorials from a real real certified PS-pro :) Personally I've lately learned stuff from photomags.....there's usually good tips and tricks in them aswell along with CD-ROMs where you can try the same thing as explained in the mags (I like Digital Camera Magazine. Have tried two other mags aswell, one very PS-heavy - a lil too PS-ish for me as I think it kinda borderlines on..uh..digital cheating or well, digital art/painting...retouchheavy...I don't know..I'm still undecided on such stuff..wheter I think it's ok/good or too "cheat" ..and another fairly ok balanced one. Can't recall their names - but theyre all UK based. For some reason most if not all of the English photomags in the local stores here are from UK, not US afaik.)

Ps. I don't know why I keep tryin to discredit myself. Cause I guess...I do spend and know a lil more about PS than the average person after all..and whatever I do..it certainly seem to work for me no? Which's the whole point really. Hm. Must. Work. With. Myself.

Ps2. Yes. I know about actions. I LOVE actions. Still as I mentioned some posts ago. I decided I wanted to try learn more about the manual process.....to like, learn the process properly.... I suppose it would come in handy some day. And to me...it feels better pushin the action-button to make your workflow easier when you actually know what it does - like, see this post about actions and adjusting them :p And I kinda do dare think that most of my everyday-photos these days looks great w/( just raw-editing +) slight postprocessing in PS. Hrm. Ania. Stop. Babling. Making. Excuses.

/babling off!

Ps3!! Tonight!!! the Bad Girls Christmas Workshop will start! YAY!!!

OOookaaay swwoooon.....Gwen's newest single/video is out....."Early Winter"...this is so TOTALLY my fave from that album....this along with "4 in the morning" which kinda sets me back to when I was young and insecure..........now I'm not young anymore ;p

Anyways...wish I could work these smoky eyes...:p

Ps. Stay tuned for a Photoshop-post later today...as soon as I finish it....:)

Early Winter:


4 in the morning:


Ps. Friend of mine is doin a survey about Lexus due to an assignment at school. Feel free to complete it - it only takes about a minute or two if you're bored enough. And yeah it's a nice friend - it's the guy who allowed me and my family to crash his place (or rather, his moms place ;p) this summer in Vienna (yes he's from Austria but goes to school in Switzerland :p) :)

Mmmm I feel like I've been drawn to polkadots when it comes to scrapping lately. Love dotty papers. They seem so versatile and so pretty!

Anyways, I digress - it feels like it's been ages since I actually scrapped - been making cards and doing small preparations for the upcoming class.. but! Finally wrapped a PL-layout last night and today I finished another layout - killing two birds with a stone; a personal challenge from Katta at Minneriket that I had to use unedited jpg-photos. Not even the slightest adjustment with levels nor curves. Wtf?! So so so cruel. Most photos the last few months has been in RAW so I had to go back to june to find some okay jpg-photos who didn't seem to need much tampering in levels/curves anyways. Does that make me a lousy photographer? Hm. I'm so addicted I know. I love over-exposing photos. Need to adjust the contrast and stuff - make the colors pop more. Think they look prettier. *sigh* The other challenge was from the Pre-Workshop-one at Bad Girls - to make a layout that spells CHRISTMAS. Here it's: C - chipboard, H - Heidi Swapp, R - rubons, I - ink - S - staples, T - time, M - MME/Magnolia, A - American Crafts, S - sanded edges on the photos. The deadline for the RAK is Friday 6pm PST - so there's time to join still! :)

There's another pre-workshop-challenge up too - to make yourself a scrappin' buddie for the Workshop. Paperdoll, plushdollie dressed up, sew your own ugly dollie.... whatever works - just take a photo of your buddie and upload to the gallery before Friday 6pm PST to be eligible for the RAK :)

Now. I could upload a sneakie for the upcoming PL-sketch this sunday too but I dunno - isn't silly to do a sneakie of something that will be out in just a few days? Hmm. Depends wheter I have photos in the post already or not maybe? Photos are nice. Adds a lil flair to the posts. Jeje.

