Buehler? Buehler?

Buehler?

I was on the Paperclipping Rountable podcast yesterday and when it was time to say where we can be found I gave my blog address and made a crack about how you can hear crickets chirping here.  So I thought I'd pop in really quickly and say "Heyyyy!" So here goes:

Hey, girl!

;)

The topic of the podcast was scrapbooking performances and concerts...with the possibility of scrapbooking sports, (which I feel way more qualified to talk about).  When I responded to the invitation I said that I'd scrapped a couple of my kids concerts, and a handful of professional performers.  I don't really consider myself an expert on the subject, but I can participate in a conversation on this more so than, oh, say "scrapping your travels through Europe."

I thought I'd share a couple of my favorite concert layouts.  These are all a couple of years old, and while trends have changed, I still think they hold their own.

This was from a Mike Doughty concert at the Beachland Ballroom, which isn't too far from where I live.  The hall is very small, and it's easy to get very close to the stage.  This layout is VERY simple, but it's very true to how I scrapbooked at the time.  The journaling is long and talks about my mentality leading up to the show - I was worn down and wanted nothing more than to bail on the evening. But I felt terrible about ditching my friends so I put on my big girl panties and went.  The journaling also talks about what a great time I had, and years later it's great to read this.  I very frequently dread social situations (the curse of the introvert), but very often I have a great time once I'm engaged.  It's a good, concrete reminder to just do it.

The circles are the simple geometrics that I often fall back on, but they're meant to evoke the idea of colored stage lights.  But I could see how I'm the only one who'd get that. :P

This is from a concert at the same venue, but this is They Might Be Giants.  A favorite band from my college years that grew up with me to the point of putting out a couple of children's CDs that my kids loved and listened to on repeat in the car.  My kids can't sing every word to "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" but when "The Alphabet of Nations"  or "C is for Conifers" comes on the backseat chorus breaks into song and they don't miss a beat.  That was true in 2006 and it's still true today.

Anyway, back to me.  I think that John Flansburgh is cute. And when I went to this concert I was sort of in a butt-pinching phase.  I wouldn't pinch random strangers, but my kids and some of my coworkers were all fair game.  The reaction to pinching the bottom of an unsuspecting person is highly addictive: they are surprised and you both get to laugh and share a moment of harmless naughtiness.  (I would never do this now.  My work environment then was filled with people that I truly loved and knew that I meant no harm or innuendo. It was a rare and safe place indeed.)  At any rate, after the concert the two singers of They Might Be Giants came into the crowd, shook hands, signed autographs and mingled with the audience.  When I found myself standing right behind John Flansburgh my friend dared me to give him a pinch.  In retrospect I really (REALLY) shouldn't have, but I did.  But he was such a good sport about it! We laughed and he posed for a picture with me and pretty much made my day/week/month.

The layout isn't theme-y or symbolic at all.  I wanted to call attention to what was happening in the middle picture, so I used a circle cut from cardstock and chose to carry that element through the rest of the page.

This was from the same concert but it's not about the performance, it's about me and my nature.  I mentioned that I'm fairly introverted and some times it hard for me to be in the middle of large crowds.  The venue of this concert is small, and I've been there enough times to have figured some thing out.  Like, underneath that light you get the full blast of a nearby speaker and a usually unobstructed view of the stage (albeit from the side).  When my friend took this picture I had just been talking to a nice "boy" (I mostly remember thinking that he was not my age, but it's not like he was an actual kid or anything) who tried to talk my into wading into the crowd.  I was nice, but told him that I was really content where I was and encouraged him to go ahead and enjoy the show in the crowd.

This layout was based on a sketch, and is probably not a design that I would have come up with on my own, but I think I like it even more because it's a stretch from where I would have gone with this photo.

Okay, so that's that! I really have to get back to studying for my exam.  If you're visiting from the Paperclipping Roundtable: WELCOME!  I hope to be more exciting and scrappy in the next two weeks when things settle down a little.  In the meantime, feel free to check out my videos on YouTube!

March in Instagram

Last year I started doing monthly pages using nothing but a bunch of Instagram photos and liquid fun.  Or, patterned paper, cardstock and embellishments.  Either way...  

And then I stopped.  Because all good things must come to a grinding halt. :P

You know how some people are like "I just have so many ideas! I wish I had more time!" ??

Yeah. I don't say that. Ever.  I'm more likely to say "Hey, look at this tired old horse of an idea that I've already done.  Look! I recycled it!"  And then I'll sit back and act like I'm saving the planet or something.  

Well, hey! Look at this old horse of an idea that I've already done! Look! I recycled it!  Yay me!  :P

One of the things that I mention in the process video is that these layouts are a nice monthly overview, but as far as actual memory keeping go, they are totally, 100% inconsequential.  And it's funny, in that mindset, I have a lot of fun just throwing embellishments on the page without feeling like they each have to have some kind of relevance or deeper meaning.  So ultimately, these pages are a little more fun to scrapbook.  

Also, I'm clearly not killing myself to come up with a clever title.  Just sayin'.

I also mention in the video two liquid adhesive solutions.  The first are these bottles available at Amazon:

The picture makes it look like you're getting two different sized tips, but you're not.  Two bottles, same tiny tip on both.  I think I'd like to have a leeeetle bit fatter nozzle, but I'm still okay with the fine gauge that I have.  And it's so much better than the enormous hole in the Scotch Quick Dry bottle. 

The second thing I said that I'd link to is this video:

No Plug Glue Toppers for Paper Crafting

The lady in this video replaces her liquid adhesive tops with silicone baby bottle nipples.  The glue doesn't clog in the nipple because of the nature of the silicone.  Also, the tiny hole in the newborn nipples allows for a perfectly consistent, fine bead of glue.  

Also, when she says "...and grab my nipple....(pause) my baby bottle nipple"?  Priceless.

Okay, it is waaaay past m'bedtime!  Thank you for stopping by! I've loved having you!

The process video that wasn't...

I started doing process videos in the summer time, when I had some time off.  I enjoyed making them and got very encouraging comments from fellow scrapbookers, which of course, always feels great.  So I made some more. :)  (Positive reinforcement is a powerful motivator, no??)

