Whoa!

Bad, bad blogger. Just got back from Scrap Camp and I managed to finish 41 layouts...now, 29 of those were 6x6 pages for my kids' summer mini albums, but since they took the better part of my first day and a half of camp, I'm counting them as full pages! I will have photos soon...just so dang wiped by the late nights at camp...still catching up on sleep...and the Boy has decided No More Pull-Ups at night, which means LOTS of interrupted sleep and LAUNDRY :( Yeah, that's not going so well. YAWN. Okay, just wanted to let you know that I'm alive and will be updating (better) soon.

The grass is green...

Since this is not a weight loss blog, I'll keep this brief...on Easter Sunday I started walking. Oh, I've stopped, thank you very much, but I made the decision that I was (once again) at an unacceptable weight and I needed to start moving more...a lot more. Not running yet; since that didn't go as well as planned last year, I'm working my way towards it slowly. I walk, swim, use the arc trainer at the gym, and do yoga (LOVE). I have been trying to get in at least 30 minutes of movement four times a week for the last month, and it's working...I've lost 4 pounds total, slow and steady, and set up a new routine that I plan on keeping up once the kids are out of school.

Ben is almost there...next week is his last week. We've decided to send him to Young Fives instead of kindergarten, even though his birthday is not that late in the fall. So many parents are holding their kids -- especially boys -- with fall birthdays back, and in comparison to his current classmates who are already 5 years old, Ben has a bit of maturing to do. I'm sure he'll be all caught up by the fall, but what worries me more is when he is 12...and everyone in his class is turning 13...because they were held back.

I have not been getting a whole lot of scrapping done. Our Friday nights kind of petered out; we get one a month in, it seems, and my scrap room is too distracting for me to get much done. I am really hoping to scrap at home tonight; my scrap buddies all have daughters in a dance recital tonight, so nobody's hosting.

My best achievement of late is finishing a project from CKU Detroit...which came through in 2007. MAN, that felt good. It took a girls' weekend and limiting my crop choices to finally get it done, but I did it!

Hey Kelly, this one's for you...

Seems my favorite crop organizer and all-around best scrapbooker buddy, Kelly, has been looking for a new post since...umm...February? Sorry, but LOAD 2011 kept me busy. I did manage to complete a layout a day in the month of February (plus 1), and I'm hoping to participate again in May. In the meantime, I need to give a little love and attention to my much-neglected scrappy blog.

Here are the layouts I did last Friday at Kelly's house. I wish we were having a church crop tomorrow, but I can't stay to close up (at midnight), since what kept my daughter home from school 3 days this week is now attacking my system. You know it's serious when you cancel the EXTREMELY RARE babysitter you had for tonight's Supper Club Adult's Night Out (dinner! in a restaurant! with adult conversation! no kids!! Heaven...) because you'd like to crawl under the covers with the 5 year-old bottle of prescription cough medicine you just found in the back of your medicine cabinet.

Heaven forbid a medical doctor would give me a new prescription. They don't seem to be into that these days, unless you have a fever. Thanks to these new-fangled thermometers, you can't do that old "hold it to the lightbulb while the nurse is out trick," a la E.T. In the meantime, I will be organizing 4-hour doses until what I have is gone. Which should be around 10p tonight.

Onward...

This one was based on a sketch from BHG's Scrapbook Etc. Page Planner (published in 2008, I believe). I pulled this specialty issue out near the end of LOAD, and just keep finding inspiration from it. Which is pretty funny, considering I haven't used it since I bought it. Lain's "Kill Maybe" philosophy was an eye-opener.

This one turned out to be SO FUN to do. It certainly didn't start out that way! I was trying to print out 2"x3" photos at home, and my printer nozzles were clogged. I was nearly out of color ink, and -sure enough- by the time I did a few maintenance runs, I was completely out of color ink :( (doncha just love how that works?!)

I quickly threw my photos on a DVD and went to the CVS near Kelly's house after dinner out together. Apparently various smaller prints on a single sheet are under the "collage" option on Kodak Print Makers. I did not have the patience to figure that out (the picture maker at my local pharmacy is pretty upfront about how to put 4 different 2x3 prints on one 4x6 sheet. I'm spoiled!) and went with 4"x6" prints of my faves.

So, I ended up with larger (and fewer) photos than planned for both layouts, and had to get creative with my own "sketch" on this last one. I had fun going through my color-organized papers (wave of thanks to Stacy Julian for that idea) for various blues, borrowed a perfect background cardstock sheet from Kelly (thanks!...you need a blog too, ya know?), and took off running with layers & sparkles and everything nice to put this last one together.

Here's my whole LOAD 211 set...have a trick for making new sets, since I don't have a "pro" account at Flickr anymore (I need to take care of that, BTW...) Seems I can set up a set through the flickr app on my iPod Touch (score!), then I can go to flickr.com and add individual photos to the new set. Twenty-nine LOs, in all...I had extra inspiration on day 5, it seems.

