New Batch of Layouts

I have five more pages to go to match my January 2010 page total. I will try to make it, but the flooring project will reach my scrapbook area soon, so I may be out of commission for a few days. Plus, I am told that my workspace must be disassembled in order to complete the project. I wanted a new desk/table anyway, so that process may speed up, at least.

In case you've wondered how I can get so many pages done, I'll share my secrets: 1) I only clean enough to keep the vermin away (and not at all while the house is in construction mode!), 2) My kids spend way too much time watching TV and/or playing on the computer, and 3) I subscribe to the KISS method of scrapbooking--Keep It Simple, Stupid! You'll notice that I don't do any fancy techniques. I use very few embellishments. I scrap 4x6 photos. I hand write most of my journaling. These simple things definitely help expedite the process. I don't necessarily feel I am sacrificing quality, either. My primary focus as a scrapbooker is preserving memories. The photos and the stories are what are important to me, not that I used the latest and greatest stuff. However, I do prefer using my newer DCWV Stacks to my old Slabs that date back to 2003!

Here are a few of my newest pages:

 Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: Mickey Font, Opposites Attract

 Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: All Mixed Up
Border Punch: Fiskars
Date Stamp: Making Memories

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: Lyrical Letters, Stretch Your Imagination
Border Punch: EK Success

Since I'm working on my album now, and not the boys', you'll start seeing more pink. I end up with so much pink paper, I try to make it work whenever I can. I've been working on our 2009 Spring Break trip. At least that should be finished before this year's Spring Break. If I really get moving, I could even finish before the end of the month, but I have a feeling the floor just might stop me. We'll see...

"Cheese Racer" Triumphs!

Yesterday was the Pinewood Derby for my older son's Cub Scout pack. This is one of the highlights of the year for the boys. Even my youngest gets in on the fun. Starting last year, they held an "open class" after the official races so parents and siblings could build and race cars. All three of my "boys" made cars this year.

This is the six-year-old's car. It is some type of rocket.

My husband made an Army jeep. This was for show. He didn't add any weights to it. All of the boys loved racing against it. I think it was because it was a cool-looking car that one of the leaders made that they were able to beat!

The only official car was by my Webelos scout. He saw the cheese car design in a book, and quickly decided that would be his car for this year. By the time the races started, the kids were cheering "Go Cheese Racer, Go!" to the tune of the Speed Racer song.

This was his fourth Pinewood Derby car, and I've loved seeing how much more active of a roll he's taken in the construction of his cars over the years. Their pack's rules allow the top two finishers in each rank to advance to the District competition. He made it the first two years. Last year he didn't, but I was so proud of the sportsmanship he showed, especially as he came to realize that his car wasn't doing too well.

This year, however, there was no stopping the Cheese Racer! It won every heat in the webelos division. Then the three division winners had another set of races to determine the overall pack winner, and...the Cheese Racer won!

I, in general, am not a crier, but did have a Misty-eyed Mom Moment when I realized he had won. For me, it's an even sweeter victory, because if you read my baseball post from a week or so ago, you know that this child is never going score the winning run or make the last out in a game. It's good to see him excel at something other than academics.

Now the Cheese Racer heads to the district competition that will be held at the end of March. He will be racing against nearly 100 cars at that level, as opposed to the 20 at the pack level. He should stand a decent chance, although all that really matters is that, according to the Scout motto, he "Did his Best."

Scrapping Snow Day

Today was the fifth snow day of the school year. We seem to have so many around here that they are not something we look forward to. The boys kept themselves surprisingly well-entertained for several hours that did not involve electronic devices. Of course, this meant more things for me to clean up, seeing that they were making use of their Christmas "food toys," ie, the Easy Bake Oven and the DQ Blizzard Maker.

In between cleaning flour off the counters and pieces of a broken bowl off the floor, I got some more scrapbook pages done. I have fallen back into my chronological pattern, since I spent the other night setting up the first half of my 2009 album. I feel a real sense of accomplishment, though, since I can say that I am now officially less than two years behind, as I am working on pages from March 2009.

Here is my latest batch of pages. I didn't do all of these today. I've discovered that it is easier for me to scan my pages in batches, rather than one at a time, since my laptop is not connected to my scanner.

Papers: K & Co. and Provo Craft
Border punch: Martha Stewart

Sketch:  Amy Alvis Papers: DCWV
Letter Stickers: Frances Meyer
Snowflakes: Cricut Joys of the Season, Stickles

Sketch: Amy Alvis Papers: Provo Craft (really old ones, too!), DCWV
Title: Cricut Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV
Cardstock sticker: Paper Studio
Border Punch: Fiskars

Papers: DCWV

Sketch: Amy Alvis Papers: DCWV, Provo Craft
Cricut Cartridges: Lyrical Letters, Mini Monograms, Joys of the Season

We already got the call that tomorrow is another snow day (I am not surprised), so maybe I'll get some more pages done. I don't know, though. The boys did pretty well today. I'm afraid I won't be so lucky with their behavior tomorrow.

