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Friday FIVE for April 9

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Five RANDOM things from my life right now.

ONE.

Had the young women in my ward (from church) over last night to make fun little bookmarks. We spread out all over the ping pong table.

Did a little paper tearing and rolling (thanks Nic!) and created some little layered flowers too.

TWO.

Working on my keynote presentation for Donna Downey’s event and having SO MUCH FUN. Seriously love that I’ve cut back on my travel, so that I can really immerse myself in the few events I am doing. If you’re coming — leave me a comment and let me know! Note: I’m pretty sure you can still sign-up. Information and registration are available at donnadowney.com

THREE.

Dealing with lots of dry-wall dust in my house and tired of the tarps over my former deck door and kitchen window, but … having a delightful time dreaming of things to put on my cool shelf!

FOUR.

Love these photos that I took of Grandpa Gary, Trey and Taft working on our 1,000 piece puzzle. It took a couple of late nights, but the puzzle is done and I’m going to frame it. Happy memories for sure. The puzzle is Seattle, by Eric Dowdle (not related to my brother-n-law, Kevin Dowdle)

FIVE.

Got hooked on this quirky show over spring break. Clark was given season 3 for his birthday and we are now working our way through seasons 1 and 2.
I love psych.

Posted in Events, Family, Home, Scrapbooking | 30 Comments »

My Lucky List.

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

7 is a lucky number, so here are 7 very lucky things in my life.

image source.

ONE.

I’m so very lucky that I LOVE the color green. To find out if you really LOVE the color green, visit Flickr and search “green.”

TWO.

I’m so very lucky that I have children who put up with my shenanigans year after year.

Leprechaun Kisses
NOTE: If you missed my *sprinkle* this week, it’s NOT too late.
Leprechauns can KISS the people you love any day this week!

Green Eggs and Bacon (this is a first for me!)

NOTE: The younger you start the better. Addie had no problem whatsoever with green eggs.

THREE.

I’m so very lucky I live 2 minutes away from a Great Harvest bakery, where I can Irish Soda Bread to surprise my friends with.

FOUR.

I’m so very lucky I have friends that are coming to our annual corned beef and cabbage dinner tonight.

image from 2007

FIVE.

I’m so very lucky that I write a blog YOU read.
Thank you for taking a moment from your busy day to
connect with me!

I love hearing from blog readers, so, thank you especially for your comments and emails. Here’s a recent email from Andrea …

Stacy -
I just wanted to say you made my day yesterday… when I saw the comment you left on my blog!
I would be so honored to be one of your “creative women” – especially since you are mostly responsible for my “creativity rebirth” in the last year or so.
It may sound silly… but your way of scrapbooking completely changed my outlook and life – my “real job” (in tv news) is so demanding and depressing sometimes.. but refocusing the way I scrapbook has really changed me.
I’m having so much fun now! (i even submitted an ebook to ella
Thanks again for all the inspiration!! You definitely have a friend in the bluegrass state

Sprinkles,
Andrea Stahlman
www.patchworkpages.blogspot.com

btw, there’s a giveaway today on Andrea’s blog.

SIX.

I’m so very lucky I get to work and teach at Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Since it is St. Patty’s day and LUCK runneth over.
You should definitely login in to your BPS account and see if you are the lucky WINNER of a FREE pass to Tami Morrison’s newest workshop, called Everyday Adventures.

SEVEN.

image by Tracy Clark

I’m so very lucky I get to rub shoulders with passionate, talented and generous women (this references No. Six) like Tracy Clark.
Be sure to read Tracy’s guest post on the BPS blog today.

p.s. I hope you’ll also peek at the Mom2.0 art exhibit and auction, where you can bid on beautiful creations to benefit the relief effort in Haiti.

Posted in FUN, Family, Home, holiday | 14 Comments »

Finally, holiday highlights

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

These are a few of the memories I will keep from the last two weeks of 2009.

This was our fourth Christmas in our new home. I wonder when a home isn’t new anymore? Anyway, we put our tree in the same corner as the first year–next to the “elf shelf”. I like it there. NOTE to shelf: Take a photo of the elf on the shelf next year! (arghh)

I found this toy catalog full of what I assumed were “I want this” flags. I was wrong. Chase had flagged all the things we wanted to give to his brothers and sister. There were notes by each item.

Assisted primarily by Taft and Addie, we constructed a gingerbread house. A few minutes after completion one side of the roof came off. We decided that since we forgot to cut out a front door, we would just leave it this way — easier for munchkins to get in and out!

