More Pages Already

I can't believe I already have more pages to post and it hasn't even been a week. If I can do four more layouts before the end of the month, I will be officially *only* two years behind! I could have gotten one of them done, or at least started, if I hadn't distracted myself by going back and reading all my old blog posts. I know, there is something seriously wrong with me. At least I'm doing laundry in the process, so that hour wasn't a total waste.

I find it a little ironic that one of the layouts I did is of the boys first TKD tournament. We had another one this weekend, and it was my first time competing. It was not something I had felt too strongly about ever doing, but decided that if I was going to try it, this would be the one. It was a national tournament that was being held locally, our school being the host. There would be a greater number of competitors among color belt adults, so I had a better chance of being with ladies of my same rank. More irony is that I won a 4th place medal in sparring, when my fear of sparring is what kept me from even trying class for the longest time. I feel like I accomplished something, maybe proved to myself that I could do it. However, I am in no hurry to repeat the experience. I enjoy going to the tournaments and watching my boys compete (they also won 4th place for sparring), but I can't honestly say I enjoyed myself when it was my turn.

Anyway, here are my pages from this past week. Hopefully I'll have more soon.

This one was realizing I could cram the rest of this trip in two pages, rather than four. Lately I've been too lazy to crop photos, but I do like doing less pages.
Papers: Scrap Book Wizard (old stuff), DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: George & Basic Shapes, Lyrical Letters, Mini Monograms
Random stickers from my stash
The white block is just a way to cover my journaling, since I included some personal information that would be better not to post.

Papers: DCWV, Scrap Book Wizard
Cricut Cartridge: Jasmine

Papers: DCWV
Unknown stickers
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: George & Basic Shapes
Rub-ons: Making Memories

Papers: Provo Craft, DCWV
Cricut Cartridges: Lyrical Letters, Zoo Balloo

2010 Again, With a Side of 24601

As I was using up the last of my printed photos, I debated what I was going to work on next. Do I keep going in the boys' albums and try and get them caught up (they are a year behind)? Or do I delve back into the family album, which left off in July 2010? Before I find that album even more woefully behind, I opted for the 2010 route. I ordered prints to finish out the year, and right now my unofficial goal is to get "caught up" to two years behind. To accomplish that goal, I need to complete 10-11 layouts (most of which will be 2-pagers) by the end of the month. Not an impossible task, but given my pace of late, a difficult one.

There are the usual added distractions. Not only are we entering "Birthday Season" (both boys with birthdays two weeks apart), plus the other fall activities (I don't know why this time of year seems especially busy for us. Maybe it's just every time of year these days!), I am trying my best to read Les Miserables. It is my all-time favorite musical, which I've seen four times over the past 20 years, and listened to the soundtrack (currently I have three different recordings on my iPod) countless times. I decided it was time to tackle the book, and it has been quite the undertaking for me. I am generally a fast reader, finishing your average best-seller in 2-3 days. When I decided to read Wicked before seeing that musical last year, I was surprised that book took me over a week to finish (and, in case you're interested, it was WAY different than the musical). Imagine my frustration now that I am only a little over halfway through Les Miz, and I've been reading it for over six weeks! Granted, I've read three other books during that time, but still...I was actually a little glad when I found out yesterday they pushed back the release date of the movie to Christmas day. I doubt I'll go see it opening day now, but at least I have two more weeks to get through the book!

I have managed to get a few more scrapbook pages done since my last post. While I was waiting for my print order, I did a couple for my portrait album. These are the 5x7's and 8x10's from the studios that used to be in frames. Rather that try and fit them into the regular chronological albums, I started a separate album just for these photos. They are more simple than my usual simple pages, and I generally only work on them when I've run out of other printed photos. These are fun for me since it usually means I get to look at baby pictures of my boys again.

I should quit babbling and either get to scrapping or get to reading! Thanks for looking.

This is one of those papers from the DCWV Doodlin' Around stack that I thought I'd never use.

Another super fast page with a DCWV paper. This is my niece.

Sketch: Amy Alvis
Papers: DCWV
Punch: Fiskars
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Lyrical Letters
Punch: EK Success

Papers: DCWV
Cricut Cartridge: Doodle Type

Summer's Over

Once again, I took a summer scrapping break, it seems. It's a little hard to believe that it's been nearly two months since my last post. With the exception of today, it's also been that long since I've gotten any scrapbooking done.

I have managed to become extremely lazy and unmotivated when it comes to scrapbooking. I haven't figured out if this is simply a dry season, or if I just don't have the passion for this hobby I once had. And, like others out there I'm sure, the further behind I get, the more discouraged I become. The boys' albums are just shy of a year behind, and the family album is over two years behind--a new personal record!

I did manage to get a couple of layouts done today, which I copied from the pages that had been sitting on my desk waiting to finally be scanned and posted. Hopefully now that the boys are back in school and we're getting into a routine again, my body clock (or something) will tell me it's time to get back into scrapbooking mode.

The pages I did today used up the last of my printed pictures, so I have a brief sense of accomplishment there. I took advantage of 101 free prints from Shutterfly this week, so am waiting for those to arrive and hopefully get back on track to finally finishing my 2010 album.

I also realized this week that it's probably been a year since I bought any new paper. Of course, we all have more paper than we know what to do with, but maybe a nice, new DCWV stack could get the creative juices flowing again. Hmm...

This may seem like a lot of pages I'm posting at once, but this is two-month's work. In better times, I could do this in a week. I am not going to bother with supply lists on these, since I did most of them too long ago to remember. It's safe to say that most of the papers are DCWV.

I hope to post again before another season changes.

 Same photos, same papers, different albums. It works for me.

 Duplicates again.

 When I realized I had the same number and orientation of photos, I copied again.

 And one more set of copied pages.