Then things got really hectic with tutoring and my crazy 2am shifts at work and I just didn't have any energy to scrapbook for a while.  Funny thing was, even though I hadn't put up a process video in a while, I was still getting subscribers and encouraging comments.  They really made me want to get back to scrapbooking, and I'm grateful for that motivation.  I made a video and coincidentally got invited on the Paperclipping Roundtable.  I felt like I was back in the swing of things.

So this week, powered by my recent "success", I made another layout and video....sort of.  It's one thing to record the process of making a layout.  It's a whole other thing to make those recordings into a video.  The video part involves wrestling the computer into submission, loading the clips, rotating them, speeding them up, connecting all the short clips into one coherent video and doing the voice over.  Loading the clips and making them into one video takes some time - roughly about 3 times as long as the final video.  The voice over only takes as long as the final video, assuming you get it done on the first take.  Normally I do two takes that I throw away before I settle in on the one I'm going to use.  Next, you save the movie - this takes at least a half hour.  Then, uploading to YouTube takes almost an hour.

Now...multiply all that time by 6, because that's how many flipping times I tried to do this video before finally giving up.  Every time I tried to save the video it would error out and I'd have to start again.

Finally it occurred to me that nothing that I do for free is worth this much effort. :P

Especially not this:

Okay, it's not that bad, but there's nothing about that says "This is so earth shatteringly good, you must spend the better part of your weekend trying to share it!!"  That said, I do like it.  I love the big blue/gray mat.  I sprayed blue and gray mists onto wax paper and then mushed my cardstock into it.  At first, I thought it came out a little overwhelming, but ultimately it conveys the storminess that I wanted it to.  Plus, I do like the way the white words pop off of it without it being too strong.

The other thing that I really ended up digging are the clouds:

They're from Ashley Horton's The Cut Shoppe on etsy.  They're adorable.  And affordable!  A buck 69 for three different styles of clouds.  I think they're super fresh!

One of the things that I'm not happy with about the layout is the lack of journaling. I suppose the long title sort of counts, but it doesn't really reveal what I'm talking about.

So, on the day that I took this photo, we were out and about running errands.  Mid-January, and the temperature had jumped into the 50s after a 2 week cold snap that had the temperatures dipping below zero.  Lake Erie (the white expanse on the right side of the photo) had started to freeze, and with the wind, the lake sloshed up  and formed icicles on a fence.  Only, the wind caused the icicles to bow to the east.

Kerig takes photos.  The kind of photos that I love: he captures light and texture and pattern in things that most people walk right past without giving a second thought to.  It's one of the things that I admire most in him.

So I have a picture of him, taking a picture of the sunset (not exactly a subject that others fail to notice), but I'm referencing  his photo of the icicles (and so many others, but on this day, that's the photo.)  Unfortunately, I can't link it, but if you're so inclined, his Instagram is kerigmt, and it was posted on January 17th.  There are two, and I like the one with the sunset best, but the other one shows have massive the icicles are, too.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hello Beautiful

Back in October Molly cut off all her long hair into a punk pixie.  I don't know about the rest of the world, but this is not a common thing for 8th graders here in lovely Cleveland-ish Ohio.

I took the before and after shots the day of the haircut, and printed them out that same day, and started a layout the next day.  It's been 2½ months, so the details are fuzzy, but it was pretty atrocious, so I ditched the start of that layout and "started" fresh.  Startin fresh consisted of taking out a new sheet of white cardstock, putting the photos and the words "short" and "long" cut from the Silhouette on the cardstock and walking away.

I only meant to walk away until I had some more free time, but it ended up being longer than that.  I just didn't feel like scrapbooking.  I didn't have time, but more than that I didn't have any mojo.  And I sort of wanted to have mojo, but at the same time I was sort of okay with just focusing on other things for a while.  Well, the craziness of Christmas in retail seems to be over, and I have two weeks off from tutoring.  Yes, there was Christmas, and company, and other craziness, but finally, finally I had time and mojo.  Yay!

I decided to dump the original "the long and short of it" title and go with "hello Beautiful" instead.  I used a heart background from the Silhouette store, 2Peas flair and Bella Blvd paper.

LOL.  I just noticed that the glare on the flair makes it look like it says "hell Beautiful."  Oops.

Some details:

I sort of wish everyone flipping through my album saw this layout in harsh sunlight, just so those shadows would be there. :P

I was an assistant manager at Archiver's for about 16 months and (at least when I was there) rhinestones were pretty much mandatory on every layout.  Here, I'm just trying to correct a mistake, but every mistake is fixed even better with bling. Right?

The Theresa Collins letters end up looking okay, but I'm still not pleased with them. (Insert grumpy noise here)  And the messiness here is more due to the fact that I had to pry them up and shift them to right to make room for the picture.  If I weren't so lazy I'd run it through my sewing machine, because it doesn't exactly look permanent...but...yeah...that's so much work.  :P

So, I mentioned in the process video that I had a "thing" I need to work on that might keep me from scrapbooking for a while and hinted that I'd talk about here, so I feel obligated to address that.  If you visit my blog, you might have seen the last post about my interviewing for a teaching position recently.  I didn't get it, but the whole process reminded me that I do want to be a teacher.  I'm not certain what snapped in me when I finished my student teaching experience, but I basically dug in my heals and said (in so many words) "I'm not going to teach."  Which is pretty silly, since it's something that I've wanted and worked towards for a long time.  But no is the time for me to get serious.  That interview fell into my lap, and as a private school they were willing and able to take me without my having passed The Exam.  But that was a one time occurrence: schools will not contact me, and they won't even look twice at me without being fully certified.  So I really have to buckle down and take my exams.

There are two: one in my subject (7-12th grade math) and the other in pedagogy (the theories and methods of teaching).  I have every confidence that I will ace the math exam on my first try.  However, the pedagogy test is scary - I took those classes first and have had plenty of time to forget which theorists thought what.  I sort of half-heartedly started studying in October, Now I really need to hunker down and make a steady go it.

I hope to take the tests in late February or early March.  So in the meantime I'll be spending my spare time taking notes, making flash cards and quizzing myself.  Doesn't that sound like fun??

Today is New Years Day.  The first day of 2015!  I hope that we all (me included!) have a healthy, prosperous and creative year!  Thank you for visiting!

Every New Beginning...