Took this photo on Christmas Morning at around 1:45 am. Geoff had gone to bed and I just wandered around, feeling absolutely blessed and at peace — nothing more I could do except anticipate. Love that.

A sofa full of teenagers. Frankly, they can be a huge pain in the buttocks. But I still love it when they choose my house as a hang out.

Attending the annual creche display at a local church where there were hundreds and hundreds of nativity scenes accompanied by good music. One of my nativities sits directly outside our master bedroom. When I left the lamp on (which I did most nights) I was greeted by the scene early in the morning.

Having my kids home — they make me laugh!

Ahh … visits from friends you don’t get to see very often. Jenna and Deric came home for the holidays. Everyone who comes over gets to guess how much candy is in the jar by our front door. Deric had to come back and claim his prize. He guessed 276. The correct answer 274 — not bad!

New jammies on Christmas Eve and the reminder that not even Christmas Eve can coax a smile out of Taft.
Just after taking this photo, I took several in low-light so I adjusted my ISO (I’m a total dork when it comes to photography) and then didn’t set it back. All of my Christmas morning photos are …

totally grainy. YUCK!
But this boy … totally yum. So happy that I spoiled him and got plenty of positive feedback. Notice the Nixon watch on his wrist.

We took a self-timer group shot with the group gift we got from Darci’s family. She gave us an afternoon of sledding. Now if it would only snow!

Mom and Dad drove over on Christmas day in time for dinner. They stayed the whole weekend and we were able to relax and talk and play games and relax and talk some more. I loved every minute.

This is most of us standing on top of Liberty Lake. What a freaky feeling to stand where you normally swim!

Be sure to check out the Write. Click. Scrapbook. gallery where I posted 12 favorite photos, selected in 12 minutes on New Year’s Eve.

I’m so happy I allowed myself to completely and totally relax with my family and I’m so happy we are all getting back to a routine.
Happy Tuesday.

Posted in Family, Home, holiday | 17 Comments »

Advent (update) + a reader idea

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

I’m loving our activity advent calendar. I snapped this photo on Thursday. Each day the boys discover the activity and then put that card at the back of the ring. Today we headed to the mall to see Fantastic Mr. Fox. It was very different — I hadn’t read about it or seen a preview of any kind, so I was surprised when it was not at all what I expected … I like it though!

Back to the advent, I did have to pull the activities for last Monday and Tuesday, because Trey + Taft had a crappy attitude about last Sunday’s activity. In a very non-emotional (Love & Logic) way I said, “That’s too bad that you don’t feel like today’s activity is enough for you. I bet if we take a break until Wednesday, you’ll be ready for any silly little thing.” And they were — and since then, all of my plans have been received with a bit more thankfulness.

Thursday’s activity was to decorate our new little “kitchen tree” and can I just say how much I already LOVE this very well-made tree from Doodlebug As you can see the typical (stupid) plastic tri-pod base has been replaced by a sturdy wood box that can be filled with something colorful and/or delicious. The trunk and branches are equally sturdy and we enjoyed a festive moment with hot cocoa, David Archuleta Christmas music and our super-cheap Walmart ornaments.

Here are a few of my favorite entries so far in our little Memory Advent book:

Trey: I remember when Jayce won (the candy in the guessing jar) he was sooo happy his face went as red as a lolly pop.
Please note the illustration of Jayce with a lolly pop head.

Taft: On December 2nd we woke just to see egg nog in snowman mugs one for each of us in the fridge. My mom is awesome to use her money on tasty egg nog for us. Delicious!

Trey: Last year we had a record breaking amount of snow. Pete and I had so much fun making jumps and forts and we are looking forward to the next amount of snow. Let it Snow … Let it Snow …

Clark: This photo could have been taken in any of the four past year, because every year we set out a puzzle over break so when you get bored you help on the puzzle and for once we finished the puzzle!

Clark: I remember this Christmas very clearly because it was one of my favorites. Mom and I went on Elf Yourself and left a note for Dad, virtually to look in the closet and that’s where the skis I got for him were. It was the most exciting presents I have ever given to someone.

My intention with this little photo album was to write about these photos in order and count down the days with each page. I learned early on that if I wanted my family to participate I needed to let them pick whichever photo they want when it’s their turn to record a memory. If I let them choose their photo, I get more sincere and authentic memories.

Susan from East Berlin, CT sent me an email recently with a wonderful idea/adaptation for a Memory Advent photo album.

