Blog Archives September 2007

Mommy: “Shay, what do you love more – me or your chocolate donut?”

Shay (without hesitation): “My chocolate donut.”

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So, my “A Window To My World” class on Sunday was a smashing success! The space was perfect, my attendees were eager and enthusiastic, and the projects all came out incredibly! I can’t wait until the next class in January ‘08 (stay tuned for details). Before launching into the class details, I have to give a shout out to Mary and Margaret from the Franklin Mill Store. Thanks for having me…I can’t wait to teach my next class.

Here is my mom getting her scrap on.  She had a blast and was so ready to get to work on her window (the finished product was so beautiful).  She had quotes prepared for each photo and she did some paper tearin’ like it was her job! I know that scrapbooking isn’t her cup of tea (she would much rather have me do it for her), but it means a lot that she would give up a Sunday afternoon to spend a few hours with me and partake in my class.  I guess it’s a maternal thing – she pays me and participates because I am her daughter, and even though I am 35 years old, she loves to see me following my passions.

This is my little protege, Brenna.  She waited two weeks for this day and was absolutely thrilled to come and help me and be a part of my class. Brenna is my crafty kid.  She loves to use my supplies and she is extremely creative and artistic.  I made her a little class kit, she helped decorate the rooms, she offered design advice to my students, and she was the best behaved six year old in the world.  Brenna, it was a joy to have you with me and I hope you’ll want to join me next time!

Alison was so excited for class and she had the most spectacular sepia photos of her children! Not a regular scrapbooker, she really caught on, had a great eye for composition, and enjoyed herself immensely.  Her project came together so nicely. One of my favorite quotes of the day came from her when she exclaimed that she loved her project so much that she was just going to stare at it all night long!   She also was the winner of our first raffle – a handpainted ‘New England’ sign from Watermelon Rind Designs (congrats). Alison, I really enjoyed having you in my class and hope to see you next time!

Here’s my mom’s finished project.  She was a bit camera shy, but allowed Holly to snap a pic of her project before she left for a night at work. My mom has an eclectic style and really loved working with her patterned papers.  She mixed, she matched, she layered. I love how she took my class but really made her project her own.

Jane (left) and Elisa (right) came to class together.  They were the sweetest ladies – very inquisitive and eager to learn. Jane wanted to create a showcase for the spectacular photos of her super-handsome grandsons. I should have thought to take a close up of how great these pictures were, but they were professional photographs and there has to be some kind of copyright restriction that would prevent me from showing the pics on my blog.  Anyhoo, Jane created a really striking project that enhanced the striking photos. I loved it so much and I know she did too! Elisa set to work creating a commemorative gift for her sister’s birthday.  She really poured her heart and soul into this project, and it was awesome to watch her encapsulate little vignettes of her sister’s life into her window. It truly was a window into her sister’s world and I’m sure that this is a gift that will be cherished for a long time to come. Elisa won a project kit designed by me and will have the supplies and instructions to create a cute little accordion album – congrats!

My friend Holly (right) and her friend Kim (left) were my final two attendees. Despite being late for class, they jumped right in and created two awesome projects.  Kim was super creative and added some really intricate touches to her project.  She cut out the designs on one of the pieces of patterned paper and made a really beautiful accent for one of her photos. The photos of her family were heartwarming and you can tell they have a house full of love. Congrats to Kim for winning a one-of-a-kind, autumn picture frame (hand crafted by me) – it will be perfect for a photo of her family. I commend Holly for her very strategic use of 12 photos. She took a project that was originally designed for 6 photos and found a way to tastefully and beautifully incorporate all of her memories without overwhelming the frame. Plus, Holly is a really great photographer and it’s always a treat to get a glimpse of her photos. She tends to shoot full frame, just like I do, and she has a true knack for capturing her subjects’ personalities.

I truly loved working with these ladies and I am so grateful that they chose to spend a Sunday afternoon with me. I hope they had as much fun taking the class as I did teaching the class! Thanks again, ladies, and I hope to see you at my next class in January.

