Week 2 - Ella's Six Weeks of Sketches

You can view the sketch inspiration here. Here's my take on it ... note the right hand page of this two-pager is inspired from the sketch! Except I didn't trim down the pictures for 8.5x11, and I flipped the arrangement top to bottom. And I didn't really put the title and journaling in the same place. But that's what sketches are all about, right? They're a starting point - you should never feel like you have to stay 100% true to the sketch (but you can if you want to). Lol.

Thanks for looking!

Edit to add: I really need to give partial credit to the husband for this one; he had supper ready to go on the table when I got home last night, and shooed me upstairs right after (no dishes for me!) so I could "get that contest thing done early". Awwwwwwwww...thanks hun!

Get Way Into the Game ...

Have you ever seen that lottery ticket/gambling thing commercial for Pro-Line Sports, with the catchy phrase "Get Way Into the Game"? Well I was just having my usual early-morning-gotta-feed-the-dog-might-as-well-surf-the-net session today, and I stumbled upon a website called "Scrapbook Update". After clicking around the site a bit, I thought to myself, "Wow - this is mecca for those scrapbookers who get Way Into the Game!". I mean, they have scrapbook industry job listings ... links to media stories about scrapbook manufacturers and their ugly legal battles with each other ... breaking news (breaking news!) relating to scrapbooking ... and stuff that regular scrapbookers like me might care about, like sneak peeks of some Craft and Hobby Association 2010 (CHA) releases.

A person with nothing but time on their hands could spend all day on this site learning all there is to know about current trends in scrapbooking, who's suing who, what designers are working where, how social media impacts on the scrapbooking industry, what K&Company's latest releases are, what the weather's like in Anaheim today (for those of you not in the know ... the CHA convention is going on in Anaheim, California right now) ... whew. Yet another reason why I need to quit my day job.

Then again, based on what I learned this morning about hot scrapbook trends at CHA, I better not quit my day job, because my scrapbook style really doesn't line up that well:

1. It's all about die cutting. (Uh, a $500 die cut machine with dies that cost over $50 each is not in my future, immediate or otherwise! Unless they mean those die-cuts I have somewhere in my stash from when I started scrapbooking 10 years ago? Uh, no, they probably don't mean those.)

2. We're going green. (Folks - give me a break; I'm still trying to go acid- and lignin-free here! Now I gotta worry about the impact of my little hobby on the environment, too? My cutting and pasting has to have a social conscience?)

3. We're going patriotic. (As in, American. As in, Buy Local. So yeah, that one doesn't really apply to a Canadian scrapbooker! I could limit myself to Canadian products but then my pages would all start looking alike and I would need to find pictures to match patterened paper with mounties and beavers on it ... I kid you not, such a thing exists ... oh wait, given the stereotypes, I think it's probably made in America!)

4. It's all about stamping. (I know what these evil scrapbook industry leaders are trying to do. They're trying to get me to spend even more money than I already do, on a related obsession - stamps. You're not gonna get me, evil leaders. I may have bought a few acrylic stamps over the last few months, but I'm really lame at actually using them - so there!)

5. Paper is reborn as digital. (Two part response here. (A) I suck at anything computer-related, nuff said. (B) A big part of the attraction to scrapbooking, for me, is the cutting, the pasting, the owning inches and inches of scrapbook paper. Please, evil leaders, don't take this away from me!!)

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So as you can see, I had waaaay to much time on my hands this morning. But that's a good thing. It's nice to slow down and smell the coffee, so to speak. After all it's Sunday already, the weekend's half over, there's still laundry to be done, sons to be picked up from sleepovers, mothers-in-law to be visited, hockey practices to be attended, beef stews to be made, and according to the weather man (hey, I surf the web in a multi-tasking kind of way - lots of windows open at once, you know), there might be some freezing rain this afternoon. In the meantime, it's time to wake up the husband, and see if he feels up to taking the dog for a walk in the woods. We'll have lots of stuff to talk about today. I can tell him all about the breaking news on Scrapbook Update! (Uh-you know I'm kidding, right honey?).

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Have a great Sunday, everyone.

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PS: The winners of the week 1 sketch are posted on the Ella Blog. I'm not one of 'em, but I had lots of fun playing and fully intend to participate in week 2! Which reminds me, I need to fit some scrapping time in today!

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PSS: I don't know what the heck is going on with Blogger, but I'm having a hard time inserting spaces between some of my paragraphs. So if you're wondering what those dots are between paragraphs, they're my half-assed way of solving the problem (note comment above about sucking at anything computer-related). :o)

I Did It!!

I used the Week 1 sketch from Ella's Six Weeks of Sketches challenge to create a layout! You can read more about this challenge on the Ella blog, and you can see the layouts on Flickr. The real news here is that I actually carved out some time to scrap - yay!

The sketch:



My layout:

Can't wait to see the Week 2 sketch. Fun!

Ah, what a busy week so far. Back to back meetings, missed deadlines, hastily gulped lunches - yikes. Hope your week is better than mine!

Thanks for stopping by. If you have a minute, leave me a comment - say hi! I'd love to know you're visiting. :o)

Rough Week?

First full week of work in a while ... and boy, it was a busy one. Which is good, because it went by fast. In the back of my mind I've got a weekly countdown thing going on ... how many weeks til we can start using the trailer ... (17 - ouch). So every week that comes to a close is a good thing! And if work can make it go faster, even better! (How do you like my lame attempt at thinking of work in positive way?).

