random reflections

Project Life

When I returned from Chicago in early April, I had nine months of Project Life pages to complete. Tuesday I finished them all!!! It took six weeks, which isn't bad considering all the other things that were on the calendar. Now my goal is to be like Becky, and get the pages done as soon as the month ends. Even with a lot of upcoming travel this summer, I think I can do that. 

Today was the perfect spring day, warm temperatures and sunny. I took a long walk to the Ellwanger Gardens, and then through Highland Park. Today was the last day of the Lilac Festival, and it was very crowded. I'm so glad we have easy access to the park when it's not under siege! Although there are a lot of lilacs in bloom, it's not yet at peak.

So sharing a layout from last December seems kind of odd, but in the interest of chronology, that's what I'm doing. You'll get a heavy dose of Project Life pages in the next few weeks.

 

The title card was made with a variety of die cuts from Papertrey Ink, Savvy, and a couple old punches. I used an Ali Edward photo template to collage four photos of the Christmas decorations. I created the journaling card with some washi tape and a cute little house clip that came in a kit (not sure which one.)

I've saved Christmas cards that I thought I might be able to use in my scrapbooks for several years, but I think this is the first time I've actually used one. The little Christmas tree made the perfect filler card.

We celebrate Christmas twice, once in Rochester on Christmas Day with Matt & Betsy and all of Tracy's family, and then again in Wilmette with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

The top card was created with a Silhouette file, and an old sticker from Michaels. Once again Cathy Zielski's Tiny Template came in handy for some journaling.

The big event in Wilmette is not Christmas, but Caleb's birthday which comes very quickly after our Christmas with them. There wasn't a party, but he had a wonderful day! Adam found a grocery store that created a Thomas Train cake for him; just what he ordered! 

You might remember a craft exchange among bloggers several years ago. Alexa sent me all kinds of wonderful goodies, including these metal letters that spelled out Caleb's name. She probably wondered if she was ever going to see them put to use! The balloons were die cut from a Simon Says set of balloon dies.

The adorable "three" clip is another of the goodies sent by Alexa. I cut a small slit in the Simple Stories journaling card to hold it.

Now that I'm caught up with Project Life, I'm on to the next BIG undertaking: purging! I've gotten a good start on my studio. Despite the fact that I got rid of at least half of what I owned last year, it's clear there is still way too much stuff here for one person to use. I think it was Ali Edwards who said it's so much easier to make decisions when you have fewer things to consider. I've eliminated almost all my patterned 12X12 paper, I kept just one container with papers I thought I'd use for Project Life or card making. Embellishments have been cut in half as well, and today I packed up 3/4 of the button collection I'd accumulated to take to the paper crafting charity shop. They'll be happy to see me. 

The rest of the house is in pretty good shape from last year's purging, but our basement and attic haven't been touched! We will have been in this house 30 years come September and I'm guessing we'll be into the fall before this project is completed.

 

Project Life: October 2014

October saw us on the road again, off on the postponed July trip to Petoskey, MI and Door County, WI. A friend of mine lives in Milwaukee and vacations regularly in Door Co. and a friend of Tracy's made a winter trip to Petoskey and we were intrigued. Of course, we ended up in Wilmette for some time with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

I finished September's layouts with a Design G page so went with a smaller title card: Papertrey's Monthly Moments die cut, some stamps from the July Monthly Moments set, and a piece of Washi tape on a Becky Higgins' Midnight card. The photos (clockwise) from top left are Petoskey; my friend, Nancy and her friend, Mary; the lighthouse at Muskegon, MI; Peninsula Park in Door County; and a dramatic sunset after a cold, windy, rainy day in Petoskey. (The photos look a bit out of focus here, but it's the photo of the pages causing the problem.)

I scanned two pages from my travel sketchbook to show our itinerary, my favorite photos of Caleb at the garden center and Kohl's Children's Museum, and ended up with two photos from our stop on our way home to meet our friends, Karen and Mike, for our annual weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

I had fun creating the cards for the Halloween spread. I used an OLD piece of Scenic Route patterned paper for the title card with some equally old Doodlebug border stickers, and a stamp from Monthly Moments on a Keep it Simple Frame die cut. I die cut the Journal Card #5 from a piece of patterned paper from the Lawn Fawn "Beachside" paper pad and layered it over a contrasting piece from the same set. The cute little owl is by Doodlebug that I picked it up recently in a lovely little store near Sarah's. 

