Scrapbook Update

I did not end up doing any real scrapbooking this weekend for a variety of reasons. The main one being that I need to wait for some photos to arrive from the developer. Instead I got a jump start on my Christmas cards. I won't show the full design just yet but it is one I picked out last year for its simplicity. Unfortunately a year later I think it is too simple so I am still adjusting it. I figured I might as well get started. Just this morning I added a new touch to my sample that will involve a paper punch so now I need to adjust the 50 cards shown above.

The next major step is to get Greg to pose for ANOTHER picture with me. He sees it as torture but I think it is fun. We are brain storming a new pose this year since Greg thinks the Christmas photos all look alike. MEN! Obviously my hair is totally different each year, can't he see that!

Weekend Plans

When my mom was out for a visit she brought me some photos of my Grandma Howard which I was able to scan yesterday. So this weekend I hope to work on a tribute to her for my 04-05 album (she died during that year). This is a funny one of us together because there was this time in my life where EVERY picture of me has this silly face (usually with my eyes open) consisting of a scrunched nose and teeth. That must have been my "say cheese" face.

This weekend I also have some major housework that needs to be done. Where does all the dust come from? Seriously!

Greg has his mid-term next week so he will be studying like a madman. This weekend is also the beginning of Angel Tree season which I am apart of each year at church. This week we start handing out angels (gift requests) to people. It is usually lots of fun!

Have a great weekend!

What to post about

I was so desperate for a topic I was prepared to blog about chocolate today. I was enjoying some dark chocolate with marzipan filling and thought, why not share it with my blog buddies. But the lab camera was gone and next thing I knew so was the chocolate (how did that happen?) and the urge to post had passed.

So there you have it, my post for today! I will try and create some interest in my life tonight to share with you tomorrow!

Scrapbooking Update - Layouts 55 & 56

I managed to complete a couple layouts this weekend. The first will be the cover page for the 2004-2005 album.

I used patterned paper and cardstock from the last kit I got in Sept. The plastic letters ("years") were from heidi swapp which I painted black (they came clear). The newspaper flower came in the last kit too but I changed out the button center from brown to black and added some waxed twine (which I curled) and hung the "4" tag off of that with a little green ribbon. Then I stapled the dates on the bottom right and whala, done. Here is a look at the detail in the corner.

The next layout features my new years resolution for 2005. I resolved to learn something new that year and taught myself to knit. The layout explains the story and shows just a few of my knitting projects. I also threw in a couple cake decorating photos since it was a craft layout and I took cake decorating classes with Alice that year too.

This layout features patterned paper and flowers from past kits. I used some buttons my mom gave me when she was visiting for the flower centers. A few letter stickers, some paint around the edges and it was done. I was really struggling with where to put the title and eventually just stuck it down (JUST DO IT!!). I think it is funny becuase the focal photo is a headless me knitting and now it looks like my head is the title block!

I took these photos outside on my deck this morning and boy do they look so much nicer than the ones I take in the house!

Fall is in the air!

I actually had so many options of things to talk about today that I couldn't decide! Today is a chilly, rainy, fall day. I actually love days like this (though I prefer to stay home and observe it out the window from my warm sofa!). I think the drizzle reminds me of fall in Seattle.

Spring was always my favorite time of year and I still love the trees in bloom but in NYC it rains a lot in the spring so my new favorite season is fall. It is still usually really warm out and we have these wonderful color changes here with all the non-pine trees. I try and bring a little of this into the house in my fall decor:

The gourds in the photo are ones that Greg grew in the garden 2 years ago, dried and cured. I love them. The leaf garlands are from Crate and Barrel last year. I usually have fresh pumpkins and gourds around the living room too but this year the garden didn't produce any and we haven't had a chance to go out and buy any yet. Maybe this weekend we will pick some up!


In addition to the pretty fall views the thing I really love about fall is the ability to use the oven again. I love hot foods cooked in the oven (pizza, casseroles, roasted veggies, etc) and I miss those things in the summer when it is far to hot to turn on the oven. In the last few weeks we have been roasting and baking up a storm. Last night I decided to try my hand at an apple pie. We don't love apple pie so I wouldn't normally go to all the trouble but we found ourselves with 10 apples to eat. What better way to use them up than in a pie.

