Capture the Memories

Project Life | Week Three

2012-01-24T17:07:00.000-05:00

I know, I know . . . I never got last weeks (and the previous week's post) up. I did complete the Project Life pages for those weeks (and even finished 2011's album) last week, but by the time I finished, it was Wednesday and when I tried to upload images from my hard drive, my security settings shut down my internet browser and I never made it back in to finish. Does anyone else have these issues with blogger and pulling images off your hard drive? Maybe I should be uploading to flickr first and then pull the images to my blog from there. All I know is part of my issue with blogging is stemming from the fact that uploading pictures to my blogger account has become a pain in the you-know-what!

Without further delay, here is my Week 3. It was very simple and I've started using a lot of instagram images which I love including in my album.

Warm weather, quick dinner, daughter dressed up for a class debate, and my youngest at the computer and eating lunch on their holiday from school (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

Another thing I'm doing this year is leaving the 4x6 images and inserts as 90 degree angles. No corner punching for me hopefully will make this process a little quicker. PLUS, I was liking the way it looked when I viewed other layouts from other people completing the project.

Love the shots I'm able to include from my daughter and texts in my Project Life. I have never taken a photo of my camera until now, so I HAD to include that. Friday night was seeing Wicked. The tangled parachute guys were what I worked on for an hour after my kids had gone to bed. On top of my Project Life album that sits open on the hall table near my kitchen and laundry room and boys' bedrooms. Love that I captured that type of "event" this week.

I printed my instagram images at 2.25 inches square this week. Last week I had gone with 2.75 but that was almost to wide to fit in the smaller journaling pockets, let alone mount them on journaling cards/scrap paper. I do still use full images in the journal pockets sometimes, but I didn't this week. I took two of the smaller 2.75x3.75 images and put them together in a 4x6 pocket from our Girls Night Out to see Wicked. Paislee Press has a few 4x6 photo templates so that you can quickly drag and drop images into PSE (or Photoshop) and resize and crop them. I used these for the images that were NOT instagram photos.

There ya have it: Week Three in review! (and I got it done on Tuesday too!!)

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-10T09:29:00.000-05:00

Hi again! I've missed you. I'm here, again. I went through many months of turmoil in my home over the past year. We planned a kitchen remodel, and about halfway through, the contractor stopped doing what he promised and we had to fire him . . . leaving me to finish the project. It was fun, but it would have been more fun if I just did it myself from the beginning. Ah, lessons learned, right? Anyhow, we now have a beautiful kitchen to show for the 5 months of chaos that enveloped our home.

We had a few friends over for New Year's Eve - and Kristen had quite a few friends over for New Year's Eve. We made good use of our new space and I REALLY do enjoy it!

Ed's Dad has taken a steady decline in his health. It's hard, and it's sad to see him like this . . . he's been helping his mom get all kinds of financial issues taken care of and her Will drawn up as well as her Power of Attorney, etc. in case anything were to happen to her.

I've not scrapbooked in well over 6 months except for Project Life. This year, I'm recommitting to participating in Project Life Tuesdays. I really should have last week done already, but I will complete it today and post again once it's done. I'm holding myself accountable. I've signed up to take Stacy's TWELVE. class - it's AMAZING! As well as Round Up Your Memories, Move More Eat Well, and One Little Word (though I still don't have my word yet . . . it just hasn't spoken to me. There are a few I'm contemplating though. Hopefully a decision can be made in my heart before mid-month!)

Oh yes, and through the process of it all . . . we bought my daughter a brand new 2012 Civic for her first car, and because of the subcontractors using our driveway, my daughter had to park in the road one night. The next morning just before 8 am, her car is hit.

This was in early October . . . and yes, while I'm thankful no one was hurt, I was FURIOUS at the irresponsibility of this young driver (she's 18 and lives at home) and her parents (because daddy owns the car even though she's on seperate insurance). It doesn't look too bad until you realize that my daughter's car was not parked in front of our driveway. It was in fact, about 15 feet further back and the VW bug pushed it over it's car length. The driver didn't have enough insurance to cover repair or replacement, so we went through our insurance policy, which totaled our car that was less than four months old . . . and we had to find a new one for our innocent daughter. At any rate, by the end of October, we had purchased her a second car within a six month period. sigh . . .

So, again, I have missed YOU. I will be back TODAY! I need to do a December 2011 Monthly Roundup as well as share my Week 1 Project Life 2012 with you!!

My Wish for You

2011-04-27T19:47:00.000-04:00

Registration for the "new" Library of Memories from Stacy Julian - FINDING PHOTO FREEDOM - is now live. Go now - quickly - and register for the updated class!

Stacy has a little information here and a lot of information here. All in all, this has the same content, just given to you a little (okay, maybe a lot) differently than previous LOM sessions, for about $20 less than previous LOM sessions!

I can honestly say if it weren't for adapting my own Library of Memories system from the 2007 class, I would not be scrapbooking today. I was worn out with the time-wasting of looking for the right photos, of having big gaps in my chronological albums, and struggling to "keep up" when my kids were younger. With Library of Memories, I'm now stress-free in my scrapbooking. I'm always able to find a photo that will work for the story I want to tell, and I have FUN! I have a system and processes that keep me on the right track even when I've let those systems slide every once in a while.

My wish for you, if you are feeling overwhelmed with all the projects you want to complete, photos you want to scrapbook, and all the stories you want to tell, is that you'll sign up for this class and experience the freedom with your photos that this class can bring! Give this gift to yourself and to your family! :)

And the really fabulous thing? Stacy is allowing ALL alumni to register for this class for FREE using a code based on the year you first took LOM. Everyone who has ever signed up for LOM - even if it was in 2006 - can take this class for FREE and have it in your "forever access" account! You should have received an email from BPC by now with the link and codes. If you haven't received this email yet (and you've checked your spam folder) you should get in touch with BPC through admin (at) bigpictureclasses (dot) com.

I can't wait to see you all there in another month!

The Little Things

2011-04-27T10:11:00.000-04:00

have been playing a really big role in my life right now.
I'm sorry I didn't give you, my loyal readers, a heads up before taking a blogging break, but I felt the need to get some things re-prioritized in my life and blogging took a back seat.

This picture cracked me up and tugged at my heartstrings at the same time. The dolphins had all been away from the window, looking at the people who had a private tour on the other side (by the far wall) and my son went up to the class and started rubbing it. A dolphin (this dolphin) saw him I guess and left the other group and came over to the window. Next thing I know, he's swimming by and it looks like my son was giving him a rub-down. Then another one or two cam over to visit.

I've been:

cleaning and decluttering - paper files, my closet, our home
scrapbooking
helping my daughter work on "campaign" goodies for her Jr. Class officer elections
going on trips and hanging out with my kids over their spring break
shopping for a new car
teaching my daughter more driving skills before she takes her test (taken on April 15 and passed)
completing taxes
driving the kids to soccer practices
going to the gym a few days a week, working with my personal trainer two of those days (and she kicks my butt)
keeping up with Project Life

Thank you so much for hanging in there with me . . . I think I'll be back for a while, so I hope you'll come back and visit soon. And see over to the top right column? There's a google friend connection if you want to click on that and you'll be able to see any of my new posts in your reader or when you log into your blogger account.

I hope you're having a glorious spring if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, and that you're enjoying all Fall has to offer you if you're in the Southern! :)

~a

Close To My Heart Blog Sale Updated with Pictures

2011-02-07T08:51:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone!!

Many of you may know that I was once a Close To My Heart Consultant. I had been a consultant since 2002, and over those last eight years, accumulated quite a stash of product. However, I rarely stamped and that's part of the reason I'm no longer a consultant. I'm passing along to you an opportunity to get some very gently used (if ever used) acrylic stamps and other CTMH accessories at about 40% off retail.

Below is a slideshow that will take you to my Flickr Set of CTMH stamps for sale. The price is listed in the description and we can combine shipping. Shipping will be figured once we know what you're purchasing and where it's going, but I've found that shipping Flat Rate Priority usually makes the most sense. Please email me at (april290 at gmail dot com) or leave a comment here on this post with your contact information if you'd like to chat further.

I also have many sheets of cardstock that I'm willing to let go at .25 a sheet. If there are specific colors you'd like me to look for, just ask. I had just about all colors with the new additions of Tulip, Creme Brulee, and the other two - NOT the most recent new colors just released this past fall (2010) but I'm only getting rid of what I feel I have a surplus of (a lot of fall and spring colors) and only a handful of the others.

NOT PICTURED:
Eyelet Case Organizer $10.00

Z4200 Accessories Organizer $5.00
Hole Punch (long reach (6") $3.00

Again, please don't hesitate to ask any questions!

And We Have a Winner!!!

2011-02-04T10:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks to random.org and their random number generator, I entered numbers 1-22 and ended up with LUCKY number 13!! HEATHER at Artist-in-Residence!! Heather, please send me an email with your mailing address to april290 at gmail dot com and I'll get your package of goodies in the mail to you!

If any of you happen to be fans of Close To My Heart products (or acrylic stamps in general), feel free to come by tomorrow as I'll be starting to clear some stash as a former consultant. Mainly stamps, but some other items as well . . . things that I'm just not going to use and I've finally accepted. Everything will be at least 40% off retail!! The best way to know when it's been posted is to either follow my blog over to the side or subscribe to the RSS feed in something like Google Reader; or follow me on Twitter as I have my blog set to post updates there too!

Happy Friday everyone!! May you have a crafty weekend!!

Project Life Tuesday (on Tuesday this time!) Week 4

2011-02-01T14:00:00.001-05:00

***PLEASE NOTE: If you're looking for the One Little Word BLOG HOP, it's the next post down***

This week I kept to more photos then journaling. I enjoy the ability to go with the flow and do what I want each week. This week, you find a few pictures from the same day, and instead of feeling like I had to have a seperate journal spot for each day of the week, I just put multiple days on a tag. There were some things I left out, I'm afraid, but I did get the highlights. My daughter became quickly overwhelmed by Ikea. I was in heaven . . . the little things like that got left out . . . but maybe that should signal to me to do a seperate layout on that topic. I am not one who wants this scrapbook to become my only scrapbook this year, so I'm not adding a bunch of pages in. I figure if I want to expand on something, then I should make a layout and put it in our family album. I want Project Life to be one part of the great big whole. Now, if I could just find that time I keep talking about . . . so I CAN do those stories. Hopefully PL will serve as a springboard of ideas when I have some down time; and if nothing else, if I can keep up blogging about Project Life every Tuesday, maybe the stories will at least be here.

Here's Week 4:

Saturday, my daughter headed out to a friend's 16 birthday party. We finally took down the Christmas tree and then headed out to dinner with the boys to O'Charleys. Matthew got the usual chicken tenders with fries, Lance got the usual Mac and Cheese with Baked Cheetos. Sunday consisted of Monkey Bread for breakfast, building Star Wars lego ships and hanging out watching a few movies. Monday found everyone ready to go back to school., Tuesday Matthew finally sat down to get busy on his homework on the back patio, and Wednesday Lance ended up sick. Soccer (3v3) for Matthew was cancelled because of the nasty field conditions brought on by all the rain (on Monday and Tuesday). Maybe that's why there's not many photos of those two days? Wednesday I also missed the gym since Lance was home (and would be through Friday). Kristen was a huge help with getting Matthew ready for more Academy evaluations. On Friday, Matthew decided he'd show me how pleased he was with my choice to pick up some Extreme Pizza flavored Goldfish. What I didn't get a picture of on Friday was the fact that we ended up with two hours notice that Gavin's birthday party would be celebrated that evening . . . so off to Target all of us went (we were under the impression that his party would not be until February 5th) and barely made it home by 5 to get the boys there. Ed and I then went to Kirklands and grabbed pizza on the way home for everyone.

I didn't even add any pull-out journaling this week and as you can see, many details were left out. I do have a receipt stuffed behind one spot, and in another pocket is the slideshow printout from the Open House FCAT presentation I went to on Monday night. I'm very sad that I have virtually no pictures of my husband in this album (except for Week 1 when he was working from home). At this point in the year, he is barely here, and his busy month just finished. We have some time together at home for a bit (unless some great big project for him pops up) and I need to be sure and grab some pictures of him - alone, with the kids, or the whole family. SO SO grateful that Project Life helps me to see that NOW, instead of six months from now when this time has already gone and things may have changed.

One Little Word Blog Hop

2011-02-01T11:00:00.012-05:00

Hi everyone and welcome to my corner of the world wide web! If you're finding me from the blog hop, I'm glad you're here and I hope you'll stay a while. If you're a regular visitor, feel free to browse the other blogs linked through this little hop and enjoy everyone's different ideas and thoughts on their One Little Word.

One Little Word is a concept that was started by Ali Edwards several years ago. The theory is that instead of making a resolution (or two or three) which may not be kept, you pick a word - single individual word - to focus on as the year progresses. At times, it may be very prominent and forefront on your mind, and at other times, it may ease its way into the background of your life . . . waiting. You can learn more about Ali Edwards and her One Little Word project here or at her blog. If you find that the ideas here intrigue you, it's never too late to sign up. One Little Word at Big Picture Classes is a year-long event and has forever access.

This year, I chose NURTURE to by my word to help guide me this year.

nurture: to further the development of; rearing, up-bringing, training, education, or the like; something that nourishes, such as food. Synonyms include advance, cultivate, encourage, promote, love & care for.

Over the last year or two, I've let other words guide me. Words like present and believe. Words that spoke to me then and helped me through certain periods in my life. When I focused on those words, however, I feel that I've let other things slip in my life. Things like making sure we're eating good meals, things like making it to church on Sundays, and relationships that need work have started slipping all while my focus was elsewhere. The purpose of my One Little Word this year is to keep each of those fragile balls which I care for in my life - relationships, my spirit, my health - most forefront in my mind and work on nourishing them.

TITLE PAGE: everything is pretty much per Ali's instructions. I chose white on white for the softness . . . and as you can see, even though I started in the center of the line with my word, it still didn't get centered. Oh well. I did add a quote that Ali brought to our attention during her January presentation. I loved it, and didn't want to forget the power of a word, so I wrote it on the side. The quote is: "Words are the voices of the heart," ~Confucious. This is a 5x7 page and will go into a 5x7 page protector from House of Three Parisian Anthology set of protectors. I apologize for the wonky color - it's white, but PSE with the white balance color correction made it all weird.

A January self-portrait was the back of the title page. Beginnings 2011 is what the photo overlay says. This was a freebie from Ali. LOVE freebies! I hate our bathroom decor (hasn't been redone since moving last year), but it has good light . . . and I rarely take pictures of myself, so I gave in and did a "me with a camera in front of my face" shot.

Page 1: Defining and solidifying my word; inviting in whatever may come over the next year. I apologize for the glare, but taking them out of the divided page protector would likely ruin the effect. You can tell I left in even the "mistakes" as they're part of me. After I made it, I decided to leave it as is, bolded, because I didn't mind the emphasis on friendliness. I chose to use tints of green on this page, as nurture and growth to me are one in the same in my context, and to me green signifies growth and beginnings.

And here are the pages, as they would be lying in my album:

I mentioned yesterday that there may be giveaways throughout the journey as well, and I have one to offer up to you all! As you may see in the post below, I've been cleaning and re-organizing my scrapbook room. I have quite a bit of patterned paper, some embellishments, stickers, and other goodies to stuff full into a US Priority Mail box. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment and tell me if you have your own "One Little Word" and what it is. **Open to US residents only please unless you're willing to pay for shipping.** Comments will close on THURSDAY at 10 pm, and be sure to check back here to see if you're a winner on Friday!!

To follow along the hop, you're headed off to Nicky's blog at See Jane Bake. If you find a broken link, please see the list below and continue upon your path. I hope you find it to be an inspiring journey!

1) Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/

2) Jill Conyers http://jillconyers.typepad.com/life_as_i_see_it/
3) Monica http://scraplifters.blogspot.com/
4) Lynn W http://crafty-creativity.blogspot.com/
5) Miranda http://mirandasscrapsite.blogspot.com/
6) Mandy http://captureandcreate.wordpress.com/
7) Kathy http://katswonderings.blogspot.com/
8) Lisa http://makeyourownescape.blogspot.com/
9) Donna http://donnabryantdurand.blogspot.com/
10) Abbey http://athomewiththerichardsfamily.blogspot.com/
11) Sam http://learncreatedo.wordpress.com/
12) April http://capturethememories.blogspot.com/ <-- YOU ARE HERE
13) Nicky http://seejanebake.blogspot.com/ <--GO HERE NEXT ****
14) Rebekah http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/
15) Relly http://rel.ly/
16) Nancy http://goshery.blogspot.com/
17) Cynthia http://paperpapereverywhere.blogspot.com/
18) Kathryn http://katlodesigns.com/
19) Nikki http://www.inkyart.com.au/
20) Heather http://scrappyhare.blogspot.com/
21) Gayle http://www.lifeonlilypadlane.blogspot.com/
22) Kristina http://ciqis.blogspot.com/
23) Debra http://blakleyhomeplace.blogspot.com/
24) Becky http://beckyandjames.com/
25) Amy http://reflectivesnapshots.com/
26) Marlene http://moore-fun-in-the-sun.blogspot.com/
27) Maureen http://cookingmylife.blogspot.com/
28) Cheri http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
29) Monica Scrapmom http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/
30) Jan http://mysimplelittlelife.typepad.com/
31) Junelle http://yesandamenblog.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html
32) Margaret http://www.gutsymom.blogspot.com/
33) Sharyn http://www.analteredlife.com/
34) Tere http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/
35) Amanda http://www.scrappnbee.blogspot.com/

Ikea, anyone??