So this is (semi) new and exciting:

I went to the doctor for my first arm follow up in the beginning of August and asked him if I should be concerned that my left wrist hurts (especially when I go like "that") and he pressed, prodded, twisted and bent.  And sent me for an MRI.  Great. So last Thursday I had my MRI and today I went in for the results.  Turns out I have a "grade 2 sprain" (no surgery required, but torn ligaments) and a ganglion cyst that's just large enough and positioned in just the right way that it really hurts when I go like "this."  So, I'm splinted for the next two weeks all the time and the next month at work.  Because yeah...my coworkers already think I'm a big baby...  Oh well.  Bigger ganglion cysts require surgery, but mine is small enough that he hopes immobilization and anti-inflammatory patches will bring it down and ease the pain.

That was some walk. :(

So, it's really weird typing with this thing on, so if you see odd typos...blame it on the splint. ;)

BUT, this is what I really wanted to share:

Maggie left for RIT last Saturday and the night before Kerig was generous enough to take us out to dinner.  (Thanks, Kerig! ♥)  As we were headed out I had him take a picture of us together.  The next day I printed it out, and gathered a whole bunch of papers and embellishments, thinking I would scrapbook the next day.  Except I was tired, and frankly, a little too blue.  So the pile sat around for another week, and then I finally scrapped it.

And I even made a video:

And despite talking for 12 full minutes I still have stuff to say!  

1. The title comes from a Semisonic song called "Closing Time."  I'm sure you've heard it, it starts "Closing time. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."  In it, there's a line that says "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."  Which is both optimistic and bittersweet at the same time.  And heaven knows, when it comes to Maggie heading back to school, I am nothing if not "optimistic and bittersweet."  As I look at the picture of the two of us, I'm so excited for her! She's getting her first new apartment, she's headed into her junior year and she's learning SO much!  I know that her future is so bright!  But I also know this: the summer has ended for her and she's going away.  I'll be lucky if she comes home for Thanksgiving for a couple of days and a couple of weeks at Christmastime.  Next summer she'll most likely have an internship.  While it makes me sad that she probably won't come home at all, these internships are a big part of RIT's draw - they get these kids in the doors of major companies, getting them exposure, practical experience and connections within the industry they're persuing.  Optimistic. Bittersweet.  Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.
2. If you chose not to watch the video, you might assume that the layout has no journalling.  In fact, the entire back side of the layout talks about that stuff ^^, as well as all the stuff that Maggie accomplished this summer. 
3. I'm not loving this layout.  The more I look at it, the less it bothers me, but it will never be a favorite  The big ampersand seems a little forced, and not in keeping with the way I usually do things.  It makes me a little uncomfortable, even.  And I really hate the way the title looks.  I love the idea of the title.  A lot.  But the actual execution leaves a lot to be desired.  I think I have a strong preference for titles that are cut from cardstock.  And the word "beginning" is just ridiculously long.  In order for it to be the right width, it ends up being shorter than I'd like.  I wanted to emphasize the word "beginning" but it just sort of ends up being blah and even a little hard to read.  

I wonder if anyone else feels this way: The more special the photo, the harder it is to do it justice in making the layout.  I just had higher hopes for this photo.  I think that just means that I need to hunt down a great square frame, so I can put this photo on display in my home.  

And send her a copy, too, so she doesn't forget her dear ol' mom.

I promise this wasn't all some schemed up pitch to lead into this, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I'm trying to raise money to buy her a computer that can handle the software she needs.  I've had a doozy of a summer, and you can read more about why I'm humbly asking for your help at my GoFundMe page.

As always, thanks for stopping by! 

He ain't heavy...

Well, I just finished my first full week of work since the break, and I'm plum tuckered out!  But as it turns out, I can veg out, put my arm on ice and edit a process video.

...and drink a beer.  It's not really Saturday night if there's not a beer. ;)

I issued a challenge on the Paperclipping forums to be inspired by a song.  I may well be the only person who does it, but that's okay.  I like challenges.  I like a deadline and some parameters, so even if ends up just being a personal challenge, that's okay.

I took a picture of Ted and his (future, I suppose) step-brother last week.  It was picture day for the football team, and the parents were invited to take pictures on the field after the team picture was finished.  While I was thinking about where to position Ted, Ricky came out of no where and jumped into Ted's arms.  I managed to snap a coupe of pictures of the two of them before Ted put him down.

There's a process video here, if you're interest in the whole, big story.

The word "brother" is from the Silhouette store. "Heavy" is done in impact, and the grey letter stickers are from Kelly Purkey at SimonSaysStamp.com.

There was a fair amount of journaling for this picture, which is printed at 4x4.  The title is pretty big and longer that I usually do, which really limited my space.  So I used the Silhouette software to create print-and-cuts - my journaling (the print part) on tags (the cut part).  Normally I go the lazy route, where I cut tags, journal in Word and then try to tape the tag (or other shape) to a sheet of printer paper and hope it prints in the right place.  Oddly, the "lazy way" is probably a lot harder than doing it the print-n-cut way.

So that's pretty much that for the layout.  There's LOTS more that I ramble about in the video, but I've already been sort of redundant...

☺☺☺

I wanted to prod you one more time to take a look at the "No Scrapbook Police" blog series that recently wrapped up.  The last post was made by our hostess, Cara Vincens.   Her beautiful post debunks the myth of being caught up.  Is there such a thing?  Not really, but she's got some good quotes to support her thoughts...AND a really cute baby.  Seriously, it's worth looking just for the little boy named Cederic.  So adorable.

♥♥♥   ♥♥♥   ♥♥♥   ♥♥♥   ♥♥♥

And lastly:

(circa 2008)

She hates this picture.  But hello?  Those braids?  Love.

Please check out the GoFundMe site and consider a small donation.  Or a big one.  I'm okay with either. ;)

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you're enjoying your summer!

This Year...

So I mentioned being a part of the community at Paperclipping. I love it there!  It's so nice to have a little home on the internet to talk about scrapbooking.  I also mentioned in the Christmas in July that we're doing some challenges...and that I love me a challenge!

So this is for another challenge.  It's a sketch challenge with a twist: it's supposed to be about us.  Here's what I came up with:

and it's based on this sketch:

I had to adapt the sketch to make it 8.5x11 friendly, which means I just lopped off the the space on the right side and moved the thought bubbles into where the circles are.

I chose to drop the journaling into a glassine envelope behind the pictures.  I used a library card, ran it though the printer so the top says "quite the adventure" and then hand journalled the bullet points of the year.  Frankly, I didn't want to cover up the math paper, which may be my favorite paper, ever, of all time.

