Still Scrapbooking

I'm finally done organizing our (one-room/closet) living space at the in-laws. We can't leave stuff out since they are showing their house to sell it, but I'm ready to work on scrapbooking (and then putting it away when done for the day).

Here's what it all looks like.

And yes, those are some of my shoes in unused CD/DVD towers that my BIL let me use! (The rest of the shoes are in storage.)

A Penny For Your Thoughts (Part 1)

Even though the title is a cliche (that you really don't hear anymore from people younger than 70?), I actually borrowed it from a scrapbook kit that was advertised online. It's an interesting kit, mainly because of the "copper" tin that hold the scrapbook and looks like a penny.

I don't want to buy this kit because I'm not that keen on the contents, but the cool tin and the idea for the scrapbook caught my attention. (If I could buy JUST the tin....) The point of the book is to "celebrate ten years that have brought 'change' to your life."

Since I am currently on the closer side of 30, I really had to stretch it a bit to come up with 10 things. 20 years from now, I'm sure the list will come more easily!

Here's my 10 Years That Have Brought "Change" to My Life:

(1) 1985: Our family moved from Illinois to Kansas, thereby leaving behind our extended family. Most of my cousins lived in the same vicinity, and our families got together often to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Leaving them was pretty hard.

(2) 1994: First semester of college. I came home at Christmas break, and my sister's friends asked, "What happened to your sister?" I had left home a meek mouse and returned, a more confident, outgoing person. Still have shyness issues, but at least I don't act like a mute in a group conversation anymore. Much.

(3) 1998: First trip abroad- and by myself. I'm independent in that I like to do things my way, and I know how I want them done, but I'm NOT independent in the sense that I don't like change and The Unknown scares me. The Unknown drags me, kicking and protesting, toward Change. QED, I avoid situations I'm not familiar with. Traveling overseas by myself was one of my worst nightmares before I actually did it. I spent two months teaching at an MK school in Papua New Guinea, then went sightseeing in Australia and New Zealand on my layovers, without doing any advanced tourist research at all. I just arrived at the airports and somehow managed great 8-hour sightseeing experiences.

(4) 2000: Fell in love with God's Word. Becoming a Christian at a young age and growing up in a Christian home, of course I read the Bible, believed it, and tried to follow God's commands. But that fall, I began to read a chapter of Proverbs in the morning and a Psalm at night, and I finally began to understand what David meant when he wrote about how he loved God's law. I'd had my (almost!) daily Bible reading times over the years, but somehow this season was different; God really used His Word to work in my heart.

(5) 2000: Colored my hair red. My hair had become that worst description a novel can use to describe a pathetic character: "She had mousy brown hair." Not beautiful brunette like Penelope Cruz or Anne Hathaway, but gray-brown hair that was best described as Blah. I met my friend Christy that year also, and somehow on one shopping trip to Walgreens, we bought hair dye. Red hair dye. Ironically, after applying the dye, it was disappointing, not really red at all. After consulting the toll-free Clairol help desk, we went out and bought a bolder red, which provided better (read: more startling) results. Several months and hair appointments later, I settled on a certain shade and found my True Hair Identity.

Part 2 to come later (not in another month - sooner, I promise!).

Madrid Scrapbook

I finally finished the scrapbook of our Madrid trip in 2006. You can check it out here:

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/album_display.asp?album_id=75492

Birthday Weekend

My sister Gail and my parents came to visit last weekend for Gail's 30th birthday. I'd been looking forward to it for months and was about ready to burst by the time they came.

On Friday night, we went to Provino's, a local Italian restaurant where I could eat every day if I knew the amount of butter and pasta wouldn't kill me.

Gail opened her present from me/us: a scrapbook about growing up as sisters.
I'd thought of the idea a year ago, but of course only put the plan into action 2 months ago. Subtract being out of commission with the Lasik surgery, and the 20-page book was completed in 6 weeks. Whew!

You can see the inside pages here. Just be sure to start at the last layout at the bottom - that's actually page one, and work your way backward from there.

On Saturday, we went to the Atlanta Zoo, which I hadn't visited yet. The baby gorillas were the best part, with their entertaining antics and sibling rivalry. Here's the mama gorilla preventing one of the babies from pestering another baby. She also gave him a smack on the head for good measure.
One of the babies was obviously used to the crowds - or else had taken his cue from a toddler at some point! He hammed it up for the audience and stuck his tongue all over the glass.