I am so excited for my class tomorrow that I might pee my pants! I’ve been working on getting the windows all cleaned and shiny, putting the class kits together, and working on my giveaways. It’s going to be fun and I can’t wait to share the photos from the class with you.

I am planning my next class for sometime in January. I have the class concept all squared away — now it’s time to put the whole thing together. Stay tuned to the blog or sign up for my newsletter to remain informed.

Have a great weekend! I’ll write again soon!

I can appreciate good ideas.  And, whoever came up with the idea to sell stuffed animals that your kids can play with and care for on the computer is a flippin’ genius! Webkinz are the Beanie Babies of the 21st century. Kids love them. Parents spend kajillions of dollars on them. But, they are cool. I am all for computer games, in moderation (nothing beats fresh air and exercise for growing bodies).  Webkinz teaches kids to be responsible with money, it builds on reading skills, it shows them -in a very two dimensional way – how to care for a pet. And, I admit, I play with them too.  Some of the arcade games are really cool and I like when I feed my daughter’s poodle some lobster bisque and it tells me I am the best.

I woke up the other day and was getting ready for work.  I could hear my girls chatting it up and I peeked in to see what was going on.  They had all of their Webkinz, as well as Freddie Booby (which is a stuffed dog my husband got my youngest at the pizza shop one day – that’s what she named it), lined up on the crib and they were playing with them and having a serious hard-core dialog. It was cute and any moments that they are playing nicely together and using their imaginations are good moments in my book.

Have a happy day!

I’ve been starting to think about Halloween.  Could be because every retail establishment in the civilized world is swimming in Halloween merchandise right now. Could be the cool, crisp New England air. Could be because the mums, pumpkins and bales of hay are making their way into the nurseries. Could be because it’s all my kids have been talking about for about 3 weeks.

I’m okay with Halloween.  I don’t love it. I don’t hate it.  I think I tolerate it because of the kids. If I was a single hermit, I very well might turn out all the lights, lock the doors and pretend I wasn’t home. But, I like seeing the kids out and about and having fun on their sugar high. I can even tolerate the teenagers that think their football jersey or cheerleading outfit is a Halloween costume.

But, Halloween means night photography and I am AWFUL with nighttime photography. I always use automatic settings on my camera.  I don’t know my aperture from my depth of field. Plus, I strongly believe that if Canon didn’t want me to let the camera do all of the thinking, then they wouldn’t put those cute little images on my dial.

Now, you might think by looking at the following pictures that you are having a stroke or that someone slipped you a ruffi — but I can assure you that’s not the case.  These are a few of my VERY DISAPPOINTING pictures from last Halloween. Which sucks because my kids had super cute costumes that my mom made. But, all of my pics are either over-exposed, underexposed, or look like you are viewing them while on Ecstasy.

Seriously…can anyone out there help me? I only have about 5 and 1/2 weeks to brush up on my skills and it seems that I am going to need every second of that time to make some much needed improvements. Please help me…or if you know anyone who can help me, send them my way. Just remember, I am an automatic settings girl and don’t be talking to me about ISO and f-stop.

Help. Me. Please.

Last Saturday night, while my husband was chocking up his first “W” of the 2007 soccer season, I was at home gettin’ my scrap on. It was a cool fall night and I was feeling crafty. I busted out the supplies, drank a couple cold brewskies and set to work (yes, I tend to drink hops and barley when I scrapbook…loosens the inhibitions and makes my creativity flow).

My first layout was devoted to my three year old’s adorable little bod. She is so carefree, so comfortable in her own skin.  It’s a shame we tend to lose that when we get older, when the insecurities and self-loathing set in.  I hope that she (and my other daughter) always carries that comfort and security with her and strives to be healthy, not skinny.

Now, shifting gears a bit from self-love to love-hate.  I LOVE my husband – but I HATE his cell phone. I’ve been wanting to do a layout about this for a looonnnngggg time.  It was kind of therapeutic for me to finally get this down on paper. The incessant ringing and talking and calling and texting is making me crazy. It was either do a layout about it or run his phone over with my SUV.

