Fabulous Adventures of Listgirl

On Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:48:00 +0000

I've been thinking about my blog a lot and after blogging regularly for 6.5 years and over 1,300 posts, I think I need to take a break. I'm putting my blog on hiatus for now. I'm not sure when I will be back. It could be soon or it could take a while.

I will fulfill my design team blog obligations still, since I've signed contracts for the duration of the term and I don't plan to break them. I will still be on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, sharing my life. I have loved blogging and the dialogue I've had with many of you through this blog. Now that the blogosphere has changed and people don't comment on blogs anymore, I'm unsure of where my place is in this new environment. I don't enjoy putting hours of work into the contents of a blog post and not receive any feedback on it. So if that's how the current blogging environment is, then I will need to either make peace with it and give up on getting blog comments, or I need to leave it. I can't change it, I can only accept it, change how I feel about it, or move on.

If during my hiatus I am itchy to come back to blogging, then I will know that in the future I will be blogging with a different purpose, one that would be intrinsically satisfying for myself, even if nobody comments. I"m just not at that place right now, not yet.

So long for now.

Christine

Tutorial | Emboss & Watercolor Resist

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Tue, 21 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I blogged a tutorial at the Evalicious blog yesterday, showing a stamp emboss & watercolor resist layout. I made a layout about our first time at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

In the video, I show the step-by-step, how I stamped and embossed the white images onto my background paper.

And how I watercolored over the embossed images to create looks like these. The watercolor only sticks to the paper and not the embossed images, that’s why it’s called “resist”. :-)

Here’s my emboss & resist video. It is under 7 minutes. I hope you enjoy watching my process and learning about stamp emboss and watercolor resist! :) You can click over to youtube to see it slightly larger.

SUPPLIES USED:

InLinkz.com

Write Click Scrapbook | June Gallery Sneak Peek

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000

It’s the 20th of the month, which means it’s time for the June gallery sneak peek for Write.Click.Scrapbook.!

This is my layout for June.

This theme this month is pretty nebulous, so I don’t think my sneak peek of my layout will give it away. Any guesses though? :-)

Digi Dares | A Mother Is…

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:54:00 +0000

This week’s Digi Dare #322 is all about mothers. Originally this dare was going live on Mother’s Day week, so the topic was very timely. But the Dare got pushed back due to the site redesign and the Digi Dares 6th anniversary. Click on over to the newly redesigned Digi Dares and join us this week to scrap about motherhood, your own mother, or being a mother!

Here is my page.

Supplies: Stargazer kit and journal cards by One Little Bird; Splatterific 21 by Karah Fredricks; Three (x4) Stitched Frames by Amy Martin; Wood Veneer Alpha Essentials (free!) by Gina Cabrera; font is PT Sans Narrow.

Journaling: When I was little, you were the world to me. You showed me unconditional love, which gave me the confidence to explore the world and be myself. Even when I grew up and flew the nest, you were still my champion and my biggest comforter and cheerleader. Now that you’re gone, you’ve left an empty space in my heart. Even as an adult, I still need my mom. You were the moon and the stars to me. You still are.

The photo is of me and my mom. I think I was maybe three years old in the photo. I found this photo in an old photo album that I went through, after my mom passed away. I’m still in the process of going through old family albums and scanning them, and then putting the scanned photos into new acid-free albums. The project has taken a long time and I’ll blog about it sometime.

Here is the dare. We would love it if you would join us this week!

Sunny With A Chance Of Pizza

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Thu, 16 May 2013 05:54:00 +0000

Todd and I went to Blue Ribbon Artisan Pizza on Sunday night (5/4) for dinner. It was only our second time there. The first time we went with Cassi and Dan and little Madison. Todd had a craving for it after going on a 3.5 hour bike ride!

Todd said he could eat a whole pizza by himself (they’re about 9-10 inches across).

Which meant I had to order a second one if I wanted any. :p

Todd ate his whole pizza in the same time that I ate two pieces. I took half home. But we did share this little treat, which was SO delicious: Sea Salt Butterscotch Pudding with Caramel sauce and crème.

Oh my. We had never had it before. This alone would be worth the trip to Blue Ribbon Pizza!

We celebrated Cinco De Mayo a day late. So on Seis De Mayo, I made this pico de gallo to go along with some super-awesome chicken tacos. We loved it so much that we made this again to go with some carne asada tacos a few days later!

I spent most of last weekend working on scrapbooking projects. I made these emboss & resist journal cards for fun.

Which led to a layout and video tutorial for Evalicious, coming soon.

I also did a layout for Lily Bee. Here’s a sneak peek of it.

Many times when I’m in my craft studio, Noodle lays on top of the cart and takes a nap. So cute. Todd always says Noodle likes to help with “Projekt Katlife”.

On Saturday we went to see Iron Man 3 and it was really awesome. I love me any superhero movie really, but this one was really good. And we stayed past the credits for the easter egg. Past experience told us there might be a little scene at the end, after the credits. And we were right! :-)

On Sunday night, while watching Game of Thrones, I washed, chopped, and made these mason jar salads. These are 1.5 pint jars and I made 9 of them.

I saw my friend Peppermint’s mason jar salad post on her blog. She explained how to wash the veggies, and how to layer them in the jar (basically wet to dry) so that these salads lasts for quite a few days and stay very fresh! I was super-excited to give it a try. Often times we come home from work and we’re already hungry before making dinner, so we end up eating a not-so-healthy snack. Having these around would help a lot with eating a healthy “appetizer” before dinner.

I took one to work today as part of my lunch.

It was still just as fresh as on Sunday, when I packed them into the jar! Amazing!

The last few days has been quite warm here in San Diego. Temps were near 90’s even at the coast. Thank goodness it has cooled down.

Even Noodle was too warm. I found him cooling himself off by laying on the cold tiles in the kitchen.

Last night Todd made this amazing Spicy Sweet & Sour Chicken dish. It was yummy! We’ve made it many times before, but last night was especially yummy. Probably because I made the chicken marinade and the sauce, hee hee.

