Aperture 1.4 {focused blur}

It goes so fast...

Doesn't it?  Tomorrow is my birthday.  Tonight I am sitting here thinking about it.  Funny how as a child you wait and wait for that special day to come and then as an adult you drag your feet hoping to stall a new year of life and just stay comfortably where you are.  I guess that, that is what I'm thinking about tonight.  Where I am.  Where I thought I'd be.  Where I hope to be soon verses where I see things going in reality.   The truth is, I am a worrier and I am a planner.  As unorganized as I am, I like to make lists and pretend that I am going to stick to them but they usually change.  A lot.  I'm not where I thought that I would be at all at this age.

  But the truth is things are good.  I like it here so far.  Mark is doing very well in his apprenticeship.  The boy's are thriving.  Grant was just given an award at school, kind of a student of the month award.  I'm so stinking proud of him! So we aren't where I thought that we would be but I'm realizing more and more that we are where we were meant to be.  Here in this life, in this city and I am happy.  Happy and scared.  Because well that's the worrier in me and although I try to be a glass half full girl I'm more like a "what are we going to do when the glass is empty and there is nothing for us to drink and we can't find water sort of a girl"  Like I said...a worrier.  What will the next year bring?  Where will we end up after school ends? All those fun, we aren't settled yet questions. But I know, I know things will be alright as long as I have Mark and my boys. 

  So come on over year twenty eight. I think I'm ready for you.  Just please be nice and treat me well.  Let me turn to Mark when we are 80 and say, "remember my twenty eighth year of life...that was a good one."  And he'll smile and say, "Yeah, it was wasn't it"

 

My Mom is a hottie!

Seriously!  So on the last day of her visit my Mom says..."You know I would really like to have a good portrait of myself someday."  What?  I haven't taken one yet?  And then I realized that I really hadn't had a photo shoot with my Mom.  And quite frankly if anyone deserves a great photo shoot it is this woman who with my Dads help supported me in all my artiness growing up.  Not to mention the fact that they footed the bill for my first pro camera.  And so on Wednesday we dropped Grant off at school and we took pictures.  And it was fun.  And even though I already knew it I learned again that my Mother is a beautiful woman.  Inside and out.  So talented and so amazing.  Here she is.  I hope that she likes these.  I certainly do!

I had to take the pictures down, but they will be back later.

Final Graduation of the year!

Well...at least in the United States.  CKU ended in Houston this year and it couldn't have been better. I had such an amazing time and it really was because all the women who attended were amazing! There was such a good spirit at this event.  Everyone seemed so happy to be there and my classes went so smoothly.  It's seriously one of the first times that there weren't any problems with the AV.

  Here are a few pictures. I hope to add more tomorrow.  My Mom came into town to watch the boys and this is my last day to enjoy with her.  I'm going to be so sad when she leaves she is one of the best Mom's in the world and I still turn to her for comfort and advice.

This is the CKU staff that comes to the events and runs everything in the back ground while the teachers seem to get all the glory but these are the people that really run the show.  They work so incredibly hard.  I am so happy to have gotten the chance to work with them and get to know them.  I truly do consider them friends after this year and I'll be sad not to get to see them every month.

I got to know Donna a little more this time.  She is a crazy girl and I LOVE it!  Add that to the fact that we both love brown and green( see photo)  and we are quite the pair.

Here is another picture that I caught of Elsie.  What can I say.  This girl has become one of my best friends over the year.  We saw each other for a week each month for the last six months and we did the photography together so  when we were there we were constantly together.   I don't even know how to describe how great a person she is.  She is so generous, so kind,  and so genuine.  Ending the years CKU was a little bitter sweet for me because with her new product line coming out soon she is done teaching at CKU's so I won't see her so often but, I am so excited for her! 

Well, that's it for now.  I'm running out the door to take some portraits of my Mom! I'll post some tomorrow.

HOF Layouts

So, someone in one of the last comments asked if I had a two peas gallery.  I do, but it's not so updated right now. That comment did make me realize that I haven't posted any layouts here though.  So I am going post two of my favorites that were from my Hall of Fame entry that have already been used in previews for the book.

This layout is on the web site with my bio and call story:

This layout was really fun to make.  I love how the paper curtain turned out and I asked Mark to do the journaling in his handwriting so that I would have a sample of it in our scrapbooks!

This layout is my all time favorite layout of any that I have done so far: 

So, it may be my favorite but it was also the biggest pain.  I think because I did the photo first and it turned out just the way that I envisioned it.  That I put a huge pressure on myself to create the perfect layout to go with it.  Is there such a thing as a perfect layout?  I'll just go ahead and answer that myself...no.  there isn't.  and so I spent hours making and tearing apart layouts.  Until I combined them all and came up with this.  Perfect?  No.  Do I love the way it turned out?  Yes. 

  I think that sometimes I give myself a really hard time about my layouts because the scrapbookers I admire most are very freestyle.  Elsie http://elsieflannigan.blogspot.com/, Danielle Thompson http://thompsonfamily.typepad.com/,  Nisa Fin  http://inthemoment.typepad.com/starfiin/, Kelly Crowe http://kellicrowe.typepad.com/, and recently I have fallen in love with Sarah's work  http://www.sarahbee.org/about.html all girls who can let loose and create true beauty. (Truthfully I could go on and on about scrapbookers I love and their styles.) I on the other hand can never let go, even when I try there is always some linear quality to my art work. In photographs and layout's I cling to the design rules that I learned in college.  Even when I know that true art comes from breaking those rules. Don't get me wrong though, as much I wish that I could scrap as freely as these girls.  I can appreciate that we all have our own style and I truly believe that there is room in this industry for everyone to walk their own artistic path. I have my own way of doing things and that it good.  I just have to remind myself of that during my moments of doubt.

