Photoblog Wednesday

“Holy broken Windows, Batman! It’s the Apple signal!”

I discovered this on Sunday and didn’t know what it was at first, until I looked at it the right direction! At this time of year, when the sun sinks down in the, about 5M sky, it shines in the window and hits the silver Apple logo on my computer. That projects up on the ceiling for a cool glowing apple overhead. It’s pretty cool!

Okay, or maybe I’m just a geek! :)

Come Snag Some Swag!

Well, today is the day that I see if I learned my lessons well! Kristine, Wenchd Grafix, did such an amazing job planning the Fall Splendor blog party! I was especially impressed with all the work she did organizing “blog party central,” that single page with the previews for all the contributions and links to the blogs all in one place. She was phenomenal!

Our cast party for the scrapping reality show, better known as The 2008 Next SAS-y Lady Contest at SAS, is a smaller group, way smaller than Fall Splendor was, and I really do appreciate Kristine’s work even more! But, tipping my hat to her genius with the idea, I used the same idea for our Cast party, and “got us a room” to party in!

For the Cast Party, members of the whole group from the contest, including all three of the newly crowned SAS-y Ladies are offering our scrapping version of the Hollywood Swag Bags with a gift, to say thank you to all of our blog readers and fellow scrappers who were such great support in the competition! After you download the Digitalegacies thank you gift, make sure you click on the logo to the Cast Party room to see what the other girls have created to say “thanks!”

“Thank You” from Digitalegacies Designs is a set of brag book pages made with 6 of the kits you’ve seen here, including, “Train, Train," “She Said YES!,” “Birthday,” “In Only Seven Days,” “Dandelions and Thistle” and “Daddy’s Little Girl.” The set also has a bonus full-resolution Cook Book Page from Davlicious Recipes for my Tigers-inspired Cranberry-Orange Zucchini Bread. The page is done with the Digitalegacies contribution to Fall Splendor.

Sorry, this link is expired.

If you haven’t downloaded the corresponding kits for the brag book pages, you’ll find them all here fore free at The Chronicles of Nani! If you download any of them and show me a layout you did with them, I’ll send you the link for “Indian Summer!”

Be sure to stop at the Cast Party room to see what the other designers have added! There are more brag books, quick pages, desktops, mini kits and some really great new ideas like baby announcements and kids party invitations! You just have to see what all there is!

Photoshop Blog Wednesday

Photoshop at it's pure and simple freebies best! ;)



The Next SAS-y Ladies Contest Cast Party

The party officially starts at 12:01 AM Eastern US time, but the freebies will be posted throughout the day!

Monday Mug Shot

B&B Riverboats
Port of Cincinnati, Ohio

The first thing you’ll notice about this mug is the handle. It has one of those spinny things I like so much. Last time I showed a mug with one of these, it was for the Football Hall of Fame, with a spinning football. This one has a spinning paddle wheel like the one one the riverboat. VERY cool!

No picking on me for the fascination of spinning things that I can flick with my thumb while I’m holding the mug. I am 42. I handed the mug to David, who is also 42. The first thing he did with it was give the wheel a flick and make it spin. Perhaps spinning the things on the mug handles is part of “the Answer.”

Okay, and sure, I have spun the spinny-things on mug that have them for many years, but practice, ya know? I mean, really, doctors give shots and stuff as interns before they become doctors. So, AS the Answer, I say that part of the Answer is spiny-things on coffee mugs.

Now back to how I came about owning this mug with necessary for enlightenment handle spinny-thing...

It was an August trip to Cincinnati, so that could only mean it was a baseball trip! Mom and I went to catch the Saturday night game and the Sunday afternoon games against the Montreal Expos. And I got to speak some French!

Yeah, I do know that they speak English in Cincinnati and that just like so many hockey players that play in the US are Canadian, a fair number of the baseball players in Montreal spoke Spanish... What? There are a LOT of very talented Latin players! But I still, with a smile, got to say a few French things. I don’t know if “Vouz sucez!” actually means anything in French, but the direct translation is “y’all suck!” hehehe

I’m kinda bummed that the Expos left Montreal before I got to go to a game where I could see un match de baseball avec une de mes equipes favorites as the visiteur, eating a Quebecoise hot-dog and washing it down with good Canadian biere! Mom and I had talked about possibly going to Montreal, but the air fares were so expensive! I had to settle for seeing the expos in the US and getting my yucks in at home!

The Reds won both games we went to and oh, but what a great game the Saturday game was! Aaron Boone & Eddie Taubensee both hit grand slams! I’d never seen two slams in one game before! A BIG bonus that they were both for my team! It was a very god baseball weekend!

We left early on Saturday morning for the 5-hour drive to Cincy. With an evening game on Saturday, we’d have some time for some fun before the game, so I’d booked us lunch passage on the Belle of Cincinnati, leaving Covington Landing at noon.

