My "to be scrapped" folder, that is.
In addition to playing with new releases, I've also been catching up a little bit and slowly ticking away at my "to be scrapped" folder. Which is ummm...full. Here are a few more recent pages (clickeroo for full credits):
Every now and again I'm completely struck with a fit of nostalgia and sentimentality. And when I'm struck with those moods I like to look back at photos of the bug. And I usually end up scrapping as well because those were the days B.DS (before digi-scrapping) and I have to make up for lost time and all that jazz. So since I've been feeling particularly mushy, I figured I'd inflict that on everyone else as well (because who doesn't like a trip down memory lane, right? especially other people's lanes o memories)...and so I share with you a few of my favorite mushy nostalgic and sentimental pages of photos from the Time Before Scrapping. As always I encourage you to please click for credits.
A couple pages for bugga's month-by-month album. This is one I'm catching up on over time. Eventually I hope to have one for each month when she was an itty-bit and then for every six months or so as she gets older.
and these two are the ones that have had me very recently feeling all mushy inside over how quickly time passes and how much I wish time would slow a little bit so I could savor bugga more. Well maybe except for those few moments when she's in the throes of some very dramatic tantrum about how she really needs her milk in the purple cup and not the orange one. Those moments can just fly on by.
But these ones? I could pause time for these.
Sighs....
So I’ve had my first and last lesson in “surefire ways to waste a lot of money: the mistakes of gifting”.
We got Bugga this adorable little doll from the Pottery Barn for Christmas; her name is Chloe. And I thought when I saw her that the bug would just be so in love and it would be the beginning of a beautiful little “friendship” with her toting Chloe around and having little tea parties with her.
And Ummmm...not so much.
Turns out Bugga doesn’t like Chloe very much. And 6 months later the poor little doll mostly gets no attention from bugbear whatsoever. Dolls just aren’t her bag, I suppose. She prefers animals and puzzles and creative games much more. She’ll chatter away with her animals all the live long day, but bring Chloe into the mix and it’s lots of ambivalence. And even outright salty-ness.
Take this afternoon. I tried to see if there would be fresh friendly feelings for Chloe, and I asked Bugga to hug her and kiss her and mostly she just shouted “No! Not Chloe! I no like Chloe!” I did capture one brief hug, which I think was her way of tossing me a bone. It was quickly followed by her tossing Chloe across the room and onto the floor.
So I’ve learned my lesson. No more Homer Simpson esque gifts for
you...this was your “bowling ball”. I promise from here on out, to
follow your cues and likes and not get you a gift I *think* you should
like. Even if it’s super adorable Lesson learned.
And I decided to scrap this lesson learned for posterity. And to remind myself forevermore (please click for credits).
p.s. and ohmygracious! I'm soooooooo excited to say this is my very first layout as a Polly!!! I'm still pinching myself that I have this opportunity to work with the amazing talents at The Lilypad!! Dream.come.true.
So as far as catching up with scrapping goes, goodness I don't even know where to begin. I only started digiscrapping in May of last year, and I was totally gooped up on the gop about it because it was all so fresh and exciting to me. Now, a year later, I feel like I've settled into a "home", found *my* hobby and my creative outlet. Something I will love and be involved in until I'm old and gray. There is just something so beautiful and emotionally special to me about sharing and preserving our family's stories.
And I've been feeling really blessed lately as I consider all the beautiful opportunities I have had over the last year to grow and evolve in my creativity. At first I totally went overboard and really stretched myself thin, dibbled and dabbled in many different styles and creative teams, as many new scrappers do, and I cherish every opportunity I had. Still, now, I feel much more settled into my own style and I feel like I've evolved as a scrapper, if that makes sense. And I'm certainly more balanced in my commitments. I have been SO grateful to have been blessed to work with some AMAZING designers and scrappers over the last year. And the best part has been the wonderful friends I've made along the way.
So since I'm feeling all mushy and nostalgic I figured I'd do a little then and now. Last year when I was posting about scrapping, I had literally just started out and was sharing pages like this with you all (please click image for full credits):
I can't believe I just shared that here. It was an excersize in humility, believe me. Now I have to strongly resist the urge not to rescrap all my first pages. I still love my first pages, because they are mine and showcase my bugga, but I guess I just feel a little more comfortable in my skin as a scrapper now, and more comfortable in my program. ANYway, moving on...here are a few of my more recent favorites (for full credits, images are clickable):
Did I say how much I love to scrap?? (A LOT).
