The Countdown has Begun!

As I sat writing all the family birthdays in my new Greece calendar, filled with cerulean seas, cobalt domes and whitewashed walls, I realized that the countdown to nights away from home has begun!  It’s 15!  I know some people have to travel for work, and they don’t love it, but I work/live/breathe/sleep/teach in the same four walls day in and day out.  No mistaking it, I love it… but time away from home brings joy to my globetrotting soul.  I have imagined that the perfect job for me would be to travel the world and write reviews of far off lands for future vacationers.

There is a night coming this month… only one night.. but still, I look forward to it with my hubby.  The first of March there are four glorious days marked on the calendar for Scrapping in the Pines with my girlfriends.  It is supposedly a scrapbooking retreat… but less and less scrapbooking is accomplished as the years go by.  It should probably be renamed Being Lazy in the Pines….   THAT is a true holiday….. no kids, no cooking, no bedtime, no cleaning, no agenda (other than posted mealtimes)… no wonder it calls my name every six months!  Last September we watched 8 or 9 movies!  Couch Potatoes unite!  It was sublime.

Rick and I endured one of those time-share sales pitches to “win” a free cruise… with some strings attached, of course.  But the strings are cheap cheap cheap for the eight-day trip.  I like bunk beds!  We are awaiting to see if it will be the Western Caribbean in March or Alaska in June.  I’m REALLY hoping for white beaches and not white whales…. but alas, it is also my husband’s 25th wedding anniversary… so I was the nice wife (not the crabby wife) and let him choose one destination.  He’s a true Canadian with ice in his veins.

Our annual trip to Lake Tahoe has moved to August this year…. which is fantastic for us living in Phoenix, right next door to hell in the summer.  And our son, who is cycling again after the broken arm the week before Christmas, has a couple of races that may require over-night stays… can you see how high my hand is raised to volunteer to escort him???  I feel some mother-son bonding around the corner.  I’ll wear whatever t-shirt they want me to!

So, school drudgery is laid to rest each time I peer at the highlighted days in my purse daytimer.  By the end of February the kids will be wondering why I keep taking the daytimer into the bathroom so often.  It’s my own version of Calgon.

I’m Finally Making a Colombia Scrapbook

Yes, we’ve been home with the Colombian princess for almost nine months…. next Thursday, it’ll be nine months.  I’m finally getting around to making a scrapbook of our trip.  I’ve spent much mental anguish on the Colombia scrapbook topic over the past six months. (The first three months home I just needed a nap.  That’s all.)  I know there are LOTS of photos.  I know there are LOTS of photos that I want to include.  I also know my scrapbooking speed is not what it used to be in the days of old when I got 65 pages completed on a weekend retreat.  I’ve weighed the digital vs. traditional issues too.

This morning my problems were solved when I opened my email and Snapfish had sent me a free digital hard-cover scrapbook.  Well, the first 20 pages are free.  I was all over it…. but the deadline is Sept. 21.  My husband and I are leaving on a jet plane in three days… and not coming home until the 22nd.  So today, instead of teaching my pupils (well I did have Nora do math… and the others are pretty self-motivated at the moment)…. (yes, those were guilt justifying comments)… I uploaded 296 photos and put them in a digital book.  BAM!  Done!  Well, almost.  I only did half of the journaling… and it’s too late in the day to write coherent sentences, much less remember the Spanish names of places and fruits.

Into my closet I went searching for my journal from our trip to South America.  One paragraph smacked me between the eyes and I want to share it with you.  For all those who have adopted, want to adopt, are trying to adopt and are thinking they might adopt…. here’s some cold, hard facts to think on:

“As I drove home the seven hours from the Colombian consulate in Beverly Hills, I had one of those God-moments where I realized that this whole adoption is not about me… or Rick and I… or even Nora.  It’s about God taking care of His children – about His children taking one step at a time, obeying the call on their lives – about God providing everything we need – far before we figured out what we needed.”

 

This was taken right after we landed in Bogotá!

That was so philosophical of me…. and rare… here’s the next page in the journal for your pure enjoyment.

