What's a girl to do

when it's hot outside, she doesn't have to work until 4pm each day, and all of her friends have real jobs to be at during the day? Listen for the hum of the UPS man's truck and scrapbook, of course. It's the life, I'll tell ya.

Two things that I am in love with that Mr. Beautiful 1 and Mr. Beautiful 2 (a.k.a. UPS man and Fedex man) brought me in the last week:
1. my camera.

I originally was going to buy the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 and still have rave reviews about the time I tried it, but I realized that a $275 camera was probably a bit excessive for me. So instead, I went back to the drawing board to look at more reviews. A couple days later, and I found the camera I needed to have in my life- the Canon A590. For only $153 at Amazon, it was perfect.

Here are some reasons why I love it:
-8 megapixels
-the price
-4 x optical zoom, 4 x digital zoom... so 16 x zoom (works really well, too)
-you can interchange the lenses, so there's room to grow with this camera
-uses SD memory
-the capability to shoot with fully manual settings

(Uh... please excuse the toilet?)
There are only few things I don't like, but the benefits outweigh the drawbacks
-the case is plastic, so it feels cheap even if it takes quality pictures
-it uses AA batteries. I'm used to a rechargeable battery, so this is more of an adjustment than anything. AA batteries could actually be convenient. If I'm ever at a loss for battery power in a time of need, I can always rest assured that outrageously priced AA batteries are for sale nearby. That's the way life works
-I have a ton of learning to do about this camera. I know that once I learn more about it, I'll be able to take better pictures. It's a little daunting to have to "learn a camera", though.

(picture of my cat, Blue, taken with my new camera. It's currently serving as my desktop. :-) )

Overall, I'm really pleased with my purchase. I highly recommend it as a good point-and-shoot camera for a great price. The reviews on the camera across the web were phenomenal, too.

2. my ATG!
It's amazing. I'm still working on the finesse to using it, but the learning process is coming along well. Here are some pictures of my baby:

(how it came wrapped... wow! It was lots of bubble wrap)


I also started altering it a bit. I really want to paint the handle, but that requires a lot of work and supplies that I don't have in the house... so stay tuned for updates on that little project. I'm sure you'll be the first to hear.

(altered with KI Memories expoy letter stickers, a Sakura white pen, and bazzill paper)

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Last night, I had the honor of seeing The Dark Knight. Let me just say that action movies are not remotely my thing. Not at all. I didn't even want to go at first, because I get scarred incredibly easily. However, The Dark Knight was PHENOMENAL. Easily, it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Heath Ledger played the Joker so well that I can't even explain how I feel about him as an actor. You need to see this movie if you get the chance.

(Picture from http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2008/apr/29look1.htm)

I'm actually working on three layouts right now- all of them challenges. I'm really excited about them, but you'll have to wait until next week when I actually have time to finish them. For now, here's a layout I did for COCOA this week:



Supplies: cs - Bazzill (blue), The Paper Studio (white and black), pp- Basic Grey (circles), My Mind's Eye (stripes), unknown (green dots), deco scissors- The Paper Studio, thread- DMC, black pen- American Crafts, letter stickers- Scrapworks, buttons- unknown

Also, my shopping trip the other day was very successful. So successful, in fact, that I get really excited every time I think about the items that I bought. (Some of which I'm giving to the PAW winner tomorrow.) Yum! Here's a picture:


My favorite by far is the giraffe stamp, though. Is that not the cutest giraffe ever? I need to use it on something, like, now.

By the way, look what my boyfriend brought to me Tuesday night before our date? You gotta love him.



Thanks for stopping by! Next: Atlanta Album, 3 challenge LOs. Check back in a couple days!

Love.
Brit

Some old things, some new things, and some blue things

I have a few new loves in my life.

You see, when your camera takes this picture:

and then dies, you have two options- buy a new camera or don't. (A third option would be to get this camera fixed, but since I bought it for $150 and it would cost almost $200 to fix, that doesn't make sense.) Therefore, I have fallen in love with this:

It's the Panasonic DMC-TZ5. I tried it out at Best Buy and was in love instantly. Everything about it just makes me want to run everywhere with it and take pictures every second... 10x zoom, 10 megapixels, all of the wonderful best shot modes are wonderful. All the reviews I've read online either are 5-star or address problems I really have no concern about. So I decided that this camera nees to be mine, now I just have to wait for it to go on sale.

Now, for the reason I have to wait to buy this love of mine... another true sole mateMy Macbook Pro. I'm ordering it today after admiring it from affar for so long. It's perfect (even though, of course, my bf is a PC fanatic and wants nothing to do with it... he'll come around, though). This baby is going to get me through (hopefully) four years of school. My major? Graphic design. I'm excited.

Here's a page I did this week for another COCOA weekly challenge. That group is so helpful- it pushes me to get a least one LO done.It's really simple, but it gets the job done. Plus, I love that Scenic Route pp! The stickers and rubons are from American Crafts, the calendar stamp is from Autumn Leaves, the ink is black StazOn, the chipboard tag and brads are from The Paper Studio, the paint from Windsor and Newton, and the cs is unknown.

Also, I must share a picture I took today, because I think it's really cool-looking. I was doing a shoe photoshoot for an upcoming layout (stay tuned for that): The sad part is, that may not even be half of my shoes. I just grabbed whatever I could find.

Oh, one more thing. Mr. UPS Man brought me this t-shirt today from http://www.threadless.com/. Total inspiration for a layout, don't you think? Hmm... we'll see where that goes.

That's all for today. Thanks for looking!

Brit