So a year has passed (but hopefully you'll soon forget about that little fact) since I last blogged with any pseudo-regularity and so much has happened since then that I don't even know where to begin.
Mostly life has been about bugga growing and changing and our family evolving. We've faced some challenging times and we've also had some beautiful bright spots. David is in full swing of his usual ops tempo so that has had us having periods where he is away working/serving our country and we are home just the two of us. We always really look forward to the homecomings though and like to spend lots of time soaking up family time together and taking a break from everything else. And that's where we are right at this moment. In one of our reunited times. :)
Let's see..the highlights of the past year: I'm officially 30 (ugh!), we stayed home for Christmas for the first time, we had a trip to see Dad and visit Mickey at Disney in May, we've turned into gardening geeks and we've grown more in our faith. Bugga is more talkative, more independent and as adorable as ever. Here's a few of my most favorite pages with my most favorite photos of her from the past year (please click images for full credits):
I'm looking forward to keeping up with everyone much better in this latest incarnation of our blog. Also, just as a reminder, I have another, more personal blog called "Deltasierra". It is password protected, but if you are family or friend and are interested in keeping up with us more there too, feel free to click on "Q&A" to find out how to go about doing that.
I feel like I'm always tooting my own horn lately (nice, huh?) but I'm really thrilled about this and I want to update all my friends and family so here goes...
A few weeks ago my sweet friend Jen encouraged me to submit a layout to the Patriotic call for Bellascraps June issue. It never occurred to me to submit anything for publication...I'm still so fresh in digiscrapping. I hemmed and hawed a little, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway, so I submitted.
The layout was one of my very first, and so I felt a little "meh" about it, but it was also one of my most personal pages so it's a significant one to me. And today I found out that I was published! Woot! I'm so plesantly surprised! My very first publication! Here's a preview of this month's fabulous issue:
Hey, another little pleasant surprise. The very sweet Dunia decided to spotlight one of my layouts on Bren Boone's team blog today (linkeroo)! I love Bren's designs so I was honored to be feautured in their gallery spotlight. Thanks girls!
I'm so excited to finally share my latest toot! I'm sooo gooped-up-on-the-gop about this! I've been invited on to be a part of Traci Reed's CT team!! She's so fabulous and I've already had a blast working with her fabulous products and I'm sooo excited to be working alongside her talented team!
Here's one of my favorite pages I've created with her fabulous goodies:
live in color (full credits):
I can't wait to work with more of her beautiful designs! In fact, be on the lookout for something else in just a bit.
I just have to say, I'm really just overwhelmed (in a good way) with how quickly I've been welcomed into the digiscrapping community and given opportunities to be creative and work with some of my favorite designers. This has taken my love of designing and scrapping to a whole new level. And it's all so inspiring.
It's time for new releases at the Sweet Shoppe and the girls have just been ROCKING some amazing kits lately. This week is no exception.
I really love Heather's new kit Mischief & Mayhem. The colors are fabulous and I think it's one of those kits that would work beautifully for both boy and girl pages. Really versatile. Loooove it!:
Here's a LO I created with it, featuring one of my favorite bugga photos. Mischief (full credits):
I've been infatuated with color in my layouts lately. I don't know if it's that summer is upon us or what, but I've definitely not been my usual vanilla self with my pages lately. Here's a few of my faves recently:
Faith (full credits) -- this is probably my favorite layout yet. Virtually everything here can be found at {we are} storytellers (I *heart* their designs):
Hubby isn't crazy about this one because Bugga looks like a boy. And because the photo isn't terribly good (but it was the only one that captured this phase, so I had to go with it). I didn't help the whole looks-like-a-boy thing with my color scheme, but had fun with it anyway. soooOOO big (full credits):
I'm loving Dani's new kit Deep Blue Sea and had to use it in a layout. So I finally scrapped the bug's first kiddie pool adventure. Splish Splash (full credits):
