Gimme Five!

We had family in town this weekend. It is so nice when they are able to come up. We live about 7 hours apart which means that we usually only get to see each other a handful of times each year. We had beautiful weather this weekend and were able to get out and snap a couple pictures.

 

Ben was really digging his uncle Phil this weekend. Lots of laughing and playing. Happy Birthday Philly!

Well, I hope everyone has a fun Halloween. Hoping for some nice photos!

Susan 

Site Repaired!

So, as you can see, the site is back up! That was the smoothest transition I have EVER experienced!!! Hopefully all the downloading issues have been resolved. I have run a few tests this morning and it looks like the download speeds are back to normal. Please let me know if you are still having any problems!

Thank you for your patience,
Susan

Site Going Down for Maintenance

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am switching hosting providers due to this week's trouble with my Birthday Sale. You may not be able to access ScrapKitchen for 2-3 days. Hopefully, the tranfer will go smoothly and ScrapKitchen will be up before the end of the weekend.

I want to thank everyone for their extreme patience while I deal with this transition. I also want to thank you all for bearing with me while I resolve the problems with downloading kits. If you have ANY problems whatsoever with downloading any kits purchased at ScrapKitchen, please do not hesitate to contact me at chef@scrapkitchen.com or susan@susanbartolini.com.

I will keep you all posted during the transition.

Thanks,
~Chef

Whew! What a day.

So....my birthday is finally over...thankfully. I spent the entire day in front of my computer managing the birthday sale. I had no idea that I would get as much traffic as I did and I have to tell you that it exposed my service provider's crappy service.

Thank you all for being so patient while I got you your download links. I really appreciate it! First order of business next week - find a new service provider. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!!!!

Tired,
~Chef

Birthday Sale - Troubles with Downloading

UUGGGHH!! So, the birthday sale has been a HUGE hit and some are experiencing problems with their downloads. If you have any issues, please email me with your Paypal email address and the kits you are having problems with and I will send you an alternative link.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
Susan

Lil Chef Sweetie

Ok...how cute is this? This is my new little Chef Sweetie. Thank you so much Mindy, I really love her.

  

Where have you been all my life?

Oh wonderful French Press, where have you been all my life? I went out and bought a french press and a coffee grinder today. I have been having trouble making it through the day without getting really tired....so I thought maybe a little coffee would help. And I am tired of paying $4.00 a cup at Starbucks. So I got their French Roast beans and tried to make my own at home. OMG, it was so delicious. The coffee was incredibly rich, just the way I like it.

I have an espresso machine, but it just is so much work for such a small amount of coffee. The French Press is perfect. I still can't believe how good the coffee tasted.

Anyway, as you can tell, I am all jazzed up on a caffeine high. So, I am going to try to work on my next kit tonight.

Tomorrow we are announcing the results of our Guest Master Chef Design Team Contest. We are picking 3 digi scrappers to join our DT for one month each. The entries were really great...the DT is making the final decision. It is going to be a tough one! We are announcing the winners at a chat at ScrapKitchen Wednesday night at 9:30 pm EST. Come on by for the chat. We are giving away a freebie to anyone that attends the chat!

Later,
~Chef 

Almost......the story of my photography adventures

Today was the day our town had it's Halloween Party & Parade at the local junior high school. We were so excited to get Ben all dressed up in his firefighter outfit and parade him around the gym with all the other adorable children in their costumes. Of course, I was looking forward to the amazing photo ops....but alas...it was another case of ALMOST. Every picture that I take is an "almost" picture. Either one person is blinking or has a scowl...or Ben looks away, or it has bad lighting....or it is out of focus...you know what I mean. You would think having a digital camera would remedy that, huh?

One of the other challenges is getting out from behind the camera and actually allowing my hubby to take photos of me. As you can see below, the curse of "Almost" reared it's ugly head. I mean, could Ben look more weird?


I actually like this picture of me....but I can't use it because Ben looks like he just took a hit off a joint. So, I thought I would blog about it. I think the writing is on the wall...mommy needs a photography course.

We have some exciting things going on at ScrapKitchen this week. We are looking for 3 Guest Designers to join the Design Team. The deadline for entry is tomorrow night...so if you are interested, please check out the info here.

Also, I am very excited to announce that I will be joining the Digi Chick Boutique in November. More to come on that later!

Well...have a great weekend.
~Chef 

Ben gained weight!

Well....we all seem to be feeling a little bit better after a cold made it's rounds through our house. Ben had an appointment this morning with the Growth & Nutrition clinic in Boston. The good news is he gained weight!!! We are thrilled because he had only gained half a pound since April. He was put on a calorie supplementation called Duo Cal and it seems to be working so far. (Fingers crossed) This makes the possibility of a G-tube more and more unlikely. Yeah!