Lily Bee Design | Project Life Week 16

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I blogged at the Lily Bee Design blog on Friday about my latest Project Life pages. I scrapped these on iNSD, along with another layout. I felt so productive! I’m loving my Project Life album this year because it’s low-pressure. I’m not trying to keep up with weeks, and I’m not trying to document everything. I just work on it when I want to, at my own pace. It feels relaxed and it feels awesome. Right now my favorite part of Project Life is seeing my photos printed out and in an album. I’m also into hand-written and typed journaling on photos lately. It makes me feel like the photos already speak for themselves, which makes me feel more free to do whatever I want in the other non-photo pockets.

Here’s my 2-page spread.

Left side.

I wrote “Noodle” in Photoshop, then typed out the rest of the words on the photo.

I used a bunch of Lily Bee stickers right on my photos this week. More handwriting on the photo before printing it.

All the 3x4 journal cards on the left side are made with Lily Bee patterned papers. For this one documenting Todd’s race, I fussy cut the banner design out of the Jelly Bean paper.

This pocket was made from the Marshmallow paper, which is one of my favorite papers in the Lily Bee Sweet Shoppe collection. I also used some label stickers and circle & tag stickers. I used my Sharpie Glitter Paint Pen to color the wood veneer heart.

I printed some polaroid-style photos out again, and used Photoshop to journal on the white blank space underneath the photo. I still love doing this and haven’t gotten tired of it yet! For the journal card on the right, I cut a piece of patterned paper to 3x4, then I used a 2.5” square punch to punch out the window to make it look like a polaroid. Then I adhered it to white cardstock and journaled on it. The letter stickers completed the title.

This was the week we went on a road trip to San Francisco from Friday to Sunday. I decided to devote the right side to just the Friday we drove up to SF.

Right side.

I had a lot of fun using Lily Bee letter stickers on this title.

I used a circle punch to punch the patterned paper. Then I layered a circle sticker on top of it and adhered the whole thing to the middle of my photo collage.

I created this California art in Photoshop myself, using some watercolor brushes and my own handwriting. Then I printed it out onto a Becky Higgins Project Life 3x4 blank journal card. I put a wood veneer star on San Francisco, for this trip.

I took a bunch of little menus from the places we ate at. I used some coordinating patterned paper to back them in the 3x4 pockets.

More circle embellishments on my photo collage.

I wanted to include the whole story of the road trip and drive up on Friday, so I copied and pasted my blog post into a 4x6 canvas in Photoshop and printed it out. Then I trimmed it and adhered it to patterned paper, and embellished the top left. I like how this turned out.

I’m sharing my California art that I made in Photoshop. :)

Download: 3x4 or 4x6

Please remember to use it for personal-use only, and don’t sell the digital or printed version. Thanks!
That’s it for this installment of Project Life! I’m really enjoying working on my album when I get a chance! :-)

SUPPLIES USED:

InLinkz.com

Evalicious Layout | Insta Moment

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:17:00 +0000

This past Saturday was {inter}National Scrapbook Day and I spent a lot of the day scrapbooking and doing Project Life! I enjoyed it a lot. I feel like the Dos Equis commercials… “I don’t always scrapbook on NSD, but when I do it’s Evalicious and Lily Bee.” Hee hee! I decided to scrap a page about my lunch meetup with my new scrapbooking friend Pearl. That’s sort of celebrating National Scrapbook Day! :)

I made this layout for the Evalicious blog inspiration post. It came together pretty quickly using mostly goodies from the new Escape collection!

For this layout, I first spread a very thin layer of gesso onto my background kraft cardstock using a foam brush. The thin layer allowed it to dry very quickly. Then I layered some upcycled silver star cellophane (cut from a bag) on top of my gesso to create even more texture and interest.

Did you know that you can use Evalicious packaging on your layouts? I upcycled a small glassine bag that was part of some stamp packaging and used it as a pocket on the right side to hold my shipping tag. I stamped the photo quote stamp from the Hello Photo Stamp Set with silver ink onto the tag and then slipped it into the pocket. I also stamped onto the glassine and used a pen to outline more definition. For this layout, I used a bunch of Evalicious stamps to layer and I just love the look! :)

I used one of the new Escape Large Tags for journaling.

One of the things I love to do to create layering and texture is to staple a tab onto a photo. I also used the hello photo stamp and fussy-cut it. Then I outlined the shape with an orange Sharpie pen, because I used light gray and the color didn’t pop out enough. I adhered it to the layout using foam adhesive to make it more dimensional.

And of course, I couldn’t complete an Evalicious layout without using a badge button!

SUPPLIES I USED:

InLinkz.com

Instagram Printing Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Tue, 07 May 2013 04:18:00 +0000

As you know, I print most of my photos at home. I do this because it’s very convenient. When I want to scrapbook or do Project Life, I don’t want to have to think about whether I had sent a photo to get printed or not. All my photos are in my Lightroom catalog and it’s easy to just go in and print what I need. My printer at home is the Canon Pixma MG5320 and I adore the quality of prints I get on it. (The new model that’s out now is the Canon Pixma MG6320.) Almost all the photos you see on my scrapbook pages and Project Life are printed at home. Except for those that were printed at Persnickety Prints.

Photos printed at home this weekend.

Photos printed at Persnickety Prints.

I love printing at home and I love printing at Persnickety.

Then a few weeks ago, I got an email from Costco Photo Center telling me that they now print Instagram photos. I was excited because our local Costco does a pretty good job. I used them a bit in 2011 for my Project Life. And you can just log in to Costco Photo Center online and log in to your Instagram account and it will retrieve all your Instagram photos. So I did that. Then I went to order the photos and guess what? They don’t print square photos. So all the square Instagram photos got cropped to 4x6, which means some major parts of the photo got cropped off. I thought to myself… Surely this is a mistake on my part? Maybe I don’t know how to order these online? Why would they offer Instagram printing if they can’t offer a square photo? So I went online to get live chat help with the Costco Photo Center. Here’s how it went.

