Originality in Jeopardy. As Always.

I took two months off from scrapping.  Purposely. I didn't seriously do it purposely.  That just makes this lapse of creativity seem artistic and not what it really was.  Burnout.  The past two weeks I have been getting back into the swing.  I've been signing up for a few challenges and that has helped put the motivation back into me.  Then came today.  I spent a lot of time thinking this is original (to me) only to find out that I'm a lifter of my own layouts.  Note to self....quit making the same layout and quit cutting out titles with the same font.  Now what to do with the third similar layout laying on my desk.  Oh well....at least I am using up my piles of scrap supplies that have been accumulating dust.  

Layout done for Gillian's challenge of using only the main Studio Calico kit. The timing was perfect for Dave's new job and the release of The Lorax movie.  I wanted to keep the layout "adult" with a touch of Dr. Seuss.  The Crate Paper - Story Teller Legend paper, which moments before I deemed the ugliest paper ever, made the perfect Seuss trees.  Lesson learned....never diss a piece of ugly paper in public. At least before you contemplate options.

This layout was done for the 2/26/11 Sunday Sketch at Studio Calico. The photo is blurry. That's Jake.  He's always moving, so in this instance blurry was good.  OK...it's true, but even if he never moved I would have still used the photo.  Everyone knows that getting a photo of a teen is a rarity.  You use what you get or you retire from scrapbooking.

That's it for now. Thanks for looking. I'm now off to ride my bike that gets me nowhere, a.k.a. the stationary bike. It seems I'm in my "let's get healthy" mode.  Again.  Sigh.   

It's Tasty.

The most exciting thing to happen here lately is the discovery of a shop called Yogurt Lab.  Basically, it's a self-service frozen yogurt shop. With sixteen flavors to choose from - one being a lowfat nutella - and "a million" toppings, my stomach, heart and mind are in love all at the same time. As the words on the wall say....it's tasty.  Well, it is so much more, but sadly, being this excited about food goes to show you not much is going on around here.If you live in the Minneapolis area, check them out.  They are on the northwest corner of Lake Calhoun right behind Whole Foods.

Another tasty tidbit taking over my life lately is Blake Shelton.  Helllllooooo.  Where have I been?  It was hard, but I finally peeled my eyes off of him and The Voice to do a tiny bit of scrapping.  The Project Life title page that has been on my desk since January is now done. Don't you hate when the vision in your head is so much better than the actual result?  Well, that's what happened, but I'll survive. Blake will help me through it.  HA!

Since I was on a scrapping roll, I joined in on a scrap challenge at Studio Calico.  You scrap the person above you on the thread.  I was lucky to be able to have Tara LeClaire's gallery to choose from.  I fell in love with her, All the ways I love you, layout. Here's my take, which turns out to be very similar to her original. You know what they say...when you have a good thing....  It was a good thing, so I stuck with it. So let it be known, I had no creativity in this at all.  The design is all Tara's. Thank you, Tara, for the inspiration.

Sorry about the quality of the photo.  The grey snowy weather is a pain in the butt for good photos.

And an up close look at the photo on the layout.  What a ham.  I'm sure her mind is screaming this is tasty.  While it is, she had yet to taste frozen yogurt from the Lab and she is far too young to appreciate Blake Shelton's kind of tasty.  Whew about that. 

Let's Pretend....

Oh yes, let's pretend that during the month of January I actually did something creative. Something more creative than lounging on a couch watching re-run after re-run of Sheldon Cooper diving in and out of a ball pit yelling BAZINGA.  Good Lord, I love that man, but he does have some alien-esque mojo going on that makes time evaporate as you watch him.

 

In all seriousness, after a frenetic month (also known as December) of finishing Project Life 2011 and December Daily 2011, I've been going through scrap burn out.  Hence, my magnetization to the couch. I have been playing around with my Silhouette - not the Cameo.  The one I bought a year ago and used sporadically until the Cameo frenzy hit and I thought hey, that machine is kind of cool. Maybe I should dust it off and use it. Therefore, I have been. A bit here and there.

Now that it is February enough is enough.  It's time to undo the force exerted between those magnetic poles (a.k.a. me and the couch) and move to action.  So here goes.  My goals for February:

1. Complete the title page for the 2012 Project Life that I started in early January and has now collected enough dust to deem it almost damaged beyond repair.
2. Get up to date with PL2012 cards before I am once again four months behind and playing catch up like in 2011.  That sucked.  I need to remember that.
3. Non-scrapwise, move the exercise bike out from hiding. I'm fooling no one into thinking it is a nightstand/iPad holder. On the same line of thought, eat better.  Jeans can only stretch so far.  I am at that limit. Ugh.

