be AUDacious

taking a break

I'm going to be taking a short blogging break for a week or two. I have a number of big projects in the wings, and work is going to be really busy with five schools starting back at the same time. This means that the Letters & Words challenges will be on hiatus as well. My plan is to be back in action here by August 10th. See you then!

Artist's Choice sale products

Today's 24-hour sale features these fun products:

Maybell digital kit

Friendship word art

Bitty Bots digital kit

Bot Talk word art

Letter Layouts bundle 1

Project 3:11 update

(Sorry for the delay in posting my daily photos -- internet access has been much more sporadic than I suspected it would be.)

Saturday, 7/18/09
We were lucky enough to find a spot on the first trolley tour that came by. Two hours of city sight-seeing, as well as a great trek across the bridge, was a fantastic start to the trip.

Sunday, 7/19/09

Alcatraz. I was amazed by the contrasts between the native fauna and the concrete and steel of the prison building.

Monday, 7/20/09

Taylor's Refresher. A late lunch -- burgers, fries, and a Coke -- after a stroll through the Farmer's Market and a ride on the F-line streetcar.

Tuesday, 7/21/09
Setting up for my presentation. 60 participants -- such a larger crowd than I ever anticipated. Good conversation, good questions, good information shared. It was all good.

piecing it all together

I'm really excited about this week's new products! Before you take a peek at them, though, make sure you stop by Simple Scrapper today; I'm guest posting for Jennifer, and I've got a great journaling challenge posted about writing your Summer Manifesto. Write your own, make a layout, and post it on Jen's site -- and you'll get a 35% off coupon for my shop just for playing along! What could be better?

Pieces of Me digital kit

Inky Birdie font

Textured Cardstocks

Neutral Cardstocks

Here are some sample layouts from my CT and the {wst} girls!

by me

by Jen

by Lori

from Steph

from Becky

from Jaime

And just because, here's another one I did of my nephew Oliver -- isn't he a cutie?

Letters & Words Challenge 7: Dingbats

Thanks again to everyone who played along. Since I'm in San Francisco, it'll be a few days before I can update the summary page with last week's participants. If you'd like to see, just scroll through the comments on this post.

This week's challenge involves using dingbats. Dingbats are fonts that are composed of pictures or other images. Let's see how our featured scrappers met the challenge this week.

Barb created a fun layout in homage to her favorite TV shows. She found a fun dingbat that uses cable TV station logos, and the result is this fun page.

credits:
Doodled border: Outer Limits by Karah Fredricks
Font: CABLEDingbats and Whirly Birdie by Audrey Neal
All other elements from the Urban Spring collab kit at Scrapartist.com

Terri's layout uses a cute camping dingbat as a substitute for key words in her journaling. These simple images help to break up a longer journaling block and add visual interest and fun.

Credits:
Boho papers and elements, Family Tree papers and elements
Journaling font: Tom's New Roman
Dingbat fonts:Our little darlings,Tombats,AEZ camping,Tombats 3 ,Webdings,Wingdings3

Don't think you can only play around with this technique if you're a digiscrapper -- paper scrappers can have fun with it too. Check out Crystal's layout; she added rubons as part of her handwritten journaling.

credits:
Adhesive: Adtech; Button: Basic Grey; Flower: Maya Road; Ink: Colorbox by ClearSnap; Rub-Ons: October Afternoon, Heidi Grace, Die Cuts with a View, Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye;

Patterned Papers: My Mind's Eye; Stickers: Making Memories;

To participate this week, just do the following:
1. Create a layout using dingbats.
2. Post your layout in a gallery or on your blog.
3. Leave a comment on this thread, linking to your layout.

Layouts are due by midnight EST, Friday, July 24th, 2009.

announcement: iHope raffle winners

Thanks to everyone who purchased the iHope collaborative kit from Emily Powers at {we are} storytellers.

Here are the winners! We'll be contacting everyone via email. Congratulations to all of you!!

3 all-access passes to me{em} designs at {wst}:
Karen Sowards (SowardsFam)
Becky Derby (bderby)
amanda goodwin (agmcgaha)

3-month all-access pass to audacious designs at {wst}:
Angie Sorensen

custom kit from audacious designs at {wst}:
Michelle Ramsey (mimsmom)

$50 GC to e.m. design at {wst}:
Sue Wilson (swilson500)

$50 GC to spotted dog designs at {wst}:
kelly rinker (kelly65)

$25 GC to anne-made at tlp:
Christy Werth (christywerth)

$10 GC to nancy comelab's store at tlp:
Kerryanne Rummerfield (vonrummer)
Andra Moerler (amoerler)

$10 GC to kaye winiecki's store at tlp:
Nan Neely (nanlovespink)

$10 GC to jdesigns at tlp:
Laurie Woodman (mamasbzy)

$10 GC to Jacque Larson's shop at tlp:
Barbara Bowie (barbarab)

$10 GC to  Natalie Braxton's shop at tlp:
Rachel Rerko (stampin_rachel)

$10 GC to Amy Martin's shop at tlp:
Christine Bisch (cmnb)

$10 GC to Kate Hadfield's shop at tlp:
Joy Davison (lavagante)

staycation vs. vacation

Luckily, that's not a choice our family really had to make this summer. We've had several small vacations to Memphis and other locations this summer, as always, and Chris and I are getting to take a nice vacation to San Francisco (courtesy of my job -- thanks Gear Up!)

