creating

Does anyone remember the Dewar's Profiles? Eons ago when I subscribed to The New Yorker the ads would often grace the back cover of the magazine. They featured a well-known person and shared some "profile" information, which always included the person's drink of choice (which was Dewar's, of course).

Over the weekend one of my friends (who doubles as a scrapper, among so many other attributes) posted on facebook a scrapbook layout she made. She referred to a scrapbook web site that provides "challenges" to scrappers to offer people like me some parameters for designing layouts. I love challenges--it narrows the field of decision-making to a manageable degree, and I can actually accomplish something, rather than be paralyzed by too many options. There are standard challenge categories each month (color, predetermined template, fashion finds, trends, etc.). Many of the challenges displayed on the web site triggered ideas, so I decided I would do my best to attempt those that caught my imagination. They number, oh, about 17? This would be for the month of April.

Yesterday my creative juices were flowing, so I decided to tackle one of them in the afternoon instead of deferring to the usual nap. After playing around with a multitude of choices (I mean, I had to choose which challenge to do!), a picture stored in Picasa suddenly clicked as one I could use for the "ad challenge." The idea is to take inspiration for a layout from an advertisement.

The above layout is the finished result, a Dewar's inspired layout (click on the image to read the profile portion). It isn't exactly "scrapped," but the heavy lifting is most certainly done, I have only to print and apply to a backing/mat. It's also got me thinking that it would be fun to do similar profiles for others who love Melrose. Jimmy and Barbara, you may be next!

woohoo!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Kenneth and Emma when she was about two months old. (Click to enlarge for a better view)

My first layout in four years! And oddly enough, I used the same set of papers for that one, too. Hmm. And it was of a dog. Hmm.. See my "scrappin' chaplain" link (waaaay down at the bottom of the sidebar!) on this blog, LOL!

My friend Janet was named recently to the design team at How Much is Too Much? a blog that posts challenges for scrappers to help use up our stash of stuff. I get much more done with challenges that help me focus on a specific aspect of design. Usually it takes me an entire day, if not longer, to get a layout finished. This one was between three and four hours! Not bad for a rusty scrapper. The challenge is titled "Party like it's 1999." Use one word for the title, nine squares, nine pieces of patterned paper, and nine brads. Phew!

Next time I'll probably just post it on the other blog and let you know it's there. But today's accomplishment is BIG NEWS!

Here's another favorite picture from that era

I went into the kitchen earlier to top off my coffee and found this preparation on the butcher block. Ken was fixing his breakfast, and the colors were too lively to pass up for a photo. He loves omelets, and this one, underway, will make enough to have some for breakfast tomorrow!

As for me, I'm assembling things to do a little scrapping this morning. My friend Janet is a newly appointed member of the design team on a scrapbook site. The objective of that site is to offer challenges to help us focus our creative efforts so that we can actually come up with a design for a layout and get something done. On reflection I think it's been five years since I did a layout. Time for that to change!

This afternoon I will shift my attention to Pampered Chef. I've been giving a lot of thought to why it is that I don't make calls to book shows and build my business. Fear has taken charge, and the reality is that the need for me to have a functioning business is greater than any fear has a right to be. There is too much to do here that needs to be funded, and at present the only way to add to the income we have is through this business. No excuses. Just do it.

I've actually made some progress in the discipline department with FlyLady. I've had a clean sink every night before going to bed--have made the bed every morning, and done some decluttering along the way to keep me hyped. It's amazing what a little sense of accomplishment can do to boost the attitude.

So, off to choose pictures for my layout, and get to it. I'll post the results on my layout blog later. See that assuming language? It WILL get done!