November Scraps

We finished up November full of gratitude and thankfulness that everyone was happy and healthy.  Here are some moments captured with November scrap pages.

October Scrap Pages

I've been scrapping a lot lately.  It can sometimes seem crazy to make so many pages, but at other times, I am excited that I've been able to be creative several days a week.  Over at Pixelscrapper, they had a "layout a day" challenge.  My goal for the month was 31, and I met it, which made me happy because I usually don't reach goals.  Here are the pages I created in October.

Pages for Sissy Sparrows...

One Story Down: A New Chapter

So last March/April, I joined the One Story Down blog and then as a Creative Team member when the store/community opened.  I was totally loving life being part of such a terrific group of creative ladies.  A few weeks ago, the site crashed and everything was lost.  I was devastated.  Not only because I lost all of the blog posts I'd written, but because we were all missing our special community and each other.  I felt awful for the designers who had to hurry and figure out a new scenario for selling their products.  I felt horrible for Lauren after all that she had put together.  To lose everything like that, was unimaginable.  Everyone was crushed.

But now, it is back.

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes... the store will return.  The forum is already up and running.  It is a different look/feel.  There are new owners.  Final wrinkles are being ironed out and glitches fixed.  The blog is up as well.  And soon the store will be open for business (hopefully by the end of this week).

I am thrilled.

Yay!

January Pages

Scrap and art journal pages completed in January...

October Block Party

It is that time again.  Time for the Block Party at One Story Down.  We always have a lot of fun with party challenges (and prizes/favors that are super easy to win), speed scraps, great new products and lots of giggles.

Here is a page I created with the BP products for this month.  It is based off of a sketch challenge (that ended) over at I Am Doe.  They have some wonderful inspiration and eye candy.  :) 

I used a couple of fun things from Sissy Sparrows...

OSD is also offering a totally adorable and fun Halloween-style kit free with $10 purchase until the end of October. 

This is the layout I created with it and this cute template from Peeps & Milo

Come and join us in the fun and block party goodness.  There is a speed scrap tonight, at 7:00 Pacific.

And a playlist filled with dancy music too. 

Happy Friday, everyone!

One Little Word: October Blog Hop

Welcome to the October edition of the One Little Word blog hop.  You may be arriving from the blog of our great hostess, Margie, if not, you can go back to her blog and start the hop there. 

This month, Ali Edwards encouraged us to go back to revisit our goals/challenges and to pick either a battle or a celebration. 

I want to celebrate.  I really do.  There are a lot of good things going on right now, and I don't feel like having to battle anything.  I have been focusing a lot on gratitude lately, and appreciating so many everyday moments.  At One Story Down, there is a new photo-a-day challenge, and even that is something that I'm celebrating.  It may seem silly, but it is just kind of a little something to look forward to and make connections with others who are doing the same thing.

There is also something about October, that is just kind of special.  I don't know if it is because we have several family birthdays, or if it is because it is inching us ever closer to the holiday season, but I'm all for celebrating right now.  I'm also excited to be a guest on the creative team at The Lilypad for the month of October, and I can't wait to get started.

Revisiting my goals/challenges a few months back, I did cross some of the things off my list, but there are still some to go.  I am making progress.  I don't think it is going to happen as quickly as I first hoped, but I think it will be better in the long run.  I'm enjoying so many things right now, I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be for the most part.  That is something to celebrate.

And another reason for celebration... we just bought a new home-away-from-home.  We bought a piece of property at Long Beach, Washington... picked up the keys over the weekend and spent a couple of days surveying our new kingdom.  This is my first real home purchase.  Tim already owned this house when we got married, so even though it is home, I never had the experience of undertaking something so big together. It is kind of exciting. My word for the year is DARING and buying a new home is definitely feeling a bit on the daring side.  It all happened so fast, and it really was just unexpected and out of the blue.  Kind of a spontaneous, daring decision, but I'm thrilled with the outcome.  It is not so much about owning the property, as it is about being able to know that there will be space for future fun and memories. I've always wanted to have a place where we could create additional family memories, and this place already fulfills that wish.  Celebration. 