I found this to be hard one for me. I knew that I wanted to use these pictures, but when I printed them I realized they were really dark...the kind of dark that meant I had to chose my papers wisely.  It also rained on Wednesday, which usually I love, but it really sucked the life out of me.  But in the end, even though it seemed to take 3 times as long as it should have, I'm okay with the end result.  :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!

Throw Back Thursday: Are you ready for some football??

Ted just had football camp last week, and you know football season is fixin' to start!  Last year Ted played JV, which meant that his games were on Saturday mornings.  Which means I only got to see two games. :(  (BUT, they were two really great games!)  This year it looks like he's playing varsity, so I'm looking forward to seeing him play a lot more!  (I'll need to do a Kickstarter campaign just so I can afford to see his games though. :P)

So when I was flipping through my album this morning this layout seemed timely for my TBT Layout:

I *love* the "Oh snap!" part of this!  First, I made this layout in 2007, back when "Oh, snap!" was something people actually said.  Second, I knew that Ted played center back in the day, but I had no idea what a center did.  Yes. I am this clueless.  When it finally occurred to me that he was the one to snap the ball every play it was like a million watt bulb turned on for me!  And -- yay! -- that position is nice and easy to take pictures of!  No messiness - no pesky defensive players in the way...just a nice straight shot and there he is!

This year Ted is a vying for the starting quarterback position.  I still don't know that much about football, but I know what a quarterback does, and I know that starting any position on the varsity team in 10th grade is pretty darn good.  I have my fingers crossed for a good season!  But man...I miss the days of watching 9 year olds play...it was so much less scary!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you're ramping up for a great weekend!

Have a nice trip, see you next fall!

Do you remember the semi-cruel things that we used to say to each other as kids?  I worked with a girl who used to say "Smooth move, Ex-Lax" every time anyone did anything klutzy.  She was lovely.

So it's been a quite a month in these parts.  I went from being overwhelmed with two jobs, to one job...to no job.  Well, not really on that last part, but...  I broke my elbow last Thursday and I can't lift until I get clearance - so at least until my next x-ray on August 5th.  The weird upside is: when I went to the orthopedic doctor on Monday he told me I didn't have to wear anything (cast/splint) on my arm.  Well, at night, I have to wrap it up...which I love - I feel like I'm putting on my security blanket.  Because Lord knows, with nothing on it during the day I manage to "oopsie" 30 times a day.  (Turns out, I don't need it in a cast, and I know not to lift, but if I rotate it ever so slightly beyond where it wants to go and I see stars.  Twirling, sparkly, stunningly painful stars.)

One of the upsides of dating a guy who's handy with a camera is that if he takes you to the ER, he's probably going to snap a few pictures while you're there.

One of the upsides of being a scrapbooker is that I'll probably make a layout of said photos:

So I broke my elbow on a walk on my day off.  I tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and went flying.  I landed on my hands, but the impact caused my ulna to break up by my elbow. The story is sort of funny (I think) and includes elements like flying cell phones, school buses and a broken ego...on top of skinned knees and other boo-boos.  On the walk home after it happened I kept thinking "Have a nice trip, see you next fall." and "Exercise kills"...as well as a couple of other choice phrases.  :P

It looks like there's no journaling whatsoever, but in fact the back side of the layout is nothing but the story.  Normally you'd put two layouts in a page protector, back to back.  I decided that this was a story that was too big for a small space and not something I wanted to hide, per se.  So I'm happy with just sliding this in the protector and letting the story show on the other side.

The day this happened, we came home from the hospital to find a package waiting.  I was expecting a small canvas bag from Lands End so I didn't think much of it.  When I finally got around to opening it I was surprised to find that it was an order from 2Peas.  When they announced they were closing I decided to pull the trigger on my basket - which had a handful of fun/happy/bright papers - most of which were Bella Blvd.  I wasn't expecting the package for a week or so.  So I was excited (so many pretty colors!) and gobsmacked at the timing.  It was surely some karmic joke at my expense: Here, have some time off of work, new supplies...AND ONLY YOUR LEFT HAND...HA HA HA HA.

So when the splint came off I was totally ready to PLAY.

Okay, that's it for now.  Thank you for stopping by!

Drive by posting

I have to work early tomorrow morning, so I should really be heading to bed 20 minutes ago, but it's my birthday and my girls are in the kitchen frosting cupcakes. So I'm typing as fast as I can in a race to the creative finish! May the best woman win!  :P

This is from Molly's softball game last week.  The opposing teams pitcher didn't get off to the best start and was throwing balls left and right (quite literally).  I managed to catch the one shot with the ball bouncing just in front of home plate.  Molly was pretty good about not wildly swinging at everything (even balls that were less obvious than that one) and ended up getting walked.  

Kerig listened to the Paperclipping Roundtable last week when I was on.  One of the questions that was asked was "What's your favorite part of the process?" and I talked about that moment just after you have the "a-ha" moment and you have something that grounds you and gives you direction, so you still have lots of little decisions to make, but the big decision is made.  While I was working on this layout he kept asking me "Did you have your a-ha moment yet?" and honestly, it took a while.  But I was scrolling through my Silhouette library and saw the word "Calm" and everything jiggled into place.  While I think "Keep calm..." is way played out right now, I liked the idea of using it since it tied into the idea that Molly was, in fact, remaining calm and doing what she needed to get on base.  (And if you haven't watched the movie Moneyball, you should!)  For this, the color scheme was nice and easy. So it was just a matter of coming up with a title and some decorative space fillers!

For the millionth time I used the stacking technique for the title where I did the bottom layers in a fun color and the top in black.  I should find a new trick pony to ride, but I just love the way this looks!  

You can't see it in this photo, but I used two photo corners that I colored black with a Sharpie.  I talk about this technique in a blog post here, and while it's the world's simplest thing, I love that one package of photo corners has managed to be used so many times without feeling like I'm compromising because of the color.  And I was really pleased when my oldest daughter looked at the layout she specifically pointed them out and said she liked the way they looked.  Oh, la, la! They got a notice by a real live art person.  (Maggie is studying industrial design, which is sort of like if an artist and an engineer had a baby.  One day she'll design some funky lamp or clock or children's toy that you look at and say "ooh, that's cool!")