Caleb tried on his Halloween costume which I made for Matt when he was little. The only alteration needed was to hem the pants. He practiced his roars for us, as well. When Halloween actually arrived it was cold with hail. After three houses, he announced he was ready to go home. Candy was definitely not worth slogging through the terrible weather. When I asked on Face Time about trick or treating next year, he said, "NEVER!" We'll see.

It wasn't great here, but not quite so bad. No surprise, Skylar was Elsa from Frozen, and had a better time than Caleb. The pumpkins are Matt's creation; every year he gets a little more creative with them.

The second page of the layout is just photos from the trip. Door County is known for it's lighthouses as it extends into both Green Bay and Lake Michigan. We visited several of them. Here are a few more photos I added at the end of the month's pages.

Although it's hard to read, the third photo on the left-hand page is of the plaque at the 45th Parallel which we crossed twice on this trip. It marks the theoretical half-way point between the North Pole and the equator. The hot dog on the right-hand page is a Chicago Dog--which I actually had in Petoskey, MI. It turned out to be the best one I've ever had. (I've eaten three of these calorie-laden dogs now, and I'm quite sure there are more in my future.)

Today is International Scrapbooking Day, and with some time off to go to spinning class, and walk down to Matt's to get our bikes out of his garage, I expect to be working on Project Life. It's May, and I didn't quite meet my goal of getting caught up. I did, however, finish all the pages for 2014, so there'll be more spreads to share soon.

It's (Inter)national Scrapbook Day

I was up early and thought by now I'd have multiple Project Life pages to share, but it's been one of those days where other projects have taken far longer than I anticipated. The day's not over, but we have a play at Geva Theater at 4:00 followed by a trip to BJ's to pick up some groceries. Hopefully, I'll get a start on a few more pages before bedtime. 

At any rate, I did finish the February Project Life pages earlier this week . There are just two spreads for February, and only one of them shows any snow! That's because the best of the photos came from our brief trip to Florida, and the rest were taken inside. When I finished it seemed odd to have such bright and cheery photos for a typically gray and cold month.

I purchased Tracy Larsen's Simply White templates a month or so ago, and was delighted to find how easy they are to use. I like the clean, white look of the page using them. I also discovered Epson's Premium Presentation Paper recently. I have a wonderful (but old) Canon printer, but the Epson paper worked beautifully to print the photos as well as the journaling card (Cathy Zielske). It's a nice weight, and much less expensive that the Canon Luster or Ilford Pearl photo paper I typically use. The journaling card is from the February Cocoa Daisy "Day in the Life" kit.

The title card was created with Papertrey's "Monthly Moments" and "Slide Frame" dies, the Winnie and Walter "The Big, The Bold, and The Happy" stamp, and the Mini Heart Collection die from Memory Box. 

More Simply White templates, and a journaling card from Cocoa Daisy.  I made a pocket for our Beach and Towel card from the Jupiter Resort with a piece of patterned paper from Simple Stories. I forgot to print a caption for the photos from the George Eastman House, so printed on an piece of transparency and added it to the top of the photos with two tiny pearls. I used a new Papertrey Ink die, "Simply Framed" to create the pocket card "you and me."

You can see the subtle grid stamping on the bottom of the card. I layered three of the outer frame, so the card is slightly recessed. The banner die is from the "Count Down" die, and the sentiment from "A Few Pointers." I won another generous gift certificate during the April Papertrey Release party and used it to purchase several of their stamp and die sets meant for pocket scrapbooking. I know I'm going to enjoy them, and have some card ideas percolating as well. The little hearts were left over from the die used on the title card.

This was one of my favorite beach photos. The colors of the sea and sky that day were just wonderful. The day we were at Jupiter Beach it was incredibly windy and the colors were much more muted. The caption was stamped with an older Lawn Fawn set by the same name.

You may remember that our reason for the February trip was to see Tracy's stepmother who had been diagnosed with early onset dementia. On a happy note, we heard yesterday that Betty is doing much better. They changed her medication, and her memory and ability to function relatively independently have returned manyfold. She's in a new assisted living facility and doing really well! We needed some good news around here.

Happy Scrapbooking! 

Watching the snow . . .

I was just sitting at the computer and looked over to see the snow falling and blowing once again. A winter storm watch has been in effect since last night at 10:00. It wasn't too bad early this morning when I ventured out to an ENT appointment, but by noon when I met a friend for lunch the driving had gotten pretty dicey. I'm glad to say I'm home with no intentions of going out again until at least noon tomorrow. Depending on how long this lasts, it may be longer!

