Exceedingly Mundane

I’ve decided one thing for sure lately – all adhesives are not created equally.

I started scrapbooking several years ago, heck, maybe even 9 or 10 years ago. I have so many supplies accumulated that I could probably open a small store with my “stash”. After taking an extremely long break from scrapping, probably 3 or 4 years, I decided to give it another go this summer. Most of my paper is in good shape, although some of it is bent or torn on the edges from the way it was stored. And a few pieces that were left out are sort of faded from the sunlight or exposure or something. The most glaring, and the scariest thing, is that a lot of my adhesives are no longer sticky! That’s bad news. Not good for the pages I had already created — you know, the ones that I used those adhesives on! I guess things will start falling off my pages because the adhesive is no longer adhering.

Anyway, several things have changed since I stopped scrapping. For one, all of the local scrapbook stores have closed. But to counteract that, the two chains stores that I have locally, Michaels and Hobby Lobby, both have increased their scrapbook supply sections. I’m trying really hard NOT to buy anything else. After all, part of my goal is to use some of what I have bought in the past. I guess I have some kind of hard-wire error – because half the fun to me is browsing, buying and having so many of the cute papers and embellishments. It’s a sickness of some sort, I guess!

I really wish I had stockpiled one thing from several years ago – a nice Christmas album! I have just finished (finally), my Disney album and need to order a cute Disney themed album to put my pages in. I’m working on my first Christmas album, and I know years ago, I had seen several cute albums on the market. Now, I can no longer find them, either at the chain stores or online. Bummer. I’m really hoping that the closer we get to the Christmas season that I can find a cute one. I’m afraid the scrapbooking product market has suffered in this economy as well, and I might not can find what I want, or what I had seen in years past.

OK, just some scrapbook-related ramblings. Of absolutely no interest to those of you who do not scrapbook, sorry about that. I’ll try to blog about something more relevant in the future 🙂

Well, I’m not sure I’m really back in the saddle, but I am trying. Back in the scrapbooking saddle, that is.

I basically gave up scrapping over three years ago when I started blogging. Scrapbooking, although it is something that I love and goes hand in hand with my love of taking photos, is a very time-intensive endeavor for me. I’m not very creative and not very good at choosing and mixing mixing colors, papers, embellishments, etc. I think my problem lies in the fact that I have too many supplies, too much paper, too many choices. I’m not very decisive when I’ve literally got hundreds of options to wade through. But, I am trying. I went through a lot of my paper and stuff, and weeded some of it out and gave it to my mother-in-law for her and her sisters to use in their scrapping. I threw out some really old stuff, and have moved some of my less-than-favorite stuff to a different “pile”. That, at least, narrows down my choices. Or so I hope 🙂

I actually chose something really difficult for me to start back scrapping with. Tim sort of understood when I explained it to him. The layout I was trying to work on when I quit three years ago was the one of my mom on her last Christmas. I just didn’t feel like I could do it justice, or do it “right”. I chose that one to start back with, which was probably not smart, but I thought if I could get past that one, I could probably get back to scrapping most anything. I decided to take the Nike approach, and just do it. Nothing fancy, nothing special, just simple and plain. And it is very plain, but it’s done.

Here’s an idea of how it turned out – my poor mom will probably turn over in her grave to know that these less-than-flattering photos of her are out here for all the world to see 🙂 She didn’t like having her photo taken on a good day, much less when she was sick and not at her best. You might not can see, but I did include it in the journaling – she never once looked at the camera when I was taking photos this Christmas morning. The one that turned out to be her last, and these are most of the last photos I have of her before she died.

Anyway, I hope I’m over the hump and can get back into my scrapping somewhat. I don’t have a lot of newer photos printed out, but I have tons of older ones. And goodness knows, I have enough supplies to do hundreds of pages. They are not the latest and greatest embellishments and paper. Most of them are 6-8 years old, although some of the newer stuff is 3-4 years old. I very wisely stopped buying scrapping supplies since I actually wasn’t doing any layouts. And I hope to continue that, although the urge to buy something “new” and “cute” is always with me. Sort of like that little voice that is always telling me to “eat some chocolate. Right Now!”

