Scrapbook Update

I did manage to complete one scrapbook related project over the weekend. As I mentioned in the past I have had the desire to replace some of my scrapbook albums for various reasons. I finally settled on a new book and ordered a bunch of them. Then I decided I wanted all my books to match. That unfortunately is impossible because they are all different sizes and styles of pages (strap bound vs. post bound etc.) so I thought if they can't be identical they could at least be the same color. And what better color than BLACK! It is timeless and universally available in nearly every size, style, and brand.
So here they are, my new albums. I have replace the Memory Makers albums with American Craft leather albums (the first 4). I had to go through a rep to replace my Creative Memories albums with black versions (the next 2). I already had 2 8x8 black mini albums so I found 2 more on the Internet and my mom is sending a 3rd so that I can make all future mini books black (they are discontinuing that album so I wanted to stock up). I still need to order a mini 6x6 album and an 8.5x11 album but that can come later. I suppose it is a little boring that they are all black and similar but I think it looks so slick up on the shelf.

Weekend Recap

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. Mondays are a hard day for me to post because I have BSF after work so I have to leave on time and that means I also have to be very productive during the day.

Last weekend I attended Craft Club on Saturday. We had a baby shower for a friend who moved to CA but was in town for a visit and just a couple months from her due date. There was a lot of visiting and very little knitting done. I did decide to start the bunny hat but it is a little on the small side so I think I need to frog it and start over. On the way home Greg picked me up at the train and we stopped in at the Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden. Sadly I had the camera in my bag and then forgot to bring it in to the garden so I don't have a single photo of an orchid to share. The show runs until April and Greg and I are now members of the Botanical Garden so we will probably go again before it is over. The flowers were REALLY pretty, the crowds were not. It was opening day (members only!) so there were a lot of people. After we got home I took a long nap on Saturday and watched movies with Greg in the evening.

Sunday I spent most of the day working and then in the evening we attended an Oscar party with some folks from work. I thought the Oscars were fairly entertaining this year. There was a little wagering going on to see who could predict the most correct awards but I didn't win this year. Sunday night during the Oscars we had a bit of snow storm. It wasn't too bad to drive in and in the morning we woke to find the snow wasn't so deep and it was already melting. They had predicted 7-8 inches total but we only ended up with 3 or so. You know, in the Old Testament when prophesy didn't come true the prophets were killed. Weathermen should be glad we don't hold them to that same standard!

Friday I'm in Love

No excitement here. It is Friday and the sun is shining which is nice for a change. I am crazy busy at work right now unfortunately and will have to work most of the weekend. In order to do that I had to order a new laptop to replace my desktop computer at work. I spent ALL day yesterday transferring files and reloading software (the IT guy is of course on vacation). I was about 75% done. Then this morning I come in and my desktop computer wouldn't wake-up. It is fried!!!!!!! Glad I had the laptop! The computer geeks in the lab were able to salvage my old hard drive and I can get the rest of my files but I had been hoping to use my desktop computer today. There is not printer working on this laptop yet and a bunch of other stuff that needs to be configured and I just don't have time right now. I must single handedly stop the government from taking away all our money. Not really but a little. Pseudo accountant Alexis is budgeting up a storm today.

The worst part about this computer fiasco is that I missed the office last night and there is a new episode ready for download on itunes and I don't have itunes set up yet on the laptop! ARGH!

Have a good weekend!

Misc Musings

Today is promising to be a busy day. I have several projects at work all converging this week. So all I have today to share are tidbits.

First, this is the Valentine's Day card my sister made and sent me. How cute is that (it's a human heart in case you don't "see" it). I gave her a t-shirt for Christmas with this same design on the front (over the heart) and she used it as a pattern for this card. I love it.