Okay, this has rambled all over the place!  And for the record, the "best woman" was Molly and Maggie.  The cupcakes were delicious! And now it's way past my bedtime!  Thanks for stopping by!  

I missed you. Did you miss me??

blah blah blah
student teaching
blah blah blah
so happy to be finished
whatever.

It's been a great couple of days!  Filled with kids, Kerig, food, Cleveland and scrapbooking.  Since this is a scrapbooking blog, let's talk layouts!

First up:

Pharrell's song "Happy" has been everywhere this Spring.  And regardless of what mood I'm in when the song starts, if I sing (or clap or dance) along, I can't help but be happy by the end of it.  It's genius on in its ability to suggestive sell a mood.  The lyric that gets me is Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof.  I have two thoughts about this: First, I think about 'raising the roof' - a celebration of such magnitude that the roof wasn't just raised, but raised off.  (welcome to the weird way in which my brain works) ;  And Second, I think about a glorious glass ceiling.  Not one that represents oppression, but rather all the glorious comforts of the indoors with all the incredible views of the sky.  You see, whether it's puffy white clouds on a mostly sunny day, or stormy grey clouds or snow or rain - the sky is indeed beautiful.  So I like that lyric.  It's evocative and clever and it makes me happy.  Like a room without a roof.

Okay, that sounds super hokey, but it was lyric that was begging to be used as a title.  So I used it.  The picture is of Kerig and I at a car wash.  We have a weird love of car washes.  They make us...happy.  And a sunny day in March after a long, cold, snowy and gray winter, that also makes a person happy.  

Here's a couple of close ups of the title and the stuff above the photos:

I journaled in my own handwriting.  What?!  I know, right? NUTS.  And I stamped.  And I heat embossed.  And that never happens.  I like all the pops of color, and the smattering of black to keep it grounded.  

Next up:

Have I mentioned that Friday was my last day of student teaching?  ;)  On my way to school I decided to take a quick selfie to commemorate my accomplishment.  I am not above taking selfies, but it's not something I do daily either.  At my age, I don't want or need daily reminders of what I look like.  That said, I really love this picture.  I am - genuinely - happy.  

When I got home and was doing my scan of the internet, I was pleasantly surprised that Kerri Bradford had a great Friday Freebie. There are a hundred ways to take the phrase "Let's just do today" and in this context (for me) it means: let's crush this; let's make today amazing; let's wrap this up with a red ribbon and walk away proud.  

Some details:

Once again, I'm happy with all the great color, the black title that both pops and grounds, and I simply adore that math paper.  I might need a couple more sheets. 

Because I also used it for the cards I made for my cooperating teachers:

Yep.  I like that paper.  That number border is less that a half inch tall.  I am always amazed at my Silhouette!  

Okay, that's it for now, but I realized that I have one more layout to share.  I did it a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday night.  I figured if I didn't take a creativity break I'd explode.  But then I had to hide the evidence, so I forgot to photograph it today. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello! Remember me??

It's been almost exactly a month since my last post.  And very likely it'll be a month again before my next post.  This student teaching thing has been quite an eye opener.  And I'll leave it at that.  I'm a little more than half way through, and I hope one day soon things will sort of go back to normal around here.  For a little bit, at least.

Meanwhile, I've had a couple of layouts up on the Silhouette blog and another one over on Kerri Bradford's blog.  Want to talk about intimidating?  Imagine having a layout sandwiched between Nichol Magouirk and Laura Vegas.  Holy cow - they are both so amazingly talented in ways that I will never hold a candle to. So yes.  Honored. And humbled.  See:

They say comparison is the thief of joy, and if I sit here and compare this to Nichol and Laura, sure, this pales.  But taken on its own, I love how happy this is.  I love the colors and the photos and the random memories of December.  That's a win. Right?? Right!

Next up, a recent trip to the zoo:

I love gray.  I love the way colors pop off it, but it's not as harsh as black or as stark as white. (um: duh. Hello, you can call me Captain Obvious) but the yellow here makes me happy.  And so do the different title treatments.  And I got some of the Silhouette vellum and it's beautifully thick.  It prints wonderfully.  Photo credit: Kerig.  I brought my camera.  Would have been nice if the battery were charged.  After all these years of being the sole photographer, it's really nice to have Kerig and his mad skillz around. 

This is up on the Silhouette blog today and I really like it.  A lot.  And it looks better in real life.  For the background, I used Silhouette stencil to cut out this polka dot lace, then poured a little glue on top of it and used an old gift card to smear the glue into the dots.  I sprinkled it with white glitter and then very patiently waited a full day for it to dry.  (This is HUGE for me.  I have absolutely no restraint when it comes to waiting for things to dry)  I really do love the way it turned out, although, in retrospect I wouldn't use the glue that I used - I would have used Nori paste which is thicker and wouldn't have soaked the paper.  That said, I'm perfectly okay with the imperfection.  The idea was to mimic the bottom picture of the streetlights through the slushy window.  

I'm also very pleased with the title.  (yay me! :P) I had such a lovely evening on this particular night and yet had no pictures.  Well, aside from these two, which really aren't the point.  But hopefully the title and odd pictures will compel you to read the journaling.  And maybe not YOU you, but you know...um, my kids and stuff. I guess.  Oh, and I'm pleased with the shape of the journaling block and the way it looks on that vellum.  That's good stuff!

And now might be a good time to mention that I've officially told Silhouette that I'm not trying out for the next Design Team.  I've had SO MUCH FUN doing this and they are a fun, supportive and generous company.  And I'd LOVE to do it again in heartbeat under different circumstances.  But this school thing: Oy!  And the fact of the matter is, I'm hoping to turn this into a "real" teaching position in the fall.  And if I'm struggling like this now, I can't imagine what it would be like to have my own classroom AND try to have other commitments.  It just seems like a bad idea and horribly unfair.  I will, however, continue to be in love with the company and all their very cool products and share that love here.  

If you're considering trying out: GO FOR IT! It's a wonderful experience for sure!

I hope that you are finding Spring and vice versa.  I know I could do with a few more 50º afternoons and a few less 0º mornings!  

...and in other news:

I feel like my entire personality has been taken over by student teaching.  It's pretty much all I've been thinking about, so it's pretty much all I've been talking about, too.  However, school has been cancelled for today AND tomorrow due to the "extreme weather" so I've decided that I need to spend time today working on "Caroline" instead of my "Ms. Davis" alter-ego.

