Currently Browsing: Scrapping
Aug 10, 2010
Posted in Creativity, Scrapping | View Comments
In the world of blogging, there’s a lot of talk about niche. What’s your niche? Are you a food blogger, a parenting blogger, a photo blogger, a humor blogger, a tech blogger…the list goes on & on. Me? I feel nicheless. I really have no specific focus for my blog. I talk about so many things and I think I like it that way. I’m not the type to have different blogs for different ideas. I know I jump around a lot, but I don’t know how else to do it.
For example, I was remembering some stuff I’d written a while ago back when I was running my digital scrapbooking business. I had a forum where occasionally I’d find a quote and then expound on it – especially relating it to creativity or scrapbooking. I wanted to share some of that here, because I don’t have enough different topics running loose in this here big top.
“Being creative is seeing the same thing as everybody else but thinking of something different”
This quote I just found wasn’t attributed to anyone, but I liked it & wanted to share it just the same. True creativity takes previously uncombined elements and finds a way to make them work together. We’ve all got this in our scrapbooking. We’re all presented with the same thing over & over – photos of the same events, papers, ribbons, elements and we try to make some unique and fresh each time out. Or at least we should.
There’s always been talk in the scrapping world about what is and isn’t “good” scrapping. What’s cool, what’s hot, what’s popular, who’s rocking & stuff. To be perfectly h0nest, that kind of stuff drives me completely loopy. There’s this narrow box of what is considered awesome and only a small number of people are allowed in. What the heck is that? Who is this judging panel & where do they get off? Because that isn’t what it’s about, is it? Why do we do whatever it is that’s creative? For me, it’s scrapping. For you it might be something different like writing or painting or art journals or whatever. Do we do it because we want to have 47 creative team blinkies in our siggies and be the “big name scrappers”? I hope not. We scrap because we want to share our memories – record what was important to us so that others will know. We want to create something of beauty that will leave a record. Leave a record that we were HERE. We had hopes and dreams and foibles and troubles and regrets and love. That’s what we’re doing here.
I’m going to apply my thoughts to scrapbooking since that’s what I do, but it also can apply to other creative avenues. So…back to the quote. How can we do this? It does seem like there’s a lot of “you can’t do this” in scrapbooking. My answer to that is, “says who????” Who says you can’t use 14 pictures in a LO? Who says you can’t use flowers in a boy’s LO? Who says you have to even HAVE a picture to make a LO?
Think about this. We all are seeing the same things, but how can we see them differently? It isn’t about being perfect or amazing. It’s about being real, being interesting and being inspired. Being honest – with yourself and with your art. If your art is writing on your blog, don’t worry so much about being a “perfect writer”. Instead – use your voice. Be real when you blog. I think that most people don’t want to come back again and again to read about how perfect your life is & how amazing your kids are & all the beautiful stuff you get to buy & how your excrement smells like hibiscus potpourri. People want to read stuff they can relate to. They want honesty, real-ness and YOUR perspective, story or insight. I’m not saying that you have to put all your dirty laundry out there, but try being real. Try being different in your approach to your art. I think that’s a fantastic place to start, anyway.
What would you like to see differently? Whether it’s in your blog or your art or your hobby or whatever – how can you look at it differently in order to spark your creativity? I would totally love to help each other make it work here!
Jun 9, 2010
Posted in Daily Ramblings, Scrapping | View Comments
Gosh – I’ve had so much to blog and then when I sit down to do it, I can’t think of anything I wanted to say. I hate that! And most of what I think of blogging is a bunch of random snippets that run through my head and are not cohesive in any way, shape or form.
The first thing I wanted to tell is that I have to backpedal on my Mother’s Day disappointment. Steve totally surprised me with a gift that he had planned, but due to his breathing problems before Mother’s Day, he wasn’t able to get it. Then came finals week (and no decent teacher can do anything other than prep & deal with that)and before we knew it, school was out. Needless to say, I was really surprised when I opened up the envelope he gave me and saw the receipt for the new Droid Incredible. I had expressed that when my iPhone contract is up next year, I wanted to cancel and get a Droid like Steve’s. But I hadn’t even thought any more about because I’ve still got an entire year on mine. I’m so thrilled about it and really excited to see it! It won’t be available until the end of the month. Then I’ll give my iPhone to Maggie until my contract expires. She’s totally excited about that and I hope she can handle giving it up when the year is up. So a big THANK YOU to my husband. Like, seriously.
