My Style

I've been scrapping in some form or another for nearly 10 years now. Over time, I've struggled to find my own personal style and get comfortable in my skin so to speak. I've gone through periods of comparing my artwork to others' and finding my own to be lacking. But finally, in time, and probably with some degree of God's help, I found a degree of comfort and satisfaction in my artistic style. While mine may not be the most wowing or the most creative pages out there, I find that I am happy with them.

My style has formed to be something like this... I like the photos to tell the story. I like the colors and elements and patterns to accentuate the photos somehow without being overbearing (hopefully... at least that's the goal). I tend to do big, centered blocks o photos for whatever reason. I don't seem to be the girl who can scatter things around the page and make it look right. I love that style on other people's pages, but it just doesn't work for me. I love to document the stuff I want to remember most.

But most of all, I love to scrap the every-day. Really, it's those things that I cherish more than any major holiday or milestone. And if I'm honest, I think it's those things I'm most afraid I will someday forget. So I want to have some visual reminder to myself, as well as a message to others, that these moments happened, that they were a part of my life, and that they mattered to me. That's important. And it has played a rather large role in helping me to settle into my own personal scrap style.

Anyway, I know that's a bit of random information, especially for those of you who don't scrap and could care less. But I was looking through some of my recent layouts, and I realized they all share some common characteristics. That observation prompted the thoughts behind this post. So forgive my randomness. Here are a few layouts I can share with you.

Everyday Miracles
This layout was done for April's Girl vs. Scrap challenge at One Story Down. (Come check it out. There's a free gift for participating... definitely worth it!) The challenge I took was to document an every-day miracle in my life.

Here's the story behind this layout:
One day I was grumbling to myself as I stood in front of our pantry, thinking I didn't have anything to make for dinner. As I was turning up my nose at what we did have, and wishing we had something we didn't have, I was convicted about my attitude. I became clearly aware that many many mothers suffer this trial on a daily basis, not knowing what they will feed their children, or how they will fill their bellies. I realized as I took a closer look at the pantry that we had more than enough to sustain us. Just because we didn't have what I WANTED, did not mean we didn't have what we NEEDED. I was reminded of the Israelites feeding on manna for years and grumbling about that daily miracle. Right then I stopped my grumbling and took a fresh look. I found enough to make some homemade soup and sandwiches, and we ate a filling meal that night.

(Click to view full credits)

Yum
Another every-day kind of moment. This one has a lot less meaning behind it. I just happened to have my camera near-by when this happened. Sebastian was lounging around, enjoying a Tootsie Pop he had gotten at school. Lilly took an interest in said Tootsie Pop, and hopped up to check it out. She kept sticking her nose right up in his face, sniffing around, bu she never got brave enough to take a lick... which is probably good, because cat licks on your sucker is kinda gross... although I used to let my cat drink out of my cereal bowl when I was young (don't tell my mom *lol*)

(Click to view full credits)

**********

Project Life 2012: Week 13

Another week done! Not a lot of pictures this week from day to day, since I was sick for the middle chunk of it. I guess it didn't occur to me to take pictures of me laying on the couch in misery, or of the ceiling fan that Lucas installed in the living room (which is actually a big deal that I'm super excited about), or the numerous trips to gymnastics. And I altogether MISSED Isaac's lacrosse game, as it was held the same day as my day of misery. *sigh*

I did manage to fill the 2 page spread, though, thanks to pictures from Sebastian's state meet, and a few pictures from the first 2 days of Spring Break. I had to improvise a bit to capture some of the things I wanted to document... such as Sebastian's 100% on states and capitals, and also Sebastian getting contacts to try out!! Big stuff... no photos.

So for the states, I turned to the internet for a graphic of the US. And for the contacts, I made this little journaling card insert:


Here's the full 2-page spread for the week:



Left:



Right:


And a close-up of the Spring Break 4x6 I made (all digital, using TLP products: quote bubbles by Karah Fredricks, Background paper by Allison Pennington)

Spring Break: Days 1-4

Day 1: Friday, 3/30
* Sleeping in! Woot! No early morning routine to catch the bus before sunrise. *happy sigh*
* Movies... Lucas took Sebastian to see Hunger Games (Lucas was feeling awful, but he wanted Sebastian to get to see his movie). I took Isaac and Meagan to see the Lorax. Yay for Hunger Games. Boo for Lorax. It was no bueno. Not good at all, no matter how much I love Dr. Seuss and his genius.


* Barnes & Noble to pick up a book that we ordered for Sebastian. I love that my kids all love to browse the book store. They all have a book wish list a mile long. They could definitely be wishing for worse things.


