Catching Up

While I have been pretty good at getting my daily pages scrapbooked for my "30 Days Hath September"album for my Have More Fun class, I have been terrible at posting them...both to this blog and to the class gallery! I blame it on breastfeeding! About two weeks ago I decided to try Sam on a bottle so Shane could feed him if I ever had to be away from home. So, I started expressing after I gave him his last feeding of the night (usually around 10:00 pm). By the time I was finished, it was inevitably late and I was exhausted so I was going straight to bed. This USED to be my free quiet time when I would surf and blog and post, so that is why nothing has happened lately!

But tonight I had a little time and thought I would catch up. But when I tried to post the photos of the layouts, I could not for the life of me get them oriented correctly...they would always post on the page sideways. Does anyone have any tips? Once I figure it out I will post, post, post!

Regular photos seem to work fine, so here are a couple of recent ones.

Here's Grayson "testing" a Halloween chocolate lollipop! (Can you believe I'm thinking about Halloween? Yes, the stores are full of it already...G.wants to be a pumpkin.)

100% trouble? 100% cute! Sam is weighing in at 17 lbs at only 14 weeks! Sheesh!

Sammy and I. What a little dear. I had to take this myself holding the camera out in front of us...pretty bad, eh?

Speaking of photos, I was getting really disappointed in the quality of home-printed photos I was getting with our all-in-one printer. So I sweet talked Shane into a new wide format Epson R1400 photo printer!!! YAY!!! I am so excited! Not only will it print out photos that are archival and higher quality than drugstore or big box processing, but I can now print my 12x12 digital scrapbook pages! I can't wait! And, Shane's little perk is that it prints on CD's/DVD's. Hopefully if my photos look better, my pages will look better.

Otherwise, we really seem to be getting into a routine finally. We have been able to get out to the stores and play dates, and life is a little more normal. I have time to get organized and clean the house and even fit in a little scrapbooking. I have been working on my website and have updated my free weekly page plans, which I really enjoy creating. Julie and I had a Creative Memories booth at the Baby Show last weekend and are planning Christmas trade fairs and a couple of all day crops. Things are going well!!! I guess it's true that the first three months with a newborn are a real write off in terms of having a "normal" life, but now that we have passed that milestone I think we are getting BACK to normal, and I like normal!!!

Happy scrapping!

Noreen

More "30 Days" pages

My 30 Days Hath September Album for my BPS class continues!

I am: 1) feeling proud of myself for keeping up with one layout per day 2) loving how I feel throughout the day - more aware, more present, more engaged with everything that is happening! Even though my days are ordinary and some would say boring, I am noticing little moments of of charm, happiness and clarity in them since I started working on this album. I am getting to know myself again as I contemplate what I am doing and why. I find myself asking myself why I am doing something or why I am feeling the way I am (whoa...that was a very "Austin Powers Spy Who Shagged Me" type of sentence!!!!)

Anyway...loving how quickly the layouts are done and really enjoying doing all the writing - visual journal style!

Here are the September 3 and 4 pages, photographed side by side.


And September 5 and 6:

I have also found that I am working on other layouts while or after I finish these fun little snippets. Getting lots done these days!

PS...I had to swing by Scrapbookers Paradise today...they are having a 4/$1 paper sale until September 20! GO GO GO!!!

Happy Scrapping,

Noreen

30 Days Hath September

I mentioned that the September project in my BPS class was to create a layout a day, resulting in a memorable album showing snippets of our everyday life for one month. So far I am doing well...I have a bit of a formula I am going to use for each layout and have gathered all my supplies together in a material file for easy scrapping. Even after doing only 2 layouts, I can see that this is going to be a very revealing project - one which causes me to live in the present and to be more aware of the precious, fleeting moments. The theme is Collect, Capture and Record. Stacy J. provides us with a prompt to use if we like, or we can simply focus on the day's events or other insights. I hope to share all the layouts here...even it they are not posted on the day they were created.

Here is the materials file. I am using a cute gated album by Fancy Pants and the coordinating papers and elements are from a digital kit called Sweet Cherry Pie. Both by Nancie Rowe-Janitz.

Title and Dedication page...the "why" of the project:

September 1: Since each page is only 6 x 12, it is a bit of a challenge to get a photo, memorabilia and journaling in. Today I hinged the journaling card so I could use the back and inside.

September 2: The photo is only adhered on three sides to become a pocket for an email recieved today.

I was worried that this project might be too much - a layout a day when I have a newborn and toddler at home? Well, I think it will be: a) manageable since each 6x12 layout is only taking me a few minutes each night to scrap; and b) really worth it as a cool exercise in self-awareness.

I'll keep posting every couple of days!

Happy Scrapping! (It feels really good to be scrapping again myself!)

Noreen