1530

That is the number of photos I took in March. Having fun and trying to learn with my new camera just costed me a whole lot of space in my hard drive ;) What am I supposed to do with all those pictures now? Most of the time I can’t even pick a favourite... I have no clue LOL. I need to back up and think. I might need a whole album just for march 2008 LOL just crazy. Last time I took that many pictures I was in Brazil and every minute was an event in itself. This month was normal, you know, lots of everyday photos, but we also had three birthdays and Easter and I LOVE Autumn and the colours started to pop. So yeah, lots of excuses to take lots of photos (and scrap them)

So, I am in the process of organizing them so I can post, e-mail, etc. I don’t even know where to start, but since it is already 3AM (again argh) I need to go to bed, early day tomorrow! I hope to show off my photos soon (have I ever mentioned my babies are gorgeous? LOL)

about the other day

...when I wrote in Portuguese... sorry Katrina (LOL you seen the only one who noticed). I was just rambling about trying to get too much done online and how it was giving me a headache, an actual, for real, headache. I have since improved a little bit, but am just falling behind on everything I would like to do instead of permanently cutting on stuff. Truth is I don’t know what else to cut, since I seem to be mostly distracted by things which are top of the list to be cut (like reading blogs LOL)

Anyway, to give everyone some background, I feel this addiction to scrapbooking and its online community is the healthiest addiction I have ever had, if that makes any sense. I used to spend way too much money in paper scrapping, a real addiction, and for someone that won’t even buy a shoe without thinking twice, that was a big thing.

Then I got into computer games (that has been on and off for the last 15 years LOL) and World of Warcraft was a real bad addiction in this household. Sleepless nights were the least of the problems cause by the game. Me and Alex almost died when we went to Brazil in 2005 and had to go without the game for a month. Then we hurried our errands on the weekend to get back home to play, we would lose our temper if Mateus got out of bed during the night because we wanted to play, we didn’t invited friends over because we wanted to play, everything revolved around the game. That is how bad it was. My mom didn’t like it when she came to visit, my mother in law didn’t like it either. When Lucas was born it was a big wake up call for me and after trying to play “without interruptions” a couple of times, it finally sank in that the whole thing was just not healthy!!! I quit April last year and Alex soon followed. Our life has completely changed, completely, and for the better.

I started digiscrapping about the same time I got frustrated with World of Warcraft, and let me say, the addiction took over (what is it with me and this kind of behaviour?). Once again I planned my weekends around what projects I wanted to get done. Slept only after finishing such and such assigments. Hurried to get photobooks done to take advantage of a certain promotion. When I went to Brasil I kept thinking about all my CTs and the community and everything that I was “missing out” oh no silly me. Once I got back I realised I just could not do it all and quit a lot of things. Except for not being able to get to bed at night (LOL) I have improved a lot. Our weekends are now dedicated only to our kids and getting together with friends. I am trying to scrap what I want to and not what I “need” to. I am still enjoying it all and trying to find a balance. I don’t know if I will ever find it, but there is no other option but to keep trying...... speaking of digiscrapping LOL, just finished a page while I was typing this up :)

self-portrait, originally uploaded by michellefilo.

argh, 3AM again LOL Hope you are having a great week :)

I am pretty

I am not the kind of girl that look at herself in the mirror and think she is pretty, sexy, whatever. Sometimes I think I look “cool”, “dressed up”, etc, but not pretty. Well, looks like Lanne has managed to capture the “pretty me”. AND she said on her blog that I make her blog look good. What an ego boost that was, for someone that photographs sooooo many people to say I make her blog look good... I sure like that LOL but then again, Lanne is a sweetheart :)

So, stolen from Lanne's blog (with her permission) here is pretty me:


And looky this picture of me and Alex:


I looked at it and said “my favourite picture of us, ever!” I mean, there are a few pictures of me and Alex that I like, but this one sure capture “US” and that is what I love about it.

She did many many pictures and we had trouble keeping the four of us in one spot but we sure got some gorgeous pearls:





This last one os Mateus cracks me up :) That is so him, and yes, it is a theme with all the photos, the real person, not fake, posed people, but real people.... wow, so different from my last photoshoot! Oh, I wish I could do this every month :)

Happy Easter! and a challenge

I had a wonderful Easter, we had an egg hunt and lots of fun and I spent half of the afternoon sleeping, perfect ;) I promise pictures as soon as I have time to resize them :) How was your Easter?

Well, as promised, here is the little project I did a couple of weeks ago:






Credits
Elementary Alpha – Lisa Warren
Spring Break 08 Papers – Leora Sanford
New Zealand Naturals stitching, stitching holes and staples – Lauren Reid
Font is CK Cute.
Buttons by Doodlebug

Love the little saying which is the journaling of the mini album, I found over the net:

On Easter morning at early dawn before the cocks were crowing
I met a bob-tail bunnykin and asked where he was going.

"Tis in the house and out the house a-tipsy, tipsy-toeing,
Tis round the house and 'bout the house a-lightly I am going."

"But what is that of every hue you carry in your basket?"
"Tis eggs of gold and eggs of blue; I wonder that you ask it.

"Tis chocolate eggs and bonbon eggs and eggs of red and gray,
For every child in every house on bonny Easter day."

He perked his ears and winked his eye and twitched his little nose;
He shook his tail -- what tail he had -- and stood up on his toes.

