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!  

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!  

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. ☺

Scrapbooking from the Soul

(a class with Jill Sprott at twopeasinabucket)

At the risk of sounding cocky, I used to think I was a really good journaler. I used to finish a layout and think "Yeah. I nailed that story."  Maybe not after every layout, but certainly far more frequently than I feel that now.  In truth, I feel like none of my recent layouts have been particularly poignant.  I'm sure there are valid influences at play. Maybe it's harder to emote about teenagers?  Maybe the complexity of my living arrangements have left me guarded? Maybe it goes all the way back to the divorce?   This is most probably the closest.  After the separation I gave up scrapbooking all together for a couple of years.  And when I picked it up again, things had definitely shifted in my mindset...

Whatever the reason, I want to change it.  At $12, Jill's class seemed like a good idea.  Over this past weekend I had pulled out a picture of Ted.  He was sitting in my old bedroom, watching t.v. with me and soaking his feet in vinegar water.  He would probably prefer that I not share this with the whole world, but Ted's feet can really hum.  So every couple of weeks during baseball and football seasons he soaks his feet in vinegar water.  It's a miracle cure for foot odor.  No lie.

I feel like there's so much to say.  But when I looked at the photo all that came to me was schmaltzy 'soaking up' puns.  Ugh.  I love this kid and I'm so impressed and proud of him and the way he carries himself, his work ethic, how kind and helpful he is, and ....and...and...and a hundred other great qualities.  But nothing bubbled to the surface without making me groan.

I wanted to have a nod to the fact that he was soaking his feet, but I wanted it to be subtle.  My take-away from the first lesson of Scrapbooking from the Soul was to look past the obviousness of the photo and find the bigger story.  It occurred to me that we're really just entering Ted's teenage years.  He's rounding the corner to 15, but I sometimes lose sight of that - he is so tall, so manly, and so mature that I forget that he's just 14.  When the phrase 'getting our feet wet' popped into my head I knew that was something I could run with.

I'm going to share the journaling, but please keep in my mind that I have a degree in math for a reason.  While I enjoy writing for my personal use, it's never been anything to served me well academically.  So...be nice. :P

We’re only about a year and a half into Ted’s teenage years.  I feel like we’re just getting our feet wet here.  If you believe the hype about raising teenagers that’s perpetuated by sit-coms, this is supposed to be hard, eye-rolling work.  Everything from getting him to take out the garbage to getting him to bathe should be a massive undertaking. But that’s so not the case with Ted.  Maybe it’s the athletic training? Maybe it’s just his genetic make-up?  But Ted has always been a good kid.  Not perfect, mind you, but he really strives to do good. I suppose that in some regards I’ve been holding my breath, waiting and wondering if the teenage years will change that about him.  
  We’re just getting our feet wet here.  There’s still a long way to go and I’m hoping the trajectory we’re on continues.  I love that Ted respects others and that he respects himself, too.  I love that Ted isn’t too cool to give his mom big, floppy hugs.  I love that he thinks about others and will do sweet things to make others happy.  Yes, I can’t deny that his willingness to take the garbage out without being told is a personality trait that I hope lasts forever.  But in this photo, Ted is soaking his feet in vinegar water and watching t.v. with me.  I adore the fact that he’s willing to do both of these things.  One demonstrates his respect for self, the other one just makes me warm and fuzzy.  Thank you, Ted, for keeping me company and making me so proud to be your mom.

Thanks for stopping by.  And if $12 won't break your bank, I do highly recommend "Scrapbooking with Soul."  It's good stuff.

Just wild about Harry

Way back in the way back day, Kerig was my boss. One evening a guy came in and had an issue with a repair.  It was just Kerig and I working and the man's issue was something that needed the store manager.  Kerig was busy selling a camera, which is something that takes some time.  I did tell Kerig that the man was waiting to speak to him, but the man would have to be patient until Kerig was free.

The man, however, was a douchebag.  And after waiting about a minute and a half he demanded to know Kerig's name.  He picked up one of our pens and one of our brochures and when I said his name was Kerig, he did what most people do and said "What?!"  (his "what" was decidedly more angry than most people's "whats").  I said it again and watched with amusement as he wrote down "HARRY."  Fine.  Go ahead and call our corporate offices and let them know that "Harry" didn't drop everything and tend to your every whim and desire.  Good luck with that.

For the record, had the man asked me to spell it for him, I would have.  But he didn't.  And correcting him would have been rude. :P

He's wearing my glasses, because he was making fun of me, and the impersonation needed to be accurate.  Of course, once he put them on, he couldn't see a damn thing, so I took his picture to show him how he looked.  (Frankly, I like it!  His glasses are a million years old...I think it's time he gets a new pair.  Like that!)  The picture was taken in the bathroom, which is a lovely mix of pale teal blues.  Even though I converted the picture to black and white in Instagram, it still screams 'calm blue color scheme!' to me.  I threw in the orange for the tension - the story is a little bit angsty, and even though it resolves itself in a good way (that the name stuck and he became something much more valuable than my boss), there is some tension there.  Plus, I really like orange and light blue, and I can put them together if I want to. :P :P :P

By the way: it was really flipping hard to sew the vellum to the speech bubble.  I contemplated cutting another out and trying it again, but I think the results would have been the exact same.  Lazy, lazy, lazy.