Stacy~
I just wanted to thank you for your memory Advent album idea and instructions. We have lots of Advent calendars at our house and while we really didn’t need another, I was intrigued by your idea. I decided to make one of these for our family, looked through our old Christmas photos, ordered prints and then bought the album at Target. Just before I started to tackle the project though I got inspired ~ my oldest daughter is now a senior in high school and so next year at this time she will be away at college. She won’t be able to share in the opening of the Advent calendars at home while she’s at school. So I decided to make the album as a surprise for her; I plan to wrap it up in Christmas paper with a note and send it back with her after Thanksgiving break. It will be like a little piece of home for her.
Now since my other daughter is only two years behind her older sister, I decided to just make her Advent memory album now too. Of course this meant ordering another round of photos and another trip to Target but I’ll take any reason to make another trip to that store!

(Thanks Susan! )

Tags: Christmas
Posted in Home, holiday | 10 Comments »

Christmas Priorities: an interesting family discussion

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

We had a late night last night. Chase was at a friend’s party and Clark was downstairs watching a video with his friends. Geoff and I started a movie at 10:00pm (that’s late for me!) We were up until midnight and I fully anticipated a nap today, but I’m not feeling super tired so I’m posting to my blog instead of sleeping (weird.)
Anyway, I found a cool Christmas resource this morning called Christ: The Real Gift of Christmas and I found an idea for a family discussion that we did right after church.

FYI: I bought this Greg Olson print this year and am having it framed. I love what it says (to me) about priorities at Christmas. Here’s the LINK.

Have everyone gather around tell them you would like to discuss individual and family priorities at Christmas time. Tell them there are NO wrong or right answers and ask them to be totally honest and willing to share their perspective. Give each person a sheet of paper and a pencil and have them write the following words down the left-hand side of the page: GIFTS, FRIENDS, DECORATIONS, CHRIST, TRADITIONS, FOOD/TREATS, FAMILY

Ask each person to:

Create two columns
Label the first column “Most Exciting”
Have each person rate their top three aspects of Christmas. My kids responded well when I said they could “vote” for the three things that are most exciting to them.
Label the second column “Most Important”
Have each person to look at the same list of words and rate their top three again.
Remind them that they can have some of the same words on both lists, or completely different words — there is no correct way.
Now ask each person to circle those words/items that did not make either of their lists. Ask them if they believe they could celebrate Christmas without these things?

When everyone is done take turns sharing individual Christmas priorities and discuss how understanding these things in themselves and in their family members can make a difference in your home. Talk about the priorities you all share. Talk about what you can do this year as you plan activities to align what you more closely with your family priorities.

Here are the Julian’s priorities:

TAFT: Most Exciting (gifts, food/treats, friends) + Most Important (friends, Christ, food/treats)

TREY: Most Exciting (family, decorations, food/treats) + Most Important (Christ, family, traditions)

CHASE: Most Exciting (family, food/treats, gifts) + Most Important (Christ, food/treats, family)

CLARK: Most Exciting (Christ, decorations, food/treats) + Most Important (Christ, family, friends)

GEOFF: Most Exciting (friends, gifts, decorations) + Most Important (Christ, friends, gifts)

STACY: Most Exciting (gifts, traditions, decorations) + Most Important (Christ, family, traditions)

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this was indeed enlightening — I learned interesting things about myself, my husband and my children. I’m going to print my blog post and include it in our Christmas album. I think it’s interesting to see what children value as they grow up and it’s so intriguing to note the differences in my priorities vs. my husbands — totally explains why my husband loves the social side of Christmas and I’m so set on doing things in a certain “way.”

If you end up doing this or something similar in your home, leave me a comment and tell me what you learned!

Tags: Christmas
Posted in Faith, Family, Home, holiday | 12 Comments »

Advent List + the FUTURE of print (amazing.)

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

I’ve had a handful of emails asking what kinds of activities I’ve assigned to my little activity Advent on a ring thing.