2011-01-31T12:06:00.000-05:00

Squee!! I made a trip to IKEA on Saturday with my wonderful teenage daughter. This is quite an experience because our closest IKEA is over 2 hours away each direction and it was a last minute decision to go. Hubby was heading to see his parents with my boys, so I volunteered my lovely daughter to come and keep me company! It was amazing . . . a wanna-be organizer's dream! The main reason for the trip was for a 5x5 White Expedit unit. At 1:00, there were 3 units in stock and based on past sales, it was a green light to go. By the time we got there, we were picking up the last unit! YIKES! We also grabbed a 1x5 unit to go on top of the bigger one, making the unit 6 cubbies high. I also picked up some black organizing accessories and enjoyed browsing the upstairs showroom. I was a tad disappointed that we got down there so late and still had to drive home because I think I could have spent way more than over 2 hours there, and enjoyed every last second of browsing.

Hubby and I spent a few hours yesterday putting together and then I spent a few more hours reloading and re-organizing everything. A "tour" is in the works, but I'm going to order a desk from Target first, as well as a bookcase or two. Once those get in, I'll get a bit more detailed. This project has only been in the works for a year now . . . for proof, take a look here.

Anyhow, here's the final unit put together. I have a bit more decorating and labeling to do, but I want to get the bookcases in first so things can be pretty final for the time-being. The sad thing?? I can't even get a picture of the whole thing with my 50 mm lens (and I'm already outside the door). I'll have to change back to the kit lens when I give my "tour" in a few more weeks.

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back by tomorrow! One of the reasons for the increased desire to get my room in order again was so I could find things to work on layouts. A very large group of scrapbookers are taking a class with Ali Edwards over at Big Picture Classes based on her idea of One Little Word (instead of the idea of resolutions). A group of about 35 of us are doing a blog hop tomorrow showcasing the January projects/album and the idea of giveaways at a few have been mentioned. We'll each be talking a bit about our individual word, as well as sharing what we've done this month. If the idea of one little word intrigues you, signing up for the class is ongoing, or you can do it on your own. :)

Project Life Tuesday (or Thursday in my case) . . .

2011-01-27T09:26:00.000-05:00

I have a bit of sharing to do, even though the pages have been done for a bit from week 2. I had already added them to the Project Life page flickr slideshow, but I haven't shared them here.

January 8-14

Photos, starting from left to right, going ALL the way across the top, then middle, then bottom: The Lego train set and truck that my children spent all break putting together and playing with. Legos have become the toy of choice inside our home. It's not often that LITTLE brother rubs off on BIG, but that's what happened with Legos. Matthew would NEVER take the time and patience to learn how to put something together when he was younger. Piles of laundry, sorted and waiting to hit the wash. A photo of the outside of my Y. I've started meeting with a personal trainer (a Christmas gift from hubby). Here's to hoping it works. Weekly title card. Document folded card (see below for inside detail shot) with Matthew in his favorite place. Photo of my newly organized cupboard. Not sure what has come over me, but I'm organizing. Maybe I've hit spring cleaning a bit early so that when spring gets here, I can go have some fun! Project Life arrived on Monday (my "week" goes from Saturday to Friday; though I tend to set my pages up the first half of the week on the left, and the second half of the week on the right . . . so I'm going through these a bit out of order here). A photo of Lance coming home from school. I love that he had on his yellow crocs instead of his tennis shoes even though it was cold out (he had socks on under them). Kristen helping me bring in some groceries before the boys got home. She still will barely let me get a picture of her. And Gia and Kristen. Kristen headed over to her house last Friday for a sleepover. She's become a good friend of Kristen's in only a year and a half, and the fact that she's fun helps too!

here's a close-up of the document card - opened. On the front was a picture of him climbing a tree on the right side of the spread. I'm working really hard on including things that my children find important to them; things that they love and are involved in . . . which isn't always so easy when they spend more time with school and homework and playing outside (even if it is at our house) than inside hanging out with us as parents. I'm so thankful that this project is giving me a push to make sure I'm connected with my kids when in the cold weather, it would be so easy to just hibernate somewhere.

I really like how this week turned out. I still am finding I have way more I want to say each day, but there seems to at least be some balance this week between photos and words. These have been on flickr for a bit, but wanted to be sure I posted them here. I really think I'm liking the smaller photo sizes and the fact that it is giving me the ability to do some vertical . . . though I must say, I'm hoping to order some of the "B" pages from Becky so that I can do full size vertical and mix it up with a bit more journaling since that seems to be where I'm headed . . . and if you don't know what I mean, just take a peak at Week 3 below. I seem to have an issue with words . . .

January 15-21

(Left side) Saturday, Sunday and Monday started out great with a long weekend (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) and th boys played with friends and Garris (pictured with Matthew) even slept over on Sunday evening. They watched a movie and ate popcorn with chocolate chips and Ed has been in a mode of continuing to work late for the year-end books. All three of the boys were found playing with these legos in Matthew's room Monday morning while I was heading out to the gym. I love that they're creating scenarios on their own and not just doing what the "box" said to do. Lance filled me in on the story and it's on a "created" long journaling card with coordinated pp circle punched and attached . . . behind the photo. Oh, we also had to "create" a coat of arms for Lance's class to go in his Memory Book at the end of the year.

(Right side) I guess once school got started and I stopped carrying my camera again? I don't know. Maybe I was too busy. I had plenty to journal about as you can see - and plenty of reciepts from doing things like picking up the dry cleaning, making a grocery run . . . ohhh, I remember. I started feeling pretty yucky on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Nothing "serious" just naseous and weak . . . but I certainly didn't feel like doing anything. I'm sure Ed was disappointed because I know he was hoping I would start organizing and purging some other part of the house. Lance was HAPPY to have PE for once. He usually hates it, so I took a picture of his tennis shoes and wrote that story down. It's on the two alphabet cards (red) up in the top corner. I also went to eat lunch with an online friend I had a chance to meet and dropped everything else on Friday. I hope she had as good of a time as I did . . . but I left my camera at home and not having an iPhone 4, couldn't grab a picture of the two of us. Plus, I don't think I'd put it here because I'd want to respect her privacy. So, I used two journaling cards in the same pocket here and tucked the reciept from the Cheesecake Factory behind it. Also used for a journaling block was one of the "folding" cards, but I left it open - and definitely journaled on both sides. On the front is the story about me signing up for e-mealz and then on the back is the recipe that everyone in the family LOVED! Can't wait to try more of their meals. I was exhausted or I would have taken a picture of it . . . but making it through the evening with a working late hubby and feeling under the weather was the priority, right?

There you have it, the last two weeks in pictures and words. I LOVE this project; and I'm finding I still have time to do "traditional" scrapbook layouts too. I hope to be able to keep up (kind of) with Project Life Tuesday, but in case you find you're looking for PL inspiration, please feel free to head to the tab at the top and view the slideshow. Even if I'm not always blogging about Project Life, I'll keep my flickr stream updated.

Have a wonderful Thursday!!

Life in 2011

2011-01-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

(I think I may have borrowed that title from another blogging friend, but it seemed pretty perfect since I was so inspired by her post that I wanted to come right over here and blog . . . and I think it's pretty obvious that it's been a while since I had last done that!)

I have no idea what my year will bring, but I'm hoping I've really set myself up for a lot of success in the areas of my life that are most important to me: my health, my hobbies, my family, and my soul. Many of these things I've neglected more than I'd like to think and much of it was due to several health issues that I recently got worked out at the end of 2010. With that being said, I've still found a way to scrapbook. Scrapbooking truly keeps my mind on being grateful for the everyday. It helps me realize what really IS important and keeps it front and foremost in my mind. I'm grateful I have this hobby.

This year, I have more than a few plans for my hobby . . . but there's a handful of things that I TRULY hope that I will not let go by the wayside as the year progresses. (I have an uncanny way of letting that happen.) While I have always loved creating layouts, I find I just don't have the time to get all the layouts done that I'd like to do . . . no time to tell all the stories that come at me EVERY DAY being a family of five. So this year, I'm adding Project Life from Becky Higgins to my arsenal of scrapbooks and I LOVE it so far! I've just started Week 3, and have committed to take part in a Project Life Tuesday brought to us from The Mom Creative blog.

For this post, I'm just going to give you a glimpse at my Title Page and Week 1. You can look for Week 2 to be up sometime tomorrow. I hope you'll follow along as we journey through 2011 together!

I used American Craft Thickers for our last name and also for 2011. I used Carolee's Creation little brown stickers to write "All of Us" on the white card.

My first week of experimenting with my Project Life kit. I've learned that I LOVE journaling every day - even if there's not a picture to go along with it. I love just using it as a glimpse into what my thoughts were on that day . . . not necessarily a play-by-play of my schedule. I used a folding card (in the last slot) that I used to journal about a mishap my son had today - and a lesson he hopefully learned - even without a corresponding photo. The photo instead is of something else completely that day.

Have a beautiful day!

Brought to You by the Letter P

2010-12-01T23:49:00.000-05:00

P for Practice, Peace, Productivity and Preparation that is . . .

I accomplished a lot today, given the fact that it was December 1st and I had a lot that I wanted to get done. I'm exhausted to say the least. Dealing with medical bills is never easy when so many of us in our family this year had ongoing issues to resolve; I also made some appointments, continued decorating the house, and decluttered some papers and counters . . . all so my December may go that much smoother. I even finished a layout for my Color class over at BPC using the color purple!

Matthew started up his first 3v3 soccer. It's organized chaos out there but from what I understand, the kids are having a ball.

Hot chocolate was on the menu today as it was quite chilly. The high was in the low 60s, but the low was 31 this morning, and it's supposed to be that way again tomorrow. Luckily we have sunshine to help warm us. Lance was lucky enough to get it both in the morning and evening with dinner. Matthew really needed it after his practice.

I listened to Paperclipping Roundtable today too; while enjoying playing with my camera once that house had been decluttered. I was starting to go through some serious withdraws not having my weekly dose of Noell and Izzy last week.

It was a good day.

Today, while deciding to enter this holiday season with an attitude of gratitude, I thought of all the things I'm thankful for RIGHT NOW. At the top of this list is my family. I love how our stockings were hung this year with the help of my older son and that I still so very much love that we have a mantle to hang our stockings over a fireplace.

The kids and I also had a talk about using our manners with everyone. This is something we struggle with. I tend not to always set a good example with them because my younger two seem to think I'm asking when I say please so they think they can tell me that dreaded N word . . . We always tend to remember with strangers or friends; but we often forget with each other . . . so we're working on it between ourselves. After picking Matthew up from practice, we helped remind each other and it's amazing what happens when someone says please and thank you. I hope tomorrow I can remember to be proactive with this to keep moving forward.

Cheers :) Have a happy day!

Today is December 1

2010-12-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

Today I'm starting something new. I've joined Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas, purchased Ali's 6x8 digital overlays, and have joined Picture the Holidays with Tracey Clark over at BPC. I'm staying centered and focused on what truly matters this December and I will enjoy myself through this process! Feel free to join me in any or all of the classes. I hope to share what I do here, no matter how simple it is and I hope you can take something from it.

For now, my book/album will be based in the 31 day overlays that I purchased from Designer Digitals printed on white 8.5x11 cardstock and will be held together by jump rings eventually. I do plan on adding things here and there to my album as I go (read: extra sheets of paper or overlays to help make it unique to me), but since I'm not sure what at the moment (I did just decide to do all this LAST NIGHT after all), I'm just going to wing it. For now, I have a bunch of Christmas-y papers and white overlays cut to size.

Here's another thing I just found on Ali Edwards' blog . . . through a conversation that Ali and Tracey had on Twitter the other day. I'm going to be checking this out too!

And please, let me know if you're going to be joining me in any of these classes so I can look for some familiar names! :)

More October LOAD Layouts

2010-11-29T15:42:00.000-05:00

In the previous post, I showed you my stack of LOAD layouts . . . 32 of them to be exact! Here's a few of my favorites I wanted to share with you for a little inspiration!

Enjoy your day!

Goodbye November!

2010-11-26T16:16:00.000-05:00

You know, I started a draft a few weeks back that was titled Goodbye October, Hello November. I was still in the middle of planning my daughter's Sweet 16 however, and that post fell off the plate. I can't believe where our fall has gone. Here are the last few months in pictures (with a few words)!

soccer games

homecoming parades

pumpkin patch

homework

report cards and awards (Matthew got all A's)

fall centers and volunteering

homecoming game

and friends

pumpkin carving

the scream costume

and a mutant turtle

prepping for a party

Grandma came to visit and give Kristen her birthday gift

Matthew's final game and look at him tackle that guy.

LOAD finished and I had 32 layouts done - some were double page spreads

Katrina, Gia, Rachna, and Kristen on their way to her party.

Sweet 16

The zoo on Vetran's Day

Soccer came to a close.

A Thanksgiving program

Corn toss at Nana and Papas

Reilley Grace is precious.

The pies were gorgeous.

And cousins meet for the first time.

Life is good. Take time to enjoy it!

LOAD Day 3 and 4

2010-10-08T13:20:00.000-04:00

On the 3rd, I did two layouts . . . with the Treasure layout freshly created, my mind kept wandering to these two photos of the beach that I had on my memo board. I printed it in both color and B&W with the suggestion from an instructor that it would look fabulous in black and white. I have been looking at them for over a year like that, and I still can't decide which I liked better . . . so I decided they both deserve a spot in my albums and I would scrapbook them together. I used that same design from the treasures layout, just different papers.

This second layout, I also did on the 3rd. I loved this photo that I took in a local park and I used PSE 7.0 to write the title using Ali Edwards' free handwriting font. I believe it's available from CK. This one actually addressed the challenge for LOAD that day which was find a photo that really speaks for itself - no words allowed except for the title.

Day 4 was cropping in close to your photos. I thought it was perfect to get some scenic pictures scrapbooked from a trip to Niagara Falls way back in 2004. I love how this one turned out!

Thanks for stopping by and looking! I'm running a tad behind getting my photos posted for Picture Fall. I have to take today's and hopefully I'll be back later with those being posted.

Finding Beauty

2010-10-03T16:50:00.000-04:00

Boy I had to look hard for this one. I started with a sago in my front yard because I really didn't want to go out back . . . but I love the sago palms, and so it was hard to really find beauty out of something ugly when I thought they were pretty to begin with . . .

So I moved on to the backyard . . .

The first thing that stuck out to me was the nasty old worn retaining wall and it's paint chipping away.

But I couldn't find a way to make that ugly look very beautiful at all . . . sure, the texture is great but that's about it.

So I started looking at all of our trees . . . and I found these . . .

Yep, definitely amazing when I get a little closer - but oh so nasty from far away. We have a water oak that is on the cusp of dying . . . and these were images from it. The top one was my pick to put into the class gallery. It's actually the underside of a mushroom that was growing out of the trunk, about 2 feet up from the ground. Definitely nasty.

October 2, 2010 - Comfy and LOAD Day 2

2010-10-03T01:17:00.000-04:00

Today was a day of sports in our household. My daughter played her last rec soccer game of the season, my youngest son played a soccer game also, and my older son played an awesome football game about an hour away that I didn't get to see. Then started the fun of visiting a few bakeries in town to sample some cupcakes for my daughter's Sweet 16, who apparently has watched WAY too much of that MTV show for her own good . . . because after spending some cash on some super fattening sweet cupcakes (and very yummy mind you), we ended up at the mall shopping for a semiformal. This is another post all on its own and I can't wait to share it with you,

but not tonight . . .

Today's prompt at Picture Fall was comfy and there were three places around my home that I could envision for this prompt . . . where do I like to get comfy. First thought was my bed . . . I often read there, and when I get overwhelmed with my crazy life, it's often my retreat. Here it is, fresh out of laying in it . . . books piled on the nightstand and all. Don't judge the unmade bed - remember I've had knee surgery so I'm laying back here a lot to elevate and ice.

Second thought was my scrapbook room, but then that's all alone and my chair isn't really all that comfy . . . and it's kind of a solitary place with no room for friends or family to join me, so I decided it wasn't all that comfortable after all . . .

So I decided I liked this final choice the most. I have two wingback chairs in our family room against a wall of windows. This one is closest to the fireplace and faces more towards the sofa where the family sits than towards the TV. It's where I often sit to read and enjoy a cup of coffee in the mornings after the kids are off to school, or hang out when family comes to visit. I chose to take the picture tonight, when I most like to sit in the chair while we were hanging out as a family getting ready to watch Florida Gator Football (miserable game, btw, against Alabama. Ugh). Of course, when I'm actually sitting in it, I pull my feet up back and under me and swing the pillow around to the side and cozy in for a convo with the kids and/or hubby.

Since we had been busy today, I knew I was going to be tight with time on my LOAD layout. To make it simple, I searched my favorites tag on Flickr to see what caught my eye in the way of simplicity and decided to lift a layout from Monica. (I hope she doesn't mind too much.) I really just followed the basic design but added my own photo and papers and title. Enjoy!

Amelia Island in Pictures

2010-10-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

Quintessential Fall

2010-10-01T15:12:00.000-04:00

50 mm f/2.5 1/4000 at ISO 200

50 mm f/1.4 1/8000 sec at ISO 200

50 mm f/1.4 1/640 sec at ISO 200

Same leaf found outside this morning in the middle of our backyard preserve area. I moved it to the grass because I loved the contrast there and the sun was shining outside. All images are SOOC except where I cropped the first one.

