You Could WIN!!!

If you don't know what CHA is think huge launch of cutting edge products for your favorite hobby then multiply that by 1000 LOL

This time of year I stalk, I mean really really STALK the Making Memories blog. They are a hoot to follow as they journey through the day and they have AWESOME give aways! So if you haven't already been there what are you waiting for?

Oh and also in the side bar are several other industry greats who could also be offering tidbits for those of us stuck at home...

Pupdate 2

After a lovely visit from the Great White North and battling headaches for 2 days which then turned into a migraine I'm back. But the best part is I'm back with puppy pictures... So without further ado here are the 5 weeks pictures:

Good 2 Go - girl


Good Vibrations - girl


Grand Adventure - girl


Gun 4 Hire - boy


Grand Gesture - boy


Grande Mocha - boy


Grouse Ridge - boy


Gr8 Expectations - boy


Gunning 4 You - boy


Get Your Gun - boy


Get It Done - boy

Nothing SIMPLE about it...

Yesterday I learned of the passing of a friend - well at least that is how is feels. You know the kind of kick in the gut that knocks you off your feet and leaves you lying there dazed and confused.

I have admitted that I kind of stalk Stacy Julian founder of Simple Scrapbooks and author/teacher extraordinare so when she alluded to getting some bad news there was concern. Yeah I only met her in passing last year at the MemoryWorks Retreat but I felt like I knew her. You see when I started scrapping I had people try to 'help' me by wanting me to put more stuff on my pages and I let them cause what did I know. And then I picked up an issue of Simple Scrapbooks and learned what I wanted to do was OK - really really OK. Letting my photos and their stories shine through my simple pages wasn't a bad thing I mean they had a whole magazine telling me this.

Through the years I've read it, subscribed to it and cherished it and all involved with it (just look at the blogs I follow many have some connection to Simple). I embraced my 'simpleness' and ran with it. I can acknowledge the beauty of some of the more elaborate LOs in some other mags but I always wonder is there a photo and story in amoung that stuff?

Yesterday it was announced that Simple Scrapbooks as we know it will cease publication as we know it with the May/June issue. There have been assurances that Creating Keepsakes will embrace Simple and make it a part of them but honestly I have rarely picked up an issue of CK as it seems to be all about the stuff and although I am sure they will try I am not holding my breath that it will be done in a manner that makes me want to lay out $$ for it.

So last night and today I, and many many others, am mouring the passing of a friend who knew who I was and loved me anyway. Who was not afraid to stand up and in this busy world full of stuff say SIMPLE is OK! Who led many scrappers, newcomers and some not so new alike, down a road of embracing who they are and being OK with telling their stories without all the 'stuff' - showing us that the bells and whistles could come from inside of us through our journaling.

Simply put there was nothing SIMPLE about Simple Scrapbooks.

I wish all the best to all who are involved with Simple Scrapbooks in the new ventures that lay before them and I take some solace in the fact that we still have Big Picture Scrapbooking to enrich our lives and help us embrace our 'simpleness'.

Jay suggested I pick up a couple of extra copies of the last few issues - I think I may just do that and frame them to hang in my scrap room for that one last bit of SIMPLE inspiration.

People we LOVE...

Sunday night I did a layout (LO) for my Get Organized Be Inspired class. It was just going to be a easy LO as I just needed to get it done. And then it happened I caught a glimpse of something my Aunt Marlene sent me and the flood gates of emotion hit me. I have lived in a different country than my family since I married Jay, which isn't a bad thing but it's sometimes not an easy thing. Like last November when my Great Aunt Mary passed away.

