101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking

So, I'm pretty much just going to copy what Ali Davis said today in her post, lol. :) 101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking is now available for pre-order! It's a special issue bursting with ideas/solutions for common scrapbooking problems...with layouts from the 2008 Dream Team, Hall of Fame and Scrapbooker of the Year. In a nutshell, it rocks. :) Here's what it looks like:

There's an online group over at CK this week with challenges and sneak peeks and all that, so get on over and join, okay? In the meantime, here's a little sneak peek of one of my contributions:

I love this layout! It's definitely one of my favorites that I made in 2008 (though, obviously, I didn't include it in my top 12 because I wasn't supposed to share until now, lol). In particular, I love that not only was I able to get a good picture of me and all of my siblings (not common since we live in two different states) but I found a fun way to include bits and pieces of information about each of us at this moment in time. Yay!

Oh. Okay. Yes. I know I still haven't posted visuals on my two weekly albums I'm tackling this year. I'm working on it. Promise. This weekend kinda got consumed with putting the house back in order after the holidays and two weeks of houseguests, LOL! Not that it was bad or anything at all...just trying to get back in the swing of things. I'm sure you understand. :) On the plus side, I'm still totally excited about both projects and have them both started...just haven't gotten around to the photographing and posting part of things.

2009 Weekly & Lists of Me

2009. A new year, a new list of goals, right? I have a list going but haven't put it all down on my somewhat annual layout for the new year yet. I'll try to get to that soon. In the meantime, I have two specific scrappy goals for 2009 that I wanted to share with you...

Before I get to those, though, let me share with you my Word for 2009. Last year's was small, and I think I did a fairly good job of keeping that in mind throughout 2008. For 2009, I'm going with BE. I want to BE in the moment more, rather than putting things off while I wait for something else to happen. A prime example here is waiting to "decorate" my home more whilst I wait for a time (still in the future) when we'll be able to make more of the improvements we want. I want it all to BE more homey now, though. :)

I like how BE is short and sweet, yet can mean so much (to me). :) Another benefit of BE is that it's flexible. I'm going to use BE and add other words to it all year long. I actually got a jump start with my mantle this holiday season:

(Sorry the picture's not the greatest.) Right now, I'm thinking I'll change the mantle decor every few months...with the seasons. I'm going to start with BE driven...because I'm feeling pretty focused and inspired to make real progress on some of these house projects and scrappy projects that have been on my to do list for too long. :) (And partly because we're still just so happy about our new minivan, LOL!) Now, on to my two goals...

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First, I'm going to do a 2009 Weekly album this year. For 2007 and 2008, I followed my Album in a Year column format and did monthly layouts. I also kept calendar pages for each month where I jotted down highlights when they happened. I love having that quick reference to look at in addition to all of my other layouts that showcase the year.

For 2009, I know a number of people are tackling Project 365 (a picture or journaling each day). I don't know about you, but I know myself well enough to know that a daily something might well become more of a chore. So, I'm taking bits and pieces from Ali Edwards' Word of the Year and December Daily ideas and putting my own twist on that to create a 2009 Weekly album this year.

My plan is to pre-make the bare bones of 52 pages now (well, hopefully this weekend...should have started last week probably, lol). On each of these pages, I'll want to document the highlights of that week as well as focus on a specific word. I plan to utilize my word of the year (BE) and incorporate other words that didn't quite make the cut as "the" word. I have a list already...composed of 52 words that just caught my attention and words from the titles of this awesome kids' book series I had as a kid...Value Tales. They're out of print now (though they're making new ones), but I found a good size lot of them on ebay awhile back and snagged them for the boys. I'll read the corresponding book each week to the boys. Right now, I have 30 of these books and will supplement the remaining weeks with other tales and words. :)

So, confusing though I make this all sound, I'll make 52 pages and then pick which one strikes my fancy each week to complete. I may add pictures or just journaling or maybe throw in a few memorabilia...no set rules. At the end of the year, I'll have a fun album that will not only document my year, but will share my thoughts in a more directed way. Right now I'm thinking the pre-made pages will be 8.5x11 but we'll see...6x6 sounds nice, too. Once I get going, I'll try to share those each week. Hopefully, this will make more sense once I have visuals. ;)