What things, little or big, are you celebrating?

Next up... Kara

Thanks for stopping by!

Participants

Margie    http://xnomads.typepad.com

Kimberlee    http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com

Kara    http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com 

Monica    http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Mrs Wookie    http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/

Monica    http://scrapinspired.com/category/one-little-word/

Cheri    http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Ruth     http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Lisa    http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/

Naomi    http://poeticaperture.com/

Carolina    www.micinnamons.blogspot.com

Veronica    www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Kelly     http://mindingmynest.com

One Little Word: Blog Hop

Can you believe that it is already September?

With the beginning of the month, it is time to return to the One Little Word Blog Hop. Thanks to Margie for hosting! You should have arrived here from Brighton. If not, check around and then see what is happening with the rest of the blogs on the list.

Things have been so busy for us lately. I've missed a couple of the blog hops, but am looking forward to trying to get back on track. This was a good month for getting back into the swing of things. This month, Ali instructed us to just take a breath and appreciate where we are right now. I could totally do that. And we were supposed to take a picture of ourselves and use some words on it. Simple.

Hello typo... lol.  Used Lauren Reid's placemats frame and my own bad eyesight with the alpha.

August was quite a month. Lots of changes and lots of things going on. I've signed on to be a reader for Cascadia Review... reading and reviewing poetry.  Fun.  Now I need to start writing it as well.

One of the fun things in August that I was beyond excited about was landing a spot on the Sissy Sparrows Creative Team! Jules and Donna (twin sisters from Australia) are such an amazing design team, and I feel so lucky to be part of all of the greatness they have going on with their products and the amazing team members. They have been at One Story Down since it opened, and I've loved their products from the start. Here are some of the layouts I've made with their yummies.

Mustard Stain mini, trims and overlays

Bear Necessities mini, overlays & trims

Wasted Breath mini, freebie, overlays & trims

Also in August, Tim's job was coming to an end, so that had been really stressful. We found out about it back in November of last year, but things have been drawn out and postponed. He was reaching the end of the extensions, but we learned a couple of weeks ago that he has a new job to go to, so no more stress! Yay. He's going back to Key Bank, and they are excited for him to return.

We've had some lovely weather and spent a lot of time outside. We've had a lot of family time. Some time with friends. Time being creative. Time doing some fun things. And some time spent at the beach. Jessica turned 24 this week. I can't believe how fast those years have gone by. Years, months, days and hours... so unbelievably fast lately.

Breathe. It is important. It is a good thing to remember.

I'm looking forward to what September has in store for us.

Have you made time to breathe? What do you have on the horizon?

Next up is Monica.

The full list of participants is below. Thanks for stopping by!

Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com
Brighton www.simplebrighton.com
Kimberlee http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com
Monica http://scrapinspired.com/category/one-little-word/
Cheri http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com
Lisa http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/
Kara http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com
Ruth http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com
Jessica B http://jlfbarnes.blogspot.com/
Veronica www.veronicanorris.typepad.com
Naomi http://poeticaperture.com/
Carolina www.micinnamons.blogspot.com 
Kelly http://mindingmynest.com
Cindy http://seriousplay.typepad.com
Amanda http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

TGIF

While I haven't been so busy blogging here, I've written a few posts over at One Story Down, and I've been scrapping quite a bit lately.  That, along with school and trying to balance life, has been keeping me pretty busy.

I'm also taking Ali Edwards' 31 Things class and (of course) not really keeping up with it.  I love it, in theory, but forcing myself to set aside time to do it is totally different. I do want to do it, and maybe even scrap it into a little Shutterfly album or something.  Just hafta catch up.  Part of my issue with classes, seriously, is the pictures.  LOL.  If I didn't have to take the pictures to go along with things, it seems like it would be much easier.  Or maybe that's just an excuse.  hee hee

Had a good convo with my little sis today.  She's so funny/crazy.  Sometimes I can't believe the things that come out of her mouth.  It has been a surprisingly family-heavy week this week.  My grandma came over on Monday, My mom came over on Tuesday, my brother stopped by on Wednesday, and then talking/texting with him and my sis the other night.  And he is supposed to stop by to get a couple of things today after work too.  We've never been that close... he's not a close-type person, but it is good to be in touch with him more lately.

