Finding My Way...

Getting Creative in 2010

I have wanted to post to the blog for the past two weeks. I have clicked the link to the Typepad dashboard several times, but I have come up empty on ideas for blog posts.

I thought maybe if I surfed some of my favorite blogs, that might give me some inspiration. So I read this weeks secrets on PostSecret. I chuckled at the latest entries on Awful LIbrary Books. I indulged my wordy side with a perusal of Lexicide. All good reading, but nothing was fueling my creative side. So I headed over to a favorite creative blog: Artsyville. 

I *dream* of doodling like Aimee does. I am a big fan of her etsy shop, and this has reminded me to send a link to my Mom, who is grilling me for ideas for a Christmas present. Bewitched by Books is my current favorite, but really, I want 4 or 5 of her 5x7 doodleprints to frame and hang in a grouping near my creative space.

As I was perusing Aimee's latest doodles and photos, on December 4th she encouraged her readers to join her in Leah's 2010 Creative Every Day Challenge. My eyes lit up at this gem. I really feel that since my scrapbooking has slowed, and my writing has all but stopped, I am missing a creative outlet in my life. One is only so creative finding the right clip art for flier and newsletters for the women's club. So there, to the right there. In the right column there is a widget to her site, if you want more info.

I'm hoping to be creative in a variety of ways in 2010. I hope to start scrapping more again. I want to try doodling like Aimee inspires me to do, and perhaps integrate it into my scrapbook albums. I hope to start writing again. This morning I was getting ready and had a great idea for the start of a bit if teen fiction. I have absolutely no idea for a middle or an end, but I have a great idea for a start. I'd like to make some handmade gifts for Emily's teachers.

I will not flood this blog with a daily entry. As we discovered in 2009 with the failed attempt at Project 365 (I petered out by February-March), the perfectionist in me abandons daily reporting entirely once I miss a few times and it's no longer complete. I aim to report on the week's creativity once a week. Who's in?

Project 365

You can see the little link up there to my Project 365 blog.  I did well for a little while...ok a couple of weeks anyways.  By the end of January I had fallen firmly off the bandwagon.  I have thought several times about restarting, but the mild OCD in me requires a special date (like January 1st!) to begin a project like this.

Today was the first day of school.  The first day of a year of another sort, and I have spent the morning pondering the possibility of making this the first day of a second try at 365 photos.  Plus I have a cute photo already for the first day!

A Cause "Close to My Heart"

In case you've been under a rock, in October I will be walking in the Breast Cancer 3-Day with a team of awesome women.  Another awesome woman, my pal Laurie, wants to support us by holding a fundraiser through her Close to My Heart business.

Here's the incredibly simple deal: for all orders you place through her between today and August 31st, she will donate 10% from her commission to support Susan G Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust through the Breast Cancer 3-Day!  Doesn't she ROCK?!?!

Visit her Close to My Heart site HERE to shop online or find her number and address to contact her personally to place your order by the end of August!

For those of you who are not my scrapping pals, Close to My Heart has a fabulous line of acryllic stamps, scrapbooking papers and other paper crafting supplies.  You can click HERE to see their products from pens and ink to stamps and papers.  I own many of these sets myself, and LOVE to use their products in my scrapbooks and on homemade cards.

In the current economy, who needs to spend $3 or more on a nice greeting card?  Check out CTMH's Happy Everything card kit or It's Your Day card kit.  $12.95 to make 12 cards!  How can you beat a little over a dollar a card PLUS the gasp factor when Grandma or Aunt Evelyn sees that you made her a card BY HAND!?

Many thanks to Laurie for this generous gift of her earnings from her home business, and thanks in advance to my friends and blog readers who take advantage of this offer to support Team DASH!

Tini Doesn't Heart Me

She hearts Jen, but not me.  Maybe it's because I don't post enough new stuff on my blog?  How about a new post every day for a week?  Then maybe she will heart me...

