I am cleaning out my craft closet to make way for some new stuff. Here's what I have for sale, first come first served. Everything is used unless stated otherwise. Current SU! items 20% off, retired 40% off.

*Accessories*
Idea Book and Catalog 2006-7 (6 available) $5
Stampin‘ Pastels (sealed, current, $34.95) $28
Classic Pad Black (sealed) (current, $7.25) $6
Classic Spots Black (6 available, seal intact) $2
Versamark Ink Pad (sealed, current, $10.50) $8
Spring Bouquet Punch (current, $21.95) $18
(matches Looks Like Spring Stamp Set below)

*Stamp Sets*
A Greeting for All Reasons (retired, $39.95) $24
Love Without End (retired, $34.95) $21
The Fine Print (retired, $24.95) $15
Simple Somethings (retired, $17.95) $11
Shapes and Shadows (retired, $42.95) $26
Mini Messages (retired, $24.95) $15
Brushstroke Alphabet (retired, $53.95) $32
Send a Celebration (retired, SAB) $10
Oh My Word (retired, hostess level 2) $17
Happy Winter (retired, $16.95) $10
Crosshatch (retired, $22.50) $13
Looks Like Spring (current, $41.95) $33
Polka Dots and Daisy (current, $25.95) $21
Wild Rose (current, $50.95) $41

See www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery for images and samples.

The following bulletin was issued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints today. This is good news for the Family History Library and Centers network and hopefully they will expand it to include all FHCs in the near future.

FamilySearch and The Generations Network Agreement Give Patrons Access to More than 24,000 Ancestry.com Databases and Titles
Provo, UT – December 19, 2007 – FamilySearch and The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, today announced an agreement that provides free access of Ancestry.com to patrons of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and the 13 largest regional family history centers effective today.

With this new agreement, full access will be provided to more than 24,000 Ancestry.com databases and titles and 5 billion names in family history records. In addition to the Family History Library, the following 13 regional family history centers have been licensed to receive access to Ancestry.com:

Mesa, Arizona
Los Angeles, California
Oakland, California
Orange, California
Sacramento, California
San Diego, California
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho
Las Vegas, Nevada
Logan, Utah
Ogden, Utah
St. George, Utah
Hyde Park, London, England

“We’re excited for our patrons to receive online access to an expanded collection of family history records on Ancestry.com,” said Don Anderson, director of FamilySearch Support. “Ancestry.com’s indexes and digital images of census, immigration, vital, military and other records, combined with the excellent resources of FamilySearch, will increase the likelihood of success for patrons researching their family history.”
The Generations Network and FamilySearch hope to expand access to other family history centers in the future.

FamilySearch patrons at the designated facilities will have access to Ancestry.com’s completely indexed U.S. Federal Census Collection, 1790-1930, and more than 100 million names in passenger lists from 1820-1960, among other U.S. and international record collections. Throughout the past year, Ancestry.com has added indexes to Scotland censuses from 1841-1901, created the largest online collection of military and African American records, and reached more than 4 million user-submitted family trees.

Free access is also available at Brigham Young University Provo, Idaho, and Hawaii campuses, and LDS Business College patrons through a separate agreement with The Generations Network.


“FamilySearch’s Family History Library in Salt Lake City is one of the most important physical centers for family history research in the world, and we are happy that patrons to the Library and these major regional centers will have access to Ancestry.com,” said Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com. “We’ve enjoyed a ten-year working relationship with FamilySearch, and we look forward to continued collaboration on a number of family history projects.”

About Ancestry.com – Visit us at www.ancestry.comWith 24,000 searchable databases and titles and more than 2.5 million active users, Ancestry.com is the No. 1 online source for family history information. Since its launch in 1997, Ancestry.com has been the premier resource for family history, simplifying genealogical research for millions of people by providing them with many easy-to-use tools and resources to build their own unique family trees. The site is home to the only complete online U.S. Federal Census collection, 1790-1930, as well as the world’s largest online collection of U.S. ship passenger list records featuring more than 100 million names, 1820-1960. Ancestry.com is part of The Generations Network, Inc., a leading network of family-focused interactive properties, including www.myfamily.com,www.rootsweb.com, www.genealogy.com and Family Tree Maker. In total, The Generations Network properties receive 8.7 million unique visitors worldwide and more than 416 million page views a month (© comScore Media Metrix, October 2007).