Anyway, here are some of the pages I've done this week.  I'm still trying to figure out how to fit in to Zig Zag Scraps and how my style meshes with their's, so I'm not completely happy with the pages I did for them this week.  But I love my Sissy Sparrows girls and their artsy products.  And Peeps & Milo (aka Chantal) had cool templates.  And of course, Lauren Reid and her great products.  It was all good.  Sara Gleason had some new templates out and she's letting me stay on her CT as a guest through the end of the summer.  So very lucky!!!  I just feel like a scrap piggy with all of the goodness that has been out there lately.

Zig Zag Scraps...

2AM Designs - Creased Adorned Papers
Tracy Martin Designs - Forgetmenot: frame; Into the Woods: critter
CD Muckosky - FLip Flop alpha

Pink Reptile Designs - Slightly Lined; True To Yourself kit; The Kitschy Kit elements
Studio 68 - Kickstarters 10
CD Muckosky - Serendipity alpha

 One Story Down

A pic of the feral cat we had fixed and who has lived with us for 8+ years but won't let us touch her. 

Peeps & Milo - Rocki Road template; Mila's Spare Time elements, Lauren Reid - Allegedly Neon paper; Bakeshop Twine; 
Sissy Sparrows - Not Neat Alpha, Valorie Wibbens - Sprinkles v5, Kim Jensen - Bloomin Frou Frou flower, Pink Reptile Designs - Experiment No. 1 brush

 One Story Down + Plant Your Story (Sara Gleason)

Sissy Sparrows - Printed Poppies Paper, 2 Crazy Birds elements, Fish Eye Elements; Snip N Snails - Cafe Latte & Rustic Boy elements; Sara Gleason - Coneflower Template; Little Butterfly Wings - elements from This is My Story & Fun in the Sun; The Doodle Queen - Stitch Pieces; Valorie Wibbens - Happy Thoughts elements; Sahlin Studio - Grandma's Dresser elements, Est Date numbers, Practically Perfect elements; CD Muckosky - Splattered alpha

Crystal Livesay/Sara Gleason - Bannered Template; The Edits - On My Dropcloth; Sissy Sparrows - Printed Poppies paper, Liddle Stories paper, Not Neat Alpha, 2 Crazy Birds elements, Fish eye elements; Lauren Reid - Allegedly Neon, Big Ol' Tags v5; Sara Gleason - Garland; Valorie Wibbens - Sprinkles V5

What have you been up to?  Is it summer yet for you??

Welcome June! New Goodies at One Story Down

So June is finally here.  There are some exciting things going on over at One Story Down.  There is a new designer making her home with us, a couple of new guest designers, and a lot of yummy new things in the store.  I've been busy all week, scrapping with the goodies.  Here's what I came up with...

Credits:
Peeps & Milo - Da Funk Polaroids, The Necessities No. 1 & Major Typo Borders
Fee Jardine - Miss Happy kit

Credits:
The Doodle Queen - Popcorners Template
Lauren Grier - Summer Meltdown kit

Credits:
Sissy Sparrows - Anything Goes paper, Mouldy Orange elements & Two Crazy Birds elements
Lauren Reid - Perky alpha

Lauren Reid - Transformers 15
The Tattered Pear - Super Duper

Sara Gleason - Papyrus June Template/Prompt
Little Butterfly Wings - Fun in the Sun kit
Heather Hess - The Serif's Sister font
Valorie Wibbens - My Paint Box
Allison Pennington - Hello There alpha

