What inspires me the most when I scrap? Pictures!

I am a photographer at heart and the heart of my pages are the pictures. I grew up in a family of photographers (none professionals) that loved cameras and pictures. I was given my first camera at 15... a Canon AE-1. Loved it! When I finally talked my husband into letting me get a Canon Digital Rebel, I never leave home without my camera in tow. Armed with my 4 gig Compact Flash, I am never out of room. But how do I display my works of art? On a scrapbook page of course!

Patterned paper plays a close second. The beautiful patterns and textures that come out every year intrigue me. I can't help myself. I must have it. Even though I am over run with paper, I always can buy more.

This is part of what inspires me. There is a whole scrapbook industry trying to inspire me in other ways...

Bloggers

I have not posted in quite sometime, but for a challenge I have decided to jump back in. Maybe I will be better about it this time around...

I have just recently been looking around at others blogs. Very creative people! One of my favorites is a guy posting a list of things that happened to him that day. A little crude, but very, very funny! I have also been keeping up with different scrappers' blogs and find them so interesting. I love hearing the thoughts that go behind the pages they create. To me, it is the "rest of the story."

I recently joined another scrap site when my friend Shelley told me about a contest they were having. What fun! I love keeping up with sites that have a lot of activity every day. They are so much fun. You really get to know people that way. I know it keeps me from the things I "ought" to be doing... but hey. That would be no fun.

Right now I am in a scrapathon. Every week a challenge is posted with a list of items or techniques they want. Very challenging! I love that it gets me to try new things or go back and do some things I have not tried in a while. Like decorative scissors... had to go "borrow" them back from my son. Anyway. Things are pretty much the same as last summer... but that is for another post.

What I hope to accomplish this week

I am in the process of cleaning out. It means I am cleaning out EVERYTHING. We moved into our house over a year ago and I still have boxes in the garage, in our office closet, and one or two in our bedroom closet. I figure, it has been in these boxes for over a year, I have not missed it, I have not needed it, OUT IT GOES! A bunch of things are going up on eBay, but most of it is going for donation. I don't want to mess with a garage sale. They usually never work out for us, and with children...what a nightmare!

I am tired of having people over and just "telling" them about my closets and how much room I have...to store all this junk!

Hats worn today: dog walker, cleaning woman, cook, nanny, lawn caretaker, solver of great problems with the ps2(how do I get there in the game, mommy), nurse, chauffer, alarm clock for husband. Hmm. I think that is all.

My Family

I have one boy, ready for kindergarten, and I also take care of my nephew, who is not yet one year. My son keeps busy with various activities: Martial Arts, Swimming. Then in the fall he will start soccer. We look forward to the cooler months.

We have two dogs. Our first dog we got right after we married. Friends found her wandering their neighborhood. She had no street smarts. We tried for a month to find owners. She odviously had some. She was spayed, housebroken and a little trained. She is smart though. She was very trainable. We had fun teaching her the usual tricks; rollover, sit, play dead, etc.
Our second dog belonged to my brother. He picked her out when she was a puppy. But when he passed away, she became ours. Smart, she is not. And very not trainable. It is odvious she learned her sleeping habits from a teenager...she will sleep til noon if you let her. But my son loves her and she sleeps with him every night, no matter where he is sleeping. She and my son have really taken a shine to each other.

My husband is a software programmer. Enough said. He is a bit of a geek sometimes, but that is what attracted me to him. He loves working outside. This is probably something he learned from his dad. They spent every weekend at their farm working on various projects. I think my husband looks forward to doing those same things with our son.

My nephew has a condition called William's Syndrome. He has already had heart surgery to clean out 2 of his ventricles. Before the surgery, it was crazy. He was not supposed to cry or get upset. How do you keep a 5 month old from getting upset? Needless to say, he was spoiled! He woke up 4 times during the night. He had his surgery and was out in 5 days. Now he is starting to catch up developmentally. He actually rolls over back to front and front to back. This has happened in the last week. It is amazing to see babies learn these tasks. Although he can roll both ways, it just makes him mad to end up on his tummy. But the more he pushes up, the stronger he will get. I guess I need to really work on keeping the house cleaner.

New Blogger

I have never kept an online journal, but ran across the site and decided to try it. Is it a passing fad? We shall see. I am up for trying something new. I choose the title for all the hats I wear throughout the day. I am a stay-at-home mom. It is not that I find there are "too" many hats. There are just a bit. I suppose I will use this to post my musings about events of the day.

Hats worn today: mother, caregiver, cheerleader, teacher, cleaning woman, short order cook, chauffer, banker, office assistant, and nurse. There! I think that about does it for today.