Sunday, January 31, 2010

Dippin' my toes in the water of Digital Scrapbooking, part 1

I've  been scrapbooking for close to 15 years. I'm exclusively a paper crafter, but this year, I've decided to stretch my scrapbooking skills a little further and give digital scrapbooking a try. Also, I stumbled on a website and couple of communities of digital scrapbookers that I really wanted to be a part of -- the first is logyourmemory.com and the other, the better know Two Peas in a Bucket.

I confess, I don't have the same warm fuzzies for the digital subset of this hobby, but I decided to give it a try because, it's quite possible I'm missing out on something great. But to be honest, I'm a paper crafter at heart, and I love the feel of the paper. This is what scrapbooking looks like to me:


However, as this corner of my house is proof, being a paper crafter takes up space....here's my extremely haphazard scrapbook area:


At the very least, digital scrapbooking will be more organized and take less physical space. There are also tons of sites out there that offer free digital kits and elements along with the kits you pay for, which are usually the work of better known artists. Even so, they cost less than the physical supplies and are reusable....at least I think so....all new to me....

So, I jumped in and started to follow a class at Two Peas in a Bucket called Digital 101, which posts a new tutorial on the 25th of every month. Class 1, a few days ago...and I made this piece of "art":

Digital Project #1
Don't get me wrong, the tutorial was very good, the instructor was very good, and even the feedback after I posted to the gallery was encouraging. I think my interpretation of it all was VERY LAME!

So, I tried some more, and hopefully, next month, I'll learn some new tricks. Here are my other attempts...

Friday, January 22, 2010

I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E


matthewheadwriting.jpg
Originally uploaded by cindi60459
I found this cute picture of my son at 2. So innocent looking, yet so dangerous with a marker. I also remember this was the day I learned about the wonderful Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

My December Daily Book --- Finally!!!


This December I worked on a page-a-day scrapbook based on the Ali Edward's December Daily albums. I decided to go eclectic with my pages and vary each page size and format. While this was really outside of my comfort zone, it was a lot of fun adding the different elements and I often found myself saying, "Just one more page and I'll go to bed!" I still have 5 days to add, but, ya know, I've kind of lost the holiday spirit and it's really hard to finish it....but I will....someday. Here are just a few of my pages:















Saturday, January 9, 2010

A Master At Home To-Do List


I found it here

I was lying in bed this morning, the whole day ahead of me, and wondering how I will cram everything I want to do into this one day. You see, the kids are with their dad, and I have nothing scheduled, which means I can do the things that I think of doing every other day when I wake up and have to go to work. On the days I go to work, I can think of a million things I can be doing at home, but on a Saturday when I can do those things, I'm stumped, overwhelmed by all my choices. My biggest fear is at the end of the day, I'll have done nothing I wanted or needed to do.

My mom always reminds me that when you leave all the things you can and have to do in your head, it seems much more overwhelming than it actually is on paper. So, that's why I've decided to come up with a Master At Home To-Do List --on line, so I never lose it!

