Forever Lazy

Whenever talk of Christmas came up last year, Zeb made sure that his mom and I knew that he wanted a Forever Lazy.

I'm not sure how the obsession began, but it continues today. He was so surprised on Christmas day that he received it and now he wears it around the house all the time. He loves that thing!

For this page, I used the sketch from The Green Frog Studio.

The Walled Gardens

Here is another page from Ireland.

This stop was on the tour we took of Connemara. We visited the Walled Garden at Kylemore Abby. I think Zeb and I could have spent a lot of time here looking at all the different plants, flowers and landscaping detail, it was amazing...a beautiful place on a beautiful day.

I used the sketch from Elle's Studio for this page.

Pages Pages Pages

Part of what's helping me achieve my 2012 organizing goal is actually completing scrapbook pages that sit around in my craft room half finished. I spent all day Saturday finishing pages from Ireland.

For the last page I used the sketch from The Green Frog Studio.

A Page about Christmas

I used the Elle's Studio sketch for this one.

Filling up the stockings is so fun for me on Christmas morning. I sneak downstairs and hope nobody notices me while I play Santa.

cut and glue and...

At one point last week I had taken over three areas of the house for scrapbooking and sewing projects. I had a station on the floor in front of the TV. I was sprawled out all over the kitchen table and had taken over the floor in the office/craft room. So far, two of the spaces are still occupied, but I have given some thought today to consolidating my mess to one area. We shall see.
I've been getting a lot of pages completed from Ireland and that feels good since I am sure Christmas will provide ample opportunity for more picture to be taken and more scrapbook pages to be made. Until then, however, I am going to focus focus focus and see if the chapter on Ireland can close before December 25th.
For now, show and tell:

Simple Sunday, eight

On Wednesday, I walked into the living room and Zeb was singing to Peanut.

For this week's layout, I used Shimelle's sketch of the week.

Simple Sunday, seven

This week, my Simple Sunday page is about the great date Zeb and I had on Thursday afternoon.

I started with the Elle's Studio sketch this week and then modified it a lot.

I've been really into bright colors lately which I think has served me well. In the beginning of my scrapbooking journey, I was very matchy matchy. I couldn't add colors to the pages without them being represented in the pictures I was using. Now, I like to play around with a lot of colors and I think my pages are better because of it.

A Stop in Spiddal

I feel overwhelmed after a big event, like a vacation, or Christmas, when all I've been doing is taking pictures. After I come home there's the pressure of how to include it all in your scrapbook. Do you scrapbook all of it? Do you make one page for each day of vacation? So many questions!

So here I am, five months after arriving home from my trip to Ireland and I am still working on pages, trying to figure out what is important, what to include, what doesn't have to be in the scrapbook, etc.

Today I used the Elle's Studio sketch from this week, again (I'm obsessed) to document a stop during our Connemara bus tour. I thought this spot was perfectly Irish: a little cottage, ponies, a rock wall and green fields. Beautiful.

I Love to Scrapbook! There I said it.

The prompt over at The Creative Type for the month of November is "The best advice I have ever received...". When I saw this, one important conversation came to mind. I was talking about my upcoming weekend with a client of mine and I was bashfully telling her how I was going to be scrapbooking. I was embarrassed talking about scrapbooking, like always.

She said, "Life's too short."

She's right. Life is too short to constantly be embarrassed or afraid about who you are. Some of my hang ups with scrapbooking come from me thinking that people don't know what it is exactly, that they don't know it's this creative and inventive art. However, it doesn't matter what others think it is or isn't, what matters is that I love it.

A Simple Re-do

Let me start by saying that I wanted to do Simple Sunday because I have a hard time putting glue to paper. I can sit with a layout laid out for months and months before committing to the page completely. So Simple Sunday helps me to commit, to not think too long and get pages done. However, that doesn't mean that I don't want them to look great, because I do.

With yesterday's Simple Sunday I was feeling a bit underwhelmed. I thought the color palette was drab. I couldn't figure out how to spice it up. I didn't like the picture. I loved the story, but wasn't allowing that to be visible.

So, I tweaked it a bit. I printed a new photo in black and white this time, added some color, and I like it a lot better: a page I can be proud of.

Simple Sunday, six

This week I was thinking about making Simple Sunday be a page about the Paul Simon concert and then I reminded myself that the point of Simple Sunday was to document the little things in life. So Paul Simon will definitely get a page, just not on a Sunday.

For today's Simple Sunday I used the sketch from Elle's Studio again. 

I tucked a journaling card behind the picture that reads:

On Friday I woke up too early. Zeb was still awake, of course, so I cuddled up with him on the couch and finished watching Insidious with him. After the movie, I got my morning started on the computer and he started watching This is Spinal Tap. In the course of about two minutes he went from laughing loudly to snoring loudly.

Do you have a memory from this week that you want to remember? 