(This was the night before we were leaving Cali to fly to Bogotá.) “As late as it was after packing, 12:30 a.m., I simply could not fall asleep.  The thought that Nora was leaving behind her life as she knows it – kept me awake.  One reassuring thought was that we LOVED Cali SO much – we will return someday.  I also wondered at 2:30, 3:15, 4:12 and from 4:35 on…. would Nora have motion sickness? Would the airplane terrify her?  Did we check under all the beds? And finally – I was awake at 5:00… “ready” for our adventure to Bogotá.”  No wonder I needed three months of naps!

Princess Album! (love!)

It’s finally done!  Nora’s Princess Crown acrylic album!  That only took me three years!  Here’s the original story from the scrapbook convention class that I took…. and was thoroughly disgusted with:  https://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/pathetic-princess-crown-albums/

I went away for the past four days to a little cabin in the woods, way up in the mountains of Prescott, AZ to scrapbook with some friends.  There was snow on the ground and laughter on our lips.  We had a GREAT relaxing time.  We go twice a year and enjoy every minute of the freedom from being moms for one weekend.  We haul all of our scrapbooking materials in suburbans to the tiny cabin and create works of art for our family and friends.  This was my first time leaving Nora, so I called every day and got the report on how Papi was doing taking care of his little girl.  He passed. 

I only worked on two projects: Nora’s princess crown album and her “baby” book.  I scrapped all of the pictures that we have of her from when she was five years old.  I loved every minute of it and she beamed with delight as I showed her my masterpieces.  She did ask why I didn’t get more done.  Sheesh.  I didn’t tell her that I was busy watching movies without kids…. or eating without kids…. or sleeping the night through without kids…..  some day I will finish!

W.O.W. (Wildflowers of Washington)

A photo tribute to the beautiful flora and fauna of the most northwestern State of the contiguous 48.  Never have I had the opportunity to capture so many of God’s creations… every color, well almost.  My favorite colors were all covered… and that’s all that really matters, right? I don’t pretend to know what all of these flowers are named, but I do know some of them…. having lived in the great Northwest.  Please help me out if you know any missing names. 

Yarrow:

Daisies, duh:  (and grass seed)

Foxgloves:

???:

Roses:

Different Roses:

Different Roses #3:

Bachelor Buttons:  (these were our wedding flowers!)

Columbine:

Not sure, but could be the flowers of blackberries??:

???:

Unknown to me, but the blue ones look similar to Lobelia, the white similar to Star Jasmine, and the little yellow ones are shaped like Violas.

Lilies:

There you have it.  See?!  I need to do a W.O.W. scrapbook album and give it to Rick so that he will have fond memories of our hiking in Washington.  Please, take time to smell the roses!

TaHoe cRafTiNg

Those who know me well, know that I love crafts and crafting and being crafty…. and craftsy.  Trying new projects brings joy to my soul.  So, my current new-to-me idea is soldered charms/ornaments.  A friend of mine shared a link to her friend’s etsy.com site where she sells these darling handmade trinkets.  See more at:  www.MyMelodieDesigns.com.

Not knowing how to create these little gems, I did what all craft-direction-needing minds do… I went to YouTube.  Yes, I found many instructional videos and made my shopping list.  Today, I’m off to JoAnn’s to get the booty… with coupons, of course.  For the first time ever, I’m glad I saved my glittery scrapbooking paper scraps from my Christmas albums.  Sweet!  I knew I’d eventually find a reason to use them!  It has presented itself, much to my liking.

This week I’m getting together with my highschool bosom friend, Connie.  We are known for trying new and uncharted waters when it comes to crafting.  In March we covered the antique chair with vintage quilts and green piping.  I can’t remember if I blogged about that, so here is the finished product:

I also can’t remember if I ever showed a pictures of our Macramé beach bags???  I made mine about 1/2 a day ahead of Connie and figured out that I should have made the flowers all smaller.  So her bag has tidy, neat flowers in little rows and doesn’t look as spread out as mine does.  Here’s mine:

In a few weeks I’ll post our finished product pictures!  Please stay tuned!

Joy!

