September Updates

It's September 30th.  I didn't finish the entire set of LayOut A Day prompts but 23 pages in one month is definitely a success in my book.  I have the photos printed for remaining three prompts so I hope to have them completed soon.

I also fell somewhat short of my 40 miles of running this month.  As of last Thursday (the 22nd) I had completed just over 28 miles and could easily have made my goal but I pooped out, plain and simple.

Today's layout is one the I completed yesterday...

LOAD Prompt - It was a free day so I incorporated the principles of patterned paper selections from one of the Ella BootCamp mini drills.

I can't believe that this photo was taken almost two years ago but there's no denying how much she has grown.  (Photo courtesy of Mumi)  Once again, thanks for stopping by!

Almost there....

The MotherLOAD class (layout a day) officially concluded on Monday, the 26th. To my astonishment I actually managed to complete 22 of the 26 daily prompts.

In addition to LOAD I was also enrolled in the Ella BootCamp set of scrapping drills that took place online last week.  It was such a wonderful class.  I learned several new design and photo editing techniques that I hope to incorporate into future layouts.  Today's page was actually inspired by the Designing with Grids class.

With that said, I'm about scrapped out.  I hope to finish off my last four LOAD pages (hopefully with BootCamp ideas) by this Friday and then will be taking a break in October.

I know I've created way too many Jasmine and Meg pages this past month but I couldn't resist one more.  While going through my digital photo files I discovered a trend that I just had to document.

Prompt - Scrap a photo you've scrapped before.  (in my case, the wagon)

With Meg it's definitely "have dog, will travel" kind of world.

Owls

Meg is obsessed with owls...owl stickers, owl hats, owl toys, owl shirts, etc. But as we found out at my parents' house, she's not so keen on the real thing. We heard them in my parents yard one night and she was so afraid one was going to come swoop down and take off with her little dog....silly girl.

Prompt - use gray, browns and yellows.

Last week  I walked into the family room to this....

I couldn't have staged the photo more perfectly if I'd tried.  She's wearing one of her new owl stocking caps, has her stuffed owl toy, an owl Halloween decoration that I'd bought for outdoors but somehow think it will never see the front yard and her owl mittens (that she put on the stakes of the decorative piece.)  She slept there for several hours, very content and oblivious to everything going on around her...as in camera flashes and her Daddy and I laughing out butts off!

With a daughter like this I'll never run out of scrapping material.

Stickle Queen

If you remember my "New Stuff Radar" post from a few weeks back you'll recognize the turquoise and red Stickles.  Yes, she's been at it again.  She found some leftover picture molding and decided they'd make great arrow signs. Like always, I didn't see the creations until after she'd nearly emptied my bottle of Stickles.  *sigh*

 This next one is hard to see but it reads "Welcome to Meg Town."

And for the whole effect....

She thinks that it's pretty funny that she "fakes everyone out" into telling them that her room is 2 miles ahead when in actuality, it's only 2 steps away.  Oh to be ten again....

Blog Neglect

Lots of "life" happening right now so my blog has been a bit neglected.  I'll try to do better.

"Life" has also put me behind in my LOAD class but here's a page I completed this week.  It's very apropos to some of what's going on in our lives right now.

Prompt - Record a difficult subject

This photo was the only one I could bear to take during that horrible week last fall.  The journaling talks briefly about the onset of her illness and the unbearable news that she had bone cancer.  Thank goodness they were wrong.

Quick Post

Popping in for a quick post while enjoying some time with my parents.

Prompt - Use your scraps.

See ya next time!

Mustaches are Epic?

A quick post of another LOAD page that truly encompasses my daughter's spirit and personality.

Prompt - stamp on the layout

Meg is absolutely enamored with mustaches.  We picked up the shirt at the mall a few months back and I have to hide it after washing or she'd wear it every day.  When I came across the fuzzy mustache stickers a couple of weeks ago I knew she'd love them.  Sure enough, she has had the best time with those silly things.  She's never known her daddy with his "Yosemite Sam" 'stache but I'm thinking it's about time she did.  :)

As far as the prompt...the polka dots are stamped.  The circle is a transparency and I hand drew the mustache at the bottom.  TFL!

