Field Day

When I was a kid, Field Day was something I dreaded. It was sooo hot in South Georgia and the thought of being outside and being forced to participate in sports was the equivalent of being banished to Hell. I used to try to come up with all sorts of reasons why I couldn’t go to school that day (none of which worked) and why I didn’t need to participate. I was not athletic, competitive, coordinated, or heat-tolerant. All of those things added up to making Field Day a miserable experience for me.

My girls, however, have not inherited those traits from me. They, thank goodness, have a love of physical activity and seem to be relatively heat-proof. So, Field Day for them this year was a great time.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that their school put on a fantastic event. I have to hand it to those folks. You can tell that months went into planning the day. There were water events, track and field-type events, coordination challenges, relays… all sorts of things. And there were eighty-bajillion volunteers. Which, I am sure, is part of why things went so well. Thank goodness for involved parents!

SuperMan was off of work so we were able to enjoy watching the girls in most of their events. Here are some highlights:

Finally Scrapbooking Again!

The girls had a Girl Scout event on Saturday and SuperMan was busy with yard work. What’s a girl to do when she has a few hours on her hands and no pressing chores?

Scrapbook!

Exactly!

I had purchased the Jessica Sprague intro to Photoshop class a long time ago and had never sat down to actually take the class. So, Saturday was the day. I had peace and quiet, no interruptions, and some recent pictures to use. I was ready.

Before I share the layouts I made, I have to tell you – if you are considering doing any digi-scrapping and have been intimidated by the sheer power of Photoshop, you are not alone. I have resisted using it for a long time because it just seemed overwhelming to learn. As a matter of fact, I owned it but never used it.

Which, I decided, was really silly.

So, that’s why I purchased Jessica’s class. And it is a great class. I would highly recommend it to anyone. I love the clear and easy descriptions of what to do, how to do it, and the great supplies she includes in her course materials. So, even if you don’t have any digital supplies yet, you can still complete your first pages as part of the class.

Here are some of the pages I’ve made so far. I’m about halfway through the class.

This was my very first layout:

Then, I got all crazy and used a Cathy Zielske template I had from the Design Your Life class I took this winter. I think it turned out well and it was good practice using the things I’d just learned.

This was a “challenge” layout made with a quick page kit. I still need to go back and add some journaling. And this was my Lesson 2 layout. I still haven’t figured out how I am going to do 2-page layouts, but I am sure I can do it. I just don’t know how yet! But that is important to me because I do most of my scrapbooking in 2-page layouts. Like this “Fish” page is just begging for a sister page with the rest of the photos and story.

Ok, more to come. I am on a roll.

Project Life Update

I spent some time last weekend updating my Project Life album. I hadn’t worked on it since my surgery at the end of February even though I have been taking pictures here and there and saving bits and pieces to put in the album.

I have to say, I am still loving this format and the kit. I also loved how I realized that there were quite a few pictures that, once I put them in here, I didn’t feel the need to create an additional layout in the family scrapbook. I had told the story here and captured the memory… why do duplicate work? I love that! My family book is becoming more of a place to capture more in-depth stories and moments and special events. Project Life is capturing the everyday.

I am even considering inserting some “regular” scrapbook pages in here and making it THE album for the family for the year. Haven’t decided if/how I will do that, though. Just thinking about it.

Here are some of the pages I did. Still have a little journaling to do, but I was not in a writing mood at the time I did this. I will go back and update those this weekend.

If you're visiting from The Mom Creative, welcome and please come back!

Finally, a scrapping post!

I went on a weekend scrap retreat this past weekend. I decided I was not going to do digital this weekend, but rather try to use up some of my stash of “traditional” scrapbooking supplies. I really enjoyed playing with all my stuff and fiddling around with my Cricut, Glimmer Mists, and all the other goodies in my stash.

Here are some of the pages I did:

Using up some of the Close To My Heart papers.

Another use-up-the-paper layout. I had that heart patterned paper but had never used it. Loved the pattern but had to get creative with using it so the hearts didn’t dominate the layout. I like how it turned out. I still need to go back and write my story (in that big white patch on the right page) but I was not in a journaling mood at the time.

This is another CTMH layout – one I had done as part of a workshop last winter but never used because we had no snow! I had to get a little creative with my pictures because it was designed for vertical pictures and I had a ton of horizontal, but I’m happy with how it turned out.

These two layouts (above & below) are from a SEI kit I had gotten in October. I loved, loved, loved the papers. There were iridescent papers, felted papers, all kinds of beautiful papers. I used to get their kits as part of Club SEI. After using a few of the kits this weekend, I started wondering if I wanted to sign up for the club again. They have BEAUTIFUL papers and the kits are really nice.