1. Read - I have a notorious book habit and a ridiculous number of unread books in my house. I'll be putting a reading to -do list together for myself soon. I'm currently reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, and I can't put it down.
2. Clean A Bathroom - I have 3. Every morning, I use all of them in some way, either to shower, put on my make up or well, nevermind, and every morning, I want to clean this or that, but don't have the time at that moment to do it.
3. Organize Photos - either printed or on the computer. I spent an afternoon working on this recently and it made me very hopeful that I can finally get them in some kind of order.
4. Scrapbook - this is for me as well as for my family, but the process is totally for me. I love cutting, gluing, stickers, and paper. It's my passion, right now, and my wish to do it more often. I'm taking a Big Picture Scrapbooking class called "The Challenge of Me", and unlike other classes I've taken, I've been able to keep up with the assignments, so far, which is a huge accomplishment for me.
5. Do Something Artistic
6. Laundry
7. Clean a Closet - Do you have a closet that you shove stuff in? Yeah, me too and it drives me nuts!
8. Re-organize a Cabinet - any cabinet - kitchen, bathroom - in my house, I really have more than I need. It's time to pare down to the essentials.
9. Play a computer game - big time suck, I know, but also relaxing, which I have such a hard time doing these days. As long as I can accomplish other things on this list, then something mind numbing is ok.
10. Remove all stray stuff from a room in the house - this is a good one when the kids are home, then it's a game to see who can put away (in the correct place) the most stuff. My kids are easily amused sometimes, as long as I'm doing it with them.
11. Take Jack for a walk - poor dog, needs a fenced in yard. The kids like to walk him, but he is so strong, they really can't get far before his wanderlust has him walking them. Also, the dog LOVES the snow. When it snows, his inner puppy comes out and he FROLICKS.
12. Learn a New Technique for [whatever I'm in the mood to do]
13. Write
14. If kids are home, do something with them, but really be in the moment, and forget the rest of this list. Showing interest in what they are interested in goes a long way. This is usually a video game or cartoon with son and a chat or 80's/90's moment shared with teenage daughter, who is now finds the nostalgia of my youth interesting-the fashions, the music, the movies.


Hopefully it's noticable the watching TV is not on my list. I spend too much time sitting in the comfy corner of my couch, sucked into the TV when I come home from work - again, needing to numb my mind. So, when there are at least 14 other things to do on a free day, I'm resisting turning it on, even as background noise.



Even doing one or two of these in a day will be enough for me. I don't intend to fit them all in, in one day. And, of course, being just a master list, these are not my daily to dos - that's a much longer list.

Happy Day of Possibilities!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

How Bob Newhart Saved My Sanity



In my house, the main family area has but one couch. Woe is me - my little house can only fit a single seating area in front of the TV. Usually, the whole gang piles on the couch - me, my guy, daughter, and son, with a cat squeezed in somewhere. If someone gets off the couch, you can bet Jack the dog will keep your seat warm until you get back and he resumes his place on the floor at your feet. This makes for oodles of togetherness, which is lovely....usually. But occasionally, I yearn to stretch out, by myself, on the couch.

I've just discovered a foolproof way to get the couch to myself. You may want to try this sometime. Here's how it goes....I put on The Bob Newhart Show. Yep, the one from the 70's, where Bob is a psychologist, and shares the office with Jerry the dentist!


Put this on and the children scatter. Couch=mine! I just hope my kids don't notice that Marcia Wallace (Carol the receptionist) is the voice of Spongebob's teacher, Mrs. Puff - they may come back!









Monday, January 4, 2010

Don't Let 'Em BEET You Up or Tips You Didn't Know You Needed


Happy New Year!

I'm looking forward to a more peaceful, healthy and prosperous new year in 2010. Also, this year, I'm going to share a little wisdom I've learned from my 38 years of experience on this earth. I don't promise depth or even practical applications, just random insight.

The first bit of advice this year comes straight from an on-going conversation with my mom. Mom and I have some rather silly conversations, as you'll see.

PLEASE NOTE: During these conversations, we are very aware of the absurd randomness of the conversation, so don't pity us for not knowing how ridiculous we are.

It is very likely that we are the only people who would benefit from this bit of insight, but when you figured out how to do something effectively, don't you just want to share it? Yeah, me too.

I present to you our tips for Transporting and Eating Beets at Work. (Not rocket science, here.)

1. Wear pink. Or black.
2. Wrap beets in a container, sealed in a ziplock and then put that ziplock in another container. This is the only effective way to transport beets without getting beet juice on everything, other than in an unopened can or jar.
3. Do not eat beets while you are working on a file or paperwork or else you will have little beet juice polka dots on your work.

Brilliant, huh? Maybe you don't like beets. Maybe you are not sure why you read this far. That's ok. I know my mom liked it! Happy New Year!