Wedding Gallery

Okay, let me start with declaring - I am NO CARDMAKER!!
I feel stupid when making cards - I know - it feels like - when you're a scrapper youre also supposed to like, excel at cardmaking. Ohwell. But for this pencillines sketch I thought it would be fun to translate it into a card (and I needed a card ;p) - so here's three cards....the finished one is the one most resembling the sketch..the two others sprung out from that one cause I wanted to finish the whole paper (one 12x12 yields three 4x6 cards :) ). So next time I need a card for some kiddo-bday all I have to do is to add his name or age to the card and voila :)

LOVE this Scenic Route paper...so very cool for boy-cards...and the Sassafras UFO & rockets..simply perfect to cut out as embellishments for such stuff! I totally heart that paper - I think I need more of it so I can like, well, cut out more stuff!

Yes - 06-07-08! What an awesome date to be married! And awesome it was! Lauren and Kevin's wedding is by far the most eventful and crazy wedding I ever encountered in my life!

The day started out in the mid 80's - hot, sunny and humid. I was happy when I entered the church to find out that the AC was on full blast! Lauren and her girls were getting ready in the bride's room and Kevin and his guys were in the parking lot decorating their pick-up trucks.




The first challenge of the day came from the pastor of the church. I wasn't allowed to come up the middle aisle for any part of the ceremony. That meant I couldn't be in my usual spot for the rings, the unity candle or the kiss! Luckily the pastor allowed me to be half way up on the side aisles... I captured the exchanging of the rings from the right aisle and Jason Samsa (a photographer shadowing and second shooting) covered it from the left aisle. I ended up sitting as a guest in the pew for the kiss and popped out at the last moment to get an awesome shot from the center. I was able to capture all the moments as they happened and from a more unique angle.

After the ceremony and receiving line we were ready to start shooting the group formals. At that exact moment the tornado sirens started to blast. I hurried and completed all the family and wedding party poses. After the last group the power flickered and eventually the church lost all power. The sirens went off again and eventually everyone that was left in the church found their way to the basement.

Sometimes challenges can lead to more creativity in the way I shoot and not having access to light is a major challenge! Another challenge was to keep the momentum of the day from dying out. So we played! Jason came up with a great idea of painting with light. I had all the bridesmaids and the bride open up their cell phones and trace letters in the air while I photographed them with a long exposure. The results were fantastic!!! We had soooo much fun and it made the one and a half hours in the basement of the church go by without stress.




We finally made our way to the reception hall, thank goodness the power was on! I was able to shoot about 15min outdoors with no rain. I decided to stay past my end time to get some outdoor shots of the bride and groom alone. It was worth staying the extra hour to get beautiful images of Lauren and Kevin on the golf course.


Here are some more highlights:

The bathroom, that is. Or well, the two walls we're renovating atm.
Tiles are up on one wall now. Tomorrow we'll do the other wall. Or well. My husband will do the other wall :p I'm guessing two maybe three more days before everything's ready and good to use. Yay. More photos below for whoever's interested.

Today (or well, at this hour of the night it's rather - yesterday) we were sponsed by Bad Girls kits over at Scrappedugnad - Tracie guested & challenged us to use ribbons! Here's my layout made with the June-BG kit. Love these vivid colors against white :) The winner will get the same June-kit from Bad Girls - now how's that for a prize??? :D The deadline is July 4th - so chop chop get started!! :D

Speaking of Bad Girls.. July is the anniversary...and as an extra special treat for y'all there'll be FREE classes from the DT throughout the month at the message board..there'll be pressies.....there'll be scrappy stuff to do....in short..there'll be lots of fun! I think all the news will be posted here. Oh and the above is yet another peek from the July-kit. Seriously, loved this month so much, can't wait to share it all with you!!