It's Day 1 of Picture Fall over at Big Picture Classes. There's still time to join me in a journey to be more aware and inspired by what's around us. It's amazing how you start to look at your world just a little differently. I love getting those inspirational emails in my inbox from Tracey each morning too.

For me, it looks like Fall decided to make it's appearance in Florida just in time. There was a breeze in the air - almost crisp - and a cloudless sky this morning. Football is in full swing. I really hope to keep up with this class this time around and continue sharing images daily here as well as in the classroom. Both in Picture Spring and Picture Summer, life was too crazy and busy. I want to SLOW DOWN and enjoy this October. My knee is also finally feeling better to the point where those photos were actually taken in a squatting position. I can't quite kneel yet, but almost. Every day is a little better. I'm grateful I can't move as fast right now. :)

Let me know if any of you decide to join me so I can look for your work!

Productivity

2010-10-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

I've been pretty productive on one side of my life, at least. I may have not been able to clean house and cook dinner for the last three weeks, but I have been able to get some scrapbooking done!! (YAY!!!)

I was busy the last four weeks in a BPC (formerly BPS) class taught by May Flaum. The goal was to Use Your Stash . . . and I did, but still just minimally. I think I'm going to be taking a break on churning out layouts and really focus on quality over the next few months, as well as organizing my key inspiration and support. My PHOTOS are organized thanks to Stacy Julian, my PRODUCT is organized thanks to Wendy Smedley, and now I'm focusing on getting my stories organized thanks to Karen Grunburg's class Book of Stories (and yep, sorry . . . it's too late to join but I highly recommend it if it's offered again!!). Picture Fall (there's still time to join if you're so inclined) also just started with Tracey Clark of Shutter Sisters and I'm hoping to bring in fall with full appreciation this year.

The class I just finished was Adventures in Scrapbooking: Use Your Stash and there was GREAT infomation shared in the message boards about products that may have been forgotten about or that we just bought too much of. That will be one that I hope to frequently revisit. I also didn't do "every" layout yet and May also provided us with a new sketch every Monday of class . . . so inspiration is there waiting for me when I revisit.

The first week started off with Chipboard as the stash to focus on for May. I took her challenge (but only completed one layout that week) and also focused on chipboard. Here was the layout I created for that one.

Sorry for the crooked picture. The journaling reads: Spending some 1-on-1 time with Nana in St. Augustine after Matthew was born. Summer 2002.

The next layouts I accomplished were about a week or so later. I had my surgery the day I finished the above layout (Wednesday, September 8), and then I was laid up through the weekend and on crutches. A friend and I belong to a monthly layout club through our local scrapbook store and Basic Grey and I was so excited about this paper (Oliver line) and the accompanying directions for the layout, that I came home that night and started working again. It took me a few days to finish since I couldn't sit long, but I'm quite happy with the results!

again sorry for the crooked pictures. These were some favorite shots I had from Matthew's football season last year. Journaling reads: Matthew's 2nd season of football was awesome. Full-time linebacker - (heart)'s hitting hard and even forced a fumble vs. West Augusine!

May had done a layout in one of her handouts about Halloween one year, and I started getting in the Halloween frame of mind. I pulled out some oranges and blacks and some OLD Halloween product stash and created the above layout. Journaling reads: This year Halloween fell on a Saturday . . . the Saturday of Florida-Georgia too . . . so Kristen chose to go to the game and skip Halloween. Lance was the Transformer Bumblebee. Matthew dressed up as Snake Eyes from GIJoe. They loved those costumes and played their parts well.

While I was in my Fall 2009 storage binder, I also found these pumpkin patch photos that I also wanted to scrapbook . . . and so I did! Don't you love it how that can happen. I couldn't believe how LITTLE STASH I had for Halloween. This was some old CTMH paper that I had used on a layout or two from Kristen's 3 or 4 yo Halloween, and I added in one of my Fiskars border punches (Apron Lace I believe). The silouetted pumpkin (I can't believe I did that) is pop-dotted and says, "the boys designed this one," around the edge). Journaling on this one reads: We had an adventure going a full weekend before Halloween to pick out our pumpkin at the OP United Methodist Church. We carved it that evening, but bad weather came and rotted our awesome Jack O'Lantern before we made it to Halloween the next weekend. Only Lances little pumpkin remained uncarved & unrotted. 10/09

On this layout, I moved on to a layout May had in the handouts focusing on the one "odd" photo. I really have a LOT of stories that can be told with just one photo, so I decided to use this one twice (see below). This is of my kids acting completely silly as they always do at the Photo Op at St. Augustine's alligator farm. I used some red paper with the october afternoon pp (diamonds) to help bring out the fun playful feel . . . and didn't focus at all on the trip TO the Alligator Farm, but rather what was going on in our lives RIGHT NOW. My hope is that the kids will instantly remember the month between us selling our old house and looking for and bying our new house when we had to move down the road to a 3rd floor apartment. It was AWFUL. The tag reads: Today - we were all just thankful to be out of the third floor, 3-bedroom apartment and enjoy some family time.

While I was working on that above layout, I realized I still had this one odd photo from the earlier Halloween photos too. While it was from Halloween, I didn't want to focus on that aspect. Rather, I wanted to focus on the character trait that my son showed his family and just one further example of how he does in fact, love his sister. He did this on his own, and I snapped a photo of what was waiting for my daughter when she returned home from the weekend with my parents. If you can't read the note, it reads: To Kristen From Matthew I hope you like this and that image is four baggies full of yummy candy that SHE loves . . . not just junk that he wanted to get rid of. Journaling reads: I love it when I see people being thoughtful to others. I love it even more when it happens to be one of my children to a sibling. This was one time that made my heart sing. Candy is very precious to Matthew, and because Kristen chose to go to the Gator game instead, he gave away some of his. (heart) you Buddy!

This is going back to the design of May's "halloween layout" that I mentioned above when I became inspired to do a few Halloween layouts myself. I didn't use her actual design in that one, but was inspired to when I came across a set of photos with a similar number. This one is also from July 2009 . . . probably the same week or so of the Alligator Farm picture . . . we were most definitely still in our 3rd floor apartment. We visit Sea World a LOT, and so I often don't take pictures of everything anymore, but on this trip, there were a lot more pictures than I though of this one exhibit because the kids loved it so much. It's the Manta Aquarium that goes along with the new Manta rollercoaster, where it's more like hang-gliding than sitting in a seat. The kids have always loved the ocean, so I really shouldn't have been surprised how much they loved this - and it helped that it was cool and air conditioned too! Journaling reads: The Manta was a new roller coaster that opened this past year at Sea World. Kristen is the only one of us who has gotten to ride it, but the boys and I discovered this little gem while we waited . . . and brought her back through. There's an awesome octopus, but the favorites are the guitar fish and standing under the rays as they glide above . . . and of course, acting like goofballs in the aquarium tunnel.

I have SO MUCH inspiration in my class files and in my own head and throughout the internet that I really feel I need to take a break from immersing myself in inspiration and get busy making some layouts - some QUALITY layouts. Ella Publishing had a "Friends" call this past month, and while I considered entering since Ella is a company I wholeheartedly believe in, I just didn't think I had enough quality layouts to send in . . . here's hoping the next time that happens, I'm ready.

My View Lately

2010-09-12T16:52:00.000-04:00

Surgery was Wednesday, September 8th. It took much longer than anticipated because of them having to remove the old hardware. I went in around 3:30 and didn't come out until 5. I should be able to walk soon while keeping my leg straight, but after two weeks, should be able to start bending again while walking.

It's really quite boring, isn't it? I'm seeing my kids when they come back to visit me but I'm spending a lot of time icing my knee and keeping it elevated . . . I did go and drive yesterday - not very far mind you - and I only seem to be taking pain meds once a day. I start physical therapy tomorrow. Unbelievably, it's not so much my knee that hurts the most, it's the location on my lower leg where they needed to remove a staple. It's about an inch-long incision and it's just painful when I try and put pressure on my leg. It kind of ticks me off with how bad it hurts because if it wasn't there, I'd be doing some walking with only one crutch . . . and able to carry things for myself instead of having to have people bring things to the sofa or the table for me.

The real reason you have to put up with these photos for me?? Because hubby bought me my first prime lens last week and it arrived on Friday. Yep, that's right - a Nikkor 50mm/1.4 in my hot little hands . . . and I'm DYING to play with it! Unfortunately, the only playing I can do is from my chair or my bed. Hopefully soon there will be some more entertaining photos.

Before I went in, I did find some time to scrapbook. It's been a while but I'm in May Flaum's Use Your Stash class at Big Picture. I have so many layouts in my head for this class it's crazy! The first week focused on Chipboard uses . . . and this is what I came up with before other things had to get done.

I went to my oldest storage binder and decided I wanted to get these photos scrapbooked and what I wanted to say about them. I used May's suggestion of a neutral cardstock as a base, and then figured out what papers to use. I {heart} Scenic Route to this day. This is some older stuff and I use it sparingly because I love the colors. After I figured design, I tried really hard to stay away from my typical letter sticker solution and headed to my homemade clip it up where my chipboard letters are stored in individual baggies, grabbing a nice bold A and edged it (and the page) with some Pumpkin Spice ink.

I am, of course, also taking other classes (how can I just take one, after all?) . . . Book of Stories from Karen Gruenberg and Picture Fall with Tracey Clark (to start October 1) are also filling up my time. At least I have things to do while I can't clean! LOL

What have you all been up to lately?? Are you in any of those classes with me??

Cha-cha-cha-Changes

2010-08-10T17:03:00.000-04:00

Nothing stays the same, right? Imagine what happened when I decided to randomly view some old blog posts and had it hit me in the face how true that is!

I found this post and can't believe how much has changed in a few short months. This was from April - when I had tried to do a Week in the Life Project - and while the actual week-long project failed that particular time, I am SO GLAD that I have the post to help me remember what it looked like "before."

We have new sofas, (please excuse my fun iPhone photos)

we have paintings and my organizer up on the walls,

and a pool table in our living room.

We also don't have that crazy ladder on the back patio any longer, and probably most important is that there are NO BOXES!! I'd like to think (and remember) just what we accomplished this summer and know that while I didn't scrapbook a whole lot, I finally got our house turning into a home (slowly but surely) and I spent time doing fun things with my kids.

Speaking of fun and kids . . . Matthew just came running in here to tell me this joke he just heard. I think it's quite funny!! LOL

How come animals at the zoo can't take any math tests??

Because there are too many "cheetahs"!!!!

(image source)

Bwaawhahahahahaha!! Cute huh?? Hope it made you smile!

Lance at 6

2010-08-05T16:49:00.000-04:00

Lance has now been 7 for a full day, and I wanted to get this post done before I forgot too much of what he was like at 6 . . .

Lance enjoys trains, planes, and the color yellow . . .
He has yellow crocs, yellow planes, yellow trains, yellow shirts and now he has a yellow bumblebee pillowpet too. He's named that one Buzby. I think he even loves to eat bananas because they're yellow . . . and let's not forget yellow Shells and Cheese too.

He often chooses things he loves based on the fact that they're yellow - like the GT YellowJackets and Yellow-bellied Turtles.

He has an active and amazing imagination. He seems to really be thinking of how he can create REAL Transformers when he grows up, thinking of how the parts will all work together and what won't work.

He is a passionate soul. When he gets angry, he gets angry and you'll know it. When he's happy, you'll know that too. He loves hugs . . . doesn't like the dark . . . sometimes has nightmares and tells us he likes to stay awake so he won't have them . . .

He's finally gone to St. Augustine to stay with Nana and Papa alone for a week. He made it to Lighthouse Camp this summer for the first time. He's been reading at school since October, but he still tells us he can't read at home . . . sometimes we're able to trick him into reading. He loves Thomas the Tank Engine stories the most - still. I wonder if he'll ever grow out of Thomas.

He loves everything nature - just not being outside and sweating. This includes butterflies, lizards, ants, caterpillars, alligators, and more . . . but does NOT include wasps and bees (in real life bees - he loves the stuffed animal ones - remember the color??)

Our Lancelot changes his mind from one minute to the next and he loves to talk your ear off. He has a great big vocabulary . . . though he sometimes says them wrong, we know what he's thinking and teach him the right way to say it. He despises having to write anything though; and doesn't mind math so much. I think he's going to be some big inventor at this point. He's all for trying things out and analyzing what worked and what didn't and making adjustments.

He often has ants in his pants and can't sit still long enough to do anything but put together legos and play with his variety of train sets.

Loves to play the game Sorry and Uno and Chutes and Ladders. This year he started to master swimming - even without the vest. He played soccer with Coach Shane (again) and tried Flag Football this past summer. He still has no real interest in tackle and says he never wants to play Flag again. He doesn't do any chores with any real amount of effort. Even cleaning his room is stuffing a bunch of stuff in his closet, under his bed, or in a toy box.

and he still has some sort of love/hate relationship with Matthew . . . at least there's the love part in there, and it shows through more and more every day.

He's an amazing little boy, who's growing up with a good mix of toughness and sensitivity and I love him more and more every day! Have another fabulous year, my Lancelot! And I'm so glad that at least you are a Florida Gator and proud of it!! :-)

Love, Mama

July??? Already??

2010-07-07T19:12:00.000-04:00

Time sure flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?

I've been buried deep with family events and I want to kick myself for not making time to post things here as they happen. My blog is the first thing I let go, though, and I'm okay with that. I hope you are too, and that you'll continue to read when you see there's an update.

Library of Memories ended in May, and I promptly took up Nic Howard's Dimensional Details class. That finished a few weeks ago. I didn't do as much as I had hoped with that class, but it's information that I can definitely carry with me. Nic was AMAZING!! Anytime she offers a class, snatch it up! Here are a few layouts from there.

And while this is a definitely dimensional layout from Nic Howard, it's not from her class . . . instead, it's from a Basic Grey layout class that I'm taking with my friend Jen at a local scrapbook store. The journaling is a work in progress. I've started typing it and the plan is to print on vellum and adhere on the peachy-looking vertical rectangle block.

Now in progress at BPS is Camp Scrap, Picture Summer, the long-awaited Library of Memories Community, and tomorrow starts Kidding Around! I know, I know, I should really stop taking so many classes . . . but inspiration abounds. I don't think I'd still be scrappin' if it wasn't for the endless amounts of inspiration that I'm getting from these classes!

Here are a few other layouts I've accomplished from Camp Scrap's first week:

In other news:

My kids got out of school the first week of June. My 7 year old headed to St. Augustine for a Lighthouse Day Camp, and my youngest went to a day camp here locally. My daughter and I did some lunch dates, doctor appointments, and house cleaning while they were busy. She also got her report card and ended her Freshman Year of high school with a 4.5 GPA - straight A's with 3 of them being weighted for honors/AP classes . . . I'm so thrilled for her.

Her shoulder is okay. We had a doctor appointment, and then an MRI a few weeks back - and we got the results last week. It shows no tear or anything - just a loose shoulder, so we continue with physical therapy to prevent injury . . . and will decide if it continues to hurt whether she will continue with swimming. In the meantime, she's picking up soccer. We've put her in some private lessons since she has only ever played one season and she wants to play in the fall. She has had many friends who currently play for the high school team, and there's talk of her wanting to try out for the team if she can get good enough - since she's a left-footed kicker and all . . . Oh, and she's going to be the Sophomore Class VP as well - those elections were in May.

This week, my older two are in soccer camps in the morning, while my youngest, Lance, is staying his own special week in St. Augustine and attending lighthouse camp as well. I'm exhausted . . . I would have thought with only two kids, and them being fairly well at entertaining themselves, that I'd have time for me . . . but I find myself being home less - we go out and run errands and have fun on a whim instead of planning things out. We've done some shopping (a friend of Matthew's has a birthday party Saturday), and parks and pool time . . . AND, the amazing thing??? Kristen and Matthew are getting along. Gasp, I know. I feel pretty un-needed around here these days. Is this what it would have been like with only two kids? Don't get me wrong, I can not imagine our family without Lance's amazing imagination and talkative soul, but I haven't heard real fighting in almost a week. I need more of these in my life . . . hmmm, grandparents need to be taking a kid once in a while more often! :D

Okay, okay, enough jabbering from me! I'll be back before long to share some of the photos I've been taking for Picture Summer. There's still time to sign up for these, by the way, at http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/ if you do it by tonight (July 7th) . . . and I know they've been known to accept late-comers as well so if you're reading this late and want to join, don't hesitate . . .

Tuesday 04/27/10

2010-04-28T22:28:00.000-04:00

Today more than made up for the relaxed Monday I had yesterday. Matthew and I had a few struggles that feel a lot bigger than they should have been. His listening and doing as he's told issue was at a peak today. Soccer was cancelled on us. Coach Shane wasn't "up to par" and after Run/Walk Club, we decided to grab Kristen and head to Maggie Moo's. Maybe that was my mistake . . . when we came home, I could get no homework done; Kristen needed to get her labels done for her candy to pass out tomorrow (today as I write this), and it seems every time I walk into Wal Mart, the boys lose control. Today it was for the candy and labels for Kristen's campaigning. I'm worn out from doing the whole pushing and nudging to give my kids some initiative. I know, I know, it's all about finding the right motivation and it's part of my job as a parent, but this - with everyone needing it right now - it wears on me. I also wish I saw my daughter a bit more . . . she seems to appear for the craziest times when I am not holding my camera (time to break out the tripod tomorrow - Thursday as I'm writing this - before it's too late). Here's hoping to get some shots of my daughter and hubby for our project soon!

