UPDATES FROM CARINA

Take the Quiz here!

I am not the least surprised that I am Elizabeth Bennett!:)

In other wonderful news, the website is back in business! You’ll notice some of the descriptions are missing, but those will come back soon. There is also a brand new forum! Check out the happy place because the first 50 people to signup and make a comment in that column will get a gift certificate to sample something from the shop.

You’ll also notice Alica and Megan’s stuff up now too! Check out there stuff at: http://www.diginirvana.com/zen_cart.store

It is the never-ending website saga. So, just to let everyone know what has been happening. My hosting company changed to a new platform 3 weeks ago. Long story short, the platform did not support my downloads. It took two weeks for them to figure this out, so I had to move to a NEW hosting company. Well, before all the files could be retrieved from the old hosting company, they deleted the account. So NOW they are uploading all of the databases again so they can be moved over to the new hosting company. The new website design has been finished for a long time and I have just been calling everyday to get the status and HOPE they are finished with this process. So I am REALLY sorry everyone, but the good part is there will be new stuff up and a new look when it goes online. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that it goes up by Wednesday! I am SO ready for this to be over with so I can just design again!

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So I am told that Digi Nirvana will be back up and running sometime on Monday. I am SO sorry for the inconvenience everyone! The website is coming back new and improved! There will even be a new forum (which probably won’t be up until Wednesday).

So I think Josh would disagree with my top ten, but here it is:

I have to say “sorry” to all about the current state of the website. It is entirely out of my hands right now with my hosting company doing all sorts of weird things to it. It has been so frustrating, but be prepared to see the new website this coming week with addition of two more designers, Alicia and Megan!  

I wish I had the time to write more about the antics of our move…hopefully, I will get around to writing up everything this weekend. But, just so everyone knows, we are here safe and sound after airport waiting, slap-happy midnight cleaning parties, and hurried-graduations. 

And the winner (by random drawing) of the Ad Challenge for this Month is Tiffany Scraps!!! Tiffany, I’m sending you your gift certificate now!:)

So I was taking a little browse around the Internet neigborhood and found this article on the 30 typefaces any graphic designer couldn’t live without. It includes 15 serifs and 15 san-serif. I”d say that I am 80% in agreement:).  I would have added Baskerville to the serif list (I favor it over Caslon). Otherwise, it’s a great little clip on type!

My baby is 1! Flissa turned 1 today…I really felt like she was a little toddler today, not a baby anymore. Will post photos soon of the chocolate, ice cream feast! I haven’t had time to blog as it is the end of semester for Josh and my students, our upcoming move, and getting a new little kit line out by this Friday at Digi Nirvana. I also will post some of my students final projects…I think you’ll like them!

Digi Nirvana got a facelift today! Take a look! http://www.diginirvana.com

It made me laugh since, of course, we are moving in a month. Because of the move, I interviewed for a job in Utah earlier Friday morning that was in a field I’ve never worked in before. I opened my fortune cookie and this is what it said:

Funny, huh? Maybe I should buy a few more fortune cookies to find out where to buy a house. lol.

Siri gave her first talk in church today. Of course, her mother forgot about it. I wrote her the talk as we walked to Primary. She said everything SO clearly and put her mouth right up to the mic. She even knew the name of the new prophet and said it when I whispered, “The name of the new prophet is…” (she was suppose to repeat after me)but instead she said, “President S. Monson.” (to answer my question). She held up a picture over the mic and wasn’t afraid at all! I was so proud of her!

Her are some pics of the girls.

Flissy was so happy to just walk through the tennis court with all those other kids zippying in and out on their bikes.

Josh brought these cupcakes to me and Siri from the Vice Pres. Mondale birthday bash at the law school. Siri said that one of the chocolate toppings looked like ‘fur’ and one looked like a ‘dragonfly.” She insisted on eating the dragonfly one. Can you tell which one is the ‘fur’ one and which is the ‘draonfly’ one? If you figure it out, let me know.

This is a week ago when Siri and I went to the circus. She declared that she wanted to take a class when she grows up to learn how to ‘go so high’ like the acrobats.

Here’s my most recently layout with my Yes Kit at digi nirvana.

The journaling says, “when I explained to Siri that when we move we wouldn’t see the people that lived here (Minnesota) anymore, she buried her head in a pillow and broke into tears, “You mean I won’t see Lucia anymore?” It broke my heart! “

So I’m just wondering, did somebody not get the memo that it’s spring? Yesterday we had a blizzard (exaggeration. sorry, couldn’t help myself) come through with a mix of snow and rain. I am SO tired of this weather!

