I wanted to impress you

I have been making and hording layouts to get back into the layout a day challenge on one of my scrapbook message boards. I was pretty faithful with the group from January to April, but when I took a week off for Easter I kind of lost my momentum.
So, I decided to take the month off and just make layouts, projects, cards as the mood hit. Oddly enough, I’ve been in a rather creative place since I took the pressure off myself.
I have put together a folder of about eight works to kick start May. Good thing, too, since the month is shaping up to be all baseball all the time.
Today I made a layout I absolutely love. I am so in love with it I’m struggling not to post it on the board so I can see how much (or, sadly little) everyone else loves it. You, dear reader, are the lucky one to get to preview the design.

I used the photo of Djin in the flowers. When I took it, the photo reminded me of the family ranch, and I had comments from family members saying the photo gave them the same association. So I wrote the journaling accordingly.

When I dream of home

I am always on
the ranch
in the two bedroom house
where our
family of seven
spent the summers
of my childhood.
I dream
of long golden days,
Dad haying from dawn to dusk,
dragging
home exhausted.
Mom cooking huge meals every
day to feed the
hay men.
I remember playing with the grape hyacinths and
our Siamese cat, Ming. Who usually gave birth to
a batch of kittens each summer.
With no television, we gathered
In the living room at night to read.
Just family. It was enough.

I spent some time in the local scrapbook store until I found an absolutely perfect paper combo {Crate Paper, of course. Right now I'm all about the Crate or the Cosmo Cricket} for the page and I used a sketch from the “Little Book of Sketches” to jump start the design. http://littlebookofsketches.blogspot.com/

Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie

I don’t much care for sports.
There, I said it.
This would not be too big a problem if it were not for one fact.I’m the mother of two boys.
Boys, as a general rule, do like sports.
The simple truth is basketball bores me, I can’t stand football, I only find soccer interesting if my sons are on the field and hokey leaves me cold, although I do like watching the Zamboni and the weird behavior of the crowds during a fight.
Baseball is the exception.
I really do like it, and the smaller the scale the better. Baseball reminds me of the neighborhood games played in the schoolyard behind my mother’s house. I was a really, really bad baseball player, but at least I was allowed to play.
It’s a sport I understand, although my loyalty to baseball is rather spotty.
I remember watching the 1975 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds against the Boston Red Sox. Dad was a fan of the Reds with their switch hitter Pete Rose, as well as other famous players Johnny Bench Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo on the team. We watched the series together, and it is one of my fond memories of my father.
Years later when St. George Native, and lefty, Bruce Hurst pitched for Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets, I, along with most residents of Southern Utah was glued to the television. When the series was lost in the seventh game I was mightily sad. But St. George now has a Bruce Hurst legacy in ball fields and teams.
I sat through a few baseball games played by my nephew, Shane, and never really understood why my sister was so intent on the game. Now I know. My DS-8 signed up for Little League this year and with games and practices I am now committed to something like four nights a week sitting on the sidelines of a baseball diamond.
Quite frankly, I have no idea how I will manage getting him to all the practices and games, as well as attending my required meetings for work and church while DH is working several nights a week. Now would be a good time to perfect cloning.
Today was the official opening day ceremonies. Apparently all little leagues have opening day ceremonies at the same time as the National Baseball League ceremony.
DS-8 was given his uniform yesterday and he looked cool all suited up with the hat and glove. I do believe baseball uniforms are so much more classic than football jerseys and head’s and shoulders above soccer shorts.
When I see him in the pants, the tucked in shirt, the baseball cap, with mitt in hand it stirs something akin to patriotism in my little heart. During the opening ceremonies a group of three teen-aged girls sang the Star Spangled Banner A capella, they did a beautiful job and it made me teary eyed.
Baseball is just so All-American, it’s hard not to love it.

Guess what my plans are for today?

But dang, the kid looks good in a hat!

