The one where I answer your questions...

And also remind you that it's delurking week around here. We are down to two days left before the BIG day. No, I haven't broken it down into hours yet for counting-down purposes. :-) So, leave a comment if you haven't thus far (especially if you tend to lurk) just so I know who will be meeting our newest little when we can get it posted on here!

Anyway, back to regular stuff. :-)

Nancy asked me about the camera that I use for our photos. I have to say, it's pretty great. My Dad is quite the photographer (when he's not preaching at church) and I had serious picture envy of these great pictures he was taking of the girls. Right about the time N2 was born, I mentioned (in passing) to Travis that when the time came that we had money and he thought it would fit, I would like to upgrade to a better camera ... he fixed me up for Valentine's day last year and I haven't looked back! :-) The camera is a Nikon D50, which is a SLR digital camera. (Simple definition: not your basic point-and-shoot camera ... you need a lens to go on it, an extra flash sometimes, etc. It doesn't fit in my purse anymore.) :-) That's the only drawback to the camera to me ... it's bulky and when you are already carrying a purse, one or more diaperbags, and usually toting a child, the camera is just one more thing to haul. But, the pictures are worth it.

Next, Lauren asked some scrapbooking questions and rather than fill up her entire comment section, I thought I'd answer them here:

Do you crop your pictures with fancy edges, or just use the cool edges on paper?
I don't tend to crop my pictures with fancy edges ... I'm more into a square/block type look on my pages when I lay them out as you can see here. Not saying I never use a decorative edge, but to me, it's easier (and faster) to just use a straight edge.



What are your favorite websites for layout ideas? Magazines? Blogs?
Um, way too many. :-) I subscribe to Simple Scrapbooks Magazine and Paper Crafts Magazine and I pick up Creating Keepsakes at the grocery store when I have a little extra money. As far as blogs, there are quite a few scrappers' blogs I read, but for actual artistic inspiration, I would steer you towards Ali Edwards, Donna Downey, Kristina Contes (can sometimes be PG-13, be warned), Shimelle ... and this is just a start. Cheryl is writing for a new blog called Scrapbookist that I've just scratched the surface on, but it looks like it has some cool stuff for inspiration. (More of my favorite scrapper blogs are listed in the Blog-Love list in the left column).

I also keep a creativity/inspiration notebook that I put layouts, ideas, and such in and when I need some creative juices, I pull it out and flip through it.

Do you journal by hand or type out your journaling?
I'm a handwriter I would say 95% of the time, and computer journal maybe 5% of the time. I like my handwriting so I don't have a problem using it on my layouts, and I love seeing handwriting on other's layouts. It's just so much more personal to me than type no matter what your handwriting looks like. Plus, to me, it's more work to stop what I'm working on and go get to the computer, figure out what paper I'm going to use, find a font, type it out, print it, redo it because I've found a mistake, etc. :-)

Whew. Going to stop now and get us geared up for a morning of errands. We have 2 family birthdays, Mother's Day for both grandma's, and a baby shower (for a friend, not me) happening in the next 2-3 weeks and these errands will not be getting done after Saturday!