CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Designing Woman


It's funny because, I spend so much time scrapbooking but, I very rarely post any of what I've done on the blog. I just recently got chosen to be a guest designer for the next 3 months on www.scrapbookeronline.com. I get a super cool design team kit that I use to design at least one page once a week. These two here are my favorite designs from the kit. Both of them display the new trend in scrapbooking: "Free Style". There's a new book about this technique that I'm dying to get my hands on. I have "issues" with my handwriting and my drawing abilities in general. I am in awe of people who can see something and then translate it into an art form. I envy people who can see one thing and translate what they see into a bunch of different things. I am in constant struggle with the right and left side of my brain. I want to design a layout that looks balanced and pleasing but, at the same time artsy and emotional. I want to record the memory but, make it look awesome at the same time.

Can you tell I am obsessed with this? I know some people may think this is just a hobby. But, I find myself totally enchanted by this craft. I wonder if people who love to cook or garden feel like this. You can be amazed at how some people treat this very seriously. I find that I'm sort of straddling the fence. I want to be acknowledged and published but, I also don't want to lose sight of why I am doing this. When my mom died, I had very little to remember her by. I know she loved me with all her heart and she worked hard until the day she died to give me the best life she could. She didn't have the time or the luxury to sit down and write something down. Because Matt works, I have that luxury and I am so grateful to him for it. I don't know how long this is going to last. So, I spend as much spare time as I can trying to record these things so that Henry and Sam will have something to remember our family at this time. Now. Anything else I get publications, honorable mentions, design teams are all just cake.

Anyway, aside from my duties as a designer on Scrapbookeronline I've been busy doing "Dares". There is this awesome group of women on another blog at The Dares who each week give you a starting point for a layout. These women are amazingly talented and I'm a little intimidated by their creativity. A few weeks ago, I found the courage to finally dare. The theme was "Real Women." It was fun doing a layout about myself for a change. At the end of the week they pick their favorites and post them on the blog. Now, totally contradicting myself from what I said earlier - I'm terrible but, I so want to be chosen! I've been scrapping my little heart out trying to get "picked". It's ridiculous. At least I have been able to do some really great layouts - at least in my opinion.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

April Showers

Hard to believe it's April already! I was reminded the other day, that Spring Break is fast approaching and before we know it, it will be Summer again! Although, looking outside, you wouldn't believe this. Actually, I lie. It was quite nice yesterday, cloudy but, not a drop of rain in sight. Which was good because our roof was being worked on all day. I was surprised to find that there are 3 different teams involved in replacing a roof. First, there is the team that takes the roof apart. Second, there is the team that puts installs the roof. And lastly, there is the team that cleans up. The final team is yet to come. Right now, I have a bit of garbage on my roof. Tomorrow is Saturday, so I'm not sure if they will come to remove that stuff until Monday. Jorge, the guy from the second team, assured me that the stuff wouldn't fall off my roof in wet chunks (it's partially hidden by the chimney). I hope he's right.

It was funny because literally 5 minutes after Jorge left, it started to rain pretty heavily. So far so good. No leaks. Keep your fingers crossed!

Henry's t-ball practice was naturally cancelled again. They've had a total of 4 practices since the season started! Henry still forgets to drop the bat after he hits the ball and takes off running! He's supposed to have his second game tomorrow. The first game was Monday and it was pouring! He is so cute in his uniform. I hope I actually get to see him play in it! He's team name is the Texas Rangers (yes, I know that's GW's old team...) and they are the cutest bunch. We even have one girl on our team! They took team pictures last weekend at Landmark school.

I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago we went on a field trip. The kids made some pottery at school and one of the parents is an artist who generously opened up her studio to the kids. She had this enourmous play structure and a trampoline so the kids basically played until they had to do something art related: either watch the pottery come out of the kiln or glaze their pieces. It's a special form of pottery called Raku. It involves removing the pieces of pottery while it's still glowing hot and putting them to cool at a lower temperature. Henry's teacher and Elaine, the artist/parent, would take these glowing pieces of pottery with this long tongs and put them into a pile of newspaper in a big metal garbage can filled with newspaper. Because of they way they cooled, the glaze would take on some awesome colors. Sadly this was like the only nice day in practically the whole month.

Sam's obsession with Thomas and all things train continues. He has "train-dar". It doesn't matter what store we go to, Target, Micheals, Paper Vision, he will spot Thomas a mile away. I found this Thomas battery powered track in Gilroy at the outlets about a month ago. It's quite fun. Percy picks up some small boulders and then Terence and Thomas load them. Problem is, Sam loves taking this apart and then has a fit when it doesn't work properly. I must've put that thing together a million times now. It's great to watch him play with all his trains though. He gives Percy and Thomas such personality.

That's it for now. I really hope the rain stops soon.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Rain Rain go away...seriously GO AWAY!!

I'm soooo tired of the rain. Henry's first t-ball game just got cancelled because of it. I have two buckets near my doorway because of it. (Roofers should call today, if not tomorrow...) The kids are going batty because of it. I'm tired of the rain. Seriously.

Matt leaves for Vegas this afternoon. He's got a conference again (cell phone technology or something) and he won't be back till Saturday! Plus, it's supposedly raining in Vegas too!

Seriously. I'm so tired of the rain.

The weekend went by so fast. And it was daylight savings so we lost a whole hour. It was so darn dark this morning when I got up. I don't know if it's true for you but, it's really hard for me to get up when it's still dark. I'm trying to get over a cold I caught last week. Henry started coughing this morning so I'm pretty sure he's got it too..

Time to start another week. I hope the rain lets up somehow. I'm sooo over it.