The first of many...

This summer has been a whirlwind. Several trips, a hospital stay, and learning to live with Elijah's diabetes have made for a very draining and uncreative season in my life. My scrapping has been limited, sometimes forced, and not what I wanted it to be at all.

Last week we went to Missouri to visit my folks and then spend a few days at Silver Dollar City in Branson. It was the first trip to Branson we have taken without planning to camp. It was our first vacation experience in a motel instead of a camper or tent. We have to have two rooms, you see, and we thought the cost would be prohibitive, plus we didn't like the idea of having a room without an adult.

But Naomi is 17 now, and very responsible.That, added to the fact that we sold our camper this summer and have no plans to buy another one, made us a little more comfortable with the idea of trying the whole motel thing. It worked great. Four people to a room, two TVs, free WiFi, adjoining rooms, all combined for a restful trip. A bonus was that since I no longer had the means to cook we got to eat out every night (woohoo!)

We had two days at Silver Dollar City with cool temps which made wandering around and going on rides much nicer than the 100 degree temperatures earlier this summer. Plus, since most kids were in school, there were virtually no lines for any of the rides. The show lines were still longish, but I know when to get there to get good seats and don't mind the waiting in line for a good musical.

This time the Harvest Festival was in full swing so we got to see lots of craftspeople making their wares. Theodore found someone making the moccasins he has been looking for and scooped up a pair. We watched coopers, and woodworkers, glass blowers, weavers and basketmakers. Fall Decor was everywhere and I got lots of photos of everyone. Now if only I can get the time and inspiration to scrap them we will be in business.

Which brings us to the title of this post. Yesterday Phrona had a two hour dentist appointment in Jackson, so I took my laptop and had some uninterrupted scrap time. With a few tweaks once we got home I managed to actually finish a layout. Hopefully it will be the first of many.

Today I ...

Today I am tackling a mountain of laundry. When you take eight people on vacation and are gone for eight days the end result is a TON of dirty laundry. And some great memories, but you can't really get to enjoying the memories until you get that pile of clothes churning and tossing in the washer and dryer. And THEN you have to fold it all. I can handle all of that. Until I hit the load with 56 pairs of white socks in seven different sizes that have to be sorted, matched and put away. (At this time I would like to sincerely thank my daughter, Naomi, for refusing to wear anything but flip flops year round, thus saving me from having to deal with yet another eight pairs of white socks. Thank you, darling. And, yes, you may bring this blog post up when I start ranting and raving about you wearing flip flops to town in the dead of winter.)

Today I had a little boy just wiggling with joy because he was getting to do school.

                 We did A's and B's,
                  big and small,
                  coloring pages, dot-to-dots.
                  We did it all.

Then he turned the page
and what did he see?
A big smiling cat,
with a new letter,
'C.'

                 Can I do this one, too?
                 I'm afraid not, dear.
                 We've done A and B
                 And done them quite well.

Let's rest on our laurels
It's time for a break.
We can do C's tomorrow
And maybe a D.

               Why not play your nintendo,
               or watch some TV?
               Sure thing, he said,
               That's okay by me.

So not only am I a bad mother (because I really did encourage the boy to go play video games or watch brain deadening TV) but I have also just revealed that I am no Dr Suess.
sigh.

But  we did A's and B's, I got another load of laundry done, and he is excited to see what tomorrow's school work will bring. I'm good with that.

Today I uploaded my August photos to my Flickr account for safe keeping.
ALL of my August 2011 photos.
In one day,
actually in just over half a day.

That is a little sad. Why? Because I only took 246 photographs in the whole month. And half of those I took in ONE day. Usually I have a good thousand to two thousand pictures each month that I have to upload to Flickr. Maybe I was depressed. Maybe I was tired of all the sparkling blue pool pix. Whatever.

Did the realization that I took so few pictures to document the precious moments of our life last month spur me on to pick up my camera and snap away at the everyday things of life today?
Nope.

Maybe tomorrow.
Today I have to do laundry.
I already have pictures of that from other months, even pix of mounds of those horrid white socks.
Not that I am that sure I want to remember it anyway.

