Lesson from a 7-year-old girl
My bedtime routine with my daughter consists of (after the dreaded brushing of teeth) usually reading a book or magazine (We love Disney Princess) and then sometimes I’ll lie down with her for 15-20 minutes until she falls asleep. This seems to be lately when she is a little chatterbox. In my mind I’m screaming “Will you PLEASE go to sleep already?” a lot of the time, but at the same time I enjoy those moments of motherhood. I listen. I pay attention. I learn about my daughter. I try to grow that bond so that she’ll know she can always come and talk to me, especially later when she’s a dreaded teenager and feels that I don’t understand her. Oh Lord, I am not looking forward to that! :)
But the moral of this story is 3-4 days ago we were lying there in bed at the end of the day. She was talking. I was listening. And I must have been saying something about being busy or having a lot of things to do or something, I can’t remember, and Summer said to me, “Mom. Calm down. Here, do this.” And she showed me the usual “meditation” pose of sitting “Indian” style, ya know, with your hands in front of you and index finger and thumb making a circle? Except we were doing it lying down, so I bet that was a funny picture. Anyway, she says, “Do this. Feel the quietness inside your soul.” WHAT? She’s 7 years old!! I think I need to do that more often. What about you?
This layout is from April 1. We were out in our front yard playing around, I look over and see this. Apparently she learned this pose from T.V. The kid amazes me.
I’m a Craftsman scrapbooker!
My awesome dad gave me this Craftsman toolbox for my scrapbook supplies. Can you believe it? I can’t fit ALL of my supplies in here, so I’ve been trying to convince him to give me a second one but he’s just not going for it. But I’m thrilled with this one. I separated every color into its own drawer (see previous post about Stacy Julian) and labeled them so all I have to do is yank it open and be inspired. Thanks, Dad. You rock, dude! 
She changed the way I scrapbook (and organize!).
I love Stacy Julian from Simple Scrapbooks and Big Picture Scrapbooking. Simple Scrapbooks is by far my favorite scrapbook magazine, and I’ve had subscriptions to 3 of them so far. Stacy’s book and her philosophy literally changed the way I scrapbook. I don’t worry about being caught up anymore (really!) because unless I quit my job and scrapbook 80 hours a week I never will be caught up. It’s more about the story and the moments that I record now. I’m so much happier with the way I create my pages now. If you haven’t read her book, The Big Picture, run and buy it now. It’s worth every penny!
Because of Stacy, I’ve changed the way my scrap space is organized too. I used to have things arranged in those plastic Plano type “tackle boxes” from Walmart with the little divided sections. I did have them sorted by color, but now I have switched to drawers. Each drawer is designated a different color. I don’t know why, it just seems easier to pull open the drawer and see what I have. I’m constantly forgetting supplies that I have because I don’t see them, and I know I’m not the only scrapbooker that does that! :)
So, who inspires YOU? I think I could do a blog entry every day for a month on all the people who inspire me, “famous” scrappers and not. But I’m always looking for new inspiration and a new way of looking at things, so leave me a comment if you know someone inspiring and cool I should check out!
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (2)Have you hugged your child today?
My cousin died unexpectedly recently, and of course it hit the family hard. I had a lot of emotions going on during the visitation and funeral, and I came home and made a layout about them while it was fresh in my mind.
