Today is a New Day

The skills are rusty, but they are, indeed, coming back. :)

Clouds and suns are kindof indicative of my state lately...and the sentiment, which came from one of those Hero Arts/Studio Calico stamp sets that I acquired during an intense session of retail therapy, says what I need to say for sure! (Two Peas is down right now. I'll link up the stamps later.)

The cloud is a die I stumbled upon at this ebay store--it's included in the hot air balloon, which I love. It's an exclusive design for Paper Delight Boutique. They also have a lemonade stand that is on my list.

The polaroid-like frame is also a Quickutz die that's been hanging around my workspace for a while. The ribbon is fron Spano...the most luxurious silky little stripped ribbon around. Pearls are from Pebbles.

Happy Card-making!

--Sarah

the rest of the story

So my father is a writer and he publishes a blog and being a pastor, in the vein of the one with fire shut up in his bones, he often writes of spiritual things. A few weeks ago, he shared the story of the garden with his readers, and while it's infused with spiritual wisdom, he left out a funny, and albeit, less-significant part of the story. Can't let him get away with that, now can we?

Read *I Want That* here.

If my math is correct (it might or might not be), I was either two or three years old at the time of the garden. To be entirely honest, I'm not completely sure if I remember this because I remember it or if I remember it because the tale of it has been recounted in my presence so very many times. When your life is a constant source for sermon material, sometimes the two run together. Nonetheless, for me, this is one of those life-defining stories.

We lived in Texarkana, Arkansas in the brown house on Mimosa Drive. I was still an only child at that time and would remain so for quite a while (the glory days). My dad put in the garden up on the hill--I remember climbing that hill, struggling, reaching up for his hand. Always there.

I'm sure there was more to the garden than radishes and watermelons...but those are the things a little girl remembers. Radishes...red, dirty radishes...easy to dig up out of the earth and plenteous. How awesome to find little red balls of goodness right there in the dirt. And watermelon.

Well, it's a funny thing about watermelons. Did you know that you can plant the watermelon seeds one night and go back to the garden and find a fully-grown monster of a watermelon waiting on you the very next night? You didn't? Where have you been gardening?

Well, when you are a tiny girl who hangs on her father's every word and whim, that's exactly what happens. With great care, you cultivate the dirt, dig the hole and drop in the seeds. You cover the seeds with more dirt and rain down water from a bucket or a coffee can upon them. In your heart, you pray over them and in your dreams you see the mountains of big, green, drippy, sweet watermelons that are sure to come!

So maybe you can anticipate what happened. My dad and I planted the seeds and talked of the mountains of watermelons that would surely be forthcoming with immediacy. We tinkered in the garden til the sun went down and inside we went.

And the next day, as the story goes, an idea happened to light upon my devious father's shoulder. How funny would it be...to acquire a fully-developed watermelon and "plant" it in the garden for the pleasure of watching the daughter's eyes bug out of her head upon it's discovery?

And that's exactly what he proceeded to do. Sneakily, he carted a fully-developed store-bought watermelon up the hill to the garden and stuck it right where we had planted the seeds and then with equal sneakiness, he came into the house and suggested that we should go up to the garden to check on it's progress.

Daddys are devious and sneaky, don't you know.

And apparently, they truly love to see a little girl's eyes bug out of her head in surprise...and on that day, on the hill, I did not disappoint.

I'm going to Texas for a visit in a few weeks...gonna spend a little time around the table with my family and no doubt, by tradition, there will be watermelon. Cold, drippy, sweet, red watermelon with seeds. And salt. Spread out over a table covered with newspaper at an attempt to contain the inevitable mess. And there will be debate over whether you should eat watermelon with a fork or a spoon and undoubtedly, someone will spit a seed or twenty...and get the evil eye from my mom for it.

And Dad will sit back and watch the grandsons (all three) with that twinkle in his eye...and I will quietly wonder what kind of devious plan he's hatching up for no other reason than to see their eyes bug out of their heads in pure surprise and the magic that comes with being called "Pawpaw". <3

broken knee broken craftiness

Broken knee, Broken Craftiness.

I broke my knee in three places on February 20. Since then, I haven't felt the least bit crafty or created a single thing worthy of pixels. I've experienced crafty dry spells before but never has any previous one lasted this long.

I continue to read all my favorite scrapbooking, card-making, creative blogs and truly enjoy the works shown but not enough to make me pick up a piece of paper or a stamp.