Next is another one of my weekend projects which was re-organizing my hall closet. It is where I keep cleaning supplies, and extra toilet paper and shampoo, and my hot rollers and stuff like that. I have 2 main shelves I use and have been thinking for a long time they needed to be switched. So last weekend I swapped the shelves and toss out old stuff we don't use anymore and cleaned it all up. Now when I open the door I smile.
Here is a photo of me today. I tried a self portrait in the mirror but the lighting was really bad. I have on a new shirt (the black one) which I really like right now. I found it at www.layersclothing.com . They sell long shirts which I am really into. My other favorite place to buy long shirts is www.downeastbasics.com

Lastly is a picture from a magazine of a knit cap. I am going to craft club this weekend and it is a knitting/crochet meetings so I need to come up with a knitting project. I am either going to make this hat or finish the world's ugliest bear. It will really come down to supplies on hand. If I have the stuff to make the hat I probably will. If I don't I will finish the bear.

That is all for now!

Scrapbooking: the new process

I am trying something new for my 05-06 scrapbook. I shared my old process with you a few weeks ago. With the old process once I got my pictures printed I was ready to go. The problem is that since I got the digital camera I take way more photos than I ever did when I used film (that is the beauty of digital) and most of them are not really scrap-worthy. In the past I used to print everything and then just toss out photos that weren't good enough. That is a huge waste of money and paper. So I am trying something new.

First I printed out thumbnails of all my photos from the computer harddrive.

Next I grabbed my idea books and magazine clippings for inspiration.

Then I tried to come up with an actual layout sketch. I picked the photos I wanted to use from the proof sheet and made a list of photos and sizes. I stapled together the proof sheet, the sketch, and any magazine pages. I then uploaded only those photos I planned to use onto scrapbookpictures.com. I am ordering the photos pre-cropped to the size they will be on the layout. The goal is that I will only print photos I will use and I save time not having to crop them myself. My only complaint about scrapbookpictures.com is that they take a little longer to come than other sites like snapfish or shutterfly. It is worth is to have so many other crop and size options. In the time I spend waiting for the photos to be delivered I am going to start finding papers and embellishments for these planned layouts and organize them in the Cropper Hopper plastic folders I ordered and blogged about last week. Over the weekend I did about 20 of these planning pages. We'll see if it makes things go faster during the construction phase!

Bad Blogger!

My mother pointed out that I was a bad blogger last week and it looks like this week is going to be no different! SORRY MOM!

We had a very relaxing 3 day weekend. I spent it cleaning and decluttering the apartment (a little at a time) and working on my 05-06 scrapbook project. I took some photos of that so I will update you more later.

Greg did a bunch of stuff for school including working on his thesis presentation. He found out that he has to form a thesis committee and then defend his thesis to them. Right now his mentor is still reading it over but really wants Greg to start writing it up for publication so he is going to begin that soon. Greg also spent lots of time outside chipping away at the block of ice that is our driveway. We had several inches of sleet/snow last week that instantly froze and created a lot of ice everywhere. I have been driving on top of the ice until recently but over the weekend the temps were finally above freezing so Greg started the huge job of moving the ice out. You can't shovel it like snow. You have to pound it until it cracks and then use the shovel to lift out a section of ice. Not a lot of fun which is why I watched from the window!

I also ran to Target, made banana bread, cut Greg's hair and we watched a movie (not all at the same time). We saw On A Clear Day which is a British movie about a guy who swims the English Channel. It was really cute.

More V-Day Fun

Last night Greg cooked us a Valentine's Day dinner. Remembering our dinner last year (here), he decided to cut some tofu with a cookie cutter into hearts as a surprise. Those were fried up and later added to some stir fry.

How cute is that! My stir-fry was drenched in homemade Terriyaki sauce and was oh so tasty. We also had margaritas (my favorite). I suppose it is a strange combination but isn't that what everyone is into now, FUSION. So I guess we had some Asian/Latin fusion last night!

Stir fry isn't the most romantic meal but it is a great way to use up the leftover food in the fridge and we needed to free up some space for our vegetable delivery today.

