Car Ride Line Etiquette: A Rant

As some of you may or may not know, we moved over the summer from a rural part of Oklahoma to a nice not-so-little suburb outside of Houston, TX. Things are different when you move from living out in the country to city living. And while it's nice to have the school just 5 minutes away instead of 15 minutes, there are drawbacks. The biggest one being that since we go to a "neighborhood" school there are no buses for those of us who live in the neighborbood, even though the school is way too far for my 9 year old to walk to school every day. So, I am now a perma-member of The Car Rider Line. If everyone would be so kind as to follow these rules at drop off and pick up time, I would really make my day a lot more enjoyable:

1. Please DO NOT park in the car rider line!! This is now my number one pet peeve. If you want to go to the front door and get your child, I compeletely understand, but do not park along the street where you know the car rider line is. It is inconsiderate and rude. There is a perfectly good curb to park at on the OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET. USE IT.

2. Use the crosswalk! If you are smart enough to actually think of parking on the other side of the street, thank you. Now, please be sure to use the crosswalk with the crossing guards to cross the street. Do not take your child between the cars in the car rider line. People driving up the street cannot see you and it is dangerous. Plus, if that's the habit you develop in your child when you are with him, that is what he will do when you are not with him and he very well may get hurt.

3. Let your kids out at the end of the car rider line. If you are in the car rider, use it to its fullest. Do not let your children out of the car halfway through the line. There is a reason there are teachers lined up at the end of the line to help your children out of the car. It is safer for them and for you. If you let them out early, all of a sudden there are kids where there are not suppose to be kids and they can get hurt by a car that doesn't see them.

4. Make a right turn. Coming and going. Please do not drive up right when school gets out and think you are going to make a left turn in to the car rider line that the rest of us have been waiting in for 20-30 minutes. I am not going to let you in. Quit blocking traffic and go get in line like the rest of us. And please make a right out of the parking lot. The neighborhood's not that big and you'll quit holding up the line as we all try to get out of there.

5. Say thank you to the teachers and staff! They are doing their best to keep to our kids safe and get us through that line as quickly as possible and that's after they've taken care and taught our kids all day! Give them a smile and say thanks! They'll appreciate it!

Now, I know no one who goes to our school will see this, but I feel better now.

Thank you.

Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is about the funniest book I've ever read! It's not often that a book has me literally laughing out loud with tears running down my face, but this one did. So enjoyable!

Before this I had read the first Stephanie Plum novel, "One for the Money", at the suggestion of a good friend. I found that one to be fairly dark and thought perhaps this popular series wasn't my cup of tea, but that same friend gave me this book and I jumped right on to that Plum bandwagon! As I've read more of these, it's interesting to me to watch Janet Evanovich get to know her characters and hit her stride in writing for them.

This book easily has some of the most interesting characters in the series and is a great escape of a book!

View all my reviews

February Year in Review Class

Hey all!

It's that time again!  February's Year in Review class is this Thursday at A Memory to Scrap! 

This month we are using papers from Doodlebug's Sweet Cakes line.  These are fun, whimsical papers full of hearts, cherries and, my favorites, cakes!  Perfect to share photos of your favorite sweetie or your latest baking adventures!

The real exciting part of this month's class is we are using GLITTER PAPER!!  How fun is that?

We've got a few spots open, so if you are interested give Vicki a call at 918-872-9104 or stop by the store!Class times are 11am or 6pm on February 23rd.  Class cost is $14.

We'd love to have you join our fun, if slightly crazy, bunch of scrappers!

Hope to see you there!

Kelli

Today was a GOOD day!

I finally got to scrap today! It took an hour to clean off my craft table so I could actually start, (hey, not all those legos were mine!), but it was so worth it! I put together the layout for the first class of my Year in Review series at A Memory to Scrap. Hard to believe this will be the fourth year in the series! It has been such a blessing to me in so many ways - creatively, personally, professionally. I am forever thankful to Ashley for giving me a chance to teach this hobby that I love! Speaking of the hobby I love....