The Hobbyist

Growing up I loved crafts.  My grandmother was extremely talented as a seamstress and very crafty.  My Mom says it skipped a generation, but I definitely got the crafting bug.  My first projects were the potholders wove from multi-color elastics on a plastic loom.  When I got a little older, I remember latch-hooking a rug,  I wish I could remember what the picture was. In junior high or high school I got a nifty kit with rainbow vareigated twine and nails.  I made a wall hanging that looked like a spirograph drawing.

Crafts stopped for a while in high school and college.  Too much to do...ok I'll admit it...I was too boy crazy to think about crafts!  After college though I started again.  I found some kits to make cardboard house models, and I started cross stitching.

Let me qualify that, actually.  I think I was more of a cross-stitch supply collector, as I never finished any of the big projects I started.  I had about every color of DMC floss though, and tons of patterns and idea books.  I knew all the hot designers from my computer user group.  But the shine wore off of that hobby after about 3 years.

About 8 years ago we returned from India with a baby girl and I learned about scrapbooking.  A friend was launching a home-based business as a consultant for a company that sold scrapbooking supplies, and I held one of her first parties.  Soon I was hooked, and began collecting supplies for my new, exciting hobby.  Unlike cross-stitching, I was more than a supply collector when it came to scrapbooking.  I actually completed pages, and eventually entire albums!  Over the past half-dozen years I have built up my "stash" and created bigger and more sophisticated storage systems for my supplies.  The pinnacle was in my last house:  the former owner had kitchen cabinetry installed in a nook in the rec room in the basement.  It was the perfect fit for my stuff!

Now I find myself in a new house facing 17 boxes of scrap supplies.  There are a couple of places that would be suitable to set up a scrap area, but I think I'd prefer to have a guest room with a bed in it, and an office with a desk and bookshelves on display.  Add to that the fact that I haven't scrapped since February and I start to think...has scrapbooking gone the way of cross-stitching?  What do I need to rekindle the interest I once had in scrapbooking?

I think I'm starting to see the BIG PICTURE...

Last weekend I went to ScrapBowl at the Dulles Expo Center.  It's a fabulous event put on by Get Croppin'.  Marirosa and Ashlie put together an EXCELLENT weekend with a great space, cool vendors, and outstanding classes and instructors.

I took two classes.  The first was with Shimelle Laine.  A class called "Something For the Weekend."  When I signed up, I had planned to document a typical weekend around here.  A combination of procrastination and life overload prevented that from happening.  Instead, I brought a stack of photos from the last big scrapping weekend I went on and created a mini-album of that fun weekend!  I will come back and add photos in the next day or two once I find my charger and charge the battery on my camera.

The second class was with Stacy Julian, and it was titled "Finish Line."  Rather than teach you how to make a certain project, or show you the latest techniques, SJ taught us a process for creating a mini-album in just about 3 hours.  While some at my table found the process daunting, high-pressure, and too accelerated, I reveled in the speed and freedom.  I loved it when SJ told us to let go of perfection.  And I really loved the little time saving tip of tucking the patterned paper under the edges of the photos on the 6x6 page, then just cutting the rest off with scissors!  I created a mini-album my daughter and I love of her with her two best friends.

Stacy Julian also gave the keynote speech at the beginning of the weekend.  She talked about ways to take down some of the barriers we put up in this creative process of scrapbooking.  She has a new book out called photoFREEDOM, and it takes you through her system of organizing her photos in a way that allows her to not only scrap the events of the year, but also to have photos at your fingertips for the other meaningful moments and memories you want to preserve.  I have registered for her "Library of Memories" class at Big Picture Scrapbooking.  I hope this will create some renewed interest and energy for me when it comes to scrapbooking.

Perhaps I should add a resolution about procrastinating...

For the past three years I have made my grandmother and uncle a calendar for Christmas.  My uncle really enjoys them, and looks forward to getting them each year.  He notices all of the details of the materials I use, and the design element.  And who doesn't want to scrap for someone so appreciative of what you do?

