Re-Scrapping....

 

So, like many of you I starting scrapbooking in the 80's...long before it was called scrapbooking and when I used colored construction paper and yes...the magnetic pages! I know YIKES! But I have evolved as scrapbooking has...however I go back to my days of old circa 1984 and I am mortified by by pages! But worse than my pages from college is the book that I did for my oldest son that is now 20...the horror REALLY!

So now that I have my scrapbook room and I am organized and ready to go I went and pulled out Austins book and I am RE-Scrapping it! Silly huh? How many times have you done this though? I look at some of my layouts and I crack up how really bad they are- I am no Heidi Swapp and believe me if I would have left one of my books at the store it would have ended up in the "round file"! But here I am 20 years later with my son gone on his mission and I am Re-scrapping his life! And I have to say that I love it! I love looking at all of his cuteness and remembering him through the years! It is amazing how much you forget the bigger they get!

So one of the things that I have done is made pockets for each grade to stick certificates and what not into. This is the remake of Austin's 5th grade pocket...forgive the photo it is from my blackberry...so the quality is a tad weak! But you get the gist...The one thing that I do to make the pages stronger is using cardboard under the entire layout to give it strength and double sided foam tape to make the pockets a little bit bigger. Through trial and error I have found this way to be a little more durable.

Well I have to say that I am finally back in the groove and it feels good! I am working on several layouts at a time and cutting away as well! I think that my wishblade has been a little lonely! But I am happy to say that I am back!

Hope that you had a great 4th of July!

The newest toy..the Yudo!

So I bought the Yudo...I know crazy! But I have to tell you that it is very fun...and I haven't even scratched the surface of the fun things that I can do with this thing!

OK...I will admit I have ruined about 10 t-shirts...but now I have the hang of it!
Luckily for me my sister was in town and her MIL does real silk screening for a living...so she gave me some helpful tips(that I really needed!) I will say that getting the emulsion sheets on was a challenge for me but finally...success!

For Claire's birthday party I made shirts that the girls could decorate. It was a lot of fun for the girls and it only took me an hour to clean the scrap dungeon. I had made the shirts fro night shirts but the girls all wore them to school...which I thought was pretty funny.

So memorial day week-end is upon us and I am ready for a fun 3 day weekend!

Have a great one!

W-

The return of the Scrap dungeon...no more!

Well, the basement is finished and for those of you that may visit my very neglected blog you will be happy for me that I have once again have access to my scrapping supplies! It was painful to pack up the dungeon and even more painful to try and get to them while the basement was being finished. But TA-DA! I made numerous trips to IKEA and although I am not completely done at least I am done enough that everything is back to where I can get to it. As you will see that my walls are pretty barren and I do not have a desk yet...but I am very picky and I haven't found one that I like...or let me re-phrase that...I haven't found one that is under 500 that I like. I am so excited to be able to get all of my stuff out and start scrapping again and cutting and creating!

Initially I was going to make this a toy room for Deacon but Greg convinced me that I should make it a scrap/craft room, I think that the sight of all of my scrapping supplies that I had "organized" back into the closet was driving him crazy! That and the fact that I had completely stopped scrapping because it was just to big of a pain in the rear to get anything out. Now before you feel to bad for Deacon we do have a toy room upstairs and he refuses to go up there and play...all of his toys are in the family room. Now that the basement is done he won't come down here unless someone is down here so it was wise not to make another toy room...I would then have 2 rooms that he wouldn't play in.

This has been a crazy year and although I usually bounce back quickly from personal tragedies...and like everyone I have had some doozies! I have really struggled with the death of my sister. There are son many emotions that you feel when there is a death in a family and I think that I am finally at acceptance. When my mother passed away 7 years ago I was so busy trying to get everything in order and keep my fragile family together that I really did not give myself time to grieve...and I think that with the death of my sister that all of the feelings that I had boxed up and put on the shelf were unpacked and laid out on the floor again...like a really unhappy Christmas. But it has been 2 months now and I have been trying to get my "head back in the game."