The Pages of Christmas Past

Zeb's mom gave me a small 8x8 scrapbook that documents Christmas year after year and I finally finished the pages from 2009 and 2010 just this weekend. It took too long to do them, I know this, but since I work mostly with 12x12 pages, the 8x8 are a bit of a challenge.

I thought I would share all of the pages up to this point, 2006 to 2010.

It's fun to see the change in my scrapbooking style and the way Zeb and I have changed as well.

We'll start with 2006. This is the very first Christmas Zeb and I spent together, and also one of my first (if not the first) scrapbook page I ever made. So, you don't get to see the whole page.

In 2007 we had just moved into our new home and bought a Christmas tree to decorate before we even unpacked. Check out the newest addition to our family that year.

Next, 2008.

In 2009, we visited the Magic Tree in Columbia, Missouri. This is a sight to see: a tree decorated with a ton of lights. It's so beautiful and one of my favorite things to do on Christmas.
For this page I got some help from Elle's Studio sketch of the week.

We get to Columbia, Missouri on Christmas Eve Day and that's when we help his mom decorate her tree for Christmas. Decorating the tree means wearing the Santa hats. Every year.

My goal this year is to have my page for Christmas 2011 finished before Christmas 2012. Do you think it can happen?

Simple Sunday, five

This week I made a page about our Halloween.

I used this week's sketch from Elle's Studio. With that guide, this page came together quickly.

I love the story of this night.

Simple Sunday, four

Whoa. Look at all that brown. 

I thought Simple Sunday was not going to happen today. I had failed to record anything from the weekend even though I had quite a lot going on. I was also working on getting a couple other pages finished for a deadline.
So instead of stressing out about a self imposed deadline, I took some time out and did a little yard work today and it was so nice. It's definitely energizing for me to work outside and be in the sun. Dare I say I love yard work? Well I do.

We acquired these landscaping rocks last weekend. On the way home from the park, Zeb saw a pile of rocks in front of someone's house with a sign marked 'free'. I was so excited because I had spent some time on Craigslist looking for landscaping rocks just like this. In this case, the price was right, so we loaded up the car and brought them home.

It was a fun little activity, digging though the pile like we were on a scavenger hunt, looking for the coolest rocks.

Today, I took the time to set them up in the backyard. I like what I created out there. We'll see how I feel come spring.

Happy Simple Sunday to you.
Link up in the comments about your Simple Sunday.

Simple Sunday, three

These were waiting for me on the coffee table when I got home from work last Friday. Zeb got them for me since I was named the Best Personal Trainer. They were quite the surprise. 

He's Totally Irish

I love this photo of Zeb. I also love that he wanted to get this Irish man's hat once we got to Ireland.
He does look pretty cute in it.

I'm involved in a monthly scrapbook page challenge with Zeb's mom and her friend. This month's challenge was 'Old School Scrapbooking". I only kind of know what that means since I wasn't scrapbooking then, but here is my submission for that challenge. It's simple (which I tend to like these days) and old school (I think).

Simple Sunday, two

This week's Simple Sunday draws inspiration from Shimelle again.
Her starting points are just what I need to throw together a quick layout about something that happens every single day.

Connemara, Ireland

Getting all the pictures scrapbooked from my trip to Ireland this summer has been a daunting task. I have a lot to do, and sometimes not a lot of inspiration.

I have been playing around with this photo for a long time, and finally came across this sketch from Elle's Studio and knew it was perfect for this photo.

I love this picture so much that I didn't want the layout to be too busy and take away from the photo.

Sometimes simplicity is best.

Simple Sunday, one

I'm starting a new feature here at This Time Around. It's called Simple Sunday.

My intention for this is to encourage you (and me) to make scrapbook pages of simple things, using a simple layout. One of my biggest handicaps with scrapbooking is that I can make a layout and look at it for months and months and months before I commit to it and glue anything down. This leaves stories untold and projects unfinished. 

With this feature I hope to print a picture and make a layout within the week.

The other aspect of Simple Sunday includes scrapbooking something simple. This is in an effort to notice the little things in life and make a note of them. Sure, scrapbooking vacations, birthdays, etc is fun and necessary, I do believe the little things deserve a layout too; a conversation, a lunch, a date night. 

So without further delay, here's my layout for this week's Simple Sunday. I used a starting point from Shimelle. 

I would love if you played along too. Link up in the comments!

The Ole Standby

We're not very good at cooking meals at home. It's true. We're just not. This past week was actually a good week for us as we made two meals and then had leftovers to eat the rest of the week. I was secretly very proud of us for doing this.

Usually, when we're hungry, it goes something like this:

Z: "Where do you want to eat?"

C: "I don't know. Where do you want to eat?"

Both: "Let's go to Chelly's!"

We say this in unison, it's true. Then we high five and go to Chelly's.

Chelly's is really fantastic. The chips and salsa are crispy and delicious, which is important to me, and the food is not all sloppy on your plate like some Mexican restaurants. It looks nice and tastes good.