About FamilySearch
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world’s largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

I received the following "Getting to know your friends" Christmas Quiz from Pauline. So here goes:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? bags
2. Real tree or artificial? artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? Anytime after the first week of Dec
4. When do you take the tree down? Before the 8th of January
5. Do you like eggnog? No, does anyone?
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Keyboard
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No
8. Hardest person to buy for? J. What kind of toys do small boys play with? And why aren't there more Bob the Builder toys (his fave).
9. Easiest person to buy for? K. I could just buy Barbies and princess stuff til the cows come home.
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Can't remember but likely to be something practical and not cool.
11. Mail or email Christmas card? both
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Scrooge with Alistair Sims.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October-November
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Real Christmas Pudding with cream, Mince Pies.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? clear
17. Favorite Christmas song(s)? Sleigh Ride

If you read this then consider yourself tagged.

K had her friend J over a while ago and they played princesses and rode around the house on K's toy unicorn. They looked so cute!

It's been a while since I've taken any art classes but here are some photos (taken with my cell phone) from the Pastels & Faces art class at Rotary Center. This class runs Tuesday mornings 9-12 if you are interested.

Carol and Tina Siddiqui (instructor) review progress of her family portrait:



Dee works on her fabulous collage of a saxophonist:


Check out the beautiful portrait on the table easel:


The word “pastel” derives from an old French word for “paste”. In this case, it is a paste made of pure pigments, the same used in oil paint and other fine art media. Using a highly diluted gum binder, the paste is shaped into sticks and allowed to dry. The pastel sticks are capable of a rich variety of effects and techniques. Pastel paintings are truly paintings in the same way that oil paintings are: they are complete images made with pigment colors.

This morning I went photowalking with the Facebook Kelowna Photography group. This is the third outing. It was about -10 but wasn't snowing when we started. We walking around about 4 holes along the edge of the canyon taking pictures before it started snowing and we decided to call it a day.



My photos from the photowalk can be found here.

Geoff Rasmussen of Millennia Corp, publishers of Legacy Family Tree software, will be coming to Vernon, British Columbia on Dec 1 to talk about the soon to be released Legacy 7. As with all previous versions of Legacy, Legacy will come in two versions, the free version and the Deluxe version. No word as to the upgrade pricing but it will most likely be in the $20-$30 range.

Legacy 7 will include real footnotes/endnotes for RTF reports (yay Geoff!). This feature has been a long time in coming.

Keep checking www.legacyfamilytree.com for the release.

So after confessing my vintage camera addiction I decided to go shopping on eBay to get me another camera :)

I missed out on several Canonet QL17 GIIIs that were getting a bit too rich for my budget so I put a low offer on one final camera before trying my luck on a 1973-1980 Yashica Electro 35 GSN (my 2nd choice).

The GSN is the fouth generation of this camera after several improvements have been made but before they started removing a few features in later models. Another fixed lens camera with an F/1.7 aperture (like the QL17) I picked one up for $27 + $13 shipping = $40 and then went out with the kids for a couple of hours while waiting for the vendor to send me back the invoice.

When I came back I refreshed my page only to find I had 2 items in my waiting to pay area. Two? Duh, I won the 1972-1982 Canonet QL17 GIII unattended auction with my low ball bid. Ooops! Guess I learned a lesson there.... I guess with 4 of these babies I am officially a collector now!