Here's some shots from today (well, yesterday):

Everyday Wakeup

Everyday Bed

Everyday Closet

Everyday Breakfast

Everyday Coffee

Everyday Morning before School

Everyday Kitchen (when I don't clean the night before)

Everyday Kitchen (after cleanup) - not too bad if I say so myself

Everyday Laundry Piles

Everyday Driving (Matthew's behind me and Kristen beside me)

Everyday Feet

Everyday Beauty

Everyday Goofballs

For those of you who did this project too . . . how are your albums coming together? What products did you decide to use? Did you go all digital or a mix?? I happened to buy some of Ali's overlays at Designer Digitals last week, and I really want to do this hybrid so I'm resisting buying a bunch of templates, but I don't think I'm going to have enough daily shots to use the baseball card holder idea. Maybe I'll just do 4x6 slots, but then that means I'm doing a 12x12 album and I really wanted to stick with 8 1/2 x 11 album size for this one . . . I'd love your thoughts!

Week In The Life - Monday 4/26/10

2010-04-28T21:57:00.000-04:00

7:10 am: looks like it's going to be a beautiful day . . . time to get the boys up.

7:32 am: pick out clothes for the boys from dining room table and dryer from "welcome home" laundry. They get dressed and watch TV. I think they're a little tired this morning.

8:24 am: They make it to school and I head off to McDonalds for some breakfast. No coffee was made at home this morning, and an Egg McMuffin and a large Vanilla Iced coffee is calling my name.

9:15 am: I spent my morning checking class message boards at BPS and putting together my blog post for LOM

11:30 am: Took a quick nap . . . the bed was just calling my name after our vacation.

12:12 pm: I finally got my shower and cleaned up to be seen out in public (though I didn't take any self-portraits . . . bummer). I wore a muted blue shirt and my khaki shorts.

1:05 pm: watched Days of Our Lives and ate lunch (2 Planters nutrition bars - almonds, honey roasted peanuts and some chocolate thrown in). Ed and I started working on Kristen's election posters via email.

1:47 pm: Texted with Kristen about remembering her AP Human Geography make up exam

2:43 pm: Kristen called to have me pick her up, but I had to wait for the boys to get home from the bus.

3:20 pm: At the bank depositing some checks that came in the mail from Ed's stock.

3:25 pm: Ran to CVS for milk and snack for the kids. Still hadn't made it to the store today.

3:46 pm: Drive home on Hwy 17 from a right turn on 220.

4:00 pm: keep editing Kristen's posters and call around to find the best prices and decide on what sizes and quantity.

5:29 pm: working on email to send to Office Max while getting the boys ready for Flag Football practice. We haven't been to the Y fields in quite some time . . . should be interesting. Matthew's freaking out because we don't have mouthguards yet.

6:43 pm: practice is over and it's time to head home, but not without the boys climbing all over the extra equipment by the storage room.

6:57 pm: Dinner is going to be hot dogs and shells and cheese and I have to run to Wal Mart because a) Matthew got a 100 on his spelling test (makeup) today and Ed and I gave him $5 and since Matthew can't save his money, he wanted to go and see about buying a "how to train your dragon" toy; b) we ran out of mustard, and c) we needed hot dog buns and mouthguards for flag too. I get a call at some point from Office Max telling me the posters will be done soon.

7:40 pm: I call Kristen and tell her we're on the way home and have her start shells and cheese. When we're coming in though, Sue and Tim are walking back from the tennis courts with Shawn and Krissy and we all start talking.

8:30 pm: Kristen and I head to Office Max to pick up her posters. Dinner is left for Ed and the boys and K and I leave without dinner yet.

8:52 pm: We get to Office Max and buy the $250 worth of posters and some packing tape so she can hang them tomorrow. Elections are Wednesday and we're a few days late since she was out of town that Friday when they could start campaigning.

9:10 pm: Finally home; 24 is on and Ed remembered to DVR it (YAY!!). Kristen and I eat dinner and I'm exhausted. I choose Frosted Flakes . . . there's no shells and cheese left.

10:30 pm: hit the bed

**********************************************************************************

All-in-all, not too bad for a Monday. Sure I wish I could have slept more, but the house was a disaster and it needed some work. The boys were fairly well-behaved, if only Matthew had remembered his folder with his homework in it. :) Kristen had to get her stuff done for her campaign and that was a little rushed and pushed by us as her parents. I don't know if it was her just being lazy - or unmotivated for whatever reason - but WE aren't the ones running. IF she wants to run for an office, it'd be nice for her to show some planning and initiative. I'm sure part of this is just being a teenager, but I'm not used to it from MY child! LOL

I kind of feel like I waste a lot of my days away. I know I'm always busy, and I take some pictures, but I feel the urge to break routine. I don't make fancy lunches or dinners . . . I'm not watching an infant or toddler all day . . . I'm struggling with what to take pictures of during my 5 hours of solitude and it's only the first day. Hmmm.

2010-04-26T13:49:00.000-04:00

Last week was supposed to be on my calendar as doing Ali Edwards' Week in the Life Project. I truly wanted nothing more than to record the everyday and ordinary, in all it's craziness and unpredictability. But, the week after our 10 year anniversary, when my hubby and I were finally able to get out to dinner sans children, he surprised me with a family vacation to Amelia Island Plantation. It was somewhere that we had wanted to go alone, but these days they're offering a "Family Value Plan" and it includes free meals for kids under10, as well as kids camps throughout the day and even some evenings. So, I was going to go ahead with my plan and try it out - taking lots of photos and all - but in the end, upon coming home and really reflecting, it's so not my normal life. I mean, who gets to sit around at the pool or beach drinking cocktails all day long, never cooking and cleaning? Anyhow, I've decided it wasn't quite REAL enough and while I'll still document our trip, I will be starting the whole thing over today - maybe a little better documented too . . .

Here are a few shots from the weekend with the kids. My daughter got to invite a friend or two as well to keep her company and have some fun without parents.

Thursday night we arrived and hit the beach and pool.

Sunrise Friday morning

Lance set up his turtle to run to the water.

Lance lost his tooth Saturday morning

Sunrise Saturday morning

At the marsh side Saturday morning while we were waiting for Kylie and Kristen to get done with their kayaking trip.

Hello crab

Rachna's here and the girls are off on a bike ride.

Took the boys to feed the turtles (we were actually trying to do a "crab grab" at 4 pm but we didn't know we had to RSVP so we just went to the back of the nature center and fed the turtles instead.

On Sunday, it was overcast and breezy. Matthew went to the beach with Ed and the girls went as well. I stayed back while Lance watched Avatar and started packing. Checkout was at 11 am and we stayed and hung out around the resort area until 3:30. We returned home by 5 for dinner and get ready for school tomorrow time.

I'll keep you all posted with how I do this week in my "week in the life" project. Wish me luck!

Let the Sunshine In!!

2010-04-09T17:04:00.000-04:00

This month has been amazingly sunshine-y since it began (not a drop of rain yet where I live) and I truly think it may have been thanks to me getting this award back in March. I hope I too can pass some of my sunshine around to some other bloggers around the world. And, I know you will all be so relieved you won't have to watch me share some more ~~uninteresting~~ fun facts about myself! :)

Thank you for thinking of me, April and Cheryl. You both ROCK my blogging world and I wish I could pass this back to both of you! :)

And now for the rules:
1. Put the logo in your post or within your blog.
2. Pass the award onto 12 fellow bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blogs.
5. Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award.

Here are 12 bloggy buddies, in no particular order, who bring sunshine to my days.

Tami
Monica
Kim
Melanie
S
Deanna
Katie
Lauren
Lee
Jessica
Colleen
Jenny

Thanks ladies for bringing a little bit of sunshine into my life!! :)

Grounded

2010-04-07T17:42:00.000-04:00

Sleeping Under the Stars

2010-04-07T17:36:00.000-04:00

Cute, huh? I've never been one to take a layout class at a local scrapbook store, but a friend was doing the Basic Grey layout class and well, I need some "girl time" once a month and I couldn't resist the amount of materials that we get to take home as leftovers, so I decided to join her! I must admit, these papers would not have called to me in the store - I NEVER would have picked them up - but I am very pleased with how this one turned out. I love getting a sneak peek before actually attending class so that I can figure out which images I want to take and I basically leave with a finished product!! I just look at the layout and head to my storage binders (Library of Memories) and flip until I find something that strikes my fancy!

This layout was of our boys' first camping trip that we went on with two other familes. They had a ball and can't wait to go back! This likely would have been one of the sets of photos that would have been pushed to the back of the "inspiration" pile because I wouldn't have "known" how I wanted to scrapbook it, and because I took this class, which took the thinking out of the equation, I was able to get a layout done that celebrates their first camp outing! Thanks LOM!!

Busy Bees this Spring!

2010-03-31T17:35:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to let all of you know that I'm still here. It's been spring through and through the last few weeks here; and along with helping out Stacy Julian as a Trainer in her Library of Memories online class, I've been busy being a mom (soccer, carpooling, field trips, fun days, etc) and enjoying the weather. My kids and I have been outside A LOT and it's so nice to have a backyard where we get these beautiful breezes to hear the birds singing and the trees rustling.

I've stepped away from the computer for the past month or so (even forgot to pull out my camera on March 12 for the 12 on the 12th edition) but I plan on getting back in the swing of things soon. We do still have Spring Break with the kids' schools this next week after Easter, so it'll still be just a bit longer before I return in full swing.

I will be taking Picture Spring (a class taught by Tracey Clark of Shutter Sisters) at Big Picture Scrapbooking starting April 1st. I'm really looking forward to focusing on photography again soon. It's a great deal for daily prompts to inspire some creative photography and I hope to share my results here with you all! Let me know if you plan on signing up too and I'll look for you in class.

Hugs to you all!!

Been a while, hasn't it?

2010-03-06T13:10:00.000-05:00

I've missed you all. My time these days has been split between helping coach the Library of Memories class, updating my own Library of Memories system, scrapbooking, homework with children, and escorting them to soccer practice and physical therapy.

Today was the first soccer game of the season for Matthew and Lance, and guess what? I left my camera at home . . . on purpose! It was fun not being "THE" camera mom and just cheering on the boys (and girls) on the team. Lance was completely his usual self; but Matthew was pretty awesome. Coach wanted him as goalie, but he really wanted to be where he could kick the ball; and kick he did. He was a defensive player first, and he was powering kicks to the other end of the field; and then he scored his team's only two goals. They were going up a very good and experienced (meaning older range of the age group) team but they still did a stellar job.

I hope to have some new layouts to share very soon. I'm also taking May Flaum's Go Hybrid class (trying to marry my love of paper with the speed of doing some things digitally) and getting ready to take Tami's Everyday Adventures class. I can not wait for this! Tami is not only a pretty fun scrapbooker, but she's also a co-trainer in Library of Memories with me. She has an amazing way of always being full of life and adventure! :-) I've linked it and if it sounds intriguing, feel free to check it out! :-) If you decide to sign up, let me know so I can wave to you in class!

12 on the 12th (February edition)

2010-02-17T07:48:00.000-05:00

It's been crazy busy around here, but that is the way I tend to like it; and the way I tend to work the best . . . so no complaining from me. Some things have to go by the wayside and right now that means computer-time (well, not so much computer time but blogging time and email time). I've still been on the computer an awful lot dealing with digital images and helping out in the Library of Memories classroom.

I realize I haven't shared my 12 on the 12th for February. I kept saying to myself I was going to put it in a mosaic, but who am I kidding?? So I finally just decided to post and share the pictures here - until I can get them put into a layout later.

Today was a day of Valentine parties and a baby shower for one of my middle child's teachers. She actually goes in TODAY to be induced so little Penelope will be joining the world sometime in the next 24 hours!! LOVE babies!!

This says it all about today in my opinion. What happened to General Beuregaurd Lee declaring Spring was on it's way in the South? This was at 11:30 - almost freezing cold with rain - ick!

Just a little visual of my new desk arrangement. I'm not liking the computer and printer back here. It's actually driving me a little bonkers when someone needs to get on the computer and I'm pushed out of my element to sit on the other side of the desk. Gasp!

I went in my bathroom to take some self-portraits (see next photo) and I remembered how much I love my Bath and Body Works Gentle Foaming Soap . . . so of course, I grabbed a picture of it.

So it's a little grainy but it's still one of the most decent self-portrait head shots I've ever taken. I kind of hate how my bathroom gets some of th best natural light, yet I hate the decor so I never want to take photos in there.

My son Matthew came home so proud today. In previous years, he's always hated coloring. He put his time into this drawing though because his teachers have a contest every month where they color and then the kids go and put little stickers on the one drawing they vote for and think is the best. He was super-excited because THIS TIME he got a vote!

Lord, my son's dresser. There's so much here that is so him. The giant book of Q&As, the football photo and all those sports trophies; of course, his Valentines "holder" made of an orange bag; and his super-cool lava lamp that he got for Christmas . . . oh, and his preschool graduation diploma is back there too - waiting to be hung up on his wall.

I know I say this a lot on this blog, but I'm so thankful that my boys are getting along better now that they're both a little older. Sure, they still have their fights but images like this one just melt my heart. They have become so creative from playing off of each others imaginations: Lance helps build legos and come up with story lines and Matthew helps build the train tracks and brings a dose of reality back into Lance's imaginary world!

Couldn't resist the trains and garbage truck image - They truly make this a whole little city.

Ahhhh, a freshly delivered Shutterfly order. Great scrapbooking material in here!!

The view out back from inside my scrapbook room . . . love this view - so much better than the one I had where I faced a wall . . . and even better than when the desk almost faced out front too. Backyard = much nicer than front yard!

Hubby cut me a break tonight - no cooking - and ordered Chinese out. I ate Sweet and Sour chicken with stir fry veggies and fried rice with wonton soup. I'm not usually a big Chinese fan, but after the weather and crazy day, it just seemed perfect.

Do you do a 12 on the 12th project? Leave me a link so I can start checking out your days :)

2010-02-10T18:23:00.000-05:00

Okay, well, I had a real "duh" moment here on the blog. The previous post was not at all happening in 2007; rather 2005! Whoops!

Anyhow, today has been crazy busy - again . . . and I've yet to work on my layout for LOAD again. Maybe this evening after the kids are in bed. I did create this layout late last week though and I thought I'd share here.

The template is actually by Ali Edwards from the Yesterday+Today class I took (and the papers are October Meeting from Correen Silke). I love that with my Library of Memories system in place, I could write my story and my feelings; and then search my digital files for a photo that I felt "went" with the story. Is it a photo of my son dealing with school? nope. Is it a photo of my son at soccer practice? Yep, sure is! Who would have known, right? What you need to know is it doesn't really matter. It IS a photo of the son I'm writing about, during the time frame where he was struggling. I found this easily and right when I wanted it because I have a tag in my digital organizer (PSE 7) that allows me to pull photos that I especially feel drawn to for each person in my family. Do I put this tag on every photo of that person in my digital catalog? Heck no! Just the ones I feel particularly drawn to; those images that i feel portray that part of their life right then, or that I just KNOW I want to scrapbook in some way.

This whole ordeal at school has been weighing heavy on my heart and I needed to get some things on paper. He's been in specialized tutoring, had quite a bit of testing and counseling done, and we've definitely had our struggles at home, but I wanted to share a success with you all!! This week, he seems to be EXCITED about school again. This week, they did a writing assessment and he just came home talking up a storm about what he wrote about. This week, he's excited to go to the library with his class and pick out a new chapter book. This week, he finishd his math fact paper during a four-day period. This week, he almost got an A on his spelling test. This week, he is working on homework BEFORE he gets home (on the bus); and not fighting with me about it at home.

By no means do I expect all weeks to be like this. I'm sure we'll have our ups-and-downs. Who doesn't? But it's definitely a glimmer of hope that he'll be happy in a learning environment again one day.

He is in a classroom with 30 kids and two teachers who co-teach full-time, which gives him awesome student-teacher ratios in 2nd grade. These teachers have been so fabulous with him, and for that I am very grateful. They understand that not all kids are the same, and that some very intelligent children just need a little change from everyone else in order to succeed. I've been busy planning for a baby shower the class is throwing in conjunction with their Valentine's Day activities for one of these teachers; but that's not to really show my appreciation. I will be planning something special to share with them sometime soon. I'm not sure what quite yet . . . if you have any ideas, please share! But I don't want to wait until "teacher appreciation week." I'm feeling grateful now, and I want them to know.

Who are you grateful for today? Who will you take that extra minute out of your crazy busy day to let them know how important they are to you? Will you be doing anything special for them?

All Too Quickly

2010-02-09T23:52:00.000-05:00

Hi again! Remember me?? 30-something year old mom to three who was so amazed how she was doing at the beginning of the month?? Yeah, not so much anymore!

I let a cold get the best of me last week, and in the process of recuperating last weekend, I fell off of that LOAD bandwagon. I'm doing my best to get back in the groove, but in all honesty, I've been just enjoying reconnecting with some old photos again.

As a trainer in Stacy Julian's Library of Memories, I'm there helping answer questions and show examples of how I implement the system I made fit me. Recently, I set a goal to finally get rid of some "triplicate" photos on my hard drive and in my PSE organizer (I use PSE 7.0) and it's been time-consuming. I say this because I can't just use the software that's out there, because these were copies of lower quality that were made at a different date and time than the originals . . . and therefore, they're just not picked up as extras. So, I've had to do a lot of work by hand.