Lookie :p
Yeah - that's me *cough* The red color I got at the hairdresser some weeks ago had kinda faded - went a lil more bright orangey so I figured I better reapply the color.... after some advice from Xstine and Silje I went for Manic Panic found at Ebay...coudln't find Hot Hot Pink which was the color I wanted so I went for Wildfire....waddayasay? It sure is RED :p I so love the color!! :D Got Ultra Violet aswell but I think I'll save that for New Years....or something like that...dang..this is addictive :P It kinda looks like a mouthful on this photo but it doesn't feel like it in the mirror...wonder what's right, the photo or what I see in the mirror :p

Anyways - here's my layout for this Sundays Pencil-Lines - we got wonderful Ronee Parsons to do a lovely sketch and she's also offering a kit of her own to the favorite layout from this sketch!

And Tracie's just incredible. Look here and scroll down here! :D

It's been snowing and stuff here the last few days...cold cold cold cold....the kids loves it though...both have been wanting to play outside both morning and evening... took some photos of them - unfortunately I didn't notice the stupid ISO being at 640. *sigh* How many times do I have to make that mistake..??? *grumble*

I've been kinda hit by a guilttrip this morning. So I tried to be a good housewife. We moved to this house like, 5+ months ago or so - but after the initial rush the first months all the boxes etc have just been ...lying around gathering dust....lots.of.boxes.....so. Today I felt kinda really really really bad about this fact so I've cleaned and emptied three boxes already - but theres waaaay too many to go yet. Haven't been actually *scrapping* in three days (cards does NOT count as scrapping) so I'm feelin' itchy.....must.wait.to.later!

Anyways - showing you some of the cardsamples I've been making for my cardclass at Ål (in a week) - Daisy D and MME with some stamps from Papirloftet. Mom's gonna attend my class and I'm looking forward to see her paint again - she used to paint a lot when she was younger....we keep trying to make her do it again..she says she misses it...but she just don't find the time to paint....ohwell.... I'm sure she'll do excellent with the stamp & painting :)

Oh - must not forget - another peek for the Bad Girls Christmas Workshop ;)

*off to try empty more boxes!*

Yay. Thought I'd start with a peek for my Pencil-Lines layout this sunday. I played some with the crackle-paint from Rangers for that one :)

Besides...I've been a bad girl.... cheating a lil today. You know the Bad Girls Christmas Workshop? The one for Nov 16th-18th? You see, I got to peek at the classes and I couldn't help myself, I got so inspired that I just had to do them! And since the kids are home from school/kindergarten today I figured why not do this today together so we had something fun to do right? Yay! My hands are soaked in paint. I plan to move on to the next yummy class when I'm entirely done with this project. Maybe the oldest one wanna help me with that one. (I'm sure the youngest will want to too, but I don't know if she can do this. She did however want me to scrap with her on my lap this morning. Told me to sit by the scrapping-table and directed me to take this and that paper and tried to figure out my click'n'stick adhersive... hmm...these are my stuff little missy!)

Anyways, I digress.... have you seen the latest peeks on the board? Here, I'll help you:







:D

And - to help spread the word Tracie have kindly offered a special RAK to one lucky girl who links the Christmas Workshop blinkie in her blog and tells her in the comments.... here's the blinkie...feel free to copy and don't forget to let Tracie know!!



Freezing atm.....there's snow and sun and more snow and stuff outside atm.....not to mention very very cold! I think I need a bath! Or nap! Or both! :p

Okay, lately Adrian's got a little girlfriend he keeps playing with after school. They're too damn cute together - I hope their friendship will last :)

In other news..