Happy Valentine's Day

The other day I was in the drug store late at night with Greg picking up a notebook for his first day of class this semester. The 24 hour RiteAid was the only place open that had notebooks. Believe it or not despite all my thousands of pounds of paper and supplies in my scrapbook area I had no lined paper he could take to class. Anyway, I was looking around and stumbled into the Valentine's aisle and saw all the boxes of cute Valentine's for kids. It got me thinking about those days in grade school when we would make some kind of "mailbox" and everyone would bring in their little paper valentine's to pass around. So I bought a box of Bratz valentine's (so appropriate for the Bronx).

Today I brought in my little valentine's for my co-workers and handed them out along with a couple roses for each person (WholeFoods had really nice roses for very little money). I also picked up some cupcakes and decorated the lunch room with hearts and a sign on the white board. It was really fun to do. (PS- the tiny photo in the middle is of the temporary tattoos that came with the Bratz Valentine's. Suzan modeled it for me!). Everyone needs a little love now and then, especially at work on a cold and snowy day in February!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Waiting waiting waiting

Over the last couple weeks I have been working on rearranging, cleaning and reorganizing my scrapbooking area (photos to come). Too help with that I have ordered a bunch of new albums and organizational type containers for holding paper. I love these types of projects so I am chomping at the bit for my order to ship and arrive at the house but so far nothing has come. It is an exercise in patience!

I ordered more of these: American Craft Leather Post-Bound 12x12 albums

And some of these: Cropper Hopper Paper pouches

Plus a bunch of other fun things like more paper flowers and some letter stickers and paper. I should be careful though, my goal was to shop less and use more!

Monday Musing

I don't have any pictures from the weekend to share today. Sorry! We gave the apartment a good once over to clean it up for our friends John and Aimee who came over for dinner on Saturday night. I made a really tasty (if I do say so myself) vegan lasagna with tofu ricotta and a soy bechemel sauce instead of cheese. Filled with spinach, carrots, broccoli, and a little zucchini too. The Campbell's threw together a yummy salad that really hit the spot. I love their salads because they always have a great mix of flavors and textures and each time I eat one I think, "I need to make more interesting salads!" and then never do (cucumbers and carrots are as adventurous as I get). This salad had pears, mandarin oranges, salad beans and slivered toasted almonds on it. Tasty!

On Sunday we relaxed and I read a new book called The Big Picture by Stacey Julian. Very interesting! I may try and incorporate her method of scrapbooking non-chronologically into my life. It make a lot of sense. I had to do a little work on Sunday so spent some time on work email which wasn't much fun. Other than that Greg and I enjoyed all the leftovers from Fri and Sat (tasty again!) and watched Little Miss Sunshine. It was a great little movie.

Happy Blog-iversary

One year ago today I started this blog to help me keep in touch with my friends and family, especially those living far away. Mostly I started this blog because I knew a lot of bloggers who started blogs, advertised them to their friends and then promptly quit blogging after a few weeks. That always annoyed me as I checked each day hoping for an update so I wanted to prove that it could be done and that it wasn't so hard. At first I only told a couple people about it just in case I couldn't keep it up. Then I could bow out and hardly anyone would know.

Well, I learned that it is harder than it looks to come up with something to say everyday. Sometimes my life gets in the way and don't have time to post regularly. I hope I wasn't too annoying! I love that if I don't post for a few days I start to get little reminder emails from my fans (Mom and Alice)! This blog has really motivated me to document my life more and take lots more photos of everyday stuff which is great. It even motivates me to get off the couch and do SOMETHING so I will have more to write about. This blog has also been a great forum to share my scrapbooking and keep me on track with my goals. I was hoping to have a really exciting/wonderful post to share with you on my blog-iversary but this is what you get. Thanks to everyone who visits my blog. One secret that you may not know is that I am my biggest fan. I like to check my own blog several times during the day. A little narcissistic I know!

More Scrapbooking Stuff

Last night I put all the 04-05 layouts in order and began filing them into a new album I bought. It is a leather album by American Crafts. Unfortunately it only had 10 page protectors in it so I have to order more but I am really happy with the page protectors (good fit) and the album itself is very nice. I looked for more protectors on-line today but everyone is sold out. I bought 3 more of the albums to transfer my old layouts to new albums and will get more protectors when they come back in stock.