January Goal Reached!

I love the feeling of actually accomplishing a goal I set for myself. Sure, it was a only a scrapbooking goal and not a big accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, but success still feels good! I have my older son's album current, at least up to the point I had photos printed for.

Now I have no choice to go and tackle my 2009 album. I'm still debating whether to go to the beginning of the year, or start towards the end, where it won't feel like I'm as far behind. Right now I have some January 2009 photos sitting out on the desk, so for now I think that's where I'm going.

My hubby is about to start the next home improvement project soon, which will be tearing out the carpet in the entire downstairs and replacing it with wood laminate. This will mean that I will not have much, if any, access to my scrapbook toys while the project is in progress. Until then, I need to ride this giant wave of January mojo and crank out as many pages as possible. I'm already at 21 for the month, and some of them I even like!

Here's the last batch for my big guy's book. These are some of the same photos you've seen in the little guy's pages. I have not been including any lists of supplies. Still being fairly new to blogging, I don't know if I should be doing this, or if there is even any interest. If you want to know, post a comment, and I'll do my best to include that info in future posts.

Now I'm headed back to 2009, unless of course I find a not-to-be-missed print sale and get my Disney photos printed.

The Year Without Baseball?

It's the time of year to start thinking about signing up for spring sports. The kids brought a soccer flier home from school yesterday, and my husband saw an ad in the paper for baseball sign-ups.

Our youngest came home with the soccer flier and stated he may want to try soccer this year. We told him he could play either soccer or baseball, but not both. He played T ball the past two years, so I wasn't sure how he would take this news. He was fairly indifferent until I reminded him of his friend (from church, not school, so they don't see much of each other) that played on his team last year. He then decided he wanted to be on a team with his friend again, but didn't quite get that it would likely not be the soccer team. He eventually came to the conclusion that "Either sport is fine," which means that I need to check with the friend's mom to find out if he plans on playing baseball again before we make a final decision.

Our oldest has played baseball for four seasons, starting when he was five on a coach pitch team, then machine pitch, then last year was the first year of kid pitch. My son is "That Kid." You know, the one who plays in the dirt, stands in the outfield with his glove on his head. Not being a sports fan myself, I never really cared that he was "That Kid." I figured someone had to be, and it might as well be the kid that didn't have the overly competitive parents.

I knew we were reaching a crossroads with baseball this year. Even though all the kids play, there is definitely a higher level of competition at this age, and not paying attention to the game while you're in the outfield just won't fly anymore. There was an incident two summers ago when my son, then seven, was playing in left field. He wasn't paying attention, the inning was over, the other team took the field, and he was still standing in left field! To cut him a little slack, the opposing team was wearing the same color shirts, but still...He certainly gave truth the expression, "out in left field."

I asked him yesterday if he wanted to play baseball again this year. His response was, "Not really. I still like baseball, I just don't want to play." I told him we were okay with his decision, but was curious as to why. He explained that he wasn't that good. I had my guilty mom moment when I realized he probably read my annual Christmas letter, where I said it was a "good thing he had other talents because baseball wasn't one of them."

I think my husband may be a little disappointed that this could be the Year Without Baseball. He has served as an assistant coach on both boys' teams (which could have potentially contributed to the oldest's lack of interest, but that's another matter) and, of all the sports, baseball is definitely his favorite. I'm not too concerned for the six year old. He is still young enough to still be deciding what he likes and where his strengths are. I am torn on my feelings for my nine year old. Part of me feels bad that he will no longer fantasize about being in the majors someday (isn't this something that all boys do at some point?). I think there is a bigger part of me, though, that is proud of him for recognizing his limitations and not simply doing something because he thinks it is expected of him.

It remains to be seen if 2011 will, in fact, be the Year Without Baseball. Maybe we'll experience soccer for the first time. Maybe we'll really take a walk on the wild side and not have one more activity to add to the schedule for a few months. That could be refreshing.

More TKD Pages and Album Debate

I decided to press on and finish up the rest of the taekwondo  pages for now. I don't know about you, but when I end up with a lot of pages to do for the same type of event (whether it be Christmas, birthday, etc), I start getting a little annoyed at them. The TKD pages are feeling especially challenging, since everything looks the same.  I'm happy to be done with them for awhile, since it will likely be at least a year before I get to my own 2010 scrapbook. I will try and get the boys' books caught up sometime before then, but maybe I will have some fresh ideas by that time.

Anyway, here they are. These are all for my older son. You may notice that, although I didn't copy the pages exactly from my other son's album, I did use the same title elements on some of them.

Now I have just six more pages to go to meet my January goal of getting the boys' albums caught up. I'm also wrestling with the dilemma of just how many pages to cram into one album. For my boys, after their first year, I have managed to stuff two years into one album. My nine year old's current album contains all of 2009 and half of 2010. If I try and squeeze the rest of the year in it, it will contain almost 50 page protectors (or 100 pages). I know I put way more pages in an album than it should comfortably hold, but this will even be a stretch for me. This is also the first three-ring album I've tried (I usually use post-bound), and I don't think it can hold any more. Now the great debate is whether to break down and break up the album into two separate years or find another album that could possibly hold everything.