I have shopped a little. OK, maybe more than a little. There are no less than 7, 8, 9 new sets of stamps waiting on me to play with them...but hmmm, "not today, perhaps tomorrow". Alas, a touch of shopping on-line does bring a girl some cheer when the mail arrives, but even fresh stamps haven't pulled me out of this stupor. (What did banged up people do before the age of laptops, wireless Internet and even smart phones?)

Jus' not feelin' it right now.

My fortieth birthday happened and not a single photo was snapped.

Joal went to Africa for ten days and brought home stunning images of all things Kenyan...and I am not moved. It's official. My wood is wet.

My creative space is languishing in heaps and piles not of my own making and clouds of disarray. I couldn't find a roll of adhesive if my life depended on it. The use of a left knee is not necessary for a good scrapbook layout...so why can't I get to it?

Was my crafty creative mojo locked up in the 36 pounds I lost in 45 days?

What's a girl to do?

Not how I planned it

If I take a moment and look back across my life, I can't help but notice that the most poignant times--the times when life was the best or even the worst, the times when I felt closest to and most cared for by God, the times when I grew up the most--were those very times when life didn't go according to my plan.

These days I have more time on my hands than usual, so I have spent a little time mulling on this. And mulling, as you may have noticed, leads to blogging. Funny how that works.

I am married to a pretty amazing guy who is very good at what he does for work, and when I say "good" I really mean "outstanding, over-the-moon, top-notch, rock star". Joal has, for each of the past 8 years or so, been consistantly ranked in the top 10 most productive salespeople in his company.

Consequently, we have been rewarded with all-expenses-paid passage on 6 trips, 5 of which are my beloved cruises. Our sixth cruise was just a few weeks ago.

NWYC awards the cruise to those in the salesforce who earn certain distinctions throughout the previous year and we travel together--the group usually consists of about 30 members of the sales force and their chosen companion (spouse, child, friend, etc). Honestly, I can't imagine an ordinary cruise being nearly as much fun as it is to travel with these 60 or so friends that we have come to enjoy being with so much. Yes, from trip to trip, there are a few new friends, but mostly, it's the same group.

So this year was no different. Our cruise was scheduled for embarkation on February 20. With the sons safely in the care of Nana and Pawpaw for the week, Joal and I flew down to Miami on Sunday, Feb 19 and enjoyed a little time on Key Biscayne that afternoon.

Monday came and the weather was brilliant--a perfect day for boarding a cruise ship in the port of Miami and setting sail to the island of Roatan and Cozumel Mexico. We gathered with our group and took a bus to the ship. Embarkation went smoothly and we were crossing the gangway in no time.

Vacation at last.

We wandered the ship for a while, ate some lunch and found a cozy spot on the sundeck to relax for a bit. All was well.

And then I started to wonder if perhaps our luggage had been delivered to our stateroom. So I left Joal, reading a CS Lewis novel on the deck, and trekked off to our room. I found our room without too much delay, although I still don't understand the terms port, starboard, aft, and forward...and I can never figure out which end of the ship is the front...

No luggage had been delivered so I decided to read on the balcony that's attached to our suite. This, my friends, is my favorite place on the entire ship. It's barely big enough for two chairs and a table but it is paradise defined in my book. It's private and breezy and just sheer perfection. I spend a great deal of time on the balcony during every cruise...and if I'm not out there, there is a good chance that the big sliding glass door to the balcony is open, letting the ocean breeze and the sounds of the waves into our room.

This is my place and we've enjoyed this place enough times now that it feels comfortable like home...only a home with a view of the ocean. :) I read, I snacked, I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds...and then my phone, which was laying in the suite on the bed, rang.

And that's when my plan for the most-awesome vacation went fantastically awry.

Separating the balcony from the suite is a mammoth glass sliding door. Said door rides on a rather tall rail along the floor. At eye level on the glass door, there's a big orange sign that says "Watch Your Step". I know all this. I know you have to step *over* the rail to get into the suite.

And yet, I forgot about the rail that juts up out of the floor just long enough to trip over it and find myself falling into a glass table and taking all my weight on my left knee down to the floor.

And the phone is still ringing.

I laid there for a moment, broken glass from the table and fruit from the welcome plate scattered on the floor around me, and tried to collect myself. And then I realized something was wrong with my knee. I couldn't move my left leg at all. And it was at a weird angle.