In My Time

In My Time is the title of the new book by former Vice President Dick Cheney. I haven't read the book. I probably won't read the book since it is not a favorite genre of mine, nor is it one of the books my children have to read for school this year. I do try to read most of the books required by their curricula. This year, between my five students all in different grades, I have a good two hundred books to read, give or take a few. So Dick Cheney's new book won't make it into my cart or onto my nightstand (not that I have a nightstand, but that's beside the point.)

But,
I love the title of his book.

In My Time.

It makes me think of all the gadgets that have come or gone in my time.

I remember phongraph records, 45s and long-playing 33s. Now my children see a 45 and they ask what kind of computer used a CD like that. Or how about 8 track tapes? In my house 8 tracks were usually country music, whereas albums were classic country (the old stuff) or rock n roll (again, the old stuff.)
Then tapes were deposed by cassettes, and cassettes by CDs.

I remember typewriters. And writing things out long-hand, in cursive no less. Cursive apparently is on its way out in most school districts. Soon no one will be able to read the letters of the past. And no letters are written in the present anymore, its all just email, or instant messaging.

I remember when a nook was a cozy place where you could read a book, not the actual contents of the book in a digitally downloaded form.

I remember delivering newspapers every morning as a kid. Now if the local paper comes in newsprint form to your house it is brought by the mailman. But lots of people just opt for the online version instead, to eliminate the paper clutter that has to be dealt with eventually.

So much has changed, just in my relatively short lifetime. I wonder what things my children will reminisce about when it comes time for them to acknowledge that they, too, can begin a monologue with the words "In my time..."

It's Getting To Be That Time of Year Again

Yes its almost that time. The time when we begin to long for cooler weather, shorter days, weekends off with no school. And it is also the start of birthday season. And birthday season means not only counting down to each kid's birthday (Hey, Jimmy, this is your last Tuesday ever to be seven!) It means time to come up with new ideas for the birthday cakes.

In the past we have had lots of Pooh Bear and Tigger cakes,

 and castles,

 and Barbie cakes decorated to look like American Girl dolls,

 flowers,

Power Rangers,

and cars.

Lately we have encouraged the 'Make Your Own Cake' trend.

And a few rebels have chosen to go the non-cake route, choosing instead Cinnamon rolls, or Pistachio Pudding, or  Lizzie's favorite: the Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert.

So with the first of this year's birthdays upon us (not counting Naomi's, whose bday was waaayyyy back in the springtime) I am faced with the choice: Do I pull out an oldie but goody pan like this Scooby Doo resurrected from my childhood

Or do I come up with something new? Only 24 hours left to decide...

Beginning to Pull it All Together...

Now comes the next phase of this Week In The Life project - putting all those photos we took last week together with the stories and getting them into an album. So far I have Sunday done. I used Ali's template ( well, actually I made my own based on her template) for the first page of each day with a large focal photo.

Then I added a collage for the opposing page, adding just a few word strips,

And a third page talking about a major story in our life right now - Elijah's Diabetes.

I may add a 'regular' layout I did based on some pictures I took of Elizabeth and our observations of some of her peculiar habits.

And that will probably be all for Sunday.

I hope to be back tomorrow with the completed pages for Monday.

Week in the Life - Monday, July 25, 2011

Even though Elijah's diabetes has brought many changes to our routine, other parts of our life are still going as they always have. Papa still goes to work and every morning he lays out the things he needs to take with him: keys, cell phone, teeth.

Every morning the kids want to be fed. This morning they won out and got to start off the day with cool, refreshing Jello. In Mississippi by the time it is 9:00 a.m. you are ready for something cool and refreshing.

Speaking of food, it is nearing the end of the month and the end of the grocery budget. I have $35.00 left to spend on groceries, so I need to be careful in what I choose to buy so we don't run out of anything we really need. So I headed to Save A Lot and after spending $29.64 I came back with this:

The ice cream and Diet Coke were necessities, everything else was negotiable. While I was unpacking the provisions, folks started arriving. Gabriel came over for some girl-time with Naomi, lots of beads, and wire, and laughter, and chit-chat.

Aunt Mary brought a slew of young uns to play in the pool

And Jace came up for some play time with Granny

and even better than playing with the bestest Granny in the whole world is getting to play with Granny's toys

While Granny and Jace enjoyed playing in the lovely air conditioned house with cool toys, the boys and Lizzie played in the pool with their cousins and Papa.