Mom loved boats, from watching the lake freighters in Sarnia or at the Mackinac Bridge or riding paddle boats or sightseeing boats, Mom loved them all! The summer before she and Dad met, they were both at the Hydroplane Gold Cup races in Detroit, but on opposite sides of the river. That was something she and Dad always enjoyed together. She had fond memories of sailing on the Queen Mary to Italy on her honeymoon and we went to Tall Stacks in Cincinnati in 1995 together. If it floated on water, Mom was sure to find a way to be there to see t or ride on it!

When the two of us made our Southern trip in 1989, we went on a dinner cruise on the Cumberland River in Chattanooga, so we were seasoned river diners!

When we boarded, we posed for the obligatory photo on board. If you resist having the photo taken, they’ll tell you it’s a photo record of whose on board, “should anything happen.” Truthfully, it’s a souvenir they’ll try to sell you as you get off the boat! I know. I have many of those purchased photos! Then were found our table number.

The table was by a window facing the Cincinnati side of the boat. Not that it matters, because the boat will turn around and you’ll see the other side after dessert. I don’t specifically recall what we had for lunch. It was buffet style standard big lunch fare, roast beef, a chicken dish and a very nice spread for a sandwich option. After dessert and coffee, we went upstairs to the open air portion of the boat. It was a beautiful day, not too hot and a nice breeze on the river. The view is wonderful on the part of the Ohio River that goes through Cincinnati. There is the city skyline on one side, and Cincinnati is one of the prettiest skylines, every building seeming to belong with the others, and the more quaint Covington, Kentucky side, with a smaller town appeal contrasted with some beautiful newer architecture. That appealed to me, the architecture aficionado!

After the boat,we visited the Newport Aquarium, in Newport , Kentucky and the dinner before the game. The Sunday game was an extra innings game that the Reds won. For a baseball nut and the woman who raised me to be a baseball nut, there’s nothing like free baseball to top off a fantastic Mother-Daughter weekend!

Saving The Planet (One Cup of Coffee at a Time)

This one’s a long one so, get a cup of coffee and a piece of that black forest cake!

Who knew saving the planet could taste so good?

That’s right, uh-huh, just call me SOUPER JAVA NANI, defender of Mother Earth!

:::moment of silence with a impish grin on my face:::

Yeah, okay, I’m not really a super hero, even in my own ego, but I do my part where I can to preserve our planet!

David and I were surprised by a fact revealed on The Weather Channel a few weeks back in the segment done by Bill Nye The Science Guy. Bill had posed a question about how many gallons of water could be save annually just by turning off the water when you brush your teeth. I’ll be honest I don’t remember the number, I just remember that it was an astronomical figure that shocked both of us! I’m making a concerted effort to remember to turn off the water between the initial “add a little water to the brush to moisten the toothpaste” phase and the rinse.

But it’s rough to break an old habit. I mean, I’m 42 years old and most of those 42 years I’ve had teeth! I’m a pretty devout brusher. I’m even one of those strange people who actually flosses every day. My oral hygienist back in Michigan said it was a pleasant surprise, most people don’t. But for decades, brushing my teeth has meant, put toothpaste on the brush, run the brush under a little water, brush back and forth, up and down and in little circles and rinse. THEN turn off the water and floss. It never occurred to me to turn off the water while I did the back and forth, up and down and little circles!

So now, how do I remember to try to retrain myself? When I brush my teeth, I think about coffee!

Get that surprised look off your face! I’m not thinking about coffee as mouthwash or anything! Keep reading!

How does coffee make me think about water conservation? Well, I always make my coffee with rescued water! David and I keep a half gallon and a gallon jug on the counter near the sink. When the water is just running, we let it run over a jug. Think about all the times you just let the water run while it’s getting cold enough to drink or hot enough to rinse or wash dishes. It adds up. We fill those gallon and a half worth of jugs in a day easy. Those jugs are “rescued water,” water that didn’t just flow down the drain unused. Cats don’t drink cold water, room temperature is perfect for the kids and I also use the rescued water to make soup, lemonade, cook vegetables and make coffee! So, my coffee could be considered “ecocoffee!”


A New Notch On The Wall

I am proud to announce that The Chronicles of Nani is now a two-time winner of the Proximidade award for fostering friendship and providing special content around the cyber world!


Monika, of Monika Digital Designs bestowed this award this time. I definitely do extend that hand of friendship, but the specialness of content is totally up to my readers. I truly treasure every award you all feel I deserve!

Like I said before, I’m working on ideas of an award of my own to give out. You know I have “a list!” :) But I will be awarding people soon!



It’s Simply Davlicious!

What a way to start the day! This morning I brewed the ecocoffee in my grinder/coffee maker with a cinnamon stick in the grinder half. It ground the fresh cinnamon and added it to the coffee grounds as it was brewing. I used the caramel Splenda that David bought me last weekend for a sweet morning treat! YUM!

