Holding on

How I do so love summer.  I didn't always.  The years when summer meant Scott and I were separated for months were filled with counting down the days until we were back together in lovely Central IL.  They were spent sweating my rear off on the city playgrounds and then working at Bon Ton at night.  They were spent with phone calls where we talked about nothing because all we really wanted to do was hang out with each other.  The days before Skype and cell phones and e-mail, when every mile of an 800-mile distance was acutely felt.

Now, I adore summer.  Contrary to popular opinion, it is rare that teachers have "off" over the summer.  First, it is not a paid vacation.  I am not given money for days I am not required to attend.  However, having a schedule that is a bit more flexible is nice.  And I love spending time with my own kids.  Some summers feel wonderfully long,  and others feel horribly short.  This one is somewhere in between.  We have had LOTS of time, ending the year prior to Memorial Day.  During that time, some of my friends and I have helped each other realize that the time we have is a wonderful gift.  We truly need to seize the day.

One of my pals called August 1 "July 32nd", and it stuck with me.  All day today, I kept calling it July 33rd.  A scrapbook page was calling.

I took the photo today at Fairview Pool.  It doesn't look like 100 degrees, does it?  When I printed it and went to trim it, I thought that it looked cool trimmed like a Polaroid.  So, I kept it that way and wrote the date on it like I used to write on the bottom edge of a Polaroid.  The crocheted flowers were a last minute thing.  I felt like something was needed in that space, but there was no more substantial room for words.  Then, I wrote phrases of things I was holding on to, cut them, inked the edges, and adhered.  It really did not take long at all, and I love that I have archived the things I have.  I was hesitant about a patterned paper background, but I think the Cosmo Cricket paper works the idea of summery pool days well.  Now, I can go to sleep.  Maybe.

Summer 2011: Day 1

This summer break took its sweet time getting here.  One of my goals is to get back into my craft groove, be it cardmaking, stamping, scrapbooking, whatever.  Why?  Consider Exhibit A: cobwebs from my lamp in my craft room.  Ridiculous.  I hope to evict Charlotte from my home, or at least start collecting some rent from her.

Today's installment was a card for Max's teacher who is having a baby in August.  A parent thought we should throw her a little shower.  Since I have not been crafting in quite some time, my stash of baby cards is at an all-time low.  I initially wanted to create a shape card just using the shape of a onesie.  I got pretty far, until I screwed up the sentiment stamp (grrr).  So, rather than trashing the whole card, I decided to pop half of it up on a yellow background.  She's not sure if she's having a girl or a boy, so I tried to stay neutral, although the scallops scream GIRL!  The binkie and the button were a last minute add-on.  I just felt it needed a little more punch.  She loved it.

On a somewhat related note, I have to give some serious props to my husband.  As much as I tease him about garage sales, he nailed this one.  He got a Sony Cyber-Shot 3.3 megapixel camera with 6x zoom and video (pretty rudimentary, but it'll do) for (wait for it...) $5!  I took the photos above using the close-up macro on this camera.  It's lightweight, easier to drag around than my Nikon D60, and takes better on the go pics than my old Nikon Cool Pix.  It works a LOT like the Sony Mavica (one of which I still have... with the mini CD...but it's QUITE bulky) which I used for some time.  It was like riding a bike. :)

Is it just me, or...

...do other people let photos that they want to frame pile up? Yeah, it's probably just me.

Today in "crafty July," I spent some time doing some framing.

We went through a period of time when, if it wasn't the cleaners, it was Max bumping a picture from my craft area onto the ceramic tile foyer 15 feet below. I took some of those pics and combined them in a collage frame (not very much like me, but I like the way it combined some pics in one frame). I also framed some 8 x 10s of the boys that were waiting for a frame. Now, all I need is to hang them.

A little digi-scrapbooking?

We have been on the go for the past several days, so my craftiness has consisted of taking photos and video of our excursions. I have some blog archiving at this site. Many of my pcs and videos are on Facebook for my friends there.

Happy July 4th to all!

July

I have thoroughly and completely enjoyed the entire month of June. Truly. With the exception of one area: my crafting. So, I hearby declare July a month of crafting. Each day. Something. Be it ever so small or frighteningly large. This statement is pretty vague so I am stating here and now on this blog what I specifically plan to work on:

• Me, the Abridged Version scrapbook: started a year ago in September, this is one of my FAVORITE scrapbook projects. I must spend parts of July completing this.
• Project Life: Um, hello. If the pages in my Project Life album aren't easy enough, then I am just NOT a scrapbooker. Must do some catch up there.
• May I see some ink, please?: I will make cards with stamps I just HAD to have, yet have never used.

Ambitious? Yes. However, my craft room is gathering dust, and my summer is 1/3 gone. Let's get 'er done.