december 12th, 23rd, 24th and 25th

finally....the last three days of my 25 days of december album....between being out of town for new years, being sick, back to school and back to work i was beginning to think that i'd never get this one wrapped up!

but here it is....

here is the december 12th page that i never posted. it features of picture of my two little ones playing a game in the playroom. i'm sorry to say that this is a rare sight in our house because right now these two little guys just get along too well right now. so needless to say i love seeing them playing together whenever it does happen.



my december 23rd entry is about blake's christmas party at school and then baking christmas cookies later that evening.





december 24th - christmas eve....the entry for today talks about our trip to the grocery store to get all the supplies for our christmas dinner. i thought it would be a great idea to include our shopping list because it has both my hand writing on it as well as paul's. i did wish that i had the recent from the shopping trip also, but i'll have to save that one for next year. the 24th entry also includes some of michael's artwork because he spent the afternoon making cards for both sets of grandparents. i love the picture he made of santa and his reindeer so i had to scan it and include in here.







and christmas day...december 25th...







and here's the final album and my final thoughts on this project....



i really did enjoy this project and it is definitely something that i will do again next year. i think i accomplished my original goal of being more mindful and present this holiday season. i did more planning this holiday season than i have done in the past and i think that helped to keep things less stressful during the rush that is in some ways inevitable this time of the year.

i did not end up using a lot of the pre-made pages i put together before i started on december 1st. i tried in the beginning but decided i was stressing too much about what photos i had room for instead of letting the photos drive the process. so next year i will just decide on an album, make a few paper and embellishment selections and consider that my prep work.

a lot of the december photos were shot indoors and i really need to work on my indoor photography.

and i think i will definitely use a larger album size next year - perhaps an 8 x 8 or a 9 x 9.

thanks for stopping by! be back soon!

scrapbooking and photography in 2010

happy new year!! even though i started the new year a little under the weather, 2010 has started out pretty well thanks to some big news from a very sick friend yesterday. i'm continuing to pray for her and her little family, but i see nothing but healthy good times in their future!! i love you sweet friend!

and i know i haven't posted the last three days of my 25 days of december album but i have had some printing issues around here lately and haven't gotten a chance to get things together and ready for posting....but it is almost complete and the last pages will be posted soon!

in other news....i have set three big scrapbooking and photography goals for 2010.....all of which i'm happy to say that i've already gotten a head start on! this is of course in addition to all the million other projects i have ongoing - remember this post?

#1 i definitely want to continue doing a photo-a-day project for 2010. i did one for 2009 and i think it is a great way to document my/our everyday stories. not all the pictures i took were first rate, but my photography skills did improve. and yes, there were some days that i did not feel like taking a picture, but i did anyway. and yes i did get behind with the journaling but i caught up. and now that it is complete - all together in one album - i love it. and get this - my husband even sat down with the album the other night - looked at all the pictures, read the journaling, and proceeded to make comments like "look how much they changed in one year", "i forgot about that", "look at those haircuts", etc. that alone made it totally worth it! i've started capturing my photos and am up to date on the journaling (i started on december 28th because my weeks run monday to sunday), but i'm not quite sure how i'm going to put everything together yet. still thinking about that one and will keep you posted.

in a effort to improve my photography skills and my creativity i went in search of some photo challenges for 2010. i wanted something that was not as frequent as a photo-a-day, but something a little more challenging in terms of creativity. there are a lot of great challenges on the web and many, many resources. below are some of the ones i found most helpful....

2010 photography weekly challenges at two peas

7 photography projects to jump start your creativity

photo projects - why you should participate

flickr project groups

photochallenge.org

so after looking through all these links and deciding what i thought was managable on top of everything else, i decided on two photography challenges for 2010.....

#2 the 2010 photochallenge at photochallenge.org is a yearly challenge where you shoot one photo each week for a particular theme that changes every four weeks. the first theme for jan 01 through jan 23 is resolution. all images are added to the photochallange.org pool on flickr. i really like the fact that you can interpret these themes any way you like. and here is my first photo for week 01....

resolution: play more


#3 and the second photography challenge i'm going to undertake this year is called project rainbow. i actually found this challenge on flickr and thought it would be really fun (and i remember reading about it on photojojo also but can't find it now...)....basically you take photos that contain the colors red, yellow, pink, green, orange, purple and blue. twenty of each. in no particular order and again the subject is up to you. and again added to the flickr pool. this one just sounds fun to me. some colors will definitely be easier than others....i'm thinking pink might be a little tough for me! and again, i've added my first picture to the flickr pool....see below.

Red #1


what are you plans for 2010? are you doing any creative projects? want to join me in mine? all you need is a camera and a computer!

december 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd

five more days of my 25 days of december album !!

december 18th features a photo i took in walmart of michael pointing out to me what he told santa he wanted for christmas.....



the entry for december 19th highlights the fact that blake could not keep his little hands off our christmas tree this year. i took a picture of one of the candy canes from the tree that i was constantly picking up off the floor because he kept taking them off and playing with them.





i put some pages together out of order and then realized that i had a blank page that i needed to fill. it worked out great because i found this poem earlier in the month while surfing around the internet that i really liked and wanted to incorporate into my album somehow. and now i had the perfect spot! the website is the idea room if you're intersted and want to take a peak - lots of interesting stuff there.....





the entry for december 20th featured our christmas card from this year. i was a little late getting them out, but they made it to their destinations before the 25th! i used some leftover stamps as page accents too.....







