March to the beat and a {winner}

....of your own drum.

*scroll down to the bottom to see if you're the winner. *


Thats been my sons mantra since the day he was born.  He didn't do anything he was supposed to do.  The day he was born, he lifted his head and looked at me from the bassinet in the hospital.  I didn't have a lot of experience with kids so I read every book I could find while pregnant.  All of them said they lack neck strength.

I looked back to posts in 2007 and 2008 and read some of the things I documented.  Its definitely been a wild ride.

I had family portraits done again in 2010 by someone I used to work with.  We were all laid off in 2006 and while some went on to find other jobs, some of us started our own 'thing'.  The photography business was her 'thing'.  If you're in the So Cal area, I recommend her.  She's great with kids.  She got my son to actually pose and do fun things.

In this photo, he kind of got bored with all of it and took off.  I tried to get him to come back and Eva just ran with it.  He went marching up the hill to explore more because 'we weren't going to any of the cool spots!'  His words, not mine.  So he went exploring on his own, climbing trees and exploring as only little boys can do.

She captured this photo of him and I've held on to it until now.  The quote 'march to the beat of your own drum' seemed to fit the picture and that day.

 Stamps are the ones from the Stepping Stone add-on at Studio Calico.  I used Jenni Bowlin chili powder  and fountain pen ink.

And a simple one thrown together with kit leftovers....

I just love the burlap string!

And the winner of a flat rate box of goodies is.....

Izzyb said...

Great layouts! My favorite manufacturer is usually whoever's collection is on my desk. Right now that would be Crate!

FEBRUARY 24, 2012 8:10 AM 

IzzyB - please email me at ohmy17@yahoo.com with your mailing address and I'll get that box out to you!

Currently.....

Giveaway reminder.  Post a comment on yesterdays post for a chance to win a flat rate box full of stuff from my giveaway pile.

Currently.....

Time: 1:24 AM
Location: In my craft dungeon, I mean scrap room
Eating: wheat thins
Drinking: water
Thinking: about that resume that needs writing
Wondering: if I can get it done by Monday
Wanting: to take the boy somewhere and take some random photos
Needing: more sleep
Creating: Week 7 from Project Life and a few more layouts
Listening: to a random playlist in iTunes - songs I forgot I had
Watching: the dog try to find a comfortable spot
Wishing: I was on vacation in Yosemite (27 days)

Currently is a blog feature from Tina Azsmus.

Don't forget the giveaway I posted yesterday.  I'll pick a winner tomorrow.

Giveaway

I think its time for a little giveaway.

I've got a box of stuff to giveaway.  Some exclusive items from kits.  Stickers.  Just pulled a bunch of stuff out of my donate/sell pile.

Leave a comment for a chance to win the goodie box.  I'll pick a winner on Saturday 2/25.
Tell me what your favorite scrapbook company is - all time favorite.  Mine would be Scenic Route.

And now some creative stuff.

 I took N to see grandpa up in Calgary last July and we took a drive up to Lake Louise and Banff.  He was being a little turd and wouldn't pose for any pictures.  I finally grabbed him and my dad snapped this photo of us in front of Lake Louise.  Looking back through my pictures I realize I'm just not in enough of them.  We take a lot of trips - big and small - and I have maybe one of me in a set of 500.  I'm making more of an effort to get in the shots now.

 About a month after we got home, my grandmother was going through her old photos looking for something and came across this one.  I ran into my room and grabbed the photo of N and I.  Same shot - 56 years later.  Thats my grandmother holding my mom in front of Lake Louise.

This was made with the January Studio Calico kit - Daydream Believer.   It had a lot of the Dear Lizzy new release in it - not one of my favorite lines but all the right pieces for me.  I cut up the paper with numbers on it.  Heart punch had knotted burlap string.

Wordless Wednesday

Girls Weekend

Its been a while since we got together.  It took a little bit of planning but it was worth it in the end.