On Sunday, we ate lunch at John's parents' house and finally got a decent picture of Monty and Darra together. Monty was all "ho hum, whatever" and Darra was ready to bolt. Not because she doesn't like Monty - she LOVES Monty - but because she doesn't like being posed. Yes, it's a posed picture. But who cares, it's cute!!
After Gail and my parents left for the airport, Darra was kind of down. She wouldn't even eat breakfast the next morning. She got quite spoiled with attention when they were here.
Now Darra's back to being stuck with just us. Poor thing.

Doodlebug

Today I took a class on how to doodle.

Yes, you read that right. The local independent scrapbook store offered the class; the fee included pens, a book on doodling, and the author of the book, Maelynn Cheung, taught the class.

I wanted to take the class because it's cheaper to use pen and paper to create embellishments for scrapbook pages than buying many, many rub-ons and other manufactured embellishments!

Cheung was entertaining as well as a fountain of knowledge about pens and techniques. She alternated between discussing examples from her book, Doodling For Papercrafters, and showing actual page layouts that were passed around the group. She also acknowledged the cheapness factor that doodling offers.

Some notes from the class (when we weren't doodling around):

--M.C. recommends Sakura Pigma graphic pens, of which there is a variety of sizes
--She also recommends Sakura Gelly Roll and Souffle pens
--Permapaque (Permopaque?) pens can be used on metal, glass, transparency, and other non-porous surfaces; they can be found in the graphic design section of craft stores
--on p. 8 of the book, French curve templates are mentioned, which can help the doodle-challenged with drawing flourishes; other tools (not mentioned in the book) are Crafter's Workshop templates (can be found at Dick Blick stores or online); and another tool that is like a flexible ruler, wire covered in plastic, which can be bent to create odd shapes and used as a guide for journaling (I don't know the name of it, and I couldn't find it online because I don't know the right keywords to search)
--Pigment vs. Dye: Pigment takes longer to dry, sits on "top" of the paper, the molecules are larger than those of dye so it lasts longer; dye dries faster, actually changes the color of the paper fibers, and doesn't last as long
--Pens should NOT be stored upright in a pretty container! They should be stored flat, horizontally, except for paint pens, which should be stored tip-down
--Gel pens frequently "stop working" and seem to dry out even though there is enough ink left inside; DON'T shake the pens - this creates air bubbles and makes the problem worse
--To keep gel pens working, use the pens on a regular basis, even if it's a few scribbles on scrap paper
--To try to unclog gel pens, write in circles on a rubber surface, like the bottom of a shoe or on a pink eraser; also try dipping the tip in nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol - just be careful to make sure all of the solution is gone before you use the pen again on archival projects
--The best white pen is the Uniball Signo, which is only manufactured in Japan; there are some similar American pens, but if they don't have Japanese writing on the pen, it's not the real thing; best to buy it online since it's hard to find
--White ink isn't actually ink; it's white chalk - hence the wide results you get with different brands of white pens
--You can catalog your pens by creating several 2x2 squares of black and white textured and smooth papers, then write in the pen on different squares to show what they look like and label them; hole-punch the squares and put them together on a ring
--If you prefer to trace, you can use a light table or a sunny window
--Don't be ashamed to use a pencil to make guide marks; erase and rewrite as many times as needed
--If using a pencil, don't try to trace the pencil marks exactly with a pen; the result will look stuttered and won't be smooth; use the pencil marks as merely a guide
--Erasers are important - pink ones tend to leave smear marks; use white erasers [I personally like the Pentel Clic Erasers because they're shaped like a pen, instead of a block and is a dollar or two at Walmart]
--It's ok to use watercolor pens over pigment pens; the pigment won't bleed or blend

Most of these notes are NOT in the book; I didn't include in detail here what Cheung covered from the book.

We did practice doodling throughout the class, of course, using some practice pages in the book as inspiration. Here are my doodles. Note: Except for the vines, these are pretty much copied from the book, as close as you can get without tracing. (I did a lot of "eyeballing.") This is not my own creativity!

Doodling for Papercrafters is an excellent resource for ideas and easy, practical techniques. It's a tool every papercrafter - and scrapbooker - should own.

Distracted

I was going to write about something else, but got distracted by the update on my Blogger Dashboard. So instead of writing what I'd originally planned, which I can't even remember what that was anyway, I've spent the last 10 minutes watching the new toy Blogger just came up with, called Blogger Play.

This is almost as addictive as CuteOverload. You can watch a slideshow of the latest pictures that have been posted to people's blogs. It's interesting that probably half of the photos appear to be from countries other than the U.S. (At least, at the time I was viewing. The foreign languages kind of give it away, not to mention pictures of obviously European architecture.)