First up: Blog post!

Last week I had a layout up on the Silhouette blog that I never shared here, and now seems like a good time to rectify that:

I really like the concept of the two matching pictures (taken three years apart) but I'm not going to sugar coat it: the difference in the tonal qualities really bugs the heck out of me.  Blech.

I really don't have a whole lot to say about the layout, but I did want to mention the rhinestones.  Silhouette sent me their rhinestone setting tool and a variety pack of gems and I'm in love.  First of all, I'm sucker for gadgets, but I'm also a sucker for things that work.  Compared to the tradition gemstone set up with the line of adhesive that needs to be broken and always has an awkward tail, these are AMAZING.  There's no tail.  You put the singular, tailless gem where you want it and apply heat using the setting tool.  It melts the adhesive on the gemback and the gem STAYS PUT.  I put that in caps because with the traditional kind I feel like a week later they're all going to be pooled in the bottom of the page protector, whereas these feel really firmly stuck down.  This is a good thing!

Moving on to other news:

• I hardly think that 2 denotes a trend, but I seem to have taken up baking.  Last Sunday I made soft pretzels and yesterday I made Parker House rolls.  The pretzels were mainly because I had a weird but incredibly strong hankering for them.  The rolls were mostly because I had two more packets of yeast that need to be used before May.  And, honestly, I think I wanted something to really concentrate on.  I feel like my brain slips back to school every couple of minutes no matter what I'm doing.  But if I'm really focused, I can escape for a little while.  So doing something that's a little out of my comfort zone is a great distraction.  Plus: rolls.  So I guess it's win/win.  And I still have a packet of yeast left to use up.  I wonder what's next?  Maybe more pretzels, because there were amazeballs. (I don't even say amazeballs, that's how amazeballs there were.)

• I decided that I needed to go on a mini shopping spree to add some teacher clothes to my wardrobe.  LLBean sent an email offering 20% off my entire order, but I couldn't find anything I like.  Which is odd, because I really do like LLBean.  But here's the deal (and I'm talking directly to you, LLBean): as a plus sized woman, I don't want to dress like I've given up.  Or that I bought all my clothes 15 years ago.  Waistlines have moved down, and for good reason.  But the ONLY lower-than-the-natural-waist offering they had was corduroys.  Now, if you're plus sized and look good in corduroys, then God bless you and more power to ya!  But I'm not going to wear pants that not only add volume but also make weird noises when I walk.

Okay, rant over.  At any rate, I took my business to Lands End, where I found a bunch of lower waist options and they were on sale.  Yay! I love a sale!  And yeah...I bought two pairs of pants in colors that I never would have considered had they not been the only option in my size, but seriously, when they arrived I fell in love.  And then there are these lovelies:

Now, I'm considerably taller than the model, so my 27 inch inseam does not (unfortunately) come down that far (oh, the heaven I would be in if they did!) but I LOVE THESE LEGGINGS.  First, I can't believe that I bought leggings: no one needs to see all my lumps and bumps.  But here's the thing: there AREN'T any lumps and bumps to see.  And that's not because my body miraculously changed, it's because the fabric is wonderful: thick and comfy and stretchy and MATTE. None of that icky spandex sheen. Blech.  By the way, I bought that top, too.  I'm not wearing this to school obviously, but it's adorable and I will happily wear it on the weekends.  Probably both days.  ;)

• Last Monday was President's Day and Kerig and I both had the day off.  For most people I'm sure this sounds like no big deal.  But for the last gazillion years we've both worked retail, so we've rarely had a day off together.  But now that we're both "working" in the schools (in quotes because it's not like it's an actual job.  This is technically a class for me.) we have a weekends-and-holidays-off schedule that jives up.  So anyway, we took advantage of $5 Mondays and saw August: Osage County.  It was more serious than I had expected, but it was a great story.  Meryl Streep always blows me away, and this was no exception.  I can take or leave Julia Roberts, but I must admit that she did a great job here as well.  I love a movie that doesn't tie up every loose end, and Kerig and I had lots to discuss about the characters and what happened next over dinner.  I love that we can watch the same movie and interpret things differently.  I constantly have "Huh, I never thought about it that way" moments when we talk after a good movie.

Okay! Thanks for allowing me this ramble.  I think the rest of the day involves scrapbooking and CAMEO'ing and otherwise not obsessing about graphing systems of linear inequalities and composition of functions.  Yeah. Good luck with that.  Me. Not you.  I'm pretty sure you're not going to be too worried about either of those things... :P

Thanks for stopping by!  

Speed blogging!

I'm downloading a software update and it says I have 25 minutes...oh, wait, 19...oh, wait...27 minutes...er, something like that until it's done. So, I could walk into the kitchen and eat another one of the treats that Aunt Dorothy sent home with us on Sunday - or- I could see if I can squeak in a whole blog post.

Today is my turn up on the Silhouette blog which means I get to get to share here.  I don't love all my pages.  Truth be told, I don't even like a fair amount. :P  But this definitely gets a strong LIKE from me:

As is seems the case about 90% of the time, I end up with these pictures that aren't pre-made embellishment friendly.  In this photo Maggie is playing a game called Headbandz that we got for Christmas.  In the game, you wear a headband and insert a card with a word on it.  Everyone else can see the card, but the wearer can't.  The person wearing the headband then asks a series of yes/no questions to figure out what does the card say.

Is it a person? No.
Is it a place? No.
So it's a thing.
Is it something you wear? No.
Can you buy it at Target? Yes.
Would it cost less than $10? Could be.
Do you find inside a house? Sure.
Is it made of metal? No.
Wood? Could be.

I can't remember all the questions that were asked (and let me tell you, asking yes/no questions is far more challenging than you might think) but she narrowed it down to something very close to a bottle, but WHO THINKS OF A BOTTLE AS BEING MADE OUT OF WOOD? :P

Hence Maggie's adorable, very confused expressions.

And yet, how do you scrap this with conventional embellishments.  Well, as luck would have it, I have a CAMEO. ;)  So I started scrolling through my library, not really sure what I was looking for but hopeful that I'd find something relatively generic.  I figured I'd just have to do a lot of journaling to explain what's going on here.  But when I came across the light bulbs I was thrilled.  Right? Because it the game she's waiting for that A-HA moment when all the yes/no questions result in the right answer.  And I loved the outline style of the bulbs.  And after I found a couple of bulbs to work with I decided to see if there was a bottle that might have a similar vibe to match.  I'm pretty happy with what I found!