And I got a lot done.  A lot of scrappin'.  A lot of talking.  And a lot of eating.

I finished 7 pages in 2 days which is good for me.  But I didn't sweat it.  They didn't have to be perfect.

This was all from an old Studio Calico kit where I mixed in stuff from other old kits.  I killed 3 of my kits from 2010 over the past 2 months and I had a pile of stuff 'left over'.  I pulled some of it together using a Page Maps sketch.

I promised myself that if I could kill a few older kits I could work with the latest kit - Daydream Believer.  I saw this quote on Pinterest and had to steal it.  I have a couple more that are working their way onto a page about little boys.  This is an old photo of my son taken back in 2008.  We had our first family portraits taken and this was one of my favorites.  It shows his personality.

Check back tomorrow for more pages and a giveaway.  My giveaway box is overflowing at the moment.

Project Life week 6

Here is week 6.

Sorry for the glare - its been cloudy and cold here and I have no sunlight to take pictures.

Let me know if you have questions on the products used.  I've referenced them in previous posts.

Project Life Catchup

I'm behind.  I know.  I own it.  I knew this project was going to kick my butt this year but I'm going to do it.  I've failed on 4 December Dailys too.  I can't quite 'get into' the DD though.  I get the concept and I like it but I've never completed one.

But Project Life is different.  I want to sit down each week and get my pages together.  Each week I learn a little something and I adapt as I work on future weeks.  I'm learning what works for me and what doesn't.

I have my journal card holder.  It has all of my cards and odds and ends that I think might work for PL.  I also have stickers and other things in my room that I pull from.  If you click on the Project Life tag at the bottom of the post you can see previous weeks and how I organize.

So, catching up.  I don't remember sharing week 4 so here it is.
I'm really loving the Chic Tags calendar cards.  I bought a couple of sets so I can stick them in occasionally and note the actual date of the week.

 When I have something big to go in a pocket (like a brochure) I just punch holes and stick it in the week.  We went snow tubing in the mountains this week and we ate at the Habit for the first time.

 Celebrating my husbands birthday a little late (we were out of town on the actual day).  Our snow tubing pictures as well as a picture of the Lego house N made his hermit crabs.

I included random stuff from the week like the box of Pop Secret popcorn.  N and I have movie nights where we go to bed a little early and watch a movie together while eating popcorn.  I'm going to make sure I document some of the things we do on a weekly basis like Ice Cream Mondays and Doughnut Fridays.  But more on that later.

Week 5

 Crocheted star is from an Etsy shop.

More Chic Tags.

I'm still working on weeks 6 and 7 but I'll get those posted in a couple of days.

And I said I was adapting things as I go along.  I saw this on a blog somewhere and had to do it.  I hoard my products and that means I hoard my punches too.  I have drawers of them but hardly ever pull them out.  When I saw this idea using the new Jenni Bowlin tab punch I ran over to the computer and printed up a sheet of dates.

And to add in some specials sheets of paper like the school calendar for the month of January (we get one each month) and some of my sons handwriting practice sheets.

Since I knew I was going to fail, I mean fall behind, on this project.... I had to come up with ways to keep track of stuff.  I have a plastic 8.5x11 page protector sitting on my desk as a catch all.  I throw things in from the week (parking receipts, product info etc.  In the front, I have this calendar:

I downloaded it from a free printable site and I printed off the entire year.  (I also have a copy for the blog too).  I use it to plan and take notes.  My blog one is a schedule of what posts I've done, what I want to post about etc.  The Project Life pages contain notes.  What we did.  So when I go back to pull out pictures and memorabilia, I know what week it was.  I was 4 weeks behind and this helped tremendously.

I know there are some great PL things floating around but I'm in love with stuff from Marcy Penner right now.  She offers printable cards:

Printable page planners:

And then I purchased some things from the Silhouette store to include:

Oh and these from 2 Peas Digital Shop:

Also, I'm thinking about adding inLinkz to my blog.  Anyone have any experience?