I got to scrap today!! Yay! I pulled out the Bazzill Worth Remembering collection and stared at it for it a while. (No one really mentions just how much staring is involved in scrapbooking, but let me assure you, there is a LOT!) Then I punched out a few flowers and a few circles and started layering away. I just can't tell you how good it felt to be creative. It has been a busy, busy couple of months with my nose to grindstone trying to accomplish tasks for the betterment of my family and community. It seems I've had a series of weeks where there is something to do from the minute I wake up until the minute I go to bed. And, since creating a layout today for my class could be considered work, I felt so refreshed at the end of the afternoon because I got to CREATE SOMETHING!! It didn't feel like work at all!

And, to top it off? My 12 year old son said, "I can't believe the things you are able to do with that paper!"

Ah, yes.

Today was a good day!

Project Runway is Back!!

Can I just say that I LOVE this show?!!  I've watched every season and the creativity that goes on never ceases to amaze me!  While I'm still trying to decide if I like the new hosting/judging crew they have for the All-Star edition, I do know that I am in love with the challenges. 

For the first challenge this season, the returning designers had $100 to shop only at the 99 Cent Store!  The unconventional challenge is always my favorite.  In the past, they've had dresses made out of candy wrappers, Twizzlers, umbrellas, recycled peanut bags, lettuce (not very successful), corn husks (very successful), flowers, plants and paint roller trays.  Now, I am most assuredly NOT a fashion designer.  I can not sew, even though my grandmother and my mother tried to teach me several times.  I'm not really even a person who follows fashion all that much, but what I love and why I think this challenge in particular appeals to me, is that it requires the designers to look at things in a completely different way! 

As a scrapbooker and scrapbooking teacher, this completely inspires me!  It motivates me to use "my stash".  When I know what I want to use to finish a page but I don't own the exact product that I am picturing in my mind, I hear this little voice asking, "What can I use instead?"  or "How can I create the same effect with this piece of paper/ribbon/chipboard I've owned for 10 years?"  How cool is that? 

It's motivated me to make my own flowers,

use my letter stickers in a different way,

create an accent that costs more than what I wanted to spend

 and even better, it gets me using product that's just been sitting around for a while along with trying new techniques!  So, let the designer get to designing and let me get to scrapping!

"He is a neat dog..."

That's what the vet tech at the pound told us when we picked up our new 60 pound, 9 month old "puppy".  And I thought, "Aww, that's so sweet."  What I didn't realize at the time, is that's what most everyone in our lives would think whenever they got to spend time with Bo. 

We weren't actually looking for a dog when we were at the pound.  We were looking, in vain, for our cat, Stimpy, who ran away from home.  I didn't really think we'd find him there - that cat was way too smart to end up in the pound - but I figured we should at least try.  When, as expected, we didn't find Stimpy, my husband's face turned in to that of a six year old as he asked, "Can we go look at the puppies?"  Always one to indulge my husband's playful side, I said, "Sure!" and we wondered over to the dog kennels.  Now, I was six months pregnant with our first child at the time and while I like big dogs, I wasn't too keen on getting a bigger dog knowing we were going to be introducing a little baby in to the picture very soon.  There was a cute little brown medium sized dog with sweet little eyes I thought would be a good fit for us.  That's when Chet spotted him.  The BIG pointer mix in the back row with his big ol' paws halfway up the cage, focusing all his attention on us and looking at us with those BIG black ears pointed forward as only a hound dog can do.  He looked like a dalmatian with his white coat and black spots, but the tag said "pointer-mix" which to me meant "cute-like-a-dalmatian-but-without-all-the-crazy."  Still being unsure, I suggested we look a little bit more, but when it came time to "meet" one of the dogs, Chet talked me in to the One with the Big Black Ears. 

We sat in the little room and waited.  When they brought him in, he did his perimeter check (a trait he always exhibited from here on out) and at the end of it, sat down right next to my leg, put that long snout in my lap and gave me what can only be described as puppy dog eyes.  As he leaned against me and let me rub his ears, I knew this was the dog for our growing little family.  That somehow it would all work out and, of course, it did.