Peeps & Milo - Da Funk Polaroid & The Necessities No. 1
Misty Mareda - Zoie Kit
Peeps & Milo + Crystal Livesay - These Moments elements
OSD Collab - Yesterday's Jam
Lauren Reid - Tattered Clippers, Freebird (glitterheart)
Domesticated Lady - Mel's Type A Personality font
Valorie Wibbens - My Paint Box
CD Muckosky - Markerific alpha
Sara Gleason - Grow with Love: Marriage template

Snips N Snails - Royal Wedding mini kit
Snips N Snails, Peeps & Milo and Domesticated Lady - Soho Chic paper
Tracy Martin - OSD Tell Me a Story collab: Doily
Flutter Expressions - Dear Mother kit
Aimee Harrison & Snips N Snails - glitter styles
Peeps & Milo - Instamatik No. 1 Template

I am so in love with the Sissy Sparrows' stuff.  Those girls are rocking some grungy fun like no other!  It is such a great place to hang out because there is total versatility in the store/forums/galleries.  There are the grungy things, the funky things, the traditional things and the fresh new things.  Such fun!

Family History & Bucket Lists

As a writer and scrapper (scrapbooker seems like such an awkward word), I am always interested in preserving family history. Part of it could be due to the fact that my family history has always felt somewhat fragmented and sparse. My mom was adopted. I never met my biological father. The dad who raised me had no family history to share. My grandma didn't really have much in the way of family history, and my grandpa apparently didn't either, although he at least had some photos (but my grandma sold them to a thrift store). I'm at an age where this bothers me, so now I have a dilemma.

 Tim's parents were a tad bit on the pack rat side of things. His dad seemingly kept everything. When Al and Gladys moved into an assisted living home, we were tasked with getting their house cleaned out, renovated and sold. We also ended up with all of the stuff that wasn't given to the Goodwill. Right now, we have about a dozen boxes upstairs that are filled with old things. I'm talking about things that go back into the late 1800s and early 1900s. There is an amazing array of ephemera. There are some photos and documents from Germany (Tim's grandfather was German). We don't even know what they are since we don't know German. There are boxes and boxes of loose photos with no names on them or any idea of who the people are. There are playbills from European productions attended by Tim's uncle when he was in the military. There are graduation announcements and programs from Tim's dad/uncles. There are also architectural drawings that Tim's dad and his twin did when they were in high school... on frail paper rolled up into a tube. There are tickets and documents and letters galore. One of the things I found was a stack of letters from Tim's mom to his dad. They are love letters that span a few weeks before the two became engaged, and continue for the first several months of the engagement. Priceless.

 The dilemma is... what to do with everything. Tim's theory is that we should just scan everything so it is digital and then get rid of it. That thought horrifies me. There are some things that are okay being digitized. I agree that everything should be scanned to save the image. But there is such a tactile sensation of holding the ticket or letter or photo and feeling the difference in paper quality or whatever. It is fine to look at a scan of a picture, but quite another to hold a piece of family history in your hand that is over 100 years old.

Somehow we'll figure it all out. But it has been on my mind the past couple of days. I asked some scrap friends about it and no one had a real solution other than to hire an organizer. I was just reading on Kelly Russell Agodon's blog about how poetry and the arts should be archived. Some important words of wisdom there. I have no idea on how to archive my writing.  Ugh.  And those things just really fell in line with thinking about the family stuff. And it also fits together with the scrapping stuff and how strange it is for me to be okay with compiling digital scrap pages. I guess at some point, I figure I will print them out into a book and they will be stored in someone else's upstairs closet in the future. But I also think that things will evolve over time and technology will have a solution for it.

One of the things I'd never really thought about in the past is coming up with a summer bucket list for the family and documenting it. Right now, Kennedy is too small to do much, but I blogged over at One Story Down about the lists and have a huge range of ideas for things to do and how to document them. You can check it out here.

If you have any good ideas on how to preserve memories and archive history, I'd be happy to hear them!

You're Invited... to the Block Party

One Story Down is kicking off a new monthly event... a Block Party!

