Thanksgiving Themes

As I look back at the pictures taken over the course of Thanksgiving weekend, I noticed a few themes:

iPad.  I got one from work a couple weeks ago to use for my job, but a big benefit of that was being able to download some apps on it for the kids. Came in handy on the long car ride, but also for a bit of bonding time and showing family members all the wonders of technology.  They showed Oliver a Mickey app, Great Grandpa got a kick out of watching Ian play Jake (there was a comment from Grandma about how she remembers dial phones being a big deal), and Aunt Stephanie added some of the apps we mentioned to her iPad, which the kids then had to watch Owen play.

 

 

Old Toys. I think it's kinda funny I follow something as new as the iPad up by telling about how much fun the kids had playing with toys Darrin and I played with as kids, or older yet, my aunts and uncles played with.  They found Darrin's old Nerf guns and had fun attacking everyone. Ian has become obsessed with my old Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins. They actually made the return trip home with us. Not to mention the Little People items the kids always play with at my parents' house.  As always, the first stop at my grandparents' house was the basement so Ian could retrieve the train my aunts and uncles played with- now held together with twist ties.  Most surprising to me was to find the Hot Wheels track all set up at Great Billie's. I remember lots of fun times playing with that as a kid, and tried so hard to find something like that for Ian when he was younger. They just don't make things like they used to.

Teasing. Mostly from Uncle Brian or Darrin, but even Great Grandpa got in on the action.

  

Epiphany

I was sitting at work, reviewing IEPs, and waiting for the clock to hit 4:15. All I could think about was picking up the kids and getting home to finish the scrapbook page I had laid out on my table. This wasn't the first time, nor the last time, I'd had those thoughts. And then it dawned on me- this must be what Moneik and Jennifer think of quilting.

I met both of them online back when I thought of myself as a quilter. I had found them through blogs and even had an online group for awhile.  But I never understood how they quilted so much- how they got so much done during the week.  It was like quilting was all they could think about.  I enjoyed it, but it was more the final product than the process I enjoyed.

I had dabbled in scrapbooking while I was quilting. Scrapbooking was frustrating, though. It didn't have a pattern like quilting and I wasn't happy with the composition of many of my pages. And then I got this, what I thought was a novel, idea, to take the pages I liked in magazines and create pages that looked like them. And it all took off from there. Quilting is still something I do, but more out of necessity and because I feel guilty for all my fabric, but what I really love, what I think about while at work and can't wait to for the kids to go to bed so I can, is sccrapbook.  

Club CK is part of the reason I love scrapping, too. The inspiration and support there inspires me to create more.  

Here's a few of my recent layouts:

Annaliese playing in Lake Michigan while vacationing at Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. The rocks around the pink are rocks I picked up while we were there.  Layout  was based on a sketch from Scrapbook Generation. Most of the papers and embellishments are Fancy Pants.  Created for a challenge to incorporate a unique border.

Last year for advent, we did an activity ever day. This layout documents all of them.  Can't believe I got 24 pictures to fit in an organized, cohesive manner on a layout.  Created for a challenge on traditions.

A page for our bike trip around Mackinac Island- an 8.2 miles ride. I scanned  the map from one of our brochures and blew it up.  Created for a challenge to use a number in your title.

Page for Annaliese's first Halloween. Such a cutie pie! Created for a challenge to incorporate vellum (bee's wings and journaling block.

One of our advent activities was a camp-out by the Christmas tree. Love the Christmas tree on this one, and how I used a grommet that I've had in my stash forever. Created for a challenge to do a layout based off an inspiration piece.  My inspiration piece had a large stitched heart.

I created this one for Thinking*Through*Design, to create a page with dimension.  The stitched leaves didn't turn out as I had hoped, but I love  the title area with leaves and buttons. Annaliese's first time playing in the leaves.

A Thought on Pre-Embellished Paper

There's a new thought up at Thinking*Through*Design, and this thought was a doozie for me.  I prefer to start with a clean canvas, not one that has embellished elements on it already.  For two days, I looked through pictures trying to find ones that went with the pre-embellished patterned paper I had.  Then I went and bought the Simple Stories Harvest Lane pack, thinking new paper would inspire, but I just continued to look through pictures.