In case you can’t read the journaling, here’s what it says: June 16, 2007. Today we buried my cousin Johnny. He was 18. He died of an apparent accidental overdose. The last few years he’d given his parents a lot of sleepless nights trying out his independence as a teenager, coming home late, doing things he shouldn’t. But he had graduated from high school 3 weeks ago & they thought he had finally turned a corner. He’d signed up at our local college. My aunt was so proud that he was back on track. As I sat in the funeral home a few rows back from Aunt Betsy, I stared at the back of her head and & watched her shake her head, bend over at the waist & sob, my little girl put her hand in mine and laid her head on my shoulder. I have never been more acutely aware of the feeling of that little hand in mine & that little head on my shoulder. And all I could think of was that Betsy was never going to be able to do that with her boy again. She’ll never talk to him again, never touch him again. As a mother myself, the thought of this breaks my heart. I feel physical pain for her. The entire day she had this look of sorrow on her face. She’s so lost. It hurt me to look at her & still makes me cry now to think about that look. The funeral home was filled with teenagers, John’s friends, kids from school. I sat & watched these big burly teenage boys sob their hearts out. John’s best friend walked in & just collapsed to his knees on the floor sobbing the most heart-wrenching cries I’ve ever heard in my life. I prayed that these kids will remember why they were there, will remember why John is gone. I prayed that they will take away a lesson from this experience & change their lives so that my aunt’s sorrow that she’ll have for the rest of her life won’t be for nothing. Rest in peace John Travis Morgenroth.
(click on photo for full size view)
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (2)Altered Composition Books How-To
My friend Shelley made these and I thought I’d share them. The composition books were bought at the dollar store. The paper is from the Die Cuts With a View “Old World” collection. She covered the front, back, and inside covers. She printed the flowers from Word clip art and chalked them with purple and green to match the papers then matted it with purple paper. The ”notes” piece was printed in Word in purple shade and cut out deco scissors and matted on purple paper using the 3-D foam squares and attached to the front cover. Added lace and flower ribbon up the side. On the inside cover she attached a small vellum envelope for stamps or post-it notes in both books.
Put the small one in your purse and use it to write down things you don’t want to forget (like me) or funny things your kids say so you don’t forget (like me!). Aren’t they just the cutest?
Filed under Projects | Comments (4)Who Scrapbooks About YOU?
I can’t even tell you how many times my 7-year-old daughter has asked me, “Mom, what were you like when you were a little girl?” or “What kind of toys did you have when you were little?” or “What cartoons did you watch when you were little?” You get the idea. And the sad truth is that I’m only in my 30’s but a LOT of the time my answer to her is, “I don’t remember.” I can barely remember my teenage years, but before that? Forget it! Is it just ME?
I’ve never had a good memory for things that happen a long time ago. I have a few memories that have stuck with me, of course; some good, some bad. But next to my husband I feel like a total idiot. The man can practically recall the moment of his birth! :)
My point here would be that I think it is so important to scrapbook about ourselves. My daughter is so curious about me and my life before her. She is curious about pets I used to have and the man I was married to before I married her daddy and my relationship with my parents when I was little. She’s very interested. And I’m glad she’s interested. So before I’ve completely forgotten everything I try once in a while to crank out a scrapbook page about myself. I don’t do it as often as I would like for sure, but I’m going to work on that. Continue reading »
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (3)License Plate Scrapbook
(click on the photos for a closer look)
My dad made a scrapbook!
So my dad is awesome, right? I bought this license plate from a COOL scrapper lady (hi abby!) with out of the box ideas (she altered a highchair!) who started a yahoo group called Awesome Offerings by Abby. (go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AwesomeOfferingsByAbby/ )where she sells neat and unique stuff for your scrapbooks from thrift stores, antique stores, vintage stuff, things you don’t find just anywhere. When I saw these license plates she was selling, I knew I wanted a Florida one to make a mini vacation album from 1 of our trips to Florida. I didn’t exactly know HOW I was going to make the mini album, but my motto is “My dad can do anything!” :) And it’s true.
So I gave him the cut up pieces of this plate and said, “Can you make me a scrapbook out of this?” And here ya go. He bolted these pieces to metal (this sucker’s heavy) that he cut to the right size and hooked a 3-ring binder thingie in the middle for the pages. If that wasn’t enough, he then used a burnishing brush tool to put all those cool swirls on it.
Of course, I’ve done nothing with it since then and I’m feeling kinda guilty about that after all his hard work. Maybe telling the internet about it will give me the motivation I need to get going this weekend and make that vacation album!