Fortunately, cruise ship suites aren't *that* big, and I had fallen into the room. My phone was on the bed so with a little stretching I dragged my sweater off the bed and with it came my phone. My husband was on the other end of the line, as it were, so I told him I had fallen and I needed him to come straightaway--I think I hurt my knee.

The Chief End of Mom

From the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

What is the chief end of man?

Man's chief end is to glorify God.

What is the chief end of *mom*?


I was one of those young married adults that other young married adults with children love to hate--and with good reason. I remember saying it--"when I have children, they will not run my life. They will be along for the ride." My friends who already had children were kind enough not to snort with laughter in my presence, upon hearing my naive pronouncement...No one said "Yeah right. We thought that too."--at least not to my face.

And then we had a child.

And if you have any common sense, or at least one child of your own, you know that even before they are born, they tend to take over and change everything, from your body to your marriage, to your dreams. It's just the nature of the beast. Becoming a parent changes you, in ways you never conceive of beforehand.

Fast forward to today. I am the mother of a fifteen year old and an eight year old. I like to think I have this motherhood gig going pretty good. Most days. OK Some days.

Once in a while.

Throughout the years I have been thoroughly and soundly spanked by all the ways that being a mother has changed me, all the ways I have been challenged, all the ways I have sacrificed for the good of those two boys. An outsider observing my life would probably conclude that a boy named Julian and a boy named Grey are indeed the Masters of my Universe.

However, there are times when I still stomp my proverbial foot in child-like defiance and declare loudly that my children are not my masters. Yes, at times, it seems that my life revolves completely around two boys who share my last name, but in fact, I would be doing them a grave disservice if I allow them to think that they are in charge of my life. And in truth, it's a disservice to myself as well. While they are important, their health and well-being, their provisions, their happiness and self-esteem are not the answer to that question "what is the chief end of man?"

When I drop into bed in the wee hours of the morning, after a day of breakfasts, lunches, laundry, scouts, cajoling, chaperoning, referee-ing, correction, and 100 other son-centered tasks, there's a good chance that I don't think of myself, in that moment, as having done a fantastic job of "glorifying God". More often than not, I merely survived the day.

Sometimes, surviving is all I can do. It's all I've got. It's the bare minimum. And to be honest, I hate that.

Who wants to just survive? Shouldn't my aim go just a smidge higher than that? Is mere survival really what it means to live in Christ? I just don't buy that. Does survival mode glorify my Creator? I'm thinking not.

Granted, I deal with serious things. A child with brain damage. A husband who travels for work quite extensively. A malfunctioning body. Dysfunction and disillusionment. These are things that eat away at ones soul and lower long-term expectations from *live big* to *mere survival*. And let's not mention the menial and the perfunctory that comes with motherhood.

A few weeks ago, my much younger and definitely more cool than me sister came to town to hang out with the sons for a weekend so Joal and I could go away in honor of our milestone (twenty year) wedding anniversary. To say that the boys were excited for her visit would be akin to declaring the opening games of the Olympics mildly entertaining. They were over the moon.

Aunt Deb is the fun older sister they don't have. She has a driver's licence, her own money that she's willing to share, and she does cool things, like take them bowling, to the park and to play air hockey at the arcade. She feeds them leftover pizza for breakfast, Dunkin Donuts for snack, Chick fil A for lunch and Sonic for dinner (on the patio, no less). And then to end the day, this fearless threesome made Rice Krispie Treats with M&Ms before they watched a movie at bedtime.

She's the fun, cute, snappy young version of me. (She is actually 16 years younger than me, and yes, we have the same parents.) I have trouble doing fun with them. I'm the uber responsible one, thanks in part to being the oldest,  marrying an oldest and facing the things we've faced across the last twenty years. I'm the one who makes sure they are on time, clean, well-dressed and prepared. I supervise the homework. I sign the medical releases and send in the checks for lunch money. I drag them to the library and make sure they check out at least one book that is respectable.

I'm the one who says things like "drink your milk" or "turn off the tv and go ride your bike, you're turning into a vegetable". It's true. I've forgotten how to have fun. In my survival mode, fun has all but disappeared.

In the days following her visit, I was regaled with stories of the adventures my two boys had with the fun Aunt Deb. I couldn't be more proud of my sister, Fun Aunt Deb. She fills a need in their lives and she made me see something I'd been missing. I was reminded that to be a parent is to be about more than just mere survival. It requires engagement and attention to details that aren't necessarily *the big things*. While I can't be Aunt Deb's kind of over-the-top fun every single day, I can engage the fun mom more often and with more intentionality than has been present lately.

