Scrapbook Update

Ok, here it is number 17 toward my goal. I am very pleased with this layout.



Sorry the colors don't come through with the photos. I would scan them if I had time and, well a scanner. The colors are very beachy in real life. This layout was really a melding of 2 BH sketches in the book. One I stole the color scheme and some page elements from and one I stole the photo placement from. Best thing is I used some poem stones I bought 4 years ago!!! I am glad they still stick to the paper after all this time! This was our first trip to Cape Cod (or The Cod as Greg likes to say) to visit Greg's cousins and their kids who I had never met before. We were only there for one night but we had a great time. 2003-2004 album is officially "underway".

Mom asked for the recipe for the pizzas we made on valentine's day. I will dig it out and post tomorrow maybe.

February Garden Update

Well, I didn't have a terribly productive weekend. I spent all Saturday helping a friend move her family of 3 from a tiny (overstuffed) studio apartment to a roomy one-bedroom across the street in campus housing. It was very hard work but we had little 5 month old William there to cheer us on (and drool on us). Then Sunday I had a migraine and spent most of the day in a drug induced slumber. I did manage to get one layout finished, Cape Cod, and will try and post it tomorrow.

But in other news I was thinking recently about the garden. It is the time of year when the seed companies and garden supply houses send out catalogues so gardeners can begin planning for spring. Well last summer I told Greg I wanted him to give me one bed in the garden to grow what I wanted instead of all his yucky tomatoes, brussel sprouts, and dinosaur kale! Yuck! Before you attack me about the tomatoes (since we can all agree that brussel sprouts and dino kale are completely inedible), I like tomatoes I just don't like them raw. I am all about cooked tomatoes and well hey, they are higher in lycopene when you cook them!

Anyway, now that the catalogues are here and I am supposed to plan I just don't seem as motivated as I was last summer. Probably because it is cold out and the garden looks like this:

Yes, those green stalks in the center of the photo are the before mentioned yucky brussel sprouts that grew but never produced any "fruit" and then froze there. Another reason brussel sprouts are evil, they LOOK so cute because they are mini cabbage heads so you are enticed to eat them and their cuteness but then they surprise you by tasting so bitter and bad!!!! The garden is where all the snow from the driveway, the roof, and the back of the house goes when we shovel and you can see there is still a lot left (it is a little better now). It will need a lot of work.

I had planned to grow zucchini, pumpkin, carrots, and cucumbers in my area but I haven't fully decided. Hopefully when things warm up and the sun is out I will be more inclined to get out there and get my hands dirty! Look for more garden updates in the future.

Scrap Space

I was just online the other day and someone posted photos of her newly reorganized and redecorated scrapbook room. The place looked like a scrapbook store!!!! It took her 12 photos to show all of her set up! Then yesterday in my 2 peas garden newletter they showcased a garden girls beautiful new scraproom with custom built furnature and storage. Yikes, it was gorgeous. Well those types of posts really make me laugh when I compare them to my space.


Yep, right now I work in the hallway. I put up a small card table next to the computer table in the hallway between the kitchen and living room. Yes, this is where the magic happens, on a table that is 3 feet wide by 1.5 feet deep! It really forces me to clean-up between layouts. I do spread out to the floor when I am work but I have room for one 2 page layout (see cape cod in progress on the table!), my scrapbook light, my little trash bag, my tape and my books. I use the computer a lot for my layouts so it is handy to have it right next to me (if I can get Greg off it for a few minutes) and right now my 12x12 cardstock is at my feet. Before you feel too sorry for me I do have a large bookshelf positioned directly behind me that stores all of my supplies (and I have a lot of stuff!) including all my patterned paper and smaller cardstock, all my photos, albums, and tools.
But really, the little table is where it happens! And let me tell you, I fill up the hallway. Greg and I are always trying to slip past one another to get something from the kitchen or get to the livingroom and there isn't much space when we are working in our hallway! Oh NYC apartment living! The funny thing is, the hall is our favorite part of our apartment! In our old place we had no hallways! This is luxury for us! The best part is I can leave my table set-up in the hall all the time. I used to move ALL my stuff into the living room for marathon scrapbooking weekend and then have to move it back. And then I wouldn't work on anything until I had time to start over and do another marathon session. Now my table is up all the time and out of the way and I can work a little at a time ANY time! I have had larger spaces in the past but this set-up is working for me better than all those larger spaces. Everything is right there, I don't even have to stand up to get what I need. I just turn around and there it is at my finger tips. And with my baby step mentatlity these days I don't need room to spread out multiple layouts and I rarely work on more than one type of project at once. I am currently working on layout 17 toward my 52 layout goal!!!! My space must be doing something right!

