Odds & Ends
Back in March I joined up on the Once Upon a Time challenge, hosted by the very clever Carl V. I quickly came up with my list of six books to read by this time in June (you can see my six choices here). Well, three months later I only ended up finishing three of the books, but found that each one was well worth reading. My favorite by far was The Book of Lost Things, but I also really enjoyed Tuck Everlasting and The Goose Girl. Thank you again Carl for hosting such a great challenge and I look forward to this fall for RIP!
For more about The Book of Lost Things and all things fairy tale-ish, make sure to check out The Bookworm Carnival over at Nymeth’s blog!
My reading has been a bit slow this week, since I’ve been focusing a lot of my time on an on-line digital scrapbooking class I’m taking that will help sharpen my skill set in Photoshop (it is a four week course). So far I’ve created a couple layouts and am really excited to learn some new techniques! In the below layout, I learned how to change a color photo into a sepia photo and be able to erase some of the sepia overlay to let the color of Leah’s hat peek through! It really is a neat technique.
Or this layout, where we were challenged to create a four photo layout about ourselves. I opted to write about a few of my favorite things in life and am pleased with the results.
Of course, I didn’t neglect reading altogether and picked up Baby Proof by Emily Giffin at the library. I am reading it for my book club meeting next month, of which Nicole is a member, although I don’t think my review of Baby Proof will be quite as glowing as her review, since I’m struggling through it. Hmmm, maybe the last half will be a little better?
Oh, and don’t forget that you still have time to enter my giveaway of the novel Nefertiti by Michelle Moran. Make sure to leave a comment on this post to enter!
Stephanie's Written Word 
What great pages! I purchased PSE two weeks ago, but haven’t played with it much because I’ve been too busy gathering freebies. 🙂 I also thought about taking an online class, but the one I considered was a lot longer. My reading has suffered as well, but boy have I been having fun. Thanks for the encouragement.
Great pages, Stephanie. You may have to teach me about this a little!
You don’t like Baby Proof? Hmm, I was hooked right away. I think it will be a good discussion, at least. I emailed the author a question and hope she answers before we meet. I thought it would add to the discussion.
I love your scrapbooking pages! Sounds like a fun class to take 🙂
Congrats on finishing the challenge! I just finished tonight and think it is one of the better challenges I’ve done this year.
I love your layouts!
What great scrapbook pages! It looks like a great creative outlet! Until recently, I wasn’t even aware that digital scrapbooking existed!
Beautiful pages! I loved the one of Leah and her pink hat. I really need to learn how to do digital scrapping.
Are you doing Up and Running with Jess? That first LO looks familiar 😉
I love both of them – just gorgeous. If you get the chance be sure to follow it up with the Digi In Deep Class.
Love the bits of scrapbooking goodness. The “Favorite Things” layout is awesome; love all the layers of accents. Looks like you’re learning lots of fun techniques.
I enjoyed your reviews for the Once Upon A Time Challenge, too.
I love those layouts. You are so talented, girl! I would like to try digital scrapbooking, and I would like to have something to scrapbook about – like cute kids! I have a huge box of supplies for scrapbooking that I haven’t used since I finished my trip to France scrapbook three years ago.
One of the things I’m looking forward to about my vacation is more time to read. I’m taking with me:
The Friday Night Knitting Club, Kate Jacobs
The Last Jihad, Joel C. Rosenberg
Walking with God, John Eldredge
My husband doesn’t read, so I asked him what he plans to do while I’m lost in my books! I just can’t believe he doesn’t read. I don’t know what I’d do without books.
I still need to read The Goose Girl. I had planned to read it for the OUAT challenge but somehow other books jumped the line!
Your scrapbooking pages are beautiful.
Glad you enjoyed the challenge. I managed to finish just under the wire, and now I’m reading The Book of Lost Things just for the fun of it.
Stepanie – can you tell me more about the on-line digital scrapbooking class? I have been thinking of starting digital scrapbooking and have no idea where to begin – I would love some help if you have some advice! 🙂 Thanks!!
Awesome scrapbook pages. I’m lucky if I can do one a year and of course I have not become any good at digital scrapbooking, I am still using stickers. Talk about coming out of the dark ages.
This is the book you were talking about (Baby proof), I will have to read your other friends review and then check out yours if you get through the book.
Did you make Leah’s hat?
Oh, those pages are awesome! And I’m always glad to hear of a new Goose Girl fan – Shannon Hale’s one of my most favorite authors. All her books are fantastic, but she has two other books that go with GG – Enna Burning and River Secrets.
My poor kids, I have yet to complete one single scrapbook page of either of them. I’ve got the supplies, heck, I’ve even got a store (my parents own a craft store). I need to find time to start doing this. Great pages!