More LOAD pages Part Deux

The good news....my big ass TV is now working again.  Yay!!  The bad news...my dishwasher is going to cost more than $400 with no guarantees.  The service tech says it's in the electronics (as I suspected) and he recommended we purchase a model without all of the bells and whistles.  That's probably what we'll end up doing but for now, if you mess with ours enough (as in coming back to it every hour and pushing some buttons) you'll eventually get lucky.  Works for me.

On to more LayOut A Day pages....

Prompt - black & white photos

These photos were taken with my IPhone and were of poor quality but a switch to black & white really helped the images.  I took the photos when Hurricane Irene was directly east of us, safely far offshore.


Prompt - Scrap some bad photos

These photos were taken on the way to the beach, the very same evening as the previous layout.  Because they were taken from inside the van the quality was much worse than those on the beach.  I used my photo software to soften and lighten them up a bit which believe it or not, make them look much, much better.  In the end, it's the moment that counts so I was glad for "permission" to record them instead of burying them on my computer.

TFL!!!

More LOAD pages

Still playing catch-up with my LayOut A Day class.  Here are a couple of pages with silly topics.

Prompt - Record a "Need."

I'm hoping you can all read the journaling from the page.   (Mom and Dad...hold down the control key and rotate your mouse wheel to make the page larger and smaller.)  It's just a silly way to document some of my everyday life as well as one of my all time favorite movies.  I'm afraid I may have jinxed myself though.  My beloved TV went on the fritz yesterday.  :(  I'm scheduled for service tomorrow.  Thankfully I purchased the five year warranty.

My dishwasher also went kaput this week but unlike the TV, I didn't do a layout around it.  Guess we're just having some bad appliance/electronics luck.  Too bad it can't be the washer and dryer.  I'm dying for an excuse to replace those!



Prompt - Scrap a self portrait.

I am not into photographing myself too much lately so I made my page around my cute new shoes.  LOVE these shoes!

I have a few more pages completed by haven't had the time to scan them yet.  Check back again tomorrow and thanks for looking!

LOAD Catch Up

Last weekend's Mission Organization put me a little behind in my scrapbook class.  Here are my layouts for Days 3 and 5.

Prompt - Scrap a photo that's been sitting on your desk.


I printed and framed this photo for Meg's room and have been wanting to include it in her scrapbook.  These are her two BFFs.

Prompt:  Scrap a style different from your usual. 


Most of my newer albums are now 8.5x11 so I haven't created a 12x12 page in over two years.  The books I have for my niece and nephews are still in this larger size so I took this opportunity to add to Ben's album.

I have two other pages completed but those will come in another post.  Day 8 of the LOAD and I'm only 3 behind.  I think that's pretty darned good!

Curb Appeal Meets Clean Sweep

We had a very busy holiday weekend.  Little did my teacher friend know but we'd been planning an overhaul of her "office" for months.  She left town on Friday afternoon to visit an old girlfriend in Texas and our gang of friends immediately went to work.  What was only to be a reorganization of her office spilled over into her parts of her kitchen, bedroom, garage and front lawn.  We had a crew doing some major landscaping work as well as erecting a fence for her garbage cans.  Another crew went to work on the interior.  I wish I'd taken a "before" shot but trust me when I say that you could barely open the door, let alone make your way through the room into her laundry area.

We recycled her desk, file cabinet, bookshelf, blind and a few of her containers and moved out a bench, a treadmill (which is now in her bedroom), toys, books, sleeping bags, flippers, housewares, etc all stored in a multitude of cardboard boxes and bags.  Some found homes in other places while others were reorganized into a system that will work for her.  We decided on the color scheme after finding an unopened gallon of gray paint, which we took the liberty of using.