Oppussingen av badet fortsetter -- hittil har vi (Simen da) fått opp flisene på den ene veggen - imorgen er det på'n igjen med den andre veggen. Fugemassegreiene og sånn innimellom flisesprekkene tenker jeg vi tar enten imorgen kveld eller på søndag - og da burde vi vel være ferdig med badet...enten da eller iallefall på mandag om ikke noe uforutsett skjer!! Og bra er det - det snakkes om at sommerværet kommer til uka - så da blir det greit å få badet ferdig slik at vi kan nyte sommerværet!! Simen sier han gruer seg til når han blir ferdig med badet - jeg får vel en ny dille og vil få noe annet gjort i huset...tjah... om dere ser på bildene nedenfor så ser dere hvordan veggene i gangen og trappegangen og loftet ser ut (tre etasjer) -- disse veggene skulle jeg gjerne sett malt i hvitt!!! Haaaater det ekstremt gul-oransje preget alle bildene tatt her får.... Og om de skal males hvitt (latte ellerno tenker jeg..gah husker ikke hva slags farge stueveggene har :p) bør vel trappene pusses opp samtidig....mhmm..det får vel bli neste års prosjekt ellerno for det er seriøst en masse vegger å dekke =)

Ha en finfin helg!!

..why the heck did I not think of this before!?!?!?????
I was doing yet another "save for web" clicking on file looking for "save for web" and hitting "revert" for the blah blah time when I was thinking...darn...why the .... can't there be a keyboard-shortcut for this just like in the games (usually you can map the spells/skills you use most frequently) when it hit me..... D O H. There probably is!!! Stupid stupid me!!! Looking in help I found out - double d o h. It's in Edit-> Keyboard Shortcuts. HELLOO??? Did it really say "keyboard shortcuts"?? I've been using the "Edit" dropdownthingie like every day and never ever glanced at the bottom of it? Where have I been living at!???? Triple d o h. SO YAY! Now my F1-4 is as following: Levels, curves, save for web, image size :D Four of my most used actions. And now that I think of it I know I have mapped my kelby-actions long time ago without even thinking it could apply to stuff like this - my most used directions!

Ok ok ok! Apologizes in advance cause this is probably one of the most basic, well-known things in Photoshop that everybody but me knew about but to me this was a HUGE relevation and a HUGE timesaver!!!! YAY!!!! *happy dance* :D
(yes I'm easy to please.... when it comes to photoediting ha ha ;p)

Oh, and because there can't be a post without photos (most of the time anyways), here's another peek for the upcoming Julykit at Bad Girls ;p

According to scientists they have now found out that Odysseus arrived home and performed his revenge, slaughtering his wife's suitors at April 16th 1178 B.C. due to solar clues. They take the correct observations of these clues as a sign that the story - at least part of it - is true. Good. Now, I loved reading Homers "Odysseus" BUT one thing friggin annoyed me with this story (and the other greek stories I read) -- Odysseus is no stranger of cheating and stuff having had himself with what, at least two different women, I cannot recall more (it's been a few years since I read the book) - and his wife - the story states that she was persistent, resisting her suitors and stuff - but - these suitors all thought he (Odysseus) was dead no?? So what wrong did they really do (other than being rude and persistent to his wife whom they thought were a widow) to deserve being slaughtered down? Hrmf. Egos. Bet he wouldn't have liked it if the wife went ballistic on Kirke whom he loved for years when away from his wife?? Reminds me of this lil thing I wrote back then when I was reading these kind of books and got so annoyed...(in Norwegian). Oh men! :p (and yes yes yes..it's all really about power and about his land and wealth and whatever and not really "just" his wife but still :p)

Right.
Luxe is showcasing their DT and yesterday was my turn. They picked one of my layouts for june - the one with Xstine and Trude Julie at the beach in Stavanger :) Love Luxes' simple lines - esp the pink polkadot one (the simple pink line is TEH BOMB! :D I think that and capri are my faves till now :D).

Ps...is it just me or is the quality of the stuff I am uploading to blogger these days really really really fuzzy??? :( Hm yeah. The next photo looks fuzzy as hell too - please tell me it's just me who's seeing the piccies fuzzy?? :(


Jeje. Was at a crop last night - love the energy and atmosphere at the crops here. I didn't bring my camera with but luckily Marie did and well, I'm a sucker for photosessions *wink* - so I kinda ushered everybody out and into this phonebooth for fun...*whistle* (hey..that was fun no? =) Thanks for being so sporty ladies & thanks for bringing the camera Marie ;) ) And yes I'm the one climbing the phonebooth. *cough*