Just have to share this slideshow of slides a guy found at a thrift store taken by a solider whilst on a tour of duty in Vietnam in the 70s. He tracked down the original owner/photographer who now lives in Hawaii. It's a very cool story and the slides/photos are great. They look like they were taken yesterday, they are in such good shape and the subject matter is very interesting and gives a real taste of Vietnam and how different it must have seemed to those young soliders.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34432914@N00/sets/72157602836645443/show/

Here is the layout for Stand Up and Scrap week 5 "A picture says 1000 words". The rules for this challenge were a single picture with no journaling only a simple title. This picture was taken on an outing to the Pumpkin Patch, capturing the two of them discovering a Sunflower for the first time. This was my final entry in the Stand Up and Scrap Challenge. Hope you enjoyed my layouts :)

Today I'm going to share a little something most people don't know about me, that I have a fetish for vintage cameras. It all started with a couple of film cameras in the past that I've since regretted letting go.

First was my Olympus XA2 with separate screw on flash unit. The tiny-tiniest camera ever but took just the best pictures. I can't remember exactly where this went. I owned it from about 1983 until 1994 (it was passed on to me by my aunt). I think I gave it to my stepdaughter when I received a new Nikon film P&S camera for Christmas (it should be noted that said new camera broke after just a couple of years). I would dearly love another one of these XA2's, it is the ultimate in pocket/purse cameras.

Then I had a lovely Canon AE1 SLR complete with autowinder, 50mm lens and 80-200 zoom from about 1990-1994 (college years). When I split from my boyfriend in 1994 he got to keep the camera. I definitely lost out in that deal, as I expect the camera still works today and is probably still worth $200, oh well...

So after being digital for quite a few years, I decided that I wanted a film camera as a back up and specifically for some black and white film shooting (digital has a hard time replicating the look and feel of true B&W film).

My first foray into vintage was a 1965 Canonet QL19 with original leather case. This is a rangefinder camera which manually focuses using a ghost image where you line up the two images to be in focus. The lens is fixed 40mm but is a whopping F/1.9. This is a fabulous lens for low light and the 45mm field of view is great for street photography. My copy has a slight ding in the top corner near the advancing lever, but it was cheap (eBay).

My second vintage camera was a 1971-76 Canonet 28 with a Canonlite D flash unit. Again this is a rangefinder but with a slightly wider fixed 40mm lens, this time F/2.8. This was a really great deal for $15 bought locally although it would have been nicer if I had a case for it.

I am still hoping to add to my collection and am on the lookout for a super cheap Canonet GIII QL17 as well as a Minolta Hi-Matic/7S/7S2. So if you have an old camera hanging around, and you'd like to let it go to a loving home, then let me know.

The Stand Up and Scrap challenge was the first scrapbooking challenge I've ever participated in (digital or not). We weren't allowed to post our layouts anywhere where we might be identified during the challenge but now it's over I'm gonna share. So rather than post all 5 at once (I didn't do the last challenge), I'll post one a day for 5 days.


Here is the layout for week 1 "Dream Big".

Here are my photos from Sunday's Photowalk on Abbot Street in Kelowna's Historic District.
http://www.zooomr.com/photos/marinagarrison/sets/24717/

I'd love it if you take a look and leave some comments!

This morning I went Photowalking along Abbot Street in Kelowna's Historic District. The turnout was poor with only myself and Kent (the organizer) attending. However, we had a great time, got lots of shots and still managed to get in a reasonable amount of photo-geek talk!

I am still editing the photos but here is one to keep you going in the meantime.


If you would like to come photowalking in Kelowna, make sure you join the Kelowna Photography group on Facebook.com so you'll know when we hold our next event.

So this isn't the best photo I've ever taken. Getting the kids to stand still together for more than 10 seconds is virtually impossible but I couldn't let Halloween go by (and their first Trick or Treat) without recording the event. K went as Cinderella and J as Bob the Builder.


If you're wondering these are the bags they took and, yes, K did take her flashlight :)
They scored lots of candy (especially as they only went to about 5 houses) but there aren't many kids on our street/nearby so each house was giving them 5 treats each!

Recipe: Amelie Scrap Back To School PP, DMogstad Carnival Paper, H Roselli Carnival Paper Cream, KPetiet Paper Tear, Linda GB In Vogue Safety Pin, MMartin Carnival Bead Swirl, Carola Frame, SC Lingerman Carnival Tag2, CK Becky and 4990810 fonts

Yesterday we decided to clean up all the leaves in the backyard. The kids helped out with the rakes, as well as their own pail and shovel to scoop up the leaves.