So until Costco decides to get serious about REALLY printing square photos, I won’t be using them for Instagram! So I told this story to my Facebook friends and a couple of them said Walgreens now prints Instagram photos, square ones even! So I downloaded the Walgreens app to my iPhone and was able to choose immediately which photos to print. I was able to use a coupon inside the app to get a discount. And the photos were ready to pick up in an hour.

I went that same day after work and picked up my Instagram prints at Walgreens.

I found out that if you don’t choose which print finish you want inside the Walgreens app on the iPhone, the default finish is luster. I didn’t see any options inside the app to choose glossy. This is what the luster finish surface looks like.

And because of the bleed allowance issue, the edges of your Instagram print will be somewhat unevenly cut off. That’s fine if your Instagram photos don’t have frames. But if you have a frame around it, some parts will be cut off and it looks stupid.

The Walgreens 4x4 Instagram prints cost 39 cents each to print (regular price without coupons), which is significantly more than printing a regular 4x6 photo for 19 cents.

The prints are on regular photo paper and are thin compared to the Instagram Polaroids that I got printed at Persnickety Prints. Those were 45 cents each but were on matte or glossy heavy cardstock.

My conclusion for now? I still LOVE printing at home and the instant gratification of immediately holding the photos in my hands and heading off to my craft studio to scrapbook. My home printer prints such high quality photos that there are only a couple of circumstances in which I feel it would be worth sending the photos out to print somewhere else. First is if I’m doing a big project and have to print off a big batch of photos. I would print the regular 4x6s at Costco. Second is if I want the high-quality thick awesome paper from Persnickety Prints. Perhaps Costco will eventually be able to print real square Instagram photos. For now, it is a joke.

Burgers, Beach, and French Jazz

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:37:00 +0000

Last Sunday Todd and I drove up to Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo in Orange County to enjoy the sights and to attend the Paris Combo concert at the Soka Performing Art Center. Todd has been a fan of Paris Combo for several years now, after discovering them on XM Radio. They are a jazz group from France and they rarely ever tour the US. So when Todd heard they were coming to The OC, he got tickets immediately.

We drove up early to have lunch at Umami Burger. We had never been and always wanted to! It was located in a shopping center at Laguna Beach.

We ordered Diet Cokes and Todd was pretty dismayed to find out that these $2.00 Cokes were only 8 ozs and no refills. That’s not a good deal!

We ordered some tempura onion rings and thin fries.

They come with four different dipping sauces: House Ketchup, Diablo Sauce, Jalapeno Ranch, and Garlic Aioli.

Todd got the Manly Burger without cheese.

I got the Truffle Burger.

For the price, these burgers were actually smaller than you would expect. That’s ok though, it’s not like we need to eat that much. They were really delicious and juicy! By default, they cook them medium-rare at Umami Burger, so if you want different you have to tell them. I got mine medium.

After lunch, we walked around on the oceanfront walkway in Laguna Beach. It was an overcast day but still beautiful at the coast.

Time for a selfie!

Nice Sunday for a beach outing.

Some people climbed the rocks to get to that piece of rock further out. When the waves recess, you can walk across that lower part that connects the rocks.

The walkways and stairs onto the beach at Laguna Beach are so awesome. They are lined with pretty plants too. I bet the city spends quite a bit to maintain it. So pretty.

Check out the view of the ocean behind us. Amazing!

After walking for about 20 minutes and getting down to the beach, we crossed the street to a gas station, where Todd was able to right the wrong of the small Coke at lunch by getting a big Pepsi.

Then it was time to drive over to Aliso Viejo to Soka University for the concert. The performing arts center was inside Founders Hall. The surrounding fountains were beautiful!

The concert was really awesome. They played straight for 90 minutes without intermission.

I was not as familiar with the music as Todd, and neither of us could understand the French singing. They did speak some English announcing each song and what it was about. They also had a sense of humor and that came across quite well.

Todd was so excited that he finally got to see Paris Combo! And we had a great time spending a few hours in The OC, eating burgers, strolling along the ocean, and listening to great music.

April Favorites

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Fri, 03 May 2013 04:23:00 +0000

April was a great month! The weather turned warmer (even though I can’t complain about San Diego winters). There was more daylight. And we did so much fun stuff. We took 748 photos, with is our largest number of photos per month so far this year.

April Favorites:

Using the PicTagGo app from Totally Rad on my iPhone to process photos. It’s like having access to my favorite Rad Lab filters on my phone.
Reviving our college tradition of the bookstore/café date.
Doing Project Life again and printing out photos.
My new Stabilo pens.
Lunch with Pearl at Tofu House.
Todd posting a photo to Facebook of himself at work with his Tough Mudder orange headband on. Caption read, “Tough Mudders need day jobs too”.
Todd asking me to a breakfast date at Panera, saying “Let’s go have breakfast at Panera and plan out our weekend!” He hates breakfast food. He knows I love planning weekends. He’s a good man.
Noodle playing amongst some new tissue papers. He loves them SO much.
Blackberries in season. Yum! We ate so much of it.
Todd running and finishing the Xterra Black Mountain 15K Trail Race.
Celebrating Todd’s race at Phil’s BBQ.
Noodle totally hugging Todd while snuggling on his lap.
Making the Campanelli with Asparagus, Basil, and Balsamic Glaze recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, after seeing it on Natalie’s blog.
Having Dejah & Roby over for another “dinner & a movie” night. This time it was another 80’s classic, “Better Off Dead”.
Eating our homemade Salted Caramel ice cream.
The seafood cioppino at Fog Harbor Fish House in San Francisco.
Walking with Todd at Pier 39 at night, with the carousel lit up.
Riding on the boat to Alcatraz with AJ & Meera, and Meera telling me she’s expecting again!
Historical tour of Alcatraz Island.
Ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli.
Going to AT&T Park for the first time ever.
Sitting in the stands at AT&T Park with AJ’s 30 closest family/friends, celebrating his birthday.
Pearl coming over for dinner and how we ended up chatting the whole night instead of scrapbooking.
Going to the 2013 NFL Draft Party at AJ & Meera’s house. It’s our almost-annual tradition since like 2003.
Running at the coast again.
My DT box of Lily Bee Design goodies arriving at my doorstep.
Watching DVDs of classic Scooby Doo cartoons.
My DT box of Evalicious goodies arriving at my doorstep on the same day as my Lily Bee box!
Eating a Truffle Burger at Umami Burger for the first time, at Laguna Beach. Oh my!
Walking around Laguna Beach with Todd, and seeing the sights.
Seeing the French band Paris Combo in concert at Soka University Performing Arts Center.

