Photo of the Week - January 4, 2009

Some of my friends on Lifetime Moments are doing a "Photo of the Day" blog but that's just too much of a commitment for me! Anyhow, I really like the idea of having an album at the end of the year of some of my favorite shots of the year. So, I thought I could certainly do a "Photo of the Week". This is my first for this year. It pretty much says everything that I've ever thought it would be like to have a little girl of my own one day. As you can see, Kyra is very into playing "dress up". Isn't she stylish?

I'll try to post my picture every Sunday. (keep me honest!)

What I Did Last Weekend

2008 Crop of a Lifetime from Stephanie Burdett on Vimeo.

So thankful

I was able to get away the last five days to the Lifetime Moments annual Crop of a Lifetime. I've developed so many friendships with these wonderful ladies and it's just a fun weekend of laughter and creativity.

I am also very thankful to Rich who is the world's best husband and daddy. Not only does he take vacation to allow me to go to this event on a yearly basis, but he relishes every moment of being a temporary "stay-at-home dad". Kyra and Ian packed so much in over the weekend, I am surprised they were even awake when I got home last night. Oh, and did I mention he did the dishes, mopped the kitchen floor and cleaned the bathrooms? WHAT A MAN!

I am also thankful to have been able to visit Nordstroms during their semi-annual sale. I am SO thankful that I don't have one of these near me as I would be in some serious trouble. I had the most wonderful time shopping for new bras and other items that you really don't want to do or have time to do when you have kids in tow. (and a big "HA!" to Stephanie - I did manage to use the "bra" label again.)

So I am back, refreshed and ready to function better as a mom. As much as I love my kids, I need these short breaks from "reality."

He Just Knew I Had Too Much on My Plate

It's going to be fairly busy here in the next 10 days with preparations for the LM crop in Detroit. Ian is off of school on Thursday and Friday not to mention finding time to carve the pumpkins and trick-or-treating on Friday evening. In addition, I've known for about three weeks that Rich would be traveling the latter part of this week. So, I've been praying for calmness in the midst of chaos. Well, today Rich called me to tell me there was a scheduling "snafu" and his trip this week has been cancelled! Of course, this now means that I have to prepare something for his office's annual Halloween potluck, but I'll trade a batch of cake balls for having him home any day! Thank you, God!

Re-inspiration

After Rich got back from his trip to Chicago early Friday afternoon, I set off myself for the fair city for the annual summer CHA show and dinner with my friends from Lifetime Moments. Traffic was quite a bear once I hit Illinois and dinner had some service issues, but we still had a lot of fun. On Saturday, we hit the show floor and did a couple of make-n-takes and then just wandered around looking at all of the new products getting ready to hit the market. The industry has come quite a long way since I first began scrapbooking almost 10 years ago but seeing some of the great projects actually has me inspired to organize my scrap room and get back to the business of creating stuff.

Perfect timing

This weekend, I am going to a scrapbooking retreat with some of my old friends from Illinois. Even though I am always hesitant to commit to a weekend away, I always come back refreshed. I think this weekend's timing couldn't be any more perfect as my nerves have been rather frayed in the past week or two. I love my children dearly, but I can say I don't feel one ounce of guilt sneaking away this weekend.

I'm taking a couple of mini-album/altering projects with me this weekend as I didn't really have time to plan pages in advance. Hopefully it will be as productive as it will be fun to catch up with my old gang!

Congrats, Diana & Nichole!

Two of my scrapbooking friends have been named to the new design team at Twelve Fridays. I think the sneak peaks of this new kit club look absolutely awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on them (even though truth be told I haven't scrapbooked in what seems like forever!)

To panic or not to panic?

That is the question, isn't it? Back in January, I re-upped for another annual crop with the wonderful women at Lifetime Moments. At the time, it seemed so far off that there was no way I wasn't going to be prepared. In fact, I even joked that one could feasibly get pregnant, deliver and still make it to the crop (and one person almost actually succeeded in that feat).

So, here we are, three days before the big event. Am I packed? Heavens no! Do I know what I am going to be working on? Of course not! All I know is that as of Wednesday evening, I am turning in my Mommy card for four days of nothing but good friends and good times! Why should I panic?

Getting to know you

I finally took the plunge! I got myself a laptop which will be in my scrapbook room (thereby allowing me to finally unpack my Silhouette. I think I actually overheard Rich squealing with glee over the fact that he no longer has to share a computer with me (except of course, when I need to actually print something).

Of course, having a new computer, it's like starting from square one getting all of my favorites and my address book up to speed. Yes, I know there's probably an easy way to do all of this, but it took me all afternoon yesterday to get the wireless set up - Rome was not built in a day!

Soon it will be mine!

Ever since my viewing screen went out on my beloved Canon Powershot G3 (two weeks after the extended warrantee ended, mind you), I've been increasingly frustrated with its performance. However, with two mortgages to pay, a new camera was not in my immediate future.