So, we loaded up our new charge (still not sure how we loaded the giant dog in the back of the king cab on our truck) and headed home.  That dog was smiling from ear to ear as we rolled down the windows with his big sloppy tongue hanging out and fur flying everywhere!!  That's when my husband looked at me in all seriousness and said something I will never forget. "He won't always shed like this.  He's just nervous."  Well, apparently, that dog was nervous the rest of his life, but I'm not sure he ever stopped shedding!

It was on that ride home that we knew we had to give this dog a name - a good name.  Why I don't know, but I wanted to give him a long name with a fun nickname.  Chet was alright with that and somehow, we settled on Beauregard.  Beauregard Panique.  Beau, for short.  Bo, for even shorter.  Beau morphed in to Bo over the years because just like trying to explain that this white dog with black spots was in fact a pointer and not a dalmatian, it was just easier to let everyone spell it B-O.  A lot less explaination all around, making a life a tad bit easier. 

The thing about a pound dog, especially one that has been there for two months, is that there is a gratefulness to them.  They know where you've brought them home to is so much better than where they were.  And I could see it in Bo's eyes every day.  When we brought him home, he was so eager to please and just so happy to be with us every day!  He wasn't a perfect puppy by any means.  He chewed the carpet all the way down to the stairs one night, resulting in getting a whole house full of new carpeting 3 weeks before the baby arrived.  He got in trouble over and over for digging in our postage stamp of a backyard.  But then he snuggle right up to you with those eyes and beg for you to love him. 

He was, in a word, irresistable. 

Bo became my constant companion.

**This is the beginning of a series of posts of stories I don't want to forget about Bo, who went to chase rabbits in heaven this last week, after 13 years as my dutiful dog.  Thank you for indulging me.

Stories about Mike

This last week our family lost one of our dearest friends, my dad's best friend from childhood, Mike Stroud. He succumb to a brain tumor that he had spent the last several years fighting. While I am glad is no longer suffering, I am sad for my dad, who has lost a true friend and I am sad to see little bit of my childhood pass away with him. In talking to my dad, I was reminded of so many great memories and family stories of Mike and Peggy (his first wife). It seems like the right time to write some of these down.

*A little history: Mike and my dad have been friends for almost their entire lives. Mike and my dad met in 6th grade shortly after my dad moved to Sunnymead when his dad was transferred to March Air Force Base in the mid-50's. They went to Alessandro Junior High School (later my jr. high school, too!) and Sunnymead Wesleyan Church together. (They are on the originial charter of the church.) They graduated from high school together in 1965.

*We spent many a Thanksgiving holiday and summer vacation outside of San Francisco at Mike and Peggy's house. We use to call it "The Upside Down House" because it was a split level home with the living room, family room and kitchen all upstairs and the three bedrooms were downstairs. Melissa and I slept on comfy beds in the kids/guest room while Mom and Dad slept on a sofa bed in the office. There were so many stuffed animals in that room! We loved it!

*Mike and Peggy had no kids, which made them instantly cool to me and my sister. Even though they didn't have children of their own, they were the most kid friendly and welcoming people I knew. Peggy LOVED Snoopy and was an avid collector! There was Snoopy things all over their house! One of the first things Melissa and I would do when we arrived at their house was count all the Snoopy things we could find to see if there were any new things since the last time we were there. (There always were!) The best Snoopy in the house? The giant Snoopy sitting in the big wicker basket chair hanging from the ceiling!! Yet another cool thing in their cool house because they didn't have kids. Surely, my mom and dad were never going to have a wicker basket chair hanging from the ceiling and the reason for that? My sister and I! Once in a while, we even got take Snoopy out and sit in the chair. Oooh! Big fun!