So when I started, all I had was the background with all the circles, but I didn't quite no what was going to go on over on the border part.  All things considering, I'm really pleased with how that worked out.

And I was going to talk about the stacked title and show you a quick peak:

but it turns out my download is finished, so I can go back to 'work'. Yay! :)

Thanks for stopping by for a quickie!

Full Cycle

I started this blog a little more than 4 years ago.  I had just moved and I was on the verge of leaving a job that made me miserable.  Even though I wasn't happy with where I was, I was scared of the unknown.

Well, four years (and a couple of months) later, I've recently moved and I'm about to change jobs again.  Unlike four years ago, I feel blessed in my job and my personal life is  fulfilling. So I've come full circle, back where I started, but somehow on a whole new level.  I'm still a little scared about the future, but there's butterflies of excitement in there, too.  It's good.

But my blog isn't really supposed to be about that.  It's supposed to be about scrapbooking, the Silhouette and other crafty goodness.  So without further ado:

I really need to tweak a thing or two about this layout. I'm not satisfied with the word "short" and it's bugging me.  That said, I love that I got this picture out there with that statement.  For a solid year, every time I talked to Ted I would catch him looking at the top of my head.  Hey, buddy, my eyes are down here! (har har har)  He finally passed me up in early 2013, and he's not as fixated on my part anymore.  Somehow it just didn't sink in that he had gotten this much taller than me already.  And "When did I get so short??" was my true gut reaction to seeing this picture.

And in other housekeeping:  I was on The Paperclipping Roundtable this week.  Yeah. That happened.  For real.  Such an incredibly fun experience.

Apparently it was so amazing that it rendered me incapable of writing sentences like a grown up.  The good news is that during the podcast I don't trip over my words and I sound like I have an intelligent opinion.  On the other hand, you could play a drinking came for every time I called Noell "Nicole".  You wouldn't get drunk or anything, but it did happen.  Fortunately it only happened once, and in the pre-show I apologized in advance because I had a feeling I would do it.  Very embarrassing.  But hey, I didn't cuss, so there's that.

That's about it.  Today is my very last day at Dodd Camera.   I start my student teaching stint with an orientation on Tuesday evening and I'll be in the classroom to observe starting Wednesday at 7:45.  Not sure when I'll actually get to take over the classroom, but I'll be sure to mention it here.  I'm working with two cooperating teachers and teaching 2 Algebra II classes and and 3 Algebra I classes.  Yay!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and thanks (as always) for stopping by!

Almost Finished

"Cakes get done, people get finished."  I wonder what little quirky sayings my children will remember about me?  Wow, new world record for digressing.

Last Friday I was heading in to class, walking the long way around to avoid some stairs (giving my knees a rest) and I looked up at exactly the right time.  I usually take the stairs, so I get a different, less photogenic view.  When I looked up and saw the school from this angle, with the tree and the glow of the inside lights - I knew I had to back up a foot or two and get a quick Instagram. 

Sometimes it seems to take forever for Instagram to boot up.  Especially if one is running a little late or if it's chilly (definitely the later for me, I'm usually pretty good about being punctual).  So while I waited I was thinking about I only had 4 more classes in the semester.  That day and one more week.  This is the last math class that I'm taking.  Next semester I'll have one more class, but I'll only have 2 or 3 actual classes - after that we'll be set lose for student teaching.  It'll be a TON of work for certain, but a different kind of work.  More meaningful, more immediate, more urgent, with bigger stakes and more direct feedback.  I'm a little scared and VERY excited.  And yes, all these thoughts ran through my head waiting for Instagram to fire up.

And I wanted to take some time to document this - the excitement, anticipation, nervousness and immediacy - before it was in the past.  

I have a pile of glassine envelopes - I think I picked them up at this weird bulk paper goods place not too far from here.  I've had them forever, and used some and there, oh, and here, too!  (Isn't it great when you have evidence that actually used stuff you bought??)  I also bought a huge box of library cards from a teacher supply store.  I think there were 500 cards in the box and it cost about $11.  I've used a ton of them, too, but barely made a dent in the box.  They've been great for journaling, die cutting and even just making lists or quick notes.  Today I used them for hand journaling.  *Gasp*! I rarely hand journal, for a whole bunch of reasons, but the library cards are liberating, especially in the glassine envelopes - it's easy to start over, the handwriting doesn't have to be perfect since it's pretty well concealed, and I don't have to worry about keeping it short, since I can easily stack lots of the library cards in the pocket. That's a win/win to me.

 Some detail shots.  I don't necessarily think you want or need them, but I'm getting into the habit anyway.  

Some favorites right now:

• Have I mentioned lately how much I ♥♥♥ aflairforbuttons at Etsy?  Oh, I have, haven't I?? Naughty blogger!
• I just found the font Grand Hotel at fontsquirrel.com.  Wait.  Wasn't I just talking about them recently, too?  Hmmm.  I'm turning into my grandmother maybe. 
• The "Math Notebook Washi" blends in too well, which is a crying shame.  It's beautiful.  Freckled Fawn is genius for making it. For me. Let's go with that. I like to feel special, and it's working. 

And there's no link for it, but I do like the swoopy way I did the stitching.  I don't know why I did it, or why I like it so much, but I do.  

And I wonder if I'm the only person who's guilty of using leftover tidbits from recent layouts, even it it might not actually work.  The little star (next to the heart)?  It's a leftover from a recent football layout.  The scalloped circle under the owl is a leftover scrap of paper from that same layout.  The scallop shape is one I just used in a Christmas project I'll share next week.  But when I knew I wanted a scalloped circle to ground the flair, I know exactly which one I wanted to use. And why. (It's the 5 scalloped circles from the Silhouette store.)  The little white tag and the red heart were also in my little bowl of leftover die cuts.  And the aqua blue thread was the thread on sewing machine.  It only just barely works, but it doesn't NOT work, so I wasn't going to go to the effort of changing it out.  I don't know if that's laziness or a sign that I've gone zen in my old age.

I hope that you had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are making it through Black Friday untrampled. 