I even saw a scrapbook page go by - from the blog of a French woman who does amazing work, along with her friends, who all have a site that showcases their pages. Not surprising that a country with a famous sense of fashion would also create beautiful scrapbook pages. I think I'll go crawl into my amateur scrapbook hole now.

Free Stuff: It's a Good Thing

When my scrapbooking interest started months ago, I signed up to receive free e-newsletters from different magazines like Creating Keepsakes and Simple Scrapbooks. In one of the newsletters, it mentioned that you could apply to be on a survey list and get free stuff. So I applied, and they picked me! They email me when a survey is ready on their website, I take a minute of my life to answer questions, and once a month, they send me something for free. Not a bad deal.

So I got my first freebie in the mail yesterday: 101 Things You Can Do With Your Scrapbook Supplies. I haven't finished looking through it, but so far it offers a lot of good ideas for using what you already have in new, unique ways. Using what you already have - I like that.

When I first started this blog and was searching creation for what to call it, I stumbled across someone else's blog of a different color. She calls hers Very Pink. For some reason, I became a regular visitor to this blog of someone who lives in Texas and I DON'T EVEN KNOW HER. But I enjoy reading her posts because she is hilarious. You can find out a lot about someone from reading their daily entries, of course, and one thing that Very Pink does is post pictures of her 4 Basenjis (which, if you've never heard of them, are called "barkless dogs"). Every single post includes at least one picture of a dog.

Now that we have a puppy, I thought that is a great idea. Henceforth, all of my posts will include a puppy picture. Most of the pictures I've taken of Darra so far have been of her sleeping. She sleeps a lot, and in the weirdest positions. Quite immodest and unladylike at times.

Exhibit A:

Insert Clever Title Here

Somehow in the course of scrapbooking these past few months, I now receive email newsletters from Creating Keepsakes and other magazines with tips - and of course, suggestions for things to buy. Yes, I actually DO ignore the sales parts of the emails.

One of the articles from Creating Keepsakes (a very good magazine/website, by the way) this time around was called "A Busy Scrapbooker's Survival Guide." I do not claim, by any stretch, to be as busy as some of these women are, who scrapbook AND have kids and who work for these scrapbooking companies. But one thing this author said really stood out and confronted the Perfectionist in me: the concept of "good enough."

As a Perfectionist, I have a problem with "good enough." It's one reason why I try very hard to create the perfect, witty title for each post (unfortunately, frequently resulting in titles that sound forced or obvious). I don't want to go to a salon for my tri-monthly hair coloring and walk out with "good enough." I don't want to order well-done meat at a restaurant and have the server bring me "good enough." What if Jesus, instead of dying on the cross, had pricked his finger and said, "Good enough"?!

But this scrapbooking article said that, in a different context of course:

Ali’s notes:
Adopt a philosophy of “good enough.” For me, this means keeping the focus on the story. “Good enough” means you’ve told your story to your own personal satisfaction. Maybe the design isn’t exactly what you first envisioned. Maybe your handwriting isn’t perfect. “Good enough” is about adopting the perspective that, years from now, people will care most about the photos and the words. The rest is window dressing.

I have to say, she has a point. I just began working on the scrapbook for our Madrid trip, and it took DAYS to make decisions on what I wanted to do for the first page. Granted, it's the first page, not some page buried in the middle, but still. And it IS a kick-butt first page (even John said it was awesome), but still. Working on the London scrapbook, I finished about one page a day on average.

At the rate I'm going now, we'll be visiting our grandchildren before the book is finished. (No, that's NOT a hint!)

My perfectionist nature is just going to have to accept that with scrapbooking, "good enough" IS good enough. Now I need to work at applying this principle to other areas of my life (hair coloring excluded, of course).

Long-Term TTD

In my senior year of high school, my schedule didn't quite work out the way I'd planned. I was signed up for four AP classes: Calculus (AB), American History, Language & Composition, and Physics. I loved the first three. After a week or two, I decided I hated the last one. I'd heard that if you hadn't taken regular physics beforehand, that was ok - you could still handle AP Physics.

It didn't take very long for me to realize that:
(1) Physics is a "different" kind of math. Not the kind of math I like.
(2) My AP Physics teacher was a novice. It was obvious that it was her first year of teaching. (Students can tell - they can sense the fear.)
(3) Never listen to someone when he/she says to take an AP class for a subject one has never studied before. For an honors/AP student, I was pretty dumb. And gullible. And apparently, arrogant.

I got my schedule changed, but by that time the "good" classes were taken; only elective classes had openings. I landed in a business class, and for the first time ever, study hall (which ended up as hanging out in the library, getting to know the librarians). I forgot all about that business class until my first year of teaching, when my business teacher, Ms. Routzong, died of cancer.