I started with pulling ALL of the photos I could find that were taken on this trip (by my brother-in-law and his family which they took my daughter with them) into an album. This allowed me the ability to rearrange the pictures based on subject and not by date/time which is how the browser is set up to do it. Once I had all the images lined up, I was able to then compare the file size and delete the ones I no longer wanted on my computer. It was a LOT of work. There were over 1000 images that had triplicates. I'm happy to say they're gone now, and I'm getting on with going through them and picking out my favorites. It's like a huge weight has been lifted and I can enjoy them again instead of looking at those images and just wanting to shut down my computer.

So, as I'm "reconnecting" with my photos, now that all that mess was out of the way, I started finding some long lost treasures. I had forgotten what a big year 2007 had been for us.

Memories started flooding back with this photo of my daughter heading back to school in the middle of August 2007. I won't bore you with the entire realm of photos, but in the middle of of those images was this one.

For years . . . these two boys had each other. While there were differences, and tinges of jealousy, they were above all else, playmates as well as brothers. Being at home with them, where I went, they went . . . to the park, to the grocery, to run any numerous amounts of errands . . . they were not without each other.

Even when they're sister started school.

That is . . . until the day he did.

Then he was left with what seemed like un-ending amounts of alone-time. I tried to cherish these moments, for I realized, as the youngest, he never really had me "to himself." We went to parks, and playdates, and the zoo. We read books and yes, watched a little TV. We went to museums and malls, too.

These photos are of such crazy and happy times.

Times of serious change for our family.

Only the ability to look back at these photos now, does it even begin to bring everything together in a way that I can see where it ends; how all the pieces fit together.

Now it's the crazy life of having all three kids in school. For them to come home after school and have to do homework, and want to play with their friends down the street. While I know it's all normal; all a part of them growing up . . . part of me just wants to keep them little forever. I REALLY miss the days where we could just pop some popcorn for a snack and decide to run to the zoo and see all of the animals without having to worry about crowds and school attendance policies.

Cherish your time with your loved ones now . . . time passes all too quickly.

Thank You! (and LOAD Day 2 and 3)

2010-02-03T20:05:00.000-05:00

I'd like to thank all of the visitors I had stopping by from the Blog Hop on Monday! It was a lot of fun to do that layout, believe it or not . . . and it has inspired me to use a lot of other old stuff in my layouts this month. In fact, Lain actually posted about Liberty Cottage's Blog Hop and has encouraged all of us to join the next one at the end of the month!! How EXCITING!! I'm purposefully not showing a second layout I did today so that I can share it in the next one.

So far I'm 3 for 3 on the LOAD Challenge!! Can I just say WOW?!?! I thought I'd fall flat on my face, and it still may happen before February is up. hosted by It's not too late to join by the way!! If you're interested, go visit Lain's blog and read up on what you need to do! You won't be eligible for the "grand prize" but she still gives goodies away throughout the month; and great friendships can be formed as well as getting those layouts done! What could be better use of your time? (If you're a scrapper of course!)

Here's my Day 2 layout:
The photo is of my daughter when she was not even 2, in my parents kitchen putting her handprints all over the stove. Little Devil :) Anyhow, she picked out this American Craft paper a few years ago and I've always had a hard time using it. Since this has been all about using up stuff that's just been sitting here, I pulled it out (actually I pulled out some flower embellies that went with the AC papers in a different color set, and when I went to get the coordinating papers, I pulled these out as well). Once I found the photo I wanted to scrapbook, I just couldn't get the color combo to work with it - AT ALL - and so I went with the pink and purple and blue papers instead. I was actually pretty impressed that EVERYTHING in this layout is from that American Crafts line - nothing else at all. Talk about a way to use up some product! :)

And my Day 3 layout:
The challenge was to go back to the oldest owned product we had and create a layout with it. Well, this is as far back as I have. I think I bought it in spring of 2003 and it's from Doodlebug Designs. I had been under some insane impression that I HAD to create a layout for each of my children of each holiday/event when I first started scrapbooking so I had really stocked up on this paper. I had 2-3 sheets of a plaid; 2 sheets of grass; and 3-4 sheets of this polka dot . . . 2 sheets of the Easter cardstock stickers and 1 sheet of border stickers! EEkkkk!!

7 years later . . . I still have three sheets of polka dot paper; 3/4 sheet of grass paper and one sheet of plaid paper; 1 sheet of border stickers and 1 1/2 sheets of the cardstock stickers that said Easter! LOL And this is after I had used it on two easter layouts for two different years and for two different children. I do still have one layout I want to do with it (and once it's done, I'm giving the rest of this paper away). It served me well, mind you! Anytime you can get four layouts out of one set of papers, I think you're doing well . . . heck I don't want EVERY spring event to end up with pastel colors and polka-dots on them after all!

Anyhow, here's the layout I did with them today. I used an Ella sketch (#3). I added in a border strip of buttons into te sketch and expanded the journaling strips all the way across the two right photos. My goal was to actually use this paper on a non-spring layout and I think I succeeded! Her birthday is in November after all! :)

Credits: Patterned paper and button strip from Doodlebug Designs; blue and white cardstock from CTMH; number 10 brought to you by American Craft Thickers - poolside letters.

Again . . . THANK YOU for stopping by! If you'd like to leave a comment, please do. I love to reply back, but you have to be easy for me to find! :) Either leave me your email or link it up to your name if you sign in. I really appreciate your comments and the time you take to visit me! :)

"Old Skool Stash Scrap" Blog Hop

2010-02-01T01:41:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, old scrappin' stash . . I think all crafters have a supply of things that they bought with good intentions and for whatever reason have yet to use it or lose it. Of course, scrapbookers are no different.

This past week was Winter CHA in Anaheim, California and I chuckled to myself when Shimelle Lain posted on Twitter about My Mind's Eye releasing a Frame-Ups 10-year Anniversary collection. Really, truly, I kid you not!! I was quietly thinking to myself that I bought those and I remember thinking they were the greatest thing since sliced bread because it was a page just waiting to be thrown together quickly. Well, that my friends was just about 8 years ago that I purchased those (and it just goes to show that eventually everything that was once old becomes new again)!! And while, yes, I did use one or two frames and dolls many years ago, I also still had a handful of bath boy die cuts and photo corners. They were so darn CUTE back then! Ahh, amazing how times change, isn't it?

Enter my "Old Skool Stash" layout.

In the process of packing up my scrapbook supplies when we moved over the summer, I actually decided to hold on to these. I KNEW I had some adorable photos of my boys in the bath. I just had no idea what type of a layout would result from the product. Yesterday, I started browsing through my Library of Memories category drawers and pulled out a few bathtime photos and I finally decided on two "hair do" photos of my boys. I knew that was something I'd want to remember and a layout was percolating.

Now, tell me that those darn photo corners and little boy die cut just aren't the cutest things? Yeah, I know . . . they are cute, and that's part of the problem, isn't it? Ah well, little 2 and 3 year old boys are allowed to be a little cute! I'm actually pretty impressed at how well I was able to pull together some current papers with those old products! Of course, if you really want to have these little guys all for yourself, just head on over to the My Mind's Eye website link above and you can find out where to get them just for you!! I promise, these were OLD and in my stash and not just received at Winter CHA (I wasn't lucky enough to get a plane flight from Florida to California this time around).

And the great thing that happend in preparing for this blog hop?? I pulled out several products that I consider Old Stash - things like Rusty Pickle's Whippersnapper line and and some old Disney stuff - and you can bet I've got a few other layout ideas still percolating just in time for February's LOAD Challenge and may just be making an appearance soon on a blog near you! (this one, of course)!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Now, whether this is your first stop (and if so, please feel free to jump on board) or you came to me from K's Crafty Corner, you're next stop is over at the Chatty Crafty Arty Pig blog. I hope you enjoy your trip through scrapbooking past; may you laugh right along with us at some of the things we just couldn't bear to finally use until now!

And just in case the train gets derailed somewhere along the way, feel free to come back here and follow the list of blogs below.

http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/

http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.com/

http://capturethememories.blogspot.com/ <--- YOU ARE HERE!

http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com/

http://dropletsinarustybucket.blogspot.com/

http://itsnotterrysitschoccys.blogspot.com/

http://susanscards.blogspot.com/

http://sh3ri3-mybubble.blogspot.com/

http://clearingthebrambles.blogspot.com/

http://www.itsjennytime.blogspot.com/

http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/

http://www.xnomads.typepad.com/blog/

http://scraphappens-dawn.blogspot.com/

It's Almost TIME!!

2010-01-25T09:28:00.000-05:00

Time? Time for what, you may be asking . . .

Well, it's time for all you scrapbookers to use up all those old supplies that you've been stockpiling for so long or holding onto for a "good reason." Maybe it was a piece of paper that was just so beautiful you wanted to wallpaper your bedroom with it; or maybe it was an expensive set of Jolee's that you can't stomach getting rid of because you spent hard-earned money on it.

With the start of the new year, and a new decade, lots of scrapbookers want to declutter their space so they can feel more productive and FIND things in their spaces. I am taking this time to join in this blog hop and share a page or two that I create with OLD (read: 2007 or earlier) supplies that I've just been hanging onto. I'd love to have you join us! Just go to this blog (Liberty Cottage) and sign up in the McLinky area. Then on February 1st, post a page, or two, and join in the fun! I can't imagine how old some of the supplies are that some of us will be using!!

Okay, and you know what else February is bringing? A LOAD of fun, of course . . . with Lain. Last October, when I participated in the Layout a Day challenge, everyone decided that we wanted Lain to host another one as soon as we had a chance for all the holiday hubbub to die down and get some normalcy back into our lives. Enter: February LOAD!! February's almost here, so go quickly and enter. She's promising some tips on how to scrap faster, and prizes too!! Go scroll down on her blog (linked at the top of the paragraph) to find the Q&A on the rules and I hope to see you there!

Speaking of these things, I'm supposed to be having my room organized and decluttered in time for these events (and LIBRARY OF MEMORIES). Since they're quickly approaching, I thought I'd update you!

Remember this tub??

That tub became THIS tub:

So that I could make it look like this:

That is what happens when my 6 year old decides he doesn't want to clean his room. He says "it's too messy" and "there's too much stuff all over the floor," so I go in and help him by making less toys in his room to deal with. The poor kid didn't know what to do when he came home and his most favorite new toys were in "time out" because he couldn't find a home for them. When he decides to either a) get rid of some of the toys he has left or b) put the ones left in his room where they belong, then he will earn these toys back. Poor kid thought I was throwing them away.

The buttons that were in that tub ended up here, in Making Memories plastic bottles. I had these left over from the Christmas treat containers that I did for teachers and neighbors, and I do wish they were bigger, so I may be saving up some of those Starbucks frappachino bottles and using them instead. I must say, while I love the look of these, they're kind of hidden from me and where my desk is located. I may need to invest in a shelf to put on the wall under (or above) my dry erase board (that still needs hung) and place these bottles on that shelf, with ribbon hanging underneath on pegs of some sort. I also didn't have enough bottles yet to put the black, white, and brown buttons away.

My friend April over at The Fragrant Hand is doing a marvelous job on her room and keeping me posted as well! Way to go April!!

I'll have an update on the ribbon storage I've been finding soon too!

I'm NOT "Caught Up"

2010-01-17T15:14:00.000-05:00

Lots of people in scrapbooking today are always talking about how they're not caught up with their scrapbooking. They feel overwhelmed; often to the point that one day soon, they're considering stopping this wonderful hobby of memory-keeping. I'm so sad for them because you see, I'll never be caught up either, and this is what makes scrapbooking so exciting to me!! So, if I am caught up, it'll be a sad, sad day.

My friends, there's just so many hours in the day . . . and if our life is in perspective, our families and friends often come before scrapbooking . . . and therefore, we just don't scrapbook all day long, every day. Hopefully we're out there taking more photographs and making more memories - more often than we may have a chance to scrapbook.

The point here is:
Are you scrapbooking your MOST IMPORTANT memories?

Every time we add more photographs to our collection, our priorities have a chance of changing with what the most important events are to scrapbook . . . and even then, are the events really at the heart of scrapbooking? Our priorities change . . . maybe that vacation we took four years ago doesn't need an entire 12x12 album; maybe I can just slip them into a Photo Album Scrapbook or pick out some favorites to put on just a two-page spread. Maybe ALL those sports photos just get uploaded to a Shutterfly Share site for the team to enjoy instead of making an album for the coach. Everything I WANT to do just isn't going to happen. It's time to move on and accept that fact.

I've also learned for me that I really truly don't need a layout on every event we do - especially if we do them A LOT. Sure, I still take photos, but I don't always print out every photo from that trip. The photos I do tend to still print out are very personality-based; or location based . . . and are a lot of me just working on my photography skills.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that we WILL NEVER scrapbook all the photos we have. Currently, in my digital organizer (I use PSE 7.0) I have 14,978 photos. There is NO WAY I even want to scrapbook all of those! I want to keep them to browse through, but I'm even in the process of working through and {gasp} deleting a lot of them that aren't "favorites." When I upload images from my camera, I delete some immediately. From there, I take favorite shots (not all 25 shots from my son's soccer game but maybe 2 or 3) and move them into a highlight tag for that season. These are the photos I choose to upload to Shutterfly and store for longterm archives. Shutterfly doesn't delete your albums if you don't happen to place an order within a 12 month period which is why I go with them; and it keeps all of my online backup in one location too. From there, I only print select photos (maybe 3/4 of what I upload) to do something with in real life. Will I scrapbook even all of those printed photos?? Nope, probably not even close, but I want to have them here in case I am inspired to scrapbook them at some point. Many of these photos end up in what I call category drawers: places for themed photographs (like everyday things, or sports) will age and end up being mixed together from all different time periods. Wonderful connections are made through things like these drawers; connectioins that may not have otherwise been captured as a memory.

If I had been caught up on scrapbooking, I'd miss out on a whole lot of connections of my children over the years; I'd have missed out on scrapbooking a layout of my husband pretending to be a train engineer and my older son also doing the same thing; and have it recorded for future generations years down the road for them to also compare their own son's actions on pretending to be an engineer! :-) Not being "caught up" has its privileges! I can now go back through and put lots of photos from different Christmases at my grandmothers house together on one layout and not worry about yet another Christmas layout from 17 years of going to my grandmother's house for Christmas Eve. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the tradition. It's very close to my heart. But I do NOT need 17 layouts of going down there when one or two will explain my memories in journaling and photographs over the years.

I'm more excited about scrapbooking than ever before!!

Then to add to that, when you realize that there are lots of solutions before you about how you "scrapbook" your memories and photographs, maybe it'll be a little more freeing.

What is scrapbooking to you? You must define this within yourself, and decide to either open your outlook to incorporate lots of different ideas; or struggle with the concept of putting limits on.

To me, I view scrapbooking as anytime you record a memory or place value on a photograph as being important. Sometimes (and most often) that is putting words + photos together (in a layout), but other times, it's making a photo album scrapbook, making an album from somewhere like shutterfly, or even uploading to a Shutterfly Share site.

I think when you're oversaturated with something, you tend to put less importance on them. I don't want the value of photographs and memories to be watered down because there are too many. I have over 14,000 photos just on my hard drive and if I were to scrapbook every one of them, I'm afraid my children wouldn't appreciate what they have in scrapbooks nearly as much. They'd never go through half of them . . .

These days, my children are looking through our albums more. And I love that. THIS makes my heart sing and I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile when I scrapbook. Of course, I KNOW this in my heart, but this is when my head is in unison with that. I never thought it'd be my two boys that want to create layouts with me in my studio; but it is. I can't get my daughter near the place . . .

Sorry for the rambling . . . I hope you take something away from this, because I have had a lot of these thoughts jumbling around in my head for the last month or two and I needed to start getting the ideas "out there."

Scrapbook Studio Update

2010-01-17T10:10:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I've not accomplished a whole lot this week in the realm of decluttering and organizing my scrapbook room. My plan is to really work on it during the weekends, so I'm hoping today in between loads of laundry I will get in there.

I have been researching ribbon solutions though. Here are a few that have caught my attention.

This idea was sent to me from librarybug. It's from the makers of the Clip-it-up, which while I love that product, it's highly overpriced. I had a friend make me one that is larger for only $25 (I should do a post on that next since this IS organization that we're talking about). I like it, but only if I had more ribbon by the spool, which I don't. I have maybe six spools of ribbon . . . maybe the 18" one? It's definitely something to think about. You could probably do this yourself too, with a gutter from the hardware store and a little ingenuity for the rod and slider to hold the alligator clips and keep the spools upright.

Here's another idea I found. Again, good for spools of ribbon.

Since these ideas are related to spools of ribbon, I am thinking I need the embroidery floss card idea (their plastic) with holes punched in them to go on a jump ring; and the ribbon stays on by slots that are in two spots on the ring. Does anyone have a clue what I'm talking about? There's one company that makes and sells them, and they're not sold in stores to my knowledge. I found them at CHA back in the summer in Orlando. This way, I can have them out and easily accessible, and use them as wall decoration as well. Problem is . . . I don't remember where I need to go to find it.

On another organizing note, I mentioned in my earlier post how I love how my paper is stored now. First of all, I purged A LOT. Here's the stack of paper that is gone now. It's probably half of the patterned paper that I previously had (and even some pre-done layouts and cards). I'm not one to get rid of cardstock.

I have my paper now set up in the following way:

CTMH Cardstock: in bags by color in ROYGBIV order. I used to use A LOT of CTMH when I was an active consultant so I know these colors and even know which papers coordinate well with some of my non-CTMH product lines.

Other cardstock and patterned paper: ROYGBIV together in the cropper hopper paper holders. I love seeing these rainbows of color on the shelf. I keep all paper of one color together, using the dominant color.