All in all a lovely day.

Week in the Life - Sunday, July 24, 2011

The time has come for another round of Week in the Life, which elicits groans from my teenagers, and strange looks from my younger children as I photograph odd things like my frosty Diet Coke can.

This year's week long event happened to fall less than a month after my four year old was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. So our weeks have not yet gotten to the point where we are totally comfortable with the 'new normal.' Our days now are structured around checking Elijah's blood glucose level at least every two hours,

making sure he eats meals with adequate numbers of carbs,

and morning, afternoon, and before bedtime snacks.

And he gets a minimum of four shots a day, generally drawn up and administered by yours truly, who up until one month ago couldn't even look at a needle without getting woozy. Funny how quickly things can change.

I will, of course, get pictures of the other kiddos and their daily doings, school work (yes, we school over the summer) and chores, and fun and games. We have a whole week to document, after all. 

It's Been A While

Hello again. Remember me?

I know.

It's been a while since I've been around.

But I'm back now. At least I think I am.

Life has been crazy busy in my neck of the woods. We've had record flooding.

I participated in May 2011's LOAD (LayOut A Day) and managed to almost make it to the end. We started a new school year for five of the kids, changing curriculum to make life a little more manageable.

There was a seemingly never-ending stream of things breaking and needing repair. We took a couple of trips to Branson, visited grandparents, had a couple of big family get-togethers. And then there was the ER visit and a stay in the Pediatric ICU at Blair E. Batson's Children Hospital and a diagnosis of Type I Diabetes for my sweet four year old baby boy.

 I am really ready for life to slow down so we can get back to normal. But normal is never going to be quite the same again for us. But it will be do-able. And it will still be a good life, full of happiness, love and memorable moments, big and small.

Gearing up for LOAD May 2011

Wow. I can't believe it is almost time to start another round of LOAD (Lay Out A Day - and no, this has nothing to do with soaking up some rays.)

I am a little anxious about it this go round because I have done so little scrapping since the last LOAD. Am I burnt out? Have all my ideas been used up? Are there no more memories I want to preserve? Is my scrapping mojo no mo' ?

I am sure once I get back into it those creative juices will start flowing and the wonderful people on the forums will be inspiring. I have been putting a few pictures I would like to scrap into a folder on my laptop, labeled LOAD May 2011. And I have some old photos pulled to scan. I have a few new kits ready to play with as well. Plus the newest edition of the Digi Files will be out on May 1st so I will have even more inspiration waiting for me in my inbox, besides the daily prompts from Lain. So there is really no need to worry.

In looking over the layouts I have completed recently I am noticing a trend. As I look back at older layouts I find the same trend in the ones that I really love. Big focal photo + smaller supporting photos + a decent amount of journaling. This is my style at the moment. Photos I love and words to capture the feelings and memories they evoke. The other stuff are added garnishes for presentation purposes, nice but not necessary.
Here is an example of what I am talking about:

And another example:

And another, just to illustrate the point:

Same basic style. I think I will check my stash of templates for this type of layout since I know I like it. Then I won't have to reinvent the wheel when I get stuck for layout ideas.

I guess I am more ready for LOAD than I thought. Woohoo!

Friday Night Fun

So my adventurous, always moving boy messed up his knee on the trampoline the other day. Which means he can't go adventuring in the woods, hunting for petrified pieces of timber. Nor can he resume the nightly game of Blind Man's Bluff on the trampoline. So how do we cater to his need for excitement, without physical exertion? We break out the stash of fireworks that Papa has laid by for just such a time as this.

The boy loves taking pictures of everything in the world around him with the handy dandy phone (no cell service) that his Papa handed down to him. I love taking pictures of the boy while he is taking pictures.

Like when he is getting a shot of the dragon that was supposed to be just a regular fizzy firework. Notice the defensive posture that all good photographers assume when shooting pictures of dragons. He's a natural.

Not one to hog all the firework fun, at least not when Papa is there to say, "Give everyone a turn at the fireworks, Matt," here is the younger brother firing off a Roman candle.