We still have to do an endoscopy to figure out why his reflux isn't resolving. That really sucks because they have to put him out for that. Needless to say, we are very apprehensive about it....but I think at this point, it needs to be done.

Well...that is about all for today.

~Chef

Being sick sucks!

Well...I thought I had dodged the latest cold to sweep through our house, but alas, I am no match for a tiny little bug. I think hubby's sneezing directly onto me last night didn't help.

I am really bummed out because I missed an art exhibit today. Andrew's cousin is a photographer and has worked with Annie Liebowitz. I so badly wanted to meet him and see his work....but I have been knocked on my butt. I am really getting into photography and I find his work very intriguing. You can check it out here: Michael Scott Slosar.

Also, I wanted to finish my Spooky Kit. I am almost done...just a few finishing touches...but haven't had a chance to get out of bed.

Oh...seeking some wellness vibes.

Sniffles,
~Chef

Doodling with Illustrator

  So, I just started playing around with Illustrator and I came up with this little Chef. It is kinda cute....but a little rough. This seems like an awesome program...but there is so much to learn.

More later...

~Chef
 

Another test.... My dog, Sam

Picasa and Hello rocks!

Ok...so I am burning the midnight oil playing around with Picasa and Hello. The Hello software sends pictures from Picasa to my blog. I didn't realize how powerful Picasa/Hello was until tonight. Alright...going to bed now.


Picture of my hubby on our front porch.

~Chef

More silliness

More silliness...this time from me...

Silly is fun!

Took some pictures of my boys last night. They are so cute together. Being silly is fun!







Working on my Digital Memories Magazine assignments and some projects for the ScrapKitchen site today.

More later....

~Chef

Tagged by Linda and self portrait.

So, I have been tagged by Linda. It took me forever to get around to responding. Sorry about that....

5 things I plan to do before I die:
1. Watch my son graduate from High School.
2. Visit Venice again.
3. Visit Paris again.
4. Adopt a daughter.
5. Become fluent in French and learn piano.

5 things I can do:
1. Adore my family.
2. Ballroom dance.
3. Speak very broken French.
4. Name that tune in 1 note.
5. Figure techie things out.

5 things I cannot do:
1. Tolerate bigotry of any kind.
2. Bear my husband's obsession with the remote control.
3. Eat 2 day old left overs (unless it is pizza).
4. Hide my opinions (aka Shut the Hell Up).
5. Be unkind to animals.

5 Things that attract me to the opposite sex:
1. Intelligence.
2. Sense of humor.
3. Appreciation of art, music, film, travel, etc.
4. Confidence.
5. Politically aligned with my views.

5 things I say most often:
1. I love you.
2. You stink Poochie!
3. I'm cold.
4. You did it!
5. Shut up! (sarcastically)

5 celebrity crushes:
1. George Clooney
2. Justin Timberlake
3. Steve Martin
4. Tobey Maguire
5. Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy Dempsey)

So, I recently purchased a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM Zoom Lens and I wanted to try it out a bit doing portraits. I went to Joanne and got some black velveteen fabric for the backdrop When my son went down for a nap, I tried to take some self portraits. Of course, I was looking totally gross (hadn't showered or put on makeup yet) but I couldn't wait to play. Anyway, here is the best one of the bunch.



Still trying to figure out the settings, distance from the backdrop, etc. I have been reading the posts on the Photography board at 2 Peas. Very helpful!

Also, we just opened up the galleries at ScrapKitchen. Users can now post layouts of any kind (no requirement to use ScrapKitchen products). I also added a Photography gallery and one for challenges and contests. I'm hoping to get a few things going soon.

Well...off to have a bite to eat.

TTYL,
~Chef

Bummer

So, have you ever had something that you looked so forward to only to have it NOT live up to your expectations or anticipation??? Well, this is really silly but, today was West Acton Day Octoberfest in our town. Basically our little community shuts down the "main street" and has an Octoberfest festival. It is really sweet....fire trucks, moon bounce and electric cars for the little ones. Fattening foods for the adults. Pumpkins, music, balloons....great photo ops. Well, I just bought a new lens and was so pumped to get great shots today. Unfortunately, really none of them came out well. My son naps at noonish, so we had to go early before it ended and the sunlight was so bright and harsh creating yucky shadows on everyone's faces. I had to stop every few minutes to adjust the settings (if I was in the shade, in the sun, needed a fill flash)...ughhhh! It just got so freaking laborious that I wasn't even enjoying the festival. Finally I said, enough, and put the camera away and tried to enjoy the rest of the day. My hubby got me a big hot dog with all the fixings only to have me bite into it and get a massive shot of grease in my mouth. Yuck!!!! Then my son started to have the pre-nap, you are pushing me melt down. We had to leave. Oh well...there is always next year. (Oh, and the Red Sox lost)

~ Chef