Life is so full. Sometimes I wish I could get more accomplished each month. Then I go through my photos and put my blog post together and realize… my life is good. I have so much to appreciate and so much to be thankful for.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Favorites is a monthly series in 2013 to document my favorite “who what where when how” of the month. It is this year’s version of the Month In Review.

Write Click Scrapbook | Love To Run

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Thu, 02 May 2013 05:46:00 +0000

The May Gallery at Write.Click.Scrapbook. is live now! This month our theme is “Everydaily”. Each team member created a layout that represented the everyday. Since I exercise on most mornings, I decided to make my layout about running.

12 x 12 | materials cardstock (American Crafts, Wausau, Bazzill) + patterned paper (American Crafts) + mask, mist (Studio Calico) + die cuts (American Crafts) + stickers (American Crafts) + paper clip (Freckled Fawn) + stamp (American Crafts) + wood veneers (Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn) + ink (Prima, Palette) + pen (Sharpie, Sakura) + twine (The Twinery) + digital cutter (Silhouette America)

I LOVE coloring in wood veneer shapes with the Sharpie glitter paint pens! It’s SO easy and looks so good. I have to admit, I do this on almost every paper layout I do, ha ha. I used Studio Calico Mister Huey Calico White mist and sprayed it onto my gray cardstock with a chevron mask. The white color formulation is slow to dry. Every time I use it I forget. So this time I started putting layers onto my misted cardstock too soon and therefore some of the white mist got on my fingers and spread to the other papers and elements. But that’s ok! :-)

Most of the papers on this layout are from the Amy Tangerine Yes Please collection. I especially love the camera papers!

I made the “love to run” Silhouette cut file myself. I wrote it in Illustrator first, then saved it as a png file and imported it into Silhouette Studio to trace and cut.

You can see my layout in the gallery here to read my note about this layout, and to read my May Fun Fact! Visit the Write.Click.Scrapbook. launch post and see all the amazing layouts my teammates did about “Everydaily”!

As a bonus, if you are into running, you can download the cut file I made.

Download: Love To Run – Silhouette .studio cut file

SUPPLY LIST

InLinkz.com

Lily Bee Design | Beach Love

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

This week’s theme on the Lily Bee Design blog is the Great Outdoors. Cindy Liebel and I shared our beach-themed layouts yesterday on the Lily Bee blog. Cindy was the one who came up with the beach photo theme. And of course, I was excited because I do have a bunch of beach photos to scrap!

My “Beach Love” layout:

Supplies: Destination Collection ((Luggage paper, Atlas paper, Tickets paper, Port paper, chipboard stickers, embellishment bundle, label stickers, letter stickers, chit chat stickers)

I used my Instagram Polaroid prints in pearl finish from Persnickety Prints. I used the app Phonto to type text on my photos on my iPhone before uploading to Persnickety to get them printed. If you are curious about the different paper finishes from Persnickety Prints, I wrote an overview here on my blog.

I found a map of California on Google and traced the outline in Silhouette Studio to create the cut file. Then I put a heart where San Diego is.

Also used my Silhouette to cut out the wave border on top.

I used lots of embellishments, all from the Lily Bee Destination line.

Please visit the Lily Bee blog post to see Cindy’s layout too! She made a fantastic layout featuring surf boards!

And as I had mentioned on Instagram, I’m giving away the California .studio cut file as a free download! :-)

Download: California Silhouette .studio cutting file

You can ungroup the design and move the heart to wherever you want! And please remember this is for personal-use only, so please don’t make anything to sell. Thanks! If you make anything with it, I would love to see it! Feel free to link back in the comments to this post, or email me (link in upper left corner of my blog under the “CONNECT” section.

SUPPLIES USED:

InLinkz.com

San Francisco | AT&T Park

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:31:00 +0000

We were actually only in San Francisco for one full day last weekend. We spent all day Friday driving there, then had dinner at Fog Harbor Fish House. Saturday was our only full-day there and we spent the morning touring Alcatraz.

After lunch at Gott’s Roadhouse inside the Ferry Building, we walked back to our hotel to get a little rest. But on the way back, we decided to walk past our hotel and go to Ghirardelli Square instead. We had already walked over four miles for the day and there was a lot more walking to do. So we treated ourselves to ice cream sundaes at Ghirardelli! :)

Todd had the fudge brownie sundae, while I had the caramel sundae. Both were delicious and hit the spot after a lot of walking. When we were in line to get in, we got to see mouth-watering photos of all the treats and decide which ones we were getting.

We were so excited and wanted the line to move faster, heh heh!

Finally our sundaes came! Does anyone look excited here?

Yum!

Took a photo outside with the Ghirardelli Square sign.

Right down the hill from Ghirardelli Square were some beautiful views. In fact, you could see Alcatraz Island. I thought these blossoms were so pretty.

And of course, a photo in front of a cable car was a must!