There will be all sorts of fun challenges, a chat (with a playlist created by moi!) Friday at 9 pm EST (6 pm Pacific) and some gorgeous new products. They created an amazing collab (three designers -- Peeps & Milo, Domesticated Lady and Snips n Snails) and then the rest of the designers created add-on products that will coordinate with the main kit.

Here are a couple of layouts I created using the new stuff.  Fun fun fun!

Hope you are having an amazing Friday and that you can pop over to the block party at some point!  We'll see you there!!

Wowza -- Lotsa updates!

So I guess I realized the other day that I have seemingly forgotten to update my blog with all of the craziness that has been going on in life for the past month.  It literally feels like every day has been filled with something that turns life upside down or sideways.  I thought that I'd post today and share some updates on what has been going on and some things you might want to check out.

First off, I am excited to say that I am part of the Creative Team at One Story Down.  It is an amazing digi scrap store (also with a hybrid focus) that opened on April 1st.  If you haven't checked it out yet, you really should.  There is a wonderful community of unique designers, team members from all over, and just a great ambiance of friendliness and fun.  Lauren Reid, the amazing owner of OSD, sends out a BEAU-ti-ful newsletter once a week, and there are blog posts every weekday.  I am even fortunate enough to get to write some of those blog posts (insert excited-arms-waving-wildly-huge-smiley face here).  There are a couple of monthly challenges right now (girl vs. scrap and photo challenge) and there will be more coming soon.

As a spin-off from that, I am totally excited to announce that I'm now a member of the Peeps & Milo creative team as well.  Peeps & Milo is brand new and carries an adorable line of digiscrap products that can also be printed/used for real life scrapbook pages/Project Life.  Chantal, the owner/designer of Peeps & Milo has a unique sense of whimsy and fun, and she creates some terrific products.  I feel so lucky to be on her inaugural team!

I'm also lucky enough to be a guest team member for Sara Gleason (Zinnia & Swallowtails) at Plant Your Story.  Wow!  What a month!!!  I've been in love with Sara and her templates forever, so this was like a dream come true!!

Also, in the last month, I attended Artfest 2012 (the final) and had an amazing time learning from Michael deMeng, Andrea Matus (deMeng) and Jesse Reno.  If you ever get a chance to take a class with any of them, I'd highly recommend it.  Michael is a fabulous teacher and a funny guy.  Andrea is *the sweetest* and totally inspiring!  And Jesse is quite a character and amazing to watch.  My life/art will never be the same again.

My DD moved out in the last couple of weeks.  :(  Makes me sad.  But I really haven't had much of a chance to be sad about it because, for one reason or another, they have still been here for the most part.  LOL.  DD has had major overtime at work, so I have had some extra Little Mister duty (yay).  Then Little Mister got sick, and then I got sick, and then DD got sick.  Ugh.  Unfortunately, I missed Conan's first birthday bash because of Kennedy and I being sick.  Wah!  Now DD is back at work doing the overtime again, so it has been kind of a crazy time for her and us.

I also had an amazing opportunity to proof a manuscript before it went to press.  It was great experience, and very interesting as well.  I finally did our taxes (4 hours before the deadline...lol).  I got my thesis stuff for FDU squared away and am waiting for my diploma!

With all of that, I think that I'm not going to add anymore updating because it is just getting way too long.  Instead, I'll leave you with some of the layouts I've done in the past couple of weeks for my new CT gigs and a couple of speed scraps.  :)  If you want to see credits for any, check my gallery.

What have you been up to????

Something BIG!

As stated by Lauren on the OSD blog:

"Be sure to save the day…or block out the whole week because we have some big things brewing!

Get ready to SHOP, be CHALLENGED and WIN some goodies!!!!

Spread the word!"

I've been able to catch a sneak peek and play behind the scenes.  You don't want to miss out!!!!

One Story Down

Pssst... check it out...

my first post as contributing writer at One Story Down.

:D

http://onestorydown.com/2012/02/a-to-z-me-v-1/