Becoming Ashlee

I'm still collecting my thoughts on a blog I want to write. Until then I'm posting my latest layout. This is a photo I took of Ashlee over Easter. She looks very much like her father here, only cuter, of course.
The journaling on the page reads:

Ashlee, I am amazed at the beautiful young woman you are becoming. I
shouldn’t be surprised; you were always an exceptionally pretty child.
I have
been fascinated to watch you grow. You started school convinced you were the
smartest child in the class and then went about proving it.
You, along with
cousins Logan and Holland started the “new wave” of children in our extended
fmily. Thethree of you brought new life to a family mourning the loss of
your grandfather, Alf and your grandmother, Drusilla.
When I see your
fresh young face I can’t help but anticipate the adventures ahead of you.
In
some ways I want to push the pause button and make you stay just the way you are
~ but then again, I can’t wait to see what you become.

Black? White? Brown?

*****

Update, I finally decided on white and spent the rest of the day working on the layout. It doesn't look like the kind of layout that would take all day to complete, but the sewing, pulling threads, tying them and taping them down took forever!
Anyway, here is the final product.

*****


I'm puzzling over what to do with this layout.

I picked up the design from an on line sketch and I really like the blocks. But I'm not sure what color I want for the background.

I thought I liked the brown until I took a photo (after arranging the papers so I could put them back when it came time to glue everything down) and saw the thumbnail.

Through the miracle of modern technolobgy I was able to doodle around with other color choices, and now I'm leaning to the white.

Any thoughts?

Stuff I've been making

I've been back in the scraproom this weekend working on everything but layouts. I already showed you the wall hanging. The card above and on the left were made from scraps of the same paper line, as was the "Read" clipboard. The other clipboard was made from My Minds Eye paper.


I'm trying to set up a class for people to make teacher gifts, featuring clipboards. Since my oldest son has a male teacher and my youngest son's teacher is female, I decided to make two examples. When I'm done with the class, the kids teachers get the gifts. Since many of your are teachers, (media specialists, children's librarians, day care providers) I would appreciate any thoughts on rather or not you would like a clipboard for a gift.

Paint fancy

In spring a woman’s fancy turns to paint, and the Sagy paint I bought last fall and stacked behind the sofa in hopes of one day applying it to the walls is now calling my name.
I’ve been watching a lot of HGTV, which has fed the yen to slap a little paint around ~ although it’s hard to say which came first the TV watching, or the desire to spruce up my digs.
In any case, I have made an “accessory” to put on the walls, should I ever actually change the walls from boring white to slightly less boring green. I used my Dutch Girl paper and a D.I. find I picked up last fall when I was in my brief thrifty stage.
In theory, I will hang framed photos of my beloved family on the pegs under the shelf.
Baseball continues to be a saga of strangeness.
DS-8 was scheduled to go to his second (well first, because the first practice was canceled due to snow) practice Saturday at 5:30 p.m. but while I was in the shower DS-12 took a call telling us the time had changed to 11 a.m.
When we arrived as scheduled there were two teams playing on the field. Since we don’t know the team yet, but we do know they are named the “Blue Jays” we asked both teams and were told the second group was indeed, the one we sought, but they had started practice at 10:30 a.m.
I figured DS-12 got the message wrong, introduced A to the coach and sat down to watch the practice. As we watched, DH and I realized they were playing T ball, curious, we thought he was in a pitch team, but we’re new at this and we could have missed something along the way.
A proved to be pretty talented, maybe it was because he was one of the largest kids on the team.
Wait.
When did A get to be so tall?
One of the parents overhearing our conversation asked us how old he was.
“Eight,” we said.
“These are six year olds,” she told us.
While A was practicing a new team had arrived, you guessed it, they were the 8-year-old Blue Jays. So A played a few minutes with his real team and DH and I mourned the loss of what appeared to be a really great coach.
DS-12 spent the day in SLC doing Temple Baptisms, and we were spared several hours of infighting, a very good thing.
Even better, DH didn't have to work on Saturday or Sunday.
What's more, this weekend is Stake Conference. A better woman would be rejoicing at the opportunity to learn at the feet of her stake leaders. I am darn excited because I don't have to go to Relief Society and I'm slumming around the house in my p.j.s
Wickedness may not be happiness, but a nap comes pretty close.