By the time we got back to our hotel, we only had 30 minutes to rest before having to head out to AT&T Park to see the Giants versus Padres game. We had asked the hotel bellboy on the way back if hailing a taxi cab to AT&T Park was easy and he said yes. When we came back out around 5pm, there were several people in front of us wanting taxis. It took FOREVER to get a taxi. We waited for half an hour and only 3 taxis came by. I guess taxis were very busy that night. When finally one taxi came by and it was our turn, he said he was not going to AT&T Park. I was worried that we would be late to the game and miss the first pitch. So the bellboy flagged down a town car type of ride and the driver said he would take us to AT&T Park for a $40 fixed fee. By that time we were desperate so we said yes. We had our car with us and could have driven over, but there was no guarantee we would find a parking spot near the stadium this late in the game. It was only a 3-mile walk but we were too late for that. So we got into the town car and spent the $40. (Meera later told us they had to pay $30 for parking near the stadium. She said after they got into the lot, the attendants started charging $40. After that, they started charging $50! So that made me feel better about spending $40 for a 3-mile taxi ride. Also, as a comparison, we had to pay $53 + taxes/fees PER DAY to park at our hotel. That’s San Francisco for you!)

When we exited the taxi, we saw this sight.

I almost wanted to cry. I lived my formative years in the Bay Area (between ages 9-18). One summer when I was a teenager, I decided to watch a Giants baseball game on TV. I had always thought baseball was boring and and had never paid attention to it. But on that particular night, I watched this Giants game on TV and it went into 16-innings. I learned everything I needed to know about baseball during that game. Because it went into 16-innings, I learned EVERYTHING, including suicide squeezes, bunts, balls, strikes, RBI flyouts, etc. From then on, I was hooked on the Giants and baseball. I made my best friend Sally (whom I’m still friends with to this day and she lives in San Diego also!) take BART with me to Oakland Coliseum to watch baseball games. (This was before we could drive.) I went to games at Candlestick Park. I was the only girl I knew who knew the statistics like the back of my hand. The Giants were my first baseball love. And even though I hadn’t followed them as closely in the last few years, except last year when they won the World Series, I felt like crying when I saw AT&T Park. I had never been to AT&T Park, and the Giants were my first baseball love.

Along the walls of the stadium were plaques for the great Giants players.

And we were in!

There was a group of about 30 of us, all are AJ’s family and friends, celebrating his birthday there at AT&T Park. We sat in the outfield bleachers.

The view from our seats up to the scoreboard.

And a selfie. It was very windy and actually got cold out there. That’s San Francisco for you!

The sun was in our eyes, but we were able to see the game pretty well with our sunglasses on.

And of course, there was some garlic fries eating. Because we were at AT&T Park!

Todd got me this HUGE kielbasa. Normally I like them, but this one looked too big and kind of gross to me, so I gave it to AJ and told him “Happy Birthday”, LOL!

And if you know Todd, there had to be some popcorn-eating.

We had so much fun hanging out with the AJ-party and watching baseball. There’s really nothing like going to a baseball game.

As the sun set, I was thankful for real sun, real grass, and real baseball. (If you were a Giants fan in the 80’s, you would know this phrase.)

We left slightly early because it was so COLD on the bleachers in the stadium.

For the return trip, we walked the three miles back to the hotel. That’s 7.2 miles of walking in total on that day! Along the way, we had a view of the Bay Bridge lit up at night. It was so beautiful.

San Francisco will always hold a special place in my heart. Glad we were able to make the trip up there to celebrate AJ’s birthday with him! The next morning, we caravanned with AJ & Meera and the kids back to San Diego. The drive took the whole day again. We packed a lot into this short trip to San Francisco. Including adding AT&T Park to our list of now 41 stadiums we’ve been to!

Here’s the list (not necessarily in chronological order until the last 10 or so):

1. Ohio Stadium (OSU Buckeye Football, Columbus, OH)
2. UD Arena (Univ of Dayton Flyers Football, Dayton, OH)
3. Nutter Center (Wright State Univ basketball, Fairborn, OH)
4. Assembly Hall (Univ of Illinois - Champaign basketball, Champaign, IL)
5. Ryan Field (Northwestern University football, Evanston, IL)
6. Memorial Stadium (Indiana Hoosier football, Bloomington, IN)
7. Cooper Stadium (Columbus Clippers baseball, AAA farm team of the New York Yankees, Columbus, OH)
8. Canal Park (Akron Aeros baseball, AA farm team of the Cleveland Indians, Akron, OH)
9. Municipal Stadium (the old stadium of the Cleveland Browns and Indians, Cleveland, OH)
10. Richfield Coliseum (old home of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball, Cleveland, OH)
11. Jacob Field (Cleveland Indians baseball, Cleveland, OH)
12. Cleveland Browns Stadium (new home of the new football Browns)
13. Cinergy Field (old home of old Cincinnati Reds baseball & Bengals football, Cincinnati, OH)
14. RCA Dome (Indianapolis Colts football, Indianapolis, IN)
15. Trans World Dome (St. Louis Rams football, St. Louis, MO)
16. Sun Devil Stadium (Fiesta Bowl and AZ St football, Tempe, AZ)
17. Oakland Coliseum (A's baseball & Raiders football, Oakland, CA)
18. Candlestick Park (49ers football, old Giants baseball, SF, CA)
19. Angel Stadium (Anaheim Angels baseball, Anaheim, CA)
20. Qualcomm Stadium (Chargers football, old Padres baseball, SD, CA)
21. St. John Arena (old OSU Buckeyes basketball arena, Columbus, OH)
22. Rubber Bowl (Univ of Akron Zips football, Akron, OH)
23. Jar Arena (Univ of Akron Zips basketball, Akron, OH)
24. Cox Arena (SDSU basketball, SD, CA)
25. SD Sports Arena (Gulls hockey, SD, CA)
26. Peoria Sports Complex (SD Padres spring training facility, Peoria, AZ)
27. Scottsdale Stadium (SF Giants spring training facility, Scottsdale, AZ)
28. Phoenix Municipal Stadium (Oakland A's spring training facility, Phoenix, AZ)
29. Petco Park (SD Padres new baseball stadium, SD, CA)
30. Surprise Stadium (Texas Rangers & KC Royals spring training facility, Surprise, AZ)
31. Maryvale Baseball Park (Milwaukee Brewers spring training facility, Maryvale, AZ)
32. HoHoKam Park (winter home of the Chicago Cubs, Mesa, AZ)
33. Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles, CA)
34. Huskie Stadium (Univ of Washington, Seattle, WA)
35. Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners baseball, Seattle, WA)
36. LA Memorial Coliseum (USC football, Los Angeles, CA)
37. Qwest Field (Seattle Seahawks NFL football, Seattle, WA)
38. Stanford Stadium (Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA)
39. Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA)
40. Camp Randall Stadium (Univ of Wisconsin, Madison, WI)
41. AT&T Park (San Francisco, CA

