Class Assignment #1 – Values and Goals
Tonight is our first “online” class for Holiday in Hand. I’m really looking forward to it, as its been awhile since I have done an online class.
Our first assignment requires two exercises. The first exercise is to write our values and goals. We are supposed to do this to confirm to ourselves what we really want out of the class, and what we really want to accomplish in the next 6 weeks. This goes for outside of the class as well.
So here we go.
My values and goals for the next six week don’t only revolve around Christmas, I have so many things I want to do and get done over the next several weeks.
Goal #1 – To complete my 50K novel and begin editing.
Goal #2 – To get Christmas gifts purchased.
Goal #3 – To decorate for the holidays.
Goal #4 – To spend more time with my kids talking about the true meaning of the season. While I know we have done this in the past, it would help to reconfirm to them what the season is really about.
Goal #5 – Get more organized for the upcoming holidays. Stay that way.
I plan to add to these as I go. Unfortunately, I need to get back to writing right now, so I need to keep this list simple, and short, so I can move onto the next assignment.
A Little Lost in NaNoWriMo Land
I know I said I’d be back, but I have had absolutely no time for scrapbooking lately. In fact, I have missed it more than you can imagine.
I am completely lost in NaNoWriMo land. My word count is good, and you can keep track of my progress by clicking on that link. This year’s novel is actually making me a first time NaNo Rebel, but it didn’t start out that way. Ever year I have happily churned out my 50K in fictional style, and this year I started it out that way. Since my novel this year was strongly based on a true story, it didn’t take me long to get frustrated with the fictional sense of it and decide to switch it entirely to Non-Fiction. The words began really flowing at that point and I am over 25K now. Very happy. Two of my girls are doing it with me this year.
Anyway, as crazy as I am with five kids, trying to write a 50K novel and keep up all of my sites throughout the month of November, I have also bit the bullet and signed up for a free class at JessicaSprague.com. It starts tomorrow evening. I will be posting our class assignments to this blog. If you are taking the class, and you do your class assignments on your blog, please leave a comment so I can follow your progress too. Tomorrow afternoon I will post our first assignment here. So watch for it. :)
Didn’t Mean…
I am so terrible. I plan to come back, I plan to blog more over here, and I always, always do this.
We have been so busy lately, that I sometimes feel like I have no time to breath. I am hoping that begins to change with Fall totally upon us.
I am really excited about NaNoWriMo this year, and am counting down the days until November. I will be participating and you can follow my progress on my other blog.
Also if you are trying to figure out where I am blogging these days, you can visit The Daily Dish or Frugal Changes. Either one, I frequently post to, so its a bit more of a guarantee you’ll see activity. My scrapbooking is finally picking back up again, as I have my room put together again, so that’s awesome.
See ya on the flip side. I promise to check in over here a bit more often.
Who’s Your Inspiration? Your Creative Muse?
I am continuously on the hunt for inspiration and ideas, but there is one blog I visit REGULARLY that there is absolutely no shortage of inspiration from. It’s the Wizard’s Hangout. Yes, Vicki Wizniuk is a fellow CTMH sisters, however what’s interesting is that I have been visiting her blog and viewing her artwork since BEFORE I became a CTMH consultant. Vicki is so incredibly talented.
Some of her more recent work is featured below, but if you want to really get to know her, please visit her blog: Wizard’s Hangout. You will NOT be sorry!
(Forgive me Vicki for “borrowing” a few of your pictures to get others to go check you out. You continue to inspire me, and help me find my creative muse. Much more so than just about any other location I look at. Keep creating, I’ll keep following :)
Scrapbooking Milestones, Then and Now
Someone on Two Peas, posted something about their pea anniversary (the date they signed up to be a pea). It got me really thinking about my own personal scrapbooking time-line and milestones.
I started scrapbooking just before my son was born. I remember I had a friend who said, let’s go to this party together. They teach us how to scrapbook. I had no idea what “exactly” that was. But I went. This would have been 1994. I remember sitting there thinking… this stuff is so plain, but I’ve apparently been “scrapbooking” since high-school or earlier. I had albums full of photos that I had decorated with pretty stationary papers (about all you could find pre-1994), cut out titles and pictures to embellish the pages from magazines. I wrote directly on my page then, usually with just the date and who was in the photo, but sometimes I even included a poem and quote. Who knew I was a scrapbooker even then?
I never returned to a Creative Memories party again, but I did buy some things that night (an album, “safe” journaling pens, and a few decorative items). It wasn’t too long after that, I was in a Michaels and saw other types of albums, and then about 1 year later discovered rubber stamping stores and a year after that (in 1996) discovered a true scrapbooking store (Memory Lane in Mesa, Arizona … omg I miss that store, the staff (especially Pam… if you ever read this Pam, you were the absolute best!!) and a couple others.)