Well, I usually start them in October.  I have photos through the summer, and then I finish through the fall, adding pictures of Em in her Halloween costume, a photo from Thanksgiving, and a Christmas photo.  This year I am back to work.  And still working on that balance between home and work.  The calendar didn't get started in October...not in November either.  In early December I uploaded and ordered all of the photos I would need, but we were away the first three weekends in December.  So here it is, December 29th, and I only had one page finished.  [Insert blushing smilie here]

DH and DD are off with my inlaws this afternoon and I am taking a break from a marathon scrapping session.  I hate it when I get down to the wire like this.  It takes all the joy out of making these things when you have to rush to get it done.  Will someone please kick my butt in June to get this started for next year, please?

In 2008 I resolve...

* to get back onto Weight Watchers and eat better.

* to get back into a routine of exercising at Curves 3x/week.

* to take a photography class to learn to use my DSLR to a fuller potential.

* to remember 12 of 12 each month for a year to create a scrapbook album.

* to work scrapbooking back into my weekly schedule now that I am in more of a rhythm with the new job.

* to host another small group Bible study at our home one evening a week.

* to read at least 2 books (without pictures) each month.

Last year I didn't feel moved to make any resolutions, but I was also at a real low last winter.  I am doing much better this year on my medicine regimen, and I really want to make some life choices with purpose.

What do you resolve for 2008?

Ok, I am totally turning over a new leaf!

I hereby promise to post more often to this blog!  Cute kid sayings, neat photos, brief life updates.  I will post it all!

I am in post-retreat letdown today.  I spent the past four days in Michigan at a scrapbooking weekend with the ladies of Lifetime Moments.  I have been to three of the four of these annual events, and I intend never to miss one again!  I was concerned about this one, as it is the largest group assembled thus far.  It was roughly 60 ladies, and crowds of that size tend to psych me out.  It was much better than I anticipated though, and I had a fantastic weekend!

I did get some things done!  I altered a Pampered Chef Tool Turnabout for my secret sister Michele.  I used the Zoe line from the "Love, Elsie" collection.  I didn't think the Love, Elsie stuff was my style, but I had such fun working with it, I used it to alter some 6x6 cardboard inserts and bound them to make a mini-album.  That was my "tired and tipsy" project!  LOL

I also completed a 12x12 layout with some fabulous A 2 Z Essentials papers.  This was a manufacturer I hadn't discovered before, and I think it's a new favorite!  I also cranked out 10 pages in my Tokyo Disney mini-album.

I hate getting my photo taken.  I avoid it at all costs.   My pal Susan caught me rocking out to my iPod and tried to get the photo a couple of times.  When I got annoyed, she just suggested I pose for the photo, then she'd leave me alone.  *sigh*

The weekend was full of fun stuff from dinner at Carrabba's, to the Target run, to my rockin' tablemates, to trying to fake out my secret sister, to pastie contests, to tiaras, to Scrabble, to White Russians, and hallway yoga.  The date is set for next year, tentatively, and I am marking the calendar!  Who wants to be my roomie?

Oh, one last thing...SWALLOW!

Summer Has Begun!

I have wanted to add something to the blog all week.  Em got out of school on Monday, and I thought we'd have a nice idle week filled with trips to the pool and relaxing lunches and scrapbooking while she watched a little TV to wind down in the afternoons.  HA!  We had family visiting from out of town early in the week, and my Mom has been having car trouble, so she and I went to test drive a new car for her later in the week.  Yesterday I took her to the airport for a weekend with her cousins in Massachusetts for a Greek Festival.

I do have some new writings to add to the blog, but I am having trouble cutting and pasting and keeping the right format.  I am not keen to type them over again, so I will keep trying to sort this out.

In the meantime...hubby and daughter are at the zoo with my brother-in-law and his boys today, and I am scrapping!  I have NO points in Summer Scrapfest at LifetimeMoments.com and that is about to change!  This morning I added journaling to a LO I worked on lastnight, and got myself my first 4 points.

So, look for some updates this week.  Hassle me if I neglect you.  And enjoy the first weekend of summer!