I'll be honest we are just not in a place financially that one of us can pick up and fly anywhere - it needs lots of planning and saving. We are doing ok everything is paid on time and we have very good credit scores but we just don't currently have a lot of extra cash laying around. If you do and want to send me some feel free - I kill me

But I digress... So as I was thinking what pictures do I have that I can just slap on a page and get this assignment done as I had a million things running through my head and none of them were about scrapping. Then I saw the handout from Aunt Mary's funeral (thank you Aunt Marlene for sending it and yes I know I owe you a thank you card - bad niece very bad niece) and I was struck by emotions that I hadn't allowed to surface when she passed. Emotions that would have made Jay feel guilty about 'taking me away from my family' that there would have been no reason for him to feel. For years each Christmas was filled with all the Great Aunts & Uncles all the way down to me and my cousins. It was a time where you sometimes wondered 'what do I need to do to have a minute to myself' as the house we were at was full to overflowing. There was laughter in every corner and more love than one house could hold.

We used to play bridge for the older ones and games for the young ones. And the teasing! I used to tell Aunt Mary she wasn't such a great Aunt an ok one maybe but great - I think not... She feign being hurt and then burst into laughter all the while trying to not get me to bid 3 no trump. She made great thin bread and had a smile that could light the room. And not one of these memories did I share with anyone while she was living.

I read a poem years ago in one of the little cook books local churches put out that started 'why do we wait until they're gone before we tell their worth' it was true then and it is true now. We wait until someone is lost to us to tell them how much they mean to us and we need to stop it. Don't think that they know, don't assume that it doesn't need to be said, DON'T wait until you are holding the little pamphlet of their lives at their funeral (or months later) to realize you didn't do it. Pick up the phone and tell them better yet sit down and write a letter sharing what they mean to you, how they enrich your life. Do it now. Do it today because tomorrow may never come.

It may not be an elaborate LO as far as embellishments go but it is full of the same love that the house was all those Christmases ago...


Thank you to Becky Fleck of Page Maps (May 2007) for the design inspiration. I used Basic Grey Boxer Line paper and embellishments and to hold in the pamphlet I use a My Mind's Eye overlay.

Thank you Wendy Smedley for making me remember happy times and what I lost. This folks is why I scrapbook (ok not the crying part so much...)

Get Organized Be Inspired Week 2

Ok so I'll admit I underestimated how hard these first couple of weeks would be. I mean really all we are doing is trying to find our process so we can get to the 'real' work of organizing next month.

I now know that I never really had much of a process - I jump all over the place when creating. I start with photos sometimes but others I have a memory or a piece of memorabilia catches my eye and I need to get it in an album NOW! None of this is bad really it just explains why my room never seems to come together. I think I have it set up to function well but then I change *how* to work and it no longer functions well so I think I need to tweak it. But then it doesn't work well when I switch back to the first way I create... I hate being a gemini some days LOL

Without further ado here are the pictures for this week. I've concentrated on the area just inside the door up to the desk as I needed some order there so I could do the assignment for this week - creating a LO and writing down our process (hence the above revelation).

The view from the doorway. Not much has changed but I did finally put away the piles that were on the cart and desk. On the desk (not really visible) I have placed some small containers I had in drawers for the smaller stuff but I left the pieces on the desk so I moved them there temporarily for ease of clean up.


This is my wooden storage unit - I love having real unpainted wood around me - it has castors so is movable however it just sits here. I currently have it set up to hold my stamping stuff and card making items on one side the other is my altered projects and new kits etc to be filed away.


This is my Cropper Hopper paper cart and I must say I really like it. I usually have a cover on it and at the moment it has a piece of memorabilia I need to get picutres of (part of Reece's Christmas present - Thanks MISSY!). Behind is sits my Cropper Hopper photo boxes (2) and my Cropper Hopper embellishment boxes (one for ribbon and one for metal embellies)


I am getting excited for a dear friend to visit. She arrives on Thursday and I can't wait to catch up with her! Heather do NOT miss your plane...

Pupdate...

Finally after much difficulty we have updated pictures...

Puppies are eating on their own and starting to show their personalities. Everyone got a 'formal' name (although some may changed) for their AKC registration so without further ado here they are. All names will be proceeded by the Ersehnen prefix...

Gun 4 Hire - boy


Grouse Ridge - boy


Grande Mocha - boy


Grand Gesture - boy


Grand Adventure - girl


Gr8 Expectations - boy


Good Vibrations - girl


Good To Go - girl


Gunning 4 You - boy


Get Your Gun - boy


Get It Done - boy


I am exhausted so am off to bed. I'll post the week 2 photos of my scrap room tomorrow as I ran into difficulty with maintaining my connection tonight.

