Where it all began

I was so happy that Dominic wanted to go to the Mall of America for his birthday. Some pivotal moments of my life have been at that mall, and I've been there to witness pivotal moments in its history.

First, I was there the day it opened. No lie. I went with my mom, my aunt, and my uncle, and we ate at a German restaurant, which later became a rodeo type place, which is now the American Girls store.

After college, I took a job at a bookstore called Readwell's, which was located at the now-Hollister store. One day, I went into the bowels of the building with assistant manager Mike to get some more stock. In the bowels, I saw a lot of big construction and asked what it was. He said, "Oh, that'll be the aquarium." I laughed, then realized he was telling the truth! Underwater World, now Sea Life, is still a part of the Mall.

I was there for many famous people. I remember seeing Alex Trebek getting his pictures taken at Lens Crafters (might have been another glasses store) and Arnold Schwarzenneggar (sp?) came to film  Jingle All the Way. He's surprisingly short.

Most importantly, I met my husband there. He too worked at Readwell's and asked me out the day they announced the store would close. Every year since, we've gone back on Black Friday. Prompted by Twelve, I put this family story on this layout:

 

I took the photo by the silver tree in the Rotunda on Black Friday last year. I thought to hang circles of patterned paper like ornaments, but then thought I'd put them together in a big circular mat. This was a nice change for me, since I tend to use big square mats. (Note: I used Studio Calico's January kit Country Fair for this, as well as some add-on kits from that month.)

  

Here's the title detail. I liked how it turned out. Note: the heart had no color, but I added some with Smooch paint.

To add definition to the word paper, I inked the edges. And to add definition to the stamped circles, I chalked the insides and lightly outlined them with pen. Next time I use orange embossing powder, LOL!

 

Just because I could, I stitched circles too. And that stamped circle was fun to make. The circle were perfect, so I stamped it, then punched the inside hole, then punched the stamped image. I adhered it with dimensional stickers. Again, I smooched the heart. As it should be.

Happy Birthday, Dominic

Dominic had been in a little funk lately, asking why kids have it so hard, why do they have to go to school for so long? He suggested they only go for half a year, and he wasn't happy when I pointed out that he does: 365 days a year, 180 day school calendar. To help, I told him sometimes the hard stuff is worth it in the end. Case in point: It took 7 hours to give birth to him, and it was worth it. That made him smile.

Today Dominic turned 8. We spent the morning at the Mall at Lego club, Nickelodeon Universe, and The Rainforest Cafe:

 

  

Then later for dinner, we ate a fave, cheese pizza, had cake, then opened presents.

Right now he is utterly happy, juiced from chocolate cake, his favorite, and very excited about not needing a booster seat anymore. Another example of the hard stuff (getting ready for the day) being worth it in the end. That may be my six word memoir: It's worth it in the end.

Sky Climbers

This past week I was asked to do the sketch at Studio Calico. I was thrilled, especially because the designer of the original LOs, Kelly Noel, is one of my favorites. I decided to do a two-page LO to preserve the white space when I used three 4x4 photos. Here's what I did:

If you look at the right side, that's the sketch. I pulled the left hand elements over more and mimicked the right strips onto the left side to create this LO.

Here's close ups of the two sides:

 

 

  

And the details:

  

I love clusters of details.

  

I also liked the confetti on the original sketch. I made punches with small  circle punches and cross-stitched a few down. I also added bling. And if you look closely, you can see where I used a Crafter's Workshop chicken wire misting mask.

  

 Here's where I finished up the confetti. I made  it go up, like my boys.

Thanks for looking at my LO! Be sure to go over to Studio Calico and enter the challenge around this sketch!

Floral foreshadowing

This has been a pretty bleak winter. Almost no snow, so we haven't been able to go sledding. Plenty of jogging, but that's not what my boys want. As Dominic said, "It we can't have winter, it might as well be spring."

So to honor my dude's wishes, here's a little bit of spring/summer, using this week's sketch from Sketch Support:

 

I kept the design very similar, only switching around some of the papers, and that was by mistake. I'm glad I did, though, because it highlighted that gorgeous Studio Calico paper from the Memoir collection called, fittingly, Flower Bed.

 

To highlight the paper even more, I trimmed centers from the flowers I didn't use and added them with dimensional stickers. I also cut out a few flowers to make dimensional (and cheap!) embellishments.

 

Here I also stitched some stems. It was tough to pick a color, since the background was green. I went with yellow, my favorite color.

Enjoy these warm photos, especially if you're with me in Minnesota; the next week looks to be pretty chilly! Still no snow, though. Phooey.

Pages I do every year

Sometimes I scrap the exact same pages every year. There: I said it. Sometimes I even do the same journaling or the same design too. Why change it? If I like it, and the ritual pleases me, why not?

Here's one thing I do every year: my page of my favorite photos:

 

I started doing this layout after an inspiring blog post by Stacy Julian; she suggested we spend 15 minutes not thinking too much, scrolling through the photos of the previous year, selecting our favorites, and putting them on a LO. I used this template designed by Barb Wong. I've done this for the past three years. It's awesome. This is the first page in my Project 12 albums.

Sometimes I think we put too much pressure on ourselves. We think if something is done the same as what we've done before, we're being unoriginal. I quarrel with that. We're creating, and one thing that creators do involves repetition, especially repeated style. Why reinvent the wheel? When we see a particular design of ad, for example, we know the company that produces it. That's good. So if my family sees the same design in every vacation album, that's OK; it signals the familiar, which is comforting. 

It's OK if we repeat ourselves, especially if we love it. If you love it, do it again!

Here's some of the pages I do every year:

1. Birthdays (of course)
2. 5 Vacation Favorites (a mini album I do every year after vacation)
3. Thankful (a Thanksgiving LO)
4. A year-in-review page
5. Getting off the school bus (my first day of school page)
6. Catch (this is a big thing with my husband and the boys)
7. Black Friday (We go to the Mall of America. It's a big thing.)
8. Vacation album (I use the same design every year)
9. A 2-page Christmas/December spread
10. Jedi Eggs (Easter dyeing)
11. Christmas card photo spread
12. Easter family photo

There's others I tend to do, but these I embrace and do every year, without fail, and without shame of copying myself, even if the design or journaling or title is the same.

What pages do you do every year?