Conquering Mount Laundry and overcoming that phenomenal display of dirty dishes on the counter is not the chief end of motherhood, for sure. A made bed does not glorify God more than unmade one. (You can quote me on that.) And those things surely don't qualify me for fun mom of the year in the eyes of two boys.

Somewhere along the way, enjoyment of my little family became optional, in my quest to not be completely run over by this thing called motherhood. My vision for life became narrowed and I allowed the big things we deal with to become the only things we deal with.


And that's not working.

So, I'm on the hunt to find the fun and get "fun mom"--or at least "less serious mom"--back into our lives. Don't get me wrong--we will not be eating at more than three fast food places in one day--I will leave that for the mega-fun Aunt Deb with her still-under-30 metabolism.

Little steps, right? Short embraces of fun sandwiched between periods of responsibility. We can do that.

Dirty-hands Giving

When I was just out of college, I worked for The Salvation Army, in a low-level, basically insignificant position, for about 14 months. While I hated the job, and was positively terrible at it, while I was there, I fell in love with the organization who's mission is encompassed in the phrase "Heart to God, Hand to Man". See, The Salvation Army takes Jesus' parables in Matthew 25 very seriously.

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.


34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

When you meet a person in need of food or clothing or shelter, Jesus himself has said "help him, as you would me". That's a pretty clear mandate, no?

Last week, through a series of divinely-orchestrated events, I spent some time delivering cans of soup and  winter coats to some folks who had neither. I confess, I have no way to wrap my head around a life where an actual metal spoon is considered a luxury. I have a drawer full of them. I don't know what it means to know that my child is in desperate need of a coat--any coat--to fight off the winter chill...and to have no means of providing such a necessity. My sons are snuggled warm in their beds each night and when they go out to play, they choose a coat from a closet filled with warm things to wear. I have never known the experience of food-insecurity. Lord, forgive me.

And yet, I am a Christian, who believes with all her heart, that every Word of the Bible is a map for the believer's life. In light of Matthew 25, could the Christian mandate be any clearer?

We make things that are supposed to be so simple, so very complex. There's giving. I write a check and take the tax deduction. I'm glad to do so. But wait. There's more. Sometimes I feel like Jesus says to me "when are you going to get your hands dirty?"

It's very simple.
Jesus said Share.
Give.
No pomp and circumstance.
No big production.
No tax deduction.
When a brother or sister is hungry, just share.
When a child needs a coat, just provide.

It's a humble message, but one that is nonetheless, vital. 

My heart is moved by the knowledge that in my community, people are hungry. In *my* community, children are cold at night. Brokeness abounds. How does a believer respond to that?

My days at The Salvation Army were tortured (a fact that was not the fault of The Salvation Army) and short (a fact for which we are all very thankful)...but the primary lesson I learned there has always remained with me. When you meet a person's immediate physical needs in a time of crisis, you get their attention, and that moment becomes ripe for God's interveining. A hungry man is desperate for a meal. A man who has been fed, can hear God whispering his name.

And isn't that exactly what we all need--to hear a very simple message of hope and love from the One who made us?

The Cutest Boy in Texas

This boy has so many nicknames--because he's so loved. :) Grantlers, Little G, and my personal selection, CBiT...the Cutest Boy in Texas. This layout started out during a 2peas challenge to use apples but I got bogged down and didn't finish it before the challenge closed. Oh well. I did manage to use some of the beloved Scenic Route Paper from the stash. :)

Hope you are having a magnificent Monday!

--Sarah

Nuts about You

It looks like an ornament punch...but it's many things actually. Tonight, with a slight modification, it becomes an acorn for my *nuts about you* card.

--Sarah

Just a touch of fall...

Inspiration Everywhere

Inspiration for scrapbooking is all around us. Check out this fabulous font *and* a phrase that would make an excellent title for a page...straight from the pages of the newest Land's End clothing catalog!

You can find a free version of a very similar font right here.

And what a lovely color scheme shown on the cover of this Pier One Imports catalog! The colors of the chair are just begging to be grouped together on a delicious scrapbook page, don't you think?

And PS...what a great title the word *Wonderfall* would make!

Look around...there's Inspiration Everywhere!