Escaping to my happy place

As I begin to write this, the store has only been open for about an hour.  We've only had a handful of customers, but the tone is set: It's going to one of those days.  It's not a day where money will change hands.  It'll be a day of "why is this not working the way I think it should."  Which sometimes appeals the problem solver in me, but...sometimes not.

(I just gave the address and a phone number for a school uniform place that's in the next city over.)(Not the kind of thing that appeals to my inner problem solver.)(Although, when I'm in a better mood, I think of the scene in Miracle on 34th street where the Macy's Santa refers someone to Gimble's and the Gimble's exec have a fit.)

I might also mention that many of these posts are written at work.  My boss knows, she's sitting right next to me, so it's not taboo or anything.  So between customers, this is sometimes how I kill time.  This might explain some of the choppiness, dropped words and sentences that look like maybe they were started and finished by two different people. :P  But today, this blog is my escape, my happy place.  My oasis of sanity, where no one will thrust their problems at me and expect a tactful, hand-holding response.    And no one here will call me Charlene.  Ok?

Ok.

This is sort of all over the place.  I started it, stopped to make dinner, futzed with it a little after dinner, took Molly to her summer band camp concert, watched Project Runway and then finished it late in the evening.  Somehow I lost all my journaling room, but I think that what I ended up sums it up nicely - I love having a kid who's adventuresome enough to try some foods that others in her age bracket (and gene pool) might find to gross to sample.

By the way, the stars are something that I made in the Silhouette software.  It wasn't hard by any means, but I couldn't find anything quite like them in the Silhouette store.  If you want the file feel free to send me an email and I'll send it to you: cnd3167 at yahoo dot com.  I'm sort of half heartedly trying to figure out how to share files from here, but I keep coming across roadblocks.

Alrighty.  That's all I've got for now.  My 'i' key is sticking.  I think I've caught most of the i-less words, but if you spot one or two, that's why.

Thanks for stopping by!

She's Such a B

I'm moving!
Okay, not today - who blogs when they're actually moving?  But I do have stuff in boxes.  I WE get our keys next Saturday and I have a 17 foot UHaul reserved in my name the following Tuesday.  On Wednesday I'll probably be dead, but...thems the breaks, right?

Yesterday was the day I had planned to start packing.  And I had also planned to squeeze in one more layout.  I figured I'd pack for a couple of hours in the morning, and then set aside two hours to play with paper.  Ted had a baseball game scheduled last night, but it rained pretty hard the night before and throughout the morning.  I got a little cocky, thinking that surely the game would be cancelled, which would mean I could pack more and push scrapping to the evening.

HA.
hahahahaha.

No.  Ted's game wasn't cancelled.  But by the time that became apparent I had already extended my packing time into my scrapping time.  Also, last night was the last night for me to make a meal and have "all" of us eat something homemade together. (all = me, Ted and Molly...which is such a tiny 'all' these days!)  The bottom line is, I got to play with paper for about a half hour before we had to head out to the park.  The game was good - the sun was out at the beginning, and it got a little chilly when the sun went down, but at no point was it unpleasant.  The boys won 6-0. (Yay!)

We got home after 10:30, and even though that's long after I prefer to scrapbook, I was going to finish the page I'd started.  I couldn't bear to pack everything up with this picture and this story untold.  I wasn't excited about where this was going at first, my tired brain just wasn't clicking the way I would like it to.  But in the end, I'm very pleased. :)

*GASP*  I cussed on a scrapbook layout! BAD SCRAPBOOKER!

Oops.  I'm not sorry.  This is our life and our story, and this story includes a bad word.

Ted is the most laid back, easy going, helpful kid on the planet.  He rarely complains, and is always willing to lend a hand.  I'd even go so far as to say he's chivalrous.  This past week I worked to spruce up a drafting table.

It went from this:

To this:

This transformation took about 3 hours of scrubbing, power sanding, detail and finish sanding and buffing on several layers of wax.  The point of this is: my arms were like jelly for the following two days, and when I said something in front of my kids, Ted's response was "Mom.  I would have done that for you."  And indeed he could have - he just won the Applied Tech award at school, meaning, of all the kids, the shop teacher thought he was 'the man.'  We had a little talk about how I like getting that sense of "I did it!" pride, too, and that the sore guns were totally worth it.  But Ted would do just about anything to spare me pain.  If he treats his future wife half as well as he treats me, she will be a lucky, lucky woman.

"She's such a bitch!" is our inside joke.  Whenever I ask him to do anything his usual response is "Okay."  Not "Okay." in a "what-ev-er" tone.  He may not be excited to gather the garbage and take it the curb, but his response is positive -  like he's just happy to be of help.  I love that about him.