I love how cool this photo of big sister turned out.
I did some reading on hyperextended knee. It looks like the boy is through jumping for a couple of weeks at least. And the petrified wood is gonna have to wait as well. No fears though, that stuff weighs a TON so we know it isn't going anywhere while Matt recovers.

Our Crew 2011

Recently I saw a post by Katie the Scrapbook Lady about Wendy Zine's latest set of actions. One of her actions would crop your photo into three or four sections, put borders on them, and put them in a collage. I did buy the set of actions, but couldn't figure out how to get that particular one to work ( the fault is entirely mine, as I am still somewhat action-challenged.)

Not to be discouraged, I just sat down and figured out how to do the same thing. It took a little longer than the action would have, but I am happy with the end result. And I have decided this is a great way to treat large group photos. It really adds a bit of umphh.

Journaling reads:  I never seem to remember, when the kiddos are all home at one time, to gather them together for a group shot. Today Cassie and Erik had just made it in from Atlanta, and Cassie was fixin’ to head out to the airport for her flight to Spain. Before she said her good-byes I made everyone scrunch up for a quick photo shoot. Getting this many kids to all look my way and smile at the same time is challenging. I can only imagine what it will be like in years to come as our crew continues to expand. March 3, 2011

I used a photo I took recently when I had the kids together for a short time, and happened to think, 'Oh. I should get out my camera for a group shot.' I never think to do this when everyone is here. Never. As in I have done a total of two photo shoots of all of them together over the past four years. Bad mother.

 I made three photo spots of roughly the same size with mattes behind them. I sized my photo for the first cut, and clipped it to the photo layer. Then I duplicated the photo to keep the picture size the same and clipped to the next photo layer, moving the picture to show a different part of the photo. I did that one more time for the final photo layer. The I moved and twisted the layers a little to look like they were spread on top of one another and added shadows. And wa-lah! I had the same look as the action, it just took a few more steps.

On this layout I tried to keep it simple. I didn't want to change the photo to black and white, so I kept the color scheme very neutral. I tend to mix and match papers and elements from a bunch of kits and today was no exception. I used these kits for this particular layout:  Happy Snapper by Captivated Visions; Passionfruit collab by Designs by Kat and DeCrow Designs; A Fresh Start by Kristin Cronin-Barrow; and 52 Inspirations kits Week 1, Week 2, Week 9, and Basics by Vicki Stegall and Sue Cummings.

I really like the look of words on a background paper that are not part of the main journaling, so I made my own for this layout. I kept the font color lighter than the main journaling so that it almost fades into the background. This is a close-up of a strip of journaling that just lists the kids ages, repeated over and over to fill up a journaling block.

I can definitely see myself using this technique of cutting apart photos, adding borders, and putting them back together again on other layouts.

Spring

While I know there are many folks in the US who are still struggling in winter's grip, we here in the South are enjoying the beautiful beginnings of SPRING. Around my house many things are finally blooming. Daffodils, forsythia, spirea, flowering quince, and loropetalum. Yellow, cream, coral and fushia loveliness.

I love wandering around my flower beds and seeing new plants pushing up through the soil to greet the springtime sun. Usually at this time of year Theodore and I start taking daily walks around the yard to see what is new each morning.

I am ready to clean out my flower beds, getting rid of the remains of last years plants to make room for new beauties.

Gretchen Rubin, in her book The Happiness Project, says there is wisdom in spending money on the things that are of value to you. I value the plants in my yard. They give me quiet joy. Sitting in my room, looking out over my plants and bird feeders as I fold mountains of laundry, gives me enormous pleasure every day of the year.

In spring I see the new growth of perennials planted in previous years and I daydream about other things I would like to plant alongside them. In summer the hummingbirds come to visit my colorful flowers and the feeders that are outside my window.

In autumn the coleus still has brilliant color, but the leaves on the pecan trees are beginning to turn brown and fall to the ground, while busy squirrels try to store away their nuts for the winter.

In winter my bird feeders are constantly busy with black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, cardinals and finches. They are thankful I have left the dead stalks of the summer's coleus as resting places for them while they wait their turn at the feeders.

All in all, the long-lasting bang I get for each buck spent on my plants is plenty of reason for me to enjoy some guilt free shopping time at our local garden centers over the next couple of months. A wonderful happiness boost for me and a pretty yard for all of us to enjoy - what could be better?

