Scrapbooking for a purpose

Sometime this winter my younger son came to me in despair. He said he needed a hobby, and told me he didn't have one. I talked with him about my hobbies, then asked every family member what their hobbies were, and then I asked my youngest again. at this point he had realized that he DID have hobbies, and came up with a list. After our conversation, I wrote them down, and this month I scrapped our hobbies. Here's the page:

(I swear my husband's whole name actually does appear on the right!)

I picked old photos I had lying around that showed us doing what we loved: Rowan creating, Dominic reading, Derick running, and me at a baseball game getting a photo to scrapbook. I pulled products from a couple older Studio Calico kits to make this page. The kit had a TON of number rub-ons, which was actually perfect for this page. Here's some details:

I don't normally journal along the side, but I didn't want to fill the white space in the middle, so I used the sides to add our hobbies.

The trail of sequins and stars was a little random for me, but I liked it, so I did it. I think it adds a bit of movement to the page.

I love yellow. and layering. And sewing. That is all.

Thank you for checking out my page! Have you scrapped your family's hobbies right now? If not, record them--hobbies change, and this snapshot will be a treasure in the future.

Family rituals

 One topic I have been scrapping about with the class Twelve is ritual. There are formal rituals--weddings, baptisms, graduation, etc.--and informal rituals. I have a certain bedtime routine that is almost ritualistic. Same with my morning coffee. And the dog walk or jog when I get home.

One family ritual I scrapped recently is the family walk. Every Thanksgiving we follow the meal with a walk. Since last fall, when we quit the gym and lost the regular family swims on the weekend, we have been going for family jogs or walks most weekend. With this past charmed winter, we were able to do that even in the middle of January.

 

  

  

This walk I brought my camera. Rowan didn't want to go, but once we got to the lake, I took the boys down to look at the ice, and Rowan was so fascinated he forgot to be upset. Later, he found a big stick a la Gandalf, and that really cheered him up.

When we walked by Elm Creek, we started looking for bobber trees, trees riddled with bobbers that people snagged when they had been casting for fish a little too close to the woods.That was a mini treasure hunt.

To scrap this page, I used this week's sketch from Sketch Support. I kept pretty close to the sketch. Since it was a January walk, I picked subdued colors. Since this winter was basically snowless, I picked yellow as the dominant color, the color of the straw fields we walked by.

 

 

I added snowflakes to suggest winter, plus some flourish stitches for movement. I painted the flakes yellow to suggest warmth, and I added bits of woodgrain stamps to the flakes to dirty them up a bit.

What's one family ritual you should scrap?

Merry Christmas

We are blessed to have my father-in-law visiting us this Christmas. So on Christmas Eve, we are ready to count the holiday blessings:

1. Dinner last night with my husband's cousin, his wife and children, and her parents
2. Safe passage to the Mall of America this morning (we passed 4 accidents after our latest snowstorm)
3. A wonderful family luncheon at our favorite restaurant, Three Squares
   
4. Completed shopping and almost completed wrapping
   
5. Cookie fixins ready to be baked (if small hands don't sneak all the M and M's first)
6. Christmas ham ready to be baked
7. Norad Santa ready for viewing
8. Christmas Eve services ready to be attended and sung at (and with luck, a holiday photo ready for taking in front of the big tree there)
9. Christmas breakfast in the fridge ready for baking
10. A warm house, enough food, loving family and friends, safe lives, jobs, good memories, and the love of Christ.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The end of a busy week

Boy, I thought last weekend was packed. This week I had about 10 hours of meetings after school, then the boys' activities (taekwondo and violin), then dinner with the family at Gasthof's) and then dinner and a play at the Guthrie. Busy good, I guess, but I am looking forward to slowing down.

I did piece together a little scrapping. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you do it in 5 minutes here, ten minutes there, etc.

This LO I started this summer, when I found several 4 generation photos from across the years. (I was cleaning out doubles from my photos storage.) These spoke to me--look at how big Dominic has gotten! Look at how terrific my grandmother looks!--so I put them together on one LO. I used Studio Calico's Back 40 for this.