I won't go as far to say that my week drove me to drink, but I will tell you that the cranberry martini was a very welcome sight when I got home last night. I'm not a hard liquor drinker, and I had just one, but I will admit to enjoying it immensely!

I haven't done any scrapbooking in days - I haven't even gone into the scraproom to say hi to my stuff!!! When catching up with the Ella site this morning, I ran across a six-week sketch challenge on their blog. There will be one sketch posted each week and if you comment on the post and link to your layout, you are entered for a grand prize giveaway! No idea what the grand prize is, no matter though, for me the prize will simply be to scrap!! So ... wish me luck. I'm not usually too good at keeping up with these kinds of scrap challenges.

I think we will start our weekend with a nice long walk through the woods (it's so mild out, for a change!) and then it'll be the usual routine ... laundry, hockey practice, groceries, visit my mother in law, hockey game ... I'm sure the weekend will go by VERY QUICKLY. But not before I find an hour to scrap!

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks for coming by!

Time flies...

...when you're having fun!

I can't believe how quickly the last few days have gone by. I can't believe I have to go back to work tomorrow :o( Well at least I have one little glimmer of excitement relating to going back to work; I "shopped" in my sister M's closet yesterday so I have some new stuff to wear! Still, not enough incentive to make me actually look forward to going back! Sorry for stating the obvious, but a life of leisure beats work hands down.

On Monday the husband, the dog and I went snowshoeing. Wow, I can't believe how great modern snowshoes are! I grew up snowshoeing on this type of snowshoe:

And I seem to recall that walking on these, let alone actually strapping them on, was frustrating and painful. And since they're made out of rawhide, I suppose the dog would end up eating them anyway! But our new showshoes rock:

And dressing for the weather rocks too:

The husband and I have a little off-trail spot in the back woods where we like to stop for a campfire and a snack. It's always fun to try and find it again, and to dig out our log-seats and fire pit.

Even though the new snowshoes rock, it turns out they still require the use of muscles. As does taking down Christmas decorations, which is what I did on Monday afternoon. As a result, I spent Monday evening nodding off on the couch ... all in all, a typical evening for me!

Yesterday, along with shopping in sister M's closet, we went out for lunch and a movie. We saw It's Complicated, with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin ... it was a cute movie, I had a few belly laughs. It's not an academy award winner but it's a great pick-me-up kind of movie. Last night the boy and I watched the World Juniors gold medal game on tv ... a heartbreaking loss for Canada, but what an exciting game!

Not sure what today will bring. I want to spend some time scrapping, but first I might take a run out to Michaels to buy more refill pages, posts and albums. I'm already feeling the last-day-of-vacay blues and it would be a real bummer to ruin my last day off by feeling blue so I have to find a way to shake that off and fast!

I'll leave you with the last layout in my scan stash ... if I want to share anything with you in the near future, I'll have to get scrapping!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2010 everybody! Hope you had fun ringing in the new year. We had a few friends over for dinner on New Year's Eve. The husband and I took a few minutes out of our busy dinner prep time for a photo shoot - though most of the pics are on his blackberry and this kissy one is the only one on my camera. Yes, that's a very festive shirt he's wearing :o) On New Year's Day, we went to visit our friends who live out in the country and spent the afternoon/evening playing euchre (and drinking...and eating....). A very nice start to the year.

So I've been having some thoughts about New Year's resolutions, and decided to revisit the ones I made last year. Here's the entry from my January 2, 2009 blog post: "This year I will put a greater focus on my health. I will eat well, I will be active, I will take care of my body and soul (and hopefully in the process lose a dress size or maybe even two). I would just love to lose 20 pounds between now and bathingsuit season (and firm up the jigglies that will surely be there even if 20 pounds are lost)."

I must say, I had great success with last year's resolution to get my weight gain under control. I lost almost 40 pounds in the first 6 months of the year, and have managed to maintain my weight loss since then (ok, ok, I put on a couple of pounds over Christmas, but that is to be expected, and it WILL come off over the next couple of weeks)! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but going from a size 14 to a size 6 has been a helluva (helluvan?) accomplishment. Not sure I can top that resolution this year.

But I do have a few priorities that I want to focus on this year. One is, of course, continuing to maintain the weight loss. Another is resolving my work/career issues (long story, but in a nutshell, I am seeking greater worklife balance and am considering my options including the possibility of moving down a level or two - a challenge when the powers that be expect me to move onwards and upwards). And even if I don't exercise any options and decide to stay in the same job, I need to look forward to going to work again, and to find a better balance, a way to spend more time doing the things I love with the ones I love...I want to take full advantage of our new trailer and boat; I want to scrapbook more often - there is so much creativity inside me crying to get out; I want to go on more dates with my husband; I want to stay connected with my kids; I want to connect more often with my sisters; I want to have more spa dates and dinners out with my girlfriends. I don't want to come home every night feeling drained and wanting only to lie on the couch and watch tv.

So ... between loads of laundry today I snuck a little bit of "me time" in. I spent some time in the scraproom, but didn't actually get a lot of scrapbooking done. I spent most of my time putting loose layouts into albums ... man, that is one dreadful job when you put it off for months on end! I ran out of extra posts AND albums, lol. There is a trip to Michaels in my very near future. Here's a layout I did the other day:

Because I worked between Christmas and New Year's, I decided to take a few days off next week - so while many of you are dreading going back to work tomorrow after a week or two break, I don't have to face work until Thursday! :o) I plan on taking down the Christmas decorations, scrapbooking, an outing with sister M, and maybe a haircut and/or spa appointment. A great start on this year's resolutions, eh?