Summer Siblings

THe Summer brings my siblings birthday's. In June we celebrated Billy's birthday. It was a treat to have him home for his birthday (the first time in 3 years.) Sydney came over and decorated his cake. We had so much fun.

The finished product! What can I say this girl loves her sprinkles!
She also had fun helping mommy (Chrissy) wrap his gift.
Our family tradition is to pick a restaurant for a family dinner. Billy chose to break the mold and have everyone over for a game night. This was right after enjoying pizza, during half time of a fierce boys vs girls trivial pursuit game. GIRLS WIN!!!!

July brought Chrissy's birthday. She chose to go to PF Chang's. Her card that Sydney made.

THe coolest gift ever. Max and I were antique shopping and we saw this bottle we filled it with dishwashing liquid to decorate the Hood's Kitchen. On the side are her initials. It killed us to wait to give her this unique find.
The Hood's
I wonder why Sydney is such an goofball?
Uncle Billy helped Sydney fine tune her chopstick skills.
As you can see she was a master at the end he must be a great teacher.
Happy Birthday to the best brother and sister in the world.

Hybrid Cards

I took an amazing class Computer Tricks for Cards at Jessicasprague.com not only did I learn a ton of computer tricks I also learned many paper techniques here are my assignments.

This card is made of printed digi papers and accents that were all on one file. I added the guitar Stamping Station, and the vellum quote on the bottom along with a little stitching with my sewing machine.

These are designed for gift cards and to be done quickly. you just print the template on double side patterned paper and embellish as you have time for. Made the little tags on the computer.
This one was so cool it was about typography we made the type on the computer and printed on our twill ribbon AMAZING COOL!
This lesson was all about using your favorite photos to make a card. Super simple.
Another Photo card this one is designed so that the receiver can pop out the photograph which added a little digi frame to. So cute I am thinking Christmas cards on this one. Oh and the photo corners and label were done on the computer.
THe front of this cards is amazing right! I watercolored it and learned a new water color technique, then printed the inside of the card.
How cute is the background paper we made it with digital brushes (sort of computer rubber stamps) the inside is super cool but I am keeping that as my little secret.
How cute is this? Every thing but the buttons are printed inside is a pop-up.
This simple card is all digi but the flowers on the front. We also colored in our lettering using photoshop.
As you can see a great class with fun ideas blending both worlds of scrapbooking. I dare you to give digi a try as you can see you just need to dip a toe into the waters.

The Cooter Sisters

Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing an amazing group of friends The Cooter Sisters! They all worked together in collage and have been friend forever since. Unfortunately one Cooter is missing, she was feeling under the weather. Chrissy decided to gift this photo shoot to her fellow sisters as they gathered for a farewell to Natalie who is moving out of state.

We started a little later than planned dinner ran late. There was an added challenge of shooting with very little light but the girls were very flexible and we had fun.

Before dinner the girls met at the tattoo shop to get lasting memories of their friendship.

Showing off their new friendship body art.
Having outside in the setting sun.

Going a little retro with this one

Beautiful Women+Beautiful Souls=Beautiful Friends

Favorite images from SF Avon Walk 2010

Sadly this is the last post of my Avon Walk 2010 crew experience. These are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend.

Awesome Cheerleaders at the finish line

I Love Love the look on these ladies faces

The Tower that is in each city.

Judy one of my favorite walkers. She is a multi city walker and walks with her DSLR (it was seeing her with hers that inspired me to do the same. Judy thank you for sharing your energy to all of those around you!

Carla our team leader with her mom and my friend Jean who was also a team leader at closing ceremonies in the background is Mike.

Jean and Carla supporting each other during closing ceremonies.

If you have been inspired by my post or just have a few dollars laying around many members of my team are walking in Santa Barbra (used to be Long Beach) please go to the Peggy's Spirit sit and help someone out if you so desire.http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk/LosAngeles?team_id=78440&pg=team&fr_id=1960

Walkers and Cheer Leaders

The reason we were crewing was to support the real hero's and fundraisers and sometimes even survivors the walkers. Here are some of my favorite pictures of walkers and cheerleaders. I really did try to just pick my favorites!

Cheer leaders at rest stop 5

This little guy giggled every was hanging out in the park on a play date. Every time I rang my cow bell he came closer and was more curious. I asked (with parent permission) if he wanted to ring the bell. He cheered on walkers for 20 minutes or so. His play date was a cutie in a princess dress.

These girls waited patiently for their friend and cheered on every other walker like family. It was so beautiful to see these rays of sunshine keeping the walkers energy up.

There was a fleet of personal vehicles along the route cheering people on with blow hors blasting high energy music, the walkers needed it for those huge hills. This particular van was full of ladies dressed just like their van advertised.

Walkers coming entering our rest stop 21.6 miles of 26.2.

This was the first walker to get to our stop. Way to go Karen! One question though how do you walk that far and still look so fabulous?

I loved the t-shirt on these two amazing walkers. They are from a city in CA known for garlic, their shirt says (save the bulbs)

Amazing outfits gentlemen

Although this team of angles do compute for the cutest outfit in the walk

Hmm maybe it is this guy in the spiffy gold outfit he walked in several people.

Side not the guy in the pink hart hat is Mike from our team in fact his mom is the Peggy in Peggy's Spirit. Mike walked up the route and cheered people on talking and singing his songs.

Moto Crew they are the awesome men and women who help walkers across busy streets. Check out the whirly gig on the back of his bike. I wonder if Moto Crew decorates their bikes like this for Sturgis?

Sweep Vans

These highly festive vans cruise up and down the route picking up injured or exhausted walkers along the route. I have used their services once in Long Beach and I have to say the high energy and cool decorations help distract you from the frustrating fact that your body gave up before reaching your goal.

Set sail with Sweep

The Finish Line

I was so grateful to get into closing ceremonies to see so many amazing walkers finish. When I walk I tend so see the same walkers over the two days since we all have similar paces, and I usually finish near the end, and them I am worried about my own aching body. It was fun to see so many people cross the emotional finish, and cheer them in.

I love the emotion on the faces of these 3 fantastic ladies

Still smiling beautiful

I loved these fans with a theme "Putting a cork to breast cancer"

Watch what happens in the next picture...

Her friend were so proud and happy for her. Way to go!

Read the pink shirt, the lady in white is an amazing friend to do this. Bonus to the walker in pink at least she could not see the hills looming and extending in front of her.

The power of Pink Diva Friends

Families waiting with proud

A special thanks to the San Jose Police/Fire they had many walker I am not sure of the official number but I would guess 20-30 and most of those had a bike cop cheer leader who rode the route, and helped keep the walkers and their co workers safe. San Jose ROCKS!!!

The emotion on this gentleman's face and the picture on his shirt choked me up and most around me.

Mendocino Cancer Resource Center does not just give you care they help fund raise and raise awareness for their patients. Way to go! You can see how hard this route was on their faces. the second lady in makes my shins hurt just looking at her.

Thank you to every walker I and the rest of my team know that you have not only committed to a weekend of walking but also fundraising $1,800+ each walker, training, etc. thank you for raising along with crew 5.5 million dollars this weekend!