Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

It has been hidden away for years, tucked into a paper-box at the back of the basement cabinets. Oh, I would think of it from time to time, always meaning to scrap it in some way. But I just didn't get to it. Until this past May, when I saw this cool shadow box from Tim Holtz and these little glass jars and everything started to come together in my brain. It was time to liberate my dirt collection. It's a far cry from my complete collection from back in the day - from 1994 through 2000, I received dirt from people who would travel, I would collect it myself, I would even get dirt from friends of friends. But I went through it all, saved the most memorable or thoughtful, and have put them on display. I stopped collecting in 2000 when my canister of St. Andrews golf course dirt opened in my suitcase. I figured that was a sign... plus, as newlyweds we just didn't travel that much! But putting this display together has inspired me again. I go to DC once a year & I would lo...

An oxymoron, no? It is near impossible to be a scrapper and to be up to date at the same time. There's always a side project, or an idea bouncing around your head, or the sheer volume of pictures to contend with. Last year I decided to forgo Project 365 and focus instead on "The Monthly": doing layouts by month. I can choose how many for each month, stick the shots in a template, and by the end of the month they are ready to be paged through. I also picked 8.5x11 size because it's easier to sit with it in your lap. It worked so well for 2010 that I am doing it again this year and am very pleased. I just finished April - take a look! It's a simple matter of digital photos sorted by date, templates purchased at Designer Digitals designed by Cathy Zielske , and the color-dropper in PSE. About one hour, & I had 4 layouts done. Hooray!

In reflecting on my word of the year, TIME, and reflecting on my scrapbooking, of which I would like more TIME to do it (and cover more TIME in my albums), I remembered an album idea. Rather than a picture of the day, where I fall behind in my journaling, do an album on a monthly basis. So to expedite this process, I bought a template kit, learned my PSE8 a little better, and behold: I have done 8 pages already - 4 for January, 2 for February, and 2 for March. I am so much more enthusiastic for this - I can actually get a bunch of pictures in an album in a few hours, and then go back and scrap more in-depth pages at leisure (or on scrap weekends, which seems to be the only dedicated time I have anymore!). I also am playing around with the 8.5x11 layouts, because I don't take time to look at my 12x12 albums as often because they are awkward on the lap. So either I change size or buy a new coffee table. But that's a different post!

When I have free time, which isn't often, I cruise around the Internet to scrapbooking sites & blogs. There are certain people I like to "drop in" on. The other day I popped over to Ali Edwards' blog. I'm not a big fan of her style, but often she will provide some inspiration that gets me thinking. And so it was this day - her "one little word." The idea - to take a word and embrace it for the year. Let it guide your decisions, let it give you direction. I love this idea. So many words bounced around in my head, but it only took a couple days to settle on the one I will use. TIME. Spend it, squander it, find it, make it, it goes too fast, it goes too slow... so each month I plan to do a little page about how TIME is affecting me but more important, how I am using my TIME. I want to spend more with my kids without thinking of the zillion other things I have to do. I want to carve some out each week so I can be creative. I want to use my TIME better. ...

I really struggled with these letters. Not that I couldn't come up with ideas - it was settling on the idea that was the problem. Neighborhood came to me after I was thinking about it for awhile. I knew I wanted "yummy" but couldn't think of what to feature - and then threw ham in the slow cooker Monday and realized how much I loved it. And "zoo" for Z - of course. I thought it odd to end with a picture of a snow monkey though, so added a picture of myself to go with it. So as I finish the alphabet book about me, I have lots more ideas. This past weekend I scrapped another 22 pages, plus finished my picture-a-day album (12 weeks were left). One of my more successful weekends. So now what? I think I'll finish a couple projects started in the spring and see where the creative spirit takes me!

Okay folks, this is the best I can do until after this weekend. I am spending Thursday packing my stuff for my terrific scrapbooking weekend with the girls!

It's so crazy, gentle readers, I don't even know what letter I should be on anymore. Officially, today's class is the letter U. However, having missed C, N, & T I felt I needed to do a little catch-up. So I finally scanned in my C picture, and did U and V. Tomorrow I will go back to N hopefully (I've settled on "neighborhood" instead of "nap"), get my T picture taken ("teaching"), and maybe even W? I am going scrapbooking this weekend and I'd love to have all the pages printed out to show off to the ladies.

What a strange part of the alphabet. My idea for S, which is today, has to wait until tomorrow for a picture. My idea for T has to wait until Monday for a picture. I suppose I should just do U today, but I've got some books from the library I want to plow through, so I'm going to do that tonight instead! Enjoy Q & R.

N, like C, has turned out to be a stinker of a letter. I know what I want to do - how much I love naps - but the one picture I can think of is from 2004 & goodness knows where it is digitally. So, N has to wait & I moved on with O and P.

Oh yes folks, I think I did actually fall off the face of the earth this week. You know how some weeks are so busy, you can only survive in your own little cocoon? And everything else in the world seems to be very far away. That was me. But I've resurfaced & have completed 5 more letters, in time to catch me up for tomorrow's letter - N - and I'm pretty sure it's going to be about taking a nap!