I realized the other day, as I drove past the local farm fields, how much I love driving rurally at this time of year. See, the corn has started coming up, but is still rather small – like ankle height. When you drive by a field, all the rows of emerging corn go by really fast. It’s always looked to me like someone running really fast. I can remember as a child driving to Iowa for our summer visit with our dad and just watching those fields go by, imagining that we were racing some really tall, long-legged person who was running incredibly fast. I just kept racing and racing. So I always think of that when the beginning of June rolls around.
As far as the exercise goes, I tried to do the Bollywood dance one the other day and majorly failed. It totally frustrated me because I’m actually a pretty good dancer, but for some reason, I could not put these moves together at all. Perhaps it’s moving in a very different way than I’m used to or something, but I could NOT do it. And felt so stupid just bouncing around, so I gave up. Still having trouble with the yoga and the crampy feet, too.
Let’s see…reading. I’m reading Melissa Gilbert’s autobiography right now & just finished Kristin Chenoweth’s. Kristin’s is quite good and appropriate enough that I could let Maggie read it, too. She LOVES Kristin. Melissa’s book is a little more tawdry because she’s apparently lived a more gossipy, troubled life (though it’s not like she was Dana Plato or anything), but it’s interesting to read about growing up famous and all the people she knew. Plus, remembering Michael Landon is cool. I HAVE to start reading faster. I’ve got 2 more library books here that I have to get through, plus another NINE that I’m waiting to come into the library. Plus a bunch of books here I haven’t read. Gotta read, gotta READ!
I’ve also done some more scrapping! I hadn’t really done any since about March, but I pulled it out again. Here’s what I’ve done:
May 17, 2010
Posted in Parenting, Scrapping | View Comments
Everybody’s coming down sick again. William’s fighting off his sickness finally and now Henry has a sinus infection. Steven was complaining all weekend about a queasy tummy and sore tonsils. Took him to the doctor today and she found nothing. Today Maggie came home from school with the same queasy tummy, headache and complaining that she ached all over. She came home and went from being FREEZING to having a fever of 101.7. I do not know what’s going on, but I am S.I.C.K. sick of it. I know this spring has been awful in terms of allergies, but come ON.
I was thrilled to come home today to see that the yearbooks had been delivered!! We just placed the order last Thursday morning and they’re already here. I would love to show it all here, but because they’re not all my kids, I don’t feel that I should. Let me say that MyPicTales.com is AMAZING. Not only did they produce these in record time, they look outstanding. I’ve never had anything printed outside my house before, so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I was so pleasantly surprised. I cannot wait for the kids to see them. Maggie loves it, so I hope the rest of them love them, too. The coolest part is that they don’t look like a typical yearbook with black & white photos on white pages. I did them just like a scrapbook page, so they’re interesting & colorful & fun & unique. I can’t wait to see the reaction!
Now that I’m done with that, I have to figure out what needs to come next. I still need to print out the headshot/resumes that I’ve done for Steve’s class. I’ve had my first week of my photography class and I’m already excited. The first week is focused on using the icon modes (Portrait, Landscape, Sports, etc) rather than just leaving it on Auto. I haven’t had the time to do what I want yet, but I should get to it soon. I need to do five pictures in each mode, so I have to figure out what to take picture of to begin with and then get ‘em done.
I also actually finished a layout!! I haven’t done one in so long! I was looking through the Best Overall Layout category for the Scrapper’s Choice Awards and saw this layout that I loved. I decided I needed to do one of my own. I wanted to make it more personal, rather than just little items that are in the right colors. So I did an extensive Google image search to find pictures of things I love in different colors and did that. And I love the result. (click for credits)
I love it. Gotta find some more layouts to scraplift.
May 9, 2010
Posted in Daily Ramblings, Scrapping | View Comments
Not what I planned, but what are ya gonna do?