San Francisco | Alcatraz Tour

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:45:00 +0000

I actually lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 9 years. But during that whole time, I never went to Alcatraz. We were invited on this San Francisco road trip by one of our best friends AJ. AJ & Meera have been great friends to us for over 10 years. In 2005, AJ celebrated a big birthday by renting out a box at the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park and inviting his closest friends and family. For this year’s birthday, AJ invited a bunch of us to go to the Giants versus Padres game at AT&T Park in San Francisco. That was the main event of our trip and I’ll blog about it in a separate post. On Saturday morning, 4/20, we went on a tour of Alcatraz with AJ & Meera and their kids.

But first, let’s start from the beginning. We woke up and it was SUPER-sunny in San Francisco! This almost never happens! Our hotel had a really cool window, with red painted frame and cheery bright yellow shades.

We walked two blocks to Caffe Capriccio and got some latte, nutella bagel, and croissant for breakfast.

Then we showered and got ready for the day. Somehow time slipped by us and we had to run all the way to Pier 23 to catch the 10am boat to Alcatraz. AJ & Meera and the kids were waiting for us!

Some great views along the 10 minute ride to Alcatraz. We could see both the Golden Gate Bridge on one side.

And the Bay Bridge on the other side.

Awesome view of San Francisco.

Our boat.

Alcatraz is on the right. You can see it in relation to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Arriving to Alcatraz.

AJ and Keiji excited to get off the boat and explore the prison!

Getting oriented to where things are on Alcatraz.

Here we are.

The tour started at the landing where we got off the boat. There was a park service ranger telling us stories from yesteryear.

We decided to head up the hill on our own and explore.

This is the ruins of the Officer’s Club.

Heading up the hill to the water tower and to the actual prison.

Amazing views from the top of the hill!

Todd and AJ goofing around.

I was fascinated by the morgue.

It’s very rare that San Francisco is this clear. We really got lucky!

Finally arriving at the main prison.

I was amazed that the actual prison wasn’t very big.

It seems sad that the prisoners had such great views out the window. They could see SF but yet it was so far away.

I got the audio tour, which had narration from ex-prisoners and prison guards!

Totally reminded me of the movie “The Rock”.

The cells were very small and sparse.

It’s hard to imagine being locked up behind these bars.

Or maybe we don’t have to! Ha ha.

Andon & Keiji looking at the cells and listening to the audio tour.

The infamous “D Block” where the worst of the worst got locked up.

These cells were bigger, ironically. But they never got to come out to the yard or anything. They were locked up 24 hours a day.

Some of the inmates in the D Block.

These doors led to solitary confinement cells that were dark 24 hours a day. These were for bad behavior while inside the prison.

They had a library of books. But they were not allowed to go inside the pick their own books. The books got delivered to their cells.

End of the prison tour.

Walking back down the hill to catch the boat back to San Francisco.

These were actually prison guard residences.

We really enjoyed the tour and the audio guide. Such a historical place!

After getting off the boat, we walked to the Ferry Building to have lunch.

To the surprise of everyone, a group of nude cyclists rode by us. AJ had to cover up Andon and Keiji’s eyes. Todd and I couldn’t stop laughing. I had to add some black decency strips to show you the photos on my blog.

Not sure why this is a good idea? Riding a bike WITH clothes on already hurts.

The nude cyclists did not curve our enthusiasm for some burgers from Gott’s Roadside though!

Todd got a seared ahi burger and I got a cheeseburger, with sweet potato fries to share.

The Ferry Building is one of the coolest places in San Francisco. Lots of fresh gourmet food there.

I will blog the rest of the trip tomorrow!

Project Life | Weeks 14 & 15

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

I don’t do Project Life week number title slots, but these pages are roughly weeks 14 & 15. :)

For these two weeks I used Photoshop to hand-write some journaling onto my photos before printing them out. I combined the handwriting with some typed journaling, because I really like the combination of both!

The “I Eat” stamp makes me happy. I get a lot of use out of that one, ha ha! I made this 4x6 title card by cutting a piece of patterned paper and then using a Martha Stewart Avery label. Then I added some Thickers and some alphabet stickers from Lily Bee Design.

On the left I journaled on a Evalicious This & That 3x4 Tag. I love how easy it is to just write on these and slip them into the pockets. On the right I printed one of my Instagram photos in a Polaroid style right at home. I typed journaling below the photo in Photoshop before printing it out.

More polaroid-style prints of Instagram photo with typed journaling. (One of my favorite things to do this year in Project Life, if you couldn’t tell, ha ha.)

The next two photos, I adhered some Documented Circle Tags right onto my photo for some easy embellishment of my photos.

Week 15: Lots of Evalicious tabs, tags, badge buttons, and stamps this week.

Found Noodle in a couple of different boxes this week.

I folded a So Daily Page Tab and adhered it onto my photo. Since this is a top pocket in my protector, I just let the tab stick out.

I stamped The Everyday banner stamp onto white cardstock and cut it out. Then I stapled it right onto my photo. On the right I journaled on a This & That 3x4 Tag and colored in parts of the polaroid graphic.

Stamped the date on a tab from Documented Circle Tags and stapled it onto my patterned paper base. Then I used a This & That 3x4 Tag as a base for my Instagram self-portrait, and stamped the date on the “label” part of the tag. I love how the stapled tab on the left and the 3x4 tag on the right both have gray woodgrain on them.