This is a little layout I made one rainy day last week as I was dreaming of spring days to come. We still have a few cold nights in the forecast, but I am happy that soon life will be balmy and brimming over with color and gardening joy.

After LOAD

March has arrived, signaling the end of LOAD 211. While I am glad for the let up from the pressure to create a new layout each and every day for an entire month, I am a little sad that it is over. I will miss the daily inspiration of looking at everyone's layouts and the kind comments about the layouts I uploaded.

I was able to complete 50 layouts this month, FIFTY, which means I tied for second highest contributor during the February LOAD. ( I tied with kskreations who also submitted 50 layouts. Michellecm was the highest contributor with 54 layouts-WAY TO GO!) This is the final two-page layout I made compiling most of my layouts from LOAD 211.

For a while I tried to stay in the lead, once I got over the shock of finding myself in first place, but life just kept getting in the way. The kids still needed their lessons, and clean clothes. Hubby wanted us to eat on a daily basis, and the little piranhas wanted something to chew on every hour it seemed, so the cooking of meals and making of snacks still needed to happen.

I decided that I just had to slow down and be content with one layout a day. I was happy when I managed to finish two, three, or even more layouts a day, but I really wanted to be able to be content with just one. I wanted to be present in the day to day doings of my family's life and scrapping too many hours wasn't letting that happen.

For now I am going to sit back a bit and enjoy a different pace of life - do a bit more reading with my little guys, and more one on one lesson time with my girls, my flower beds need tending, the lawn needs mowing, and there are grandbabies that need cuddling. I want to capture more moments with my camera and get a bit more consistent posting on my blog. We have a fun spring vacation with extended family coming up as well.

Oh, I will still be scrapping, but if I only get one or two layouts done in any given week, well, that's okay. I can be good with that. I'll be making memories and documenting them in spare moments. There is life after LOAD 211.

Besides, May is coming, and I am already signed up for LOAD 511.

Inspiration from multiple sources-

This is the layout that I submitted for LOAD today.

I was inspired by several people. I was inspired by Ali Edwards title treatment on the layout she posted for her blog today.

I learned how to make this type of font in Tiffany Tillman's 25 Days of Templates Holiday 2010 class. The steps are fairly straight forward:
Open a new blank document (12x12 inches, 300ppi, transparent background) then select the Horizontal Type Mask Tool. This tool can be found in the drawer of the Type tool, just click on that little triangle in the bottom corner of the Type tool button and the drawer should pop out so you can see the other type tool choices.
I set my type size at 2 inches and chose the font Adobe Caslon Pro. When you click on your document to type the background turns pink, don't freak out - it will go back to normal once you are done. Type your word (I tend to type phrases one word at a time so I can change individual word sizes later.)
You will see marching ants all around your word. Click the check mark and then go up to Edit and from the drop down menu click on Stroke (outline) Selection. A box will pop up allowing you to choose the width of your stroke (15-20 pixels is a good range) and the color of the stroke. Make sure the center radial button is selected for location, the blending mode should be set at Normal, and the opacity should be 100%. Leave the Preserve Transparency box unchecked. Click Okay.
Your selection should now be outlined and there are still those little ants marching all around your word. To finish up go to Select and from the drop down menu choose Deselect. The marching ants should now disappear.
You can then use your crop tool to get rid of excess background around your word. Be sure and save your work as a .png file so you can use it whenever you want. I use PSE 7, but it should be the same process for other versions.

I used to ooh and ahh over this kind of word art whenever I saw it and wish I could afford to buy it all. Now I can make my own. It takes a little time but I am so happy with the results (and dh is happy with the bottom line.)

I also was inspired in making this layout by Stacy Julian's Library of Memories class. I will admit I had a hard time wrapping my head around some of the things taught in that class, but with time and use I can see great things coming out of it. I was able to pull photos from lots of different time periods to illustrate the love and comraderie, the bonding, that I see going on between all my guys.

And finally, I was inspired by that style known in the scrapping community as minimalism. It's still not easy for me, but I am getting there. Practice makes perfect-ish, and I am always happy for an excuse to practice this craft.

Let me know if you try this technique out how it works for you!