The great tape project

So what does Greg do in his spare time? Well not much since he has very little spare time these days between work and school. In the summer he is all about the garden but during the non-growing season his is fully engrossed in his music collecting. On any given weekend you will usually find him working on making a mix cd for someone or visiting the thrift store to look for $1 records. But for his new years resolution he decided to convert a great number of his old cassettes to CD. This has been a difficult project for him. Not only does he have a mountain of cassettes, but he truly loves cassettes as a medium for music and doesn't want to get rid of any of them or believe that CD is better. I think he realized that he needs to preserve some of them because the cassettes are getting pretty worn out but he also wants to free up some space in our bedroom where the cassettes currently reside. So a little at a time he has been converting them to CD.

It has brought me down memory lane for sure. These are just a few of the cassettes we found in the house that are mine. They are mostly mixed tapes Greg made for me when we were dating. I don't listen to them anymore because, well they're on tape! So we went through all my old stuff and figured out what was already on CD or vinyl elsewhere and burned some to CD and tossed others. This week I have been listening to some of those old mixes and it has brought back memories of cruising around town in my Nova with the music blasting singing along as I drive around the city or to and from Bellingham. Good times, good times!

Well, he has a long ways to go but I think he is having a lot of fun with it.

Scrapbook Update

Over the Presidents Day weekend I only scrapped 3.5 layouts but it seemed like I was working on scrapbook stuff the entire 3 days. Here are the layouts (please pardon the less than stellar photos, I was in a hurry to get to work). I bought a Heide Swapp chipboard frame kit at Target and thought I would give it a go on this layout. I am not super happy with it since it really isn't my style but my new motto for 2006 is "just run with it". Instead of getting bogged down in my perfectionism I just plowed ahead. Who cares if it isn't perfect and didn't turn out the way I hoped. IT'S DONE!!!! Anyway, it was my first time using chipboard. This layout is of our 2nd anniversary. Something you should know about my albums, they run from Aug to July instead of Jan to Dec. I know it is strange for a chronological album but that is how I started scrapping them and now I am stuck with it. My first album started the day after the wedding so instead of following the calendar they follow our life together (aw, how romantic OR how sickeningly sweet!). So this was the last layout for the book! I was so excited to be done with another year.......then I was laying in bed and realized I forgot one layout. That's right I needed a title page. This one was super simple and understated. I used some old MM perspectives I bought years ago and did some fancy font work, added some rub ons, some ribbon and a couple photo corners and called it a day. NOW THE BOOK WAS DONE!!!!! Yippie! I really feel like I made some progress. I spent part of the day ordering the layouts by date and putting them into the album. At this point I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything so I checked all my online photo places as well as my computer to make sure there weren't some photos that I never had printed. We didn't have a digital camera in 2002-2003 so there was nothing missing. I did take a few hours on-line to re-organize all my online albums at snapfish and shutterfly and realized there were a lot of photos for 2003-2004 that I had never had printed so I placed an order. It felt good to get those accounts cleaned up. I also cleaned up my space and prepared to start the next album.
Here is my first layout for the new book. Thanksgiving AGAIN!!! I am sure you are wondering about the colors, brown and purple!? We had a funny thing happen where Greg and I were supposed to bring disposable plates and everyone preferred the heavy duty plastic ones so we went to the store and all the normal colors were gone! Well when you live in NYC and getting to the store that sells the plates took you 2 subway transfers and 45 min you don't just go to another store. You buy the least ugly ones and in this case it was purple. John (our host) was not daunted by the color choice and worked his magic to make the table decorations coordinate. That is why I went with purple! Again this layout is a BH sketch. Her books are really helping me power through these photos by not getting bogged down in trying to come up with design ideas. I also got half of a cape cod trip scrapped, more on that later.

President's Day Weekend

I know it was Presidents Day weekend but I am going to post photos from Valentine's Day instead (mainly because we did nothing "presidential" this last weekend worth photographing!).

Here are the little heart-shaped pizzas we made. They were so cute and SO yummy. We actually ate them for 2 days because we had so much stuff left over. We also enjoyed a bottle of sparkling wine we picked up on our last trip out to the North Fork of Long Island to taste NY wines. The sparkling wine was from Old Field, our new favorite winery.