That cream paper on the left page has silver iridescent leaves on it. I don’t know if you can see them in this photo, but the paper is gorgeous.

This was using up a free kit I won at a crop at Archiver’s back in February.

And this was the Crop Mania goodie at the Archiver’s March crop. I modified the title using my Cricut and some plain white paper, but I like how the layout turned out.

And these last three were just using up some more papers I had one or two of but loved. And these 5×7’s of the girls I just loved and couldn’t not put in the scrapbook.

And this one is another kit from Archiver’s – I think it was the February goodie at their Crop Mania.

Tomorrow, an update on my Project Life album. Yeah, I worked on that, too. :-)

It’s coming, I promise

I have been having some health issues that were a “byproduct” of my surgery in February. Nothing too serious, but I just can’t seem to shake them. I went to the doctor yesterday and hopefully things are headed in the right direction now. I feel much better today, so that is a good sign.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, I know many of you are wondering what happened to the Template Thursdays and my scrapbooking posts. I promise, they are coming back soon. Hopefully as soon as next week if I keep feeling as good as I do this morning.

So, thank you for being patient with me while I am healing and know that the pages and templates are coming soon.

Oh, I managed to do this, too

I also managed to get a little scrapbooking done in the past couple weeks. Not much, because I haven’t really felt like it, but I did some once or twice.

Here are some pages I did:

I’ve also got a few projects that were not digital – but I need to take some pictures of those before I can post them.

Freaking out… just a little

I’m having some surgery on Thursday… nothing serious… just making myself healthier. But, I’m freaking out just a little at the whole idea. It’s a lot to organize – knowing you are going to be out of the house for a few days and out of circulation for a few more after that. I don’t know what is freaking me more – the surgery itself, or the logistics of all the things going on around here that have to keep going even if I’m not here to do them.

So, with all that said, I may (or may not) be somewhat sporadic in my blog posts over the next week or so. Bear with me. I am coming back, I promise.

Ok, enough with all that –

Here are some Project Life pictures for the past week:

Want to see more Project Life pictures? Check out the Mom Creative for more Project Life Tuesday posts.

I promised circus pictures, but I have over a hundred to sort through before I do that. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh, and if you have read this far I have two more things:

1. Thank you. Thank you for reading my blog entries, for commenting, and for caring enough to come back and see what I have to say each day.

2. I wanted to know: what do you like most about my entries? What type do you like the best? The scrapbook layouts, pages,templates? Stories about my family adventures? Random observations about parenting? None of the above? Let me know! I’d really like to hear from you.

How was your weekend?

Oh my goodness! I am so glad this weekend is over! It was another whirlwind weekend. It was so fun, but so exhausting!

We had BigGirl’s birthday sleepover party on Friday night. Five pre-teen girls running around the house. Oh.my.goodness. Remind me next year that is not a good idea. BigGirl even decided that was too much and that next time she wanted a smaller crowd. Too many people to please – and if you have a pre-teen girl, you know they are impossible to please. Poor thing was in a tizzy trying to keep everyone happy.

Saturday (after the party-goers went home) I managed to sneak in a little scrapbooking at a crop that was raising money for children’s charities. It was a large event (100+ scrapbookers) and I enjoyed having a little “me” time after the craziness of the party.

Here are some pages I did while I was there. I tried to use some of the concepts I am learning in the Design Your Life class I’m taking over at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

I’m still not sure if I’m done with those two. I like the green and the blue, but not sure about the swirles and I need to put some journaling in there somewhere. Maybe in that big box on the left-hand page and take out that clear swirlie.

What do you think about the overlays on top of the big pictures? Too much? Distracting? Or just right?

I didn’t get too much done, I was distracted organizing all my digital content on my PC, but I did manage to get a little bit done. And, more importantly, it got me back in the mood to scrap. I have been very distracted lately with a few other major projects in my life and had lost my scrappitude. Now, I’m geared back up and looking forward to doing some more scrapping. I have even decided I want to try some hybrid scrapbooking layouts. Mix up the digital and traditional a little.

Yesterday we went to see the circus. It was the last big part of BigGirl’s birthday celebrations. We hadn’t been since she was 2 and Little Princess had never been. Needless to say we were all so excited to go. I am not sure if the girls were more excited than me or not. I LOVE the circus – and LOVED the fact that I was taking my babies to see something that was such a big part of my happy childhood memories. I couldn’t wait to add those to their own childhood memory banks.

Of course, it was awesome. I don’t think Ringling Brothers ever puts on a bad show. We had a blast. I think I probably took over 100 pictures. Loving my big zoom lens on the camera, too. I was able to get thisclose to the performers without leaving my seat. I’m sure it helped that we had awesome seats, though… 4 rows from the floor! So cool!

