Scrapbooking Weekend with the Jensen Girls

I spent this past weekend scrapbooking with the Jensen girls. We got a lot of pages done. I think I did 22 myself! I finished an entire album of our trip to Disneyland last March. Yeah! It was a fun time but we missed you Linda! I hope we do this again so I can get some more done. Scrapbooking is much more fun for me when I do it with other people.

Scrapbooking Po the Owl

Lydia and I did some scrapbooking last night. She is holding up a page she made for the owl she and her class adopted. His name is Po and he currently lives at the Pineview Rehabilitation Wildlife Center. Lydia raised $21 for him by doing a mathathon and completing 113 math problems. Thanks Grandma Jensen for your donation.

'Tis the cold season and I have one. Ken and Lydia went to church without me this morning while I sit here drinking echinacea tea. I was up most of the night coughing and just basically feeling really yucky. I see out the window in front of me some white flakes drifting down. It is a great day to scrapbook in comfies and that is what I plan to do.

Scrapbooking 2 Days in a Row?!

I have this softies book, by Therese Laskey, checked out from our local library. There are several really cute projects in this book that I want to make, two of them being the tooth and the tree on the front cover. The cupcake inside looks good enough to eat as well. I may have to purchase this for my craft book library.

We were back to scrapbooking this evening. Scrapbooking, let alone two days in a row, is somewhat out of the ordinary for me these days but then again, it's been awhile since I've done any and I like to change things up a lot so in all actuality this is probably not so unordinary for me. Lydia created two of her own pages while I decided to finish this 7x7 album I've been working on for her. It contains pictures from last summer and every picture is of Lydia with either mom, dad, or the both of us. Two things prompted me to make this. One, I noticed that a very outdated picture of the three of us was very important to her and realized it was really the only picture she had handy of the three of us. (It's in a frame and she keeps it under her pillow and takes it with her on sleepovers too.) Two, she loves to look through other albums I have made for her. I thought she would like to have a entire album containing pictures of just the three of us spending time together and so now she does. This size album will pack nicely in an overnight bag for when she sleeps over at auntie's house.
I can focus on starting that Disney album now.

Scrapbooking & Butterfly Nets

Lydia helped me organize all of the photos we took while at Disneyland last month and I now have all the supplies I need to make an album of our trip, thanks to Sarah. I was going to get a start on it tonight but instead I helped Lydia create a page in her scrapbook and she did a great job as you can see! This was all after she rode her big girl bike with mom to the Little Plover River Park (which is a couple of blocks away) to do some "fishing" with her butterfly net (dad does not fish, can you tell?). She didn't have any luck catching fish with her butterfly net so she called Uncle Matt for some fishing pointers when we got home.

What a Ride!

Front row (left to right): Lydia, Me
Second row: Ken

While at Disneyland we rode Space Mountain three times. It was our favorite ride with California Screamin' a close second. I am framing this picture and plan to hang it somewhere in our house because it captures how much fun this vacation was. The week we spent in California was wonderful and I hope to go back again next year.

I worked on a 7x7 scrapbook this evening for Lydia (that I started in the fall). It captures a sprinkling of the fun times and special moments we had together, starting off with her kindergarten graduation going through the summer and ending up with her first day of first grade. I just have some journaling left to do on a handful of pages. I would like to do more of these because Lydia absolutely loves to look at the albums I have made for her.

If things go as planned, I should be a busy crafter tomorrow. It is nearly April and so that means I need to finish my March block of the month and pick up the April Block. I would also like to get started on the baby blanket I mentioned a couple posts back because the baby shower is not far off now. While it was very nice to get away for a vacation, I am looking forward to getting back to my craft projects.

Back from the Scrapbooking Retreat

I went on a scrapbooking retreat this past weekend with my friends Dawn and Sarah. This year at the retreat they had a special guest, Tricia Morris from Club Scrap. She is a fantastic teacher, I cannot even tell you! She supplied us with so many cool products and taught us how to bind books! The picture above is a hand bound book I made! I bought a kit to make 4 more...
Club Scrap has a monthly club and the kit each month comes in a Pizza Box (a.k.a. PB). What a neat idea.

