Latest Posts

Freebie Friday: A Tender Love, Part 5

Published by Sula H.

Well, since it’s the holidays in most parts of the world, I decided to take yesterday off, and make it a Freebie Saturday instead.

Today, I’m sharing with you the last part of A Tender Love, which means you’ll finally get to play with this entire kit.

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Also, if you’d like to get the pink-green wood butterfly (left on the preview) as a bonus, you can earn it within the next month by showing me a page that you scrapped using this kit (simple link to your layout in the comments will suffice), and I’ll email you the bonus asset. (This offer is only valid for one month, so don’t miss out on it!)

And since it’s Easter (almost), and since this is the last part of this current kit, I’m excited to share with you a preview of the freebie I’ve got coming up next:

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I had loads of fun creating it, and if you like what you see, come back to collect the parts over next couple of weeks, and make sure to share this post on facebook, twitter, your blog, or wherever else you think is appropriate!

As always, my Terms of Use apply, restricting this product for personal use only, and now, I want to wish everyone a happy Easter holiday!

 

 

The Lost Case of the Banana

Published by Sula H.

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Admitted. I used to like bananas a lot more when I was a kid than I do now. But every once in a while, I do snatch one from the fruit pile in the dining hall to take with me. I usually don’t eat my banana right away, because I prefer to eat them when they’re sweet. Or I prefer to mix them up in a smoothy. Or make banana muffins and the likes. You get the point. For me, bananas have to be speckled and spotted – in other words, they have to be very ripe.

Since they usually don’t come that way when they’re served in the dining hall, whenever I take a banana (which isn’t very often to begin with), I’ll keep it for a couple of days before I decide what I’ll do with it.

And so, last week, I took a banana for that very purpose to wait until it’s very ripe so I can make myself something yummy with it. The problem: I never got to keep it until it was very ripe, because the next day, one of the students coming to visit me, when stepping out my door, asked if he could have my banana. I gave it to him, thinking: I can get myself a new banana when they’re back on the menu in the dining the next time.

True enough, a couple of days later, there they were: bananas on the fruit pile. I grabbed one, intent on making another attempt of waiting until it’ll be somewhat very ripe. Little did I know at the time that that very evening another one of the students coming to visit me would spot the banana, and express that she wished to eat this banana since she was very hungry. Ah, well, I thought. I can try again next time.

So, here I have another banana yet again. And I wonder who it will be this time to enjoy it. Will it be me for once?

 

PS. Of course, I could always go to the fruit store and stock up on a whole bunch of bananas. I’m not going to starve to death because my visitors keep eating my bananas …

scrapbook layout

My Morning

Published by Sula H.

Credits:
New Beginnings by Heather Roselli, Julie Billingsley, Melissa Bennett, Jenn Barrette, Sugarplum Paperie & Erica Zane
Font: DJB Third Grade Teacher by Darcy Baldwin
Created for a blog post on my blog (mistyhilltops.com)

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Published by Sula H.

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Easter is coming up – a fact which you know, of course. For me, Easter is one of those holidays that I have to look up in the calendar in order to know that it’s coming up. This holiday just doesn’t get much noticed otherwise where I live. In fact, no one here would know that half the world is celebrating a holiday, unless you told them so, because business here goes on as usual.

I for my part, however, intend to be aware of this holiday, this weekend. So, I’ve started preparing. Preparing, that means, I started thinking ahead about what are things that are everyday work related that I don’t really need to do this weekend. And while that kept me really busy today, I feel like, for the first time in years, I’ve been somewhat on top of things and can actually enjoy an Easter holidays without making it a normal work weekend like everyone else around here. So, on that note, I hope everyone will have an enjoyable weekend as well!

scrapbook layout

Photo Book: My Year 2011, Part 2

Published by Sula H.

Last week, I began sharing with you another finished photo book project – one of those yearly photo books I began creating in 2010.

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Today, I’d like to show you the second part of this photo book filled with double page spreads of my daily life.

 

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

And don’t forget to stay tuned, because there are more parts to follow over the next couple of weeks.

You can see Part 1 of this album HERE.

 

The Peanut Quest

Published by Sula H.