*We took many a Snoopy related field trip on our trips to San Francisco. Almost every trip involved a visit to Pier 39 (arguably one of the best places in S.F.) and the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm, a store devoted solely to Snoopy and the Peanuts gang. I had a Snoopy Belle Dress Up doll and would buy outfits for her there. They had everything Snoopy you could think of: toys, shirts, pins, coffee mugs, pencils, pens and books. I loved that store. Down the street was the Snoopy Ice Cream Shoppe, an old style ice cream parlor with some of the best ice cream I've tasted. One time we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and in to Santa Rosa to a Peanuts Museum and ice rink near where Peanuts creator Charles Schultz lived. While eating at the accompanying ice cream parlor, Charles Schultz himself walked in! Peggy was so sweet wondering if she should talk to him. We were all beside over selves just seeing him. She did finally work up the courage and he graciously talked to her and drew a picture of Snoopy on a napkin for her and signed it. He was getting up there in years at this point and the lines were pretty shaky, but I know Peggy treasured that little napkin like it was gold.

*Mike introduced us to the most heavenly ice cream sandwich known as the "It's It" at this little tiny ice cream shop by the bay. Vanilla Ice Cream sandwiched between two soft oatmeal cookies and covered in a thin layer of chocolate. It used to be we could only find them when we were visiting Nothern California, but recently my sister found them in Southern California and I couldn't wait to share one with her on my latest trip home! Yum!

*Mike was the first person to point out that my generation "goes" when having a conversation instead of "saying" what we mean to say.

* When I graduated from high school, Mike sent me a blue backpack from the Half Moon Bay Backpack Company. He said it was guaranteed for life and I could send it back if it ever fell apart. I carried throughout my entire 4 years in college and on many a trip. I still have it and while it's definitely worn but I still love it. A reminder of a great person and a great time in my life.

*When Mike and Peggy would visit us, Mike and my dad would go play basketball. I now realize it was to get some guy time, but as a child I would often ask to go and sometimes they were nice enough to let me. I liked hanging out with the big boys on the court. One of our biggest family jokes came from a BBQ with the Noftz family, when a big group of us were playing a pick up game and Mike fouled Rich and I was indignant that he get a free throw for it because we played basketball in P.E. and "I know basketball!" I've been quoted on this repeatedly since the 8th grade! Surely, one of my finest moments!

*Mike owned a Dalmatian and a couple of other dogs. The Dalamatian was a little crazy and lived primarily in the backyard. We got to feed the dogs treats from the balcony. It was a treat for my sister and I as well!

*We visited Great America, Marineworld U.S.A., Knott's Berry Farm, San Diego Wild Animal Park and lots of other parks and tourist spots!

*One of the most beautiful letters I've ever read was written by Mike right after Peggy passed away after her own long battle with a brain tumor. He wrote about his love for her and what she meant to him. It brought me to tears. One of the most touching things I've ever read.

Mike had a great laugh and he laughed a LOT when we were around. I always felt like he was glad to see me. He talked to me like I was an adult even though I was only a child. I loved visiting him and Peggy. I can truly say my life is better for having known Mike Stroud. You will be missed, Mike. We love you.

Tips for completing a Layout a Day

So, here it is again! The Layout a Day (LOAD) challenge is back! (My husband can not be more thrilled!) The good news is that February is only 28 days, so compared to 31 days in October that should be a piece of cake! So, here are my top ten ideas for creating a Layout a Day:

1. Pre-plan some layouts!

We all have those layouts that are swimming around in our head. That layout you knew you wanted to make as soon as you took the picture. The cute page you saw in a magazine that you knew you were going to scraplift the minute you saw it. That funny thing one of your kids said you've been meaning to get down on paper but haven't done it yet. Pull out the things you need to complete those layouts and create your own little page kits. Put them together now and on a day that you only have 15 minutes to work on your page together, the majority of the work will already be done. You just have to put it together!



2. Use up your page kits!
Speaking of page kits, admit it. You have at least one page kit laying around that you swore would make your scrapbooking easier because everything was all coordinated. How about the half finished pages from that last class you took? Some of us subscribe to kit clubs and those kits come faster than we can scrap. Now's the time to make those kits work for you. Pull them out and make sure they are ready to go. Resolve to use it for at least one inspirational prompt from Lain.