The orange badge button from So Daily V1 Badge Buttons was the perfect accent for my photo collage of lunch with friends. I adhered it to the outside of the pocket so that my pocket doesn’t get warped.

Project Life Weeks 14 & 15 Supplies Used:

InLinkz.com

San Francisco | Are We There Yet?

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:27:00 +0000

Todd and I took last Friday (4/19) off to drive up to San Francisco. Todd and I have a fondness for road trips, because we have the best conversations when we go on road trips. It feels good to disconnect from our daily routine and just drive and talk. We left our house around 9:40am.

The first leg of the trip we went from San Diego to the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. Along the way, we encountered some traffic in LA. Not a big surprise! We stopped for lunch at In-N-Out Burger in San Fernando Valley, because it was right off the I-5 freeway.

This In-N-Out Burger didn’t have inside seating. You walk up to a window and order, then you sit at one of their outside tables.

Along the way, we had to stop for gas in the middle of nowhere. The gas prices at that gas station was pretty shocking.

Some rolling green hills as we approached Livermore.

We waited quite a while at the toll plaza approaching the Bay Bridge. It was after 6pm by then and there was a lot of traffic to cross the bridge into San Francisco.

Looking back at the Bay Bridge after we got into the city.

We checked into our hotel. Then we walked down to Pier 39 for dinner.

We had reservations at Fog Harbor at 7pm.

The view outside our window at the restaurant as the sun set was pretty spectacular.

My handsome dinner date! :)

Todd had some sort of sole fish.

I had the world famous cioppino, which is a fish/seafood stew dish originating in San Francisco.

My cioppino came with a bib, ha ha!

View outside the window after sundown.

After dinner, we walked around Pier 39 and went to get some spiced apple cider at Biscoff.

‘

Pier 39 lit up at night.

We walked back to our hotel and rested up for a big day the next day! Trip report continues in a couple of days. Tomorrow I will have a Project Life post up. :-)

New Permanent Pages at Listgirl.com

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:27:00 +0000

I’ve been working on my permanent/static pages at Listgirl.com, so that topics of interest are easy to find and in one place. You won’t be able to see these pages if you are reading my blog in a RSS reader such as Google Reader or Feedly. But if you click over to my site, you will see some tabs right below my blog header.

ABOUT ME

The “About Me” page isn’t new, but if you’ve never seen it, you can read it to get to know me a little better. :-)

PROJECT LIFE

I’ve revised my Project Life tab to contain thumbnails and links to everything I’ve ever blogged about Project Life! This includes all my Project Life pages.

AND all my posts on Project Life organization, philosophy, and tutorials.

Click on the “My Project Life Pages” tab below my blog header to see it all!

SAN DIEGO FAVORITES

I get questions from family, friends, and blog readers all the time about visiting San Diego and what to do, see, and eat here. So I’ve finally compiled a “San Diego Favorites” permanent page on my blog. The top has two lists. One called “Sights To See”, and one called “Places To Eat”. Below that are thumbnail links to my blog posts about each San Diego favorite.

So if you’re planning to visit San Diego, you can click on the “San Diego Favorites” tab on my site and see everything I love about San Diego!

I am planning on more permanent pages on my site in the future. I will make sure to point them out to you so you can click over and see them. :)

Write Click Scrapbook | May Gallery Sneak Peek

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

It’s the 20th of the month again and time for a sneak peek at my layout for the Write.Click.Scrapbook. gallery for May!

This month I went for a traditional paper page. I seem to alternate between a digital page and a paper page at Write.Click.Scrapbook.! :-)

Can you guess what the theme is for the May gallery?

Digi Dare #320 | Music Nostalgia

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:00:00 +0000

This week at The Digi Dares we are scrapbooking about music! Do you have a special song that transports you back to a specific time and place? Does it invoke memories and feelings for you?
For me, the song “Our House” by Crosby Stills & Nash always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about my home and my little family. In fact, the “two cats in the yard” part totally makes me want to go adopt a brother for Noodle! :D

Here’s my layout about the song and what it means to me.

Credits: These Walls & These Walls Moving Day Add-On by One Little Bird; A Slice Of The Good Life by Juliana Kneipp; Wood Veneer Serif Alpha by Digital Design Essentials; fonts are Just Another Hand and Blackout.

Play along with the Digi Dares this week to win some prizes from our sponsors and designers! You can click over to the Digi Dares site and read this week’s dare in detail and submit your layout by linking it up in the comments section!

And this song totally reminded me of our big kitchen renovation in 2009! In fact, the total renovation started in April 2009, so it was exactly four years ago! It took three months and lots of headaches and not having a kitchen, but we’ve been using our new kitchen for four years now and we absolutely love it!
Here’s the before photo of our old kitchen. Our house was built in the late 1980’s, so there was the drop-down ceiling with flourescent lighting, tile counters with grout (yuck!), and old appliances.

And here’s the “after” photo. Three months later.

The entire kitchen was gutted. Even the drywalls were ripped out so that we could re-plumb all the water pipes and re-do all the electrical outlets. So how does this related to my Digi Dare layout? I made a kitchen renovation process video using the “Our House” song by Crosby Stills & Nash. Please excuse the small video. I had tried uploading to Youtube back in 2009 and they wouldn’t let me do it because I didn’t have permission to use the song. This is my own personal video and not a commercial video, so I don’t have any problems just sharing it on my blog. Enjoy! :-)

80’s Movie Party: Better Off Dead

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:00:00 +0000

Since we had such a great time at our “Real Genius” viewing party, we decided to repeat it with “Better Off Dead”.

This movie is one of my favorite 80’s movies. I have many of the quotes in the movie memorized. I use quotes like “Two dollars, I want my two dollars” all the time. And who can forget “Sorry your mom blew up Ricky”! Our friends Dejah and Roby had never seen the movie, so we invited them over on Monday night to have dinner and watch it together.

We didn’t prepare any special dishes that relate to the movie. In hind sight, we could have prepared “fraaanch fries, fraaach dressing, fraaach bread” etc. But instead Todd made Pasta Alla Trapanese and Brussels sprouts.