Over the weekend we pretty much just hung out in the house. Our schedules during the week have been so hectic lately that on the weekend we just love to putter around the house and be together. I of course scrapbooked and did some projects around the house and Greg worked on his tape project (more on that later). It has been really cold here in NYC; they keep using the word "arctic". I don't know if it's that cold but the house was definitely chilly this weekend. In an effort to save money (which in turn keeps our rent low) we have been leaving the heat alone at 70 degrees. Now it usually only registers 68 on the thermometer and that is COLD in my book. Plus the livingroom is really drafty. It has been really hard for me to leave the heat alone but I am doing my best. I bought these fingerless gloves in Brooklyn earlier this winter and I sure have been using them often. I have been trying to wear something warm and cozy instead of playing with the heat and scrapbooking has actually helped believe it or not. I have my scrapbook area set up in the hallway and that part of the house is naturally warmer than the livingroom. So I put on my gloves and a sweater and work to stay warm! I just wish spring would hurry up and come!

Wow, I've already slacked off!

Well I have already posted less than I intended too! I found out that it is impossible for me to post photos from home because I use dial-up (hey, it's free!) so I have to bring my images to work on a memory stick and that takes actaul planning. That may slow me down but I won't be defeated!

It is Friday and I had to get up this morning at 5am for leaders meeting. I know, you are thinking "so what! I get up everyday at 5am!". Well I don't so it was hard and I am a little on the sleepy side but I just remind myself there is a 3 day weekend ahead of me! There are so many things I want to get done over the weekend as well as have some time to just "chill".

I got some cute photos on Valentine's day which I will share shortly as well as any scrapbook related projects I manage to finish over the weekend.

Have a wonderful President's Day holiday!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's day. I am making homemade vegan heart-shaped pizzas tonight for my darling husband. The recipe comes from the Vegan with a Vengance cookbook. That book has the BEST recipe for tofu ricotta we have ever had, seriously! His valentine's gift to me is that he is going to work on digging out the car tonight so I can get to bible study on Friday morning (see yesterdays post for photo of car, yikes!). What a sweetheart.

As promised here are the layouts I did over the weekend during the blizzard.

This page still needs some work. I am really having a hard time with that blank area on the top left!
That makes 13 layouts towared my 2006 goal. Here are some of the other layouts that I have done for this album (2002-2003 yes I am very behind!).

The title for this layout was inspired by my friend Katie who keeps the DIY spirit alive in her scrapbooking.

Blizzard of 06

Wow, what a weekend! We got over 26 inches of snow overnight on Saturday, a new record for NYC. With the high winds I guess it was actually a blizzard. We rode out the storm in our cozy apartment watching movies and of course scrapbooking (Greg made mix tapes). Greg was a sweetheart and did all the shoveling on Sunday while I made us some hearty "it's cold outside" veggie chili for lunch. Here are some photos of the snow but keep in mind these were taken after a day of thaw (the temp was above freezing on Monday). You can see from the shot of the car we still have a lot of work ahead of us!!!!!












I will post the layouts I did over the weekend later. I still need to reformat them but right now I need to hike over the train in my new winter boots that I bought for a ski trip but never used so that I can get to BSF to deliver the bible lesson. Tonights aim is that God gives clear guidance to those who put their trust in Him. I hope the kids sit still long enough for me to get the point across!

2006 New Years Resolutions

Last year for my new years resolutions I decided not to resolve to do something I knew I would never be able to stick with (like exercise more, lose weight, etc) so instead I decided to resolve to learn something new. I chose to learn how to knit and actually did it! It worked so well last year I decided to give it another try, so this year I resolved to use up all the scrapbook supplies that I have been hoarding. I resolving to scrap 52 layouts this year. One per week. I wanted to do it in baby steps too. One layout a week is a lot less pressure than "get caught up on all photos" and I wanted to encourage myself to do a little each day toward a completed layout rather than have these marathon weekends like I have in the past. So far so good. I made this little sign to keep me motivated:

So far I have done 10 layouts and I am only 5.5 weeks into the new year! Last night I got home late and didn't really have time to do any real scrapbook work but instead of just giving up I decided to spend 5 minutes picking out the photos I wanted to do next and just think about a color scheme. I didn't finish anything but at least it is a baby step toward my goal for this week and one baby step closer than I was the day before!

Here are some layouts I have done so far this year:

These layouts all come from the Becky Higgins sketch book and some are direct scraplifts of her examples in the book. I can't help it, I love her style! Look for updates on my scrapbooking adventures.

Not another blog!

Why am I really starting a blog? I am so tired of people emailing me and telling me that I can stay updated on their lives because they have started a fantastic new blog. Great! I put them in my favorites list and guess what THEY NEVER UPDATE THEIR BLOG! So I thought maybe I should give it a try before I judge too harshly!

We'll see how it goes!!!