So when I ask him to do something and he says "Ok" so willingly, I playfully say "I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking: "She's such a bitch!"**  To this Ted earnestly responds "Mom.  I'm NOT thinking that.  I don't EVER think that!"  We tend to go on like this for a bit.  Ted knows that I'm teasing him, that I know that he doesn't think that.  It's just fun.  And it makes him smile at me in an exasperated way.   We've been doing this schtick for a couple of months now, and the other day I said I was going do a scrapbook page with that title. And blog about it.  He smiled, but protested, saying that everyone would think he was mean.  For the record: he's totally not mean at all.

**Yes, I shouldn't set such a terrible example for my kids, but I'm not saying anything their peers don't say, and we've had extensive conversations about what's acceptable and appropriate.  And honestly, they're not big bad word sayers.  I've scrolled through their texts, and their friends cuss like sailors, but I rarely see anything, and even then, it's damn or crap, so I feel like we're doing okay there.

And that's it.  I doubt that I'll scrapbook again until July.  Just thinking about that break makes me sad.  I've had so much fun playing these last couple of weeks.  BUT, I'm SO excited about scrapbooking in my new place, where I get to be in with the rest of my people.  And on my new desk (Have I mentioned how pretty she is??) And standing up, too!  Yeeeee!  It's going to be so great.

Wish us luck!

Whoops, I did it again.

I really wasn't going to do it.  I was going to be a very good girl.  But when the price dropped to $99 I couldn't resist it any more.  So I bought the Nikon S01.  Am I in love? No.  Is it fun? YES.  I figure that there are tons of times that the manfriend and I do things together and I rarely have pictures of the two of us together.  Yes, I could (and have) use my cell phone for such shots, but I hate it AND I'm bad at it.  My phone requires that you hit a specific spot on the screen and I can never quite get it and when I do I manage move the whole camera such that we're not in frame. Boo.  This little puppy can be held completely in the palm of my hand, has a better flash, bigger sensor and better lens.  It takes absolutely crappy pictures inside with low light, but for outside, it'll be nice.  I've never had an issue with my S4's size, so obviously the S01 will be even easier.  ;)

AND, I used it this past Sunday when we went to sign the lease on our apartment.  So incredibly relieved that this monkey is off my back.  I spent countless hours on craigslist looking for places that fit my price range but were also in a neighborhood that I'd feel comfortable living.  I also needed something big enough for 4 or 5 people - Ted and Molly will live with their dad but will hopefully get to spend lots of time with us. Add Maggie in the summertime and we couldn't get anything too cozy.  So finally finding a place that hit the criteria was a true blessing.

So happy, in fact, that there's a layout about it already:

And just because I think it's fun to see where people get their inspiration from, I thought I'd show a couple of things that caught my eye lately that ended up being direct references.

This one is the white on white title and journaling strips.  Granted, my white on white title ended up being a white on yellow on white because there just wasn't enough separation there - the title was totally lost on the cardstock.  It just occured to me that maybe her white on white title was cut from cardstock?  Sure enough, I checked her supply list and she used vellum.  Hmmm.  I'm putting that in my bag of tricks for next time!  I like it!  (Although, I'll be frank: I've had absolutely no luck cutting vellum...so maybe I'll try it one more time, but don't be surprised if it never makes it to the blog. :P)

Another layout that was a source of inspiration was this one:

I was basically using this for the layout.  Although it's funny how the only thing that really remains is the heavy top and the position of the photos.   I suppose the title placement, as well, but that could get credited to either inspiration layout.

And then there's Wilna.  Wilna Furstenberg is sort of a rock star. Where I am uptight and anal and linear, Wilna says (metaphorically) "Take off your shoes! Feel your toes in the grass!  Smell the flowers!" She's like an "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" commercial - everything oozes love and wheat fields and sun flare.  None of which is who-I-am.  But that doesn't mean I don't want to have a little of her carefree, artsy-fartsiness.  Only, this is what it looks like when I try it:

Those cute little ink drops are not nearly as cute (or carefree or artsy-fartsy) as I was hoping for.  It's like pumpkin cried on my layout.  And they may not be tears. :P Ah well.  I just need more practice at being carefree.  Right?  You can be carefree if you just practice REALLY hard at it. :P :P :P

Thanks for stopping by!

I don't like rice.

Which is odd, because there's nothing wrong with it.  I just don't like it. I associate it with being poor or sick. It doesn't really have a flavor.  I think it's a waste of calories.  So I don't like it.  And I don't eat it.

If a person says "I hate Brussels sprouts" or "I hate beets", everyone understands.  Even if you happen to like Brussels sprouts, you probably get why someone else doesn't like them.  But rice? No one sympathizes with me.

Journaling reads:

Kerig started calling me “math girl” close to a year ago, and I have to admit, there in the beginning, I didn’t like it very much.  I felt like maybe he was making fun of me. To be fair, that’s probably all in my imagination, especially since he’s been my biggest supporter and best, most reliable cheerleader all along.  But over time the name has grown on me.  In my head, Math Girl is a super hero.  I have a silly vision in my head of a cartoon girl with a cape with a fun and MG logo on it.  I would like to say that I envision fighting off bad guys with a dry erase marker and my mad integrating skills, but alas, my attempts to study in public have yielded some pretty weird experiences: boys in chicken suits, strange men asking to borrow 50¢ “or maybe a dollar?”, a lady who began making really loud crowing noises and randomly rearranged chairs at the tables around me.  I think these experiences have proven that I’m not ready to go up against the Joker, Lex Luthor or The Riddler anytime soon.
 And never mind that “sigma notation” is my own personal kryptonite… 

I find that televisions, computers, and boyfriends all pose a huge threat to my concentration level, so I have found that going "out" helps me avoid those distractions.  Except, I just seem to trade pleasant distractions for just plain WEIRD distractions.