Many families are opting for "stay-cations" again this year -- it's a concept that took off last summer, and {we are} storytellers has built a couple of great blogshops around the idea. If you haven't checked out the Staycation forum at {wst}, you should stop by -- there's ton's of great info, plus awesome contests! Right now, we're holding a fun Photo Scavenger Hunt, and there are more activities planned.

Lori and her family are going to celebrating with several little staycations this summer; she created a fun little door sign and an easy key-ring notebook to record bits and pieces from their summer outings.

(credits: Beach Bungalow collab with Leora Sanford, Daily Birdie Font and Travelogue Word Art )

reminder: what's going on

Please keep my sister in your thoughts and prayers today; she is undergoing hip surgery. Thanks!

Layouts for Letters & Words Challenge #6 should be linked up by midnight EST tonight.

Thanks to everyone who purchased the iHope kit or made a donation. Winners for the free giveaways will be announced on Sunday.

Don't forget about Project 3:11 -- I'd love for you to play along while I'm in San Francisco.

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Here are some great links, projects, and ideas that I've bookmarked as they've come through my blog reader. Enjoy them -- and feel free to share your own links as well.

Lisa's recipe for Chocolate Chip Zucchini bread:
My family has never eaten Zucchini but I think we are going to give this one a try.

Brooke's adorable thank you cards:
I love the mix of patterns and the great speech bubble shape. These would work beautifully for kids or adults.

Lena's genius fridge project:
Magnetic paper is one of my favorite print materials for hybrid scrapping; it never occurred to me to use the 4x6 sheets for something like this!

Cami loves to help out in the kitchen, and I think I'd like to get her an apron and chef's hat to wear.

I also had plans at the beginning of summer to make myself a handful of these skirts -- but time has gotten away from me, sadly.

I am not very experimental when it comes to food -- which means that I've not eaten many dishes from other cultures. My only foray into Chinese was one trip to P.F. Chang's (which, I know, doesn't count as "real" Chinese food); I loved the lettuce wraps, and think I'll have to give this recipe a try.

If you buy books online, give this site a try. Not only do you save used books from filling up our landfills, but you also raise money for global literacy at the same time.

I'll check in tomorrow evening from San Francisco -- see you then!

book review: Little Brother

taken from Goodreads:

"Marcus, a.k.a w1n5t0n, is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works, and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school's intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they are mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself."

This book made me miss teaching. It starts out with so much promise; the ideas are compelling, and there's so much great material here, just begging to be discussed. I taught American Lit for 6 years, which is a junior-level course at the school I was at; much of the literature I chose dealt with individuality, pursuit of the American Dream, and literature as a vehicle for social protest, self-reliance, and self-improvement. I've found that these topics are a perfect fit for students at this age; these ideas are ones that spark wonderful projects and engaging discussions -- and the material in this novel tied in beautifully.

But...(and I hate writing that 'but,' because I was SO INTO this book), Doctorow's writing skills just don't hold up. There's way too much telling going on; naturally, I knew there was going to be a lot of stuff that I didn't know much about (and that most readers wouldn't know about either), which meant Doctorow was going to have to do a lot of explaining. But I think that he could have found a more natural way to work that information into the story -- rather than just lecturing. The dialogue is fairly awkward, too, and there were a number of grammatical issues.

There were high points too: I love that the book is set in San Francisco; loved the talk about Kerouac, City Lights, and the Beats (On the Road is one of my most favorite books, too); loved that the book encourages students to become responsible activists for causes they believe in (but also debates the pros and cons of taking such action). It's an important book in that it really brings to light some of the steps our government has taken as a result of 9/11, and nicely addresses the issues of freedom and security.

If I were ranking this one just on concept and ideas alone, I'd give it a 5. But count in execution, and it's only a 2. I'm going to settle and give it a 3.5 rating.

Thursday's sale products

Well, it's the home stretch...we head out to Memphis tomorrow evening, and our flight leaves at 9:00 on Saturday morning. I'm almost caught up with everything I need to do, so I'm excited about that. Can't wait to see the city again -- SF, here I come!

Here's this week's sale products at the shop -- stop by, check them out, and grab the newest Book Fair kit too!

Express Yourself paper pack

Express Yourself quotes

Thumbprint Birdies

Journaling Jotters vol 8 template

Letter Layouts vol 5 template