Usually I just sit and stare on the table in front of me and sigh and well, end up with one unfinished layout after a crop...but yesterday I had just gotten my Bad Girl kit for July and well, I needed to play with it so I actually did three unfinished layouts! Woah! Ofcourse...the main thing I needed was my sewing-machine at home so I just put down the basics of the layouts - but really - it was fun really feeling this kit - it's gorgeous - I totally loved it -- July is Bad Girls first anniversary, and there's a LOT of stuff planned at the message boards -- the main celebration being focused at the weekend of 4th-6th July and with free classes being posted all month (ok I don't know if Im supposed to tell right yet so shh you didn't see anything and NOT from me!!!!!). Um right. Where were I? Um, the crop. Well, went home a bit early to help my husband continuing on the bathroom - painting the walls smurf-blue. Fun :p Today we're continuing the bathroom - more blue "paint" (it's some kind of plasticky thing) and then we'll start tiling the walls methinks. I dunno. I just help out the boss :p


Oh and shh. =) Again. You saw nothing!

Last night I attended the Wisconsin Bride Magazine Best of 2008 awards event in Milwaukee. It was held at the beautiful and historic Ambassador Hotel downtown. I was lucky to run into a bunch of Fox Cities vendors when I first arrived. It was very nice to see some familiar faces and to hear that many of them were nominated!

I also had the opportunity to hang out with some photographers that I have become friends with this past year. Especially Molly from MThree Studios, Michael Krakora, and Craig Stodola from CS Photography.

Molly introduced me to Monica (The White Box of Wedding Design) a fabulous wedding consultant in Milwaukee. These girls are so cool and fun to be around!

The evening ended quite late... I made it home around 12:45am. It was so worth the trip to Milwaukee to hang out with other wedding professionals who have the same passions (and funny stories) as I do.

Local Vendors who where nominated for WI Bride Magazine Best of 2008:
Marshall Florist - Kaukauna
Lenz Studio (Videography) - Appleton
Artistic Cakes and Cookies - Kimberly
Elegant by Design - Appleton
Paine Art Center and Gardens - Oshkosh
Heidel House Resort - Green Lake
Copperleaf Boutique Hotel and Spa - Appleton


Look for the Fall/Winter issue of Wisconsin Bride Magazine on newstands in a few weeks!

Mmmm CHA. Love this time of the year. Or well, these times of the year considering it's twice a year and most manufs hit us with new, fab stuff. And not so fab. But I prefer to think of the fab ones =)

And it's extra thrilling to be a part of a manuf. DT and to get to know the scoop before most others. Kinda fun =) Luxe is gonna revamp the website - shortly before CHA I believe, or at least shortly after it - if this peek is anything like the newly designed site then it sure looks promising no? I am looking forward to it for sure....then I finally will be able to show some of the stuff I've done with/for Luxe as they will be sporting a brand new gallery along with the site :) Speaking of the site - they are running a 20% sale atm :)


And here's a peek of one of the new lines...calendarstuff! Yay! Really looking forward to get to see these irl, from the looks of it I think this will be one of my faves.....I am SOOO itchin' to cut out these totally cool circles!! :)

Scrappedugnad has gotten a new member by the way - lovely Kine!! Have admired her ever since her QK-days - she was the first Norwegian I knew about who was on a "big" DT and I was like "oooh Norwegians can!". She's one of the first Norwegian scrappers who blogged too - she's a great inspiration - I don't "do" her style but I find it so intriguing and fascinating....she does what she can like noone else...always lots of journaling...always superb mix of papers...often quirky stuff (love!!)..lots of details...love her quotes and titles and the way she's thinking :) And her cards!!! *faint* I'm lucky to have one of her cards...two actually...they're amazing.... so...I am very happy to see Kine with us at Scrappedugnad :) (yep..gushing done.. just really like Kine is all :) And now...if I ever meet her I'll so be blushing & hidin' :p)



This is what we are dealing with at the homefront for the moment being. No shower, no bathing...for a few days...hopefully only a few days...we went to buy tiles yesterday and today we'll buy the stuff that's supposed to be on the wall..like, behind the tiles :p (exciting I know :p)

Da har vi endelig satt i gang med baderomsveggene - vi bestemte oss for å fikse to av veggene bare - "våtromssonene". Ny dusj blir det kanskje også etterhvert, men ikke helt enda. Flisene er iallefall kjøpt inn, og snart skal vi kjøpe gipsplatene til å utgjøre veggen liksom. Håper dette blir en kjapp og grei affære - *tror* vi får til å dusje i mellomtiden men er ikke helt sikker...:p
Og ja - det var det vi gjorde på StHans hehe. Holdt på med badet altså :p (ok, Simen fikset badet, jeg bare rydda litt underveis og hjalp til med å bære ting ut sånn at ikke badet skulle bli for overfylt av falne fliser og sånn). Regna jo sånn ute så vi bestilte oss heller pizza og svigermor kom med jordbær og is :)