What on earth does any of this have to do with rice? Nothing, really.  On the way from school to work today I was thinking about how I might have time to write up a blog post, and that it would be about this layout.  Which got me to thinking that I made this right after the Spring semester ended, and how Sigma notation was a pain in my ass then.  And just today we moved on after having spent the last three weeks on....drum roll please...sigma notation.  And it wasn't any less of a pain in my ass this time around.  But really sigma notation is like rice: it's not really a big deal.  But I don't like it, so I make my own big deal about it.

Look.  I found the place where whining about school and scrapbooking intersect. WOOT.

It may not make sense to you, but to me, it means the world.

Scrapbookers document.  Through photos, words, and products, we chose a story, we convey a mood, we record our perspective.  We choose big stories - life's monumental occasions: weddings, new babies, graduations.  We choose the reoccurring biggies: first days of school, lost teeth, Thanksgiving and birthdays. But we often forget to record those fleeting moments that make up the seemingly mundane of every day life.

Listen, I'm guilty of this, too.  Kids whining about not wanting to unload the dishwasher is hardly compelling scrapbook material. But I got this one right.  And it may not make sense, or you may get mired down in the minutia of what was said, but for me the fact that I got that crappy cell phone photo and a quote from my son down - that's my definition of hitting it spot on.

One night when I was too lazy to cook I herded Ted and Molly into the car and we headed for Chipotle.  On our way a personalized license plate sparked a conversation that eventually meandered into a conversation about the phrase "In God we trust" on money, and whether the sentiment is unconstitutional.  I have to admit, having a seventh grader who questions whether ANYTHING is unconstitutional makes me pretty proud. We talked about how our country was founded by people looking to be free of religious persecution, and how William Bradford wrote extensively on the importance of respecting the religious rights of others.  We don't need to believe what other's do, but we do have to give them the freedom to worship as they see fit.  And then we talked about how we have different ways of referring to God, and different thoughts about what He wants for and from us, but that we can probably agree that "God" is a widely accepted terms, and is probably plenty constitutional.  Just about then we arrived at Chipotle and as we walked through the parking lot he said it: "But not all religions are monotheistic."  My son, whose every thought seems to revolve around football and baseball and video games, used the word monotheistic correctly in a sentence debating the constitutionality of...well...anything.  I'm not saying he was right or wrong, I'm saying: Wow. It was such an unexpected thing that as we stood in line at Chipotle I typed the sentence into my phone.  We sat down with our food and while I fussed with my foil wrapper and getting everything just so it occurred to me that I should snap a quick picture of Ted - something to remember the day with.  By the time I finished with the phone and started eating I looked over and noticed that he was taking the last bite of his burrito.  In the time it took me to unwrap my straw, tear off the top of our chip bag and peel the foil off my burrito he was DONE.  Apparently this is what it is to have a teenage, sports-playing son on the cusp of becoming a grown up.

I love that I saved this memory.  It might not make sense to anyone other than me, but it's my memory and every time I turn the page and see this, I will smile and my heart will be happy.

Bouncing Back

So I said I'd post something scrapbooky soon, and there's no time like the present!  We started a new chapter in Calc today and apparently the first sections  are easier than subsequent sections, because I got my homework done in about 2 hours, which is down from the usual 5. So I've got a little unaccounted for free time! YEE HAA!!

I made this layout for the Cord Camera Scrapbook Studio Design Team for June and it was posted a little while ago and I haven't had a chance to add my 2¢ about it.  I was asked to play with Bella Blvd's Sunshine and Happiness line.  I absolutely love bright, vibrant colors and I gravitate towards playful, small(ish) patterns.  These papers hit all my favorite things! Well, not my graph paper favorite thing, but that's another day's post...  Naturally I had a ton of fun with these papers. 

Sometimes you start the layout process holding a picture and thinking about the story you want to tell.  In this case, I had the papers first, I immediately thought of a picture of my older daughter Maggie wearing an orange striped swimsuit in our community pool when we lived in Rochester, Indiana 15 or so years ago.  I set out to find that photo but got sidetracked along the way.  That can sometimes happen when you have something like 20 shoeboxes of photos to dig through...  Have you ever been flipping through photos looking for something and coming across something that stops you dead in your tracks? You let out a little sigh and stare at the photo while memories wash over you? So cheesy, I know, but that's what happened.  

When I got my first studio light I didn't really know what I was doing, and the best way to learn is to play and practice and experiment and analyze and retry.  Molly was both my assistant and my muse.  She was so good about letting me practice on her.  For my part, I did my best to make it either short or fun or a little of both.  On this day, I had a big cup full of bouncy balls and had her fling the balls at me.  The shots were super fun - globs of color floating in the air and her happy expression and chubby toddler hands behind them.  