Shields up!

Do you ever have the feeling that something is about to happen? And that something, be it big or small is going to chance the current course of your life.
What’s more, you know something should happen, but you are not sure if you want something to happen, or if you think the something is good or bad, or just … something.
Kind of like the feeling that you are either seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or the headlight of an oncoming train, but you are not sure what it is just yet?
That’s kind of what I’m feeling right now, and it’s making me a little uneasy.
Yesterday morning I was feeling pretty chipper.
The day stretched ahead of me with nothing in it, except I did need to unload and reload the dish washer, throw in a couple loads of laundry and write a news story. Other than that I was all clear.
After waking up a former NASA astronomer for information about the story (apparently astronomers work at night and sleep during the day) and spending two hours putting together the report of summer star parties it was 11 a.m. but …
Most of the day stretched ahead of me with nothing in it. Well sure, I needed a shower and I had to go buy some spray paint for a scrapping project, plus the laundry and dishes still needed attention but …
At noon after the shower I sat down to eat a bowl of soup and watch “Mission Organization” while feeding stray bits of meat to Djin I realized some of the day had slipped away. I still needed to go shopping before tackling the projects in the house but I still had time, except the phone was ringing, and it was work, with one question, then it was Standard Optical with another question, then it was work again with yet another question and it was the Relief Society President reminding me I was late for our weekly meeting which starts at one and usually lasts two hours and I had thought was not going to happen because she was going to be out of town this week.
However, I was already dressed and ready to go since I was just heading out the door to go shopping for spray paint.
Okay, so now it’s 3 p.m. and the day is no longer stretching ahead of me with nothing in it. DS-8 and I make a run to the store to pick up spray paint, nabbing something for supper on the way home.
What with eating and watching re-runs of “Darma and Greg” before I knew it, it was time for “Survivor; Fiji.”
But CSI was a re-run and I could still make the bed and clean the kitchen and get a load of laundry going but then again as I was making the bed I saw the phone and realized I had planned to call K to follow up on something that happened in the meeting and we got to talking and …
Well now, it’s 9:15 p.m. the boys need me to tuck them into bed and I still want to watch the DVR copy of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “E.R.” I recorded because I was planning to unload the dishwasher and throw a load of clothes into the washing machine and DH is due home from his second job any minute.
Which is to say yesterday was just your average day.
But several things were said during the meeting and during my discussion with K afterwards that made me think of marriage and families, and making decisions, and charting your life’s course.
As a result, I am now thinking a change is on the horizon and I’m not really sure where I’m going to fit a change into my open days with nothing in them.
But I can’t spend a lot of time thinking about it today. The day stretches ahead of me with nothing in it but a few loads of laundry and a kitchen to clean. O yes, since I now have the spray paint, maybe I can start on that scrapping project …

Odd ramblings to avoid work

{Photo blatently stolen from Stuff On My Cat because I like it}

I’m a little groggy today. I was awake from about 4 to 6:30 a.m. ~ just in the bed thinking about stuff, battling DS-8s elbows and Djin’s furry face, trying to sleep. As usually happens. I went soundly to sleep at 6:30 a.m. and woke up about 15 minutes before the children were supposed to be to school.
A storm is blowing in, and as I have discovered since moving to this town, storms in our little town are preceded by wicked winds.
Yesterday the weather was wonderful. But last night at about 7:30 p.m. when I went out side with a spray can and yet another project I had a hard time getting the spray paint to stick to the wood because the darn wind kept blowing everything sideways.

In an attempt to avoid work I have created a blog for my local scrapbook store. You can find it here: http://scrappilyintooele.blogspot.com/ And yes, the first entry looks oddly familiar.