one large photo is featured on the pages for december 21st. this was the day that michael had his christmas party at school and they spent the morning making crafts. he came home with a page full of goodies and i took a photo of all of them on our dining room table. the journaling features the poem that accompanied the special reindeer food they made - michael was really excited about having that!



and the last pages featured in this post are from december 22nd. these are just snapshots of some of the christmas decorations from around our house. it's a two page layout with part of a christmas card we received that i really liked (look at that cute wreath one the door) in the middle for kicks!











thanks for stopping by and i'll be back sometime soon with the last three pages!!

scrapbook page to framed photo art

just taking a break from my 25 days of december album posts to talk about another scrapbook layout i did as part of an assignment during ali edwards' online class at big picture scrapbooking called yesterday and today. (unfortunately this class has ended, but it was amazing!!)

throughout the class we created layouts that featured photos and stories from the past and from today. the layout that i'm discussing here came from week 6 and showcases a visual evolution of my family - pictures of my great, great grandparents on my father's side, my great grandparents on my mother's side, all the way through to today of my little family. i am lucky that i have hundreds of old family photos from both sides of my parents family tree. originally the hardest task was selecting my favorites to feature on the layout - 26 in all.

i loved the layout so much that i decided to create something similar and frame it. so i did! and i liked the framed piece so much that i decided to create another one and give it to my parents for christmas. and i did that too!

the hardest part of the whole project was finding a suitable size frame. the original layout was two 12" x 12" scrapbook pages and it was rather difficult to find a frame that is 12 x 24 inches. i looked online and in all the craft stores around town and ended up finding a 13 x 25 inch frame at wal-mart of all places. it worked perfectly!

the only other change i made from the original layout was that i used fabric as the background instead of cardstock. since the entire layout would be in a single frame, i did not want a seam running down the middle so i decided to use a solid piece of muslin fabric.

here is page 1 of the original layout.....



and here is page 2 of the original layout....



i started with this frame from wal-mart. the frame itself is 13 x 25 inches.....



i did use two sheets of white cardstock to cover the mat included with the frame because i wanted it to look smooth through the muslin.



then i covered the cardstock and the mat with the fabric tucking the ends underneath and securing on the back side.



close up shot of the fabric. very neutral....



then i pretty much just treated it like one big scrapbook page!





and here's the final framed "layout" (the lighting is horrible - sorry). a visual evolution of me!



the journaling on the bottom row....when i look at thoses photos i see my family. when i look at these photos - the faces of the people who belong to me - i see my past, my present and my future. when i look at these photos i know that i exist because of the choices made by all of these people. when i look at these photos i see all the people that are part of me and part of my personal journey. when i look at these photos i see a visual evolution of my family. when i look at these photos i see the passage of time and i see life.

thanks ali for this amazing layout! and thanks mom and dad (and the rest of my extended family) for all the old family photos!

december 15th, 16th and 17th

i hope everyone had a very merry christmas! i certainly did! and all the excitement of santa visiting, grandparents visiting, presents and new toys is starting to subside some, but there's still a lot going on around here.

i'm still chugging along on my 25 days of december album - still a couple of days behind with plans to have it completed by the end of the year. below you'll find the next three pages. enjoy!

the layout for december 15th displays some of blake's artwork from school (scanned and reduced in size to fit my album). blake is three. i love this one and it will probably be framed and added to our growing collection of christmas decorations - rudolph in a snow storm! love it! the journaling talks about the boys christmas art work being one of my favorite things about the holiday season.









the entry for december 16th is all about michael's visit to the santa shoppe at his school to buy gifts for the people on his christmas list. he was so excited when he came home that night that he made paul, blake and i open our presents immediately. the journaling tells the story and explains what a great job he did picking out gifts for everyone and how i could tell he put a lot of thought into the choices that he made.

and the entry for december 17th explains that for me it didn't really feel like christmas until i completed a big project i was working on at work. after months of working on it and a looming deadline right before the holiday break, i was putting in lots of extra hours to get this everything wrapped up and december 17th was the day that i finally signed off the report and it was officially complete.

i'll be back soon with the rest of the album i hope!

december 11th, 13th and 14th

three more days...and yeah i know you want to know where december 12th is....i realized when i went to post here that i haven't finished with december 12th yet so i'll post it next time ;-)

december 11th....momma (me) got a new coat! and it was on sale! very happy with my purchase. so much so that i decided to make it my entry for the day!



december 13th.....here's the journaling....

Today was just cold and wet – most of the day in the 30s and light rain all day long. It was a good day for sleeping and watching TV and that’s pretty much what we did. Paul took this picture of me, Michael and Blake curled up on the couch this evening watching Behind the Magic Disney Holidays – a show on HGTV about how they decorate Disney World during Christmas. Because Michael has been to Disney World he recognized a lot of the places and things in the show and we all decided that we wanted to go visit during Christmas one year. Then Blake headed off to bed and Michael and I headed upstairs to watch Christmas at the White House. I made a deal with him that he could stay up and watch it if he promised not to fuss in the morning when it was time to get up. He agreed. The show was basically an interview that Oprah conducted at the White House with President Obama and the First Lady, but it showed how they decorated the White House for Christmas, the National Christmas Tree (which we saw when we went to Washington DC earlier this year) and the big White House Gingerbread House. After it was over, Michael said he favorite part was getting to see the Obama’s dog – Bo. He thought it was cool that he knew how to give high-fives!






and december 14th is about all the christmas magazines i seem to have accumulated this year....