Eventually a few short years later I landed in Dallas, where I got a job teaching at the LSS, and then got the opportunity to teach at a GASC (gasp, that was way back at the beginning) LOL
I was an original pea – while I was still living in Texas. But at some point, the system crashed or their databases crashed and all that was lost. I think I even went through one account after that, but the account I use right now, shows that my anniversary is August 27. The day before my birthday. In 2003. Wow. It’s so odd to think of that. I’ve been a pea for nearly six years at this point. And if I remember correctly (yes I am getting fuzzy in my older age LOL) I first discovered two peas in early 1999, right before my daughter’s first birthday. So probably sometime in March or April. It is so weird to think of how two peas has grown since then as well.
Of course, my scrapbooking style has changed massively as well…..
Here are two pages I did in 1999. I remember that I loved cutsie, loved bright colors, didn’t have the first clue whether my photos looked good on certain papers, but hey I was having fun.
These layouts actually make me laugh. I don’t know WHAT I was thinking, and am so glad that I have moved on, developed more “style” and I am able to obtain a wider variety of products now. I’m still VERY much a simple scrapbooker, but every so often, I make an elaborate layout… especially when I have time (ha! What’s that?!)
Here are a few more recent layouts (okay so they are at least six months old, because I haven’t scanned a layout in so long!) LOL
Hmm… I’m really glad I did this post. I realized, I need to post some more current layouts. I have tons to choose from, and the scanner is brand new and awesome (I think I have to relearn stitching LOL) but I have nothing recent and I need recent. Check back often for some new pages.
Quad Fold Card
When I saw the quad fold card, I knew I had to try it, and I had so much fun the other day working on it. I had a birthday coming so it was the perfect opportunity to try something new. So here is the result of one of the cards I made that day. Considering it is my first one ever, and there were no dimensions for the layered paper, etc. I think I did pretty good. LOL
This is the outside of the card:
This is the card when it’s opened:
This is an overhead view of what the card looks like extended open: (sorry it is so dark)
New Look, Same Place!
What do you think of the new look? I stumbled across this template looking for something else and instantly fell in love with it. Unfortunately, it does not have all the bells and whistles that my old style had, however I like the much more clean and simple look it gives my blog – so who’s complaining?
I spent the afternoon cleaning up my CTMH sister links. I deleted non-reciprocal links. If I deleted you by mistake, you’re a CTMH sister and you do have a reciprocal link back to me (or if you just want to exchange links) leave me a comment and I will add your link. It took me forever to get through all the blogs on my list too – I had no idea I had accumulated so many.
I also moved some stuff around, re-posted some artwork, and did some adjusting so if something doesn’t work or appears broken, please tell me so I can fix it.
We’re getting ready to go out of town this weekend, heading to Branson to see my bff’s husband and his band play. This is the first “far away” gig they have done, and it is because they are playing with Aaron’s old band which is pretty cool, in my opinion. We need the vacation and getting to see Whiskey Dixon play is always a plus for me.
It is hard for me to get a handle on it, but my step-daughter goes back to school on Thursday. Yes, a week from tomorrow. I cannot even understand why anyone think’s year-round school is a good idea, but it royally sucks – especially when you have other kids on a different calendar. The other four don’t start school until the middle of August. So a week from now, I will have been up bright and early and waiting for a kid to get home from school – unbelievable! Where in the world did our summer go?
I have to keep reminding myself that summer is NOT over, just because Jesse goes back to school – the other four deserve a good summer, but I have to admit I am REALLY going to enjoy next year when they ALL get a full summer.
When I get back from my trip, I will post some of the cards and layouts I have been working on.
Bra & Panty Card
This is a repost from last summer. Why? Because I just got done making a few templates to make some more of these, and it reminded me of this post, so I went to look for it and decided to repost it.
UPDATE: My friend saw these (the bra and panty or bikini cards) and decided she wanted me to make her some for a pool party this summer. I’ve already started (using a different template), and they are way easy to make dozens of, once you get the hang of it.
Also thought I’d give you the link where you can download your own pattern or template to make a bra and panty card – this was not the one I originally used, but I loved this one so much that I have switched to using it. Stamp Owl is brilliant! Click Here. Her card is SO cute!
These bra and panty cards were just too cute not to try myself. I tried to make them look more like bikini’s so my kids would not think I was losing my mind, plus I could think of nothing to do with a card of a bra and pair of panties. My kids giggled, but they thought they were awesome. LOL I had to download them each a template to make their own bra and panty / bikini card. :)
The bow on this card looks lopsided but it isn’t at all on the actual card. I have no idea why it looks like this on this picture.
Boom-Di-Ada Birthday Cards
Another quick repost:
I have two birthdays coming up … well one was yesterday but I will see her today. So, here are two cards I made (yes I realize they look very similar) for the birthdays. I wanted to use up some of my scraps from this paper pack and it worked great.
Boom-Di-Ada Card #1:
Boom-Di-Ada Card #2:
I used the Boom Di Ada Level 2 My Reflections Paper Pack (Summer Catalog), D1152 Because of You, D1187 For Every Occasion, Liquid Glass and Z1290 Sparkles. So fun!
