Stampin Up

Scrapping Rocks!

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Ok, so it’s a strange phrase to most people, unless you are “one of us”. I attended a “Stampin’ Up” scrapbook weekend retreat with my friends Leah and Michelle. I had a productive weekend, getting 24 pages completed and finishing my “Vacation 2006” scrapbook, although I slacked off in the “journaling department” something which I am known to be pretty good at and very active about encouraging others to do. In fact, as I spoke with one of the event participants, I was quick to admit that although I love the creative outlet of designing and building lovely pages with beauty, flow and color, I’d rather have the stories then the pictures. As is typical in these conversations, the lady I was speakng with gave a quizzical look and then nodded her head thoughtfully, as she realized the truth of my comment; without the stories, the most beautiful photos and most stunning layouts will mean little to future generations.

My other accomplishments for the weekend were that I managed to stay productive up until 2am on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, and probably ate enough snack foods to last the next month in calories (not an accomplishment that my body is particularly happy with!).

I was exhausted at work today, but fortunately was also “cursed” with a problem which took some energy to work through, and it was a blessing in disguise, forcing me to stay alert as I concentrated on the issue at hand. My kind husband emailed me to ask how I was doing late in the morning and I replied that it was a chaotic day, but not the worst day. I said that there were two kinds of chaotic and/or bad days to have in my book- the kind that had little to do with mistakes on my part, and the kind where everything that goes wrong seems to be my fault. Today was the former, so although I was tired and aggravated for part of the day, and glad to get home, I was satisfied that at least I was not, for the most part, the perpetuater of the mistakes I was trying to straighten out.

I am looking forward to our vacation coming up in a couple weeks. We will be driving up to the extreme northeast of Maine for a week at a rental house on a cliff overlooking Fundy Bay. It will be a very different sort of vacation from what we are used to, and I look forward to traveling in a new state, and to exploring the “wilds” of that corner of the country.

Current affairs

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Here is a quick “what am I up to this week” entry.
I am enjoying publishing to my very first weblog, aka “BLOG”. I’ve posted a few posts in there already, topics including “a little about me”, a review of my current book reading project (called Spirit of Discipline by Richard Foster), and a couple entries based on a journaling prompt site.

Tonight I’ll stop by my local meetup group to trade elements for a “Page Swap” I signed up for. For those who are scrappers, or those interested in scrapbooking, this particular swap has an interesting twist. There are 12 participants (actually it’s open to 12, and there are 11 signed up), and the coordinator has listed 12 different element that make up a page layout (a page layout is two pages facing each other and visually related to one another so you look at both pages as one piece). Elements include solid cardstock, vellum, a title, fiber, round eyelets, shaped eyelets, and a decorated photo mat, amongst others. Our theme for tonight’s swap is “BEACH”, and I am supplying 10 round eyelets per participant that are related to the topic (meaning beachy colors). It’s a great idea and I look forward to driving home with a complete layout kit where all I have to do is supply the photos and glue it all together!

As for heritage projects- I’m going to my parents house in PA this weekend. Grandma is at my parents house during the summer months, and I should ask her some heritage questions!

I am going to be working feverishly to put together some page kits and type up the accompanying journaling for my project to be completed at a scrapbook weekend next weekend (17-19th). During the “Stampin Up” weekend with Jen Peel, I’ll be concentrating on finishing our (my hubby and I) 2006 vacation (Boston and Vermont), album and also would like to complete an album on our mini-vacation to Harpers Ferry WVA Memorial Day weekend of this year (that was a FUN trip!) so that preparation will keep me busy over the next several days.

Other news: I am greatly enjoying my wonderful (and expensive!) new digital SLR camera (Nikon D80), which has greatly boosted my photography capabilities, and will be purchasing a long telephoto zoom lens to go with it before we go on vacation in Sept. (to Maine- looking forward to that trip!). I’m crossing my fingers hoping to photograph one or more moose!