I love the way the Bella Blvd papers convey a fun and happy vibe.  I love (lovelovelove) the wonky scallop borders - can't get enough of that!

I used the words that came on the sticker sheet interspersed with my journaling, but wanted to add just a little more color to keep the flow - so added colored text boxes around various words.  For the sticker words that were white, I just used a colored pencil and none-to-carefully traced around them just to help them pop a little more.  I love that the journaling became a design element.  I want to remember to try this again sometime soon.

I feel like I might be the last person in the scrapperverse to try these stick pin/flaggie things.  

I'm gonna come right out and say it:

THEY SCARE ME.

I don't know why, but they do.  I envision injuries and blood.  But I'm here to tell you, no bodily fluids were lost in the making of this layout or in any subsequent handling.  Maybe they're not that scary after all.  And they're danged cute!  

Oh.  The little graphic prints make my heart happy.  The grids, itty bitty polka dots and chevrons in happy colors are perfect.  They couldn't have picked a better name for this line than Sunshine and Happiness! I totally agree.

And now, Molly aged 11 11/12 is waiting for me to beat her play her in a couple of games of ping pong!

Thanks for stopping by!

p.s. Did you notice that there was NO SILHOUETTE used on this page?  I know, right? CRAZZZY!!!

Another Sneak Peek

Today is the deadline, and it made a nice little whoooooshing sound as it whizzed by.  It's been quite the couple of weeks and the calendar doesn't have as many holes in it as it usually does.  I sort of thought because I was scrapping under a lot of pressure that I'd end up hating whatever I made today.  Nope.  I get to use Bella Blvd and it's impossible to play with those colors and not love the result. :)

See what I did there? Talked about all the happy colors and then showed mostly text?  That's called creating suspense baby. :P

Stay tuned...

Slow and steady wins the race.

Or so I've been told.

I cannot believe that I'm still chugging away on this mini book from our trip to RIT last August.  The last time I posted about this book was October 14th, and even that was the most boring thing ever written about  scrapbooking.  No, seriously, go look for yourself.  At least it's short.  And the funny thing is, it actually relates to what I'm sharing today.

This is embarrassing. I sell cameras for a living. I *know* photography. Grrrr.  The beautiful matte finish of the pictures does not capture well.  Sadly, my lovely pizza shot looks dull and grainy.  Alas, it's just the paper finish.

See that library card? See how it's mounted on the black index file folder tabbed whichamajig?  That was the subject of the most boring post ever.  But you know what? I dig it.  The book is still a work in progress and as such it isn't on the book rings yet.  Once it's all put together it'll be its own little page.  What's shown here is the journaling for the next page.

Here's the other side, (the journaling about lunch) shown with the next page.

That is not my favorite picture of Maggie, but it was a HOT weekend.  We all looked a little wilted. She just documented.  Sorry Maggie. :P  

The weekend we went my camera was off in repair.  I had decided while it was gone that I was going to sell it when it came back and, knowing that, I had ordered the D7000.  I had the highest of hopes that my new camera would arrive in time for our trip.  You  know when it showed up? Literally as we were walking into the registration area. That's when I got a text from my boss saying it had arrived. GAH!  For the trip I had a little Fuji Instax Mini camera.  Maggie had the Fuji I had given her for Christmas and Kerig had his camera.  These are the pictures that Maggie took when she was roaming around the campus on her own on Friday evening.  I was really surprised at how similar a lot of our shots were - the campus is huge and I thought I had gotten the "behind the scenes" tour with my former-RIT student/personal tour guide.  These are the pictures that Maggie took.

And these are the pictures I took. :P  One really neat thing about the Fuji Instax camera is the cute little photos.  One really frustrating thing about the Fuji Instax is that the cute little photos aren't very flexible when trying to cram five on a mini book page.  So I made me a pocket!  Take that, cute little Fuji Instax photos!  Besides, turns out my film got a little heat damaged and all the colors are somewhat muted.  But I like the pocket. Right?

Right?

The first "spread."

And the second.

I am not patting myself on the back.
But that's so dern cute.














I'm really close to being done this project and I'm so happy that I can end it on a happy note.

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress

So today was a monumental day in these parts.  Turns out things got ironed out which made approaching my scrap table doable.  And after a day of wrestling with school stuff I really needed to have a chance to play.

So here's what I came up with today:



It's funny how things happen in scrapbooking.  I only had the one photo that I wanted to use on this page. Later pages will have tons of photos and collages of photos, but for this one, I just wanted to highlight Maggie.  I also wanted to lay the basic groundwork on the journaling, which meant I needed a bigger space.  Boy, everything felt awkward, and I had already cut and mentally committed to the grunge argyle strip.  ("Mentally committed to"?  I'm keeping that!)  No matter where I placed my journaling block (or the rectangle of paper used to represent my journaling block - does anyone else do that?) it was awkward.  At first my block was horizontal, which meant that it had to be placed high or low on the page, or else it was going to completely cover the argyle strip.  Then I remembered that on my last trip to Hollo's I picked up these glassine envelops. I can't for the life of me remember if I had some purpose in mind for them, so if I can't remember then I think they're fair game.  I loved that adding them and slipping the journalin card into the pocket so seamlessly solved my problems.  The flow works, I'm not covering my argyle strip.  It's functional AND cool.  And I *think* I have enough envelops to get through the book, although at this point I don't feel like I have to use them on every page.