Day 2: Saturday, 3/31
* I spent the better part of the morning getting coupons, a menu, and a grocery list ready. Then I spent a solid 2 1/2 hours grocery shopping. On a Saturday. Not the best timing. Oh well.
* After dinner, we headed to Dick's to find some weights and a mat for the basement floor. Apparently P90X isn't so fun on hard concrete floor. Meagan thought the punching dummy was hilarious!! She kept trying to strangle him and punch him out. *lol*



Day 3: Sunday, 4/1
*Palm Sunday! A children's choir from Cape Town, Africa performed in service today. It was amazing! They were inspiring! We made the decision as a family to support a child at the orphanage where these children live. We talked to the kids about how we are SO very blessed, and how we have a responsibility to help give to others in return. They are excited to give their giving money toward helping to feed, house, and educate someone else. I love that!
*Poor Lily is now the focus of lots of kid attention. After effectively having the quiet house all to herself for the past few months, she's suffering a bit of culture shock.

* Lucas packed up and headed out for training in Ohio this week. We'll miss him. Bummer he can't hang out with us for Spring Break. :(
* The kids and I had a Dairy Queen treat after dinner. Maybe Meagan will stop BEGGING for it now... at least for a few days. Maybe.

This is heaven in a bowl. Fact.


Day 4: Monday, 4/2
* I did a week of Project Life catch-up! I've still got 6 more weeks to do.
* We had to make a store run today, so we had a lunch date at Applebee's while we were out.
* We came home from lunch and cleaned the basement. We got ALL of the toys out of the floor. The back of the van is loaded with bags of toys and books and games to be donated. And the floor has been vacuumed and scrubbed with Lysol. Yes, it was that bad that we had to bust out the Lysol. *sigh* But it looks SO much better now! Yay!
* Meagan was the ONLY one who showed up for practice today, so she had 90 minutes of just her and the coach 1-on-1. She worked HARD for an hour and a half. With no one else in the class to take turns, she was working non-stop! But her coach said she had a great upbeat attitude the whole time, even when it got tough. I love to hear that!
*Meagan got bit by a dog today. On her neck. Right at the jugular. I was a bit worried about it because it nearly broke the skin... left scrapes and purple blood marks, but no actual bleeding. I asked her what happened, and she said she hugged the doggy good-bye. I'm guessing her idea of a loving hug is not the same as the dog's idea. Still, I told her she should just give that doggy his space from now on. Grrr. Anyway, we washed it, and she iced it, and she seems to have essentially forgotten about it by now. That's fine with me.

(Sorry, no pictures of day 5. I forgot to take my phone with me when we were at Applebee's. And we didn't do much else besides clean the basement. Not sure basement pics would be too exciting).

The kids are now getting ready to lay down for their nighttime movie. It's Meagan's night to pick, and it looks like Daddy Daycare is her pick.

**********

Project Life 2012: Week 12

Yes, I'm jumping out of order on my Project Life. The last week I successfully completed before this one was week 6. Weeks 7-11 are in limbo, lost in the land of 'life got way too hectic and crazy to scrap.' I'm hoping to delve into the past and retrieve those skipped-over weeks eventually, but for now I'm just happy to be making progress of any sort.

I actually got up rather early this morning, so I decided to put my quiet time to use printing out a few pictures. I wrote out my journaling cards, which I'm not a super fan of... maybe at some point I'll type them out, or at least rewrite them more neatly. For now, I'm just happy it's done (notice the running theme here?).

(And sorry for the photography... for some reason I couldn't seem to photograph them without a glare. Oh well, not the important things in life, right?)

2-pg spread:


left:


right:


journaling:
18 - McD's for lunch after church; taxes; hung new curtains; 5/6 state meet tear-down
20 - sent flowers to Nancy
21 - Nancy's surgery; I got a hair cut; Hans came over for a steak dinner
24 - Mom & Mike came; lunch at 5 Guys; Hunger Games movie; Qdoba's afterward

journaling:
5 Guys Burgers & Fries: Mom & Mike wanted to take Isaac to lunch since we would be missing his 1st lacrosse game. He chose McAllister's but there was a HUGE line. Instead we went to 5 Guys & sat outside to eat. It wasn't his 1st choice, but it was still tastey!

journaling:
Here's the Story: Lucas took my box of Fiber 1 brownies to work for a snack :( To 'make it up' to me, he got us yummy BBQ from Big Hoffa's. 1/4 rack of ribs, cole slaw, mac & cheese, & rolls... definitely worth a box of brownies!

close-ups:




**********

One Story Down - Grand Opening!

Finally! After MUCH anticipation, One Story Down has opened it's digi doors. The fabulous Lauren has expanded her blog baby to fit her vision of a site that encompasses and encourages ALL scrapbooking, not just paper or digi. It's fabulous! And I'm lucky enough to have been asked to be a part of the creative team! So you'll be seeing lots of fantastic OSD goodies on my pages from now on!

Be sure to stop by, check it out, and take advantage of the grand opening sale!!




