Less mobility = more crafting

I've been doing a lot of crafting (and tv watching) since getting around with a bum foot kind of limits activity. These are just a few scrapbook pages I've done in the last several days.
The Bowen family at our hideaway last fall.

I took a class with Erin at PMP a few weeks ago using the My Little Shoebox scrapbook line, a local Bay Area company. The photos are from the Yuen's Christmas cookie party last year.

This one and the next one are photos from last year.

The littlest nephew at Camp Retz 2007.

After Thanksgiving last year, we went to the city with the fam. Here's a little endearing moment I captured of Jimmy and middle child nephew.

hummingbird in my backyard.

This is another layout I did in Erin's class.

The photo is from 4 years ago. Melani and her hubby now have 3 kids!

Totally love watching the Olympics while crafting, too. We were at the parentals last night celebrating Jimmy's birthday and it was a lot of fun cheering on Kerry Walsh (a local Bay Area athlete!) and Misty May-Treanor, Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson, and all of the other medalists. My SIL loves the Olympics, too, so we had fun watching together. Also, how can I resist the official mascots of the Beijing Olympics?How freaking adorable are they?
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Phin bot this butterfly punch several weeks ago and inspired by her fun artwork, I had to get it also! Of course, with my 50% off coupon. :)

These Are The Days

A few years ago I made this album in a class at my then fav scrapbook store, which has since closed. I just finished it this morning, adding pictures from last summer when the family came up to the hideaway for a week. The words in the album are from Natalie Merchant - "These Are the Days".


















these are days you'll remember

never before and never since, I promise
will the whole world be warm as this
and as you feel it, you'll know it's true
that you are blessed and lucky
it's true, that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you

these are days you'll remember

when May is rushing over you with desire
to be part of the miracles you see in every hour
you'll know it's true, that you are blessed and lucky
it's true, that you are touched by something
that will grow and bloom in you

these are the days
that you might fill with laughter
until you break

these days you might feel a shaft of light
make its way across your face
and when you do
you'll know how it was meant to be
see the signs and know their meaning

you'll know how it was meant to be
hear the signs and
know they're speaking to you
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Growth

Went to a crop at Picture Me Perfect last night with Phin and we worked on this very fun album. The album was a kit by Nichole King who taught the class at PMP in May. It was so cute, I had to put photos in it immediately!










This is my 700th post! Wow, I can't believe it!
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Now that's just silly

Here are a couple of scrapbook pages I worked on last week:
The family at the cabin this summer.

These pics are of the nephews when we were at Disneyland last fall.
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Fremont - my new favorite city

I think got the attention of my cousin. :)
I'm being a little sarcastic, but I spent all day Saturday in Fremont and loved it!

I found my new favorite scrapbook store. My old favorite scrapbook store closed last November and the other ones nearby don't quite fulfill my scrapbooking needs. Now Fremont isn't right around the corner, it's a good 25 minutes away without traffic. Add traffic, and it could be a good 45+ minutes away. But I'll probably go to this new store more often than the store that's only 3 miles away from my house because the people in Fremont are freaking awesome. Friendly, enthusiastic and helpful. I haven't seen that kind of customer service in a long time - awesomeness. And they have great classes, too. Now, I've been scrapbooking for a very long time, but I still love taking classes for the social part of it. I like the atmosphere of a bunch of creative souls gathered together. And lots of times, I just can't find the inspiration on my own so taking these classes also motivate me to do more on my own. It was even cooler that the group of ladies in this class were so friendly and talked to each other and shared supplies.

So, this is what we made in class today. It's a gatefold minibook. Cute, yea? (doris, we used the crop-a-dile!) I've already signed up for another class on Thursday.

During class, one of the ladies mentioned the new huge Joann's on Auto Mall Parkway. I decided to check it out on my way home. It's Texas sized, people. In that same shopping center, there's a new Lowe's, Costco, 2 Starbucks, lots of other shopping, and most important for the husband, a Chipotle Mexican Grill. Hurray! As long as I bring the boy food, he never complains about my scrapbooking adventures.

Last night's crafting project

"Boo" is a nickname for Monica's son. I didn't intend for the layout to say "Boo Monica", that'd be kinda odd, right? Originally, I had an "&" between the two names but it turned out horribly wonky so I covered it with the journaling.

Addicted to Mini Albums

Took a class on Saturday with my friend Kristina and made this cute little mini album.

Project of the day

Six Years Ago

Success.

Saturday home alone, events as planned. :)

I'm happy to report that the tv works. Hurray. I'm hesitant to admit that it was merely dead batteries. Yes, I am a loser. But to my defense, the remote acted like it was working - the screen was on and the transmission signal was going "whaa-laa-laa" because that's the noise it makes if you had extra sonaristic hearing. Which I do. So I recharged the suckers and the remote worked like new.

Well, I didn't spend any time watching the glowing tube on Friday because I went to Tracy with Doris for a class with Ali Edwards. We made these cute "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Always" mini books.The enameled covers were made by putting a flower mask over the cover, covering it with embossing ink, removing the mask, pouring ultra thick embossing powder over the entire thing, then melting the powder with a heat gun till it glazes.

This is the inside of the book.
Lot's of fun!

I didn't get home till 11 so really didn't watch tv. My poor kitty wasn't feeling very well, so I spent the rest of my waking hours comforting her and making sure she was ok. I did wake up once in the middle of the night in a panic because she wasn't in the room with me (unusual) but I found her asleep on my desk. She's totally acting normal today so maybe she just ate a bad bug or something.

I decided to do a few errands before plopping in front of the 36" for the rest of the day. Went to Michaels to get some artwork framed.I spent over 1/2 hour there deciding on mat color and frame. The guy helping me was actually quite helpful. It's hit or miss sometimes at Michaels. It'll be done in about 3 weeks.

When I got home, there were packages for me! Ok, there was one for Jimmy, too, but he's not here, so no point getting excited about a box I can't open, right?The top package is a cool tshirt from my SIL in NY from Magnolia Bakery. It says "Cupcakes Make People Happy". Love it! I can't wait to visit her and get cupcakes from here. The 2nd package is from my girl Danielle and has some fun pamper-me stuff in it.

After opening my packages, I soaked some beans to make ham and bean soup then skillfully plopped on the couch for marathon Joan of Arcadia viewing.

Elsie Challenge #3: Ribbon Border

I need to get that book so I can follow along and play with Phin. Get inspired by Elsie's style, which is completely opposite from mine, but I admire her technique a lot.

I've been in a creative slump lately. No crafting, no scrapbooking, no writing, not even any photography. But I spent the afternoon with Phin and another one of our mutal friends, Mary and her friend Chandi. We sat around Mary's living room and made jewelry and chatted by the fire. It was a lot of fun working with my hands again and being in a room with very creative women. I'm feeling inspired. Chandi had purchased a necklace that Mary wanted to reproduce and Phin and I were along for the ride. Both Mary and Phin made necklaces. Phin finished hers and it turned out awesome! Mary still had to finish another strand by the time we had to leave. I didn't account for enough thread to make a necklace, so mine ended up being a bracelet. It still turned out pretty cool. Love the randomness of it and the various textures with the glass, ceramic, stone and wooden beads and shell buttons.

Phin's also been challenging me to get my crafty back on by motivating me with specific weekly challenges from a book I gave her for Christmas. Week #2 was something about B&W photography. I sort of cheated, but I finished this page Friday night:
I cheated because aside from figuring out what photos to put on this, the layout was finished. It had been sitting on my desk for about 3 months.

The next challenge is to create a ribbon border. Phin - I actually have an idea brewing in my head. Let's see if I can actually execute it now.