The irony in all this is that I thought I had cut down on my picture taking, in part to avoid this problem. I know I have streamlined my scrapbooking process, in that I do a lot more one page layouts for events when in the past I had done two page layouts. I suppose I just have more events now to make those one page layouts of.

Maybe I should just get all the pages finished that need to go in his album, see what the grand total is, and then decide where to put them. That album I bought this morning can always end up being my elusive 2009 scrapbook!

One Album Caught Up! (well, sort of...)

I am excited to report that my six-year-old's scrapbook is caught up--almost! I have scrapped all the photos that I had printed for his album, which takes it to mid-October. The only layouts he doesn't have in his album are Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even though by the time I get back to his album I will likely have at least six month's worth of pages to do for him, I at least feel like I have accomplished something. Here are the pages that round out my latest burst of scrapping energy:

For this layout, I used this sketch. The rest of these were likely inspired by other sketches on the site, but I didn't specifically use a sketch.

I managed to use some really old patterned paper on this one, which I always love. Every old piece of paper I use gets me that much closer to buying new paper!

For my next trick, I hope to do the same for my nine-year-old's album by the end of the month. I just looked through his stack of photos and I have ten more pages to do. While I work on those, I can contemplate how I want to tackle my 2009 album. Do I start at the beginning of the year and work chronologically (my usual plan of attack)? Do I start at the end of the year and work backwards? Or do I just randomly pull out pictures that strike my fancy and get working? I always say I'm going to try and do that, but my sense of order never seems to allow me to actually do it. However, since I've yet to purchase an actual album to put my 2009 pages in, it may be a little easier since I won't be able to see exactly where the pages are going. Oh, but I just realized I have a 50% off Michael's coupon sitting in my purse, along with a partially redeemed gift card. Hmm, looks like I may be choosing an album and letting go of my fantasy of non-chronological scrapbooking.

First Layouts of 2011

I'm so excited that I have already managed to get seven scrapbook pages done so far this month! Granted, one of them is simply a duplicate page for the other son's album, but a page complete is a page complete in my book. Rather than ramble on needlessly today, I thought I'd just post some the pages. These are for my younger son.

As you can see, we've been doing lots of tae kwon do. The pictures all seem to look the same, so I'm debating between taking less pictures, or saving them up and covering several belt's worth on one page. It doesn't help matters that there is not much stuff out there featuring tae kwon do, especially when you mainly shop at the chain craft stores.

Here are a few more that don't involve TKD:

For the ball park page, I used this sketch by Amy Alvis Again, thanks for such a great sketch site, Amy. I love using your sketches, and many of my layouts these days are based on them, even if I don't use them exactly.

I am pleased with the progress I've made so far. Of course, I haven't done a page for the past two days. I have the photos out on the table for the next one, with some possible papers, so hopefully I can tear myself away from the Internet tomorrow morning while the boys are both in school to get it done. I am almost "caught up" in my six-year-old's album, meaning finishing all the pages I have photos printed for.  My unofficial January goal is to get both boys' albums "caught up" to this past October. That means around fifteen more pages. Let's see if I make it.

Scrapbooking Goals 2011

Happy New Year! The holidays are drawing to a close, the decorations are being put away (the gifts are another story!), the kids are going back to school. Now it's time to jump back into scrapbooking.

Before I jump ahead, though, I did take a look back at my scrapbooking accomplishments for 2010. I've been keeping a tally of the pages I complete each month for probably five years now. I think it has something to do with my latent, undiagnosed OCD. In 2010 I completed a whopping 214 pages, with the highest percentage of them being done in the first three months of the year. After that is when our family's activity level seemed to increase exponentially, leaving less time for my own pursuits. With all these completed pages, you'd think I'd be somewhere near caught up, too. No such luck. I do have my boys' albums relatively current, i.e., I'm working on this past summer. My album is now officially two years behind!

I think 2009 could go down as "The Year Without a Scrapbook." I have the pictures printed, but just can't seem to get to them. I think they may go to an even further back burner, since I have, in my mind anyway, decided that one of my scrapbooking goals for 2011 is to complete my Disney album from our trip last April. My goal is to complete that album before our next Disney World vacation, which is tentatively scheduled for December 2011.

Before that vacation, however, is actually going to be a Disney Cruise in April! My in laws surprised us on Christmas by telling us that they were taking us all on this vacation ("us all" being my in laws, the four of us, and my husband's brother and his family, for a total of nine). My attentions are now torn, therefore, between wanting to catch up on scrapbooking and trolling the Disney planning sites. I know, not a bad situation to be in. We are truly blessed.

I'm hoping to catch a wave of January motivation and match my forty completed scrapbook pages from last January. If I find one, I'll try and send it your way.