Unchained

I have always loved this song and this movie.. it makes you stop and think doesnt it?

Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me

scroll down and pause the music on the right  before starting the video

Julie

Color, Color Everywhere!

I have really been struggling the past few months.. the doc has been playing with my meds and i have had it with the cold gloomy weather so i did what i usually do when life gets bleek, i took my camera and went out in search of my muse!
This is what I found -

My First

DIGI DARE

the dare ...

1. list 5 things that consume me right now

2. use only 2 sides of the layout for journaling etc.

3. include on photo or extraction of an item that consumes me

4. include the words "right now" somewhere in the layout


I listed what consumes me right nowbut couldnt bring myself to really journal it... maybe another time...

credits: I used Maya's new kit BLUE MOON from Scrapbook Graphics ribbon and frame from Hung Up On Love by Aneta Branch AKA Sweet Made at ashaleeandsweet Stamped Word Art from Lie Fhung's ARTiculate Soul Searching at Ztampf I used Lily Designs Dark Angel kit from After Five for the the layout within the layout and that layout can been seen here http://tinyurl.com/ccoxwz fonts: metalic avacodo malapropism

The Julz Special Treatment

I think it started when I was in College and working in a small upscale boutique in downtown Napa during Christmas vacation. I believe it was reinforced when I spent so many years in a department store as an "exempt" employee.. I know over the years I have continue to add to and perfect my craft... I have even taught a class about it at church once.. It's a silly thing really... But it has come to be something I am known for... At gatherings of family and friends everyone knows which ones came from me...

the GIFT package!

While at the boutique I was embarrassed because my packages weren't as pretty as the others. At the department store, I spent many hours picking up slack in the gift wrap department.. Since then I have worked on perfecting the seamless wrap and mastered double sticky tape. It's well known that I can't just slap some wrap on and be finished, if I have multiple packages they have to coordinate... all the packages under my Christmas tree are color coordinated... just giving home baked cookies... yes those have to packed up pretty too... the smallest of gifts needs to have that extra touch or it just doesnt feel right to me...

recently I bought a gift... it came from England, Instead of having it shipped directly to the person i was gifting it to in Germany, I had it shipped to the USA so I could put my mark on it and ship it BACK over seas to Germany... The person I bought the gift from ask me what the Julz Special Treatment was...

Well here it is...

Struggling

AS LONG AS I HAVE HOPE,
I'M STILL IN THE GAME!!
(looking for something to ground me in the here and now)

TOP SECRET

okay.. well part of it is a secret...
the who, and when... and well part of the what... lol
working with a cyber friend/ musican, I created this cover art for a new single which is set for release in the near future... that's all I can say right now... I still plan on a bit of tinkering but for now... this is what I have ...

Cyber Friends

Sweet Janita, I think she was in high school when I first met her. She is now finishing up her time at university... When we first met she was making ps brushes and giving them away on her site Vanilla Design. He brushes became so popular she couldnt afford the bandwidth so she made the tough decission to create a club where paid membership would give you access to her brushes for a certain period of time depending on the tytpe of membership you bought...
At this time nobody was selling brushes in the digital scrap shops and I kept telling Janita she could probably earn enough to off set her school expenses if she would open a shop. I also told her she was under selling herself, that her product was worth much more than what she was charging.
Janita went about her buisness and I went about mine. As I did so I continued to use her brushes and tell everyone that would listen about Vanilla Design. Since that time Janita changed hte name of her site, Seishido, and opened a shop! It's not surprising to see a seishido blinky on someones sig tag in the digiscrap community or find seishido listed in artistic credits.
Janita lives in Germany and we have sent packages back and forth to each other, discovered we share similar taste in music and continue to stay in touch on line... Despite the fact that she is the same age as my daughter and whe have never "actually" met, I consider Janita to be among my friends...

This was done for Janita... special thanks to another cyber friend "Aneta" for creating this wonderful word art especially for me

Quick Not Short

not short but quick!?

lets see.. one of my beautiful cats is very ill and i think I am going to need to have her put down tomorrow,(she's 16) it makes me very sad and that will make 2 old fluffy friends that we lost this year... The poor rthing has a tumor on her jaw and its causing her teeth to be loose and fall out on that side and she's always drooling bloody spit and now something is making her eye on thaat side pop out and turn red... she cant close it... today she didnt even come down to eat...

One day last week one of my friends from church committed suicide... the funeral is thursday afternoon

Ive done a bit of scrapping while Kalleigh has been sick to keep my mind off  her when I wasnt pushing her food up into mountains so she could eat it and wasing blood off her face, so i'll share some of those

my cousins son in the garden

 

3 versions of a funeral program

the grandson

The Prince of latvia... LOL (myspace friend)

former cat sitter now at the U of U

a birthday card for a friend

scrap therapy!

credits later... sorry (Doris Castle, Lorie Davison, Aneta Branch and Ivy)

Going Home

Friday was my moms birthday... I met my daughter in my home town and we took my mom to dinner... by the time it was all over we both we exhausted and spent the night. Saturday morning I got up early and went out on a photo shoot. After all these years I still get home sick.....

her are some of the photos I took

and a layout I'm working on

reworked... both still need journaling

aka The Prince of Latvia

Most who know me, know when I'm in a funk whether personal or creative, know that if I can bring myself to create I generally will do so with somebody-else's photos, or ones of nature that I have taken... this is one of a couple recently done with photos of an on-line friend... Thanks Kris for the photos!



credits
Urban Boy by Ashalee Wall at Ashalee and Sweet.com

R&R

took a little trip to San Diego over the weekend.... slept the entire time! oops... LOL.. managed to snap these on the way back to the airport

Signs of Age... or not

I had my eyes checked about ten years ago and the Doctor  said i had perfect vision, but in a few years i would probably need reading glasses. I knew that time had come when i could no longer read the labels on the bottom of my cosmetic pots. 

