Where has the Month Gone???

I was going to wait until tomorrow to post but then I realized it would be February already so I decided I would post quickly about CHA....what a wonderful time I had. I got to see so many new things and meet some truly wonderful people. It was fun hanging out with the girls from AMM as well as hanging out with my long time friend Stayce. Here are just a few photos from last week.

The Last of My Top 10

I am down to my last three layouts....I thought I had them all picked out and then I decided I would change my mind....it is a womans prerogative after all. So with further ado, here are my last of my top ten layouts for 2009.

These have to be three of my all time fav's. The first one I did as a layout to enter in a contest over at Pagemaps. I used one of Becky Fleck's amazing sketches for this one...I had so much fun attending to all the details. The photo was expecially fun for me to scrap as it was one I hadn't ever seen til recently...It's my grandfather at what appears to about the age of 2. I just love the overalls and bowler hat he is wearing.

The second one is one I did of my family....they truly are my world. I saw the idea of long thin rectangular photos and I thought it was a cool idea. Kind of a "slice of life" type of layout. It worked well cuz I got to do a family layout even though Jeremy isn't home to take a family photo. I love the lime green and black color combo. I matched my outfit without even trying....gee think I have been scrapping too long? ;-)

The last photo has to be one of my ultimate favorites from 2009...not because the layout is that amazing or anything but because it's a side of my sister that I don't see very often. We had so much fun at CHA last January...we laughed ourselves silly...won some great prizes and did some cool make and takes!

So there you have it....my Top 10 Layouts for 2009.....somebody recently suggested over at AMM that we do a Top 10 Photos from 2009.........now THAT could be a REAL challenge. I will have to think about that one.

Top 10 #'s 4,5, and 6

I am pretty sure I have posted all of these here before...they are by far some of my very favorites from 2009. The first photo is of my Grandmother. I love the young and older photos together along with the whole vintage feel of the layout. I also loved that I used an actual scanned 1926 newspaper of my grandmothers for embellishments. The second layout has a lot of emotional attachment to it. Jeremy has been serving the people of Idaho on his mission for over a year and a half now. Last summer he sent home this photo after there had been a flash flood in the town where he was serving....in the true fashion of a "scrappers son," he knew I would want to see the actual hail so he sent home the photo but I saw beyond the hail stones to see the service that he is giving by serving a full time mission. Last is a photo of Holly, Jeremy's girlfriend. She is just the sweetest and I loved these photos of her that I took at Disneyland.

Well that's it for tonight....I have three more I will try and remember to post tomorrow.

Layouts 7 and 8

I had a few minutes this morning so I decided I would post the next two of my Top 10 layouts for 2009. The first one is of Cliff and me from July 4th weekend. It's a good picture of both of us. I love the layout. The pattern paper came from my wonderful friend Michelle over at A Million Memories....she puts together awesome kits and she proved me wrong....I told her I couldn't do "vintage" and low and behold I made vintage work....thanks Michelle for helping me to think outside the box. The second layout is of Jason and Riley....I love the photo....so much so I used it on our Christmas card this year....again it's more of the kit from AMM....I loved the little picket fence on it. So I guess these two layouts were my favorites cuz I loved the product I was working with AND I loved the photos....guess we will see what I come up with for tomorrow...So stay tuned.

My Top 10

I got this idea from Lady Grace over at Scrapbookdeals4u and thought I would give it a try over the next couple of days. I went looking back through all of my 2009 layouts and decided to pick out ten of my favorites. It was interesting how I selected my top ten. Most of them it was the photos that I used.....some it was the story that I told, others it was both...of course there was the fun paper and embellishments that drew my eye in but mostly it was looking at the photos and the emotion I felt while doing so. These aren't in order of preference....I love them all but for today here are layouts #9 and 10. Both of these layout brought back huge emotion for me. "Priceless Moments" is a photo of my oldest son and I walking on the beach. The photo is older, before he left on his mission, but the story was from 2009. You see for Valentine's Day he sent me the sweetest card...it made me cry...so I scanned the Valentine and used it on my layout. I have the layout framed in my studio. "Puppy Kisses" layout is also a very special layout. I took this photo of our little dog Riley after he had gone missing for 3.5 days...we were so glad to have him home again.

Stay tuned for more layout....probably tomorrow. ;-)

#9 and 10

Wow...2010!

It seems like only yesterday we were ringing in the new Millennium and here it is now 10 years later! Ten years ago......I had been married 19 years......My boys were ages 11 and 7.....I was well......10 years younger ;-)....I had been scrapping for only 4 years.....I was a SAHM who did Day Care....I really hadn't given much thought to menopause or retirement......and I certainly had no clue as to how fast time really goes by and how in a blink of an eye my little boys could become young men. In short I was caught up in the business of day to day living often forgetting to enjoy the journey along the way.

Now here I am ten years later....no more little boys at my house. No more Day Care....and no longer a SAHM. Instead now, my life is full of working outside the home at a crazy place called Costco...people ask me if I like working there and I usually tell them yes...in some crazy warped way I do. I have a son serving a full time mission for the LDS church in Idaho and I have another son in junior college. Cliff and I just celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary....I am often amazed he has put up with me this long. I have been scrapping now for 14 years and it is still my passion.....it took me forever to find something that I am really good at but I am so grateful for this amazing wonderful hobby that I have become so passionate about. I have learned so much through this wonderful art form. I have met amazing, gifted, and talented scrapbook artists that have inspired me to think outside the box and to try new things that I would never have ever dreamed up on my own. I am so grateful for the gift of this talent....it has made me look at life differently....I am trying to see the details...the little things and not always just the big picture. In short I am learning it's really not just about living your life it is about ENJOYING THE JOURNEY as you go through your life.

What will 2010 bring for me...I guess I will have to see...I have a few goals I have set for myself.....the first one being to get myself back in some kind of shape....I realize that "round" is indeed a shape but I am tired of my clothes not fitting. Please wish me luck with this one....it's a road I have been down many times before but not recently. My second goal is to try to simplify things around my house a bit. An online friend posted on her blog the other day a quote by Jon Gordon and I loved it...I think I am going to take it into this new decade with me "Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful." If I use this mantra as I am cleaning things out I am guessing I will be able to get rid of a lot of stuff around here.

It's a New Year.....a New Decade. Here's to 2010!