So I am excited to get creative again! It was fun to get everything out and get it organized. I will tell you that I was really digging IKEA- I was able to get everything that I wanted so that the furniture is the laid out the way that I wanted it...and I put it all together myself! I am now an expert furniture builder!

So I am back and ready to create and share!!!

W-

Keeping Life in perspective....

Enjoy-

W-

Why do I love these People?

Well, it is a dreary Monday...but I love Monday's because they are the start of the week and everything is new! I bought this book 2 weeks ago and I have to say that it is soooo good. I read Po Bronson's book "What should I do with my life" about 5 years ago and though that it was such a great book. What I love about Po Bronson is that he believes the same thing that I do...Everyone has a story! I think that people are fascinating! Have you ever met someone that didn't have an amazing story to tell. Sometimes you have to get through the part that they may not be really good story tellers...but after that...if you listen...really listen you will learn to appreciate and truly love everyone that you come in contact with! OK once in a while you may not REALLY love that person...but they probably have something that you can learn from. I loved this book because once again it proves that people are amazing and everyday ordinary people are far more interesting than any celebrity and what party they may be going to. We each have a story that is our own and we are lucky to be able to share with others and perhaps help them...or help ourselves by getting it off our chest!

So have a great Monday!

W-

Dealing with grief

So I know that I have been a very bad blogger...and really I do not know if it has been noticed. This is a picture of my sister that just passed away and her lovely husband who is a really amazing person. His family had to be some of the nicest people that I have ever met.

Grief is a strange beast...I have been dealing with it for a month now. It is amazing the people that come to your side and support you and the people that you think will be a big support and they somehow missed the memo. Two people that really helped me a lot were actually 2 old college roommates, oddly enough the person that I felt the most compassion from doesn't even have a sister. Both of these women are close to my heart for many reasons! First Robyn, my college roommate from my first year at Ricks. We actually we to HS together and I always thought that she was one of the funniest cutest girls that I knew. I always wanted to be her friend...and got to know her my senior year. But even better than that we ended up being roommates our first year at college. I am sure that she was not as excited as I was when we found out...but I could not have been more excited (almost fan like) I loved being her roommate! She was funny and she and I had a lot in common. She taught me a lot and even took pity on me and let me borrow her fab clothes! She created the the clothes horse that I have become. I learned a lot from her that year...I like to think that she helped me be a better person. I am sure that she would kill me if she knew I was blogging about her. She has turned into this really amazing lady that I am proud to say is a friend.

The other person that really helped me is my friend Amy- she to is a really amazing person. We did not really know each other but knew that we both needed a cheaper place to live our 2nd year. We found these groovy apartments and decided to live together. We had so much fun! We too were kindred spirits and she really helped me with my parents divorce and dealing with plain craziness. What I loved about Amy is that she never judged me- she just loved me for who I was. She is one of the most beautiful and talented people that I have ever met and through all of her trials she remains steadfast in her beliefs and keeps going! I admire her for that! She too would kill me for blogging about her.

Kind neighbors that have brought me cards, flowers and hugs. As well as my employees and bosses that have sent flowers and kind words. I thank all of them and let them know that all of that makes a difference! Saying I am sorry you are sad means more than silence... I am again reminded how important it is to reach out to others when they are troubled and/or grieving, and what a difference it really makes.

So I thank both of these amazing women, that I love and admire for their support and concern for me, my husband and my children. Although I feel much better...I will say that my heart is heavy and a little bit of me is lost. Grief is a crazy beast...just when you think that you have put it in the box and you are putting it up on the shelf the lid falls off. So you pull it out and try it on again just to see if it still fits and it does...unfortunately. So you wear it for a couple of days and finally ready to try and put in the box again.