After we were done they played ball in the park behind our house.



Click here for more photos.

I'm sure you remember that I took Jessica Sprague's "Up and Running" Digital Scrapbooking course back in August. Well I enjoyed it so much and learned tons so I signed up for her "Now We're Rockin'" Level 2 course.

Here is my layout from Week 1.
I highly recommend Jessica's courses. She is an amazing teacher, the videos are well presented and are available even after you complete the course. The forums are great for support and the courses are relatively inexpensive for what you get.

Kyra is really rejecting my theory that in Fall/Winter one should only wear pants. On Friday she insisted that we had to go out and buy dresses and tights. Then she came home right away and put one on.

This will create a new copy of the photos in the folder you specified which you can then upload. You can also choose to resize the file at the same time if you want.

Just a few photos from J's 2nd birthday here.

Today we did something that I've only ever done once before, visit a pumpkin patch. Ok, I know that I'm pretty old to have only done this once before (with my 3rd cousin, 1 removed, Vic and his son Ian in Hamilton, ON in 1999) but we don't have pumpkins in England so there are no patches :(

So we took the kids to a pumpkin patch for the first time (J couldn't walk last year, and the year before I was expecting him, and the year before that K was only 6 months old!).



Everyone had a great time seeing the pumpkins, getting lost in a hay maze and getting their photos taken behind various "cut-outs".



For more photos click here.

P.S. I'm trying out Bren Boone's Lightroom Presets this week. If you like them you can get them here.

http://www.familyhistoryliveonline.com/ is holding a special training session for Family History Consultants on Tuesday 9th October. As the name of the web site suggests, the training is held online and is live (i.e. not recorded).

FAIR AGENDA (all times Mountain Standard Time)

8:00 AM - 8:50 AM Log On and Check Your Sound System
8:55 AM - 9:00 AM Welcome - Gena Philibert Ortega, CA, USA
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Helping Family History Happen - Sandra Raymond Jarvis, UT,USA
10:10 AM - 11:10 AM Helping Members - Sandra Raymond Jarvis, UT,USA
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM Break
11:50 AM - 12:50 PM Consultant Resources - Gena Philibert Ortega, CA, USA
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Temple and Family History Work - Amy Anderson, CO, USA

I have reviewed the fair syllabus and would recommend this training to family history consultants that are also church members.

If you haven't read this yet http://howardlindzon.com/?p=2725, you should. While this is actually quite funny it is also a pretty depressing state of affairs to think that this is what women really believe (sets the women's liberation movement back several decades!). And while you might think that it doesn't happen around here, believe me, it does - maybe not to the same extent - but I've heard it myself from women in their late teens/early 20s.

After having a great Summer filled with lots of fun activities with my 2 small kids, I'm back with some sad genealogical news. Apparently the Family Records Center in London is to close next year BUT all of the birth, marriage and death indexes (1837-2007) will be removed on 27 October 2007 prior to next year's closure.

I am not sure why the FRC is closing. Every time I am there it is jam packed (my last visit was in 2004). I can only assume that because indexes are online (albeit for a fee) that they have determined that the center is no long cost effective.

This is the end of an era as the FRC (back then St. Catherine's House) was how I first got into genealogy in 1990-3 when I attended University in London. I used to visit the center regularly to do my family history research and without this center I doubt I would have ever stumbled into this fascinating and enjoyable hobby.

For those of you interested in this amazing resource, most of the records have been transcribed and are available for free on http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ or http://www.ancestry.com/.

If you don't have access to the Internet, many Family History Centers have actual reproductions (not transcriptions) of the index on microfilm and microfiche on site and if your local FHC doesn't have the index you are looking for it can be ordered in from the main library in Salt Lake City which has them all.

Click here to view the rest of the photos.

Today we visited an interesting place in Armstrong, BC, Chickadee Ridge Miniatures. This farm has 200 miniature horses as well as deer, turkeys, chickens, monkeys, lemurs, peacocks, bulls/cattle, donkeys, goats, dogs and cats.