I wasn't able to catch the blowing snow (so much more dramatic) from my studio window, but I did decide that the scene made an appropriate Zoom In, Zoom Out subject for Helena's meme.

Ali Edwards Photo template

I've spent quite a bit of time this week working on my December Project Life layouts. Given our schedule this year, it's turning out to be quite a few pages! I thought I ought to get the November ones posted (they've been done except for the journaling for ever so long), before I start sharing the December ones. I must say it's a joy to work in a cleaned-out, well-organized studio. All that hard work really paid off.

I used the same Ali Edwards photo template on this layout as the Zoom In, Zoom Out to show the extremes in weather we had in November. The circles at the top of the title were stamped with a Pink Paislee "Sentiment Series." I inked the wood veneer leaves directly on the stamp pad.

Page two documents Thanksgiving. The two top pockets on the right-hand side were originally one large photo collage that I cut apart. I'm not sure who created the collage. A long time ago I separated a lot of my digital photo templates into folders by the number of photos they hold. It works well except not all of them have the designer information still attached to them.

The digital stamp on the bottom left photo is from Paislee Press, and the photo template with the pictures of Skylar is on of Cathy Zielske's "Labeled Photo" sets.

Hope to be back tomorrow with this week's Frugal Still Life.

Storytelling Sunday: Pick Your Precious

This is it. The last month of the year. The last "Pick Your Precious" story. Thank you, Sian, for hosting this year-long event that has prompted so many lovely, important stories. Here, in Sian's words, is the motivation for this meme:  Pick Your Precious is for short story tellers and for long. You can take the idea of simply a photo with a few words; or, if you are a can't-stop-yourself storyteller, you can expand as much as you like. The thing to keep in mind is that at the end of the year you'll have a permanent record of the little things you hold dear - and your family will know why you are holding onto them!

As I read the heartfelt stories this year, it became apparent that no matter what the chosen object, it is the memories associated with it that are truly precious.

When I think about what would matter most to me if I had to leave my home in a hurry with little in hand, I always think I’d try to grab some of my scrapbooks. 

Although I started scrapping late in life, they are filled with family stories, old and new; trips far and near; friends; and birthdays and celebrations. As I looked through these scrapbooks, I found pages from vacations, pages about events the year the scrapbook was created, and pages from many years prior. The Kiawah album holds pages from vacations taken there over a 12 year period! I don't think we'd forget those vacations, but the photos and journaling certainly bring back much more vivid memories than I might have otherwise.

It makes me realize, too, that there are still stories that need to be told. So, for my last "Pick Your Precious", I choose my scrapbooks, filled with love, laughter, and some tears as well. The stuff of life.

Circle Template: Alexa @ Trimming The Sails

I {heart} Happy Mail

The mailman arrived early yesterday, and I received a wonderful package from Alexa as part of Sian’s Great Big Swap of Very Small Things. The mailing envelope itself was a piece of art. (No surprise!) 

And what it is about “Royal Mail” that adds something exotic to a package from England.

Inside was a delightful mix of embellishments, papers, frames, stamps, and other bits and pieces. Before I ever read Alexa’s thoughtful note, I knew that the items tucked inside these folders had been chosen specifically with me in mind. (Check out the personalization on the notecard!)

The goodies were enclosed in four handmade folders each with a tiny tag.

The first read: “for your little ones.” Inside were two plastic bags, one with brads that spell CALEB, and another with brads that spell SKYLAR and little bits and pieces for each of them. (There's also a #4 paperclip which somehow I included in another photo.) How cute is this?

The next was “for scrapping your holiday,” with embellishments perfect for our recent trip to Turkey and Greece. I just love that airplane stamp. 

And then some lovely papers and stencils “for your art journaling.” I have two pages on the burner. Hopefully these will be an inspiration to get moving on them.

Finally, a folder stuffed with goodies “for just playing with.” Check out the cute cameras and some camera Washi tape!

Right after dinner, I got busy. Dear friends of ours are celebrating their 60+ anniversary this month. I chose a lovely floral print card from Alexa’s goodies as well as a fabric-covered button as the focal points for their card.

I know you’ll be seeing lots more from this very extravagant gift in the months to come. Thanks, Alexa, it was truly a treasure-filled package!

 

 

 

 

LOAD: The End

This is the second year I’ve participated in LOAD. Both experiences were positive. It amazes me that I can create more layouts in one month than I do the entire rest of the year. This year I came to some realizations about my process and what makes me happy. 