I have also been on a reading kick lately. I’ve read something like six books in the last week. It’s not as ambitious as it sounds. Four of them were children’s lit fantasy stories about a door in the woods and a dream world.
Oddly enough the two adult books have ended up sharing a common theme, the challenge faced by cultural and racial prejudices, and neither one overtly speak of the theme, it is just there as an underpinning of the stories.
The first is Fanny Flagg’s “Welcome to the World Baby Girl,” about a female newscaster in the 1970’s watching as muck rackers destroy the lives of good people by digging up smut from their past. As it happens, this newscaster has her own secret ~ although she isn’t really sure what it is. The girl’s father was a World War II soldier who met her mother during training and married her before being shipped overseas.
He ends up being killed in the war, and his wife and daughter come to a small southern town for a few years before the mother takes off with her child because she is hiding some unknown secret.
The other story is Tony Hillerman’s “Shape Shifters.” Anyone familiar with Tony Hillerman knows his books are mysteries based on the crime fighting of Navajo police in America’s southwest. I spent several years on the fringe of the area written about in the stories, although I never understood the Navajo people as explained by the book, even though one of my good friends in St. George was part Navajo.
His story also touches on the Hmong, an obscure people treated badly in their Asian home. I’ve never heard of the Hmong (pronounced Mong) until last year of so when I did a layout for a friend who’s husband served an LDS mission in California among the Hmong.
Both books are a pretty good read, if you are looking for something to do.
DS-8 has his first baseball practice tonight. He is so excited he just can’t stand it. He’s even trying to get me to go out and help him catch. Poor deluded child, he thinks he has a Mom who is willing to do that sort of thing.
It should be interesting learning to play baseball in a wind storm.

One more thing. While I was doodling around looking for a story related to my English as a Second Language story I am currently (avoiding) writing, I found this.http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660192238,00.html It might be of interest to my family members.

Help meeeeeee

Seriously. It's an illness. But I can't pass up a stack of papers called "Dutch Girl." I just can't. Holland, send photos.

Quick post

Just a quick post beore I go back to the scrap room. I managed to get a couple of layouts done yesterday. I have been asked to teach a journaling class at my local scrapbook store next week. I am also working on a clipboard project for the local store and another project for the Scrappin Trends newsletter. I hope I manage to get a couple of them done.
DH is going crazy with his second job. They have him scheduled to work all weekend. I don't know how much longer he is going to put up with it before he just quits. I totally understand his frustration, he's never home. There has to be a better way to make a living.

Okay, I'm back

Okay, you may be wondering what the mystery blog entry was yesterday. I started writing it when I discovered it was almost time for my big Thursday night of television with Survivor, CSI and ER. Just as I was getting ready to get back to blogging DS-8 decided he needed me to help him go to sleep, and while I was in with the child DH turned off the computer, television and lights.
As I was closing in on 11 p.m. by the time I finally got the munchkin to sleep I decided to just let the whole computer thing go and get to bed.
To answer your question, Karen; sadly I am not responsible for the sketch blog. But it is cool, and they are offering a drawing for prizes to those who spread the word. Not being the sort of girl to turn down the chance at free scrapbook stuff I jumped on the band wagon to link their site on my blog. http://littlebookofsketches.blogspot.com/
The photos are the last of my Easter shots. I plan to do a page with them along the lines of “It was fun while it lasted.” Because within 24 hours after we brought the hover disk home the boys tossed it on top of the elementary school.
However, I anticipated the toy wouldn’t last long, and it kept a half dozen boys entertained for several hours ~ which I consider a pretty good investment for a three dollar toy.
I made the card with scraps from the A & A layout. I am slowly learning that making cards is a good way to used scraps and help clean up the work surface for the next project.
Today (knock on wood) I have the whole day to myself with no work or nothing. I took a little nap in the sun earlier in the day and just realized I need to run down to Walgreens to pick up a prescription for DS-12. As I am edging in on noon, I’ve already frittered away a good portion of the day. But I’ll be doing some scrapping this afternoon.

