Throwback Thursday: Back to School

We still have about a week and a half before everyone in our clan heads back to their respective schools.  It's going to be awfully quiet around here when that happens!  But the buzz is in the air.  You know how that goes...  So when I flipped through my album this morning, this seemed like an appropriate layout to share:

I've been walking down memory lane - in a scrapbooking industry kinda way - a lot lately.  Even though it doesn't really affect me, I think the Studio Calico/Big Picture merger, especially on the heals of 2Peas closing has probably been a big reason.  Then on last week's episode of the Roundtable there were a whole lot of bygone products and companies (and a font!) that were mentioned.

This layout is from either late 2000 or early 2001.  Does anyone remember the company Keeping Memories Alive?  They had tons of tone on tone prints, and I had made a huge order of their paper.  That's all their patterned paper here.  Yes, matching blue, green, yellow AND red.  All m'bases covered!  Usually I don't like primary colors all grouped together, but there's something about the quaintness of that paper that makes it forgivable. :P  Does anyone recognize the letter stickers in the subtitle?  I had to re-adhere 5 letters before taking the picture.  Oops.

The other thing from this layout that makes me all nostalgic is the letter templates for the title.  They were from Pebbles in my Pocket.  And I *loved* Pebbles in my Pocket.  I credit them for helping me find my style.  They had a magazine that made Creating Keepsake look like...blech.  At the time, CK was still showing pages with sticker sneeze on white backgrounds with silhouetted photos.  Meanwhile, Pebbles in my Pocket was showing pages on black backgrounds (*gasp*!!) with full square photos and fun, colorful titles cut from their templates. It seemed somehow very sophisticated in comparison, but still very fun. They made and sold the templates and had their own cardstock that was - in its time - luxurious: thick, rich, beautiful...everything you want in a ... cardstock.  ;)

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Hey!  Are you a digital scrapbooker, or thinking about going that route?  Then you should take a trip over to Melissa Shanhun's blog.  She's debunking the myth that digital scrapbook pages should be made to look like traditional scrapbook pages.  She's got some amazing techniques to share!  Good stuff!

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Do you listen to NPR?  I do!  I love RadioLab, Market Place, This American Life, Queue with ...oh heck, I'm not even going to try to spell that guys name!, as well as some of our local shows that keep in me in touch with all of Cleveland's and Ohio's concerns.

Twice a year they ask me for money.  I like the content of the station, so when I can give, I do.  I've given as little as $10.  It's what I had, and it helped get them to their goal.

I will not come to you twice a year like clockwork.
I cannot offer you a handcrank radio, or a mug, or a tote.
There is no 800 number for you to call.
There are no operators standing by.

But I am asking.  Please consider visiting the GoFundMe page and donating a little something to help a smart, driven, hard working girl get the one back to school item that's way out of mom's league.

If you like the content here...
If you've got a soft spot for education...
If you there's a little bit of Girl Power in you...
If your own kids have past the back-to-school phase...

Please consider.

Thank you for stopping by this Thursday!  And seriously - do you remember KMA?  What manufacturer to you miss most?  Let me know, I'd love to read your comments! 

Throwback Thursday: Three Wishes

Looking through my old layouts has really helped me understand why the Silhouette was destined to be my best mechanical friend:

This layout is from 2003 and looks like it's been through the ringer.  But that title...  Even back in the day, the title was the thing for me.  If I was feeling lazy, I'd print something out on the computer, but most of the time I'd find an appropriate font, get it sized the way I wanted and print a mirrored version on the back side of my cardstock and cut it out with an Exact-o knife and micro-tip scissors.

Molly just turned 14 and I just shared the layout about her making her cake, so this seemed appropriate to go along with that.  She was such a beautiful little girl.  Blond hair, chubby cheeks, big brown eyes...  And dear lord, was she feisty!  Well, some things haven't changed.

I'm going to put the journaling here because it's really hard to read, even on the layout itself.  At least this way if it continues to fade I'll have a record of it.

Three wishes, one for each candle on your cake.  Health: I want you to be strong and healthy, both physically and mentally...eat healthy, exercise, get lots of rest.  Be confident in who you are. Trust your judgement. Know who to trust in life (hint: Mom and Dad! We always have your best interest at heart!) Happiness: I want you to know joy on a daily basis.  Some days will be hard, but even in the toughest times there is pleasure if you remember to open your eyes and heart to let it in.  Laughter: Let humor be your safety net. Take yourself seriously, always try to be the best you can be, but don't forget to laugh often.  Find humor in everything you can, including yourself! If you can manage to laugh , health and happiness won't ever be far off!

Thanks for stopping by!  

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!

Another Thursday, another throwback layout

I love this photo.  Technically, it's a dud.  In fact, I had it enlarged and mounted and when the lab got the negative they called to verify that I wanted it. It's blurry, they said.  Surely you must want the frame to the left or right of it, they said.  Yep.  It's blurry.  Nope, I didn't write the wrong frame number.  That's the one I want.

It hangs in my home now, and I still love it.  

This layout is so incredibly simple.  I used an Exact-o knife to cut the red frame.  I printed my title and journaling on vellum, and used the Exact-o to cut it into wonky chunks.  The only other "design element" was using pops of red in the journaling.  

Why this one? Why now?

Well, I'm not really sure.  I flipped through an album and there were a couple of layouts that I could have used, but when I got to this one, I stopped flipping.  Molly's 14th birthday was yesterday, and of course birthdays always make you aware of the passage of time.  Molly's only two in this photo.  They ALL are so young here.  And so perfectly them. The journaling - which is too long to transcribe - talks about how there's so much commotion (yep) but also how wonderful having siblings is because they all know your journey and understand you so thoroughly. 

(Oops.  I just realized that this photo is slightly different than the one I have hanging here.  In the enlargement, Molly's head is showing.  But it's still blurry. :P)

Alright.  I'll have a current layout up tomorrow.  It's been quite a week around these parts.  Stay tuned. ;)

As always: Thanks for stopping by!