My scrap-iversary!

Drat. I missed it officially and didn't realize until just now. But. Six years ago last Saturday (March 22) I started scrapbooking! Amazing how very much this creative outlet has come to influence my life. I'm so thankful to have this hobby...and, you know what?, I don't think I've ever done a layout just about why I love scrapbooking. I've thought about it plenty, but just never seem to get around to it. Hmmm. A six year scrap-iversary seems like a good reason, doesn't it? We'll see. :)

In any case, here are a few of my earliest pages (sorry for the poor pictures), just for kicks:

 

 

 

Yup, finished all of these in the spring of 2002 in my mission to complete Noah's first year album before Asher was born (which, I'm proud to say, I did...um, by a week or so).

I find it interesting how different and yet the same my scrapbooking is, particularly with regard to the products used. I did a lot more hand-written journaling in the beginning. :) (Computer generated journaling is so much quicker these days, lol.) I loved to tear paper (and still enjoy this, though not to the same extent). I thought I was so cool using those alphabet punches, while now I hoard sooooo very many other alphabets and still do not own a die cut system (or these punches). Through this all, though, I still find myself using primarily cardstock with only a few embellishments thrown in for good measure. 

So, how has your scrapbooking changed and/or stayed the same since you started?  

Our day before Easter...

We had a very full day before Easter...started with our annual neighborhood egg hunt:

 

 

The boys really enjoy this every year and it's wonderfully simple...for each kid who wants to participate, you drop off a dozen filled eggs the week beforehand. On the day of the hunt, each child simply knows that they get to collect 12 eggs. Easy. :) Afterward, the Easter Bunny usually makes an appearance. Before now, the boys have always been more interested in heading straight home to open their loot. This year, despite the chilling wind, Asher decided he wanted to have his picture taken with the Easter Bunny. (I'm sure the fact that he noticed the Easter Bunny had a wagon full of little goodies to hand out didn't factor in one little bit. Yeah. Right.)

 

He doesn't look like he's just going through the motions to get to the wagon, does he? ;)

Anyhow, then we hurried home to get warm (incidentally, I *did* ask the boys to bring their jackets, but they refused)...and dye our Easter eggs:

 

Noah got a bit fancy, after watching Nathan attempt to make an "argyle" egg. Micah thought the crayon looked fun, though he didn't actually end up doing much more than directing Nathan:

 

Asher, meanwhile, had his own little groove going and cranked out his eggs lickety-split:

 

Following all of this, we did some less exciting stuff (like laundry and eating) and then had our first home experience with dipping candles! Noah and I had dipped tapers at Christmas-time a couple years ago as part of a centennial village sort of outing, but we'd never tried the whole process ourselves. Last week the boys got it in their heads for some reason that we really needed to make candles. And somehow we ended up with a four pound block of wax and some wick and this is how our evening ended:

 

 

Very cool. I think we may have found a new favorite craft activity as a family...the boys are already planning candle making for all of the upcoming holidays (short orange ones at Halloween, long red ones at Christmas, pink ones at Valentines...). Fun!

Micah, though, did not think the candle making was so fun. For his own safety from hot wax, we strapped him into his little chair. He was, um, not happy. To make it up to him, I let him be the ham that he is and took plenty of pictures like this one:

 

He loves the camera...what can I say? ;) Yes, btw, that's a band-aid on his forehead. You'll notice the red mark in earlier pictures...can't seem to get him to stop picking at it, so covered it up this evening. Adds to the character of the picture, don't you think? :)

And that was our Saturday. Oh. And after the egg hunt and before the candles, it snowed. There's a layer on the ground still...*maybe* an inch on the fence just outside my window here. Fun. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes... 

You asked...

I've had a number of compliments and inquiries about my awesome new purse lately so thought I'd just post here with where I got it. Here's a pic from the Etsy store I found mine at...I have the one pictured in the front:

 

Click here to go to that shop...very cool stuff and new designs since I bought mine! Happy shopping!

Sharing a few...

Just wanted to share a few layouts I've finished recently using the March CK Kit of the Month (which, btw, is now sold out).

 

 

 

Gotta say that sometimes pre-made kits are just plain awesome! I love designing my own and all, of course, but some pictures just don't inspire me as much, kwim? In any case, loved this fun kit and am having great fun getting lots of pages done!

Off now to drop off our eggs for our neighborhood egg hunt on Saturday... 

Got snow?

This is a view of our backyard right now...those are the same steps the boys were leaping off of in the sunshine just a couple weeks ago (heck, earlier this week if they'd wanted to):

 

Forecast says 90% chance of more snow tomorrow but then warming up again. So, raise your hand if you have snow, too! Let's huddle together! :)