More purdy girls

The photo in the layout is a year old. Yep, I’m really good at getting those photos in pages as soon as possible.
Funny story about the layout, I bought the brown and white AC paper in Logan on the way to Wyoming, simply because I love it.
When I had a spare minute I pulled it out and started pushing it around with a photo of a butterfly. But I couldn’t get it too look right. So I flipped through my file of photos and discovered this one of Ashlee and Abby. That’s when I discovered the back side of the AC paper was a good match to Ashlee’s shirt and the page just sort of developed from there.
The smaller photo is Ashlee this year. I’ve also included photos of my niece and niece-in-law, beautiful women, both of them.

Easter Colors

Part of our Easter activities was coloring eggs together. Wyo. Sister hosted the event, and she had it well organized. Colors were ready for dipping and each child was given a half-carton filled with eggs, with their name on it.
Thus each child had a sent number of eggs, and there was not squabbling. Great idea Sis! After the eggs were colored, Magon, the newest member of the family, judged the entries and awards were given for things like "Bunniest Egg," "Rottenest Egg (for most outragious use of color)" and "Just Ducky" egg. my DS-L wanted to win the Just Ducky award, so he drew a duck on one of his eggs.
We had a problem deciding which entry qualified for the "Most Uniform" egg, but decided Jake should be awarded the prize because all of his eggs were dyed to look like camaflage ~ Uniform, camo, it was a stretch, but it made him happy.

Easter Abby

This is an ode to Abby, three year old princess, only daughter of my niece, beautiful girl child, and the subject of my photos today.
I took a great many photos over Easter vacation, but the camera loves Abby, and even when I wasn’t necessarily selecting her as the subject, she came in focus.
Tomorrow I’ll move on to other Easter events. But for now, it’s all Abby, all the time.

Happy Easter!

I don't really know why there was a red X here. But I'm back, so I'll see what I can figure out.

To whom it may concern:

To whom it may concern:
I will be bringing the Shane Magon wedding album with me to work on over the Easter weekend. I would appreciate anything you can contribute in the way of photos, ideas, and actual gluing.
I have currently completed all of the pages except:

N {nieces and nephews?}
Q {quiet moments?}
W {A poem beginning with the
letter W?}
Z {Z end works for me, but I need art!}

I also ran into a snag when the Making Memories rub on letters I was using ran out of "e"s. If you can find a set of "Making Memories Simply Stated" lower case rub on letters in white, (item number 23507) and bring them with you to Afton, I will repay you for them.

Karen sent me an e-mail suggesting

W ~ White
N ~ Newspaper

Any words that do not contain the letter “e” would be greatly appreciated. {Notice how "Unite" has become "Unity."} I called the manufacturer and discovered Simply Stated has been discontinued. :(

Trippin' down memory lane

I’ve been playing in my photos for my ScrappinTrends design kit. I had SEI paper this month, and it seemed a good match for the photos. Conference weekend is a great time to scrap. I can scrap and listen to conference and let my house go to pot without guilt.

It's really odd, I can remember each one of these dresses, and the stories behind everything in the photo.

Mom made the red dress with the trim. I thought I could still find some of the flower braid in my stash, but I apparently used it on something else.

I can remember the exact moment this photo was taken. We are sitting on a scooter Ray{mond} made with one of his friends. I thought I was hot stuff because the girls finally let me win the Miss America contest.

The other photo was one of a strip of photos taken in a photo booth at Idaho Falls. Grandma Hall took me to get the photos taken, and she told me how my sister posed all pretty with her hand up behind her head. Somewhere it got lost in translation, and I decided to put my hand up like I was a hostile witness being sworn into court. Mom and my sisters laughed until they cried when they saw the photo.

I think I convinced Wyo. Sis to fix my hair for this photo. I thought this look was stylin’

The blue dress was my first “store bought” dress. We bought it at J.C. Penney’s in Idaho Falls. I didn’t like it ~ I wanted something sweet and girly. But Mom’s sense of style prevailed, as always.

I think I sewed this dress. I know I picked out the pattern and the fabric, one of those flame retardant double knit numbers. I still like the print on the fabric, Maybe I’ll see if I can use it for a layout inspiration.