So here it is! The little thing in the center is a pie vent in the shape of a bird. He kind of fell to the side during baking. It is supposed to keep your pie from bubbling over and it seemed to work pretty well. We haven't tasted this pie yet since it was supposed to cool for 6 hours before eating and it came out of the oven at 10pm last night. We will have it for dessert tonight with some vanilla soy ice cream.

Lastly a little surprise from Greg. He was a sweetheart and stopped at the grocery store after class last night on his way home from school. The grocery store is not his favorite place. If you have ever visited us (or you live here) you know that NYC grocery stores are small and crowded and Fairway is especially bad. But when he came home he had picked these up for me!

What a sweet guy. I love them! Have a great weekend everyone!

Garden Update

(That's right, 4 days in a row!)

Perhaps no one will be interested in this but I wanted to produce proof that the garden is a complete disaster!

I sent Greg out to capture the mess this last weekend. As you can see everything is completely overgrown with weeds. Even the pathways which have that magic weed repelling black fabric on them are covered in weeds!

Greg pulled out the last of the tomatoe plants because they had stopped producing anything but a few rotten tomatoes. The next photo shows our last surviving plant. It is a vine which is amost completely covered in weeds now but there is one small yellow squash growing on it which you can almost see if you look closely.
There is going to be a neighborhood leaf collection pretty soon. I think we should try and sneak our weeds into the pick-up since we don't have any leaf producing trees. Do you think they would notice?

Scrapbook Update

I am trying really hard to be a good blogger this week, can you tell?

This weekend I completed a couple more layouts. You may remember this one as a work in progress. I think it turned out a little busy but I loved this patterned paper so much I had to use it! You may be wondering, "where is the journalling?"

I decided to try my hand at hidden journalling. I was able to stick quite a lot under the bottom right photo in an effort to keep the layout from being way to busy. It already has tons of photos and details.

This next layout will be the last layout in the album and it highlights our anniversary. Yep, that means I am almost done with the 2004-2005 album. In fact I started working on the title page this weekend. After that I will have a "Misc" layout and maybe a couple more single pagers and then I am done.

Sorry the lighting it kind of bad. I took this photo in the hallway under a light bulb which has given it a yellow hue. I usually take my photos in the morning but the light is coming in from the back of my house and all the windows back there have bars on them (city living!). That means I have to be creative with lighting until I someday get a scanner!

I am thinking about buying all new scrapbook albums. I was using MM brand albums but have noticed that all the page protectors are turning yellow and cloudy and most are not true 12x12 so they split when I slip my pages in. I am thinking about switching to American Crafts albums. They are really hot right now. Anyone using a brand they love?

Baby Alert!

For those who remember this announcement way back in March I wanted to give you an update. I received this cute little card in the mail last weekend letting me know that Ava has arrived. Isn't she adorable. I am told that momma and baby are doing great!

And isn't this the cutest card ever? Katie, you have to tell me what fonts you used! They look like the most perfect hand printing ever and I must know!

Congratulations on your new arrival!

Weekend Fun

I have had a migraine headache since Sunday at about 7pm (which is why I didn't call mom!) but otherwise I had a very nice weekend.

Greg convinced me to go to a concert on Saturday. It was a Rose Melburg show in SoHo. So I put on my best indie rock outfit and we headed out to the show. We ended up getting there really early and found parking really easily so to kill time we walked around the neighborhood. We went into Babycakes Bakery for some Vegan Cupcakes (they also do gluten free if you are looking for a replacement for Yum Yum Yum bakery!) which were very tasty. Then we walked over to Teany and enjoyed a pot of tea and good conversation. Teany is a tea house owned and run by Moby the musician. I have seen it advertised in magazines and even on TV a few times and have always wanted to check it out. I kind of wished I hadn't stuffed myself with vegan cupcakes because Teany had a whole menu of luscious vegan desserts including pumpkin cheesecake which I love. I guess I will have to go again for lunch or dinner and tea!

The show was fun and very low key. We met up with friends at the Cakeshop (the name of the venue), grabbed a comfy seat, and enjoyed the music.

On the way home there was an incident involving Greg and pee pee but I will spare him the embarrassment. Just know that I now have really juicy blackmail material!

Blogger Update

You may have noticed a few changes to my blog. I have switched over to beta blogger. Blogger is working on some upgrades and are allowing blog writers to try them out. A couple new features I like:

1. There are several new features that are making writing and design easier (hence my purple masthead!).

2. I can now label my posts by themes. You will notice a menu of labels on the right hand side. If you click on a label like "scrapbooking" it will pull up all the posts with that label. This will make it easier to search for an old post or to see only stuff that interests you. I have gone back and labelled about 1/5 of my old posts so be patient. It will take a while!