Some detail shots.  I am really frustrated by these.  I pulled out my point and shoot to take these shots only to find my battery was exhausted.  Well poop.  The one really nice thing about a point and shoot camera is built in macro capability.  But that's okay, I can deal - it's not like I don't have a shiny new D7000 to use!  So I pull that out and then kind of make faces at my camera bag.  Do I use my 105mm macro?  It has close focusing capabilities, but it's slow to focus, kinda hard to hand hold, and the working distance is about 5 miles.  At one point in time, I L♥VED that lens.  But that was on my film camera.  It's just not the same with digital.  Here's a secret: in the very near future, I am going to splurge and buy this 40mm Micro-Nikkor lens.  Hopefully it'll bring the joy back to macro photography.  The detail shots above aren't macro, just tightly cropped parts of much bigger pictures.  I suppose it doesn't really matter to others, but it kinda bugs me.  

What else am I frustrated with? Getting adhesive on those teeny-tiny butterflies!  Trying to figure out what ribbon-y type stuff to put in the metal word tag!  The way the green star looks - I should have stopped before dumping a third later of glitter on it.  

What do I like so far?  That I haven't used plain cardstock at all yet (Oh, except for the layers under the titles - but that doesn't count.) I like the way the page looks with the clear title pages on top (the way it will be when it's all done.)  I like the envelops and the vertical journaling - I think that's going to work out well.  I like that I'm using flowers and butterflies, and that it feels "authentic" - I feel like a poser using that word, but in the past, trying to use them felt forced.  But in this case they feel more natural.  I think the difference is that this time they really mean something to me - beauty and changes that are taking place.

So that's where I am today.  I probably won't have a chance to play again until next week. But it's nice to know it's there where I need it.  

LOAD Blog Hop!

Hellllo LOADies and Gentlemen!
(Ouch.  That was sooo bad!)

Welcome to the LOAD blog hop!  I hope you've enjoyed visiting all the blogs before me and that you have enough energy left for this entry and Mama Du's.

By now, everyone who happens by this blog knows that LOAD stands for LayOut A Day. Think scrapbooking meets Iron Chef meets busy life.  Sheer insanity that's good for the creative soul.  As one who tends to back-burner my creative outlets when life gets busy (when is it not??), signing up for LOAD is a way to remind me what I believe in my core to be true: women are creative beasts, and we NEED some kind of outlet for that.  Denying that for long stretches is bad for us...and those within a 25 foot radius.

Since blogging is something that I only do when time allows AND I have something to say, I didn't blog during May.  I had plenty to say and enough layouts to share (this blog is, after all, an excuse to share layouts), but not enough time to write meaningful posts.  Rather than try to show every layout I created during the month, I thought I'd once again pick my favorite five layouts, share them, the prompts that inspired them and explain what it is that makes me drawn to them.

Working in the order in which they were created:

From Day 1.  The prompt was to strip down to the basics and create a layout using just cardstock, patterned papers, journaling and a title.  This one is in the top five because it's true. The pictures are rough, but real and "us".  The sentiment is exactly what you'd get it you sat down and listened to everything I had to say about us and had to boil it down to two words.  The simplicity of the design is true to me, yet fun and a little funky.  Even the little monsters are true: we are both a little rough around the edges and we're lucky that we each see beyond those rough edges and into the beautiful parts on the inside.

(size: 5½x8½)

Day 7.  The prompt was to scraplift.  Simple as that.  Since I think the sun rises and sets on Nichol Magouirk, I decided to copy her.  I'm certain there was one singular layout that I started with, but I also attempted to channel her general approach.  She frequently layers her titles like that, uses the fun borders and she's a master at mixing and matching patterned papers.  While I love the way it looks, it's not something I do with ease.  I love the way this came out and I loved that I was able use an extremely old photo and combine it with my very current emotions about my oldest son.

(size: 8½x11)

Day 16.  The prompt was embellishments...blah blah blah...something about using a plain photo and a plain background and adding embellishments to convey what you want to say.  Hmmm.  As with all things embellishy, I think I failed miserably.  But that doesn't mean I don't like the layout.  I do.  What I like is  that I finally documented the meaning behind my tattoo.  It's something I've meant to do for a long time, but it seems superfluous.  At least within the context of LOAD I can say "I couldn't come up with a better story/photo that day!"

I do love that about LOAD.  Sometimes you tell stories/document things that you wouldn't otherwise address, solely because you need to create daily and your mind gets pushed in new and different directions.

Interesting aside (sort of, anyway): People rarely ask about my tattoo.  Maybe 5 or 6 times in the 6 years I've had it.  But not three days later another mother at Ted's baseball game asked me - loudly and in front of many other parents - what the meaning was behind the tattoo.  I've always struggled with bottom lining what it means, so I was grateful that I had finally organized my complex thoughts that lead up to its design.