Later

Snow Day...

I'll be posting my week 2 room pictures this evening so check back in if you are following that. Also we need to retake all the puppy pictures as they appear to have been lost... Hope to do those after Reece goes to bed or in the morning after he's left for therapy.



I wish I could share all the pictures we took on Tuesday which Jay took as a Snow Day (actually roads were a sheet of ice day) and that you could hear the non stop laughter from Reece :)

The first couple of runs with me Reece really wasn't too sure about the whole thing but after that he would yell at us for taking to long to get going LOL It wasn't a big hill, it was lightly raining, there wasn't a ton of snow and the sleds left something to be desired but there was a ton of F-U-N!!!!!!! And the joy on our little boy's face and his laughter made the 30 mins of trying to find somewhere to sled so worth it :)

Get Organized Be Inspired Update

Ok these photos are hard to share as they show how badly I've let the office/scraproom slide... But never the less here they are.

This is the view from the hall or as you exit the bathroom (yep the house is cozy)


This is the scrapbook/craft side and is directly opposite the door. I'm frugal (which is a nice way to say cheap) so I have repurposed an old entertainment center as my temporary desk top on this side. Some of it is also used as shelves in the closet. This is until I finish my class and have decided on a system - why waste $$ on something that likely wouldn't be what I truly needed?


The window wall is one long 'desk' which sits on storage cubes.


The peg board is on the wall to the right of the computer.


The closet-what can I say about the closet? It holds albums, office material, school stuff...and appears stable but I hold my breath everytime I need to get something from it.


These are actually retakes of my Day 1 photos as we still can't access them and there has been some cleaning already. Like my scrap desk is not under a pile of stuff waiting to be put away.

Anyway now you know why I am in the Get Organized Be Inspired class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It was functional and neat and now is the anti of both and not much work gets done in here at all.

Long long ago...

in a galaxy far far away I had order in my scrap space and have the pictures to prove it.

This picture is my old scrap desk set up before I moved across the hall to the smaller room.


This is the wall above my desk as it was then...


This is the great solid wood cart my DH insisited I get at Fred Meyer when it was 50% off the lowest marked price. It has some dings in it due to being a floor model but I wish I could have gotten at least one more.


I am posting these today as I have started the Get Organized Be Inspired class at Big Picture Scrapbooking (link on side bar) and my new space so does **NOT** look like this. I'll post those pictures if we can ever get them off the corrrupt card. If not I'll post the slightly improved ones from today as I have cleaned off my desk so I can do my assignments at it tomorrow. I'll be posting my progress here at least once a week for the accountability factor if nothing else.

Stay tuned for puppy pictures shortly as well (also on the stupid corrupt card) GRRRR!

Later

I *HATE* when that happens...

so on Reece Homecoming Day we had an errand to do in Boise so decided to also hit Build A Bear for Reece's fist adventure there. Both he and I came home with new friends - Bart the Assistance dog for Reece and BooBoo Bear the hockey dude for me. Jay took pictures of this all and several other things like the 3 wk pics of the puppies and some really really cute ones of Reece wearing his boots. However all were taken using the corrupted memory card we were sure we tossed out!

So I am trying to wait patiently while he tries to recover them - last time this happened we did get them all thanks to our computer whiz friend. Check back Monday to see what happened. SIGH!

On the upside yesterday I spent a wonderful afternoon playing with paper and Missy :) It was very enjoyable and we don't get to do it often enough as she is off in Moscow at Grad School...

I have also started Get Organized Be Inspired with Wendy Smedley (check my side bar for links to Wendy's blog and Big Picture Scrapbooking who offers the class). I promise I will figure out the active link thing soon But I am already so inspired by reading the book I know this class will put me on the well down the right road to having the ultimate room.

Anyway I am off to do my assignments and tidy up a bit as Jay has a friend coming out tomorrow to go hunting.

Later