 First, the more I scrapbook, the easier it becomes. By the end of the month, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish with a given layout. Although I used a sketch to get me going early in the month, by the end of the month I was designing the pages in Photoshop Elements. This worked especially well since I could then size the photos exactly as I wanted them before I printed them.

Second, a few months ago, I purged a lot of my supplies. I had read somewhere (Ali’s blog?) that the more you have, the harder it is to make decisions about what to use. I now know that is true. With less to choose from, decisions are easier. In addition, I kept the supplies that I loved, so that helped too. Clearly it would be good if I continued to scrap on a regular basis. We’re going to be gone a good part of March, and I’ve let two online courses go in order to complete LOAD, so I don’t expect to get much done in the next month, but I do hope to do more scrapping on a regular basis.

Finally, I’ve come to realize that I am, without a doubt, a clean and simple scrapbooker! All I really need to be happy is some good cardstock, a couple pieces of patterned paper, and some good photographs. I like dimensional alphabets, journaling spots, and wood veneer accents. I don’t need a lot of embellishments, but I’m glad I kept a few flowers, and other embellishments to add when they seem appropriate. Story is also very important, and that is a huge change from the time I started scrapping. My earliest layouts have photos, but few words. Now there are often more words than photographs. Recording the story for my family seems much more important now than it did ten years ago.

So here are the last four layouts:

One of the things we enjoy doing when we travel is visiting the old, elegant hotels that are often near or in the national parks. We can't afford to stay there, but we often have a meal in one of the restaurants. This time we had dinner reservations at a fabulous steak house, so we went to the Stanley Hotel for drinks. I had no idea it was the site for filming Stephen King's "The Shining."

Once I photographed this layout, I realized I needed to move the title to the left. I did that, but was too lazy to take another photo! I used some stamps and dies from Papertrey Ink to embellish these pages. Here's the journaling: 

Driving across the plains states never seems very exciting to me. They are SO big, SO flat, and it takes SO long. In addition, I’m always looking forward to getting to our destination. After driving across desolate Nevada a few years ago, I have a new appreciation for the plain states. At least there are signs of life and I saw lots of iconic scenes I would have loved to stop to photograph. 

 We spent one morning at the Amana Villages in Iowa. They are just charming, and I found plenty of inspiration for photographs. I was disappointed in the shopping, hoping for lots of hand-crafted items but finding the shops filled with the usual tourist, gift-shop type items. The one exception was the Amana General Store, and our best purchases were some German sausages, mustard, and sauerkraut as well as some bread from one of the local bakeries. So glad we had a cooler with us.

Sarah chose a jungle theme for her nursery and baby shower, and the paper I used to create favors and goodies for the shower worked perfectly with the zoo photos.

This layout (#29) completed the layouts for our August road trip. On our way south we visited with our good friends in North Carolina. One afternoon we wandered around the National White Water Center. There'll be no ziplining for me, but we all agreed we'd like to go back some day for the white water rafting.

 

 

LOAD: Days 22-25

I finished LOAD today--actually did one extra layout (29) to finish up all the photos I wanted to scrap from the road trip last August. We leave in a couple of weeks to visit Sarah, Adam, and Caleb and I know I'll come home with a new pile of photos to deal with. To spare you some overload, I'll post the last ones in two batches.

Once I got to these photos, I decided to spend the rest of the week getting the vacation photos scrapped. I watched a few of the prompt videos, but eventually gave that up since I wasn't paying any attention to them. This was Caleb's first introduction to a pool, and he was not the least bit intimidated. He even let Sarah take him under water.

One of the stops we made on the way from Atlanta to Denver was in Birmingham, AL. We wanted to visit the Civil Rights Institute there, and it was well worth the trip. But we were delighted to find some other fun things to do there as well:  The Vulcan Center (with a fascinating museum about Birmingham's history and gorgeous views of the Birmingham skyline,) and The Peanut Depot which turned out to be loads of fun.

A very kind waitress came outside with us after dinner at The Lowcountry BackYard Restaurant in Hilton Head to take our photo. It was the only photo of all five of us taken on the trip.

I wrote a blog post about the amazing Crystal Bridges American Museum of Art, but I'd never gotten any of the photos into the Travel Album.

Here's a better view of the first page and the journaling.