Hearing the news of her death made me think back to her class, and I realized that Ms. Routzong gave me my humble beginnings as a list-maker. It was in her class that I learned the art of Making A List - how to prioritize, how to prioritize the priorities. A1, A2, A3, B1, B2. I barely noticed I was in a class with freshmen, I was so mesmerized by the beauty of the List.

These days, my lists consist mainly of what groceries to buy and what household chores should be completed that day. Since I have more time on my hands than I've had in years, I dusted off the list that I don't like to look at, the one called "Long-Term TTD" (Things To Do) that includes all the things around the house that I'd like to do but don't have time for and would take a long time to finish.

This list has pretty much stayed the same for 10-15 years and includes things like "Organize all photos, from birth to the present." Basically the list is an idealistic vision of me overcoming my powerful packrat genes to simplify my life and my closets. John tries to get me to sort through drawers and files and boxes to get rid of unnecessary stuff, but it's hard to overcome inherent traits.

All of the photos, both mine and ones ahem borrowed from my parents, were contained in a single file box; I managed to stuff each new round of pictures into the same box without it exploding. This past weekend, I tackled the box with 90% success. Or 100% success, depending on how you look at it. The file box is 100% empty, but there is still a 3-inch stack of photos whose date of origin cannot be determined without parental input.

The red arrows show the two photo storage boxes with the chronologically organized photos. The rest all over the floor are the tragically undateified photos. (Can you tell where I was sitting. I don't know why I like to pull up a floor to organize things. It's my favorite organizing surface.)

All I need now is to buy a billion photo albums to contain them all for viewing; I decided NOT to "scrapbook" them. Do I look like I'm rich?! Plus, I don't like scrapbooking THAT much. Really.

When I went to cross "Organize photos" off my Long-Term TTD list, I realized that since we moved, I've actually knocked 2 other items off the list as well, without even realizing it. Either my powerful packrat genetic makeup is weakening, or John is just that good at brainwashing.

Here's one of the pictures in the box. Technically, it belongs to my parents....

English Major Strikes Scrapbook Gold

When I joined blogland, I wondered how writing posts would affect writing in my journal. After four months of blogging, now I know: I haven’t been faithful to either medium! This from the person who, while a teacher, bemoaned the lack of time for anything as introspective as writing in one’s journal or creating a short story. I actually got excited when I had to write an email to parents about their child’s bad behavior – here was a challenging writing assignment with potential negative fallout far beyond a mere failing grade from a professor. Motivation, anyone?

Rachel’s determination to spend more time writing served as a contrast to my lackadaisical attitude toward my own writing. I only work part-time, I don’t have children (yet) – why am I not taking advantage of this season in my life?! It will never come again!

I need to be more intentional about writing regularly – in my journal, on my blog, and now, with scrapbooking.

One thing that I like about Simple Scrapbooks magazine (my new interest since Scrapbook Answers went under) is its emphasis on journaling and narrative. The editors may showcase too many 1-picture layouts (my pet peeve), but they do stress the importance of putting your thoughts and descriptive memories on the page; they even devote entire books to that end. Surprisingly (or not?), the truly creative scrapbooker is not only visually artistic, but a verbal artist as well – one who tells a story or makes you think, in addition to providing a feast for the eyes.

This page (p.79, Sept/Oct 06, Simple Scrapbooks) stood out because of its visual simplicity as well as its verbal ingenuity. There are only so many belly pictures you can take while one is pregnant (seems to me, without speaking from personal experience), but this page goes beyond showing belly size. [Disclaimer: No, this is not an Announcement of any kind. But I am looking forward to the day when I can STOP adding disclaimers!!!! Sheesh, you people!] If you can’t read the words on the page, it says this:

right now, i miss being able to lay down on my stomach.

i miss being able to see my feet.

i miss my old pooch. i miss

being able to get a full

night’s rest. i miss

being able to just get

around. but i know that

in less than two

months…

i'll miss all

your little kicks

and squirms. i'll miss

looking forward to

that next ultrasound.

i'll miss knowing that i

can keep you safe inside.

i'll miss being able to take you

everywhere with me. funny how things work, huh.

Funny how writing that seems so simple can be so complex.

Scrapbook Fever Has Been Upgraded

It's now a full-blown epidemic.

For my birthday, (among MANY other nice gifts), John got me a gift subscription to Scrapbook Answers magazine, which comes with a CD every month filled with free software, free fonts, free "paper," how-to videos, and a gallery of sample pages. [NOTE: I went to the site to provide a link and found out the magazine went out of business. I only got 2 issues, but they were great! O well.]