3. Work on a theme album you are trying to finish.

Is your son's school album stuck in 1st grade and he just started middle school? Did you start a hertiage album for your mom that you haven't gotten around to finishing? Are all your daughter's sports pictures piling up? Maybe you took an online class and never finished the assignments. LOAD is a great time to become the Queen of Finished Projects! Finish those half done albums and you will feel like a million bucks!

4. Write down some stories you've been meaning to tell.

There is nothing that says you can't write your journaling before you sit down to create the layout. Write down that funny thing your kids said yesterday. Tell the story of how you met your spouse. Write down a favorite memory about your grandmother. Gather some of your favorite quotes. Write it in a journal. Open a word document. Whatever story is burning in your head: WRITE IT DOWN! When you're ready to use it, you'll just need to find a photo and paper and you'll be done!

5. Pull out your favorite pics!

You know the ones. The ones that make you smile every time you see them. The ones that melt your heart. The favorites. Go through your albums, piles and boxes now and pull them out. You don't have to have a story to go with them. I guarantee at least one of the daily prompts will take you straight to your favorites and inspire you to use them in a new way.

6. Make a list of pages or albums you want to complete.
Start a list and carry it with you during LOAD. It could just be a cute title you've wanted to use. It could be all the albums you've wanted to make since you started scrapbooking. Make a list and as you start mulling over ideas and you will come up with more. Having a goal to complete a layout a day can really motivate you to finish a good chunk of your wish list by the end of LOAD. The layout below is from my son's sports album. I used this same template for each sport and changed the colors to match his team's colors. Easy peasy! This album came together lickety split!!

Digital Template by Cathy Zielske

7. Pick some favorite digital templates or flag some favorite sketches.

If you are a digital scrapper, save copies of your favorite templates (or look for fun new ones to use) in a separate LOAD folder on your desktop. When you have your daily scrapbooking time, they will be there and ready to go. If you're a paper scrapper, go through your favorite sketch book, magazine or websites to find sketches. Make copies of ones you'd like to use and store them in an easily accessible notebook or on a clipboard within arm's reach of your scrap area. Then when you have the idea and photos, a sketch will only be an arm's length away.

8. Make a go-to basket.

This is an idea I got from May Flaum during her Use Your Stash class last fall. Take some time and go through your stash of product. Pull out some of those things you want to use, but just haven't found the right project for. Put all your re-found treasures and put them in a basket or box and put it on your scrap table. You don't have to know what you want to do with it, but when you are creating your layouts and you just need one last little thing, take a look in your go-to basket and pick something out.

9. Participate on the message board and in the Flickr gallery.

There are so many talented scrapbookers that take this challenge on! When you see all the different ways they each interpret the daily prompt, you will be inspired and excited to try a new thing! On the layout above, I saw someone's layout with "naked" chipboard and I knew I could do that! There's nothing like the positive feeling you get when someone leaves a positive comment on your page! Wanting to get more of those great comments can be the very motivation you need to finish that day's page!

10. Keep it simple, scrapper!!

I can't take credit for this one either but it's the best advice I can give you heading in to this challenge. Many, many scrapbooking celebrities, including Stacy Julian, Lain Ehmann and Cathy Zielske have espoused this idea in one way or another. There will be days that you have hours to create and others where you will only have a few minutes. Not every page needs to be a show piece with all the latest and greatest techniques. Some just need to tell your story in a simple way. The important part is to get the story down and after 28 days you will have 28 more pages of your story done!

Layout a Day 2/11 is going to be a challenge, but with these tips I hope it will make the journey a little easier. No matter how you get to day 28, it will be a rewarding and joyful experience! I hope you'll join me.

To hear more about LOAD just click the button on the right side bar to hear from the LOAD master herself, Lain Ehmann. Hope to see you there!

10 Things I Love About You!

This is my newest class offered at A Memory to Scrap!