They are very do-able to a normal person.  I am not normal.  However, I'll try. 

Before closing, Em and I have been making play dough lately.  I found a link via Pinterest on using Kool-Aid to make it.  Perfect, since her dad does not allow regular Play-Doh into the house. He seriously cannot handle the smell of Play-Doh. Wimp. The recipe here:  Kool-Aid Play Dough turned out great.  Soft, squishy and smells divine.  Enough to placate the olfactory repulsion of anyone. Bazinga!

2012 Creative Goals and Such

Bring out the party hats.  I finished the 2012 Project Life in the nick of time.  If a month ago you would have asked if I would even finish, I would have said not a chance in purgatory.  I was months behind, burned out and doing it wrong according to the laws of Becky Higgins and other PL do-ers.  But in the last month I pushed myself, got over my feeling that doing it the way I was doing it was wrong and I caught up.  On January 1, 2012 at approximately 2:00AM, I completed the December 31 layout.  Quite a feat as I had been partaking in a few cocktails and attempting the worm dance a few hours earlier.  Note to all:  If one is over the age of 35, it's safe to say one is too old and out of shape to do the worm dance.  And to be truthful I was videoing the worm dancing. I never could do that dance.  Even when I was 18 and in relatively good shape.

My other project was the December Daily.  I'm behind, but back at it.  I'm currently up to Day 10. I hope to finish by next weekend.Here's the most recent one I photographed.  Seriously proud of this one.  It's like I revisited my earlier years' sticker sneeze layouts and reconfigured it for 2011 by using brads. Ummm....I'm being sarcastic. Not too impressed with this one, but it is done and I'm not re-doing.  Call me stubborn.

So with all the positive advance in the 2011 projects, I got cocky and said let's set goals for 2012.  What was I thinking?  So creatively for 2012 I will be:

1. Doing Project Life again.  My way or Becky's way. I'm already a day behind.  HA!
2. Not doing a December Daily. This will probably change on November 30th.
3. Continuing with the Photo A Day. This will be year 4. It's no longer a challenge.  It's just life. But I would like to challenge myself to use my iPhone less and "real" camera more.

Here's the photo(s) for Day 1:

For being nine years old she is so mature.  She knows the ins and outs of Caribou; Is able to wear a messenger bag with ease. When I was her age I was still making mud pies and wearing fuzzy footed pajamas with a flap in the back.

  

She's mature and yet....still nine years old.  :o)

I on the other hang am immature.  Grrrrrr.....Happy 2012!

A Summarized December Recap

We began December with the intent that baking cookies at the beginning of the month would give us treats to give the whole month long.  Right.  Nice dream. They were gone by the end of the night. 

Worked on the December Daily and made it to day 6.  Woohoo!?

Dumped a box of ornaments into the three tier stand and called it a day.

Finally, made something found on Pinterest. Print and frame.  My kind of decoration making.

Went on a tree search after vowing not to go on a tree search.

Brought home a tree from that tree search after vowing not to bring home a tree. Couldn't resist the pleading in those eyes.  Not Emily's.  My mom's.

Located 1950's Elf on the Shelf in my basement.  He's related to Chuckie. Not sure what happened to his hands.  I don't dare ask.

Visited Caribou and Starbucks an average of 2.4 times per week. The addiction to hot chocolate is raging on.

Had a Bake-A-Palooza with Jenny.  Made a lot of butt widening treats.  Diet begins January 1.

This is Murphy, aka the Taste Tester.  He's not mine, therefore, why he was taste tester as I wouldn't have to clean up anything later in the day.

Bought cupcakes at a place called Cupcake for my sister's birthday. They sure know how to make cupcakes and it's a good thing otherwise naming their cafe that would have been asinine.

The Cupcake cupcakes.  I ate the coconut one. I'll go back for more, but this time I will not follow the google map directions.  Ending up by a dumpster in a back alley in downtown Minneapolis = once is enough.

Squeaked out a few Christmas cards right in time. Wrote nothing personal on them. To the recipients reading here:  I love you and thank you for being my friend.  I mean putting up with me is he....ck.  Kisses and hugs.  To those that didn't get a card, I love you, too.  The sentiment is the same. I just ran out of patience in making the cards.