Back to my youngest daughter.  She is carefree, wild, and a young fashion trendsetter. She’s not at all afraid to forge her own path and do things her own way and I love that about her. She picked out this little number for her first day of preschool and absolutely insisted on the Chuck T’s.  Love it. Love her.

It was really nice to get back to creating and do a little non-business-related-scrapping. Now, if I could only bang out about 3 pages a week, I’d be one happy camper!!

I have cute kids.

The end.

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Okee doke, here is part two of my incredible junking adventure. I know the suspense has been killing you.  hahaha.

We’ll start today with this great pillow cover I found at a vintage fabric booth.  One-of-a-kind, baby.  On one side it says “Good Morning.” Flip it over before Mr. Sandman comes, and it says “Good Night.”  I love this and it will make its way onto my bed once I launder it.

Next, we have what could be my all-time favorite findof the day (I found it 15 minutes into the trip…practically jumped into my lap).  It’s a 5 foot long, double-sided sign that reads “Remember When.” Now, is there a more perfect sign for a scrapbooker and keeper of memories?  I think not. Granted, I make signs and my signs are beautiful.  But, I wouldn’t have been able to buy a piece of wood for what I paid for this sign. It was a steal. Thank you, Booth #26.

My adorable husband is a redhead. So, I like to buy paraphernalia that speaks to his fiery locks.  This is an antique tin of matches.  So cute.  Now, I will probably never actually give this to him…but it reminded me of him and it made me smile. I’ll probably stick it in the bathroom and see if he notices it.

In the spirit of Halloween, I got two of these orange sap buckets.  I’ll put them outside with some potted mums in them.  Then, when all the trick-or-treaters are out, I’ll put some candles in them. They’ll be spooktacular.

There was more…much more.  But I didn’t have the energy to photograph the rest of the stuff, download the pictures, resize them in Photoshop, upload them to my blog and then talk about them.  Please forgive me…I gave you the high points and you get the gist that I got some fantastic loot!! I love buying old things and making them new again.

I hope you have the kind of day where spectacular junk jumps right into your lap.

I’ve been meaning to post about my incredibleshopping excursion at the Brimfield Fair last Saturday.  Let me first start by saying that it was H-O-T!! Mid 90’s,humid, and the air was full of dust from the bone-dry fields.  Despite the heat, and the fact that my mom and I were moving in slow motion, we got some really great stuff and some amazing deals.

Here are some of my favorites:

A little fabric book with the cutest pictures and rhyming words. It’s a bit dirty and could use a good washing, but it is perfect and oh-so-vintage.

My mom and I both got one of these bright red, punched-tin stars.  We got them for a song.  My mom wants to hang hers on her front door at Christmas and I will most likely use mine now.

I got two – count ‘em, two – of these amazing vintage drawers.  They have this great green chippy paint, antique pulls, and they are both wide and deep enough to store my scrapbook paper.  I think I am going to put wheels on them and store them under my desk.  I can keep my 12 x 12 papers in there, perhaps organized by color, and they will be neat and easily accessible.

This cute little gadget caught my eye (I am on a red kick lately) and I didn’t realize what it was at first.  But, once a kind old gentleman explained it to me, it was too whimsical to pass up.  It’s a vintage dinner bell; heart-shaped to boot.  I don’t know where I am putting it yet, but don’t be surprised if I hang it in my kitchen.  Cuteness.

There is more…much more…but I will talk about it tomorrow.  I’m getting sleepy.

Here are the top 10 reasons you should sign up for my scrapbook class on September 23:

10. The class is adaptable to all kinds of photos and themes
9. You get a lot of bang for your buck
8. The patterned papers from 7 Gypsies are really sweet and shabby
7. I’ll provide you with detailed, step-by-step instructions
6. The Mill Store is really cute
5. It’s a Sunday afternoon – perfect time to scrap and meet new people
4. I provide freebies and a couple giveaways
3. You might learn something and discover a new technique
2. You’ll have a cherished work of art to hang in your home
1. I am a lot of fun and I know you will enjoy yourself

As of today, I have four spots remaining. Don’t delay…sign up today!!