**********

It's My Life

It's been a loooooong while, but I finally found some time to scrap!! It helps that I was able to use a great new template by Sahlin Studio, which eliminated my need to plan out the page. I just picked my papers and pictures and was able to finish a layout in less than an hour! Sweet! I really don't know why I don't use templates more often. ??


journaling: 'when i look at my life, at all the blessings and amazingness that surround me each day, at the relationships and bonds i've had the good fortune to form, i can't help but think i owe it to God to live this life the best i can.'


(Click here to view full credits)

**********

Wanna See?

Okay. After a LONG hiatus from blogging, I'm back again. It's just been a C.R.A.Z.Y. chunk of time in my life, and I've had ZERO time to sit at the computer to blog or scrap or even browse the internet really. I have 10 minutes this morning before I have to wake the kids up for school, so I'll take advantage of the quiet time. It might be all I get today, who knows!

Sunday morning Sebastian competed in the IN boys state meet for gymnastics, and he did GREAT!! He is now officially 'state champ' in 2 events, and co-champ in a third. Nice! He placed 1st on high bar and floor, tied for 1st on parallel bars, and placed 2nd all-around! We are SO proud of him. (I, however, am still having a bit of a tough time letting go of some judging inconsistencies, but I guess that's what you get with a subjectively scored sport, right? I'm gonna have to let it go.)

So here are the videos I have that turned out pretty well. One he fell (pommel horse), so I'm not posting that just to save him the embarrassment. And one (vault), a guy walked right in front of my video camera as Sebastian was going, so I mostly got the top of the guys head as I tried to shoot over him. grrrr

Rings: 15.1, 2nd place


Parallel Bars: 14.7, tied for 1st


High Bar: 15.1, 1st place


Floor: 15.4, 1st place


Vault: 14.9, 5th place

Pommel Horse: 13.7, 3rd place

All-Around: 87.9, 2nd place

We are SOOOO proud of him! He had a great first year in gymnastics! Now they've started working on level 5 skills, and he is being challenged and having a blast!

**********

...

well here it is, thursday, and i've posted nothing at all this week. life seems to just continue to be non-stop. there is no down time for me right now. so, very sorry for the lack of updates. but all the updates would sound the same: gymnastics, lacrosse, homework, house cleaning, grocery shopping, etc.

i'll try to think of something fun and interesting to share with you. soon. i hope. until then, i'm off to clean my house and get snack together for after school. meagan has gymnastics tonight. and i have to get dinner thrown in the crock pot so that we can have something to eat when we get home from said practice. i think dinner tonight will be taco salad over crunched up doritos... keepin' it easy. ;)

**********

State Meet #1

Friday 3/9:
The day before her meet, Meagan was a bit nervous. So we decided to surprise her with this...

It was waiting for her on the kitchen table when she got home from school. Just to make it a fun experience and memory instead of a nerve-wracking one.

And this was the reaction:


See, a few weeks ago (or maybe last week?? I can't keep track anymore!) she went to her friend's birthday party. For the gift, Meagan picked out these 2 little monkeys. But she carried them around with her all afternoon until it was time to wrap them up and take them to the party. So we decided it would be fun to surprise her with her own 2 little monkeys. Can you tell she LOVED them?! :)

Saturday 3/10:
This weekend was Meagan's Level 3 state meet. What an adventure!! Her check-in time was 7:45. We left our house at 6:45... 15 minutes later than we were planning.
We are maybe the last people in the US who do not have a GPS of some sort, so we use mapquest. Until now, this has worked for us. This time, however, it did not work. Not at all.

We made good time getting to where we thought we were going. We would have been there by 7:45ish. ISH. Close enough to check-in time. It would have worked fine. Except. Mapquest ended right in the middle of a residential road. The end. Nothing else to go on. For whatever reason, it decided to change the ending address... it must not have been able to find the one I typed in, so it made up it's own?? Random. Anyway, we ended up finding the address online at USAG Indiana's web site. Lo and behold, we were still a half hour away. Not so good. I called her coach and told her we were on the way... don't scratch Meagan from the meet!!! And then So we drove quickly. And got there at 8:45.

They were just finishing up with march-in and team introductions. The theme of the meet was 'princess ball' and all of her teammates were on the floor with tutu's and tiaras on. Until this point, nothing about our hectic morning had phased her. But when she saw that they all had princess outfits on, she started crying... "I don't have one and I'm going to look dumb!" *eye roll* Stay calm... you've gotten through a morning of pandemonium, you can' handle a wardrobe malfunction. Right? Luckily, though her coaches had been watching for her. They came right over and got her, gave her her very own tutu and tiara, and got her out on the floor. End of crisis. Thankfully she hadn't missed any of the warm-up time for the first event, and there was no more drama after that, so it all worked out!! Yay!!

So here's how it went...