To celebrate the April ‘showers,’ I got Siri flip-flops at the mall yesterday. Hey, maybe if I act like it is spring, it will stop snowing? She ADORES them! She fell asleep in her purple butterfly flip-flops at bedtime while holding her pink flower set. She also took the purple ones to preschool this morning. I don’t think they are going to let her wear them out in the snow at playtime!:)

I decided to keep it simple and just focus on a few things from the ad. I chose to focus on color and some of the simple bold text. I love this ad because I think it is really versatile. I like the idea of doing a lot of little photos down at the bottom to mimic the layout or just doing a sepia tone layout with one color popping. Check out the gallery to see the rules and prize for this challenge!

So I finally have gotten around to getting up the April Challenge! Check it out in the gallery. I should get around to making mine soon:) Will post it here when I do!

I woke up this morning to hear Siri playing with Legos on the floor of my bedroom. I was little confused because it was 7:15am ,and I had not heard Flissa. I peeked in on her, and she was playing in her crib. Siri, of course, ran into the room to joyfully hug her sister. As I fed Flissa and Siri cuddled, I couldn’t help saying to myself, “I love my life!”

Perhaps this is a very silly thing to muse on this morning, but if you knew the chaos that IS my house, my inability to just get myself put together in the mornings these days, and the inability to find some type of work/life/balance…well, you’d know that this is a big deal for me. THIS is my nirvana! Thank heavens for little girls!

It’s photography from a series of barbie dresses she has. The colors are so great! She also has a ton of cute screen- printed cards. Here’s her store if you want to look: http://www.michellebrusegaard.com/id44.html

So, we have decided to take a leap of faith and will be moving to Utah at the end of May. Josh is taking the Utah state bar and will start studying June 1st.

In other interesting news, a giant snow storm fell on Minnesota’s happy spring-time weather yesterday and (mostly likely) killed my crocuses (I don’t know yet as they are hidden under the snow still). I am trying to *will* spring to come…maybe if I think happy thoughts…

Tonight we watched Enchanted with Siri. Siri was so sweet as she walked around the room closing her eyes, pretending to dance with the characters (holding a piece of bubble wrap…maybe her prince?). She is always noticing and curious about things and made us laugh when she asked (during the end credits when two silhouettes come together and form a heart), “why did they make a heart out of skin-ses?” (I can’t spell how she says it). It made Josh and I both smile! I think I told her it was just an art design or something like that. She seemed to like my answer. What a darling child!

There are also some matching quickpages too.

So I keep meaning the switch over the blog addresses (my other two) to here, but I just keep forgetting to get around to it (or can’t find the time). Today (other than working on the kit and quickpages) I managed to finish up the bills for the month, AND order a new belt for our vacuum cleaner. This was a big accomplishment. I mean HUGE accomplishment. Wal-mart no longer carries the belt that I need so, of course, I keep forgetting to get online and buy them.

Needless to say, I have been vacuuming the house with just the little attachment from the vacuum cleaner for almost a YEAR. Absolutely ridiculous, I know, but it was one of those things that I never managed to remember to do EXCEPT when I’d pull out the vacuum cleaner and sigh when I remembered the way I’d have to vacuum. Hope you don’t think any less of me. lol.

Okay, I’ve been meaning to post all kids of pictures so I am playing catch up. Here are pictures of Keaton, Siri, and Felicity for our ‘snowed-in’ Easter egg hunt last week.

Of course, no magical Easter egg hunt would be complete without Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Siri carried them around with the eggs all day. Thye look cozy, don’t they?

It’s the final day of the Italian Soda Collection sale! 49% off the entire collection! Also be sure to check out my new ELEMENT-ary line. More ‘stuff’ coming soon!

Hi! I have consolidated digi-nirvana.blogspot.com and joshandcarina.blogspot.com to this site and will have pictures and more up soon! I also have to fix those other two sites!:)

This is an attempt to simplify my life!!! I mean, I started Digi Nirvana because I wanted to stay home with my two little girls, but still design. So having a separate blog for my family and for digi nirvana doesn’t make too much sense. I feel like I will really be able to BLOG if I have just one of these things…because let’s face it, my live with my family and everything that I am doing with digital scrapbooking…it all is my life. I can’t separate the two.

So I make an upfront apology to my friends that will have to see my digi kits and products on this blog and I make an apology to customers of digi nirvana that don’t really want to know that Siri and Felicity went to a spring bonnet party today (which they did and it was so FUN!).

Anyway, nirvana…I’m looking for that and one blog will get me one step closer.