another year gone by...

It's hard to believe we're here again -- the last day of the year. This year seemed to fly by for me...in fact, each year gets faster & faster somehow.

Most of you know that I scrapbook, but I don't typically do a chronological scrapbook for the year because sometimes there's not a lot going on in certain months. Other months may be chock-full of stuff. I may not have a scrapbook for the year, but I do have my calendar. I thought I'd just give a run-down of how this year went for us:

• Jan 18-20: my Mom & Dad came to visit for the weekend
• Feb 14: found out my brother & his wife were going to have a little GIRL
• Feb 15-17: in IL to celebrate Jeff's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary
• Mar 31-Apr 3: my good friend, Elizabeth, stayed with us for a Wilmington conference
• Apr 15: I celebrated my LAST tax deadline in the accounting industry :)
• May 2-4: in Lexington for my sister-in-law's baby shower
• Jun 1-7: we went on our FIRST CRUISE to the Western Caribbean!
• Jun 20: we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary
• Jul 25: MY NIECE, CORA BETH MCAFEE, WAS BORN!
• Aug 4: I started my new job as the Worship Assistant at Scotts Hill Baptist Church
• Aug 19: we celebrated 1 year in our new house
• Aug 29-31: in Lexington for a "family" reunion with old friends
• Sep 19-20: we took a trip to Wake Forest to visit with friends
• Sep 27: Jeff and our friends threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday!
• Sep 28: I turned 30
• Oct 16-18: in Ocean Isle Beach for my 2nd annual Scrapbook Retreat
• Oct 24-26: in Lexington with my friend, Cheryl, to visit my parents
• Oct 31: Jeff turned 33
• Nov 7-9: my Mom & Dad came to visit for the weekend
• Nov 27-30: in Lexington to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family
• Nov 30: Cora Beth's dedication
• Dec 5-7: my Mom & Dad and brother & his wife with Cora Beth came to visit
• Dec 24-26: in Lexington to celebrate Christmas with my family
• Dec 27-30: Jeff's brother, his wife and 2 kids came to visit

Yeah, so it was kind of a big one for us...celebrating 10 years of wedded bliss (with a cruise), the milestone of reaching 30 years old, the first grandchild in our family born...

God blessed us with so much this past year and we're looking forward to the great things He will do in the new year. 2009. Wow. May you all be blessed this coming year.

Just wanted to leave you with a couple of shots I got of Cora Beth celebrating her first Christmas. I used a texture overlay on each one...kinda cool, I thought.

Merry Christmas to all...

I pray you all have a very blessed Christmas with your friends and families -- from our home to yours...

the "eyes" have it...

As I stated on my other blog, I have been remiss in blogging lately, being that I've been a bit busy with things of the Christmas persuasion...

But I thought I better get this posted before Christmas gets here because I know I'll have TONS of photos from that weekend. My mom & dad, my brother & sister-in-law and the baby all came to visit last weekend. It was so nice to have them all here -- they came to see one of the 6 Christmas program performances that our church held. And it was Cora Beth's first trip to the coast! Of course, it was too chilly to take her out to the beach but that will come soon enough. I did get lots of photos of her inside, of course. She's changing so fast and getting such a personality now. She smiles lots and lots now. We had so much fun with her here and I was lucky enough to catch this shot of her -- my fave of all time (so far :). Perfection, if I do say so myself!

growing so fast...

I've not had much time to myself this week since our church's Christmas program is opening tomorrow night and will run through the weekend (6 performances). I've been working some long hours, but it's easing up some now since we're almost there. If it ain't done now, it ain't gettin' done! :)

Jeff and I drove to Lexington last weekend to be with my family for Thanksgiving. We had a great time with everyone but I was pretty disappointed with the fall foliage both at my parents' house and in Seagrove. Thanksgiving came so late this year that all the leaves had pretty much fallen from the trees. I don't know...I had hoped for some good photography time, at least in terms of God's creation, but that didn't really happen.

I did get some really good ones of my sweet niece, Cora Beth, though...here are a few of my faves:

a whole new world...

I have discovered a whole new world of things I had no idea about...digital scrapbooking. Now, I've known for awhile about digital scrapbooking -- that it existed. But I had no idea that there were so many websites out there that offer "freebies" -- elements you can download, free of charge, that allow you to create a scrapbook page/layout using Photoshop or some other comparable software program just like if you sat down at your craft table with a blank album. You would take your items/elements that you bought at AC Moore or Michael's and lay them out on your blank page in your album and create your scrapbook page/layout. It's the same thing with these "freebies". The possibilities are ENDLESS!

It is, in fact, how I created this particular blog -- the header at the top, the circular pattern background with the torn edges...it was all created with freebies that I found online. And since my friend, Holly, had a birthday this past Wednesday and she already has her gift, I can (finally) show you this little project I've had in the works for a while:

This is Holly's brand new baby girl, Caitlin Grayce Byrd, and I thought it would be special to try my hand at digital scrapbooking, to a certain extent, with this project. The actual photo itself was one I took at the hospital right after Caitlin was born and I edited it in Photoshop using a technique I recently learned (the black & white photo with just a bit of color -- love that effect!). I was going to just give Holly the photo framed, but then when I discovered this whole new world of digital elements, I thought I'd do something a little more for her. Happy birthday, Holly!

keeping with the theme...

In keeping with the fall theme from my last post, these are some photos I took at my mom's parent's house (my Gram & Buppa :) when we last visited. They live in a secluded area in a quaint little home that's perfect for them. They live on a fair amount of property that includes some old barns and structures. I thought they would make for some pretty cool photos...

In the first two, you can see that I did some editing with some textures I found online -- that's something I've been experimenting with recently. I love how it will change the look and even the era of a photo instantly. See for yourself...

This last photo turned out so cool, I didn't think I needed to do anything to it:

a tribute to fall...

Since fall is my all-time favorite season (and we're less than 2 weeks from Thanksgiving!), I thought I'd share a few photos I took last Thanksgiving (2007) at my parents' home in Lexington, NC.

These photos were not edited in any way -- I find that God's creation usually doesn't need to be...

My poor parents...they have a tree in their backyard that is g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s in the fall until it drops its leaves. And guess who gets to rake them all up??

I was actually really trying for a new skill with my camera here. I was trying to focus on one particular leaf while blurring everything else in the background. Got it! I was so excited, considering the wind that day... :)

The photo on the left was taken in my parents backyard; the photo on the right was taken on our yearly "day-after-Thanksgiving" trip to Seagrove, NC.

a place for projects...

I've been blogging for over a year now with the blog I created about the building and purchase of our first home. It has been a lot of fun! Addicting, really, and for awhile now, I've been looking for other things to blog about. Well, I'm not boring, people! :) I do have LOTS of things I could blog about, but I've finally decided that I need a place for my "projects" -- photography projects, to be more specific.

I have always been intrigued with photography and all the cool things you can do with it (I think if I went back to start my college career/adult life over again, I might seriously consider photography as an option). My dad was/is really into photography and his dad was, as well. That must be where I got my love of all things photography.

As I get older and keep taking photos, I learn more and more about photography and what you can do with those photos AFTER you've taken them, in software programs like Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas Movie Studio. Recently, I've been working with both of these programs, learning so much and really developing some cool skills. But what do you do with that cool stuff? Well, up to now, I haven't done anything with most of what I'm learning.

But that changes today. That's why I started this blog -- to showcase some of my "stuff". I don't know who will be interested, if anyone, but I thought it would be a good place to "store" some of projects anyway. And when I say projects, I mean stuff like this:

Cora Beth McAfee, Aug 2008