Here’s my list:

Decorate the Christmas tree.
Drink milk or cocoa + Christmas creamer & read a story
Go to the Liberty Lake Tree Lighting (Polar Express is on TV @8:30) TONIGHT!
(Find) Christmas pillow cases. Pillows + Popcorn (Movie Night: Watch Olive, The Other Reindeer)
Trey + Taft to Annette’s Christmas watercolor workshop @10:00 (mom + others finish decorating)
Make gift tags (with stickers from Walmart) and help mom with cards.
Play Christmas trivia (from Walmart) for FHE
Read stack of favorite Christmas books (while sucking on a Candy Cane)
Watch ABC family (Santa Claus in Coming to Town @8:00)
Decorate the kitchen tree (Doodlebug tree — here’s the LINK)
Take silly Santa hat pictures + ENT Christmas party
Lunch at the mall and a matinee (Blind Side or Fantastic Mr. Fox?)
Ping pong tournament with prizes (Adkins coming to dinner)
Decorate a gingerbread house after school with the Walters (Take to some friends)
Go to Taft’s concert (and stop for a DQ)
(Costco) d/o food drive + DING. DONG. DITCH.
Scribbles dessert night w/ Addie + Opening night of the play
Go see Clark + Trey in the A Rented Christmas
Go to the PLAY (matinee) and go shopping.
Decorate cookies with the Oviatts
Neighborhood cookie party!
Wrap and deliver secret Santa
Deliver neighbor gifts + spray snow on windows
Celebrate Christmas Eve with Gummersalls (caroling at the hospital + nativity)

Some of these are special and kind of involved (I’m baking a real gingerbread house) and others, like shopping at Costco for the food drive or taking pictures in our Santa hats take less planning — I like to mix things up.

A friend on Twitter said that her kids were very underwhelmed with the Dec. 1st activity. My response — kids are so used to being overstimulated and entertained — too bad. My kids try to complain too on some of the more ‘mundane’ days. I tell them “Are you kidding me? Last time I checked I wasn’t wearing a cruise director name tag — I am your mom, who loves you very much, but guess what? Things are just about as FUN as you decide to make them. Generally some version of this oft-repeated speech pulls them out of their entitled funk and we move on to a more pleasant place.

OK, about the future. You have to watch this video. Kayla (genius behind Digiscrap101 and my digital trainer for Library of Memories) sent me the link.

Living Magazine Cover & Spread – Outside Magazine from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

Imagine “print” possibilities in our children’s world!

Here’s the cover of Esquire (75th anniversary issue, back in 2008)

SO COOL.

Tags: technology
Posted in FUN, Home, Magazines, holiday | 10 Comments »

24 Days ’til Christmas.

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

and I’ve got my LISTS started!

This year my list book is super simple. I used a cool spiral bound notebook from Creative Escape (two years ago?) The cover is this paper from Imaginisce. The inside covers are this paper.

I used American Crafts Thickers on top.

I counted out and divided up the inside pages based on how many pieces I thought I would need for each section (gifts, advent, parties and plans and other) and trimmed the top piece of each section from short to long. I then adhered a strip of pattern paper and attached two metal-rimmed circle tags back to back over the edge. I folded up the last piece of paper in the notebook to make an envelope for storing gift cards (teachers, etc..)

This is my daily advent list that has already seen changes.

I glued a coin envelope to the back inside cover for receipts.
Nothing too fancy, but it’s functional and it’s making me happy already!

Tags: Christmas
Posted in FUN, Home, Organization, holiday | 11 Comments »

Color Inc. Canvas Up for Grabs.

Monday, November 9th, 2009

I am having a BLAST with Funday Monday — don’t you love starting the week with the possibility of winning something? I am extremely happy this Monday to offer you a chance to get to know my newest advertiser, Color Inc.

Tim Kasberger and his wife, Deanna were inspired to open Color Inc, a full service digital lab in January 2003 — after falling in love with digital photography in their own professional photography business.

Before I felt comfortable recommending Color Inc to you, I wanted to try it for myself. So … I uploaded my favorite *sprinkles* photo that Brian Smith took for me last spring and ordered a gallery wrapped canvas.

I am so delighted with the results. I truly wish you could touch and feel this canvas.
The quality is apparent when you look at it, but when you pick it up, you really know that it is well constructed. Each canvas is finished with a Tyvek paper (if you choose) bumpers and a wire for hanging. All that good and important stuff aside … it is just dang cute.

I’m now feeling inspired to re-think Addie’s room — possibly for Christmas. I’ll keep you posted on that one. Anyway, this canvas will hang in her room and I LOVE it and I want YOU to have a beautiful gallery wrapped canvas of a photo you love too …

YOU COULD WIN A GALLERY WRAPPED CANVAS, 20X24 (or smaller) 100% FREE.