What is unique about this place is that you actually get to walk with the animals (with the exception of the lemurs, monkeys and bulls/cattle). The kids could actually pet the goats and horses. Everyone had a great time with the animals and I would highly recommend a visit there if you have kids aged 3 or older (it is hard to stop the under 3 from running and scaring the animals).

Click Here to see more photos from Chickadee Ridge.

Oh I forgot to tell you that I haven't stopped digital scrapbooking but I am taking part in the Stand Up and Scrap event for the benefit of The Alliance for Climate Protection. This event consists of a weekly challenge for 6 weeks.

The judging and feedback for this event requires that the layouts submitted are not associated with a person only with a number. So while I am busy doing a layout a week for the next 6 weeks you won't be seeing them until the end of the event when I'll post them all.

If you are not participating in this event, I invite you to take a look at the fabulous galleries here.

In the meantime if I create any digital layouts outside of this event I'll be posting them here.

I've been a fan of Thomas Hawks' Photowalking for a while. Yesterday I got to go out on the first ever Kelowna Photowalking. We met up at the Dolphins and walked along the Marina, cut through some alleys downtown and finished up at Stugeon Hall (for yummies).

I've posted my pics here http://www.zooomr.com/photos/marinagarrison/sets/22239/.

If you'd like to join us for the next photowalking in Kelowna, make sure you join the "Kelowna Photography" group on Facebook.com. Links to photos from the rest of the Photowalking gang should also be going up on the discussion board for the group.

And here is the picture from the dance studio after the class. K *loved* the dance class. The girls all looked so cute in their pink ballerina outfits.

We are having a great day today. K had her first day at Montessori pre-school. It was only an hour but she said she had a good time and is excited to go back (you can't ask for more than that). School pics here.

Later we are going to her first dance class. She has a cute (and pink) ballerina outfit to wear so she's pretty excited about that. And tonight we are going to pick up my sister and her hubby at the airport.

This should all make for a very action packed day.

This digital layout uses a template from A Niehaus and papers from the Songbird Avenue Faded Sapphire Charity Kit (see previous post for more info about Songbird Avenue)

I'm back to scrapping vintage photos of me again (mid-70s). I'm usally guilty of just putting names and dates on mylayouts so this time I tried to put more of myself into my journaling.


Layout uses template from Ronee Parsons (05/14/07) and papers from Weeds & Wildflower "Paisley & Ivy".

I've not spent much money on scrapbooking in the last 3 weeks since I started the Jessica Sprague digital scrapbooking course. So today I decided to spend some of what I have saved on a digital scrapbooking kit from Songbird Avenue which is a site that has a monthly kit where 100% of the proceeds go to charity.

This month the kit is called Faded Sapphire and the proceeds go to the "Love Without Boundaries" charity.

I used the kit to make my first digital two page layout. This layout uses a template which I mirror-reversed to make the second of the two pages. It is called "Picture Day".

Here's my Jessica Sprague Up & Running course Mid-Week Assignment #3. This assignment uses a template so I won't take credit for the layout design, but I did get to pick the papers, the photos and font, as well as write my own journalling.

Papers are Amy Teets Sun Porch available for free on http://www.shabbyprincess.com/.

I've been trying to copy a curved photo block technique that I saw on Jessica Sprague's site (without taking the online workshop). With the help of some users on PhotoshopElementsUser.com forum I have managed to do it.


Here is my version:

When I signed up for this course, I have to admit, I didn't think I'd learn anything but I knew there was going to be an advanced course and that you'd probably have to take this course as a pre-requisite.

This week's Jessica Sprague Up and Running covered a lot of different things and I learned quite a bit. I now know how I should be cutting my digital paper, how to evenly space things and trim off excess photo. If I learn as much next week as I did this week, I'll be thinking that my $40 was well spent. I've bought books that cost that and haven't been as useful/practical.

Anyway... ah yes... I'm supposed to be posting my layout.