The first time my husband saw me with them on, he was comming in from work. i was on the sofa in the family room working on my laptop. it had been a very hot day (over 100f) so I had pulled my hair up in a clip. He said, "WOW, you look so smart in those glasses with your hair pulled up and those breasts... " SAY WHAT??? I guess not even the glasses can keep his eyes above my shoulders LOL

did i mention the eye doctor said i smelled good.... what a bizzare experience

Itunes

I always get a chuckle when I get my Itunes recommendations... If ever there was any doubt that I have eclectic taste in music... (one time I had both Tony Bennett and Snoop Dog on the same list) here are the latest recommendations:

Jars of Clay
Jars of Clay
Closer - Single

The Temptations
Discoveries: The Temptations
Classics: The Temptations
Favorites: The Temptations
The Complete Collection: The Temptations

John Denver
John Denver Aerie

Marvin Gaye
The Complete Collection: Marvin Gaye
Classics: Marvin Gaye
Discoveries: Marvin Gaye

Imogen Heap
Imogen Heap
Not Now But Soon - Single

Phyllis Hyman
Phyllis Hyman
Arista Heritage Series: Phyllis Hyman

Santana
Santana
The Ultimate Collection

Kiss
Discoveries: Kiss
Favorites: Kiss
The Complete Collection: Kiss

Maroon 5
Maroon 5
Live from Le Cabaret

OutKast
OutKast
Stankonia

Lifehouse
Lifehouse
Broken (New / Radio Version) - Single

The Box Tops
The Box Tops
The Letter / Neon Rainbow

Beck
Beck
Modern Guilt

Beauty All Around

Tuesday Evening I picked up my Aunt from Texas at the Sacramento airport and took her to my moms house in Napa where I stayed a couple of days.

At 5:30 Thursday morning I went out to one of my favorite "ME" spots and stayed for about an hour. I then drove over to the river font revitalization project to take a walk. While over there, I decided this would be a good place to play with the aperture and shutter speed settings on my digital SLR...

I was rather please with the results so I thought I would share them... These pictures are just as they came of the camera, no digital retouching or enhancing.... they were resized or the web.

I warn you now, If you don't like still lifes... don't bother looking you'll be bored to tears

Illusion

Just playing with some quote brushes I found on my hard drive! I think the cocaine quote is funny... If you really know me you understand why!!!

Tune Crazy

I really should make a better effort to buy music when life is going gang busters... I have a tendency to only buy music when I'm sad or melancholy... and yesterday was no exception... I bought 47 downloads from iTunes converted them to mp3 so I can share them here on my blog and renamed those mp3's so they would show properly on my little bPod over there in the right column. Then I uploaded them to my server and updated my iPod... yes.. it DID take up MOST of the day! I've found a couple a really good indy bands/artists over at myspace... yes I have updated my play list... 4 songs (I think) dedicated to my old DJ friend(s) So this is what I got...

I Love How You Love Me - Camera Obscura
I Can't Stay Mad At You - Camera Obscura
Keep It Clean - Camera Obscura
If You Remember Me - Chris Thompson
I Wish I Wasn't-Heather Headley
Crazy for You-Griffin House
I'm Yours -Jason Mraz
Shades of Gray - John Nathaniel
No One's Breathing -John Nathaniel
The Best of It-John Nathaniel
What I'm Looking For -John Nathaniel
Ever -John Nathaniel
Tribute to the Obscene -John Nathaniel
Down to You- John Nathaniel
Around and Round -Jonathan Clay
After All -Jonathan Clay
A Little Time- Jonathan Clay
Get You Out- Jonathan Clay
Back to Good -Jonathan Clay
She -Jonathan Clay
Everything- Jonathan Clay
More Than a Picture -Jonathan Clay
Cant Be That Crazy- Jonathan Clay
New Design -Jonathan Clay
December -Jonathan Clay
Sky (feat. Ingrid Michaelson) -Joshua Radin
Lovely Tonight -Joshua Radin
The Fear You Won't Fall -Joshua Radin
You Got Growin Up To Do (Demo Version)- Joshua Radin
Too Late for Goodbyes -Julian Lennon
Once In a While -k.d. lang
Bleeding Love- Leona Lewis
Like a Dream (Hello Album Version)- After Edmund
I'm Still In Love With You- New Edition
Misery- P!nk Duet with Steven Tyler
Oh Darling Supertramp
Suffer In Silence -Susan Ashton
Life Got in the Way -Sister Hazel
Where Do You Go- Sister Hazel
Come Around -Sister Hazel
Another Me- Sister Hazel
All About the Love -Sister Hazel
Keep on Smilin'- Wet Willie
If I'd Been the One- .38 Special
Caught Up In You -.38 Special
Innocence- Sarah Buxton
Think of What You've Done- Sarah Borges

Bridge Over Calm Waters

Yesterday I decided I needed to go on a photo outing. I knew exactly where I wanted to go. On the river less than 40 miles from here (up the mountain)there is a state park with a 150 year old wood covered bridge and in the 15 years I have been here,I have never seen it! So Off I went... here are some of the photos!

I dunno the pictures are nice and clear on my computer.. but the slide looks fuzzy to me...

A Purple Heart

According to one of those on line quizes I took, I have a purple heart.. but, then I also have a Northern American Accent... LOL... I'm as californian as they come!

You Have A Purple Heart



A person with a Purple Heart has a multi - faceted personality. Such people are usually full of desire and normally indulge in controlled passion. They make gentle drivers and show concern for others over self.