Knit Geek Life

It's been awhile since I shared any of my scrapbooking layouts... Partly because I've just been super lazy in that department and haven't done a whole lot that I felt was worth sharing lately. I feel like I've been in a major scrapping slump the past couple of months... but I have a few I can share. I've been a part of the guest CT over a Sunshine Studio Scraps the past two months. I believe this month is my last one, I'll be sad when it's over because it's been fun! I've gotten to work with a wide variety of products. Here are some of my favorite layouts that I've come up with...

Using Viva Artistry's Infusion, I scrapped a wedding photo:

Using Danielle Danielle Engebretson's You Are My Sunshine, I scrapped a photo taken of Sprout taken at lunch, the day before Drupalcon:

Using the Bahama Mama collab kit from Sunshine Studio Scraps, I scrapped a photo of Matt from last summer's visit to Martha's Vineyard:

Using TLC Designs's Nathan's World I scrapped a Drupalcon layout featuring Angie, Suzi and Josh:

Using Secret Garden by Madame Wing and Jen*uine Artistry and the 3/26 - 4/1 Template Challenge template by Amanda Kay, I did a layout of my niece, Addie:

I've been meaning to write something about going to DC, and DrupalCon and all that jazz. I suppose I ought to, it's been... holy crap... almost a month. I've never been good about blogging about events, I'm usually too excited to write something near to when it's happened and then by the time that I get around to it.... I don't really want to be writing about that anymore and I make it all sound so droll...

To put it right on the table, the reason I go to DrupalCon is to socialize. The sessions are great, the BoFs are fantastic, and I always learn a ton... but the main reason I'm drawn is the human element. The things I remember aren't going to be the technical details... it's going to be the hanging out and getting silly with friends.

This year, DrupalCon was huge and overwhelming. I read the total number of attendees this year was 1,422.... Double the size that it was in Boston, and I thought that was huge and overwhelming. I know there were people that I wanted to see while I was there and didn't just because of the sheer volume of people. However, I did get to spend some quality time with some absolutely wonderful folks.

I think it's only appropriate for me to call some people out on their awesomeness.

Josh, Matt, Zack and the rest of the gang over at Chapter Three constantly kept doing things that made my week. From being the only folks who knew the exact reference of my husband's t-shirt... to making sure that we had enough drinks... to being there to beat-up upon in laser tag... to the creation of nicelobster.com... Chapter Three wins the outright awesome award. Hopefully when I'm less poor again, I'll make the trip out to the left coast to visit.

By day three of the conference, I was pretty burnt out. I was wandering the conference hall feeling rather lonely and a bit like an underachiever. I was hard pressed to find a familiar face, and the ones I did find were busy with client emergencies and such. Then, perfectly timed, Jacob Redding found me and set forth to cheer me up. I can hardly find the words to describe how meaningful it was to me that Jacob took time out of his busy day to comfort and encourage me. Thanks so much, Jacob!

Blue Hair! on 12seconds.tv

I watched the inauguration this morning, while simultaneously following along with my friends on Twitter and Facebook. It's funny how the online social media makes you feel connected to the rest of the world when you're sitting on your couch watching a historic event in your pajamas.

Yet, on a historic day such as this.... I feel somewhat alone.

Most of my friends are on the liberal side of the spectrum, so they're understandably very excited and optimistic today. I have a few on the conservative side who are more on the upset side.

And me? I fall somewhere in the middle. I'd like to be excited and optimistic today, but instead I feel pensive and cautious. I worry that his supporters are being too optimistic about what he can do, I'm afraid they're going to be disappointed that he's not Superman. And on the other side of the coin, I think my more conservative brethren are being too critical, too soon.

The reality of the matter is we don't know what's going to happen in the next 4 years.

We finally joined the 21st century today and hauled our butts to the T-Mobile store to get G1 phones. I figured with my upcoming trip to NYC (January 25th-30th, in case anyone wants to meet up) and the fact that my old phone was hardly holding a charge, it was time to make a move in the phone department. First impressions? This phone is like digital crack. If I wasn't already obsessive about checking my email and checking Twitter, I certainly am now.... and the fact that I can get last.fm radio on my phone? I'm in heaven. We'll see what I think after a few days use... I'm still in the "Oooh! Shiny new toy!" phase with it.

I downloaded a extension for Firefox called ScribeFire.... It's a blogging extension and I'm testing to see if this actually publishes.

You know, it's really sad when your life reflects an XKCD comic... I came over to Arc's house and the door was locked, I knocked, no one answered because he couldn't hear me over his music... So what did I do? I pulled out my laptop and joined IRC:

* nikkiana_ pokes Arc
* Arc has been poked
let me in
OH lol
your door is locked
we need to find that XKCD comic
hillarious - using IRC as a doorbell

I'm a little bit late plugging this one, but Kiki Halbert Desgins has a gorgeous new kit out called Flutterby that I got to work with recently. I found it to be a little different than her usual style, but I absolutely loved it!

This is what I made with it:

The most common question I got about my layout on the various sites I post on was whether the beam of light was an effect I added or it was in the kit... It's in the kit!

More of Kiki's designs can be found at her shops at Scrapbook-Elements and Plain Digital Wrapper!