I’m so thankful that Tim and his team are reaching out to scrapbookers — I like their vision! Personally, I am NOT anywhere close to being a professional photographer, so what you can take from my experience is that if I can figure out how to upload and order a gallery wrapped canvas, so can YOU. In fact, Jared (my contact at Color Inc) will personally walk the winner through the ordering process. Wow!

So … here’s what you need to do to qualify yourself for this little giveaway.

Visit the Color Inc. blog and click on “Pick of the Day” or just click HERE. Spend one minute browsing amazing photography and leave me a comment. Tell me about a favorite image you saw, or about something you’re going to try because of an image you saw, or simply tell me what type of photography brings out the “Ahhh” in you. Leave me a comment after visiting Pick of the Day and you’ll be entered to WIN.

If you are just interested in testing the ‘waters’ a bit, then consider the SJO9 promo code that will get you 25 4×6 prints absolutely free. While I archive my most scrap-able images at Shutterfly, as part of my Library of Memories system. I am always open to other services for special projects and I am very impressed with Color Inc. My first batch of 5×7s are on their way to me now.

FYI: Color Inc uses ROES or remote order entry system, to assist photographers in customizing their online orders. There are so many scrapbookers that have taken their photography to the next level and begun to share their talents with others. If you are one who is looking a professional lab that is extremely approachable — I feel confident you’ll find the help and service you need at Color Inc.

Ready, Set … Good LUCK!
As always, you have one full week to enter.

Allison will annouce the Memory Works November kit winner later today!

Posted in Gift Idea, Giveaway, Home, Love This!, Photography | 282 Comments »

What’s NEW (quite long)

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

This is one of those anything and everything posts with an angle on NEW.

I have NEW chairs.

Actually the chairs aren’t that new. I ordered them back in May (happy birthday to me) got them in mid June, without the table which came much later than expected. Anyway … I purchased the fabrics at Hancock Fabrics back in August and have been chomping at the bit for an unscheduled Saturday afternoon!

I made no attempt to stain guard the original off-white/muslin upholstery and very little attempt to keep the chairs clean, so they were CREEPY. Geoff and Clark were my main assistance, but we had help from most everyone, including Taft who was perfectly qualified for reattaching the newly covered seats.

Here’s another angle. I have now used liberal amounts of Scotch Guard and I LOVE them. Check back tomorrow on the I Love Color page. I’m going to do a little *BONUS* on how I select colors for my home and how my palette easily informs projects like my chairs.

I have lots of BPS NEWS.

This is Dawn. Dawn is our new Marketing Director. We had several talented applicants to interview and after more than a month of interviews and follow up, we hired Dawn. She sent over her bio and this photo on Tuesday and it was so fun to read about her in a casual way and see her adorable face. Kayce and I are thrilled to have her on board and anxious to collaborate with her on promoting the wonderful things happening and planned at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Read Dawn’s bio HERE.

We now have FOREVER ACCESS! This means that even after a BPS workshop is completed, you will continue to have access to the classroom content, the forums and the galleries. This is HUGE. If you haven’t logged into your account in a while, check it out. When you click on the “My Classes” tab, you’ll noticed that your class list is now organized by workshops, self-paced projects and completed classes — the image above is a portion of my ‘completed’ classes and I can now enter those classrooms again without any kind of access pass. This is HUGE. Way to go Kayce and Brent (our programmer) for working so hard on making this convenience a reality.

We have some Great NEW workshops coming up …

Adventures in Scrapbooking

May Flaum’s latest workshop is an adventure in using kits. May has a gift for encouraging a playful approach to using lots of products and she is especially good with kits — in this workshop she has teamed up with the following kit clubs:

Class starts November 5th and ends mid December — just think of the productivity that could be yours as we head into the busy Christmas season. You could even learn how to build a kit for giving to friends who need to get started scrapbooking!

A Life Well Crafted "Home Again Home Again"

I can’t think of a better time of year to focus on the magic, comfort and protection of home than November. Kolette has been teaching a year-long series of inspiring project classes, collectively titled A Life Well Crafted, but it is NOT too late to join in and experience her wisdom and the humor she and her husband, Jason share in this class. I’m especially excited about November’s class, as I got to be the “guest designer” and execute a very fun and useful concept that Kolette shared with me — I hope to see you in class!

I have a NEW book!

Yes I do. 20 Simple Secrets of Happy Scrapbookers – a carefully guided collaboration with ScrapHappy Lain Ehmann is NOW on sale and I need you to know that I put my heart and soul into my contribution (ten layouts.) While the message is a light-hearted one, I took these assignments very seriously and am frankly quite proud of the results.