We had planned to spend yesterday (Saturday) at the zoo for the opening of the Great Bear Wilderness. They were planning on having this amazing PowWow which I thought would be totally fun for the kids & everything. On Friday, unfortunately, Steve woke up unable to breathe. See, the last time he went to the hospital for all this stuff, he met with a pulmonary specialist who prescribed him a new inhaler. As prescriptions do, it ran out. He called in his refill immediately and, as of today (which is 5 days later), the doctor’s office has still not responded to refill it. So, of course, without it he went downhill pretty quickly. Friday morning he was breathing quite poorly and asked me to take him to the ER. The pharmacy can’t get the doctor to call back, Steve hasn’t been able to reach anyone. We are rather majorly mad right now. I really, really hate it when someone falling down on the job causes a medical crisis.
So he has to take it easy and not exert himself, so we canceled that trip. Plus, it was crazy cold yesterday, so it wouldn’t have been fun anyway. Today me and the kids went over to my parents’ house and had dinner. Gave out our cards and a lavender plant I bought for my mom. Now we’re back home. If it sounds like nothing special…you’re right. I got some lovely cards from my kids that my mom took them to buy yesterday. Steven brought me breakfast in bed. That’s all the thought put into Mother’s Day for me this year. I am a little annoyed right now.
Now I’m going to let it go. Because holding onto resentment makes me ugly and ruins everyone’s day. I will shake it off and move on.
Guess what time of year it is again? It’s that time where I submit a layout for Best Journaling in the DST Scrapper’s Choice awards and end up being disappointed when I don’t win. This year they’ve changed everything. Since DST was bought out by some company, they decided to do it as a voting thing. So chances are that we’re looking at a popularity contest now. But I am nothing if not a glutton for punishment, so I’ve entered again. And I’m already being beat out. Can I vent just a little bit? I do not understand how people vote on these things – unless they’re just voting for friends. See, when I hear “Best Journaling”, I think “the layout which had the best written, most interesting to read journaling”. While it’s great if the layout is the most visually interesting, that’s not what I’m voting on. I don’t think quoting a song or just placing random words or phrases in a clever manner constitutes “best journaling”. See, there’s not a lot I can claim I’m good at in scrapbooking. I don’t create the best layouts, my use of brush work isn’t fantastic, I’m not into fantasy layouts, I’m not terribly artistic. But I CAN write. I work really hard to incorporate interesting, heartfelt, well-written journaling in all my layouts because that’s what’s important to me. So I really only enter those categories because that’s what I’m good at. I entered. I’d really love to have my work recognized, but I won’t be surprised if I don’t. Hey, if you’re a member of DST, would you mind voting? Not for me, necessarily, but for someone? I’d love for as many people to vote as possible. At least then it’s less of a popularity contest, y’know? Here – I’ll show you the layout I entered and the journaling here so you can read it before you vote.
How dare you. No, seriously. How DARE you. How can you dare minimize what women experience after giving birth? Because calling what I feel something as innocuous and cutesy as “baby blues” is beyond insulting – it’s demeaning. It makes me so angry because what I’m feeling isn’t unusual or weird or abnormal. After having Will, I felt horrible. I wrote, “I’m not doing too well. I am on top of it, but the postpartum hormone emotion roller coaster is knocking me around pretty bad. I’m SO incredibly overwhelmed. See, I have this tendency to look down the road and get totally shut down by trying to figure out how I’m going to do this, that or the other thing weeks from now. Every time I do it, I’m telling myself to knock it off and focus on ONLY today, but it’s HARD. Every afternoon, I get hit with it really hard & I spend about 3 hours balanced on the edge of a panic attack. I cry at least once during this time – wondering