I love this meal!

And the most awesome homemade Salted Caramel Ice Cream!

Roby brought wine.

Sharing a meal with friends is my favorite.

The movie was great. Although as Todd pointed out after watching “Real Genius” and “Better Off Dead” again… 80’s movie pacing is pretty slow compared to movies nowadays. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it just goes to show how much the pace of life has sped up in the last 30 years. I kind of miss the slow-old days.

New Winner of the Project Life Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:45:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I had a Project Life giveaway on my blog. I had picked a random winner named Sheree. Sheree never contacted me with her mailing address. I asked around different forums and on Facebook. I announced the winner on Twitter. I even made a comment on her blog. She just never contacted me. So, I'm picking another winner today! The new random winner of the Project Life giveaway is #82.

If you are "Julie and Vince", please email me at listgirldesigns (at) gmail (dot) com as soon as possible with your mailing address so I can get the package sent out to you! If I don't hear from you by Sunday night 9pm US Pacific daylight time, I will draw yet another winner. We will do this until someone comes forward and email me their address.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Cooking | Penne with Asparagus, Basil, and Balsamic Glaze

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 06:25:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a cooking post here, so I thought I would share what we made for dinner tonight!

Recipe: Campanelli with Asparagus, Basil, and Balsamic Glaze

I received a comment on my blog from blog reader Natalie. Natalie has commented on my blog before, and I have clicked over to her blog to check out her posts. On Friday she happened to post about this recipe and I knew that Todd and I had to try it out! Natalie is a fan of America’s Test Kitchen, as are we. Everything we’ve cooked from ATK has been awesome!

The only thing we did different from the recipe is the pasta. We didn’t have any campanelli, so we just used our favorite penne. (De Cecco is America’s Test Kitchen’s favorite dry penne.) This dish tasted amazing! The balsamic glaze really made it tangy and yummy.

I’ll end this post with some good news. Todd has agreed to guest blog once per month or so here at Listgirl.com. It will be an ongoing series called “Tales From Todd’s Kitchen”. :)

A Good Week

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Some snippets of life from this week…

We were out on a week night, reviving our college tradition of the bookstore café date.

On Saturday 4/6, I went to lunch with my scrappy friend Pearl.

I met Pearl last year at a crop. I love hanging out with her and chatting about life and scrapbooking. She was also the one who accompanied me to IKEA to buy my Raskog carts!

We went to Tofu House, a Korean tofu restaurant in Kearny Mesa. It was so yummy.

Todd and I went to In-N-Out Burger. We hadn’t been there in a long while, which makes it even better.

Noodle found a couple of new places to hang out. He decided to squeeze himself into a box on Todd’s desk.

And we found him in a linen cube on top of some of Todd’s clothes.

On Monday night (4/8), Anne and Gilbert came over for dinner and dessert, and to watch the NCAA basketball finals (Michigan vs. Louisville) with us. We had great food, conversation, and had fun watching Louisville beat the stinky Team Up North. To my horror the next day, I had forgotten to take any photos of the whole event. It was like it never happened! :( Without photos, I don’t remember what I did in a week, much less a month or a year later. At least I remembered to put this on my blog. I think I’ll put my camera in a more conspicuous spot next time people come over.

On Tuesday (4/9) I went out to lunch with some women from work, to celebrate our friend Patsy’s birthday.

These are the same women that we celebrate our March birthdays together. Last year we took a Spanish cooking class at Sur La Table together.

This year they are going wine-tasting in Temecula. I won’t be able to go this time. :(

Wednesday was such a nice day that I had to get outside at lunch.

I drove to Target to stock up on some dental floss. I’m not kidding. Todd and I use different kinds and we were both running out! :p

Of course, nobody leaves target without buying more stuff they don’t need. So that happened too! :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Lily Bee Design | Negative Space Cards

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

This week we are focusing on negative space as a design element on the Lily Bee Design blog. I made two cards and blogged at the Lily Bee blog for the first time as a new design team member! :)

My first card had some hexagons cut-outs and a cute bee.

Supplies: Pinwheel Collection (Lemonade Stand paper, Picnic Basket paper), Sweet Shoppe Collection (Ice Cream Truck paper)

I used my Silhouette digital cutter to cut out the five hexagons on the right side. Then I adhered patterned paper underneath the cutouts. I popped up the last hexagon on the left with some foam adhesive to make it stand out, and adhered my bee to it. The word "AWESOME" was also cut out from the card base.

I thought I would put a positive spin on negative space on my second card, so I created a card with a message that "things are looking up".

Supplies: Sweet Shoppe Collection (Lemon Drop paper, Jelly Bean paper, Pink Mint paper, Jujube paper)

I used my Sihouette to cut out three chevrons out of the center patterned paper and adhered other patterned papers behind it. Then I popped up two chevrons above that. Then I sewed the piece onto my card base.

My Lily Bee Design team mate Diana Fisher also created two beautiful cards featuring negative space. You can see all our cards on the Lily Bee Design blog here!

Have a great Thursday!

Pixel & Paper Feature

noreply@blogger.com (listgirl) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

A couple of months ago, Linda Tieu of the Back To Paper blog emailed me about participating in her Pixel & Paper Series on her blog. I discovered Linda’s blog a couple of years ago. She’s a very talented illustrator and digital designer. I am honored to be included in her Pixel & Paper Series, along with other scrapbookers such as Amy Tan, Ali Edwards, Elise Blaha Cripe, Katie Nelson, and Stacy Julian. (Not that I belong on the same level as these very creative and awesome women. Just that they are also featured in the same Pixel & Paper series!)

In Linda’s post, she features a few of my digital and hybrid projects. I talk about why I don’t like to pigeonhole myself into categories like paper or digital. I love scrapbooking and I use all the tools I have available to me, whether that includes Photoshop, Illustrator, my printer, papers, glue, or scissors. :) You can head over to Linda’s blog and read the rest of what I said about pixel & paper! She has some wonderful digital freebies for you as well!