Just in time for Valentine's Day we will be creating a mini chipboard album filled pictures of your special someone and 10 things you love about them!

Your special someone could be your spouse or boyfriend, your child or grandchild, it could even be your favorite pet! Just pick someone you want to tell how much you care about them!

We'll be using Bo-Bunny's Crazy Love line with accents from Little Yellow Bicycle, Dazzlers and Art-C.

The class is on February 3rd at 11am or 6pm and the cost is $18! Space is limited, so sign up soon! Bring ten 3"x 3" pictures and your list of 10 things you love about that person and you will leave with a finished mini album! How cool is that?

Hope to see you there!

This Christmas...

... I had a special girls lunch with Tracey & Steph to exchange presents. Steph wore her matching Merrytini shirt that Tracey gave all of us for Christmas last year. Tracey and I did not.


...Big Chet bought a new 9 ft. pre-lit tree. Too big for the regular spot it found a home next to the fireplace. Thankfully, it was a rather warm Christmas and we didn't need to get the blankets in the cupboard the tree is now blocking.

...we hosted the Shepards, Curbs, Noftz and Lukers to our annual Chili Dinner. Rich ate a bowl laced with 4 drops of Da Bomb Haberno Hot Sauce! Steph wore her Merrytini shirt. Tracey and I did not.

...Grandpa flew out from Palm Springs and spent 10 days with us! He is a force of calm during an otherwise stressful season.

...I created many handmade gifts. Loved making something with my hands for the people I love.

...Big Chet nixed my nostaglic big C9 outdoor Christmas lights for energy efficient LED icicle lights with easy to hang clips. It looks nice especially since we didn't have real icicles this year!

...I made paper Christmas trees in shades of white with blue "ornaments" for my parents to comemmorate Grandma Margie's non-traditional white tree with blue silk ornaments. Melissa put it in their hotel room before they arrived and surrounded them with blue Christmas lights. I can not tell you how much I love this!

...Santa brought the boys an Xbox 360. We may not see them again until next Christmas.

...I was amazed that Santa knew what the boys wanted because we didn't even go visit him. Ooops!

...we had a cat to climb the tree and open the presents in advance. Surprisingly, the puppy did not do either of these things.

...I received a shower curtain as a gift from my sister and her husband. Already planning for his next gift...

...Ethan and Chet helped make Christmas Sugar Cookies. When you do it the day before Christmas and there's no one to give dozens of cookies to, there are A LOT of cookies to eat.

...I still haven't sent out my Christmas cards.

...we went to the Shepards for Christmas Eve Mexican Fiesta! Tracey and I wore our Merrytini shirts. Steph wasn't even there to see it!

...our tradition of the kids getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve continues. So does the tradition of opening TWO presents on Christmas Eve so that Ethan won't cry that his one present was pajamas.

...the boys woke up at 12:20am to see what Santa brought them (and maybe see the big guy himself). Tired Mommy sent them right back to bed. They got up again at 3am and 5am. Mom and Dad didn't get up until 7:30am. That's a lot of time just looking at Santa's gifts!

...while he loves the Xbox 360, Ethan's favorite gift was his Paper Jamz guitar!

...we realize we are truly blessed by the family and friends God has surrounded us with. I hope your Christmas was as merry as ours.

Legos Day 4

So, the second day I had to remind the boys about this project they wanted to do. Now, they walk in from school saying, "Hey, Mom, we have to do our Lego thing!"

Chet:

This ship is called The Bat. (Hey, he actually built something with Legos today!)

Ethan:

A girl at school made Ethan this "hat"! (Ethan and the girls, oh my goodness!) So, his picture is a continuing story from yesterday. Paraphasing: "After the Mumu Monster blew up the tree, there was a HUGE fireball. Then a big black cloud picked them up and carried them away!"

On another note: Say a prayer for me. I am going to substitute teach tomorrow afternoon for the first time. Yikes! Hope it goes well!

