Christmas memories

I took a lot of pictures on Christmas. Even though I still hope to scrapbook them before the baby comes, I couldn't help but take a lot. I didn't feel like I was getting very many good ones, but I kept clicking away anyhow. I have really missed scrapping! I always have plenty to do, but when I think I should sit and take a break, I feel sad that there aren't any pictures to scrap. It's like my daughter said to me the other day, " My heart feels better inside when I'm playing instead of just watching T.V." I feel the same way! I feel like I'm wasting my life when I watch TV, but I feel like I'm accomplishing something when I am scrapbooking.

We had friends come over today that we haven't seen in 3 years! They were home for the holidays and we just sat around talking. While my daughter played a game with Ken, his wife patiently sat and looked through one of my daughter's albums. We were able to show them the page I did from their wedding. My daughter had no memory of them, and that's why we brought out the album, hoping to jog her memory. It didn't work, but it was nice to see how good I looked 3 years ago! Ah, my adorable short haircut, beautiful dress, tan and a tiny belly....lots different from my basketball tummy and sloppily pulled up hair, oversized sweatshirt and a pair of my husband's pajamas. Yes, sadly, that's how I looked today when they came to visit! I still have the pictures to remind me what I was like and to inspire me for the future!

Tip of the Day: My daughter has 20 albums. When I was looking through the albums to find my friend's wedding pictures, it really helped that I had the dates inside the front of the album. On the inside of Creative memories albums, it has lines on the inside of the album cover. I have written my daughter's name, which book it is, and the dates of the pictures inside, such as May 2007-July 2007. You can also spring for a little bookmarker made of metal ( I think they have silver and gold) which showcases a little frame that will hang over the binding. You could place either a picture or a date in there. I think these are around $10. Another option is to send the binding away to get printed and personalized. This would definately be the easiest labeling option, but it isn't cheap, since you need to pay for shipping and handling as well as the printing. I've done this for a friend, and it really does look classy!

Scrap Happy!

Merry Christmas!

I'm not sure why this picture shows up so dark on the computer. Reviewing it on the camera, you can see the stockings and details. It's the perfect picture. But not here. So sorry!



Christmas preparations have taken over and although I see photos everywhere as my little girl experiences the excitement that Christmas being just around the corner brings, I am trying to hold myself back from photographing it all and just enjoy being with her.



I just completed all of my holiday preparations today, wrapping the last gift. Other than the constant housework that needs done, I find myself at a loss to know what to do for fun! I am so used to scrapbooking always being an option, but now everything is neatly packed away, waiting as I am for our addition to be done so that I will always have a desk of my own to scrap on!



My constantly moving belly lets me know that I need to clear my memory card (Which I will do after saving my favorite photos on a disk.) Since I have most of the photos in albums already, now is the time I do this.



Tip of the Day: I'm always learning, and one thing I recently discovered was a new way to journal in my daughter's album. Some ways I journal are by writing things on my kitchen calendar, or writing a diary-like entry in a notebook after an event. A new technique that recently worked for me was to ask my daughter questions which I jotted on a post it note and kept with my photos until it was time to scrap the pictures it went with. We had been to the circus, and I just asked her things like her favorite part of the show, the funniest thing there, what she would want to be if she were in the circus, and things like that. I quickly jotted down her answers and found them tremendously helpful when it came to journaling the page. Usually, I journal pretty much from my point of view, so this was a completely different perspective, and I loved it.



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Pages, Pages

I know that I've shown you one of the pictures on this page before, telling you that we need to celebrate the little things. This simple little page is doing just that. I rarely use non Creative memories items on my pages, but they don't make ribbon, so I purposely bought scrapbooking ribbon just to match this page. I had a vision of what I wanted, and although it's a little bulky for me, it is just what I had in mind, so I'm very happy with it.

I am caught up on my daughter's albums! Yes, I am waiting on soccer page elements for a 2 page spread from this fall. (I ordered them over a month ago! Now I know what I put my customers through, making them wait when I was a consultant!) But other than that, and some pictures I have yet to order, (14, this includes my November pictures for my famous "rundown of the month" pages and a 2 page spread of Thanksgiving) I am officially caught up and up to date!

I don't know yet what I'm feeling, since this is a developement that has happened in the last 15 minutes, but I am hoping to spend some time with my daughter, get my Christmas baking done, and get my Christmas cards sent out. There will always be something that needs done, but with her albums like this, wow! I haven't been caught up for such a long time! I just want to enjoy these last few weeks of my pregnancy and celebrate Christmas! I did it!

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Belly shots

It's almost time!

I love this picture of my belly and my little girl. The night I took this picture in my bathroom (because the lighting is good there, even at night!) I felt like my belly could not get any bigger or I'd pop. I could see my veins all through my stomach, it's very weird, and I was trying to capture it with my camera. If I stand facing the mirror in the bathroom, I can aim the camera at my belly, and see the screen in the mirror. So, that was what I was doing and my 6 year old just kept hopping into the photo at the last minute! It was funny, actually, because sometimes you couldn't see her face, because she would pop in, yet my belly would be in the way, and the picture only showed her chest down! Anyway, she hugged the baby and it was so much better than the other shots I'd been attempting to take, that I snapped this picture instead. (Well, after a few tries)

I finished journaling my Disneyland pages and the book is complete. I'm currently working on September 2008, and I think I'll be able to catch up on this book before baby comes! I currently have a sore throat and cold, no fun. Yet, other than normal pregnancy quirks, this is the first time I've been sick since I've been pregnant. So, I can't complain. I have felt invincible and was shocked and disappointed to catch a bug at the end of my pregnancy.

Besides putting up my Christmas decorations and baking the first batch of cookies to freeze ( and some were eaten now!), I also worked on an album I continue for my Gramma. It's one of the smaller albums, so I can whip those pages out pretty fast. But it leads me to my Tip of the Day: Something I have reverted back to lately is the use of punches. They are so versatile, and you can use whatever color paper you want to match your page. Several heart punches can be grouped together to make a flower. There really is no end to the possibilities. I have also drawn right onto my page a few times lately. It sure changes the look of the book and can be quite a lifesaver if you can't find just the right sticker. If you don't trust yourself to write on the page, write on a piece of photo safe paper and silhouette it or keep it in a strip. Above all, let your creativity flow and have fun scrapbooking! Be like me....

Scrap Happy!