Credits for this layout:
All A Flutter Neutrals by Julie Bullock
 Everyday Stuffs Papers by Captivated Visions
 Vanilla Creme by DeCrow Designs

The Fun of Failure

As I was reading Gretchen Rubin's book, The Happiness Project, I came across this phrase: 'the fun of failure.'  Well, I have to admit I have never thought of failure as fun. It is more something to be avoided at all cost. Failure, rejection, disappointment. They all fall under the same category in my book - Things That Are NOT Fun. So I was intrigued to read on in Ms. Rubin's book to see what fun she finds in falling on one's face.

Basically, she feels a sense of freedom in failure. At least she tried something new or difficult instead of just sitting on the sidelines wishing she had had the guts to try.  Her failures include lots of rejections in her efforts to be published as an author. But there are also successes which might never have come if she hadn't first tried, and failed, and picked herself up and tried again. (As you can see by that last sentence, I will probably never have to worry about being a published author.)

Her words prompted me to think about some recent happenings in my life, small and insignificant to anyone but me. One of the goals I have set for myself this year is to apply, and hopefully be accepted, for a position on the creative team of one or more digital designers. Shortly after deciding on this goal for myself, two of my favorite designers posted CT calls. So I applied. And was rejected, very kindly rejected, but rejected nonetheless. I was bummed. 'Maybe I am not good enough,' I thought. 'Maybe I am the only one who really likes what I do.' Yeah, it was a pretty good pity party.

Then I took some time and thought about why I was not chosen, and I could see that these designers were right in their decisions. They need creative team members who are kit scrappers, who can work within the constraints of a single kit and make beautiful layouts that showcase the designer's product and make other scrappers think, 'I have to have that kit.'

I am not a kit scrapper.  I can kit scrap, and do...sometimes. But it is not the way I do my best work.

I like to pull supplies from lots of kits to mix and match on my pages. I have a system in place for myself that enables me know what I have in hundreds of kits and therefore be able to pull from many kits to make a single layout where everything works really well together. My system is a simple three-ring binder with page protectors into which I put sheets I have printed out with the previews of all the digital kits I have. Most are listed according to store and designer, but I also have sheets of each Digi File I have from the Daily Digi. One day I will take the time to separate the Files according to designer, but for now I just print the Digi File preview, stick it in the Daily Digi section, and call it good. This way I can see at a glance which kits have  the colors or elements I am looking for. I flip through my notebook often just to savor all of that digi goodness, and to stay familiar with all that I have (and I have a lot.) This helps me to quickly know what I am looking for as well, and which kits might fit with whatever idea I am working on.

One day I am going to create a folder on my computer with my go-to products (the ones I always find myself reaching for - like that gem I like by Captivated Visions when I want a little bling, or the glitter set by Studio Flergs I always seem to use for a bit of sparkle.) I saw the idea for a go-to folder on a post at the Daily Digi and have filed it away in my head as a be-sure-and-do-this-some-time-soon project.

Anyway, I am not so bummed now that I have realized why I would not make the best CT choice. Possibly I would be a good choice for a template designer, but then again, maybe not. I haven't given up on the idea of being on a creative team, but before I apply again I am going to challenge myself to do quite a few one kit ONLY layouts and make sure that is the way I want to scrap a set number of layouts per month. If I decide its just not for me, well, that's okay.

On another note, I have been keeping up with my LOAD 211 project. I think so far this month I have completed 25 layouts. I tell myself that I am using this project to increase my creative output (make lots of layouts), but in reality I have to admit that I am really competitive and am trying to stay in the top five contributors category. Currently I am in third place, in case anyone is wondering.

While I am busting my tail trying to get lots of layouts done, I am also using this LOAD as a chance to explore different scrapping styles.

 I do some layouts in the clean and simple style.

I do some layouts in the layered, clustery, playground style.

I am exploring some retro, artsy styles.

As well as trying my hand at a minimalist style.

So far minimalism is kicking my butt ( I haven't yet embraced the concept that sometimes more is just ...more.) I am going to keep trying and see what I come up with.

I would also like to try more of an artsy, blended style, but that will be later in the month.

That's it for now. I would like to say that no child's school lessons were neglected during the writing of this blog post, but that would be an out and out lie. I am fixing to corral my kiddos and hit the history and science books. Until next time.