I’ll post some circus pictures tomorrow – they’re still in the camera.

Anyway, that is why I haven’t posted all weekend. It was crazy. It was fun. And I’m tired!

Project Life Tuesday (er, Wednesday)

I hope that you enjoyed Kate’s guest post yesterday – and visiting a few new blogs as well! I had great fun hosting Kate and posting on Helen’s blog. We are hoping to do that on a monthly basis, so you’ll be hearing more from those ladies in the future. Let me know what you thought of the swap in the comments. I’d love to hear your impressions!

Here’s my Project Life post – a day late but better late than never:

And the pages are in-progress as well:

I am already working on this week’s pages – I went ahead and printed the pictures I had so far and stuck them in the pages.

You may notice that this week I used a white border on my pictures. I think I like it better than the rounded corners of the week before. I think it sets the pictures off a little.

What do you think?

A Fine Line

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

I mentioned yesterday that we were going to mix things up a bit today. No Project Life Tuesday post (I'll post my pages tomorrow) – instead we have a guest post from my online friend Kate who lives in the UK, is a very talented digital scrapbooker and designer and writes her own blog over at Liberty Cottage.

I’m guest-posting over at Furry Little Monster, so you can pop over there and see my post on Helen’s blog. And Helen is guest-posting at Kate’s blog. We’re just hopping all over the place and hoping you’ll join us on all three blogs today to hear how we think we’re turning into our moms.

So, without any further chit-chat, I bring you Kate!

Hello friends of Lois! My name is Kate and I've popped over to say hi to you today from a VERY cold United Kingdom.

Lois, myself and Helen will be guest posting about once a month on each other's blog and this time I've been lucky enough to hop over the pond to join Lois and you guys!

So we all decided that a common theme would be suitable for the mini blog hop…."How I'm turning into my mother".

Now my Mum and I have a very close relationship, she is my best friend and everyone says we are so alike in lots of ways, looks included.

So why did I find it hard to make this page??

We had about three weeks to think up a page. Everytime I started it just didn't seem right. Then I realised…whilst we're very similar…it's the differences between us that make us individual, and suddenly…my scrappers-block lifted and voila here is the page.

I am one of the Baker's Dozen over at Shimelle.com, so I am on her digital design team. My layouts aren't exclusively digital, but the speed and ease of digital lures me in quite often these days. This is no exception!

Apologies for the blurring of pictures, I don't post pictures of me or my family online..which can make showing scrap pages hard sometimes, so close your eyes and imagine two women in their twenties. The left is my Mum at her 21st birthday. The right is me, aged 24. It isn't the best photo of me, but its the only one I have where I'm not showing my teeth when I smile. Mum never shows her teeth on photos. I picked these photos as I wanted to look at the similarities between us physically.

But then..as the pages says…there is only a fine line between us…but that's what makes it interesting.

The journalling reads across….

We both have big blue eyes…we both love taking care of people
One of us is untidy….one of us is tidy
We both have limited patience…we both stand up for ourselves
One of us is organised…the other tries.
One of us works with our hands…one of us works with our head
We both love food. A lot. …..We both have decent sized teeth (random but true!)
We both love the sunshine…we both put our family first
One of us can work computers…the other makes a feeble attempt.
One is a mother…one is a daughter….
*NOTE BREAK OF THE FINE LINE ON THE PAGE AT THIS POINT!*
We will always be best friends.

I'd just like to say…I purposely mixed up the statements and the photographs to keep the reader guessing. Most of the bad ones are me though. My Mummy is fab!

The kit is from Shabby Princess and was a total freebie. The font is Champagne and Limousine from dafont.com (free) and Ali Edward's writing.

The digital template is from my own range of digital scrapping elements "Liberty Elements" and Lois has agreed that I can giveaway this template to one of her blog readers as I hope to have some exciting things coming up with Liberty Elements in the next couple of months. Just leave me a comment and tell me how you are/are not like your Mum.

[Give-away ends Sunday 5pm GMT. One winner will be posted on Monday morning 9am GMT (or whenever I get out of bed!)

Terms and Conditions: I've just put this in to look professional. They are free templates but we need an element of fun and exclusivity, so winners: Please do not re-distribute these. Please also credit Liberty Elements @ Liberty Cottage (and a link back to here) if you use them on your blog/upload your pages to galleries. All rights reserved. Whatever that means. Winners will be picked by random.org.]

So…thanks for having me here! I hope you have enjoyed this mini blog hop and hope to see you all soon here at Lois's blog and maybe you'll come and say hi at Liberty Cottage one day too! http://libertycottage.blogspot.com

Kate
xox

Keep the fun going! Hop on over to Furry Little Monster for my post!

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