--Sarah

On the Mark

Another of the layouts that I mostly finished at my weekend retreat...

I'm particularly happy with this page, because it used several items I've been holding onto indefinately--the alphabet stickers from Basic Grey and of course, the (beloved) Scenic Route paper. I'm so hooked on the white pen...making lines and adding tiny touches of white to patterned paper...it's one of those inexpensive simple details that kicks things up a notch (to borrow Emerill's line).

Rewinding a few weeks, back to Memorial Day weekend...I had the great pleasure of trekking up to Dayton, Ohio to take 4 (yes, four) classes at Simply Scrapbooks with Jennifer McGuire. I shared about that on my Stampin' Up! blog, if you wanna read more, go here. While I don't feel like it's right to share all the cards and things we created in those classes, I do want to post one of my favorites, because well, it's one of my favorites!

The upper portion of the card--the flower panel--is stamped on glossy paper. It's double stamped, in fact, with the flowers and the definition stamp. The "bow" is kindof a tuxedo-style, secured with an over-sized button. At the time, that ribbon, by May Arts, wasn't even out for purchase yet. (Jennifer has *connections*) :)  It was released just before CHA and I got some in the mail this week! Ordered it from Lucky Lady Paper Crafts on Etsy. I can hardly wait to work with it on some other projects. It's completely decadent, and the blue-ish is named "Caribbean Blue" so you know I love it!

A funny thing happened at the crop last weekend--someone took a look at the above page and said "Don't you ever get tired of scrapbooking 'boy colors'?" Ha! Um. No. What exactly are "boy colors"? Color is not masculine and feminine. Color just is. True, I don't really get into a flaming festival of pink, very often, but if pushed, I could make it work. :)

I say "be free"...colors are delightful...all of them.

But if pushed, I would also say that I do adore all colors in the Caribbean family...and that works out well. :)

--Sarah

Stop the Presses

Stop the presses...there's a blogger in the house. :)

I've had some awesome scrapbooking adventures lately--the most recent was just this weekend. I attended a small scrapbooking retreat with a friend in the booming metropolis of Centerville, TN. You know it's not a scrapbooking retreat in the woods until you've driven on a single-lane, dirt road, near the babbling brook and in sight of a few barns.  :)

It was neat to sit still and scrapbook without interruptions for a while. And it was very productive. You know I'm the last person to care about *quantity* but yes, I managed to mostly complete 10 layouts, despite having left home without my cardstock file box.

Thought I might share a few of my achievements...

You might notice that I used several items repeatedly on these pages. When I pack for a crop, I do that intentionally.

First, the wood-grain paper -- I'm in love with this stuff. It's just so very easy to use. I ordered a bunch when I was making the invitations for Daniel's Surprise Birthday Party and had some leftover. It's called Cedar River from American Crafts *Campy Trails line. See it here.

Second, the circular pinked seal from Impress Rubber Stamps. Yes, I'm quite partial to it. Impress makes superb wood-mounted, red-rubber stamps. They are luxurious, truly. Stamping this image on lined patterned paper makes an easy little journaling medallion. I used the 2" Fiskars circle punch to cut it out. Mount it with pop dots/foam tape. See it here.

Finally, the First Edition Specialty Paper from Stampin' Up! also made several appearances. It's sortof newsprint-ish and I *love* tearing it into strips. Just a touch is all it takes!

Enjoy!
--Sarah

Edisto Island

So last week was G's Spring Break aka my favorite week of the year. We have several big events coming up--Joal's returning to Africa, replacing the atrocious carpet in our house with beautiful wood floors, and a trip to Texas when school's out, so in an effort to conserve dollars, we decided to forego the usual spring break vacation trip.

That is, until I realized that Joal was going to be working in Augusta, Georgia for three days of Spring Break. Now granted, Augusta, GA isn't known for being a hot vacation spot. Frankly, there's not much to do there, at all, but, it was someplace to go that didn't cost much (Joal was already planning to drive down and his hotel was a work expense)...basically we just had to eat...and we can do that pretty cheaply. And we got to be with Joal, instead of miss him.

Deciding to go with him on this little trip is probably the most sporadic thing we've done in a while. It was a very short conversation...and there was absolutely no planning...which is very much unlike me.