Kits: There is a mix of kits here, from CTMH to Cocoa Daisy. My plan is to go through and purge these about every six months; splitting up kits that I've either used or decide that I don't want to use (and put them in my giveaway pile).

Patterned Paper in Display Dynamics racks: These are patterned paper by theme and a few by manufacturer. I {heart} Scenic Route, Basic Grey, and American Crafts so they get their own section and then by theme, including school, boy, girl, Christmas, among others.

How's everyone else doing in their quest to purge and organize their craft room? I'm glad several of you decided to take on this challenge with me!

12 on the 12th (January edition)

2010-01-14T13:47:00.001-05:00

I know, I'm a few days late with sharing; but the fact remains that I've dedicated myself this year to doing this project. My hope was to find a digital template before I shared, but I do want them recorded, so this is the way they're appearing here, and maybe, just maybe, by February 12 I'll have a really cool template to put my photos into.

For those of you not familiar with the concept, the idea is to take 12 photos of your daily life the way it is right then on the 12th day of every month. I think it'll be fun to see what changes and what stays the same over the course of my year in 2010. I'd love for you to join me in this journey, whether you decide to share your photos or not . . . if you'd like to share, please leave a link for me to follow in the comments for me to see your images each month! :-)

Anyhow, back to the images from January 12, 2010 . . .

1. scanning 2002 pre-digital photos, 2. our house is a racetrack, 3. Lance doing homework, 4. Matthew reading, 5. Christmas boxes, 6. breakfast for dinner, 7. home sick, 8. Gator bathroom, 9. stuffed animals anyone, 10. American Idol on TV, 11. laundry, 12. report cards today

1. I've been working on getting my pre-digital images scanned so I can start using them in the way I want to use them to scrapbook a few layouts. 2002 was the year I started staying at home and Matthew was born.

2. Matthew (and Lance) love to use our house as a racetrack for all their trucks and cars. from the dining room, to the living room, to the breakfast nook, to the kitchen and back into the dining room, there's at least a race a day and sweatpants have made it extra fun to run and slide on their knees.

3. Lance has loved homework this year. Tonight, he started with the craft project of decorating a mitten (that will decorate the hallways) and then continued to use my stickles (glitter glue for scrapbookers) in gold for some "tattoos"). Of course, he chose gold because that's the shiny version of yellow.

4. Matthew reading his weekly story on the computer. This week they're reading Click Clack Moo and it's a story I've loved for a long time. He did a great job, but it never ceases to amaze me where technology has taken us. I'm grateful for the computer process with this because I can hear him read along with the story and I know if he's saying the right words, and I can still be helping my other child with his homework; or folding laundry; or cooking dinner (see other photos).

5. Christmas boxes are STILL in the house and I'm so annoyed with that. I took down the decorations HOW LONG AGO?? Ed's working a lot these days so maybe before the end of February they'll be out of here.

6. Mmmm . . . pancakes. My kids are spoiled.

7. Poor kid. Kristen came home sick from school today with her stomach bothering her. Weird. She hadn't eaten anything out of the ordinary so we're in a watching stage (btw, she was fine yesterday and back to school).

8. A sneak into our Gator bathroom . . . our guest bathroom . . . it makes me very happy even though the orange is a little overpowering at first. We plan on putting some Gator slogans in white on the wall above the towels.

9. Matthew is going through this phase where he's taking ALL of his stuffed animals to bed. With freezing temps at night, he says it's because he doesn't want them to freeze. I find this interesting since he's never really been one to sleep with stuffed toys. Lance on the other hand, always has! :-) It's interesting how he's treating these animals like they're real and they'll freeze, and also that he cares enough to "take care of them."

10. American Idol auditions started airing tonight. Welcome back, lovely Spring lineup. 24 starts Sunday and Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice tonight.

11. Laundry, oh how I despise you so. It never fails that as soon as I "catch up" on it all, there's another load right there waiting . . . but then again, I stop and remind myself that it means I have a house full of growing kids; and that we're blessed enough to have enough clothes. I'm working hard on getting in a rhythm that will keep my laundry cleaned and PUT AWAY that works for me.

12. Report cards came home today. Matthew is still doing okay while Lance is doing fabulous. L is still getting the 31 and 13 mixed up a bit. M still has As and Bs except for his language arts which remains a C. It'll be interesting to see what happens now with his IEP in place this next half of the year. Fingers crossed . . .

Room To Move

2010-01-13T23:29:00.000-05:00

Err, I mean scrapbook.

I'm working on reorganizing my scrap space over the next few weeks. Anyone want to join me in this undertaking and work on your own craft space???

There's a few reasons for this, but mainly it's the start of a new year, and the kids are back in school, and it's time to finally get to USE the space the way it was designed. Things are going to be getting busy again for me in February between Library of Memories and Lain's LayOut a Day Challenge and I'll NEED my space so I need to get busy.

Using the lessons I learned in BPS's Get Organized and Be Inspired class taught by Wendy Smedley last spring, with a few friends for online moral support, I'm clearing the room (did that Friday and Saturday); sorting them into piles of like items, and purging. THEN, I'm slowly moving things back in, thinking of where I will use them most, how I can best see them, and just how I want them sorted for long-term use.

My goals for this week are to:

purge and organize ribbon
organize buttons
organize tools

Tools are in here; as are buttons (in one large shoebox bin) . . . that'll be fun to dig through and sort! :-)

Ribbon is at the bottom half of this tub . . . I love looking at all the colors, but never use it. It was previously stored in a drawer, so I'm thinking I need some type of visible storage for this one . . . Any ideas??

This past weekend, I accomplished THIS (though I forgot to take a picture of the stack of paper I'm getting rid of). I think my paper looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself!

Anyone want to join me?? Share a link in the comments section to some before photos (whether they're on your blog or somewhere else online like a flickr account) and where I can keep updated on your progress. I think it'd be great to share the ideas that we come up with or to ask questions; or just for plain moral support! I'll be doing weekly updates here so be sure and check back!

Holiday Card Idea

2010-01-09T13:57:00.000-05:00

In the last week, I've been celebrating the fact that all of our holiday decorations have already been pulled down and packed away. While I love the holidays, and even rearranging our furniture to fit our tree, I must admit that after a little over a month of having it all out, I'm quite ready for it to all be put away too. During the holiday season, I had a basket shaped like a sleigh that collected all of our holiday cards that sat on our kitchen counter this year. After I had put the basket away, the stack of cards remained . . . piled in a hot spot on my kitchen counter waiting for me to decide what to do with them. I had actually contemplated throwing them away . . . until I read Ali's blog post here. I took a square punch to the cards that very night.

Here's the resulting layout:

I started with a mix of sizes, but when it came down to arranging them, it was difficult to find a layout I liked. Since 1.5" was the smallest punch I used, I found a way to punch the larger sizes down to that for consistency. I was left with one open square and put our initial in it. I love it. For now, it'll go in the Poeple We Love album with thoughts in the back of my mind with moving it to a family Christmas album if I ever get to that point.

Last year, I just trashed my Christmas cards (gasp), but had I known how easy this was, I would have done this in a heartbeat! I love hanging on to the ever-changing faces and sentiments from loved ones near and far.

What about you? What do you do with your Christmas cards? Save them, trash them? If you save them, what do you do with them? I'd love to have other options besides sticking them in a pile to be dealt with later, but I'm also not one for making pocket pages and saving them whole.

Musical "blog train"

2010-01-08T10:55:00.000-05:00

Today I've been thinking about music. Helen organized a blog train to celebrate the music in our lives and I couldn't resist. We chose today as it would have been Elvis' 75th birthday, and of course, where would our music be without a little Elvis?

If this is your first stop, or you're early in your trip, no worries, the train runs in a circle so from here, you'll just start again at Helen's blog and follow until you get back to your starting blog! In case any link is broken along the way, I've also included a list of participating blogs at the bottom of this post.

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I love all kinds of music. Not just Top 40 mix, but everything, from classical to country and even to heavy metal. Music has always spoken to my soul in the many facets of emotions throughout my entire life. While I was never personally talented enough to sing, or learn to play the guitar, I could still name every artist and song on the radio when I was younger, AND be able to tell you all the words too.

I attribute my love of music to my dad. He did sing . . . and play the guitar . . . and owned a lot of 8 tracks and LPs . . . and every year under the Christmas tree, whatever music store gift certificate (yeah, in the days before "gift cards") I would get, I knew he was behind it, pushing that love. He opened my eyes to The Oakridge Boys, the Righteous Brothers, and Peter, Paul and Mary. He took me to my first concert, and even my second and third, and he didn't try and stop me from enjoying whatever music I wanted to listen to. In middle school, that music was more along the rock and heavy metal sounds. You know, Poison, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Alice Cooper, and many, many more . . . and while I loved all of them, I think my favorite band from that era was Bon Jovi. I made sure to see them every time they came to town, and they always put on a fabulous show. To this day, I still love the music that Bon Jovi created, and is still creating.

On that note, here's a video of my all-time favorite Bon Jovi song, Livin' on a Prayer.

Ahh, seriously, I could watch that over and over again . . . all day long. I even still love the hair! lol

In honor of my love of music and what it means to me, I created this layout. This layout was based off of a sketch we received in Ali Edward's Big Picture Scrapbooking class, Yesterday+Today. It was about putting the focus back on the words when you had no photos available (and off of all the extra embellishments). When I felt inspired to create this layout after doing the journaling for this post, I knew I had some childhood photos of posters in my room and of me at a concert or two, and maybe even my collection of tapes and cds . . . but I have a little secret to share. My childhood photos. My childhood photos are everywhere, and in no particular order, and though I spent about 30 minutes looking for them, I still couldn't locate anything appropriate and I didn't feel like trolling the internet for a stock photo. While I have a goal to work on that issue this next year, the fact remains is that I didn't have a photo for this layout, so I chose to use a few different patterned papers instead of a photo.

I used PSE 7.0 for the journaling, set into a layered template from Ali, but turned off all the layers, created my own layer for the title, and used Garamond and Amelie fonts. Most of the journaling was taken straight from the above post, though I did add some extra at the bottom. You can click on any of the images to see it larger.

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Thanks again for stopping by!!

If you're just joining the train at this location, it just circles around. You'll go back to the top of the list with Helen and follow down until you reach your starting blog again. Thanks for joining us on our ride and I hope you had a lot of fun!!

Below are the participants in the Musical Blog Train in case you missed a stop.

Helen (host) http://www.furrylittlemonster.blogspot.com/

Laura http://www.brown-eyed-blog.blogspot.com/

Anthea http://creatingspace.typepad.com/creating_space/

Tracey http://thescrappygirlnextdoor.blogspot.com/

Siobhan http://ceruleanblue.typepad.com/i-scrap-therefore-i-am/

JoJo http://curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/2010/01/music-music-music_08.html

Naddie http://sweet-child.net/

Deana http://www.deanabirks.com/
Melissa http://www.sunlight-simplicity.blogspot.com/
April http://capturethememories.blogspot.com/ (You are here!)

For Today

2010-01-07T10:49:00.000-05:00

(Inspired by the Simple Woman's Daybook)

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW ... it is very cold (32 degrees F), and sunny, with leaves freshly bagged at the curb (the lawn guy was here this morning). There's also a hawk that's been coming around and sitting on a branch in our backyard, waiting for the lizards to enjoy the sun.

I AM THINKING ... about being organized and motivated and accomplishing a lot; and about all the things I have to do today.

WE ARE LEARNING … to do unto others as you would have done unto you. I know, basic, but my boys seem to be lacking in this area lately.

I AM THANKFUL FOR ... the sun, that warms my house and my heart on these cold days.

FROM THE KITCHEN ... I'm planning on cooking Chicken Fettucine and salad tonight.

I AM WEARING ... jeans and a grey ruffled vneck tshirt layered over a blue tank (compliments of my kids and Ann Taylor Loft for Christmas).

I AM GOING ... to the grocery this morning. We're in dire need of milk, salad mix, and Gatorade

I AM READING ... The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe. Ever hear of it?? My mom said it's good, so now that my other "to read" books are done, I'm picking this one up.

I AM CREATING ... a layout to share tomorrow. I hope you come back to see. I'll be participating in a "musical blog train"

I AM HOPING ... that it doesn't snow tomorrow. Florida can't handle snow (or ice) and schools will likely be cancelled if that happens . . . I'm also hoping that Kristen is able to pull off straight A's on her report card again this 9 weeks.

I AM HEARING ... the hum of our refrigerator and otherwise, complete silence. It's wonderful.

AROUND THE HOUSE ... all signs of Christmas and New Years are gone, but I still have a few piles of laundry to deal with, as well as cleaning up the spare bedroom. Matthew and his tutor will be working back there tonight.

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS ... listening to my iPod (New Moon soundtrack) through our new surround sound system.

A FEW PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK ... include heading to Home Depot for some posts for a post bound album whichI lost the posts to; doing a few Design Your Life layouts, and scanning my husband's childhood photos (starting to at least); as well as cleaning and apparently Matthew needs a new pair of shoes.
A PICTURE TO SHARE . . .

Yeah, I know they're a little goofy, but they're mine . . . New Year's Eve at the Sea World Christmas Tree . . . getting ready to head home. Matthew won that turtle in one of the games and Lance rode the hydraulic Polar Express at the Wild Arctic (which is a HUGE step for him with the rides). Kristen was a huge help and it was nice to be in shorts while it lasted! Since Jan. 1, we've had a cold streak that has kept us in the highs around 38.

Favorite Photos of 2009

2010-01-06T14:00:00.003-05:00

Inspired by Stacy Julian's Sprinkle the other day, I finally had a chance to sit down and peruse my 2009 digital image library. Boy, did I take a whole lot of sports photos just to get the one or two "perfect" shots. I really need to go through and delete a lot of those too, now that they've been uploaded to the teams' Shutterfly Share sites. I also realized how much I missed taking photos of some everyday activities around the house. I barely touched the camera during the time our house went on the market to the time we moved into our new house too. Lessons learned that I need to pay attention to for next year, I guess! LOL

Anyhow, the idea of this "sprinkle" was to take 10 minutes to go through your 2009 photos, grabbing ones that you love and tagging them. Then, set the timer for another two minutes and start deleting photos until you got it narrowed down to your top 12 photos of the year. They key was to go with your gut. Don't over-analyze and try and keep it even between your family members, or even try and do one each and every month. What I realized was that there were LOTS of meaningful photos, things I could say TONS about, but the fact remained that they really weren't favorites of mine. Below, you'll see my Top 12 Photos of 2009! Enjoy!

Matthew, though hating the Gators (colors are Orange and Blue) still seems to love the color orange! His new crocs and his orange hula hoop that he and Lance were taking to the soccer fields to play with while K had soccer practice. Though I don't care for composition and I'd love to have had only the shoes and hoop in focus, it's still a fun personality photo to me.

Ahh, nature at Washington Oaks State Gardens. I love going here, especially in the springtime. So glad I was able to see some butterflies out.

Also taken at Washington Oaks State Garden, but on the beach side. I have other shots of the boys playing and having a lot of fun in these rocks, but I couldn't resist the calm serenity of the landscape.

Kristen and her friends visited DC this past Spring. Good friends are so important in a teenager's life, and I'm glad she's surrounded by good ones. Some of these girls have been her friends since elementary school.

I don't know what it is about shots from the back, but I love them. Maybe it's because I'm always running behind my boys to keep up with them (especially at the park) and this is my most common view. Maybe it's because I can see what it is they're interested in and what they're walking (or running towards)..There's just something pretty emotional to me about them though. This photo was taken at Riverside Park. There is a duck pond surrounded by an aluminum fence and Lance was on his way to go feed them but got sidetracked by some pigeons he's looking down at trying to convince to come to him in this shot.

For Father's Day this year, we took the boys to Gainesville and took them fishing with their Grandma and Grandpa for the first time EVER. This shot is of hubby teaching Matthew about patience and waiting..We didn't catch anything until some guy shared his chicken liver with us, and finally some catfish started biting. The boys finally started having a ball after that. We, of course, gave the guy our catfish for allowing us to use his bait. No gators, no snakes . . .

Thank goodness that since we live in Florida, there's plenty of sites to see. We were going stir crazy once we finally moved into the apartment and now that we had some time before school started and the house was sold, and we had found one to move into, it was time to have some fun before school started back. My kids have always loved the Alligator Farm, and I'm glad we were able to make it there with Nana before they hit the books again!

Sunsets are fun to catch - between the colors and seeing the sun's rays go through the clouds, it just feels magical to me. This was the view of the sunset as viewed from the front of our new house.

The grin, the glow from the candlelight, and his love of that John Deere hoodie sweatshirt just make my heart sing. Happy 6th birthday, Lancelot.

The excitement is just contagious! Matthew always runs home from the bus stop so he can rush out to our backyard to see if the gator is there, and then back out front to wave goodbye to the bus driver as she's leaving the neighborhood. And I thought it was just to see me! LOL I usually will get a "hi mom, can you carry my backpack inside for me? thanks"

I love the details of this shot. Matthew so focused on painting, the colors of paint lined up on the side, and his prized dino that he's painting for me since the triceratops is my favorite. This was one of his birthday gifts from Nana that the boys fell in love with at Barnes & Noble. Lance got a dragon set, which of course, he painted one all yellow (his favorite color).