3. Everything else I am still figuring out!

Celebrate Good Times...

...come On! Drum roll please.... I am happy to announce that as of 10/09/06 I completed my goal of scrapbooking 52 layouts in 2006!!!!!!
I really can't believe it myself but I am pleased as punch really. I have struggled for years with finding a way to scrapbook consistently. This system has meant giving up a permanent space in my hallway which hasn't been aesthetically pleasing but has allowed me to save on set-up time so I can get right down to the art of scrapbooking. Another thing that let me meet my goal was working on giving up on my perfectionism just a little so that I don't get as hung up on the whole process.

So here it is, the 52nd layout...
A simple layout using cardstock, photo corners (I had been slacking on my photo corner usage), a fabric flower, some buttons, waxed twine, and some things from the September kit including the cute patterned paper, the sequined ribbon, and the metal bar over the flower.

I have so many people to thank for this accomplishment. 1st I should thank Becky Higgins for her "1 Sketch Many Looks" columns and books. I use them all the time for photo placement (or just to outright scraplift). 2nd my dear husband Greg for putting up with this hobby of mine and the hoards of stuff I have accumulated over the years. 3rd all my blog readers, especially my mom who have been so encouraging and also motivated me to get my layouts done so I would have SOMETHING to post each week. :)

Greg has always asked me if I was going to keep scrapping after I reached my goal or if I would take break for a while. Well here is the answer....
Here is layout 53. If is a work in progress but proof that I will keep at it. I still would like to get caught up on my post-marriage scrapbooking while I have the time and energy.

Sorry!

Sorry sorry sorry! I didn't work Monday, then Tuesday was BSF night so I was pretty busy with work and preparation for class and there is little time to post. I was going to post yesterday but ended up leaving work early because of a migraine.

As I mentioned I had a 3 day weekend and it was fabulous. The lecture by Lauren Winner was great. Most of what she talked about was right out of the book (which was the whole point I suppose) so there wasn't really much new information but it was a great lecture and discussion none the less. Lauren was a lot like I expected. Very much an english doctoral student! She kept using words I didn't know! Ha! Her main topics were: lies (she used the word tropes!) the church tells about sex (this was the bulk of the talk), and singleness. One interesting thing she mentioned about the importance of singleness is that while marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship to the church and useful for teaching us about covenant relationships, singleness is a picture of our relationships in the afterlife where we won't be married or in families but will all be brothers and sisters in Christ. We need singleness to teach/point to that dynamic and in that way it is valuable to society. I had never thought of it that way before. Anyway, I got my book signed and thanked her for writing it and all the others as well. I never know what to say at a book signing. There was a whole line of people waiting behind me (pressure) and I didn't have a specific question to ask so I just said "blah blah blah you are awesome blah blah blah". Kind of lame I know. If anyone in the NYC area is interested in the book let me know and I will lend it to you.

Lunch with John and Aimee on Sunday was nice and refreshing. The difference between the lecture (where I sat and made small talk with strangers) and the lunch with old friends was staggering. It was so nice to just sit and talk with people who know you really well. We made pizzas for lunch which is a fun way to eat as a group. We provided lots of toppings and just let everyone build their own pizza. I did buy real mozzarella for our guests and boy did Greg jump right in and eat it too. He does still eat cheese just not usually at home.

Monday I just relaxed and did some odd jobs around the house. I scrapbooked my 52nd layout and did 80% of my 53rd layout and took a nice long nap. It was a glorious day of much needed rest!

I want to post about my 52nd layout but Greg has the jumpdrive in his school bag right now and I keep forgetting to load the photos onto my ipod. Perhaps tonight I will have some time to get it together.

One last thing. The Paula Abdul workout was terrible. I sent it back the next day. It was just far to advanced. What she called "step 1" was a 16 count dance sequence done in hyperspeed. She had 12 "steps" total! I suppose if you paused and studied it and worked hard to memorize the extremely complicated routine it would be fun (in a totally 80s dance video kind of way) but I don't have the time or patience. I can barely get up the desire to work out so I need videos I can easily do. Just my 2 cents!

Weekend Plans

Another couple crazy days here in the lab. On top of that I had to be up at 5am for BSF this morning so I am dragging right now.