After the sale of the house in Sun Prairie, Rich told me to start researching cameras and he would get one for me for Mothers Day. Boy! What a task this has been! I've gone from "what I thought I wanted" to "something completely different" and then I just couldn't make up my mind. After a lot of careful research, I decided that I would like to see the Canon Powershot G7 - easier said than done! It seems that no one or their brother carries this camera. It is a special order only. Call me crazy, but if I am going to invest $500+ in a camera, I would like to hold, feel, fondle, etc. to make sure I am in love with it before I make the true leap of faith.

Last Sunday, we ended up traveling to the northern burbs of Milwaukee to make one last attempt to find the ellusive G7 and went to Ritz Camera where I discovered the Olympus SP-550 UltraZoom. To tell you the truth, I was a little hesitant when I saw it was an Olympus, but after playing with it for a good 45 minutes (thank goodness there was a Thomas train table in the store to keep both Ian and Kyra occupied), I was amazed by how much was packed into this camera. I've been completely happy with the 4MP on my Canon, but this one is 7.4MP with an INCREDIBLE 18x optical zoom. Because I'm not at the point where an SLR is practical for my usage, this is the perfect fit for me. I just placed the order this afternoon, so hopefully it will be here soon!

Tackle It Tuesday - The Guest Room Edition

Tonight, my friend Tracy is coming to be our first houseguest since we moved here. Now, our house does "technically" speaking have a guest bedroom, but I use it as my scrapbook room 99.9% of the time. Thus, I today's tackle means I have to get the room ready for Tracy. Of course, Tracy is a fellow scrapbooker, so she is just as excited to be sleeping amidst all of the scrapbooking goodies. Anyhow, here is a "before":


(There is really a bed under all of that)


(creative genius thrives on clutter)

And here are the "After"





And for those of you who ever wondered what every became of my infamous ribbon organization tackle, here is what I finally came up with as a solution.

Tackle Me Tuesday

Ok, so maybe it's the fact that yesterday at this time it was 85 degrees and sunny and today it is 63, rainy and dropping quickly, but I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything today.

I did, however, finish this layout which I began on Sunday:



so it is something tackled (at least technically speaking).

National Scrapbook Day Projects

So, I didn't get as much scrapping done as I would have hoped to do this weekend, but I did more than I have in the past month. I was contemplating heading back up to my scrap room tonight, but I have my brain set on a certain layout and I can't find the picture anywhere so I am waiting to see if my mom has it. Anyhow, all of my projects can be viewed in my gallery at Lifetime Moments, but here's a recap:



This is for Kyra's 12 on the 12th album. I was very happy with the color combinations.




This was a neat little National Scrapbook Day project. It's a summer reading chart for Ian. I used our library's summer reading theme at the bottom.




I love how this layout turned out! Even though it didn't turn out "exactly" as I had envisioned it, I was pleased with it.




This one threw Rich right over the edge last night - meaning I got the big "eye roll". One of the challenges for NSD weekend was a photo swap. When I first got these pictures over e-mail, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but I really like the layout.

And so, that pretty much sums up my efforts this weekend. I may complete another challenge or two tomorrow if time allows since the contest deadline is tomorrow evening, but even if I don't, I'm happy with what I've done.

HAPPY NATIONAL SCRAPBOOK DAY!!!!

In my mind, this should be a national holiday. In fact, at Lifetime Moments, we are having a week-end long cyber crop with lots of great projects. I stayed up until 1:30 last night and will probably go at least as long tonight. I'll be sure to come back and post my creations, but for now, get out there and get scrapping!

Tackle It Tuesday

So, the past couple of Tackle It Tuesdays, I have focused on parts of the house. This week, I am going to veer from the household path (not that there isn't plenty to be done there) and move into my scrapbook room. You see, I have a ribbon problem: Before we moved, I had it fairly under control and neatly displayed. After the move, it just kind of all wound up in this leftover box from the move. I don't like wrapping it around cards because then I have to iron it when I need to use it. I tried sorting by color, but even then some of it has too many colors to just fit into a specific color category. So, I am fresh from Hobby Lobby with what I think may be kind of a neat storage solution. We'll see if it works!

BUSTED!

Last night I had the option of going into work last night or tonight. Since the Extreme Crop at Lifetime Moments starts at 8:00 pm CST tonight, I figured it would be nice to be home to get a jump on things. In addition, Rich has been wanting to go see 300 so he asked me last night if he would mind if he went sometime this weekend. I told him, by all means, go on Friday night after the kids go to bed, I was planning on scrapbooking anyway.

So, today we are out at our weekly lunch and I happened to mention that this weekend is the Extreme Crop. His response was that he now knows why I didn't "object" to him going to the movies.

He really doesn't mind and it was all in fun, but there are times (especially after the kids are in bed), that I just want to escape to my scrapbook room and have some quiet time to myself.

So, if you don't hear from me this weekend, please know that I am spending some quality time with my scissors!