Charlie had some manly surgery done on Monday - outpatient, and he's feeling great - but I certainly fell behind on doing my pages. While waiting for the surgery I did have a chance to brainstorm a lot of ideas for my alpha book, so that has been helpful. Better yet - I is today, & I want to take a picture of my favorite ice cream. It calls for a trip to Baskin Robbins after dinner tonight!

Yup, I know I missed C. The picture I wanted to use I had to scan in, and my scanner doesn't want to work with my laptop right now. I'll definitely get back to it though! I was able to put together both D & E during Charlie's nap today, so here they are! And now I'm back on track.

Tomorrow, C, will be about cats. Maybe I'll even go with "crazy cat lady."

I began a class yesterday called "ABC Inspiration" over at Jessica Sprague's website , for digital scrapbooking. It's my first online class that I have paid for, and already I'm happy. Not only did the creator provide sets of red papers, blue papers, and "solid" (distressed) papers, she also designed 4 different templates and included 2 sets of word art. In my thinking today of the subject matter of the book, however, I decided to do something I'd always wanted but put aside - myself. It's going to be an ABC book all about ME . As yesterday was a "prep" day, today's page was "A." And here it is! It only took me about 20 minutes to do, and that's because I upgraded to Photoshop Elements 8 and am still learning the new format.

Here are some things I've been playing around with lately. Covered a bare holder with coordinating papers. spray painted a black candle holder brown. Moved these items to a better canvas, updated the pictures, and hung. Shelves in the dining room that can be really cool if I could just find the right things/positions. I really enjoy doing & making things. Because I'm truly not that artistic, often a project doesn't turn out the way I visualize. But then I can keep tweaking things. And I love doing stuff for the house. If it were up to me, I'd be buying & playing around with knick-knacks all day long. And by no means are these things "done." I'm constantly thinking of changing colors or moving things or adding to it. But there is definitely more to come - I have a couple mini-albums I'd like to scrap (or at least put the paper on the pages!) and as our master bedroom has been painted a new color, I've got a couple of crafty ideas for in...

I have been wanting to make cards for awhile now, but have never been pleased with the results when I attempted it with paper. You'd think it'd be just like scrapbooking on a smaller scale, but the cute things I saw just never translated when made by my hands. I began to see it as a chore, and so went back to buying dollar-store cards for the past year. And then... At the scrapbooking convention there was a place that sold digital card templates. Don't ask me why, but it never occurred to me to make the cards on my computer and print them. I bought it on the spot and have now made 2 cards, one with a template and one without. And I enjoyed it! In fact, I was excited to make them and had fun playing around with it. Looking forward to making a couple for Father's Day, too, not to mention Roman's birthday next week! Now the only problem is finding the time to be creative.

In direct opposite-ness of the last post, let me tell you the many reasons why I could win that award today. 1. Made a pot roast in the slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, & onion. Everyone knows kids won't eat it! 2. Gave Charlie a gummy bear. Listened to his chant of "more candy" on the way home in the car. Seriously, he can say about 3 two-word phrases and that's one of them. Found said gummy bear stuck to the side of his car seat when we got home. 3. Wouldn't let Roman play with his friend. Wouldn't commit to playing tomorrow, either. Can you believe I want our family to spend time together having fun with each other? 4. Yesterday, dared to take a picture of Roman. 5. Wouldn't simultaneously hold Charlie while I'm standing up, and grade papers. 6. Did not get up to soothe Charlie when he yelled at 3am. 7. Roman was accidentally poked in the eye by MY glasses when he was screwing around. Never mind that he grabbed them & was trying to play k...

I got 30 pages done at the crop this past weekend. I also got 3-4 weeks completed of my Project 365, so I'm caught up through June. If I did a layout a night, I'd be caught up in just a couple weeks - but some evenings find me more exhausted than others.

No, seriously. I really do. I have been the happiest girl this summer, with temperatures only reaching 83 (except for that one week) and cool breezes. It has rained a lot too, which is all right as well. Has saved a lot of watering. We haven't run the air conditioner much either. Today was a particularly weird day, very October-ish. High of 66, rain. August 28. And to top it off, not only did I see a tree's leaves actually turning color, I also saw the first goose-V heading south for the winter. Did I mention it's August 28? This would all be fabulous except I'm afraid that winter will come sooner. I could live without that. If it was Fall all year 'round I would be happy. Except I can't figure out which state that would happen in. Charlie began to go back to daycare this week. He loves it. He cries when we pick him up, he wants to stay and play. He also has been super-tired, in bed 30 min to an hour earlier than normal (and getting up at the same time). We stil...

Here's another project I worked on this evening. It sort of bums me when you put lots of techniques and work into a picture and it looks, generally, the same... although this is much more "brown" than the original very green tree. I just love this shot, which I took of the silver maple in our front yard by lying on the deck (while Charlie crawled over my tummy). And I'm really liking the new fonts I've been downloading!