Legos Day 3

Today, Chet's stormtroopers took a ride in a crystal sleigh. They travel in style!

"Wheeeee!"


After, the Mumu monster destroyed the Christmas tree, Ethan's guys and monster narrowly escaped the blast in a convienently located car ornament!

Go Legos!

Legos Day 2

Captions by kids:

Phot by Chet:

"Aaaaaa.....Bat!"

Ethan:

Paraphrasing: "So, the monster dude stole the other dude's machine so the other dude decided to tan and the monster dude thought that looked good so he decided to tan, too!"
Photo by Dad with his fancy Canon and his fancy tripod!

Lesson learned: Take pictures earlier in the day when the lighting is MUCH better! ;-)

Legos Everyday!

Well, my first blog post in forever is inspired by my boys who got inspired by the blog "A Lego a Day" @ legomyphoto.wordpress.com. This site is done by a gentlemen named Dan Phelps who is an amateur photographer and Lego enthusiast! He is on his second year of photographing Lego minifigures every day and posting them on his blog. He has quite the sense of humor and is very creative. I was showing his site to Chet and Ethan today and they both asked, "Can we do that?" I figure anything that encourages them to be creative and doesn't involve a computer screen or video game controller is something I should encourage. Besides, I've been looking for an excuse to pick up on my blog.

So, here is our first day of photographing Legos. They each get one picture to post and it has to be set up creatively. Those are "the rules"! Here's what we got today:

From Chet:

He took this photo and has decided that his Lego bat will be in every photo he takes. (Since we've already lost the bat once this afternoon, we'll have to see how this pans out.) Today his bat is guarding our newly erected Christmas tree.

From Ethan:

His Star Wars Lego creature (like I can keep track of all those names...) has just awaken one large furry Mumu Monster and is running for his life!

Oops! Didn't make it! (Alright, I know that seems like two photos for Ethan, but as editor of this endeavor I reserve the right to add photos that make me laugh!)

Go Lego

2010 - The Year My Scrapbooking Changed

It started simple enough: a desire to take some online scrapbooking classes. One from a teacher I've long admired and another a class on organization that I had been drooling over for a year. The end of one and the beginning of another overlapped and I almost didn't do it knowing it would be a huge workload for a hobby related activity, but I decided to take the plunge and take Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life class and Stacy Julian's Library of Memories.

Layout from Lesson on Symmetry, if you divide the page in half what's on the right matches what's on the left.

When I started the Cathy's DYL class, I had been struggling for sometime to finish my 2008 album. I wasn't motivated by the pictures I've been looking at for over a year and scrapbooking was beginning to feel like a chore. The only time I actually scrapbooked was when I was preparing for my next class and essentially scrapbooking for others.

Lesson on Emphasis, specifically using a LARGE photo!

Being invigorated by the design principles and sketches I used the remaining pictures from that year to complete my 'assignments'. Not only was I happy to be learning new principles and understanding old ones, it also brought a new excitement to teaching my Year in Review class, as I felt even more confident about what I was teaching and design principles I was passing along. I loved the simple but strong layouts and I never ever thought I would like scrapping in a 8 1/2 x 10" format but following Cathy's sketches opened my eyes to just how I could do on a smaller canvas. I also realized I actually like practicing my ever growing digital scrapbooking skills on this smaller size so I can print them out and see them in real life. I can't say enough about how awesome this class was and how much it rekindled my love for scrapbooking.

Lesson on Repetition - note the repeating colors (Okay, maybe not the best example of reptition but I LOVE the way this layout turned out!)


This was a Real World Color challenge. She gave us the color scheme and we had to adapt. Not colors I would normally put together, but again I love the way this turned out!

It was a good thing that I was excited about scrapbooking again because Stacy Julian's Library of Memories Class is work! I mean it's good work, playing with pictures, rethinking, reorganizing, finding long forgotten things, discovering new ones, but it is indeed work! And knowing I wanted to approach my scrapbooking from a different prespective saw me through the many challenges this class gave me.