Ok, I so laughed when I found this picture of a GUY wearing this shirt!  Live!  Love!  Laugh!  Scrapbook!

Tonight my sister flies in from Washington and tomorrow we leave for four days of scrapping in the pines of Northern Arizona.  It calms my soul and brings peace to my heart as I anticipate our next four days of relaxation.  Yes, we go twice a year.  Yes, we stay in a 1970s decorated cabin.  Yes, someone cooks and cleans for us.  Yes, we just stay in the cabin and scrapbook.  But we also leave once in a while for a hike or two… and we watch movies.  Girlie movies with love and romance and laughter and bliss.  See why I like this outing so much?  And we laugh.  Til we cry.  And then we laugh some more.  It’s basically an emotional release weekend without hubbies or kids.

This year I am prepared to work on a 2009 family album.  I usually do “event” albums of Christmas, or one holiday or vacation.  But I figured out that I don’t have the day-to-day photos in a book for all to see.  So I printed about 27 hundred photos from 2009 and I already made the first double page spread of each month.  I’m SO ready!

But first I have to unpack my suitcase… and wash my favorite comfy clothes.  Then re-pack my suitcase. 

I’ve given up making menus for my family for the time I’m away…. it seemed the more effort I put into making meals, schedules, grocery shopping, etc…. the more often the family went out to eat.  So now, I do nothing, other than replenishing the fruit bowl before I leave.  (I did that yesterday.) 

I will take my laptop, so I may blog, but no promises from this girl.  Nope.  There is only internet service if you drive to the front of the campground and sit in this one spot.  And even then, it’s iffy.  So, as I said, no promises.

Have a grand weekend.  I will.

Saturday Scrapbook Jam

Yes, I had fun.  Got that outta the way.  I attended a scrapbooking day from 9:00 am to midnight on Saturday… and I lived to tell the story.  One of the albums I worked on was the one we are supposed to send to Zaza when we accept her referral.  It is to be an introduction of our family and home for her to familiarize herself with before we travel down to South America.  So I’ve taken pictures of the house, the dog, Walmart, the kitchen table, our relatives that live here in Phx., the van, the boys playing hockey, Grandma and Grandpa’s house, the church, the bathroom, Taco Bell, …. all the regulars in our life.  We hope to get this album back when we bring Zaza home so she will have a memory of the first time she saw all of us and our lives, but we don’t know if we will get it back. 

Needless to say, I did not throw my creative scrapbooking soul into this project.  There are no ribbons, no eyelets, no buttons, no inked edges, no tearing, no staples, no silk flowers, etc. etc.  It’s a back-to-the-basics album:  paper, photos and journaling.  I went through my paper stash and pulled out all the pastels that I hardly ever use.  It is an 8×10 album and I covered each page first with pinks, yellows, pale blues and lavenders.  It’s pretty.  (sort of.)  I tried to organize the photos so there was a sense of flow: us, house, yard, pets, relatives, other.  (Yes, pets came before G&G and Aunts and Uncles.)  I didn’t even back any of the photos.  Yes, this was hard for me.  The instructions were to leave room for someone to write the Spanish translation of my journaling, so I didn’t write much.  I haven’t made an album this plain and simple for 12 years.

Several ladies present were new acquaintances for me… and I to them.  Lovely ladies and new friends.  As usual I talked my way through the album and they were all fully aware of what I was working on.  They asked to see it when I was done… yes, I finished the whole thing in about 3 hours… 30 pages.  A new record.  They were so gracious and told me how nice it was and that they liked the paper I chose.

Then I moved onto REAL scrapbooking.  Out came my stash of do-dads, inks, rub-ons, sand paper, ribbons, metal dealies and tools to make your eyes cross.  I was in my glory.  For the remainder of the 11 hours (we took an hour lunch break) I completed 5 pages.  But they are really nice…. lots of layers and colors and texture and pizazz.  One of the ladies came over to see what I was doing and practically yelled, “OH MY GOSH!”  when she saw my creations.  Yes, I told them Zaza’s adoption journal was simple, but they did not realize just how much I restrained myself from breaking into the real Linda, Scrapbooking Queen.  It was so funny.  They all came and looked at my pages.  I thanked all of them for saying such cordial words of praise for my simple album…. and we all laughed whole heartily.  8^D

I know I won’t be in any frame of mind to do Zaza’s scrapbook, no matter how simple, once we get the referral call, so this was good.  Real good.