I want to quickly explain a couple of things. First, I modified the layout to make my 3 supporting photos rectangular and not square (as JS planned). I just couldn't crop these photos into squares that made any sense as the climber didn't show.
Second, I'm really happy with my title font selection. It is a mix of Renaissance and Base 02 which is a grungy high impact font. The idea is to fool you into thinking elegant and then to be shocked with the grungy "independent" statement. I totally love this 2nd font (who knew you could love fonts?) and might be throwing out all my alphabet stamps (ok, not really, but I do love this stamped look).

I just got around to posting pics on Zooomr of our outing to the beach on Thursday. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and even went into the water this time! Of course, it might have been better if their neglectful parents had remembered to bring the pail & shovel (or bucket and spade for us "English" speakers).

Here's a pic, click HERE for more.

Wow, would you believe that I'm caught up with my kid's photos! So this week, for my Jessica Sprague mid-week assignment, I'm having to resort to going back and scrapping photos of me as a kid. I plan to do all those photos digitally and put them into a Heritage Makers book.


Anyhow, the assignment was to use white paper and I combined it with another challenge to use an advertisement as inspiration. The ad I used is here and the layout is below.

Ahhh, Tara tagged me again! I'm gonna have to start tagging her before she gets a chance to tag me.

So here it is:
5 things in my refrigerator:
1. cranberry juice
2. pepperoni sticks
3. butter
4. monterey jack cheese
5. honey mustard

5 things in my car:
1. garbage
2. baby stroller
3. sunglasses
4. loose change
5. baby wipes

5 things in my purse or backpack:
1. phone
2. wallet
3. brag book
4. glasses
5. kleenex

5 things in my closet:
1. clothes
2. shoes
3. dirty laundry
4. purses
5. camera bag

5 things in the world I want to see before I die:
1. my kids grow up
2. italy (rome, florence, venice)
3. egypt
4. the mediterrean (again)
5. new york city

I hadn't planned to get up for the lunar eclipse but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) one of my kids crawled into my bed at 4:30 waking me up.

I could see the moon right out of my window while lying in bed and I thought, darn, now I've gotta get up to get a shot :)

Shot taken using Nikon spot metering, no noise reduction, tripod and remote shutter release.

This is a 100% crop but no editing otherwise.

On the advice of Scott Kelby, I purchased David Ziser's Digital Wakeup Call DVD. David Ziser is a well known and successful wedding photographer who teaches techniques at various seminars across the States. The DVD was fairly inexpensive $69 and I figured I'd easily spend that on a local photography course should one be available (which it isn't) and while the DVDs are wedding oriented, I figured that weddings mostly consist of portraits and group shots which is what I am interested in.

Anyway, the DVDs are very informative. You get around 4 1/2 hours of instruction (David talks with a powerpoint presentation but also demonstrates with his camera on screen) and I made 21 pages (these are small page, mind you) of notes.

David starts by talking about the wedding photography industry in general but quickly moves on to a discussion of different views of the face, basic lighting, composition, various techniques such as speeding/dragging the shutter and why you'd do this, on and off camera flash lighting as well as multi strobe, lens selection. He continues the DVDs with a discussion/demo of several software programs including his own photoshop dashboard, Fotofusion Pro. Finally he concludes with a discussion of how to market yourself in the wedding photography business.

The DVDs are well done, he is a good presenter that makes the subject matter interesting. There are plenty of diagrams and sample photos to illustrate his points. Also included in the package is a CD with several photoshop training videos (that I haven't watched yet).

I would give Digital Wakeup Call 10/10 for training and information about wedding photography (and portrait/group photography) and recommend these DVDs to an intermediate/advanced photographer (they are not beginner level). Great value for money!

David's blog can be found here
You can purchase the DVDs here

Here is my digital layout for Jessica Sprague's Midweek Assignment. It uses a quick page from the Beautiful You digital kit that was FREE on the CK website earlier this year and has been made available to all students of Jessica's course.

Was rootin' around on my hard drive and found this layout which I had started but hadn't quite finished. So I quickly finished it and am posting it.

The layout uses the Splish Splash digi kit by Rhonna Farrer available for FREE on Two Peas.