Running With Scissors

Now This Is My Kind of Rap. Word.

I saw this video over at Vintage Rescue Squad and had to share with all 11 of my loyal readers. I need one of those t-shirts too. I will cut you.

Arts and Crafts

In my continuing efforts to avoid doing what I'm supposed to be doing at any given moment, I bring you my latest craft project. I'm sorry the photos are so blurry, looks like I broke into the Chardonnay before snapping these babies. I try to send the college boy a package every so often as a morale booster/survival kit/reason to buy silly stuff, and now that my friend Torrey has gone off to university too I wanted to send her a little something. These Pottery Barn Kids pennants inspired me to make my own version out of paper scraps, ribbon and stickers. I just sewed the pennants right on to the ribbon. Fun and easy.

I made one for Casey too. I'm sure he'll be thrilled and hang it right up in his room. Okay, probably not. But it amused me for a while and that's what counts.
No, you are not losing your vision, my photos are just that blurry. Here is the pennant all folded up. I just wrapped the ribbon around it and tied it closed. I wrote a little note on the back. Ta da!

Yet Another Project

This is a typecase I bought at the Long Beach Antique Swap Meet last week. It's a divided drawer that was used to hold various pieces of type used in printing presses.  At first I thought I would store all my rubber stamps in it.  Turns out most of my stamps do not fall into those size categories. Then I remembered this idea from Ali Edwards' blog. I think this is a fun way to use/display extra photos as well as some of the other random crap very interesting items I've found (note the tiny little troll doll--I knew I would use it some day). Here are a couple more photos so you can appreciate my masterpiece from every possible angle.

I Hate Stacy Julian

Okay, I don't really hate her.  But let's just say she's on my list as my mom used to say (it was a given when she said it to me that it was the naughty list, I didn't appear on the nice list all that often).

Stacy's a pretty accomplished gal.  She's the founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks Magazine, the founder of BigPictureScrapbooking.com  and the author of several popular books, including Photo Freedom.  Her approach to scrapbooking is unique:  a library of memories.  Instead of scrapping chronologically, she has albums with different topics like "Things We Do," "Places We Go," etc. plus a variety of mini-albums for different events etc.

I hate this idea. With a passion. I understand and appreciate how this system would be liberating for other people and I really admire the way Stacy's mind works, but the idea of a bajillion different albums makes me crazy.  Although I taught several mini-album classes for my local scrapbook store, I'm not really a fan.  They're fun to make and a very nice gift for grandparents, etc., but I don't really like having a horde of them around.

But (there's always a but with me, isn't there?), I needed help.  I am very happy with my scrapbooking system.  It's chronological, but I don't necessarily scrap in order.  I do the pages I feel like at the moment and then put them in the right album.  So, yes, I have blank pages, but I don't care.  What I'm not happy with is my photo system.  My work flow as it were.  It's lame and it's gotten lamer.

Until recently all of my photos since 1988 were arranged chronologically in photo boxes.  Fine.  All my various memorabilia since that time was stuffed into a big basket (a lot has already been scrapbooked).  The pre-1988 photos were all in another group of photo boxes along with the memorabilia.  And just to keep things interesting, I had all of my parents photos and memorabilia from the last 50 years in a giant plastic storage box.  So I consolidated it all together, all the photos in one pile, all the other crap in another.  Then I arranged the photos by size because that's how they scan them, smallest to largest.  And I now have 1300 photos on a disk, and probably triple that left to scan.  The oldest, most precious photos have been scanned.  The rest can wait until my checkbook recovers a little.

Here's the problem: now what do I do?  I turned to Stacy and Photo Freedom.  And I almost passed out.  Her system for photos seemed so complex, so convoluted that I was tempted to tip everything right back into that giant plastic bin.  She has storage binders, cold storage boxes, memorabilia binders, category drawers, materials files, theme albums, school of life albums, photos I love albums, and library of memories albums.  So I threw the book across the room and went and poured myself a big glass of wine.  And stewed.  This is ridiculous.  All I want to do is store my photos and related stuff safely and be able to find the photos I want when I want to scrapbook them.

And then I saw the light (it may have been the second glass of wine).  Stacy needs that complex system because she has to categorize her photos before she scraps them.  I have absolutely no intention of doing that so I don't need that (yea!).  But her storage ideas could definitely be adapted for me.  Her flow, i.e. computer to print to album could work.  We'll see, it's still a work in progress.

I have another issue with Stacy though.  See that little collection of stuff in the photo?  Some of it's precious, like the ID tags (yes, our parents tagged Charlie and me like pets), some are attached to funny stories, and some of it is just cute (like that tiny little tree).  Stacy wants me to put it in a box titled "Cultural Memorabilia" because it is the ephemera of the future.  I just can't do that.  It's just too darn cute.  I think I will throw it in a drawer I call "Cool Junk."   