Day 21.  The prompt was to start with the design and then move into the story and photos. That's not really how I work.  I start with the photo(s) and/or the story in mind and then the design follows, dependent upon the space needs.  I think I tried to switch it up, but ultimately, my focus on the story and photos is too far ingrained to abandon just for the challenge.  On this one, I love the title, the map paper (especially that it has both our starting and ending destination cities) and the way the text actually really lines up with the notebook paper lines.  :)  It's the little things that please me.  I also love that I was able to put another little dent in these photos from almost three years ago.

(size: 8½x11)

Day 30.  The prompt was to do your own thing, make your heart sing.  Because I was away from home, I had to try to make my heart sing digitally.  This isn't my strong suit, but I kind of fell into a kinda-sorta-albeit-made-up digital style this month.  Why is this in my top five?  Two things: I am passionate about being in my books.  Not for me, but because it will mean something to my kids one day. Also, I like what I wrote.  Some of it stuff that I absolutely embrace and have successfully put into practice on a daily basis  (the karma thing, the thing about exercising the brain, the get what you give philosophy) and others are things that I know to be true, but have to keep reminding myself to actually do.  I'm also pleased that the photo, while crappy, is actually current.  I think we're all guilty of trying to hide behind younger, skinnier, prettier pictures of ourselves.  I know I do - just check out the picture of me at the bottom of the blog.  It's four years old and gaining.  That I used a current picture makes me feel strong that I can put myself out there/in there.

So those are my favorite five layouts from the month.  In the next couple of days I'd like to talk about a couple of more that had special meaning to me.  If you're so inclined, I'd love to have you back early next week.

I hope you enjoyed this.  I hope I didn't wear you out with all the words, words, words.  Please take a couple more minutes and visit my friend Kathleen, aka "Mama Du".  She's a wonderful photographer and talented scrapper.  Definitely worth the visit!

Thanks for stopping by!

By the way, if you're stopping here first, here's the complete blog hop list.  Warning: at the end of viewing these amazing ladies' blogs you'll be chomping at the bit to sign up for the next LOAD!

Ecoscrapbook
At the Blue Barn
Capture Your 365
Happie By Abbie
Trista Hertz
Goes Turbo Creative
She's a Crafty Pumpkin
Pouring Over Pictures  <===  you are here.    :)
Taking Pictures. Enjoying Life.

Memories

Doing Lain Ehman's Layout-A-Day during the month of February. I'm a little skeptical that I can actually do 28 layouts in 28 days, but for day one: so far so good. I don't know that I'll actually bother putting them all here...some might be rather rushed, some might be kind of boring, and some might be rather amateurish. Because I will be spending some weekends away from my scrap-goodies, I've decided to dabble in digital for those days that I'm not home. I'm not claiming to be a good digital scrapbooker, but I'll probably learn a couple of things along the way, and that would be really cool!

It's going to happen less and less frequently, but last night I actually kicked out a scrapbook page.  And no one could be more surprised about than I am.  And more surprising than the fact that I did a page is that the entire process took me less than 2 hours.  We're talking, 2 hours from pulling the pictures out to cleaning up the desk afterwards.  That's a record for me, and the fact that I like the page is even more surprising.

I think that it helped that I knew that I wanted the layout to fun.  Yes, it's a layout about the kid getting bit by the dog, but it's also about how goofy she is, that despite the fact that she was actually DRIPPING BLOOD from those cuts, she wasn't sure if this was an emergency.  So yeah, still not "fun", but I certainly didn't want to steer it in the direction of being morbid.  Plus, the focal point photo is her mugging...  I should probably come up with a way to put her big smiling picture on there, too.  Hmmmm.

The biggest problem I had was using that green polka dot paper.  That's from Scenic Route, and ever since they went out of business I've been using that paper ever so carefully...  Like the way a person would take hits of water out of a canteen when they're stranded in the desert.  I know that once that paper is gone it's GONE and that makes me a little sad and a little panicky.  Yes, I like it THAT MUCH. 

The title font is called "Gentle Redhead".  It reminds me of the colored acrylic letters that ki came out with a while back.  I definitely think it's fun!  The yellow paper is Little Yellow Bicycle, the backside of one of the Zinnia line papers, and the black patterned paper is sei.  The covered brads are Basic Grey.  I'm pretty pleased with myself that nothing here was "meant" to with anything else - I didn't take three different papers from the same line, a la Garanimals style.  (Did you know they still made Garanimals??  Holy Cow!)  Anyway, I don't always have the greatest amount of confidence with mixing and matching papers. 

And this is just too cute not to share.  I made a thank you card for the coworker that filled in for me when I had to run out to Maggie to the urgent care.  This isn't actually the card, but after making that card I got coerced into making a Father's Day card for Kerig's dad.  I absolutely love this little superhero boy, and the "D" on the shield just makes me happy - those yellow/oranges with that red is so happy... 

I probably won't have 10 minutes to be creative again until this semester is over, so I'm just going to soak up the much needed, all-about-me therapy that I got from whipping out that page last night...