I knew that today was going to be magical...

as soon as I opened the door this morning and felt fall in the air.  I love fall.  Everything about it.  The colors, the crispness in the air, the smells.  Is anything better than Pumpkin spice?

And then when I pulled into our back yard after taking Grant to school there was a  peacock waiting to welcome Cole and I at the back door.  It was a beautiful bird and Cole and I spent quite sometime feeding him before he strutted away to the neighbors. A very magical moment?

Next I took Cole to "Art Sparks" a children's section in the art museum at University of Louisville.  It's free on Thursdays if you have a library card.  And again I must say how magical it is to see your child light up when looking at and creating art?  Sigh...completely amazing.

Plus I came home to my passport!  Now I am all set for CKU-Japan!

And here is something that is truly magical.  Mark got the evening off!  They did a student matinee so they let him leave early!  And he was able to go to the open house at Grants elementary school tonight.  Where Grants teacher told us that he was thriving.  And that she felt he was truly a blessing to have in the classroom.  YAY!

  And then we ended the day playing on the playground.  All four Stringhams in a row swing on swings and laughing.  Remember that feeling as a child as you watched your feet soaring towards the clouds?  How magical that felt?  It still gives me that feeling.  It was a great day.

We had a good weekend.  We went to a company picnic for the actors theater. It was good to meet everyone.  It makes me feel more connected to Mark when he comes home and tells me about his day and I can match the names up to a face.  I always feel so strange at these functions though and true to form I usually do or say something completely embarrassing because well, I wouldn't be me if I didn't say something dumb. ( I often feel like Bridgett Jones, the first movie, in the book party scene.  You know when she is introducing the author and she is totally embarrassing herself?  Yeah, that's me.  Extra 20 pounds and all. lol.) But this time I actually made it though with only minor offences.

  Theater parties can sometimes be a frustration for me because I not officially "one of them"  as in an actor so they have the tendency to assume that I know nothing of real theater.  I always feel this overwhelming need to explain to them that I was a successful theater major for the first year of college and I even went to London for a semester to study Shakespeare and theater history in depth.  It was there that I realized that I was taking more pictures than seeing plays so when I got home I changed my major.  But even then I was cast as a sophomore in "All my Sons"  as Anne which was a very coveted role.  And while in London, Peter Brook( who is considered one of the best directors in Europe) told me that I was a lovely young lady when I sat next to him while seeing one of his plays.    Anyway, all these things run through my mind when some one snidely turns to me and tries to translate the conversation into laymen terms. 

" Candice, A dolls house is a play about feminism written by Henrick Ibsen."  Or Candice,  "Cymboline is a play written by Shakespeare but most people don't know that." "Candice, a stage is the thing that is made of wood and we perform on it."(okay maybe it not quite that bad, but I am giving myself some dramatic licence)

Gee, thanks.  I grit my teeth and smile but the truth is I wrote a paper on Cymboline as part of a final for one of my classes and I was in a dolls house in high school so I know it very well.  I'm sure that they don't mean it as condescending as it all sounds but I told Mark that someday I want to bring him to a scrapbooking convention so he can see how it feels.   

  "Mark, Ali Edwards is a well known talented scrapbooker for Creating Keepsakes" or "Mark this is glue you use it adhere photos to paper. "

All things that he would already know, due to the fact that he is married to me, a scrapbooker.  But people would assume that as a man, he wouldn't.  I know exactly what he would be thinking too!  He'd be thinking,  "Hey!  I know how to use Tim Holts distressing ink and I've spoken with Elise Flannagan on the phone.  I know how to use glue." lol.  And then he'd know how I feel half my life going to his theater parties.  Sigh....someday. 

Okay, so I am being pretty dramatic here. lol.  I actually do enjoy going to these functions and most of the people are very nice and kind to me.  I think I am just missing the last group of students we were with all through Gradschool.  They were always really nice to me and I felt like a part of everything even though I wasn't offically one of them. 

 

Back to life

My sister is gone!  I was so happy to have her here for a few days.  It made me realize how lonely I am here.  I have yet to meet any friends.  I know it's only been a few weeks but with Mark gone all the time I am starting to feel very separated from Life.

  I have however found a new obsession. Music.  I have always been one to have a very random taste in music.  I like a little of this and a little of that.   But lately I have been loving going on itunes and getting music from Grey's Anatomy.  The official c.d. they have is great, but then you can also get all the songs from all the shows, thanks to the fact that some person who had a lot of time on their hands looked them all up and made them into a play list.  Thank you person!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Ruby Blue-  Roisin Murphy

Just a Ride- Jem

Suddenly I see- KT Tungstall

Fools like me- Lisa Loeb

Come Sing me a song- Sing-Sing

Plus I have come to love the band "Dressy Bessy"

Then along the way I have found a few more groups and songs that are similar to the others above but not really part of Grey's

Ever fallen in love -Nouvelle Vague

Goodnight and Go- Imogen Heap 

Actually, I am LOVING Imogen Heap right now.  I think that she is amazing.  She has a C.D. out under her own name and also a C.D. with her band called Frou Frou.  Both are fabulous. 

Anyway, just thought I'd share my newest music loves.  I am one of those people that finds a song I love and then I listen to it over and over until no one around me wants to hear it ever again.  It's bad, I know but I can't help it. lol.  If your in need of new music go find these!