My boys have grown up traveling, staying in hotels and riding for long distances...their basic requirements are met if there's a pool at the hotel. :)

So on the drive down, I was looking at the map on my phone and discovered that we were going to be about 135 miles from the beach! The beach!! And not just any beach...Edisto Island, South Carolina...which has been on my list of beaches I want to visit for years, thanks to an old scrapbooking friend (Mel) who took some amazing pictures there many years ago.

If Augusta, GA, has anything working for it, it's that it's relatively close to a fabulous beach! Granted, 135 miles is not exactly a quick trip, but when you live in land-locked Tennessee where there is *no* salty water, 135 miles seems like a mere jaunt.

So we settled into a nice Hampton Inn and Suites in Augusta on Monday evening and the boys and I made our plan for going to Edisto Island, South Carolina on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, we got up a little later than I had planned, but we ended up arriving at Edisto Island in about three hours. One hundred and thirty five miles takes a bit longer forever to travel when it's 2-lane highways all the way and when there are about 645 turns along the way. Do you know how hard it is to obey the 45-mile-per-hour speed limit when you are headed to the beach? I did pretty good but it was a challenge on those back roads of South Carolina, I must admit. Still, we were getting a beach trip...so no one in my car really cared that it took us three hours. :)

Edisto Island is beyond words. Sometimes only photos will do.

The weather was wonderful...it was breezy and 75...the sun was shining! It's not "the season" in Edisto, so there were a total of 6 people on the beach...including the three of us. It was too cool to swim but we had a blast playing in the sun and the sand.

Edisto Island has a hundred or so privately-held beach houses along the coast, but in between the houses are public access points to the beach. Parking was a breeze at Point 38 and we enjoyed about 3 hours playing in the sand, wading into the ocean and hunting for shells, which were numerous. I'm grateful that the boys like the beach as much as their mother...Not that I wouldn't drag them along even if they didn't. :)

Edisto is very "un-commercial". There's a Piggly Wiggly for groceries, a gas station and a few restaurants. There's a state park. And the houses/rentals.

Tuesday also happened to be Greyson's 8th birthday! In previous years he's been a little bummed that his birthday usually falls during Spring Break as it means most of his friends are unavailable for a party. This year however, he declared that spending his birthday on the beach was "the best ever". :)

I concur.

--Sarah



A little bit of stamping...Stampin' Up!

So not too long ago I signed up to become a Stampin' Up! Independent Demonstrator. To keep the Stampin' Up! gig separate from my regular blog stuff, I have a new blog...

http://stampyourstory.blogspot.com/

You know what to do! :)

--Sarah

It's just what I do...

I've been a scrapbooking crazy-woman lately. The cruise scrapbook is well under way and I am so excited about it. The idea for this page from the 2008 cruise to Grand Cayman came to me as I was browsing the Crate & Barrel site and saw these plates! Inspiration comes from many places, yes! And then right after I started it, this weekly challenge was put out by one of the Garden Girls at Two Peas--and guess what? I won the challenge! Nifty.

I know, I know...that page kinda goes against everything I am as a scrapbooker/storyteller, because it has no story on the page, but sometimes the photo is enough. Not often. Just sometimes. And there's a ton of journaling and story-telling in the rest of the album.

Citronella by K&Co (one of my favorites right now) and a touch of Scenic Route go together like ice cream and cake, right!

The crop at Two Peas this weekend and the Weekly Sketch at Let's Scrap really got my attention...I was up way past my normal bedtime this morning but this came together sometime just before midnight...completing two challenges at Two Peas and the Let's Scrap Sketch for the week.

I am loving the cloud punch (Fiskars)! The Mix and Match Challenge at Two Peas was all about using products from 5 or more companies on one project. My companies were: Scenic Route, Fiskars, Sizzix, EK Success, American Crafts, 3M, and Doodlebug Designs. That doesn't even count the plate from Publix that I used as a template to cut the big orange circle. :)

Clouds are everywhere in my papercrafting world right now and I am so glad. Remember Bob Ross--the painting teacher who used to paint "happy little trees"? Well, I call these "happy little clouds"! This layout also fit into the requirements for the *Spot a Trend* challenge...I'm calling clouds a trend. :)

Some other cloud-y projects I've been admiring are listed below:

Kelli Crowe's Cloudy Awesomeness at Two Peas

Kraft Card by Joscie at Peas

Today You also at Peas for clouds of pink and other deliciousness...