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I like peanuts. In my eyes, they are a good addition to any diet. Fortunately for me, farmers around here grow them, so peanuts are easily available in all shapes and sizes. And flavors, I should add. Recently, however, I’ve got it into my head to find those peanuts which are still in their shell, and which yet have a slight salty flavor to them. So, I’ve been looking for that kind whenever I got out shopping. The problem is: outwardly, the plain and the salted ones look just the same, and while the first time I tried to buy a bag, they turned out the everyday plain ones, this time, they’re not plain. But they’re not really salty, either. They have a rather funny flavor, and I haven’t fully decided yet, whether I like them, or not.

 

 

scrapbook layout

Behind the Scenes: A Case for Digital Scrapbooking

Published by Sula H.

I’m sure it hasn’t gone unnoticed: I love digiscrapping. I love the creative outlet it gives me to play with beautiful papers (one of my oldest passions), messing around with colors and art, and on top of that to combine it with another one of my passions – photography – while at the same time being able to preserve memories and keeping a track of what’s going on in my life.

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I love all of that! But what’s best about it: I never have to worry about the creative mess that comes with actual art projects. There’s no real cleaning up to do afterward, and yet, the results can be stunning, and they can bring joy to others.

Another biggie that kind of got me hooked to the digital side of scrapbooking, is the fact that you get to scratch things and start all over again, without losing anything but the time you’ve invested. I remember well, when – in the past – I got myself a nice stack of pretty scrapbooking papers (the actual papers), but never actually using them for fear that I might screw up and the paper’s gone (as in: wasted), or what if I used that pretty paper and a short time later, I discovered that I could have used it on a much more suitable project?

Yes, I admit it: I’m a perfectionist, which makes it kind of difficult for me to sometimes just go with the flow. But digital scrapbooking helps me to do just that: to go with the flow. I can start playing around with papers, elements and photos, and if I don’t like something on the page, I can just re-arrange things, scratch things, add things, re-position things … you name it; all without ever having to worry that I wasted my materials, because: digital scrapbooking products can be re-used again and again.

And last but not least the cost of it all. When I look at all the products in actual paper scrapbooking and see the price that most things come with, I get a dizzy feeling. It’s so easy to spend $40, $50, $60 on an entire kit, and you can use the product on a very limited amount of projects. In digital scrapbooking, on the other hand, there’s the initial cost of needing to invest into a decent graphic software (and of course needing to know how it works), and with less than $10 you can get started on page after page of bliss. (As a matter of fact, I’ve seen someone scrapping an entire photo book using only one digital scrapbooking kit, and the result was awesome).

So in short: I love digital scrapbooking because …

  1. it’s less messy,
  2. goes faster,
  3. allows for great creative freedom,
  4. allows me to preserve memories,
  5. combines my two favorite passions: pretty papers & photography,
  6. is cheaper,
  7. allows me to re-use the products over and over,
  8. will not waste any of my materials if I’ve screwed up,
  9. and probably many other reasons, too …

If you’ve been considering getting your hands wet with digital scrapbooking, why not try it? You can find lots of help, tutorials, and how-to’s on the www, and who knows? It may turn into your new passion as well …

Sweet Puffs

Published by Sula H.

130323-IMG_7545Admitted: they’re not really the healthiest kind of food. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t delicious, really. Puffs, or as they are called here: pao fu. (By the way, did you know that the genius thing about pal fus is that pao fu sounds exactly like “puff” when you only say the word quickly enough? So, to buy them is hardly a challenge at all, even if you speak no word Chinese, really.) But, of course, I like them more for their flavor than their name, because as you (can’t) see, these puffs are filled with a sweet cream inside, which is what makes them rather yummy in the first place.

Journaling Café: Morning Rituals

Published by Sula H.

Mornings. They are as much part of our lives as the rest of the day, and to some, they are the most important aspect of their day, since some hold to the belief that if you get up well, then your day will go well. Today’s journaling prompts, therefore, focus on our morning rituals. What does your morning look like? What’s most important to you when it comes to your mornings?

Here are today’s prompts:

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And here’s the page I created to journal about my morning preferences:

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