One of my most favorite pages is dedicated to my love of learning NEW things through books … but more important than the any of the layouts is the scientific proof represented by all of them — that there are specifics practices you can put into your life that will enable a greater degree of happiness.

good and important and creative stuff.

Posted in BPS Class INFO, Books, Color, Happiness, Home | 31 Comments »

I’m HOME and looking forward to …

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Yay. It's NO MAKE UP MONDAY and maybe even no shower Monday.

What an AMAZING adventure we had in Japan. I am working on my highlights post (coming soon) In the meantime (WOW) Every room of my house is calling me. I feel like I'm drowning in sea of piles and mess. I am NOT kidding. I'm taking a new approach to unpacking this time. It's called make your bed/empty all suitcases on top and go from there.

this is what this approach looks like.
As I was getting all five of my darlings out the door at various times this morning, I started in on the knife drawer. I mean really, you should see my house and then I start cleaning some little corner, like the knife drawer. weird.

Oh well … the laundry is well underway and I'm going to put myself on the timer as soon as I go jogging. I know from experience that you can accomplish much in 60 minutes of concentrated pick-up and put away.

It is so good to be HOME. I missed milk and cold cereal and sweets (The Japanese don't really eat dessert — at least not as regularly as I do and my sweet tooth felt this.) I also missed my domesticity. I got up on Saturday, cleaned my kitchen really good, mopped the floor, organized the fridge and made a big pot of 'leftover' soup. I also made a nice long list of around-the-house projects for fall. We ran errands and visited with some neighbors and I thought I was pushing through the jet lag until about 5:00pm when I laid down for a quickie nap and didn't wake up for 3 1/2 hours.

Sunday was restful and relaxing. I taught Relief Society, visited with Kayce and made dinner. We attended a baptism last night, which always makes me so happy. Came home, fell into bed and slept like a baby until 6:00 am — I hope to be back on the 5:00 am schedule by midweek, as I don't get enough quiet time, unless I can get up early. Addie now has pre-school on Mondays and Fridays, so I dropped her off and am blogging and then jogging.

Speaking of Addie … Geoff removed her stitches on Saturday.

She was so brave through the whole incident (the emergency room and the stitches removal) She'll have a little scar, but it will be hidden in her hair and I'm just so grateful she didn't get cut any closer to her eye.

Trey started orchestra at the middle school at 7:40am this morning. He is pretty excited and will hopefully be learning (at least initially) on his great grandfather's violin. Russell Julian was a music teacher and I've been displaying this violin in our music room for the last 3 years. This was all his idea and he is really excited. I was surprised to see at least 50 kids that showed up with instrument cases in hand. I suppose I can live with the empty spot on my shelf.

In addition to pecking away at my fall list of projects, I'm looking foward to …

Cut the Crazy out of Christmas

This class started last Thursday and I'm so doing it. I'm NOT going to get caught up in the craziness of Christmas this year. I'm serious. I'm posting my 12 Days list in November and I'm going to be more organized, so that I can relax and enjoy and give this most important holiday the meaning it deserves. I've tried to convince myself that I LOVE the hustle and bustle and the late nights and the over-the-topness of my past holidays, but I really do want to simplify and focus on the things that matter most to me. I've printed my handouts and am setting up my binder today!

I'm looking forward to …

Yesterday and Today

Ali gives so much to the scrapbooking community on her blog, I'm really excited to settle in and experience her insight long term, in her first workshop at BPS. She assures me that I can keep up and still enjoy this festive time of year. I believe her.

I'm looking forward to …

image source.

WICKED We are traveling to Seattle this weekend to see this famed musical at the Paramount. I saw it in LA with girls on the Simple Scrapbooks team a couple of years ago and have since wanted my family to see it.

I'm looking forward to …

The Youth Leadership Summit on Wednesday, October 28th. I'm the keynote speaker. While I've presented at church functions, this really is the first time I've spoken outside the scrapbook industry — they are expecting 400 high school students (primarily those involved with FBLA) I'm nervous, but I'm excited too. I have read some great books and have some great stories to tell!

and finally, I'm looking forward to …

The BIG surprise I am going to show you on Thursday. Remember last year when I challenged you to photograph and document and celebrate your present. Well, it has been a year this Thursday and it is time we revisit that little project. We will.

good times ahead.

Posted in BPS Class INFO, Family, Home | 19 Comments »