what the heck I’ve done here. We were fine with only 3 kids. JUST FINE. Adding another one has messed everything up and now I don’t know I have enough to go around. I don’t feel like I do at all. At Will’s 1 week appointment, just checking in at the reception desk started me in. “How are you doing?” was the question. And, y’all. I’m being honest. I’ve decided that I’m tired of pretending to people that I’m okay when I’m not.. Like I have with every other pregnancy/birth I’ve had. Pretending I’m totally okay when I’m depressed, panicked and questioning even having said child in the first place. So when people ask how I’m doing, I’m telling them. I’m doing poorly. I’ve been better. I’m struggling. When the nurse called me in for our appointment and asked the question, I told her. The chairs were full of the car seat and diaper bag, so I’m holding Will and kind of pacing while I talk about how I’m feeling. And I’m crying. So as not to scare anyone, I’m say that I’m on Zoloft & have been for 8 years now, so I am aware and on top of what’s going on. But I think I’m going to call my psychiatrist and ask about whether I need a change to my meds or anything. What I really hate is that, as much as I have love for Will, and I DO, y’all, part of me wants to just leave him at a fire station or see about adoption. Which is so horrible to feel and even more horrible to admit publicly. I know I would never, ever do it, but a huge part of me just wants to go back to the way things were before I got pregnant with Will. Not that it was perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But I KNEW how to do it. I don’t know how to do this 4 kid thing or doing a newborn with 3 other kids. And it’s O. VER.WHELM. ING. When I could put the 3 kids to bed and go to bed myself and get a full night’s sleep. As hard as it was some days, I mostly knew how to do it. This new configuration has me confuzzled, dizzy and frantic.. I think the most important thing I’ve realized because of this is just how many of us out there either have gone through this or are going through this. And the shame of it is that we don’t talk about it. We are somehow ashamed at what is, apparently, a normal reaction to childbirth. We are totally ashamed to admit that we aren’t sure of our ability to parent or the fact that our postpartum hormones are so out of whack that we cannot function. It’s NORMAL, you guys. And I think if we can talk about it openly without being afraid, we can get the help we need. If we’re so busy pretending to be okay, how can we get help so we can actually BE okay? I totally encourage you all out there – if you’re going through this – talk about it. To anybody who’ll listen. Be honest about where you are. Not to gain attention or get the “poor you” treatment, but if people know where you really are, emotionally, they have a better chance of giving you a hand up. And I give you permission – anyone who says you have “baby blues”? You can punch in the face.
So there it is. The rest of the Best Journaling submissions are here. If you think mine is the best, you can vote for it here. If not, it’s cool. I understand if you just don’t care.
That’s all I can think of right now. By Maggie’s request, she & I are going to watch The Lovely Bones now. Strange Mother’s Day movie, I know, but she’s been begging for it. I hope it’s not too intense for her.
I hope all y’all out there had a great Mother’s Day.
Feb 7, 2010
Posted in Daily Ramblings, Parenting, Scrapping | View Comments
Sick. Our whole house. Sick. Started with William over a week ago. Little cough & snuffling. Spread quickly to Henry who simply gets the most nauseating nose you’ve ever experienced. It runs like a faucet and it’s thick and nasty like rubber cement. Except green. Then? Maggie got hit. She was home half of last week. Then me & Steve &, finally, Steven. We are all coughing, snuffling, running fevers and feeling generally creepy. And, of course, Steve gets hit the hardest. Which I hate because, admittedly selfishly, he can’t do anything when he’s sick, so I’m on my own taking care of 5 people while I’m sick myself. Though, can ANY man do anything when he’s sick? We moms are expected to continue doing all we do, but the men just hole up in bed and do nothing but ask for juice.