John's mom got me several scrapbook paper packs that she found out I was considering. Sneaky!



And I also got a label maker from my parents so my dad doesn't have to keep mailing labels as I request them (since he has one). John cleverly pointed out that it TOO can be used in scrapbooking....



And then eeeevil Joann's had one of their 50% sales, so I bought a few things. I am really moving up in the scrapbooking skills: my tools now include formerly foreign items like chipboard, rub-on stickers, and teeny hole punches. (The picture also does not show ALL of the design scissors I bought at Michael's at 2/$1.) I bought the next two albums, one for our Madrid trip, and the other that will chronicle our life together, starting after the honeymoon. I figure I'm better off than many other scrapbookers with that book - I'm "only" two years behind!

Now that I have everything ready to start putting the next book and pages together, all I need is ... to develop my 250 digital pictures.

Scrapbook #1

I have finally finished my first scrapbook, about our honeymoon in London. Yay! Here are some (not so great) pictures of some of the pages. I guess if you were really interested, you could get a super magnifying glass and read the handwritten parts ... which I know you'll do because (as my site meter indicates) you care that much. Sniff.

Is There A Doctor In The House

I’ve never been an accident waiting to happen, but this is getting ridiculous.

Two weeks ago, I was cutting up apples to make applesauce for the first time. This involved great trepidation, as I knew how delicious my grandma’s applesauce tasted, whereas mine had great potential to be terrible. Or worse, to be blah.

Perhaps this fear is what caused me to position the apple portion and the knife in such a way as to slice into my left forefinger; something had told me it would be foolish to hold the apple that way, but I ignored it. Now I have a new scar right below an old one (which was acquired at age seven when my brother found the inner barrel of a washing machine in the neighbor’s trash and thought it would be fun to scrunch up in it as someone rolled it along - a homemade roller coaster. My finger was cut deeply by the rough edge as I held on for dear life).

This past week, the menu one day called for pork chops with apples. I set about cutting the required medium apple into thin slices and proceeded to create a new scar – this time on the middle finger of my left hand.

Yesterday, excited at the prospect that I only had to finish three pages to complete my honeymoon scrapbook, I was arranging photos and deciding which ones to crop. Somehow, in placing the photo on the paper trimmer, I got grazed by the razor blade, on the ring finger of my left hand.

After attaching yet another bandaid to my left hand, I considered the potential meaning of this curious course of events, as is my habit. God wants to keep adhesive bandage manufacturers in business? God wants me, a right-handed person, to realize the left hand is just as important as the right? Should I stop buying apples, my favorite fruit? Stay away from knives and cooking?

I was hurrying along when each incident occurred. I guess I need to slow down and appreciate the small things in life. And wear protective gear when dealing with sharp objects.

Scrapbookers Anonymous

For someone who is a serious conformist, I can be surprisingly nonconventional where technology, trends, and current developments are concerned. All my friends couldn’t wait to turn 16 and start driving; my dad had to threaten me to get me to practice at 17. Everyone in my church singles’ group had a cell phone to stay in touch; I refused to get one and preferred to remain inaccessible. And we all know how I used to feel about blogs.

Scrapbooking fell into the same category. “Everyone is doing it right now” – so I don’t want to. Isn’t it as expensive a habit as drugs? The purpose of preserving memories and photos was commendable, but the complicated designs with millions of stickers and ribbons and stamps were beyond my powers of imagination and skill. Besides, I had my own outlet for creativity as I advised high school students on the newspaper and yearbook staffs. Scrapbooking, pshaw.

I should have recognized that keeping ticket stubs and making sure programs (heaven forbid) don’t get bent was a sign, and lessons learned in the past didn’t mean anything, either: all throughout college and grad school, I maintained when asked that I was NOT going to use my English degree to be a teacher … but I secretly kept adding to a file in my drawer labeled “Teaching Ideas.”

So I’m forced to confess: I have joined the scrapbooking cult. Too many little papers and a LOT of photos were piling up (there must be some undiscovered law of physics that states when one is touring Europe, hundreds of photos will be taken).

For my husband’s sanity, I am striving to deal with my new addiction slowly and not be solely responsible for keeping Michael’s or Joann’s in business. (But what is one to do when the paper is not 59 cents a sheet, but on sale – 4 for $1.00?? It would be stupid not to stock up, of course.) I have finished almost 10 pages of our London honeymoon book, which is about halfway, I figure.

I think I’ll take a break from hunching over the table and go fold the wrinkled laundry….

Then, as a reward, head over to Michael’s to buy a new edge punch. Or two.