If anyone would like my old albums and page protectors let me know and I will send them to you. I have 3 albums in three different colors (linen covered) and probably 40+ extra protectors. If you live far away and would cover part of the shipping cost that would be great. The albums are in fine shape. I find that the protectors are a little snug for a 12x12 page and are getting cloudy over time which is one reason I am looking to change over. Plus I want all my albums to be the same color now.


I have some big plans for the next album (maybe too big) and hope to get that started this weekend.

Scrapbook Update - Layout 3

This last weekend I also finished this layout. It is a memorial to my Grandma who died in 2004. This is the last layout for the 04-05 album. I used paper from Crate Paper (including the solid mauve which is the back of the patterned paper), some vellum, some brads, and paper flowers. I am realizing that my obsession with photo corners has been exchanged for an obsession with flowers. I have also come to realize I really like photo groups. I think 60% of my layouts involved these big clusters of photos in different sizes. Maybe for 2007 I need to branch out. I am thinking of some scrapbooking challenges I could do with myself. Also I am trying to decide if I should resume the scrapbook club I was in. I have taken several months off. I haven't quite decided yet. This layout is my 3rd of the new year (I counted the baby book as 1).

Baby Book Finished

Last weekend I was able to finish up the baby album for my friend Susan. All the pages are in the album now and I just need to box it up and send which is my goal for this week. These pages highlight some other events in a new baby's life like being in the hospital, meeting the grandparents, the first "family" photos, and then at the end of the album is the first birthday layout.

My mom has decided to put together a similar album for an auction she is participating in. I am sure it will be adorable.

Weekend Plans

I wish I had really exciting things to post about but I don't. It is kind of a cold gray day here in the city. I had to get up early for BSF this morning (5am) so I am fighting really hard to stay awake and get some work done.

Greg is home sick again today with some tummy trouble developments. I think he probably has some kind of stomach flu.

This weekend I think we plan to hang around the house and relax. I hope to get some scrapbooking done so I can finish up Susan's album and finish the final layout for my 04-05 album. Then I have to make some decisions about album types so I may be able to report on that next week. The floors need vacuuming and there are movies to be watched. That is about it but right now it sounds really nice!

I leave you with a picture of a dinner we had last weekend. I made some of my favorite pizza dough and our favorite tofu ricotta recipe and made these calzones. They were so cute (and so delicious) that I had to take a photo. In the past when I tried to make calzones they ended up all soggy on the bottom or really thick so that it was all bread and no filling. These were just perfect. We limited the amount of sauce inside to keep them from sogging out and instead opted to dip them in spaghetti sauce. A real winner! Mine was filled with black olives and ricotta and Greg's was fungus and ricotta. Have a great weekend everyone!

Poor Guy

I came home last night to find these lovely flowers waiting for me as a thank you for all my editing work. Isn't that so sweet! I brought a few in to work this morning to keep on my desk. Otherwise I wouldn't get to enjoy them while I am away all day. I also got a very nice thank you card.

So so sweet!

Unfortunately also came home from work to find Greg already in bed (at 5pm) with a 102 degree fever. It seems that God sustained him just long enough to hand in the thesis and then his poor body succumbed to all the stress. It took 8 hours but his temp came back down with some Tylenol and rest (funny because his thesis research was on Tylenol so I have been reading about it for the last 5 days!). I made him stay home from work today to recuperate since he still feels pretty lousy. I am hoping it isn't the flu. This is how he looked when I left the house this morning.

So pathetic yet cute at the same time. Feel better Greg!

Thesis is DONE!

Greg snapped this picture of me editing his thesis over the weekend. Don't mind my frumpy outfit or my lack of neck. I got as comfortable as possible! We were both amazed at how tiring it was to just sit and read and edit and discuss and make changes. I did take little breaks and managed to clean a little, do some laundry, and stop for groceries after church. Overall I learned a LOT about low molecular weight gelators and now have a greater understanding of what Greg was doing all that time in the lab. I thought his thesis was very well organized and written. It just needed a few minor tweaks to get it just right.