A blog entry with cloudy goodness at Scrapbook Patty's

A sweet layout by Liz from Eclectica
Our visit to Chihuly almost didn't happen. We happen to live just a few miles from the awesome Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art in Belle Meade. This place is certainly one of the things I love most about this city. The Chihuly exhibit was amazing...it was an outdoor installation as well as an indoor exhibit. Unfortunately, a round with the flu kept me from getting there when it first opened and suddenly, it was the week before it was set to close and I still hadn't been. That just was't acceptable so one day I just decided to go pick G up from school early so we could all go. It was well worth the experience! It was very cloudy outside so the photos are a little dark...but the part we got to see before it got dark was brilliant. I want to see more...maybe a trip to Tacoma (for more Chihuly) is in order.

So now you know...Happy Sunday!

--Sarah

Listography: Movies I Could Watch Over and Over

Listography Assignment #2 -- Movies I Could (and Do) Watch Over and Over

Ahh this is an easy one. I'm very selective about the movies I watch and for me to watch something more than once...well, if I do you can bet I really like it.

We are fortunate to live very close to a great place called McKay's Used Music and Books. It's a magical place for buying and occasionally selling used media of all sorts. At fantastic prices. So when a movie makes the cut, my sweet husband, who loves going to McKay's for any or no reason, is very likely to come home bearing said movie to add to my collection.

So, on with it...here's my list.

The American President

Bull Durham

City of Angels

The Replacements

For the Love of the Game

Field of Dreams

That Thing You Do

Sahara

The West Wing (the series, not a movie)

Mad About You (the series, not a movie)

Funny story. When I was pregnant with G, I spent an inordinant amount of time in the hospital. It seemed like 6 months but it was only 4 weeks. The last miserable four weeks. I'm convinced that magnesium sulfate (a drug that prevents seizures and induces a special kind of crazy) should be used to extract secrets from terror suspects...and yet I spent four weeks on that drip from the pit. To combat the crazy, Joal and I watched a crazy amount of movies and videos. One of his friends loaned us the entire series of Mad About You discs...it was a ray of laughter and light in an otherwise very trying time. I will forever love that show.

So now you know.

--Sarah

Kuddos to Royal Caribbean and MaMBI for Stepping it Up!

We just got home from a cruise on a Royal Caribbean ship (our 5th) and on each of the past cruises, there has been an offering of a scrapbooking class on the sea day. It's extremely basic and there's not actually any teaching...one of the activities staff people (not a scrapbooker) lays out some supplies (gluesticks, markers, colored papers, punches and decorative scissors) and says "go to town". Several years ago someone named Angela Glasser created an 8.5x11 binder of layouts for this ship, and they are still passing that book around. It's badly tattered but so it goes.

Anyway, I always try to go to the class, just to meet other scrapbookers and encourage the spreading of our hobby.

This time, I was thrilled to see that in addition to the supplies, attendees were actually given a small kit made by Me and My Big Ideas with a cruise theme (4 sheets of paper, some embellishments, and a few ideas on the package)! I was totally impressed. What a great idea for MaMBI--a leader in the scrapbooking inductry, and one of the first major scrapbooking companies, to partner with the cruise line to fill this niche need.

But wait, it gets better. The small kit was free for attending, but MaMBI also created a larger, more extensive kit that could be purchased for $10 containing more paper, cruise related items, and **items specific to the ship we were on**! How cool is that! (I bought two.) I think I giggled out loud when I saw that one of the embellishments is a mini-Seapass card...it's positively adorable. And there are two RCI crown-n-anchor logo embellishments that are glittered...awesome stuff. The paper is cardstock-weight and the colors are viberant.

In a day and age when many scrapbook companies are struggling to stay alive, I think it's *awesome* that Me and My Big Ideas filled this niche! There were about 15 people in attendance and about 5 of them were new to scrapbooking! The class was offered twice during the cruise (once each sea day) and I can only imagine how many people have been introduced to scrapbooking throughout the fleet, across the past few years.

Kudos to Me and My Big Ideas for reaching out to cruisers by teaming up with RC! Here are a few pictures of the kits...

Above is the kit that class participants received free...below are the contents...

Below is the kit that was available for purchase ($10), created by Me and My Big Ideas exclusively for Royal Caribbean and with products specific to each ship.

Above are the chipboard embellishments and stickers...I love that little mini-seapass. :)

The sheet shown above is glittered. :)

I thought it was really cool that it was so personalized for RC but taken individually, some of the sheets could be used for anything. The sheet in the foreground is actually die-cut, do-it-yourself postcards. How cool is that?!