Finally remembered to use some Washi tape on some of these layouts. I just love how easy it is to use. The little wood veneer heart in the Photo Op layout was covered with Washi tape, too.

LOAD 2013: Days 7-9

It was a busy, but productive weekend. We did get an amazing winter storm. We had 15" in our driveway Saturday morning, but by then the roads were relatively clear. Getting home on Friday afternoon following set-up for Church Leadership Development Day was another story. It took me more than twice as long to get home, and my friend spent an hour and a half getting home when it's usually a 20 minute trip. It was the most beautiful snow storm I can remember, though, and I hope to have the photos edited soon so I can post them. Despite the terrible weather on Friday, most folks made it to CLD Day and we considered it a big success!

I am managing to keep up with LOAD, although the last few photos of the layouts were taken at night which leaves something to be desired. 

The prompt for Day 7 was to scrap "Nature." It occurred to me that I have not even edited a lot of the photos from our weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park so I spent the better part of the morning getting some of that done, and then made this layout.

I started the layout using a photo template, and couldn't get a layout I liked so I reprinted the larger photo and cut out three of the others from the template. Then I finished the layout and photographed it, and decided I didn't like that either. So I took the whole thing apart and here is the final product! Part of the title is a vintage-style postcard I picked up at the gift shop in the park.

Journaling: The vastness of the west always amazes me. There are no vistas in the northeast like those we found in Rocky Mountain National Park. Tracy, Matt, and I spent two wonderful days exploring the park. The first day we hiked at Bear Lake, and the second day we drove across the park from east to west, crossing the Continental Divide. We had fabulous weather, and couldn't have had a better time.

I don't recall the prompt for Day 8, but I know I didn't follow it. I had these photos from Skylar's last visit and wanted to get them in the album.

The journaling reads: 

Watching Skylar grow and change is such a pleasure! She’s a very agreeable little girl, but definitely knows what she wants. She’s able to sign for many things, but doesn’t have a lot of words yet. She does, however, have a very expressive face, so you don’t have to guess much about what she’d like.       Janurary 2012

Last year LOAD's prompts were frequently about times past. I started an album of layouts from my childhood and hoped there'd be a couple prompts this year as well. Day 9's prompt was to scrap about something you enjoyed doing as a child. I found these three photos of me sitting on the walk in the garden making mud  pies. 

This has to be one of the simplest layouts I've ever made, but it's about a simpler time, so it fits.

Gratitude Journal--Completed

I have started both Cheryl Johnson's Twelve Days of Christmas class, and Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle. It's going to be hard to keep up with both of them. I'm running one day behind with Cheryl's class, but enjoying it. Before I start posting this year's Christmas Journal, I wanted to be sure to finish up with the Gratitude Journal. This is a bit photo heavy, but I want to get it all posted today. You can see the rest here, here, and here.

11.21 I am NOT a fan of cold weather. My first Subaru came with heated seats. I never knew such a thing existed, but I'm grateful for the all winter long.

11.22 Our Thanksgiving table is a true symbol of the blessings of abundance. So many are without the necessities of life, and I am ever mindful of all I have.

11.23 I grew up in a house filled with music, but didn't inherit my father's gifts. Fortunately, I married into a truly talented family.

11.24 (the day of Bill's Memorial Service) Never more than in times of sorrow am I grateful for the warm, loving extended family. Love and friendship abound in this group.

11.25 I love celebrations of every kind. Today we celebrated Greg's December birthday before he returns to Texas.

11.26 Developing an interest in photography has been a blessing. I love the creative avenues it opened and all the opportunities for continued learning.

11.26 (4X6 photo collage by Ali Edwards) We are blessed with friends both near and far. They are a source of support, laughter, and companionship. I could fill many pages with photos!

11.28 I never take my warm and comfortable home for granted. We've been here for 27 years, and I still love the house and the neighborhood.

11.29 Memories enrich our lives, and scrapbooking has captured so many of them for me and my family.

11.30 Color is so important in my life--probably because it's gray and brown here half the year. The crayons were the photo prompt for Capture Your 365 today, and a better choice for a photo than the one I had planned.

I ended up with four empty sleeves in the little album I chose, so I made three more quote pages, and a folder to hold my November recap since I won't do my usual scrapbook page with this month's photos.

My journaling for November is tucked inside this folder on the last page.

I wasn't really thinking about doing a gratitude journal until Amy posted about hers (thanks, Amy!), and I'm very glad I took the project on. I took the month off from posting on the Capture Your 365 site, and that was a good break too.