And last but not least, a shot of our family room on Christmas morning while fixing breakfast. The kids have all opened Santa gifts and are enjoying themselves, yet the chaos of unwrapping and having visitors hasn't quite happened yet. Usually, I get a shot of the tree on Christmas eve as I think it's always so peaceful. This year, that didn't happen, but I think I love this one just as much. I love seeing my kids all on the sofas, snuggled in pjs, enjoying their gifts. I enjoy seeing my husband's stereo equipment and tv where they sort of belong (that was one heck of a project getting the surround sound installed) and seeing the stockings hung over the fireplace. A fireplace that I had long lived without and have missed. The only thing left to do is to hang a collage of frames up above the sofa on the right of family photos - including past generations. I can't wait to start working on that project this new year!

Did you do this "Sprinkle" (or something like it) as well? Please share your link with me! I'd love to go have a peek.

And, while a little late, I hope you have a safe and happy 2010!

One Little Word

2010-01-05T12:41:00.013-05:00

One little word can do amazing things. by being one, it automatically increases its value exponentially and takes on an entirely new focus. Inspired by Ali Edwards and her One Little Word project, I made sure to take time and reflect on my past year and come up with my own One Little Word. Something that speaks to my heart, that is something I want to focus on in my life this upcoming year. I did this in 2008 (but it fell off the chart), didn't come up with one in 2009 because I didn't want to fail again, and decided to plunge into it again this year. The time is now, and a word has kept coming up in my thoughts the past few weeks, an underlying theme that I need to spend more time on. That one little word, my friends, is PRESENT. Not just a present as in a gift, but the present - focusing on the here and now, not the past and not the future.

Stop worrying, stop dwelling and enjoy here and now, with who I'm with and where I'm going. I know I won't be able to do this EVERY moment, as I think it's good to spend some time reflecting on the past, as well as doing some planning for the future . . . but I'm not going to do it randomly - rather, focus on what I've got in front of me, while it's here.

Originally, I had chosen the word Engage - even tweeted about it - but in the end, it didn't focus on what I wanted. Something about it sounded wrong . . . I wanted to be actively engaging in my life; but the fact of the matter is, I want to be present more. I've had tastes and little glimpses of being present when I set up projects, but I want to work on it even more . . . to make it such a routine habit that it becomes easy and I can remember little snippets of my day with my kids, even find a way to enjoy chores in my house, and not be reactive to my environment but form what I want around me; to be proactive and present in my life, every day.

Did you decide to do the One Little Word this year? I'd love to know what yours was. Please share with me!

This class changed my life . . .

2010-01-05T10:02:00.000-05:00

Library of Memories, taught by the one and only Stacy Julian, is OPEN for registration. I hinted about it on this post (yeah, it's there, down towards the very bottom), but I came back to tell you just how much this class has changed my life. Read on . . .

Back in 2001, I had just ventured into my very first scrapbooking store. I was overwhelmed with how and where to start since my daughter was already six years old. On the magazine rack, I started this book titled Simple Scrapbooks (the book in which the magazine was based off of long before it was a magazine). I browsed through it, and bought it. It had tons of fabulous ideas and I was excited about tackling my albums in bite-size chunks. One of Stacy's ideas was a Family Fun Library, and this one really hit home. It was all about writing your story and linking to layouts in "library albums" by category. While I loved the idea, I got stumped with how to keep up with that story (typing everything up and adding to it as the months went by). Eventually, I let it go. I was still struggling with TONS of prints too, since I didn't own a digital camera at this point.

Enter 2006 and I heard through a friend that Stacy was teaching Library of Memories (LOM) at her new website for online education. Unfortunately, I didn't make it into that 2006 class. It was full before I could register, but I did make it into 2007s class. I pretty much set up my library that year. My photos were organized to where I could put a finger on what I wanted to scrapbook; photos, for the first time ever, were seeing the light of day because I was printing them. My boys (who weren't around in 2001) were seeing them in photos and enjoying looking through their own memories through my photos. The look on their faces when they realized they had had a first birthday party and who all was there was astounding. Yes, they were loved, and now they knew it through the images that were captured and shown to them in my storage binders (the loose chronological storage system used in LOM). Not only this, but in class you start setting up category drawers by themes. Now, when I'm out for a walk with my kids and one of them says something particularly cute or funny, I can go find a photo I loved and wanted to scrapbook (but didn't necessarily have a story to go with it), and scrapbook the memory - right away. This, my friends, is what is referred to as "inspiration-based scrapbooking."

It's not using your photos as the memory trigger, it's using life as the memory trigger. And, that is a very BIG thing.

If you've been frustrated that you're not scrapbooking what you really want to be scrapbooking, and it's maybe caused you to stop taking photos completely, or you're just not inspired to scrapbook anymore, you really need to take some of your money and splurge on this class . . . for YOU. Scrapbooking is important!

If you've taken this class, please feel free to share your thoughts in a comment, or if you're planning on taking it this year (or anytime in the future) I'd love to hear that too! :-) I know LOM has touched many of us!

Just Finished

2010-01-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

Reading this . . .

and it was really good, though I still don't think it was as good as Angels & Demons (though there's no way the movie was as good as the book either). It was intriguing to see all the symbolism surrounding Washington, DC and daydream about some of the experiments taking place from one of the supporting characters. I don't want to go into a lot of detail in case some of you haven't read it yet, but if you want to talk more about it because you have read it, feel free to leave a comment and we can email!

Christmas is on it's Way!

2009-12-20T17:29:00.000-05:00

I sure fell off of the December Daily wagon, didn't I? I am making mental (and written) notes, but I've been wrapped up in enjoying the holidays instead of blogging and scrapbooking. I also feel so much more organized than in Christmases past.

Last week was pretty crazy while I finished up kids' Christmas parties at school, attended a performance, and had workers here on Friday installing some trim and mouldings in our new house. It was a busy week. I also found out on Tuesday that my parents wanted to come up and celebrate Christmas with us Saturday (last night) since they're heading out of town to my brother's in NC. So, before Friday, I needed to finish shopping, some gifts for teachers, and a surprise album for my mom and dad; and I still have one of those to go for my mother-in-law. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures, but it was a Photo Album Scrapbook type of thing - slipping in 4x6 photos along with some patterned paper and some cardstock for random journaling about the photos. It was in chronological order of our daily lives (only about 100 photos) since we're seeing less and less of my parents.

I am so proud of myself too, for getting cards in the mail to family and hubby's co-workers and a few old friends that I still had addresses for. I only sent 20 or so, but it sure is better than the nothing I had sent last year, and the year before, and even the year before that. I'm hoping to beef it up next year and hit 50. I certainly have lots of friends I've met online that I don't have their home addresses for that I will be making an effort to collect over the next 350 days or so! :-) Please don't feel like I don't think of you and care about your family this holiday season if you didn't recieve a card from me . . . baby steps!

I thought I'd share with you the little candy jars I made for the boys' teachers. They turned out adorable and of course, I filled them with their favorite chocolate candies!

I used BoBunny Christmas papers, CTMH red ribbon, dressed up the striped paper and snowflake with Icicle Stickles, and paper crimped the green background paper on the jars. The pattern was done from cutting and scoring and adhering (in other words, it wasn't a die cut pattern somewhere) and an oval punch at the handles.

In other Scrapping News: THIS class opened for registration this weekend! More soon from me on this, but if you haven't taken it before, and you're just completely overwhelmed with your photos, not knowing where to go to find the "right" photo when inspiration strikes, maybe even to the point where you avoid scrapbooking . . . then this class is for YOU! There's still time to ask for it for Christmas!! I wouldn't trade my time in this classroom for ANYTHING!

December Daily - Day 2

2009-12-05T23:00:00.000-05:00

I know some of you are stopping by from Jessica's Holidays in Hand class, and I want to let you know that I'm combining the concepts of December Daily and Holidays in Hand together. Of course, at this point, I don't have a lot of time to scrapbook and my room is a disaster . . . so the memories and photos will be sitting here until I "get around to it" if I ever do . . . if not, at least things are documented here :-)

So, December 2nd started off with a bang. The plan was to document my day too, in coordination with Ali's Y+T class . . . but the crazy start led me to forget what I was doing! lol Crazy you say? yeah, crazy. I was being a nice mommy and letting my boys miss the bus in order to play a little more Mario Brothers Wii, and when we shut it down and get in the car, my battery is dead - D E A D - luckily we had been preparing for it. We thought it was going bad, but we had it checked last week and they said it was fine . . . so I jumped my car with our recently purchased and in my car battery, took the boys to school, and went somewhere to have it installed and then tested. I then needed to go dress shopping, but upon getting to the mall, I come to learn that they've decided to open at 10 am all the way up until the 19th. WHAT?!?! The kids are out of school then . . . how will I ever get shopping done before I have to turn around and go get them?? crazy stores! I found a dress, and then on my way home, went and paid my fine for not having my license with me from yesterdays craziness. At least since I had my license within 10 days to them, it was only a $10 fine!

Warmth . . . something I need a lot of in the wintertime. What do I think of when I think of warm things? I think of friendships that warm my heart, I think of my warm chenille blanket that I put over my other blankets when I go to sleep at night, and I think of my warm coffee drinks from Starbucks . . . and some hot tea and cocoa thrown in for good measure too! I hate cold and love all things warm. The fire while we were camping sure did keep me warm too.

How We Spent Our Long Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-02T01:38:00.000-05:00

After Thanksgiving Day spent down at my parents home, enjoying family, food and fun; we spent Friday driving up to Georgia and setting up camp just north of the Okefenokee Swamp. There were lots of fun memories to be had there, like:

trying to fish in a freshwater lake with saltwater bait
biking along some trails
our van battery dying (and Shane's) and no one having jumper cables
the wood not being seasoned and dry, and having to hunt for kindling to burn . . . dry pinecones work relatively well and they're so pretty to watch when they burn too.
roasting hot dogs over a fire
finding a birds nest and some hatched snake eggs
Chris finding a snake and PICKING it up! Crazy kid!
figuring out how to set up a tent
freezing our butts off in 35 degree weather (at least it was sunny)

The group we went with consisted of Jen and Shane (and their two boys), and their friends Scott and Sandy (and their daughter, son, and dog). Pictured above is the group of kids.

Matthew's favorite things about camping was going on the hiking trails with bikes and finding natural treasures. Lance's favorite things about camping was finding the snake and wearing clothes to bed and not being made to brush his teeth at night.

And . . . of course, while we four were freezing our tooshies off, my darling daughter went to see the Florida/Florida State game down at the "other swamp." She even got to High 5 Tim Tebow on his last ever "Gator Walk." I'm finally sitting here tonight watching the game - at 1 am in the morning.

you can't see them here, but my mom and daughter are right up front by the officers/guards in the hats . . . they got at the walk area about three hours before the walk happened.

Senior Day - Tim and Coach . . . it's so nice to see a guy show emotions sometimes.

Tim in action

Final Score: 37-10

My dad and I traded cameras for the weekend. He took my Nikon d70s for the game, and I took my daughter's Panasonic point and shoot for camping. I didn't want to overwhelm you all with the loads of photos that my dad took, but just a few memorable ones from Tim's (and others) final home game as a Florida Gator.

Okay, and before we made it to Thanksgiving, Nana and I took Kristen down to Gainesville to see a UF swim meet against FSU, and upon arriving home, I went with Jen to see New Moon (again . . . for the fourth time) and I still loved every second of it!

December Daily - Day 1

2009-12-02T00:44:00.000-05:00

My kids . . . the three most precious things I take care of in my life. I value and treasure them, and this holiday season, want to make sure that they learn the true meaning of Christmas, that they find peace in their hearts, that they learn to give openly and freely, and that they find ways to enjoy just being together; to realize that they are family and that family is there for each other.

I wonder what they're earliest holiday memory will be . . . I know i have a few, and I'm not really sure which one is the earliest, so here they are in no particular order.

I remember:

making sugar cookies in my kitchen with my mom. I must have been about six or so.
setting up my moms Christmas village under the tree - with the train going through it. I guess this one came later since I was actually allowed to touch the village.
making ceramic Christmas ornaments with my mom and going to Bill and Mary Lou's house where Mary Lou made some beautiful ceramic ornaments that we bought from her
roasting marshmallows and biscuts in the fire.
opening a few Christmas gifts early
visiting Grandma's house on Christmas Eve with all the family that could be here; and then driving home through Starke and seeing all the decorations and falling asleep shortly after that.

And the Award Goes to . . .

2009-11-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

Me . . . (and maybe one of you too . . . keep reading to see if you're one of the five I chose!)

Angela, a classmate of mine over at Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers class as well as Jessica Sprague's Holidays in Hand class, has honored me with a fun little bloggy award!! I'm glad to know she feels I deserve this Making Smiles on Faces Blog Award!!

In order for me to accept this award, I have to name five random facts about me.

I still love watching Days of Our Lives. While I don't watch it every day, when I have time, it's a little guilty pleasure of mine. I can't believe I watch a soap opera!
Dolphins are my favorite animal. I think living along the coast and always going to Sea World growing up has helped encourage that.
I'm planning on seeing the movie New Moon for the third time this week. :-) As my blogging buddy Cheryl would say, don't judge. You just have to see it. I've never seen a better rendition of a book turned movie. Period.
I got my first vehicle when I was 15 - for Christmas. My daughter will have her 15 Christmas this year, and I think she's expecting a car. I was NOT expecting a car, which is probably why I got one. It was a Ford Ranger pickup in black . . . 8 years old and looked brand new. BUT, it was a truck. Now, I'm not picky, and I was and still am grateful I had a car that early, but I would not have picked a truck for me . . . at all.
I'm hungry at this very moment and I'm going to go now to fix some breakfast. We'll be having nothing seriously exciting, just yummy cereal and fruit on the menu today.

Now for the five people that I'm passing this award on to:

Remember . . . five random facts and then choose five more to pass along to! Thanks for making me smile! :-)

In other news:
It's a rainy day here in my town. It's a good thing I had to take pictures the other day and not lie when the Blog Hop Around the World happened yesterday. It's so gloomy here today it makes me a little sad. Later on this morning, we're putting on some Christmas music and starting to decorate for Christmas in our home! Maybe I'll bake some cookies too! :-)

Thanks for visiting!!

Blogging Around the World

2009-11-21T16:00:00.084-05:00

Have you ever wanted to travel to all kinds of different locations around the world but for whatever reason, you just can't pull it off? What if I told you that TODAY, you could travel all over the world just by sitting on your sofa or at your desk, on your computer!

Today, I'm taking part of a blog hop from Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers class, which I've been a part of for the last three weeks. Some of you may have found me from Julie's blog, who happens to live in Atlanta. Atlanta is somewhere I love to travel to when I was younger. They now have the Atlanta Aquarium that I'm hoping to go visit soon!

You now find yourself in Jacksonville, FL (technically, I'm in a suburb of Jacksonville). It's the northernmost city in Florida along the Eastern coast (bordering the Atlantic Ocean). Today, the weather will be in the mid-70s F and sunny. It's one of the great things about living here in Florida: the fact that I'm still wearing shorts and flip flops when part of our country has already had lots of snowfall. We're only about 2 1/2 hours from Orlando (home of the Mickey Ears and Shamu) and about an hour to the Georgia border. We're probably best known for our NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and hosting the Super Bowl a few years back. I feel lucky being able to call this city my home since I was born.

We just moved into our current house at the end of July this year and I'm so happy that we're here. I have a beautifully peaceful backyard, and my very own scrapbook studio to boot. Honestly, it was a few difficult months before we moved in, and in part, it was because we moved less than a mile from our previous home. Out of our front windows (seen above), if you were looking out, you'd see that driveway, and then a street, and then past that, a long row of backyards. I love this because my kids often play at a few of those houses and are frequently in the backyard. All I have to do is look out the window to see that they're playing and having fun!

Even though I have nature to my backyard (which is where most of the windows look out to when I wake up and work in the house - the kitchen, breakfast room, family room, and formal living room), I'm still less than five minutes to a movie theatre, a library, several parks, Wal Mart, Publix (our local grocery store), Target, and all kinds of unhealthy fast food places . . .

This is my favorite happy place in this new house of ours - when it's clean at least. I participated in a Layout a Day challenge back in October and I've not really stepped in there since then. I'm avoiding it like the plague because it's such a disaster.

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting me in Jacksonville, FL!
It's now time for me to send you on your way. I wish you much fun as you continue on your journey! Your next stop is to DragonsLady's Blog over in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. It sounds like it should be an interesting location to learn about!

If you're just joining the hop here at my blog, don't worry. The goal of our blog hopping is to take you on a trip around the world, so each blog will link up to the next - no real beginning or end - and take you in a circle. Eventually you'll find yourself right back here! Please come back and tell me about your trip . . . I'd love to know your favorite destination!

What I Wish I Knew . . .

2009-11-19T23:22:00.001-05:00

Ali's Yesterday+Today class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking had inspired me to get busy scanning some of my older photos. These photos were inherited from my dad, and I no longer have the originals. I don't have many photos at all before I was born, so this rare glimpse into my family's life, even what few of them there are, are precious to me. Ali has been speaking to us about scrapbooking present layouts with a past perspective. That is, the types of things YOU wish you KNEW about the past . . . and with so little to go on, I have a lot of "what I'd like to knows."

The photo above is of my paternal great-great grandfather and his family. They were a Tennessee farming family with lots and lots of sons; 12 in fact. They owned their land and worked hard and I can not even imagine being the mother of 12 boys - especially knowing the realization that I only have two and can barely handle it. Other than knowing that my great-great grandfather was part Cherokee Indian, I know nothing else about their lives. I imagine theirs was like most farming lives I've read about in history books - a lot of hard labor and no real education, growing most of their food from the land and not making it to the general store very frequently (if there was even one close by) . . .

but I want to know about their relationships and personalities: were they all close? who was the trouble-maker and who was the mamas-boy? were there any close neighbors that they depended on for help when they needed it? How did the parents meet and were they in love or was it more out of obligation?