Then I got a preview of the thought, and everything changed. I was trying to fit lots of pictures on the page, which after reading the thought, I learned isn't really a good idea.  Once I knew I was working with only one or two pictures, it was easy to find pictures that worked, especially when I found an inspiration layout.

The pictures and papers went on quickly, but after rereading the thought, I wanted to enhance the embellishments that came on the page. Stitching is one of the things I always think about using, so I stitched on the stems of the flowers and added buttons to the center.  This went from a page that I was cursing about in the beginning to a page I truly love.

Halloween Night

My little knight and princess had a great night. Ian was the perfect gentleman. Annaliese was so excited to get her piece of candy, she'd forget to say "Trick or Treat" and when she did, it was at the top of her lungs. She'd reach in, grab her piece, and turn around, not paying attention to if they even offered a second piece.  Then she'd say her thanks, Happy Halloween, and move on her way.  The funniest moment happened at one of the several houses that had a bowl sitting out so you could just help yourself. She took her piece, then said, "Thank you. Welcome." to just the bowl, as no one was around. It was hilarious! Before we headed out, we snapped some shots in the yard while we still had light, and they were quite hilarious, too. Annaliese is quite the ham.

Ian at his school's Halloween parade.

Sir Ian and Princess Annaliese

The house across the street that kept distracting the kids when I tried taking their picture out front.

There were several houses that were just too scary for Annaliese and her eyes were always covered.

That was a real person. I may have been the one to scream the loudest when he moved.

Another scary house on the street.

Different Weekends

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend we were out playing in the leaves, jackets on Saturday and no jackets on Sunday (we opened the back door and said, "Wow, it's hot out here!"). Highs were near 70 the whole weekend.  Fast-forward to this weekend; the kids have worn their winter coats for the first time this season, and we needed hot chocolate after working outside to clear the garden. 

She calls it her Santa Clause coat, and gets so excited to wear it.

Annaliese made a great leaf smasher in our lawn bags.

Winner and Weekend

Thanks to all of you who hopped through here for Amanda's number blog hop.  The random number generator came up with #9, which would be Devra (with Tulip Scrapper not counted).  So congrats, Devra, I'll have it in the mail sometime this week.

 We spent the weekend with my in-laws, sister-in-law, and nephew.  It rained overnight Friday, but held off until later Saturday to rain again, which gave us time to visit Bellevue Berry and Pumpkin Patch.  Our normal patch closed this season, so we headed to this one.  I think it was an overall hit, I mean, how could it not with a pirate ship there.  Plus, there were so many slides, I'm pretty sure the kids got tired of going down slides. And then there's always the wagon ride and picking out your pumpkin, which can't be beat.

Yep, they're cousins, not brothers.

Three Photos- Blog Hop

Welcome to my little spot in the blog world.  If you didn't arrive here from Becky's blog, please head to Amanda's blog to begin the hop.

When Amanda was looking for participants, I said, "Sure, I'll take any number." Turns out, I don't have a lot of pictures that lent themselves to a three-photo layout.

Also turns out not all layouts go as you envisioned. Neither are all layouts ones you love. This one didn't turn out as I originally envisioned, and I'm not entirely in love with it; very rarely do I scrap a picture that doesn't have a person in it, and I wonder if that's a reason I struggled in creating the layout. But the important thing is that I've scrapped the memory.

This layout is of the waterfalls we saw near Musining, MI.  My intent when we started that morning was to see as many of the falls and other sites on the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore as possible.  Well, that morning Annaliese fell on the trail and we had to take her back to the hotel and clean her up, which basically ate up the whole morning.  That, coupled with a 3 hour boat ride in the sun, meant we were too tired at the end of the day to drive/hike to see more than these.

I mounted one of the pictures on top of the brochure which describes how to get to the waterfalls in the area.  The page is designed in such a way that the brochure can be opened and descriptions read. 

To thank your for hopping on by, I'm putting together a bit of a prize-pack perfect for this time of year.  I've got a LYB chipboard haunted house album, and some Halloween papers (which will be bought this weekend at Archivers).  To enter in the drawing, simply leave a comment. I'll draw a winner on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by. Your next stop on the hop is with my great scrappy friend Devra, over at, "My Creative View".