And speaking of “yum,” I’ve been tweaking a new recipe for baked apples that I’ll probably be doing a new “Cook Book Page” for, but in the mean time, I’m working on the Davlicious page in The Simply Davine Group to finally get it updated. Davlicious Recipes are all the archived recipes from Simply Davine. Simply Davine was essentially my “life and times of me” before The Chronicles of Nani. A regular blog is much easier to update several times a week than a website. Now that website is the portal to all my web stuff and the Davlicious link is just the archive recipes page. I’m going to be reconstructing that page with all the archived recipes and the original photos from when they were on the website. I’ll also be adding new recipes from time to time. But first, I want to make the archive more user-friendly!

Davlicious Recipes are all original or family recipes that I share with anyone who wants to try them. I did a set of “Cook Book Pages” last month and offered them in full resolution to anyone that wanted them. There were a few requests, which made me smile. I think that’s the “inner Italian grandma” that Noni left with me. So look for “Davlicious Recipes Cook Book Pages” from time to time on The Chronicles of Nani! Hint - when the Davlicious site is ready for the grand re-launch, look for a page or two to celebrate it!



Scrap News

Because I don’t have enough to fill my days...if you haven’t already seen the sarcasm in THAT statement, please apply it liberally and read it again...I suggested and am organizing an event with many of the contestants from the Next SAS-y Designer contest. We’re having a “Cast Party” for our after the scrapping reality show event, which includes cast members from the first week and ALL THREE of the winning new SAS-y Ladies!

So, what makes this something worth telling everyone who was NOT part of our cast?

You’re all invited! This cast party is our opportunity to say “Thanks” to all of you who read our blogs, voted and read almost daily pleas for votes in the contest. Now, we’re saying “thanks” with a whole slew of freebies, no strings attached - no begging, just a gift...a bunch of blog-hopping gifts for all of you as party favors!

The party starts next Wednesday, so make sure you visit here for a link to the party room where you'll find all the previews for your gifts and links to the blogs where the gift-givers have them offered. How cool is this?? I’ve already seen a lot of the previews. Trust me, it’s VERY cool!



Jessica Sprague

While browsing some scrapping blogs this morning, I came across The Digital Life and Times of Meg. Meg’s first blog entry on this blog was in August, but she has some interesting scrapbook ideas, a few freebies and a link to an interesting tutorial and classes site! Jessica Sprague is offering a free class at jessicasprague.com in November!


This is not a personal endorsement of the class, since it’s all totally new to me, but the topic caught my interest and I intend to sign up for it when it’s available for registration on the 20th.

Stories At Hand advertises itself as a class for developing the “missing moments” in between photos and scrapbook pages. The promo suggests it will help capture those untold memories in scrapbook pages when you don’t have photos or in video or blogs. From the promotion, I’m getting that it will help you write better, be a better storyteller.

It just has me intrigued and it’s a free glimpse into her class style. So, I’m going to give it a try! Some of The Chronicles of Nani readers have expressed an interest in being better storytellers and some in journaling better. This might not be a bad idea! Another thing, the post I was reading at jessicaspreague.com also says this class is not just for scrapbookers! (that kinda adds more intrigue to me!)



Links Back Up

I think I’ve decided that I’m just not the type to “go pro” at scrapbook designing. I don't like rules and deadlines put on my creativity all the time unless I’m getting a big paycheck when its done!

Oh, I may try the designer contest thing again because I made great new friends in it and I learned a LOT about designing and really a lot about what to design for other people, what people would be able to enjoy and use in their own layouts. This does not mean that I’m going to shy away from doing kit themes that there just aren’t kits for, on the contrary, I think after comments I received about “I Cross My Heart” and the FBR search I did for cheerleading kits, the Digitalegacies brand of theme kits are sorely needed!

Flowers, fairies and frillies are nice. They make pretty, artsy pages and there are tons of gorgeous kits available for making those works of personal art. But in a market saturated with the scrapbooking supplies that thrill the creative little girls in all female scrappers, there are pages to be done about everyday things, sports, men and there are even men who scrap! This grown-up tomboy will always be looking for the elements that represent those memories too and when I can’t find them, I‘ll design them...and share them!

So, now I’m totally overloaded with stuff on my “to do” list! I have a ton of inspired ideas swirling around in my head, including that “heritage” kit I’m hoping to launch this month. But in the mean time, there are a few things I’ve done.

I’d expired some of the older freebie links in contemplation of what I might want to put in a store someday. Those links have all been reactivated and “Train, Train,” “I’m All In,” “Printmps Classique,” “In Only Seven Days” and “She Said YES!,” are once again available for free download. “In Only Seven Days” is now a link to the directory for all seven downloads from the main page introducing the kit

(click on the previews to go to the original post)

"Train, Train"
password is railfans


"I'm All In"
password is royalflush


"Printemps Classique"
password is itsFrench

"In Only Seven Days"
password is Freddie


"She Said YES!"
password is marry-me

Well, I’ve been adding a new piece to this blog entry every now and then all day, which makes for a LONG blog! But this is my scrapping day, so there is much to still be done with the rest of the evening and my presence is requested downstairs for Red Sox, game 2 on TV!