I want to know about their likes and dislikes: what were their favorite foods? was there a favorite tradition or story they enjoyed telling by the fire? folksongs? colors? what were they able to do in their freetime if all the chores were done?

I want to know abou their hopes and dreams: did any of them leave behind the farm one day and if so, where did they go, what did they want to do? just what were the dreams of men (and children) back in the 1800s?

I want to know about their daily routines: who did what chores? were there any boys that stayed to help grandma around the house since there were 12 of them?

and I want to know some of their history: what was the story of their parents - people I have no record of? were there any other children that had passed away prior to this photo being taken?

The above photo is of my aunt and her first husband, my Uncle Steve. I never had the honor of meeting him because he was decared MIA in the Vietnam War. What I do know is that my dad's family used to talk about the downward spiral my aunt took when he went missing, and once he was declared dead, how her life was forever changed, how she was forever changed. Now, I knew my aunt (granted, she passed away when I was in college and before I really truly got to know her as a person, not just my aunt), and it's just so hard to imagine the life she used to wish for and dream of as a newlywed. She always talked of Steve, long after he was gone . . . long after she had married two more times, only to have them end in divorce . . . long after a horrible bout with alcoholism. I knew my aunt the way she was after this life-changing event, but I'd love to know who she was before and apart from Steve. I'd love to know of their relationship; what my aunt loved to do outside of working (she was a nurse for many years); did she enjoy school; who were her friends. She was the oldest (and only daughter) of my paternal grandparents. I bet my daughter sure would love to know some survival tips too!

There are some other photos I have . . . more of the same questions come from them . . . the everyday life; the traditions; the personalities . . . I can only assume that this same information, this same connection, will be want my grandchildren and great-grandchildren will aslo want from me. This perspective will forever be in my mind when I scrapbook; and I will try and give this perspective - my perspective - it's rightful place in my scrapbooks, our family's scrapbooks . . . as I'm the only one who has access to my own memories.

A few tips when you're scanning your own photos:

scan at least at 300 dpi (you can scan higher, but it will take up more memory; also 300 dpi is the standard for digital scrapbooking)
enlarge as you're scanning. It will save your photos from pixilating the actual digital file later on. I will typically scan at 200% or enough to get me to an 8x10 size. It also makes it easier to crop down the photos.
be sure to have some way of notating what you've already scanned if you're replacing these photos back into their original album. Another option could be to have a seperate album for you to transfer scanned images to.
when importing into PSE, I change the date right then so that it goes to the earlier section of my catalog. I also tag them as heritage photos and whichever side of the family they're from; maybe also tag who the main people are in the photo too. I don't want these guys getting lost on my hard drive. If you don't know an exact date, PSE allows you to choose ?? as an option for any of the options (month, day, or year). I always will choose a year, and do a best guess on the month (Easter baskets mean March or April for example).

Three Years Ago . . . and Now

2009-11-18T11:10:00.000-05:00

This week, in 2006, we celebrated Kristen's birthday with her friends, which actually falls in the first several days of November. We had to wait until some movie came out (though now I can't remember for the life of me which one) . . . After looking back at imdb.com I can only imagine that it was Happy Feet or Santa Clause 3 (though that one had been out for a week or two by the time we went). So, the effect of bad journaling . . . guess I learned my lesson to record that info somewhere. Probably information that I thought I'd never forget back then. I bet if I were to ask Kristen, she may actually remember. My guess is I was too busy with the boys to stop and watch the movie! HA!

So, three years later, while we're not planning a "party" to be included with a movie, Kristen and I are anxiously awaiting THIS MOVIE and are planning on going Friday night with a lot of her friends, and moms too. Yes, I know it's a young adult book, but they're magic . . . and it's so nice to see these books come to life . . . even if my least favorite is, in fact, New Moon. I'll live, and Edward and Jacob's "wolf pack" will help me through it all!

Have you caught the Twilight bug?? Are you planning on seeing the movie this weekend?? Inquiring minds want to know!!

Holiday Values and Goals

2009-11-17T11:40:00.002-05:00

I'm taking a class (yes, I hear you . . . another one!) over at Jessica Sprague's website called Holidays in Hand and it's bound to be wonderful. I've heard such great things about the group of ladies there and her teaching style, so I'm really excited! I'm also hoping to complete this project in combination with Ali Edward's concept of a December Daily project.

For our first prompt, Jessica asked us to think about (and journal) our family values and goals this holiday season.

Values:

giving thankfulness togetherness love fun peace happiness

Goals:

commit only to what's most important
remember the Reason for the Season
commit 20 minutes (at least) a day to work on HIH project and DD
plan ahead and be more organized this holiday season
plan and follow through with some new traditions; and our old ones too.

Monday Morning Check In

2009-11-15T23:24:00.002-05:00

So, how'd your weekend go?? Mine was pretty busy with beautiful and sunny, 75+ degree weather. However, trying to act like I'm in my 20s again by staying up until 2 am with a campout/end-of-season party was not a good way to enter into my Sunday. But I did. And I paid for it. With sleeping in until 9 and then taking a nap before 11. My head felt like it was full of cobwebs all day. And there was no drinking involved, well, of the alcoholic kind. Very odd.

So, tell me, did you do anything fun? Did you get done all YOU had hoped to do this weekend?

image source

Here was my list:

Buy cheese and crackers to put together trays for the football party on Saturday - DONE!
Search for a camera battery charger - Partially Done
Hang a few paintings around my house
Start holiday planning with hubby: where are we going, what decor do we want to add? - DONE (the key here is START)
Buy more mulch for the front flower beds

As you can see, with only really having today to work with, I didn't accomplish a whole lot in regards to my list. However, I did run to Target and buy THIS New Moon Soundtrack (I can not WAIT for this movie to open on Friday) and THIS (Does anyone else remember playing the original as a child or are you too young to remember??) tonight during a break from helping my children continue to work on their school projects.

In other news:

Feel free to join me today (and every Monday until December 15) in the Big Picture Scrapbooking Reading Room (scroll down and it's the last class on the bottom right side). It's a free "class" that you'll need to login and register for (but you won't have to pay anything). If you aren't already a member, you'll have to register (also free) as a member of BPS. This month, we're reading and discussing Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier and in December we'll only read for two weeks and that will be The Autobiography of Santa Claus. I'd love to have you join in the discussions!

I'm planning a camping trip with my boys in the coming weeks/months. I've not camped, I mean, REALLY camped (as in tents . . . though it is at a campground), in YEARS. I'm looking forward to starting again as I know I used to love it, and I think the boys will too. If you have any tips or suggestions, I'm all ears. We're going with two other families and sharing campsites. One family camps quite frequently, but I want to be prepared (isn't that the old Scout motto?). Our tent and sleeping bags should be arriving very soon!

image source

I hope to be back later on today with some crafty goodness to share! I'm making it a point to be in my room for at least an hour today actually WORKING on something!! :-) Be sure to check back later tonight and see!!

Finish It Friday

2009-11-13T09:16:00.001-05:00

Today is Friday the 13th, isn't it? Omy gosh . . . THIS is eerily one of my most favorite days of the year. I love Fridays and my lucky number is 13 (yeah, I know - odd . . . but it was my track number for YEARS), and I have had lots of good things in the past happen to me on the 13th. For example, my hubby's and my first date was on April 13 (which wasn't quite on a Friday, it was a Thursday, but that's still close) way back in 1995. Anyhow, tonight my former high school plays my daughter's current high school. It's a big rivalry for the two schools, as the principal at my daughter's high school was the football coach and former principal at the old high school. (confused? Maybe I'll detail that out a little more later, but I doubt any of you care enough for me to do that.)

On to my Finish It Friday post: (taken from Aby over at Creative Organizing)

Buy cheese and crackers to put together trays for the football party on Saturday
Search for a camera battery charger that fits EN EL-12 (have one that goes all the way up to 10, but not 12)
I REALLY need to hang at least a few paintings around my house. Having paintings sitting on the floor is a disaster waiting to happen with two crazy boys running around my house most of the time.
Start holiday planning with hubby: where are we going, what decorations do we want to add
Buy more mulch for the front flower beds that we changed the annuals out of last weekend.

I think that's it. Not a whole lot of "work" because I want to make sure there's plenty of time for fun too! We have M's end of season football party on Saturday afternoon/evening so that'll tie up a lot of time. Most of this will have to happen on Sunday, I'm afraid. :-)

Do you have anything to finish this weekend?? Maybe you have something to start too . . . Feel free to share in the comments section!

Our Morning in Photos

2009-11-12T14:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning we had our cinnamon rolls for breakfast before DD was picked up for a shopping day with her Nana.

M painted his Dinos (which he later used the box to create a backdrop for creative play with his dinos and L's dragons)!

L built with his legos while I helped M mix paint colors and open and close the lids.

Then L worked on his dragons. Notice the YELLOW on this dragon? Still fanatical about that color.

Then it became homework time. We did head outside and clean up a bit before this. I didn't take my camera out as it was drizzling pretty badly. I'm hating the weather right now. It's the most depressing time of the year for me. I'm highly "sun-oriented."

It's amazing the difference between L's eagerness for schoolwork and his capabilities from last year to this year. He used to need my help; he used to fight everytime we'd sit down to the table to do homework - always ending in tears. If you ever are considering holding a young boy back because you think he is just too immature, too not ready for school, I would never hesitate or question my judgement again. The second time around is night and day and so much better! He's a leader and his behavior is so much better. Whew!

As the afternoon hit, we played more outside though it was still cloudy and drizzly . . . so no pictures. Then K and M's tutor arrived at the same time (right at 5) and it was time to juggle chaos. I was exhausted. So, we didn't get the entire list accomplished from yesterday, but we stayed busy, threw in a healthy dose of fun, and did what had to be done on a day where the kids had to fit into my normal routine. Hope you enjoyed the snapshot into our life here at home.

Some Comments Worth Mentioning (and Answering)

2009-11-11T15:49:00.001-05:00

How to deal with photos that you don't have digital copies made, yet you've already used them on a layout? Several weeks ago, I posted about how I had used "heritage" photos on a few layouts before I had really made friends with my scanner. Now that I am, a commenter (Laura) suggested a brilliant idea. She said "Nice job! You can always scan the whole page into your computer and crop the photos out. That's what I plan on doing with some of mine. Some of my stories could be told a little better. I have a lot of pages with no journaling. :)" . . . What a brilliant idea! Thanks Laura for sharing.

Finish It Friday Question: Again, several weeks ago, I posted goals I had for Finish It Friday. Tami thought she'd be cute, and asked a silly question of me. bcre8uv said...I finished my bag of mini Heath Bars today...does that count? ;)

My answer: Sure Tami, anything counts if you WANTED to finish the bag . . .

Jan wanted to know my daughter responded to my son from THIS POST: My daughter came home, and my son couldn't wait to show her the bags of goodies. She was pleasantly shocked and then she bent down and gave him a super hug, picked him up and carried him to the sofa to chat a bit. It was adorable. Thanks for asking, Jan!

From my Sesame Street post, Jeanne wanted to know if I remembered the Schoolhouse Rock videos? You know, I do remember those videos, though I never got to watch them when I was younger. We actually purchased those for my daughter when she was younger and I still really enjoy them. They're quite catchy! :-)

In other thoughts: I want to thank those that have stopped by just to say hi, those who have commented about my story-telling and my thought-provoking posts, and just showing me support while I more faithfully engage in my blogging adventure! I consider it an honor when you decide to take time to leave me a few comments and am glad that you are finding things that we connect over.

The kids and I have been busy, and while we have made a dent in our 10 things to do today list we are apparently not going to finish it all. We had to put in some homework time, and time for lunch too. The boys have thoroughly enjoyed playing in the woods and beside the pond today during breaks from the sprinkles. And if you're thinking that we are not paying proper honor to our soldiers on this solomn day, believe me when I say that we've been honoring them in our household all week and part of last week too (we just had a neighbor soldier who returned from Iraq last week, and the Ft. Hood incident). It was too rainy to make plans to attend a parade . . . and with 6 and 7 year old boys at home, we can't be "solomn" for too long. In fact, today, my 7 year old couldn't wait to color his "Army Veteran Soldier" that he made in class yesterday. More soon!!

Okay, off to play some more before M's tutor gets here . . . and my step-mom and daughter show back up with clothes to show off. (Wish I could go shopping for some girl time . . . and yes, I'll take some cheese with that whine.)

10 FUN Things To Do When the Kids Are Out of School for a Holiday in the Middle of the Week

2009-11-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

Ugh, first of all, let me voice my frustration that the kids have TODAY off, in the middle of the week, as Veteran's Day in the past was always observed on the Monday before or the Friday after the holiday. All of the kids have been quite hyper for the teachers this week (not just mine) and they won't be able to accomplish much tomorrow either . . .

I do want to THANK all the soldiers who have stood for our country - in times of war and peace. I don't want my frustration to sound as though I am not grateful. I AM, so very grateful, for all of those lives that have been lost - both in the US and worldwide, in support of FREEDOM.

(this photo was taken by my daughter from her class trip to DC last spring)

BUT, we're going to make the most of today and have some FUN - even with the rain we've got coming down because of "Tropical Depression Ida" that came ashore yesterday and brought with it a lot of clouds too.

So, drum roll please . . . here's what the boys have decided to do for adding some FUN to our day! I'll report back later.

1.   Wii time while breakfast is cooking
2. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast
3.   a walk in the woods (this one can only happen if we get a break from the rain and it's not too wet).
4.   painting their dino and dragon sets that Nana got them for their birthdays
5.   buy a few new books
6.   jump in rain puddles
7.   put together a puzzle (or two)
8.   make some paper airplanes and have airplane races around the house
9.   build with legos
10. play more Wii

(and of course, life can't all be FUN . . . we do have cleaning to do, as well as homework for the boys.) Like I said earlier, we'll report back with the FUN we had! I hope to cram in some scrapbooking time too, but we'll see how that goes.

Here's to YOU putting a little FUN in your life today!!

I AM

2009-11-10T10:29:00.001-05:00

a Stay-at-Home Mom . . .

But how in the world did I get here? I had dreams and aspirations that certainly didn't include children before the age of thirty and it DID include a whole lot of travel and seeing the world.

What paths in my life have gotten me where I am?

This someplace I never thought I'd be. As I was sitting here last Thursday afternooon listening to Ali's new audio for her BPS class that I'm in, it was about change and growth, and how we've become the person we are today from yesterday, my mind started to wander.

Now, I get completely that she's talking about our personal journey through our life (and I was reminiscing about that too) but I just could not help my mind from wandering about how my schedule and my life were so different back when I was a mom to only one child and working full time, to a mom of three children, staying at home and being where I am. right now. today.

Strange huh? (okay, maybe not for some of you, but usually, when I'm focused on doing something, I stay focused on it) . . .

so, ten years ago . . .

I was a newlywed . . .
I was a mom to one 5 year old daughter . . .
I worked full-time as a fifth grade teacher . . .
I had never even heard of scrapbooking . . .
I would get up early in the mornings, it was still dark out (usually around 5:30 am) and grab a cup of coffee out of the kitchen (we always set the timer back then). My husband was always still asleep at this time of day.
I would take a shower, get ready for the day, and my daughter would be responsible and often wake up on her own.
I would make sure her clothes matched (she always has had such good taste in clothes) and teeth brushed and face cleaned and we'd head out the door.
Then we'd rush out the door to drop her off at before and after school care. She always ate breakfast there because I didn't want to wake her up too early and there was plenty of time between the 6:30 drop off time and the 7:45 bus for her to eat.

I'd spend my day at school and often stay until 4:30 or 5 - paperwork, cleaning up the room, meetings, lesson plans . . . I was after all a first year teacher, and it seemed like I lived at that classroom (a very cold portable in the back of the school that wasn't in the best area of town).

Around 5 pm, I'd be picking up my daughter and fighting rush hour traffic home from her daycare.

We'd get home and I'd start dinner (but more than likely, we'd head to Mickey D's because it was likely that hubby wouldn't be home on time. He was in the start of his career as well with high aspirations of making it big in the company) and we'd do homework at the kitchen table.

7:00 brought bathtime and story time. My daughter always loved having her hair dryed for her. She'd sit on the floor criss-cross applesauce and I'd sit on the sofa behind her and I'd just brush and dry her hair. She loved it . . . and we'd watch some tv time just for her.

At bedtime, we'd tuck her in, she'd say her prayers, and we'd always have a discussion about who loved who more. I always won because I'd always say "to infinity and beyond" in my best BuzzLightyear voice!

Once I got her into bed, I'd load the dishes up, and pick up the "hot spots" around the house, and work on more grading (or I should have been). Most of the time I just vegged in front of the TV like I was braindead, wondering when my dear husband would be home.

Weekends were spent doing the house and yard work . . . K had her chores, as did hubby and I and we worked . . . and workded some more. K was an easy child - doing her work and then playing with neighborhood friends. We weren't the Saturday sports people back then.

Now . . . Today?

I don't think I could even look at one day now and say that it had the exact same schedule as another day in that entire week. Now, life is not boring . . . life is crazy. And unpredictable. We're constantly on the go . . . whether to football, swim practice, after-school activities, and constant grocery shopping

(Do you have any idea what two growing boys eat through in just a few short days?? That's another story, I guess.)

As Martha would say, "it's a good thing."

I'm embracing th chaos and joy in my life. It's good that M and L have joined our family . . . and we have a richer, fuller life with them in it.