Shopped at Anthropologie.  Everything I bought was for me. Although I didn't intend that to happen, it doesn't sadden me.

She's a believer and is afraid of Santa. Not the best kind of combination.  So we visited a metal one at Pier 1. Later she wrote a letter to Santa and super sealed it with duct tape, so no one could peek. She wouldn't tell anyone what she asked for and then the day before Christmas eve she told me.  She asked for an elf. Sigh.

We decorated cookies.  I didn't say we baked and decorated.  We bought and decorated and forced the 14 year old to join in.  Good times.

The 9 and 13 year old were completely into it. So was the 14 year old one mentioned previously.  He just had to act like he wasn't.  I'm onto his wily ways.  Being moody = 14 years old. Poor kid having to follow the expected emotional roller coaster thrust upon him by society.

It's true.  The older you get - the less decorating you need to do to feel fulfilled. Left = 9 year old.  Middle = 14 year old.  Right = 13 year old.

I made my first felt ornament.  It's also my last.

She found the pickle during our Christmas Eve festivities.  I saw her 14 year old brother see it five minutes prior to her finding it.  It goes to show you that Christmas love inhabits every heart.  Even the nonchalant gingerbread cookie decorating 14 year old heart.

Finally, we watched Charlie Brown. We had to.  It's the law, especially when you live five minutes from where Charles Schulz grew up. Mostly we watch it, because Charlie Brown knows his stuff. Be kind. Have hope. Never give up. Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. You're never a blockhead to me.

And that's my December recap.  Sure we did more, but you get the picture. 

The Weight of Words

A layout about soccer that doesn't look like it's about soccer.  I apologize for the bad photo. 

I had a hard time getting up the energy to scrap this fall soccer season. The season has had it ups and downs. Nick was playing for his high school team and Emily for the community team. I could handle scrapping Emily's experience.  I can't touch Nick's yet.  I'm still at the point where egging and tp-ing a coach's home sounds like a great idea.

Emily started her first year at a higher level where she had to learn positions for the first time. It was a challenge and she seemed a little lost at times, but she will catch on with practice. She had great coaches that played the team fairly. You have to appreciate coaches that treat every player equally and build their confidence along the way. There was a bully on the team, but a hairy eyeball from me usually scared him into submission.  Great...now I will be known as the chick that scares little boys.  Let it be known that I only scare little bullies.

Now about Nick. Sigh. His coach started off the season by saying some disparaging remarks about Nick.  He said it under his breath, but it was a windy day and sound traveled; Nick heard everything. Nick is a pleaser. He will listen and work hard; he will do everything you ask of him; he will try his best. He should be a coach's dream. He was having an off day and made errors during the practice. Nothing too serious, but it's hard to hear you are worthless. It basically killed his love of the game. I give him credit. He kept showing up for every practice and game. He wanted to go. He improved immensely, but the love of the game is gone and he doesn't recognize how good he has become. It was/is hard to see this happen.  I wish people knew the impact of their comments, especially when it comes to kids.  Life would be perfect, if everyone knew how much their words weighed.

Walking a Hamster

This girl needs a dog. She's been begging for one for over a year.  The only problem is she had a loaner dog for a day to see how it would work.  She failed. Not totally.  Just enough to say it's just not the right time. I mean saying your are going to scoop poop and doing it are two different things.  It grossed her out.  It grossed me out.  That's a big part of having a dog in my opinion, so the timing is off. She did; however, pass the walking the dog test.  She walked Loaner so much that when he went home he slept for two days. I think my friend was worried we killed him by exercise.  Note to self:  No more loaners. In all seriousness she will get her dog, but for now she has her hamster.  How pathetic is that? But she tries to make the best of it.  She loves that little ball of a rodent.  Holds it incessantly.  Feeds him.  Rearranges his home to keep his life interesting.  However, when I walked outside one day and saw her slowly walking behind him in his little rolling ball up the middle of the street, I just about wet my pants.  The neighbors are now all on her side for getting a dog. She knows how to work it.

 

The layout was created using the August Studio Calico kit. I made a goal to use up the kit before September's arrived.  I ended up "killing" July and August's kits in one month.  Miracles do happen I guess.  So in that way of thinking I guess it means that someday soon the girl will get her dog. I hope so.