I decided to take Monday off from work and discussed it with my boss. She agreed we could both use a break. I am hoping to get some scrapbooking done since the rest of my weekend will be pretty busy.

On Saturday I am going to a lecture on this book:

The author will be speaking to the women's ministries group at my church. I love all of Lauren Winner's books so I am excited to hear her speak. This book is on chastity but also deals with fidelity (and sees them as the same call) so I think I will still get a lot out of her talk. I may even get my copy signed, we'll see.

On Sunday our good friends John and Aimee are coming over for lunch and a long overdue visit. I am really looking forward to it.

So I will by tidying up and making some yummy pizza dough for homemade pizzas.

Have a great weekend!

Tidbits

Scrapbooking Tidbits:
There was some kind of problem over at Jenni Bowlin studios (where I get my monthly scrapbooking kits) and they are requiring everyone to buy the kits individually this month whether you were a member or not. For some reason the kit just didn't grab me this month (especially the patterned paper) so for October I have decided to take a break. I have barely touched my September kit so hopefully this will give me a chance to use up some of what I have.
I am almost done with my 2004-2005 album so I am going to start organizing the next year of memories. I think I may order all my photos from scrapbookpictures.com this time around and that means a bit more planning on my part. We'll see how it goes.

Garden Tidbits:
The garden is a mess!

Exercise Tidbits:
I have been making an effort to exercise each morning. Those who know me well know I HATE WORKING OUT!!!!! But when I hit 30 I started packing on the pounds and had to come to the realization that I no longer had a choice. My body has decided it doesn't want to play fair anymore so I have to show it who's boss. I have about 4 workout videos and after the first month of consistent workouts I was bored with them all. That is when I realized that Netflix has workout videos. Now I make sure one of our selections is always an exercise video and it has been great. I do each one for a week and it has kept it interesting. I tend to prefer dance style videos but just finished the "Biggest Loser" workout which is not dance at all. I liked it so much I bought it off Amazon yesterday (only $9). It has 4 different workout choices including some with weights and some plain aerobic options. It is a nice contrast from my dance videos. Right now I have "Crunch Cardio Dance" at home. Not one I will probably buy but it has been fun and pretty easy to follow. I don't sweat as much as with other workouts but the routines are short and lively. It was also very well produced. Next in my Queue is "Paula Abdul's Get Up and Dance". I know it will be cheesy but I couldn't help myself! It should be here in a couple days. Do you have a video you love? Let me know.

School Tidbit:
For those following Greg's drama at CUNY, it all worked out. He was re-enrolled in his class and they dropped all the fees and charges. No one could really explain what happened so it is possible it could happen again in the future. Pretty soon he will be taking a break from the lab to begin writing his thesis in addition to taking Organic Synthesis this semester. He is pretty burned out with the whole school thing but is trying to plod along in hopes of finishing this year.

Work Tidbit:
My job has been insanely busy right now. I am filling in for a person who has left the department while we try and find a replacement and it has been pretty stressful. It means that when I get home I mostly want to veg out in front of the TV. All the season premieres this time of year help with that too. So, I haven't been getting much else done at home which means fewer interesting things to blog about. Which is how we end up with a post entitled "Tidbits"!

Layouts 50 & 51

Oh so close!!! I can almost taste victory. I did manage to finish all the wedding photos from my sisters nuptuals. This one if from the reception:
Includes, some MM wordfetti on the top, MM velvet letter stickers which I forgot all about, a few paper flowers with brad centers, and some HS bling (rhinestone circles). Of course the cake ended up being front and center. What can I say, I made it and am oh so very proud!

I had to scrap these next photos seperatly. The story was too funny and I didn't want it to get lost in the reception layout:
I used some BG rub-on letters from the Sept. kit and then painted inside them for a pearlescent effect. The "in the" are some REALLY old letter sticker I found in my drawer. I used a little of the paint around the edges, added 2 pearl brads, and machine sticked on the vellum journalling and 2 paper flowers. Simple but lovely if I do say so myself. The jouranlling:

"Greg casually mentioned during set up "I wonder how many of the photos will have that NO PARKING sign in them". Yikes! The sign was right behind the ceremony setting. Mom and Dad lept into action and covered the sign with some left over decorating supplies. They also had to pick some extra foliage near the sign and hoped the "arboretum police" wouldn't catch them but the photographer did"

I just love the look on their faces when they turned around and realized they had been caught!