We also made a technique book. This is a picture of a duo print that we made:Tricia is very inspiring and I would recommend any retreat she is teaching at. It was much more than a scrapbooking weekend which was very exciting for me because while I do want to do some scrapbooking, I am am even more interested in doing altered art projects and things like book binding.

I got a chance to visit a little with Tricia and learned that she and her husband are runners so we were able to chat about 1/2 and full marathons. She is such a neat lady. I am very inspired by her.

On top of all that, I scrapped 2 7x7 albums and got to spend time with two great girls. It was a great weekend.

Keeping Busy

I had quilt class last night. I finished all of my home work for it! That included ripping apart the four squares I did in the first class and finishing five additional squares. Last night in class I made a nine-patch variation block and I started 3 log cabin blocks. The next class isn't until 11/20 so I have plenty of time to finish up one more 9-patch variation and the 3 log cabins. I have been using my Brother $150 special from many years ago to do my home work and I use a Bernina 240 in the quilting class. Now that I've sewn on a Bernina, I can tell how clunky my Brother machine is. If I keep with this quilting thing and sewing more often, I will get more serious about looking for a Bernina to bring home.

So all was well in my world....until I woke up this morning with a migraine. I thought I had the flu but I'm feeling better already so I think I just got really sick from the headache. I am so relieved to be over the worst of it.

This is the sketch we are using for the card swap I am in this month:
I played around with this and came up with these 2 variations so far...


I have made some progress on the purple scarf I am knitting for Lydia, my first knitting project. I am hoping to finish it before the snow gets here. Also, I think I have all of the prints and supplies ordered that I'll need for the scrapbooking retreat on November 9. I am known to procrastinate when preparing for something like this but I think I will be in pretty good shape as far as being ready for this one.

Getting Ready for the Scrapbooking Retreat

I am going on a scrapbooking retreat the weekend of November 9 with a bunch of super great girls. It will be nice to hang out with them and I haven't done much scrapbooking lately so I am looking forward to this time to focus in on a few projects I have in mind. I plan on finishing up a 7x7 album I started for my 6 year old daughter this past September. I call it her "hugs" album because I chose only photos from this past summer where either my husband or I or both of us are hugging her. What prompted me to do this was a certain picture of the three of us that I have sitting on her night table--she needs to take it with her when she sleeps over at auntie's house and often I find it under her pillow. She mentioned one day that we don't look like the picture anymore (it's about 4 years old now). She is so right. She'll be able to take her hugs album with her the next time she stays at auntie's house. And I know it will be well loved because she loves to look through the bigger 12x12 albums I have made for her.

I also plan on starting an album for my running (the 5 milers, 10K's, 1/2 marathons, and marathons) and another for the annual trip I make to Door County with the Jensen ladies.

So anywho, I started a couple days ago to get organized for this upcoming event. I created piles of photos and momentos for each of the projects. I also ordered some supplies that I will need. I still have prints to order and a bit more project planning to do and then there are all those supplies that I will need to pack up. ARGH. The not so fun part will be getting all of the stuff to the retreat but once I am set up, it will be WONDERFUL! I just received a nice rolling bag/cart thingy as an award from work. I think it will hold all of my stamps quite nicely.

I want to get a 5 miler in tomorrow morning and then I am going to a TAC stamping party--my first one. Will get to meet a few of the gals from the group I've been doing the card swaps with for the last few months. I love swaps and the idea of challenges for motivation. I just emailed Rhonna Farrer to let her know that I want to join her round 12 of {the 21 challenge}. I have been reading Visual Chronicles: The No-Fear Guide to Creating Art Journals, Creative Manifestos, & Altered Books by Linda Woods and Karen Dinino which I picked up at a gigantic Powell's book store when I was in Portland for the marathon (awesome book store!!!) and I think this challenge would coincide well with what I've been gleaning from this book. I need to decide on what habit I want to make or break for the challenge. I will let you know what I decide on.