The Percolated Story

Every week I spend 90 or so minutes listening to a scrapbooking podcast called "Paperclipping Round Table". This week's show "The Sum of Our Stories", got me thinking about my story telling and my process, and how intertwined the two concepts are.

When I was relatively new to scrapbooking, but after I had identified the basis for "my style", I scrapbooked at the dining room table. I quickly came to realize that what worked best for me was to lay out my photos on the table early in the day. As the day would wear on, I'd visit them and fuss at them a little. First I'd chose a background cardstock...and then go put that load of laundry in. Next trip through I'd pick out some accent colors for use in the title and mats. Later on I might pull a punch that would help carry the theme, or rearrange the photos to play with the flow of the layout. Meanwhile, the time spent away from the layout was spent thinking about the perfect title, and what I wanted the journaling to say. By the time the kids were in bed I had the ingredients and mostly all I had to do was assemble.

And that, my friends, is a gross over simplification of the process. Because nothing is really that easy, but it is the basics of how things went, and it did make completing the page more efficient.

Fast forward to present day. I no longer have three very young children, two dogs, a cat, and a husband earning an MBA who wasn't around much and left me with almost all the chores. Now I'm divorced, have four big kids, 3 of whom don't need a mother as much as a taxi service, a dog and a full time job. Gone is the luxury or starting a page while the kids ate their cereal and finishing after they go to bed. Now it's more like starting something one day, futzing with it for a week (in snatches of time like the old system) and finally completing it a week later. This doesn't bother me. It's jut life. It's either this process or nothing. And, nothing really isn't an option.

Back to the Paperclipping Round Table and the concept of telling stories. I have come to be very grateful for how long it takes me to complete a page, or at least for what that span of time from beginning to end affords me. I have found that by pulling out the pictures and laying them out and then having a couple of day's worth of commutes to think about them, I end up with a story very different than the one I would have told had I just launched in as soon as I pulled the pictures out.

For instance:

These pictures are from a trip to park that Molly likes.  We've only been twice.  After our first trip Molly asked to go back there almost every month, but our time is special and I try to have new adventures when we're together.  So this second trip was pretty special, because it took over a year to get back there.  If I had had the luxury of time, these pictures would have been used on one layout and the journaling would have been brief and it would have centered on the trip to the park.  But because of my process, and the fact that I had lots of time to think about these photos and let my mind wander and think more abstractly about the story that I could tell, I had time for  new ideas to percolate to the surface. 

What would have been a layout about a trip to the park turned into a layout about Molly's courage and another layout about Maggie's amazing attitude about life.

Journaling reads:

Hey chickadee! Weigh the outcome.  How bad can it be?  A skinned knee? A bruised ego?  But what if things go according to plan?  What if you don't fall?  You'll have fun. You'll get that "I did it!" feeling.  You'll approach the next scary thing with a little more confidence.  Believe me.   I know how this drill works.  I know how discouraging failure can be, and how thrilling success can be.  But more than anything, I know how haunting not trying can be...how - for days - you'll think back and say "I should have..." or "Next time..."

Go ahead and Jump

We stood and waited for you to muster the courage to jump off of this tire onto the rope for what felt like a half hour.  Ted, Maggie and I all offered you encouraging words. Ted and Maggie tried to show you how easy it was and gave you helpful hints. I know what you were going through, agonizing over all the possible bad outcomes and wanting, more than anything, to have enough courage to do it - to experience the thrill of floating through the air.  For long minutes the fear outweighed the rush, but finally a burst of courage came and you do it! I was so proud that you found it in you to just do it!  This is the very definition of courage: being afraid and overcoming it. You are courageous.

Journaling reads:

I had this physics teacher in high school.  He didn't like me very much and I didn't always understand the way he taught.  But there is one thing that I have carried from him, one of those life lessons that spoke so directly to me that I have never been able to shake it: "You have to go along to get along".  I find myself struggling against this notion, always resisting the urge to speak my mind, play the devil's advocate...and yet I still know the value of those words.  Maggie, on the other hand, seems to embody the very notion of going along and getting along...and does so without appearing to compromise her core beliefs.  This day, for example, was all about placating Molly, who had been asking to go to the wooden park for a solid year.  The playground is most definitely geared toward younger kids, it's not really the place that most (almost) 15 year olds would get excited to visit.  but Maggie didn't pout or act put out, she hopped on a swing; raced her brother down the side (although, she did cheat!); offered Molly encouragement on the rope swing... all with a genuine smile on her face.  I often think that Maggie was given to me as a gift, as a lesson...as an example.  (oct 18)

Sometimes I wish that I had more time to scrapbook. But then when I think about how differently these pictures would have been treated if I hadn't had time to let those stories develop.  I really love the fact that I have two pages that offer positive reinforcement and recognition of my daughters' good qualities.  I don't need to record the fact that we went to the park - they'll remember our tips on their own.  What I value here is that I had the chance to say something nice to and about my girls and I took it.  When I'm gone I want them to know how much I loved and valued them as people.  And if that means it takes a week to finish a page, then so be it.