"I must be gone before the sun; the east is growing gray;
Tis almost time for bells to chime." -- So he hippety-hopped away.

I want to use it do a double page with some photos I have of Mateus :)

I have posted a tutorial over at the Little Dreamer Blog, pretty much the same as my Baby Keepsake tutorial posted on this blog. However, there is an extra freebie at LDD: templates for the pages of my mini album. Here is a look at the digital pages:


If you manage to create one of those for your Easter memories, upload them to the LDD Hybrid Gallery for your chance to win 8 dollars to spend in the shop :) super cool hey? I can’t believe I am involved in all of this, so much fun!

Enjoy the rest of the holiday :)

POD Finished

All done, 30 pictures in 30 days, that was the challenge, I am glad I did it and I learned a LOT from it :)

Well, I could go on, but after taking over 1500 photos in 30 days I think I NEED to slow down for my EHD sakes, LOL. I obviously won’t stop taking 100s of pictures, but I am certainly not going to get the camera out every day. Hopefully this will bring the sheer number of photos down and I will be able to scrap some of them, at the moment I feel a little overwhelmed :)

tudo ao mesmo tempo agora

POD 20/03/08, originally uploaded by michellefilo.

Photo of the day, Mateus with his bunny ears, parading at his child care.

I feel like a little portuguese, so excuse me my english speaking friends ;)

4 da manhã... ai ai.. isso tem que parar né? eu não vou conseguir continuar ficando acordada até duas, três, quatro da manhã trabalhando o dia inteiro e cuidando da casa sem empregada, ou babá, ou família por perto pra me dar um descanso. O Alex ajuda muito, mas também tem MUITO serviço.

Fiquei com dor de cabeça na quarta de noite, ignorei, fui dormir e acordei com ela hoje de manhã.

Sai do serviço um pouco mais cedo, porque tava fogo de ficar na frente do computador, cheguei em casa mas mal deu tempo de almoçar e arrumar as coisas, já tive que sair pra pegar o Mateus.

Pra quem não sabe, aqui a aula começa 9AM e termina 3PM, e como o Mateus esta na Pré escola, ele só vai de Quinta e Sexta, Segunda e Terça ele vai pra creche pra eu trabalhar (e quarta eu fico com eles em casa)

Mas voltando ao assunto, passei pra pegar uma calça do Alex na lavanderia e não estava pronta. Para não perder a viagem, eu e Mateus sentamos pra comer um lanche, na frente da padaria mesmo, rapidinho porque já tinhamos que ir para a creche dele, onde ele ia desfilar de coelhinho.

Com a dor de cabeça "bombando", fui pra lá. Fiquei com preguiça de trocar a lente da máquina, bobeira, 90% das fotos ficaram desfocadas por causa disso, mas algumas se salvaram... Foi gostoso ver ele pulando de coelhinho, com certeza, pra variar, a criança mais "empolgada" era ele, hehe uma graça.

Peguei o Lucas, esse nem queria papo com as decorações de Páscoa, até tenho umas fotos dele tentando tirar a mascara, se eu lembrar depois mostro.

Cheguei em casa rezando pro Alex aparecer logo, tudo que eu queria era uma cama. Quando ele chegou eu fui me deitar por uma horinha, e a dor deu uma melhorada. Depois da janta, sentei pra ver TV com o Alex, com as crianças já dormindo, conseguimos ver 5 episodios de BattleStar Galatica (geek alert!) que já faz mais de ano que a gente quer ver.

Meia noite o Alex foi dormir e eu queria colocar minha "vida online" em dia, já que na noite anterior não consegui e as coisas vão se acumulando. Não fiz scrap nem nada, só li blogs e forums e coloquei minhas fotos no computador, etc. A dor de cabeça que já tinha passado, agora voltou, ok, obvio, não dormir e ficar tanto no computador esta me dando dor de cabeça, saquei.

Estou também refletindo que o meu tempo com as crianças hoje foi prejudicado por essa dor de cabeça, então não é só o mal estar físico que esta me incomodando, isso de eu ter ficado mal e não ter curtido eles direito também me incomoda.

Tudo isso pra perguntar, como é que eu faço pra não desistir de tudo isso que eu quero fazer online, mas também ter uma vida mais "normal"???? Scrap pra mim, só depois da meia noite.... como é que eu faço pra dormir antes da meia noite mas não deixar de fazer scrap? O que mais eu corto? CTs? Blogs? Forums? Nem sei mais.... Alguem me vende 10 horas a mais por dia? rs.

4:25... além de tudo sou lerda pra digitar, rsrs e isso aqui virou um livro, deixa eu ir!

Assinado: Mushy, feliz porém cansada ;)

More LOs

New LDD Hybrid team

Michelle Coleman has plans for creating a Hybrid projects creative team at LDD. Guess who she invited to the team???

OMG I am soooooooooo happy!!! She saved me a lot of begging I was going to do to stay on LDD's creative team. I started there as a guest and now I will stay permanently. So, to "celebrate" I did my first post to the LDD’s blog this week. I shared a little Easter project and to make your life easier, I am sharing the template as a freebie. Hope to see lots of these little bags popping around the place.

easterbags, originally uploaded by michellefilo.

Note: Remember this project? Stay tunned to the LDD blog for it ~ oh, ok, I promise to post it here too :)

Latest LOs

I have been all "hybrid" lately. So much so that I forgot to post my latest LOs :) so here are a couple:
(you can click on photos to follow link to Flickr for credits)