Check back on Monday to find out
It’s a Dog’s Life…. so scrapbook it!
Okay, does this pooch look like she’s living the life of luxury or what? :) This is our new pup Ginger. My daughter (she’s 7) named her that because she’s the color of the spice ginger. How does she even KNOW what color the spice ginger is? This kid amazes me! We got Ginger from the animal shelter and she’s very happy with us. Maybe a little too happy. She’s a biter when she’s excited, and one of us is always bleeding from a fresh wound somewhere on our body! My daughter wanted this pup so badly, begged until she was blue in the face, and now she doesn’t want to have anything to do with her. Every time she takes her outside or tries to play with her, all Ginger wants to do is bite her (playfully but is HURTS!) I’m at a loss for what to do about it.
But I can’t wait to scrap this photo. It cracks me up. And hopefully Ginger will get over the biting thing soon and she & Summer will be best buds growing up and I can make a scrapbook layout someday about how Summer didn’t even want to be in the same room with this puppy. She probably won’t believe it in about 10 years. Which is a good reason for a scrapbook! Got any helpful puppy tips or tricks? Leave me a comment please!
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (9)Kids Say the Funniest Things
They really do, right? I’m planning to do a scrapbook about the funny comments that have come out of my daughter’s mouth. This kid is 7 years old and she is constantly cracking me up with the things she says! Sometimes I’ll say to her, “How do you even know that word?” So I figure 20 years from now I won’t remember any of these funny things she said in her childhood and I’ll make a mini scrapbook now so that later I’m able to look back and LAUGH in my old age J
Right now I’ve got the wheels turning in my head trying to come up with a name for my mini book. Any ideas, my friends? I want something different than the usual “from the mouths of babes” or “kids say the darndest things.”
So, the other day at the dinner table, my husband was being a total BOY and purposely aggravating our daughter. I don’t understand it, this “man thing” of torturing the girls, but my husband loves to irritate our daughter. He calls it “kidding around.” LOL…So he was saying something to Summer that was irritating her and I said to Summer, “Daddy likes to joke around with you. That’s what you call a jokester. Daddy’s a jokester.” And Summer without missing a beat said, “More like a pain-in-the-neck-ster.” I nearly choked on my food laughing. I felt like I should have scolded her for saying something mean about Daddy, but I was laughing too hard to do so J Can you see why I will want to remember that in 20 years? I’m sure there could be a new entry every week if I could just remember to write them all down. Hence, the mini scrapbook.
Which brings me back to what to call this mini book. Leave a comment or e-mail me if you’ve got a neat idea.
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (4)Use That Mountain of School Papers
This is why I save nearly every piece of paper my daughter has brought home since preschool 4 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, my house isn’t large enough (nobody’s house is!) to keep EVERY thing she brings home from school (and Lord help me if she catches me throwing something away!), but things like this paper where she’s written something with her little hand just melt my heart. I’ve put them all in a binder and I look them once in a while to see if something “speaks” to me.
And this one did. Summer wrote this at Thanksgiving time in first grade. I was so touched that this kid was feeling thankful for her kittens and that she was appreciative of them. Course, you notice she doesn’t list her MOM or DAD on here, but that’s okay, right? At least that’s what I’m telling myself :) Then to top it off my little artist drew pictures of all her kittens to go along with the sentiment. I ended up not liking the end result of my scrapbook page, but I like that I preserved this memory so I’m leaving it alone.
One of my friends (hi klo!) said when I showed her this, “I never thought about cutting up the kids’ papers before.” Well, I never thought about it either until now. I have papers where she has practiced her handwriting, lines and lines of the same letters over and over again. I intend to just cut one row of those letters off the page and use it and throw the rest of the paper away (don’t tell Summer!) So who’s gonna be the next scrapper to make a page with the kids’ school papers? I would love to see them.
Filed under Scrapbooking | Comments (8)