During our editing process Greg found a handful of figures he had mis-drawn so on Monday he fixed those. On Tuesday I did another run through on the edited manuscript. Then today I read it a third time, printed, and bound it. He turns it in to his mentor in just a couple hours.

I wish this were the end but I am sure his mentor will have suggestions for revision. That is fine, it won't be nearly as much work to revise as it was to write and edit. I am just excited to have my husband back again. No more long nights in the lab, or hours in front of the computer. Hey, I can finally get some time on the computer again for scrapbooking!

Scrapbook Update - Baby Album

We are almost done editing the thesis so I will save that update for tomorrow. It was such a big job I didn't get any time this weekend to scrapbook so instead I will show you what I worked on the weekend before.

My friend Susan who now lives in Texas had a baby girl a couple years ago. For her baby shower I made a mini-scrapbook I like to call the "Months Album". It features layouts with blank photo mats where you can put 2 of your favorite photos each month of the baby.

Then at the end of the year you have a book that chronicals the growth of the child during his/her first year in one small cute little book.
Susan is expecting her second baby in March (Hi Susan!) and commissioned me to make another book for her new little girl. I happen to have images of the last book to use as a reference so I was able to put this one together pretty quickly. It is almost completed. What you see here are the individual month pages and then there are some additional pages that say things like "hospital stay" "our new family" "grandparents", etc.Last time she didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl so the book was sort of gender neutral. This time she knew so I got to use this really fun line of papers from KI memories in a pinks/greens/browns pallate with lots of flowers too.

So I guess this is a sneak preview. I don't know how often Susan checks this blog but I hope she likes it!

too busy to blog

Hello All

Alexis is much too busy to blog this weekend, I've tied the red pen to her hand to proof read my thesis. So far only one fight, which considering the way I respond to having people proof read my papers, is pretty good. I did want to drop a line to introduce her readers to sacred harp music. Last weekend alexis was good enough to go with me to a sacred harp "sing" in the city at St. Bart's. It is really hard to sum up sacred harp, but basically it is a tradition of community singing of hymns in a rather unique style that has roots in the south. In 4 parts the group sings slighly different melodies all together and create an amazing sound. The other major part of sacred harp is the singing of an intro to practice the melody with notes (fa,so,la,mi). All songs start out with just singing the notes, then you sing the words. You really have to hear it to understand so here is a link to a recent film documenting the movement it has several samples to check out:
www.awakemysoul.com
Well we went and we sang, it was our first time and it was really difficult without some musical training but even in a small group, the depth of sound is really haunting and it was a lot of fun. I can't believe how fast the TWO HOURS flew by, who would have thought I would want to sing hymns for two hours! Now I have to see if I can convince Alexis to come back next month, it was intense but the mentality seems to be learn through repetition, so to get it we need to go again.

Take care and thanks so much for all your prayers.
Greg

For Mom

When Greg's Grandma decided it was time to move into a retirement home her kids all went down to Eugene to help her pack up her house. Grammy Jane (as she is called) had amassed quite a bit of art over the years, much of it inherited from her deceased brothers and sisters. Most of it was sold but some smaller pieces were distributed among the family members. Greg's parents thought we might like this piece (and a couple other smaller ones) and so they brought it home to Seattle for us. Over our thanksgiving trip we finally got to see it in person and Greg crated it up to ship it out to NYC.

We don't know the name or artist. There is some very light pencil on the back that say The Virgin of --- we can't make out the name. It is about 2x3 feet and is currently hanging in our bedroom. We are pretty sure she is a martyr since there are so many weapons in the picture including the dagger pointed at her heart. We intend to have it framed but we have been too busy right now to investigate it. It could probably use a professional cleaning too.

This is for you mom since you asked for a photo so you could see it.