Waiting for Gracie

Meet the newest member of our family!

Gracie is a beagle puppy, born Monday, 7/14. She'll be ready to come home to us when she's 8 weeks old. In the meantime, our breeder has been wonderful enough to share photos. Which, as a scrapbooker, I seriously appreciate! :)

The patterned paper & small alphabet stickers on this layout are from Rose Moka Designs, the awesome July sponsor for the iTeam over at the International Scrapbooking Association. Thanks to Rose Moka for some amazing papers & stickers! I'll be sure to share more layouts with all of you next week! And I might be thinking of a giveaway....

California Backyard

I've been meaning to share this layout for awhile now! I had a lot of fun with it.

For a long time now, I've been wanting to create more layouts about my own childhood, particularly all of the places I lived growing up. Here's a layout celebrating my backyard in California, where we lived when I was 5.

This came together pretty quickly - these days I am all about just creating freely and without judgment - which means that a lot of my pages are coming together faster than ever before as well!

I originally created this for Celebrity Sketch Extravaganza week at Scrapbooker's Club House - thanks again for having me, ladies! :)

Hanging In There

So, I've been swamped with e-mails lately, wondering how I'm doing in the wake of all of the flooding out here in Iowa. I'm not really sure what to say. My husband & I are fine. We are safe, and our home was not hit by the floods. But it is not the case for so many others that we love, here in this town that we love.

Iowa City will never be the same. The University of Iowa, my alma mater, has several buildings still under water - some may be a total loss. Businesses & restaurants we love are gone. The restaurant where we had our rehearsal dinner before our wedding had 4-5 feet of water. And Reminisce, one of two beloved scrapbook stores in our area, is expected to be a total loss.

Here are some of my husband's photos from last week:

The good news is, after all, we're Iowans. Iowans care about their communities. We'll come together, and we'll rebuild. But it's going to take awhile. And it won't ever be the same. My worldview has been completely and totally altered. You just can't take things for granted.

A few weeks ago, our TV broke, and I was so annoyed and frustrated. Now, I couldn't feel more thankful that it's just a broken TV. I have so much to be thankful for, and so many blessings in my life. Watching our friends & our town go through this is life-changing. I just don't know how else to describe it.

Destruction & devastation are everywhere. Yet, in the midst of all of that, hope prevails.

****

For photos & more info about the current status of Reminisce, visit their blog.

Designs By Reminisce (the manufacturer) has released a paper & sticker commemorating the flood. All proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross. For more info, visit their website.

Hop On Over...

...to the Scrapbooker's Club House!  They've been hosting a Celebrity Sketch Extravaganza!  I'm proud to be today's featured artist.

See my exclusive sketch & layout by visiting the Extravaganza online here.

You'll also find great sketches from awesome celebrity artists like Angie Pedersen, Nic Howard, Brenda Pinnick, & more!

Leave me a comment here if you stop by....there just might be a free treat for one special commenter!  :)

In Our House...

being silly rocks.

Blog Scrapbooking

So often, I use my blog to share projects & scrapbooking ideas.  Sometimes I forget that while blogs are great for that, they are also designed to share life.  Feelings.  Events.  Moments.  In an unscripted, informal, instantaneous way.  I love that.  Some of my favorite posts have been simply to share ideas & photographs.  Sometimes the project just isn't there yet, and I'm caught in a moment that simply strikes me.  Scrapbooking is, after all, about recording life.  I think that in the same way, a blog can become another tool to do just that.  A virtual scrapbook of sorts.

When I started my blog, it occurred to me that certain posts might evolve into scrapbook pages or albums.  I've happily converted two favorite posts recently, and thought I'd share the results.

This layout was based on a post from October '07 about my visit to the Martin Luther King, Jr, historical site in Georgia.  The original post can be found here - I used my original text for the page journaling.

This layout was based on a post from just this past March.  Once again, I used the journaling text right from my blog with a few small changes.  The original post can be found here.  The supplies for this layout were all part of the April 2008 from Little Daisy Scrapbooking, generously shared with me as a design team member for the ISA - I'll be sure to share my other layouts with you soon!  And perhaps another giveaway....you never know!  :)

When It All Comes Together

I love that feeling. When you're working on a scrapbook page and everything just feels right. Your photos, your journaling, your design. It's funny, because I think when this happens, layouts come together faster than ever. I've had this happen a few times lately, but never as much so as this past Wednesday night.

I could not possibly love this layout any more - it's probably one of my new favorite layouts EVER.  It's not my typical colors, and it's fairly simple.  But how I love these photographs.  How I love this journaling.  The top photo is my dad at age 2, the bottom is me at age 2.  I love putting together photos from different times in our history and making the connections.

Love, love it when it all just comes together.

PS - All supplies for this layout except the alphabet rub-ons came from my May 2008 "Blueberry Smoothie" kit given to me by Create My Keepsake to design for the ISA.  Thanks for a great kit!

Scrapbooking tunes: Chely Wright