Plan on stopping by Monday afternoon.  We did a fun project for the Silhouette blog and I'm really excited to see what the other girls came up with and I'll have some extra details and thoughts on here. 

See you then!

My day up on the SIlhouette blog

Which means I get to share here and add my 2¢.

So, I talk about most of the Silhouette-y stuff over at their blog, so I'm going to skip that stuff. ;)  Problem is, when I write the post for them I'm thinking "Oh, I want to talk about this on my blog.  And this, too!" But a week and a half later I can't remember doodley.

Except:

So, the one thing that I wanted to mention is that I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive for this technique and I really think it made a world of difference.  I can't think of another adhesive that would have been this quick and this rock solid.  I gently folded the leaves and had a blob of the Quick Dry on a piece of scrap paper and I just dipped them in and put them on the page.  I was able to scooch them around for maybe 10 or 20 seconds, but then after that they were pretty well stuck.  I was worried that the glue - which is white - would be super obvious.  But it dried clear.  You can see it if there are big globs of it, but fortunately I was tidy. ;)

The other thing that I want to point out is that I LOVE THIS TOOL:

It's the Silhouette Spatula and it's pretty amazing.  I don't get all goo goo about everything that comes my way, and in the interest of full disclosure: this was given to me by Silhouette. And I'm sooo glad they did!  Obviously it's main purpose is to lift things off the cutting mat.  And it does an excellent job at that.  It has saved me from ripping all kinds of intricate cuts.  I can't explain why it's so fantastic, but it is. There's something about the way it curves into a point - it allows you to work it under the thin, delicate parts of the design to gently pry it up.

But it's useful for other things, as well.  For instance, the leaves up there are fairly small.  I couldn't quite bend them easily with my chubby fingers.  I used the spatula tool and bent the leaves around it.  Made life so much easier.  AND, I've been working on another project that will go up next week and there's a TON of glitter involved.  TONS.  Ever notice that when you sprinkle glitter some of it that doesn't land in the glue sticks around? FOREVER? I'm finding this tool very handy for removing glitter that gets stuck in crevices.  I'll point this out when I have a decent example that I can share.  But it's just another reason why I love this tool.

So that's that.  I loved so many pictures from this afternoon, and I hope to do at least two more layouts.  I hope that I can squeeze them in before I love my autumn-mojo.  Does that happen to anyone else??  The two layouts that I want to do are story based and have nothing to do with the time of year, but naturally the color scheme will still reflect that.  But once the season passes, I find it harder and harder to get motivated to do "out of season" layouts. Hmmm.

I think I feel safe in saying that I won't be posting again before Thanksgiving, so I feel comfortable in wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving.  

Because I'm feeling cheeky...

I thought I'd share a layout I made a while ago that didn't really..uh...go anywhere.
I probably shouldn't show you this very risque shot of my daughter holding a pair of underpants.  But she's 19 years old in this picture (and currently rounding the corner to 20!); she knows about the layout and that I'm going to share it; and lastly, the underwear was purchased from Target, on an endcap where literally thousands of people would have walked past it without having a single untoward thought.

The only point I want to make is this: I have never before used this selective colorization.  While I think (generally) that it can be very cheap and obvious (seriously, no more beautiful women in black and white holding a colorized rose: BLECH), in this case it really worked.  No one really looks their best at 7:30 Christmas morning, and while it doesn't really translate here, that Superman logo is glittery, and in the real life version of this, it looks fantastic.

Hey, thanks for stopping by - AGAIN. :)  Have a great weekend!

The Spoils of "Another Happy Tuesday"

Hello folks! Today is NOT another happy Tuesday.  Heck, it's not even another happy Wednesday. It's more of a sip-your-coffee-and-keep-all-your-angry-thoughts-to-yourself kinda day.   But the good news is, I have a blog post to divert my attention! Yay for blog posts!

I started this layout over the weekend.  I've mentioned before how hard I find scrapping sports layouts.  I've also mentioned that I don't own and can't find a lot of blue that works with the royal blue in his uniform.   So I feel like I'm scrapbooking with one hand tied behind my back.

That said, I knew I wanted the word teamwork in the title, but I also had another die cut and I couldn't make it work.  I'm not in love with the finished page, but after several hours of shoving around titles and embellishments, this was a good compromise.

I'm also finding it difficult to find sports themed embellishments that aren't juvenile.  Even on my beloved Silhouette, the pickin's are slim.  So for this, it's stars (aren't all athletes stars? Even if only in their own minds...) and arrows (to show the forward momentum of the play) and a semi-generic GO! banner that I made.  (If you're interested in that file, let me know and I'll send it your way).  I worked in a little blue with the accents and figured green, brown and grey would work well enough, for the grass, mud and general overall grey quality of northeast Ohio during football season.

And the journaling tells why it was worth it for me to get the page done when I just wanted to abandon it and move onto something more scrap-friendly.  I love this picture.  On the way home from this game Ted and I were talking about the game and he asked it I saw that one play where Sushi was carrying him.  Uh. No.   I have no idea what you're talking about.  He went on excitedly, telling me about how in the one play when they were starting off at the 15 yard line he ran the ball and just as he was about to be tackled by South, Sushi was right there behind him and "he carried me for like 20 seconds!"  Later that today I was scrolling through my pictures and noticed this shot and sure enough, Ted's feet aren't on the ground, and sure enough it was Sushi (#71) and #70 who were hoisting him up by his jersey and carrying him - and the ball - down field.  Judging by the fact that my camera shoots 6 frames per second, he was only off the ground for about 2 seconds, but still: that's teamwork.

These are a few of my favorite things:
Flair: Minimal 1 flair at aflairforbuttons.
Wood veneer: Arrow Wood Chips from Freckled Fawn and they're colored with a dumb ole Sharpie and sanded a bit.
Enamel dots: Ombre Black Enamel Dew Drop Stickers, also from Freckled Fawn.
The washi at the top and bottom is also from Freckled Fawn.
The font on the main title is Blackout Midnight from Font Squirrel - and you know you want to check them out based on the name alone.

So that's that.  Things are probably going to be scarce here for a while.  It's Christmas in retailland, and theoretically we're coming up on final exam time for school, but I'm thinking that's not going to be a big deal this time around.  And no, you won't hear me complaining about that!

Thanks for stopping by!  Don't forget to say "Heyyy" in the comment section.  Not gonna lie: I love a comment or 2 here and there. ☺