? # 21 From My Sister’s Jar – A Day of FUN!

Yes, it’s been almost a year since I started pulling questions from My Sister’s Jar.  And yes, I’m only on 21… sad but true.  For posterity, I dusted off the jar and pulled one out for today.

If you dedicated an entire day to “fun,” what would you do?

It would definitely be a “girls day out” with either my sister or a close friend.  It would start with a pedicure (hot pink of course, with bling bling) while sipping Starbucks.  Then we would go for a late breakfast at Paradise Bakery, but not so late that we miss the breakfast menu.  I hate it when that happens.  They have the best breaky foods… quiche and fruit and croissants with ham and cream cheese.  Next, we would take in a girly flick at the new Harkins by our house.  That theater is beautiful!  After laughing and crying and laughing and crying during the movie, we would head off for a bit of purse and/or jewelry shopping at Steinmart.  I love that store.  It’s the mother ship of bling bling and fancy shmancy purses.  Obviously the original home of my cute orange purse with the leather circles. 

Next is a hard one, because I would want to spend a couple hours in a ultra-fabulous scrapbooking store picking out a cute acrylic album and all the ribbons, paper, buttons and cha-ching that match.  However, our fabuloso store closed.  I need to research the current stores to see if I can find a suitable replacement.  My sister and I did just do a run on Scrapbooks, Etc. in Mesa, but they just don’t display stuff that makes you drool and SPEND.  Anyway, the evening would be wrapped up with take-out from PF Chang’s and a pajama clad night of scrapping at home with Harry Connick Jr. music serenading us into creativity and frivolity.

Any takers???

Scrapbooking “Vacation”

Sunday night I returned from four days of Scrapping in the Pines up in the mountains in Prescott, Arizona.  It’s lovely up there because it’s 20 degrees cooler than the Valley of the Sun.  PLUS, it’s no kids, no cooking, no cleaning…. just relaxing, scrapbooking, chatting, movie watching, munching and belly laughing.  Lots of belly laughing went on.

Twenty-one pages were completed in my album, which is pretty good, but nowhere near the 65+ pages like the days of old when we scrapbooked in Prescott.  Thank God we’ve relaxed a bit.  OK, A LOT.   Here are a few peaks into my family scrapbook. Sorry the pictures are not totally clear.  I’m too tired to take them out of the page protectors.  :o)

This page of Larisa is the first time I’ve used pressed-foam raised shapes that you cover with paper (the flowered ring) and paint the sides.  The effect is cool with the three-dimensional frame.  There is also bling on the flowers at the top that don’t show that well.

I simply love pictures of boys being boys.  I still need to do my journaling on the striped paper on the right, but I love the color combination on this page.  Titles I’m considering: “Hoopla”  “Just hangin’ Around” or “White Men CAN Jump.”  I’m open to voting.

You’ve possibly seen this photo on my blog with the story behind the grin… So cute!  My boy!  A friend brought up her Cricket machine, which is totally awesome!  It cuts out the letters I used here for the title.  You basically put your paper in, tell it what to cut out and whammo!  It’s done.  Pretty slick, if you ask me.

Two weeks ago I was talking to two women from our church and I mentioned Anne of Green Gables.  Neither one knew Anne with an E.  I was amazed.  Shocked.  Dismayed.  I thought everyone knew Anne with an E.  So this past weekend, while scrapping, we watched all THREE LOOOONG Anne of Green Gables movies.  It was truly a delight for our souls. (However, I still think Lucy Maud Montgomery would be flipping over in her grave if she saw the third movie in the series!  It’s missing the verbiage, scenery, flavor and sentimentality of the first two which she indeed wrote.)

There you have it.  I need to go take a nap now.

OH!  The scissors-through-the-chicken bag will be up Monday morning on www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com. Bid on a bag and help bring our daughter home from Colombia!