DSE Day Two / SpragueFest

Can you believe I completely forgot to blog about Friday's adventures??? Beth M and I figured it's because we are having THAT much fun!!

I'll catch you up now.

Getting up at 6:30 A.M. on vacation is not fun. But we had tons of digi stuff going on to make up for it. We made it to our first class of the day with Amanda Rockwell. She taught some simple, yet eye popping ways to grunge up patterned papers. And how to make some shine on your stuff. Now I can get closer to my favorite real time paper Basic Grey. You should see what we can do with our gradient tool!

Next came Layer Masks with Anna Aspnes. How cool is it to learn about clipping from a teacher with an English accent? Actually she just jogged past me in the lobby. HA! I am off topic here. She is in the same frame of mind as Ms. Jessica. NEVER crop photos again if you know how to use your clipping feature.

Our minds were being fed with digi knowledge, so it's only right that we feed our bodies as well. DSE provided lunch for us. A huge hoagie with ham and cheese, a great pasta salad, cookies (with M&M's) and an apple, oh the soda too. We were all feeling kinda chilly so we sat out on the patio to defrost. Meg, JeninSF, Kendra (Terebene) and I sat out there and chatted. We may have hatched an idea for a possible JS.com class. Shhh!

After lunch we headed back in for the awesome-ness that is Tiffany Tillman. She of the strut and songtracks in her head. Funniest digi girl on two legs! She was here to let us play with Brushes and more Brushes. The floral framed brushes she handed out were so intricate and wonderful. I am going to be using them over and over.

Next was the quick mini album with Lori Anderson, my new favorite person in the world (mostly for her gracious attitude, thanks again!). I think I might be turning this album into a DSE book. I have tons of pictures to use.

Our final class of the day was Typography with April Anderson. Poor thing was so sick. Yet she hung in there like a trooper. She talked about how to attract attention to your titles with different weights and color. How to stay away from swirly fonts for entire journaling boxes, too hard to read. Which I found out when I was making that bridal shower invitation last month. She also discussed placement of fonts. Such fun.

We had plans to meet up with the Spraguers for dinner. 21 of us headed en masse down the street and descended upon Gloria's Little Italy. They never knew what hit them. I think we were louder than the band. Ask Joan about them, it seems they are from California. I managed to make a toast to Ms. Jessica, thanking her for giving us a home on the internet. She made a toast to all of us thanking us for supporting her. As if we could do anything else! Food was good when it finally arrived and we ended up taking some back to our little fridge.

I was very eager to be getting back in bed early. Going to bed past midnight and getting up at 6 is not my style. So I crawled into bed with Julia Child (hmm, that sounds dirty) and read more about her life in Paris. Such a hoot this girl is, let me tell ya!