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The second scrappy goal I have is inspired by a book I spotted in my local independent bookstore the other day...Listography. I fell in love instantly but couldn't quite bring myself to buy the book, knowing I could make my own. So. In 2009, I will make my own Lists of Me album. Since weekly seems like a good target, I'm aiming to create a list each week about any random thing I want. It may be a list of childhood pets or a list of things I need at the grocery store. The plan is to keep it simple yet fun. After all, a quick list is totally do-able and not nearly as intimidating as trying to journal about childhood vacations, right? Through these lists, I hope to capture snapshots of me that might otherwise get missed in my scrapbooks. I haven't decided on a format for this album yet. Part of me thinks I might do this one digitally to get more experience with all that. Part of me can't imagine not using my beloved paper. Either way, I'll share those as I go as well. Yay!

So. Those are two of my goals. I'd LOVE if you decide to join me in these. I promise to post soon with visuals. :) Woohoo!

Top 12 from 2008

Swiping this awesome idea from Heather...here are, in no particular order, twelve of my favorite layouts from 2008 (excluding those I cannot currently share, lol):

Now. After listing those, I'm realizing that I do more one pagers than I used to. :) I also, though, have a number of two page layouts that I just can't share quite yet...so rest assured that I still do and love two pagers.

Also, see that last layout? The "TraveLog" one? Well, it's officially a sneak peek at CK's new book "Get Creative With Type":

This book is stinkin' awesome! And I don't just say that because I have a number of layouts (including that "TraveLog" one) in there, LOL! Seriously, I've already used at least two of the tips/tricks in this book and know that this one will stay out on my desk for reference. :)

Whew. That's that for now. I have a couple other scrappy thoughts brewing that I'll share later tonight hopefully. Right now, I need to get back to enjoying the last few hours with John & Nancy here before we take them to the airport this afternoon. If you post your top 10 or 12 layouts from 2008, I'd love to see!

Before the new year starts...

Let's get a bit more caught up with the past couple weeks, eh? :) First a quick picture collage:

Pictured here, we have (roughly from left to right and top to bottom)...

- my three boys just before the annual piano recital (Micah didn't actually play or participate but didn't want to be left out in the shirt and tie department)...
- Aunt Cas playing soccer in the snow in the front yard...
- me, Cas and Mom sitting with Santa at Denver's Zoo Lights dealio...
- Asher at his very first recital (he played Jingle Bells and introduced himself so nicely)...
- Micah strumming his new guitar that Nana got him for Christmas...
- Noah decorating glass ball ornaments with alcohol inks...
- Asher sucking leftover chocolate from the bag while we were making chocolate candies (in molds) for our neighbors...
- all three boys in their new Christmas pjs waiting with their Santa bags Christmas morning...and,
- a sampling of the homemade candies we made to give our neighbors (this is the first year we've tried our hand at homemade candies using these fun molds...way easier than I anticipated and very fun!...love how they turned out!)

So. When I left off, I'd gotten to the Sunday before Christmas. Here's what's happened since then:

Monday...(December 22) my brother Joe arrived and we all had dinner down in Longmont at Zach's house

Tuesday...Uncle Joe made good on his promise to make sugar cookies with the boys...at least 5 dozen of them! The boys had a blast helping make the dough (and eat some of it) and then roll it out (and snitch some more) and then cut shapes (and eat some yet again) and cook them and decorate them. Okay, mostly, they loved decorating them (and were seriously fortunate not to get sick, lol). Micah's technique left a bit to be desired (as he was seriously globbing on the frosting) but the boy knows how to work it and scored a number of cookies to eat as we finished frosting (if only to keep him out of the frosting itself):

Noah and Asher, on the other hand, got a bit artsy with their cookies and we ended up with a number of little masterpieces, lol. :)

Wednesday...We went to Christmas Eve Mass and then took our family picture:

Yeah, we took some "serious" ones, too...but this one's way more fun, right? :) After that, we headed down to Longmont to join up with my mom, brothers, sister, sister in law and niece for a lovely prime rib dinner and the opening of some of the gifts. (Normally, we only let the boys open one or two gifts Christmas Eve, but we made an exception this year and let them open the gifts from Nana, Cas, Joe and Zach/Marcy/Makenna so as not to be completely overwhelmed with gifts to open Christmas morning.) While there, we managed a few group pictures. This is my favorite:

Apparently, we just like crazy pictures like this. :) I also took some of the inevitable "opening the packages" pictures. Sometimes I wonder why I do that, as they all come out looking the same and don't really say much more than "we opened lots of presents", kwim? But, every once in awhile, you get lucky and end up with a perfect picture like this:

Man, I wish you could have experienced this boy's joy first hand. He was seriously delighted with this little RC car Aunt Cas and Uncle Joe gave him. His exclamations of "just what I always wanted!" throughout the night were fantastic, too. Awesome reminder of the simple joys of Christmas. :)

Thursday...Merry Christmas! We woke up to boys staring at us (which is, strangely, unusual for us, as we've had to actually wake boys up most Christmas mornings)...all decked out in their new Christmas pjs and anxious to get downstairs. :) We then opened gifts and hung out for most of the day...putting toys together and exclaiming over all the cool things. Nana, Cas and Joe joined us during the afternoon for some fun Cranium game play and more eating before finally heading back to Longmont and then home to Washington. (They flew out the next morning.) Christmas evening, Nathan headed to the airport to pick up his parents and the three of them made it back to the house just before midnight. Figuring we may as well get it out of the way, we stayed up and opened another round of presents before putting boys to bed for the night. Whew. Before that, though, I managed to get this picture of my three boys:

Aren't they cute? :)

Friday...we took the boys to Toys R Us to deal with the giftcards burning a hole in their pockets (and came away with even more lego sets) and picked up some supplies for a lego project Nathan and the boys are working on. Beyond that, we took it easy with some games and lego assembly at home with Grandpa John and Grandma Nancy. Quiet day.

Saturday...Nathan and I escaped to run some errands (okay, okay, the REI giftcards were burning a hole in our pockets also, LOL) and enjoy dinner out while John and Nancy watched the boys at home.

Sunday...after church and lunch out, we returned home to watch some dismal football, finish up our holiday postcards (woooohoooooo...got them in the mail before the end of the year, which hasn't happened in years!), work on the lego table in the garage (that will get relocated to the basement when finished), and stuff like that.

Monday...John & Nancy took the boys to a nearby park, Nathan took me to the dentist (where I had another wisdom tooth pulled...joy), and Nathan and I bought a new minivan. Yes, amazingly, we were finally able to replace "old red" (our 1995 Nissan Quest) thanks to generous Christmas checks, finally having paid off Nathan's car, and the awesome deals to be had right now given the end of the year and the economy in general. Woohoo!

Tuesday...John, Nancy and I took the boys to the Discovery Science Museum for a very good presentation about rainbows and light and then wandered the museum. After we got home, Nathan and I went and picked up our new minivan and surprised the boys when we drove up to the house in it:

Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. :) It's a 2008 Kia Sedona in Glacier Blue. Micah was so excited he wanted to sleep in the van all night and almost refused to get out. :) Noah and Asher were similarly delighted, particularly since this van comes with a dvd player (which, we've already explained, will only be used on trips over an hour in length). Personally, I'm thrilled to have sliding doors on both sides. :) We're very much looking forward to finally being able to go on longer trips (our poor old van wasn't quite up to driving over the Rockies) and hope to really take advantage of that in the coming year.

So. That's what's been going on. Busy and good. Whew.

Tomorrow, Nathan and I will celebrate our 12 year anniversary, and Thursday we'll welcome in the new year (but, sadly, John and Nancy will head home for Washington). Should be good... :)

Merry Christmas Eve!

We're in the home stretch now, eh? :) Wanted to wish you all a very merry holiday...hoping you're all healthy and happy and warm this week (and, fingers crossed, not delayed in any travels due to weather!). I need to go finish wrapping a few things then we'll be heading to the Children's Mass with my mom, sister and at least one brother (not sure if Zach and Makenna are coming or not). After that, we'll drive down to Longmont and have Christmas Eve dinner and probably open a few things. ;) I've got so many pictures from the past week, but they'll have to wait...right now, it's more important to spend time with family than on the computer editing pictures, lol! Maybe we'll do a last half of December wrap up next week, okay?

Well, off again for now...happy day to you all!!