Vault: 8.625, 14th place


Bars: 8.5, 11th place




Beam: 8.65




Floor: 8.375 (yay!!! she scored in the 8's on floor!!), 15th place


All-Around: 34.15, 13th place

She did a fabulous job! We were SO proud of her, especially how she handled herself after all that craziness trying to get there! She stayed calm and had fun, didn't sweat the mistakes, and did the best she could that day. I love that! Couldn't ask for anything more!




(Oh yeah, and she got flowers... 3 carnations for finishing level 3... and she was beside herself! She kept making her friends smell them, saying "smell them, they're real!" I'm glad that she felt special and loved. She deserves that. It WAS the 'princess ball' after all)

**********

Birthday Cake!

I've never had cake quite like this. I've seen lots of pretty photos of cake pops and other such creativeness, but I've never been brave enough to try making them. Yesterday's schedule, which required LOTS of driving (I drove over 60 miles yesterday, and went nowhere... what's that about?) and not lots of time at home, made portable birthday cake a necessity. So I braved the unknown, and tried it. (I used one of my pinterest finds for guidance.)

They turned out great!! Strawberry cake mix, vanilla frosting, and chocolate candies to be melted down... plus sprinkles of course.




So tasty! Super sweet, but in small bite-size portions it works.
In case I'm not the LAST person on earth that has tried these guys, here's the easy steps:

1) bake the cake as instructed on the box
2) let the cake cool
3) crumble the cake into a big bowl... note: exclude the crunchier parts of the cake, like the browned parts that have a more firm texture than the inner part of the cake (or else maybe that's just my cake because I'm such an awesome baker and I burn stuff?? *lol*)
4) with a fork, mix in about 1/2 can of store-bought frosting. squish it all up until it's mixed evenly
5) roll the cake into balls (my cake mix made 34 balls... funny cuz I'm 34 years old... hmmmm) and refrigerate
6) melt the chocolate... I used the kind of chocolate that you use to make the little Easter chocolate candy lolipops and such. In a microwave safe bowl, melt it on 50% for 1 minute. stir. then on 50% in 30 second intervals until it's all smooth
7) dip the sucker stick into the melted chocolate, then stick it into the cake ball
8) spoon the melted chocolate over the cake ball and set on wax paper to harden... if you want sprinkles, add them right after you spoon the chocolate on before it hardens

That's it. A bit time consuming, but not difficult. Kids LOVED them. I'll definitely be doing these again.

**********

2011: week 16

STILL plugging away (slowly) at 2011's Project Life. I'm almost as far on 2012 as I am on 2011 *lol*, but I finally managed to finish week 16. So, here are some photos from nearly a year ago... fun to see what we were doing then I guess... and to see what has changed or stayed the same.

the spread:


left:

(click for larger view)

right:

(click for larger view)

Week 16:
16 - Isaac taught Meagan how to play chess
17 - I finally got my Pier 1 curtains hung up!
18 - Meagan had a picnic in the yard with our neighbor Kaylee
Also today I got my first Vera purse ever *love*
19 - a super rainy day. What else to do but make a blanket fort?
20 - Isaac had gymnastics, & we got party supplies for Meg's birthday
21 - Isaac played dinosaur fighters with the laundry basket. The basket was his shell.

(click here to view credits)
**********

Last Day

Today is my last day of being 33...tomorrow is the big 3-4. So how did I spend the day? I got a McDonald's tea for breakfast. I talked to my grandma on the phone for a few minutes. And my mom. And my dad. I went to work and spent recess outside in the sunny blue sky weather, even though it was chilly. I picked up my contacts. I applied for a new CT. I got gas. Made snacks. Took the kids to gymnastics. Then afterward the kids and I went to eat at a Mexican restaurant across from the gym. Then we made a trip to Target. Tonight I baked a cake that I will soon shred up to make cake pops for snack tomorrow.

It was a pretty plain day. But a good day. All good.

This is me today:


And Meagan today... wearing my sunglasses that busted this afternoon... she thought it was hillarious and wore them all the way to the gym:


**********

Project Life 2012: Week 6

On to week 6. Only 3 weeks to do now... I'm getting there...



left...all of these pictures were taken on Feb. 5th. It was a big day for us... breakfast with friends in Michigan, then church at our old church in Michigan (so wonderful to be there), then our drive home, then playing outside in the field, then the Superbowl.


right... the rest of the week


close-ups...




**********

Project Life 2012: Week 5

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday printing pictures and trying to catch up a bit on my Project Life album. I managed to get 2 weeks caught up in the midst of everything else that was going on (lacrosse practice, shopping, birthday party, and dinner out). Here's week 5...

the whole spread...


left...


right...


and some close-ups...


these are Martha Stewart office supplies that I got for my birthday, and I LOVE these folders... LOVE. they're open on the top and side, and the papers just slip right in... easy to get in and out, but display SO pretty.






**********