Listography 1: Projects for 2011

So I've become  a stalker an avid reader of Mary MacAskill's Very Mary Blog of late -- her clean and colorful style really draws me in and makes me want to scrapbook -- she's known as the vellum queen and you know I love vellum -- and she makes cards and takes cool pictures -- and I enjoy her writing style.

One of the things she has done recently is to begin using lists on her blog -- and I really like that idea -- since I make lots of lists -- I see no harm in copying her ideas for lists -- so here we go.

I'll cop to it.
I'm copying her brilliance.

Project Ideas for 2011 -- because I really am going to scrapbook more in the future. (Some of you need to stop snorting with laughter.)

I don't believe in setting goals for my craft, such as "I want to make X number of pages in 2011". I don't care about quantity...I just want quality scrapbook pages that I enjoy and that tell my stories. So, here are the top 7 or 8 projects I intend to work on this year...

Crusie Scrapbooks for Cruises #2, #3 and #4.
This, my friends, is going to be a huge task...but the only way to eat an elephant is a bite at a time right? I tend to overthink travel scrapbooks by plotting out these 40-50 page, cover-every-detail-use-every-photo monstrosities. I have to take the dead computer to the computer miracle guy to even get the pictures from cruise #2 printed. I have an Iris box for each trip containing all the "stuff" and all the notes...so it should be pretty easy to pare down and possibly combine all three cruises into one book.

Other Travels that have yet to be documented -- Maine, Virginia, San Antonio

Grey's School Book -- he's in the second grade. I have not even started. Epic mother fail. Must correct that before he graduates college.

Scouts --

A summary of 2010 -- I would like to make a photo summary of the highlights of 2010 to hang in my scrap space. I haven't changed out the layouts hanging in my space since the year we moved into this house. Bad scrapbooker, I know.

Andy -- When my brother, Andy was wounded in Afghanistan, I wrote a-l-o-t. I think I might like to scrapbook some of those thoughts, along with the few pictures I have that were taken during that time. These may not be for public consumption...

Life with Joal -- Joal and I will celebrate our twentieth wedding anniversary this year. Twenty years. More than half my life has been spent with this man. I would like to have some pictures made of us and think about some of the things we've done together over the years, how we've changed, etc.

So now you know...these are the things I want to work on in 2011. Feet to the fire, right.

--Sarah

Delightful Citronella

No not the stinky anti-mosquito candles...the paper. K&Co makes a line of summery fun paper called Citronella and I loving it! See the whole line here.

While we are snowed in here in Middle Tennessee, I've been scrapbooking some summertime pictures, in a lame attempt to stay warm do something besides eat. Here's my latest page:

That gently swishy blue paper with the waves comes from the Citronella paper pad, as does the ornage with mild orange circles. I thought the combination of the two clicked really well with the stripe, which happens to be some vintage paper from way back in 2006. It's called Serene "Grown Up" stripe/orange from the Magnolia line from My Mind's Eye. (I get a little thrill when I can match papers from different companies together...)

For what it's worth, I almost never cut letters from patterned paper because generally, a pattern makes letters harder to read--but the pattern of the orange paper is so mild that it's barely noticible.

The inspiration for this page came from a sketch over at Let's Scrap. (It's a very loose interpretation.)

I rounded up a few other projects made from Citronella...

Jeannie's Card

Katie's Accordion Album (Tutorial)

Twopeas "Bathing Beauties" Layout by GoodKitty

Things That Make Me Go Hmmm...

One of my favorite tools in the modern scrapbooker's arsenal is a variety of paper punches. For my non-scrapbooking friends, the concept is the same as a standard hole punch, only the shape is something other than a circle...and it can be bigger or small than a standard hole punch. There are thousands of shapes to choose from and many styles.

Here's one I've been using lately:

The shape of the apple is quite perfect but I couldn't help but laugh at the little blue and white "notice" at the bottom of the packaging. It's says "Ease of Use Commendation by the Arthritis Foundation".

How nice is that?
Except that it took five minutes and two pairs of scissors to get the packaging off the product--and I *don't* have arthritis.

Dear scrapbooking people with arthritis, *If* you can get the crazy restrictive packaging off this lovely punch, you should have no problem using the actual tool. Sincerely, Fiskars.

((insert a big ol' eyeroll here))