The hand stitching was a last touch. With a template, it didn't take long. The key to hand-stitching is not placing the holes too close together. Plus pre-punching the holes before stitching.

Full fall weekend

October is a full month for our family: a visit from my parents, visit to my grandmother, a mini-vacation with my husband over MEA weekend, and Rowan's B-day, not to mention Halloween. This first weekend was a busy start to the busy month.

First we drove up to Two Harbors to visit my grandmother. The weather people have been saying we've had ripe weather conditions for a colorful fall, and they did not disappoint. I cannot recall the colors being more beautiful:


We always stop at the rest stop right when we get to Duluth to let me take pictures. What gorgeous weather. We also like going outside in the woods when we get to Two Harbors. My aunt has a lovely property, as you can see:



I didn't mess with the saturation on these photos; it really was that stunning! The last photo, BTW, is my new favorite. Something poignant about it. I think I shall enlarge it to take up a full page when I scrap our visit.

We also took our traditional four generation shot.


If over 3/4 of us are looking at the camera, job well done.

Today we went to the Renaissance Festival. Had to take a new route because of flooding; we could see the floods from the highway as we drove down. Egads.

We only managed a few hours at the fair; nice food, fun, and swordplay:

Note to self: Next year the last thing we do is go on rides. Once the boys did it right away this year, they were ready to go.

In honor of Ella publishing, I took the boys on an elephant ride:

Here's to fall and making beautiful new memories.

Back

We just got back from Idaho from Phebe's memorial service. It was wonderful to meet people that for years I've only known through Christmas photos. The boys loved seeing their cousins most of all:

They spent a memorable time playing with them, both at Grandpa L's house and after the memorial service. Incredibly, everyone's clothes ended up OK.

Grandpa L's house served as a central location for visiting. I know Phebe must have been smiling at the good times we all had there.

It's been 6 months since we had to put Roswell down, so it was a treat for the boys to have not one but two affable dogs in the house. Here they are, hitting up Grandpa L for food:


He must be an easy mark. I think he shares.

We also enjoyed walking through extremely tall, wet grass in the morning with the dogs. Here's Dominic with Aunt Mel:


And this is Rowan with Grandpa L and Aunt Mel:


Isn't that a gorgeous scene? Basically next door to where Grandpa L lives.

The boys continued their problems sleeping anywhere but in their own beds:

An air mattress was a good idea; being so close to the floor they can't get hurt falling out!

As soon as we got back, Dominic lost a tooth and put it in his pillow last night. He got up, though, and showed me another tooth he'd pulled out. I told him to put it in his pillow too. Soon after he came back with another tooth out! He lost three teeth yesterday, including his two front teeth, scoring six gold dollar coins from the tooth fairy last night. Amazing.

We're looking forward to baseball and fireworks this weekend, and I'm looking forward to the boys not killing each other after spending a lot of time together in a small space this past week.

Happy Birthday, Granny

Today is my Grandmother's birthday. I am lucky to have her as a part of my life. She has influenced me in many ways:

• Like Granny, I do needlecrafts, in particular cross-stitching. That is only one of the needlecrafts she can do. Her talents here eclipse me.
• Like Granny, I garden. Though my borders and island beds impress my friends, those beds of mine pale next to hers; where she and my Grandpa lived for many years in Center City, she gardened an entire plot of land--acres, I think--across the street, in addition to her house gardens. And she cultivated house plants, for which I have somewhat of a black thumb.
• Though my friends think I can cook, and in particular bake, my Grandmother is a master chef. Some of my best recipes come from her. And every Christmas, she would send out tins of cookies, their varieties revealing just how many batches she had baked. And given away.
• My Grandmother is a voracious reader. I remember bringing books to her house when I visited her as I grew up, and she still reads, all kinds. I need to remember that, because when I get busy, what goes out the window? My reading. The book club I belong to has been sorely neglected this past year.

So as proud as I am of my accomplishments, I know that in part or whole they are there because I come from a family of amazing women. I look forward to visiting her again in the fall when my parents come out, and my boys look forward to visiting too, not least of which because she pushes them for rides in her walker.

Happy Birthday, Granny. I love you.