But thankfully each day it gets a little better...I can talk to my sister Deb and not cry. She too has been a big help...although she is just a broken hearted as I am.

Well the scrapbook dungeon is completely redone and I will post a picture. It has taken me 2 weeks of assembling IKEA furniture and moving everything back in. I am ready to start posting cuts and layouts! I am excited to have my own space again!

Thanks for checking back and I will be posting this week!

W-

The Loss of a Sister

One of the greatest things that my parents ever did for me is give me a sister when I was 21 months old. I do not have very many memories from my childhood that she isn't the main character...especially the ones that included us getting in trouble.

My family was one of those that to outsiders may have seemed perfect, but it was far from perfect as those families rarely are. But my sister was always there for me and we protected each other as much as possible, which was hard at time when it seems that it really is "everyman for himself."

I remember when we were 5 and 7 and we got into trouble and we knew that we were going to get whipped and Dawn thought it would help if we put on as many pairs of underwear as possible. It did not help very much but she tried to comfort me after by telling me that at least we had all those underwear to put on...

We would always sneak food to each other when we were sent to bed...which was not easy to do so we decided to hide Cheerios under my mattress so that we had something to eat...it was our secret.

We moved to Utah when I was in 3rd grade and Dawn was in 1st grade. We were so sad to have to leave the desert of California. We moved there in February when it was freezing cold. We went to different schools because Forbes Elementary was full so Dawn went to Shelly Elementary. I was so miserable, the children were incredibly mean and every day I would find comfort in knowing that Dawn would meet me at home and listen to how Allison Evans had gotten me in trouble or Todd Moody had put the biggest green booger in the history of green boogers in my hair. She would always make me feel better. The next year I transferred to Shelly and even though it was a mile away we walked to school every day together and we loved it! Some of our best times were walking to school togeather running on top of the cemetery wall.

When we were in 3rd and 5Th grade Dawn talked me into trying out for little league baseball- this was in 1975 and girls did not play with the boys. We were the only girls that tried out. My sister was an amazing athlete and she could play better than most of the boys. A minor league coach took pity on us and drafted us, I am sure that I was included only because I was her sister. I was made the team Princess and I was mortified. Being the Princess I had to raise money to win the queen...Dawn walked all over the town with me to ask for donations. She knew that I was embarrassed and scared and she supported me every step of the way and encouraged me.

Dawn was always my biggest cheerleader and I for her. Everyone loved her, I admired her carefree spirit and her laugh. She could make everything seem like an adventure and I would have followed her anywhere. We were very different, I always worried about obeying the rules and she did not, I always worried about what people thought of me and she did not. She was so smart and talented, what ever she tried she was great at it, cooking, baking, sewing, crafts, sports...she could do it all.

However amazing she was and we thought that she was she battled her own demons. She has been battling alcoholism for the last 20 years. It was very hard on us because we could not help her. We loved her and wanted the best for her but it is really hard to help someone that doesn't want help, and she didn't.

The last time that we were all together was 7 years ago when my mother passed. Funerals are not fun and my siblings and I have a terrible habit of laughing through stress and cracking very bad jokes...I have to say that although we gathered for a really awful event we had an amazing time together. We laughed until we cried and told stories and laughed some more.

This amazing person passed away last Tuesday and yesterday was her funeral.
As we sat in the church and listened to how amazing our sister was..which we already knew. I was struck by overwhelming grief. It is hard to bury a sibling...at a time that seems like life is just really beginning. So many things to look forward to and enjoy.

She passed suddenly of a heart problem that was a unknown condition. She was only 41...she left 6 of the most beautiful children that you have ever seen. It truly was one of the worst days in my life. I am really struggling with her death for many reasons, which I am sure that any of you that have lost a sibling can understand. It really is awful...that is the only word that I can describe it.

So I find comfort in family and friends and know that in time my heart will heal and I have a new responsiblity of making sure that her children have the love and support that they will need in these trying days and weeks ahead.

W-