• Have you seen this? I made the 3bugs newsletter! YEY! :D
• Bad Girls are hosting a Christmas Workshop the weekend of 16-18 nov......I got to peek behind the curtains and Oh.My.God. I know - I'm supposed to gush about whatever BG does I think eh, but seriously - these classes are just....W.O.W. I have some faves I'm so gonna do asap! Join us and do play along - there will be RAK's and gifts - and you can complete these classes for a while after the weekend and still be in for that! =) The supply-lists are up on the message-board already - so you can come prepared :)
• Inspired by findings on etsy - made those cute circles last night. The cute cute cute animals are from a dingbat-font called Pixelfarm Pets - thanks to Kal for that one) Not sure what to do with them. Use them on cards and layouts I guess :p
  
• Victoria Beckham can sing!! o.O See below - I *so* love the first song - wow! If you have the time, do listen to this....very lovely and acoustic....and uh, is it just me or is it kinda funny actually watchin her teeth? I mean, she never smiles on those photos in the glossy mags...... :p
• Currently editing photos from my last photosession - need to get up to date so I'm ready for tonights session. It'll be interesting :)
  

First - have a look at this week's guestdesigner at Pencil-Lines!! Ingunn!!!! YAY!!!! :D Layout no. 2 is my interpretation of her sketch. Flipped it and made room for journaling :) I used Basic Grey, Daisy D, American Crafts and Fancy Pants brackets. The photos shows Amalie w/ long hair, at the hairdresser & w/ short hair.....nuff said...*sniff*

AND!! Did you see??? YAY finally we can reveal that Yuko and Janine are on the team aswell w/PL! It's been a loooong month (and some more) for them haha...poor them, I recall when I was new and was about to join PL - I think we had to wait 4-5 weeks after the DT-announcement before we could really be a part of the team (as in having our layouts shown with the rest too)...I was getting a lil antsy in the end :p So looking forward to their fabulous layouts along with the rest of the PL :D Gonna miss seeing Kimmy and Anam w/us, but ahwell - life moves on as they both got lots of new and exciting stuff taking more of their time.

Layout no. 1.....well..sign-language is my mother tongue, and I don't think I've made a layout about that yet. So. A page for my BoM I guess..it was made for a contest where you had to display one of your talents and use a specific technique...pardon for the blurred out journaling, but kinda felt that was a tad too personal so I prefer it blurred atm. Bazzill, Daisy D and American Crafts...and ranger dabberpaints.... painted the edge of shot-glasses to make the circled background. Love how it turned out :)

Now, Helena tagged me - thank you! - and although I've been tagged with this one before I think it's kinda fun to do it, so ... here's seven more random stuff about me :D

1. If there are people drowning, diving, getting strangled or suffocating or whatever on TV I always hold my breath too.
   
2. If I have a menu at say McDonalds I have to alternate between eating fries and burger. Don't make me eat fries first then the burger next as some people seem to do!
3. I prefer my chocolate cold. Mmm straight from the fridge :D
   
4. I started hanging out at a BBS in 94. Internet and IRC shortly after.
   
5. I've played MUD's (mainly FR-MUD), EverQuest and World of Warcraft.
6. I love getting comments on my blogposts. Always makes me smile seeing what you think and than you enjoy (??) my posts enough to take a little of your time to post something - thank you so much! :) I love my stalkers too...I'm a notorius stalker myself aswell ;p
   
7. If I think my layout is missing sewing I'll whip out the sewing-machine np - but if my clothes or whatever needs some sewing-work I just let it be - cba using my sewing-machine to do fabric-stuff...I might like, break it or something like that..

Yey!! Ingunn er vår gjest denne uken hos Pencil-Lines!!! Håper mange nordmenn kan bli med på denne, liksom..."kom og støtt om vår Ingunn"..... - lag en LO av skissen hennes og send den inn til Pencil-Lines.... er du riktig heldig kan det godt hende du stikker av med denne månedens sponsede premie....som er en kit fra Bad Girls!! :D Bare sørg for at LO'en sendes inn innen månedens utgang såå :D