One of the guys built her the swing up table to fold laundry.  We purchased the metal shelf unit, the vinyl saying and most of the red and black accents.  I was in charge of the sorting/organizing/decorating/labeling process and together we had it all completed by the time she returned Monday afternoon.  She knew something was up when she pulled up and saw all of our vehicles parked alongside her new landscaped lawn.   She was moved to tears and sooooo very, very happy.  I'm guessing it still hasn't really set in yet.  

My girlfriend is one of those individuals that does everything for everyone but rarely takes the time to do things for herself.  Paying it forward was such a wonderful experience for us all.  But I have to say, the best compliment I received was in a text last night.  Her youngest (12) wants me to come and do his room next.  :)

Her new window covering and shelf....

Her reorganized desk ....

And my absolute favorite part ...

This went from a room that you couldn't walk through to a place she can't wait to sit in and enjoy.  She now has some very jealous girlfriends.  LOL!!!

A Two-fer

Today I'm posting my first two creations for September's MotherLOAD scrapbook class.  


Yesterday's prompt was to scrap a goal.  Here's my take on the challenge....

The journaling reads (and yes, it's a bit sappy) ... 

"Her love of running began as a scrawny ten year old jogging the country back roads with her father.   She had no idea then that those runs were the start of a lifelong activity for her.  Fast forward forty years....a break to her clavicle in early 2010 kept her sidelined for ten months but she's happy to report that she's back on the road again and loving every mile.  As her Big Five-O quickly approaches (a fact that has her completely in denial) she has set a goal of 40 miles a month while she eases herself back into her old routine.  Some months have been good, some have been great, but whether running 40 years or 40 miles, every run is a good run and she has learned to make every mile count."                                                                           ~~ Sept. 2011 ~~

Today's prompt was to scrap about an event that made us laugh out loud.  This was definitely one of those moments....

The journaling on this one reads...

"One Sunday afternoon in January we all decided to head beachside to Shuckers for some dancing.  It didn't take us long to realize that even as “40 somethings” we were by far the juveniles of the crowd.  Never missing a beat we joined right in and got such a kick out of the snowbirds and retirees.  My personal favorite was the woman who wasn't about to let two canes stop her from dancing.  And of course we'll never forget Mickey, who found a loving spot on Kelly's bosom.  We laughed until we cried and realized that day that life truly is what you make it."                                      ~ 2011 ~           


So I'm 2/2.  Hopefully I can keep my momentum going.                                                                                                                                                                                             

This & That

Today is Sept. 1st which means it's the start of the layout a day (LOAD) class that I'm participating in online.  It's set up like a marathon (which is probably what reeled me) so the idea is that we'll complete a LOAD for the next 26 days. I haven't completed 26 pages in the last two years combined so it's going to be quite a challenge but one I think I'm prepared to tackle.

This morning's prompt, our first one of the marathon, is to scrap a goal.  That's a no-brainer for me.  As you know, my current goal is to run an average of 40 miles a month.  I have found that at my age, as long as I run, I can maintain a good weight for myself.  As you can see by my sidebar, August wasn't a great running month for me.  A combination of vacation and a week of sinus headaches (which I attribute to Irene) sidelined me for a good portion of August.  But like I've already mentioned, today is Sept. 1st ....

I'll leave you with a couple of photos to view while I'm busy in JulieWorld.   Jay took a long overdue and much deserved vacation to Las Vegas last week with two of his buddies.  Being the nervous mom that I am, (never mind that he's 28 years old...moms always worry) I had scenes of The Hangover rolling through my head the entire time.  Being the good son that he is, he made sure to text and send photos all week to ease my mind.  I'm sure he'll have lots of stories to tell (and many more that he won't) but I'm happy to say that he's back home in Orlando safe and sound.


Jay, making his presence known...

And Pawn Star fans will recognize this...

No sign of Chumlee though, darnit.   To paraphrase Jay ... "The place is a total dump on the inside."

Hopefully I'll have a layout to post tomorrow...maybe even 26 by the end of the month.  Wish me luck!