I Finished Something!

I'm a project person.  I only wish I was a one project at a time person.  At any given moment I have a variety of projects going (or not going as the case may be). I have always chalked my multi-project persona up to an extraordinarily short attention span.  But as I observe the.exact.same.behavior in my only child I've come to realize that it is more of a product of this obsessive/compulsive personality that some of us have.  The challenge is to use this trait for good (i.e. finishing something, anything) instead of evil (getting the ultimate high score on Tetris or reciting the alphabet in Greek).

I have used my ocd personality for some good -- I finished my Clapotis!  Woo hoo.  Frankly, I figured this project would drag out until Christmas when I would ultimately pull an all-nighter in order to finish it for gift giving.  But no!  I finished it in time for Mother's Day.  High five!  It's one of the most popular patterns on Ravelry  (if you're a knitter/crocheter, check Ravelry out -- it's awesome)  -- for good reason, it's fairly easy, yet intriguing.  And the yarn, Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb, is wonderful -- light and soft and lovely.

On the evil side, I have made an incredible mess of my office.   It started out innocently enough -- I thought I would take the plunge and have my  "pre-digital" photos scanned and put on a disk.  It shouldn't have been that big of a deal, most of my photos since Casey was born are in chronological order.  The problem was that all the older photos (including all of my parents old photos too) were stored in three different places and in no particular order.  So I pulled it all out and tried to make some sense of it. I think I worked out a good system, consolidating all the snapshots into those big photo holders on the floor of my closet and all the portraits and memorabilia into flat files.  I actually took the first big box of photos in to be scanned already too.  I used 30 Minute Photo, they're local to me (in Irvine), but they do mail order. 

Pretty good, right?  The problem is that I can tell my interest in this project is already waning and I obviously have more photos to scan and a big mess to clean up.  You know you're in trouble when doing the laundry or peeling the wallpaper off the bathroom starts to sound appealing.  Yuck.

Weather Related

It was just gorgeous outside today -- just cold enough for a sweatshirt, but nice and sunny -- and I had to stay in and put away all the Christmas crap.  Of course, first I had to purge the entire attic.  Because I believe in turning every annoying task into one that is truly onerous.  I'm wild that way.  Why did I have to do it today?  Because the only one in the family that is flexible enough to get in the attic and strong enough to carry the big honking Christmas boxes is going back to college tomorrow.  But first I had to clear out some stuff to make room for my brilliant idea:  instead of putting the Christmas tree (yes, I have a fake tree and I love that pre-lit petroleum product) in it's coffin-like box, which squishes it, I will put it in a giant bag and stand it up!  Next year, the flexible, yet strong one can tote it downstairs, unzip, and voila -- Christmas-tree perfection!  Hopefully.  I'll let you know how it really goes. 

Here's a layout (Scrapbooking, can you believe it?  I'm shocked too.) that really says winter in So Cal to me.

I Get Around

But you knew that, didn't you?  In the last two weeks I drove to San Francisco and back to help my sister move (373.8 miles); flew to Maui for a little vacation (2505.7 miles); then drove to San Luis Obispo and back (184.3 miles) for Casey's freshman advising day. 

Life is going well, but I have so many projects in the works that I'm starting to get that overwhelmed feeling.  I haven't even uploaded my vacation photos yet.  Aaaaaaack.  I did manage to drag my sorry butt to the gym today (let me just pat myself on the back) then i rewarded myself with a new pair of shorts and a t-shirt.  The gym requires better clothing than I need to walk the dog on the river trail.  But the dog won't walk when it's hot out (and for us, it's toasty -- in the 80's) -- he starts out fine, but he quits halfway through.  Just lays down and you have to carry him home or leave him for coyote bait.

Speaking of coyote bait, here's a layout I did of the little hairball last summer:

I Scrap, Therefore I Am

I am a passionate scrapbooker.  Love, love, love it.  That said, I haven't scrapped anything in a good six months.  At least.  I have managed to work on circle journals, but that's it.  After a thorough examination, I have diagnosed myself with a wicked case of scrapper's block.

When I was a magazine editor and my writers would complain about being blocked I would threaten to move their deadline up a few days and that usually took care of any problems.  Unfortunately, when I try the tough love technique on myself, it doesn't work because I know I'm full of hot air. 

So, to conquer my block I decided to take the advice I always give new scrappers -- copy other people.  Although plagarism is frowned upon with writers, scrappers actually encourage it.  We have magazines and websites and idea books galore filled with pages to copy.  It's fabulous. Although I prefer being the  one in the magazine, I am not afraid to take my place as the plagarist.  And when I steal, I steal from only the best -- this time my victim was the wonderful Ali Edwards.  Go big, that's my motto.

I punched out squares from all my Christmas cards and included a photo of all the cards "whole" on my pantry door.  It kept me happily occupied for a couple hours.  Bliss.