I'm editing photos while the cough syrup lasts...hopefully I will feel good enough tomorrow (and dd will go to her half-day of school tomorrow, to give me a break...alas, no such luck with the preschooler) to get a little more scrapping in...with HOME PRINTED photos.

Until then, hoarding my cough syrup...

Hunkering down...

Two things are supposed to happen this week: a big snowstorm, and the start of the L.O.A.D. (LayOut A Day) challenge at ScrapHappy. Yes, I finally decided to "pay-to-play" since I've been struggling to find a scrap/sharing "home" for more than a year now, without much luck.

Actually, I did pay-to-play at the Digital Scrapbook Artisian Guild this past year. While I enjoyed the online magazine, their digital designs weren't really my style. You can upload any product there now, but I found it to be a very quiet group, and there are no traditional paper layouts there at all (which makes sense, given the name)! I've let that subscription lapse.

I did recently sign up for Masterful Scrapbook Design through Get It Scrapped...and I really enjoy the lessons (when I take time to read through them...) There is a $10 monthly fee for the lessons, webisodes, chats, gallery, etc. etc. and so far it has been worth it. I need to take better advantage of it, though. My big roadblock is that I have to clear my IE cookies for it to work in IE. Since I have so many websites I've joined (with varying user names and passwords), I hate to clear all that info. As a result, I have to log in to MSD through Google Chrome...and again, I have to think of it in order to get it done.

In the meantime, I have been doing quite a bit of paper layouts...I had total fun working at home this past Friday and really let my creativity flow!

This one I did at a church crop with my local scrapping friends a few weeks ago. I really wanted to use one of two woodgrain papers I had (green, from SIStv, or brown, by Hambly), but both were too busy for my large photos. I ended up weaving them together and putting them at the bottom...a look I really love! Michelle gave me a Maya Road tree top & trunk she wasn't going to use, and I misted the heck out of them, then decorated the tree with pearl "apples" for fun. I really like how this one turned out!

This is one of the two I did this past Friday. It's an old photo (December 2009!) but I found a layout to lift from Gundrun's blog and took off with it. I especially love the subtle subtitle along the left side...it's what I imagine Ben is saying every time I look at this photo! Best of all, I used textured paper (on the right) that I've had since 2003 -- yay, me!

I did this one late on Friday, and feel like the bling is too much. I used Lain's End of the Month Inspiration photo, and my new fringe scissors (thanks, Becky!), though, and these pictures are scrapped (score one for me)! I love that I found another use for the ribbon I HAD to have this past spring...American Craft's rose ribbon. Only now I'm almost out ;)

Massive Update...knittin & scrappin fool

So, last weekend was the much-anticipated F52's weekend, hosted by the lovely Debbie with her amazing kitchen and many comfy rooms. I had offered my house at one point but it might have been crowded (and, getting rid of hubs & kiddoodles for the weekend tricky at best).

I started knitting little gifties for each and every one back in August (dishcloths, with handmade soap from a friend), but my near-Waterloo was The Bag. Seems last year's bag (felted) for Tresha went over so well, the organizer (that would be you, Kelly!) somehow...hmm...managed to end up with me as her Secret Elf this year. I had been wanting to make this record bag from Funky Knits (record = 12", scrapbook crap = 12"...coincidence?!) and here was my chance.

Little did I know I'd be knitting in the handle just one. day. before I was to get together with everyone. And hand it off to my mom with seconds to spare Thursday night so that she could (generously offered to) put in a lining. Since the yarn could not be felted, it needed something to hold it together. Mom even put in pockets! Mom rocks.

Found the perfect batik lining on Thursday, too...after stopping at the knit shop to get the last 4 yards of yarn (!) needed to finish up the handle. Queen of Last-Minute Finishing, that's me!

Here were the knitted goodies I gave to each lady, done in her fave colors. It pays to be my friend ;)

And here are the 4 LOs (6 pages, if you count like my buddies. I like how my scrap buddies count)...PAPER layouts, I might add...that I finished over the weekend.

From May: Vintage Vroom...Ben in the pedal cars at Greenfield Village, while we were waiting for our ride on Thomas.

Shop Class, also from May 2010 - same trip...Tess making tiny brass candlesticks at the Armington & Sims machine shop replica at Greenfield Village...finally using the Graphic 45 papers I've been hoarding ;)

From waaaay back in December, 2009 (!): A visit from our friends and their son, who hooked up on DS with Tess, while Ben pretended with his new "Leapster DS" ;)

And my one double-pager, about the awesome Creative Play program organized by Kelly at her church in Chelsea. I miss Creative Play! And MOPS. But not enough to have any. more. babies. thankyouverymuch.

We were all pretty good Friday night, got to bed by 11:30p (amateur), but I stayed up far too late on Saturday watching Toy Story 3 (until 3a!) , and woke up Sunday feeling under the weather. Even brunch at Gandy Dancer didn't perk me up. A birthday party for one of Ben's preschool buddies at Chuck E. Cheese's that afternoon sure as HELL didn't make me feel any better, so I'm late in posting all the goodness. Had to assist at the co-op yesterday, luckily I was feeling okay enough to go and not sneeze or cough on any little ones. Peace out.