Steve went to work sick on Friday and when we went to the nurse’s office to ask for an Advil, she noticed he was feverish. Took his temp, which was 101, and sent his behind home. In the middle of the school day! He came home and went right to bed. Saturday, he woke up sicker. Unfortunately, me, too. Plus, Henry’s nose is still a mess, even though he’s been on Amoxicillin since Tuesday, Maggie’s feeling better, but not great, Steven started running a fever and was lethargic and Will’s cough amped itself up to 11. I’m coughing, having trouble with breathing and my sinuses feel, once again, like small rodents are burrowing behind them. By the time evening rolled around, I was a mess. Everyone was fussy, crying or clingy. I was trying to get laundry done & decided to pick up Chinese for dinner. (Because nothing helps illness like Chinese soup). Of course, nobody wants to do their chores (especially the dishes), so the house is a mess. I’m really trying to hang in, but I’m slowly getting angrier, more frustrated, more overwhelmed. It’s 6:30, still 2 hours until bedtime. I’m trying to fold 3 baskets of laundry in the bedroom while Will is fussing & crying. But I’ve got to get it done before I can even go to bed. And Steve comes in and gets in bed to go to sleep. While Will cries. And Henry’s asking for whatever downstairs. I’m trying to get Will to shut up and I’m losing it quickly. Steve tells me to “do the laundry later”. I snap that I can’t if *I* want to go to bed…but what does that matter? Nobody cares about me or how I feel as long as they get what they want. I stomp downstairs to put cloths away in the kitchen and see that Maggie STILL has not done the dishes after the 4th time I’ve told her, and…..that’s it. I completely snapped. I start SCREECHING at her and screaming that my family sucks and nobody gives a rat’s behind about anybody but themselves and THAT’S IT, I’M DONE!! I stomp upstairs, grab the baby, and scream that I’m leaving. March downstairs (yeah…still screaming), put the baby in the carrier and snatch my purse and attempt to get out the back door before Steve can stop me. But he’s quicker than I and grabs the carrier handle, telling me I’m not going anywhere – especially with the baby. In my insane, crazed, foolish tantrum, I think I can insist he “give me my baby” and wrench the carrier from his hands. which….nope. I can’t. I try 3 times and finally let go and run out to the garage where I shut myself in the car so I can scream & cry at the top of my lungs. After about 3 minutes, I’ve worked myself into a full-blown panic attack, complete with asthmatic whooping & wheezing. I struggle back inside to dump out my purse & find my inhaler. It actually took me 5 more minutes to regulate myself. Now, however, I’m too embarrassed to go back in to the family. I’m desperately embarrassed. And my amazing husband tells me that I have nothing to apologize for or be embarrassed about. That it wasn’t my fault. Which….what?!?
But I have to. I have to apologize to the children I scared. Who thought I was actually leaving them. Steven insists he “wasn’t affected by it” (his words, not mine). Maggie was, understandably, angry with me. Really angry with me. I don’t blame her a bit and I told her so. I told her I was so, so sorry and I hope she can forgive me. But, boy, did I cry. I think it was all the responsibility and everything loaded on my shoulders while I’m sick while getting no help from anyone. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I couldn’t. I don’t ever have the luxury of just ignoring the rest of the family and taking care of myself when I feel horrid. Everybody else in the house does. And, to be perfectly, transparently honest, it pisses me off.
So. After all that drama and chaos, it was time to put the kids to bed and get ready ourselves. Steve tried to get settled, but he could not breathe well enough to go to sleep. I suggested that maybe he needed to visit the ER before it got any worse. Off he went at a little after 9pm. I got myself and Will ready and we were in bed by 9:30. I woke up to feed Will at midnight, 2:15 & 4am. Steve still wasn’t home. I called his cell and he was on his way home, picking up prescriptions, with a diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia. Perfect. What a mess. Will did a ton of coughing all night long and seemed to get even more congested as the night continued. Even with his humidifier going right next to his bed. When morning rolled around, I decided I’d better take Will in to the ER, just in case. If Dad has pneumonia, it’s possible that Will could, too. And, when I hear the word pneumonia, I kind of panic a bit. Not without good reason, though. Of course, Will pulled the time-honored trick that all small children pull. They’re sick as a dog when at home, but as soon as you get to a health-care professional, they’re fine. He didn’t cough or anything while we were there. Instead, he smiled winningly at every person he came across. Other than all the goop in his eyes, he looked perfectly fine. They must have thought I was a big, fat, stinky liar. Or trying to pull a Munchausen’s by Proxy dealy-job. We got amoxicillin for him, though, so hopefully that’ll make a difference. I hate hearing him unable to breathe and coughing like he’s losing a lung. Sheesh, I hope we’ve turned a corner. I hate being sick.
Finally, I got these other wall decorations done for my own bedroom. Remember the ones I did for Maggie’s room? At that time, I had made some for our master bedroom as well. We had nothing for over our bed – just a bare, green wall. I made these, and just recently got them framed and hung last night. I love them. So I’ll leave you with something pretty after the unpretty that was this post’s tale. Each one is 12×12, framed in a mahogany colored frame. Plus, I actually measured to hang them properly.
Page 1 of 2312345»1020...Last »
