Nov

I’ve been doing a lot of circle journals lately, so for this week’s challenge on things I enjoy I tapped some of the layouts I’ve made for the CJs.

1. My kids laughing and playing together without fighting!
2. Creating a “perfect” scrapbook page
3. Gorgeous, sunny days – either 75 degrees with a slight breeze, or 20 degrees with tons of snow!
4. A great run down a ski slope
5. A massage
6. Reality TV – guilty pleasures!
7. Peace and quiet
8. A new novel
9. ’80s music
10. Listening to the waves crash on a beach
11. Stepping off an airplane arriving at a new place
12. Cuddling with my husband
13. A clean kitchen floor – a rarity in my house these days!
14. Planning parties and other special events
15. Girls’ night out
16. Playing cards with my family
17. Shabbat – my day of rest
18. Leaving the salon after a great haircut
19. Cape Codders
20. A long phone chat with a good friend
21. Getting to sleep late
22. Wearing a new, brightly colored shirt
23. Finding jeans that fit just right
24. Hiking in the mountains
25. Swinging in our new hammock on a warm – not hot – day
26. Hanging out with my cousins and telling the same old stories about growing up in our crazy family
27. Looking at catalogs
28. My work (most of the time)
29. A great (non-smoky) piano bar
30. Peanut Buster Parfaits from Dairy Queen
31. Opening my monthly “pizza boxes” (the monthly scrapbook clubs I subscribe to)
32. TiVo – how did I ever watch TV without it?!!
33. My iPod
34. Watching college basketball & pro football

Okay, guess that’s enough for now – 34 things since I am about to turn 34 (!!!).

  

Sep

I’m not sure I have 10 scrapbook mantras!

I guess the thing I most WISH was my one true scrapbook mantra would be Stacy Julian’s “I’m so far ahead”. I WANT to believe that so much! I mean, it really is the case that every page I make is a memory preserved for my family that wouldn’t exist if I didn’t make that page. BUT, somehow I still can’t stop feeling “behind”!

I guess my only other mantra-like thing is … “Just do it!”. I am really trying to work on not collecting more supplies, and instead focus on actually getting pages done!

Sorry, it’s not 10, I know. I guess I’m just not a mantra kind of girl. I do have a non-scrapbook-related mantra right now, though – “Come Home”! Craig has been at a conference in Portugal for almost a week, and I’ve very ready for him to be back!

(CRAIG IN PORTUGAL – back next day)

  

Jun

Of course, now that I’m caught up on these, the topic would have to be – sharing a picture of my “art” space. NO WAY!!! It is just oo messy right now. I know, I know, the challenge said don’t clean up, it doesn’t matter, blah blah blah. I would just be way too embarrassed to show pictures of this room in its current state. One of my goals for the summer is to get it cleaned up and organized. If I succeed in my goal, I’ll post a picture then. How’s that for a cop-out?!!

As it turns out, in my house, my art space and work space are really the same – my husband and I share a large study, though his “half” is much smaller than mine! %-) I have a desk and another table along with a filing cabinet and numerous bookcases and shelving/drawer units. All my scrapbook stuff is here, along with all of our personal/household files, plus my work things I keep at home. I have a fair bit of space, but it is in no way used optimally.

I’ve tried numerous organizational schemes for my scrapbook supplies – paper/sticker binders, 12×12 stacked paper trays, a ScrapRack, the new Cropper Hopper vertical paper storage things, tons of little “things” that hold embellishments, etc., etc., etc. Of all of these, I actually like the ScrapRack best – I like their recommendations for storing things in 3 broad categories (calendar, rainbow, and theme), and I really like having paper, fibers, embellishments, etc. all together in one place. Unfortunately, I would probably need 10 ScrapRacks to store all of my stuff, and they take up a lot of table workspace.

So, right now, things are “almost organized”, meaning there’s a little bit of everything, everywhere. There’s just NO WAY I’m posting a picture!

  

Nov

Wow – I *finally*, after 5 years of marriage, just finished the very first page in my wedding albums. I’ve been putting it off and off and off, because I really felt a need for everything to be perfect on them. But Craig kept pointing out that it was better for them to be DONE than to be perfect and only existing in my head. So, it has begun. Of course, beginning is different than ending…

  

Mar

I’ve been doing a fair bit of work on the web page, as you might’ve noticed, and also a lot of work getting our scrapbooks in order. Well, really getting the stuff that will *eventually* go in the scrapbooks in order. It is a big sense of accomplishment – almost like I have a prayer (albeit a small one) of actually pulling my life together. Who knows, maybe soon I’ll finish unpacking the last few boxes that are still lying around from when we moved! %-)

One of the things I’m most glad/relieved about, as well as proud of, is that I *finally* finished Sami’s birth story. I first wrote it down a few days after she was born, then kind of forgot about it in the aftermath of becoming a parent. I went back when she was six months old and added some details I had forgotten, and, again, essentially forgot about it. One of my friends recently asked if she could read it; plus, we are getting really close to knowing whether we’re having a boy or a girl this time. So it was very important to me to get it “done”. It’s pretty long, but I hope people will have a look at it. I have a different perspective on it now than I did right afterward, but I tried to be true both to how I felt at the time, and how I feel now. I realized in going back over it that a lot of Sami’s first moments are missing, because of the c-section – Craig went with her after she was born, but I couldn’t. So I have wrangled from him a promise to write his own version of the birth story. He says he will do it “soon”. %-)

I am very excited about the ultrasound on Friday. I wavered back and forth with wanting to know what we’re having, and not wanting to know. But, in the end, my curiosity will get the best of me. Maybe for our third child, I will want to be surprised, but this time we will find out. We’ve had an early ultrasound already, so we’ve seen the baby’s heart beating, etc. But it’s almost like it’s not realy until we know what we’re having. Of course, part of the reason is that Craig refuses to discuss names until after the ultrasound – somehow the experience of being pregnant and bonding with the baby becomes more intense for me once I know what to call the baby (at least that happened last time).

I’m just rambling now – time for sleep.