I just finished another scrapbook layout, the second one from Thanksgiving 2002. I started it on Friday afternoon, and it took me almost 2 hours to cut out these border strips. I like how that part turned out… not sure about the rest of it. I think I moved things around about 15 times before I finally glued stuff down. It is quite a hindrance to scrapbook when you are as indecisive as I am!

Anyhoo, here’s the finished product:

P.S. It looks better in person, the colors are a lot more vivid. Still plain, but hey – that’s my style!

Why am I such a dork? Why do I look at something and think “oh, that won’t take long” or “nothing to it”?

I’m working on a new scrapbook layout and trying to use up some of my older supplies. I have this sheet of Embossible Designs, except that they are printed on white cardstock. I think “huh, I’ll just trim the white off”. DUH, it’s taking me FOREVER. I’ve been at it thirty minutes already and look how little I have done.

Sigh, at this rate, it’s going to take me 2 hours just to trim these border strips. What a dork I am.

I finished this scrapbook layout tonight, one of two I’m going to do from Thanksgiving nearly three years ago. Yes, I’m perpetually behind. 😀 But then again, it wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t have a choice of what to scrap, huh!

This one is of everyone eating pumpkin and pecan pie after the big feast.

I got another scrapbook layout done, yeah for me! This finishes up my two layouts of our weekend getaway a couple of years ago to Dallas TX.

I won tickets off a local radio station to go to the Dixie Chicks concert over there (before they went to England and said nasty things about President Bush and the US). We flew over on my birthday (Oct 2002) and had a great weekend. The actual highlight of the trip for us was not the concert, but that afternoon: we spent several hours at the Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza, in downtown Dallas, just a few blocks from our hotel (Hyatt Regency at Reunion Towers). This is where President Kennedy was assassinated and there’s a great museum inside what was the Texas Book Depository. It covers the Kennedy’s lives (both JFK and Jackie) before his presidency, then all aspects of his presidency, then of course in depth of the assassination, including conspiracy theories, the Warren Commission and other areas. We learned a lot about that day, and about other things like the Cuban Missile Crisis and events that occurred during Kennedy’s stint in office. I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it, but of course – we are big history buffs!

Here’s the layout I just finished covering the museum (no pics allowed inside) and Dealey Plaza:

Oh, and the bottom right picture on the right hand page is of the street – there’s a big X on the road where he was shot.

I haven’t really scrapped at all in 2005. I’ve been busy with the Hambones website, and then in late January, I got interested in blogging. Did quite a bit of research on that and then got this blog going in early February. Between my newfound blogging addiction, reading, watching tv and movies, hanging out with Tim, etc etc etc, I haven’t really made any time to scrapbook.

I decided when we got back from our vacation to Washington DC that I would try to reform and get back on the scrapping bandwagon. I’ve had these lousy pictures laying on my scrap table since before the holidays last year (yes, they had a nice thick layer of dust on them!). Probably one reason I put off scrapping is because I didn’t have good pictures from this to work with. I do for the rest of this weekend getaway, but nothing much to work with all of my memorabilia. I’m glad to report that even though it’s not a great layout, it’s done! And I also have realized in the last 20 minutes that I have forgotten how to scan 12×12 layouts on my 8 1/2 x 11″ scanner! Sorry for the poor scan, I’ll have to work on that 🙂

Here it is, lame though it may be… going to work on the next Dallas layout, then switch to this year’s vacation to DC. … Hopefully!!

P.S. If you want to read the journaling, just let me know and I can post a close-up of that 🙂 (I won the trip off a radio station, to go to a Dixie Chicks concert, and the journaling is about our trip out and back, and the concert. )

It’s just the tip of the iceberg, but I’m feeling rather proud of myself this afternoon. I have been wanting to get started on cleaning out some stuff out of my scraproom (which also doubles as our computer room). This room is bulging at the seams, and most of it is my junk, so I really need to knuckle down and get started.

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