Quiet weekend.
It's been raining, and the kids has mostly been indoors. Mostly. Occassionally they like to sneak out and jump on the trampoline despite the rain and wetness (at sunny/non-rainy days they like to bring their own buckets of water, did I mention this already?? Weirdos!). Which results in immediate hot tub-baths for them when done. With the husband gone this weekend too (this time for a bachelor/stagparty for a childhood friend whose wedding we'll attend later this fall) I've gotten around to do a lot of crafty stuff while drinking wine and watching Weeds. Perfect evenings. YAY!

Todays Pencillines is a simple layout - whipped out some old papers (MME & American Crafts) paired with Fancy Pants, Hambly and Prima. As most children (I assume), the little one is quite into phones - when it rings she usually thinks it's grandma calling, hence she wants to talk in the phone too. So when it turns out to be salesmen or people from the practice or whoever calling she gets disappointed because she still doesn't get why she can't speak on the phone when we're done too. So sometimes we call up again from the cellphones so she gets to talk a lil too. Guess that's why it takes her so long to realize & accept when a phonecall isn't for her :p

OKay.
Short post.
Because I just found something disgusting. And I say that as IMHO. I don't find it amusing or see the funny thing in it. I sure agree with the blogposter - the WTF award goes to...

High Heels for Babies

The promopicture at the bottom of the post just made me feel sick...white trash babies anyone?
(and yeah I guess - the name implies that it's a funny thing, not to be taken seriously (heelarious).... but fine I guess I'll be the prune in all this)

Inspired by Eli's gorgeous cards at Scrappedugnad...I decided on a whim..alright...the teachers needs a lil gift for the Summer :p So. Candy wrapped in some paper & w/cards stuck to'em.
7gypsies, Basic Grey, Prima, MME, Websters pages.

At the gamer-forum I'm at there's a (mostly) funny thread with piccies and stuff, and as I have little to share of my own these days I thought I'd share some of my faves (Hm. It was hard finding the least offensive ones ;P) Hrm -- blogger minimizes them automatically, so just click on them if you wanna look at the bigger versions I guess..









And I've been tagged by Lene and Marianne Hope, so here we go:

Answer the following 5 questions:

Her er reglene:"Hver person svarer på spørsmålene om seg selv. I slutten av innlegget gir du det videre til 6 andre personer og fører opp navnene deres. Så legger du igjen beskjed i bloggen deres, om at de er blitt tagget og ber dem lese din blogg. La personen som tagget deg vite det når du har lagt inn svar."

Rules: Answer the following 5 questions in your blog, then mention 6 other friends to get tagged, leave a message in each friends blog that they have been tagged, incl. the one that tagged you.

1) Hva gjorde du for 10 år siden? What did you do 10 years ago?

I had just moved to Bergen (on my own!) to study at the University (funnily enough I'm still stuck here!). I met my husband at the first party we hosted and we soon became an item (OMG. We've been together for ten years. YIKES!). I was playing FR Mud - a textbased MMO game.

2) Nevn 5 ting du har/hadde på gjøre lista di i dag. Mention 5 things you had on your "todo list" today. (ok I wrote this yesterday so :p)

Did the final doublecheck on the files and burned a CD for "Vi Scrapper"
Sent a box with the CD and some more to said magazine.
Finished a layout.
Make cards for the teachers inspired by Elis cards for Scrappedugnad (ongoing!).
Bake muffins for the kiddos last day at school tomorrow (ongoing!)

3) Snack jeg liker. Snacks I like.

Uhm. Well I like Kims French Fries.

4) Ting jeg vil gjøre som milliardær. Things I would do as a billionair.

Buy myself a D3 w/ a nice arsenal of lenses. Buy a compactcamera for my oldest son. Oh, and the usual boring stuff. Pay off loans, fix the house, put a lil nice gift/fund for our closest, life off the rents :p

5) Steder jeg har bodd. Places I have lived.

Seoul. Oslo. Bergen. Askøy.

Have a nice weekend :)