Title page for my new All About Us album. Pictures span several years and this album contains pages that show off our immediate family's personality traits and things that are just us! Other albums include People We Love, Places We Go and Things We Do.

Stacy's LOM system allowed me to keep the chronological structure I need to find my photos but also gave me a new way organize photos that I like, photos that show a relationship or photos that just sum up someone's personality. Taking these special photos out of chronological order and putting them together, showed me new connections between the people I love and things we do. My favorite part is when the kids do something fun or funny, I can go to these category drawers, pull a picture that shows their cute little personality and make a quick layout right then that gets the memory down before I forget it and it gets lost in all the "to-do" piles! I LOVE this! So, I have been converted from my strictly chronological ways to seeing stories in new ways. I've told more stories about the people we love, the things we do and places we go and I've used pictures that I just love to create layouts I never would have before because they didn't fall in to the "year" I was scrapping about it. This is life-changing in my little scrapbooking world.

As I was going through photos I found Ethan making this face over and over again. I thought it would make for an adorable personality page about my most exuberant child. Then as I was going through pictures from my childhood I found one of me making the exact same face! So this page turned in to a page about how our personalities are alike. Simple design and a story no one else could tell but me.


Again going through photos I found this "ready to go" shot from two different times of my life but still traveling the world! It wasn't until after I posted this layout I realized that in both pictures I am heading to my favorite location in the world: Salzburg, Austria!

Now that I worked my way through learning design principals and changing my photo organization and work flow, this summer I took May Flaum's Use Your Stash class.

Stash used: Travel paper (3 years old), chipboard letters (4 years old), chipboard accents (2 years old, photo overlay (1 year old), Ribbon (Who knows how old?!)

I figured this class had my name on it since I could open a small scrapbook store with the amount of "stash" I have in my scraproom. So each week May challenged us go through our stash and reminded us about older products that might be lurking in our stash from years gone by: Chipboard, stamps, eyelets, magic mesh, rub-ons (I had some so old they don't actually rub-on anything anymore.), etc.

Stash used: a sample layout I created for A Memory to Scrap (1 year old). The flower and letter stickers are from this year, but were both freebies and I had no idea how or when I might use them!

So, I was using my stash, telling the stories I was inspired to tell and designing wonderfully balanced pages and took on the ultimate challenge: Lain Ehmann's Layout A Day October 2010 also affectionately known as LOAD. The challenge is pretty straight forward create a layout, any layout, any size, every day in the month. I've made many a layout over my scrapbooking career, but never this many in this time frame and never that many days in a row. I'm always trying to scrapbook everyday, but that never happens! So, I thought having an actual challenge to do it would be VERY motivating!

This day's prompt was to use Ali Edward's journal idea of "Today You..." to tell an every day story. With the arrival of our new puppy life has changed a lot for me, I thought it would be a great way to show how she has affected every day life around here. I am in love with this page!

So, I pulled out some favorite pictures and sketches I've been meaning to use. I planned things out the night before. I worked to finish some projects I've started and never completed. I followed prompts that were given by Lain and sometimes I took those prompts in a completely different direction. I tried new techniques I saw others use on their layouts and I was totally inspired!

This day's prompt was to use photo in a film strip or photo booth style. Since I take so many consecutive pictures at the boys' sports game, I knew this would be a perfect way to use them.

This day's prompt was put the journaling or title on the photo itself. Using my new Photoshop skills, I used a Dr. Suess quote on this adorable picture of E from his First Day of School this year. He's shown some new confidence this year without his older brother being at school with him and I thought this quote exemplified that.

And yes, it took some time and, yes, it was not always easy or convenient, but I DID IT! I am absoultely positive that all the other classes I took set me up for this success and the culmination of all my efforts was really gratifying.

Now, doing a layout a day in November and December is not exactly feasible, but I've been able to get some in here and there and I am so happy with where my hobby is taking me and the pages that I am currently doing. I love my new found scrapbook freedom and I am excited about the pages and projects that I will be inspired to do in 2011! Here's to a new year of making memories!