i spy

warm inside

do you sometimes take a picture just because it warms your heart and then no matter how long it has been you can still look at it and have that same warm feeling? me too....
today, find a heart warming photo. sit with it for a minute and then record why you love it. nothing better than a warm heart to beat the cold!
thanks for stopping!

the story photo

today's journaling requires a photo that helps to tell the story. it may not be the best photo, or even one that you would print if not a scrapbooker. but you are and so you do. like this one. of lavender going down whilst i try to capture her new walking skills on camera. too tired from me trying to have her recreate her earlier walk of ten steps, she just kept going down. and that is the photo that i caught. so while no one would even know it was her without me telling them, fact is it is and it tells such a great part of the story that it is the winning photo for the page about her new mad skills. today is permission to scrapbook the photos that you want to, and not just those that would win a contest. i mean, take those too, but don't forget about the little ole blurry one that tells the real story...

thickers - american crafts

ribbon - stemma, and anyone know who makes this amazing polka dot one?

paper - ki memories

journaling tricks

do you sometimes get bored with the regular old journaling places? sometimes i do. trouble is, when i try new things (like this) i usually end up tearing it apart and going with something more traditional. i strung the ribbon across to further accent the fenced in idea, though i think it looks more like a corset gone wrong. but that pink paper cost me $1 and sometimes i get frugal so i may just have to leave it and make it work. (ie - jump over this layout really quickly in the book before it bothers me too much!) (btw, i DO realize how runon that sentence was but sometimes once you get going you just can't stop no matter how much you know you should and even then when you are going blue in the face from holding your breath for so long even then sometimes you still keep typing like fingers gone mad with an inability to stop like the kids when they are all a bit ornery and they just can't stop and the noise it just won't stop and pretty soon youwonderifthereareevenanyspacestothenoiseandthelettersandthenyourealizeitstimetogohideinthecloset...)

so now that you are all scared and convinced that "she looked like such a nice girl..."

what do you do to try to add some spice to the old column journaling? and secondly, do you rip apart layouts that just don't some together in real life like they were in your head?...let me know....

thanks for stopping!

connections

today's challenge is to make a connection. any connection. just something. let your journaling go past the who what where why when to include a bit more. you may remember this layout....

well here is another version that focuses on a wee bit of a different aspect. (for photos that belong in two kids' books, i sometimes do the same thing twice and sometimes don't...) in this case, i looked at the photo as a reminder of the relationship between my older sister and i. my girls are 26 months apart. jodi and i are 24. poppy is of her coloring. lavender of mine. sometimes as i watch my girls i wonder if it is what my mom saw so many years ago. i'll have to ask her when she comes...

thanks for stopping by! Oh, the birdies are fiskars, the flowers are imaginisce!
enjoy your day!

less is more

today's journaling tip and challenge is less is more. the photo and the exclamation really didn't need more. more explanation, that is. my journaling tripwire for more or less is this: in a year or ten, will i look back at this page and wish i knew more? if the answer is no, then i call it fait accompli and find a new photo to love!

the papers here are scenic route, the rubons old 7gypsies. the felt arrow is american crafts. what's not to love?
happy day! i'm off to a baby shower. present pictures tomorrow!

photostories

i love when you can zoom in and catch a whole story in one picture. look at poppy's sweet pink nails in contrast to Lavender's baby nails. and look how sweetly and tightly Poppy is holding Lavender's hand. the zoom tells the story so much better than the wide shot did. Today's journaling challenge is to find or take a photo that tells a story then make a page! Free that trapped jpeg. Print out that photo and put it on some pretty paper. Add a trinket or two. Let that story shine. What else do you have to do today? Christmas cards? shopping? wrapping? it can wait. c'mon, free the jpeg! or of the other things just can't wait, find the photo-story waiting to be told today, snap it, and we will remind you to find and free the jpeg in January!

Thanks for visiting. Always enjoy having you stop by! know if you were at my house i would offer you caramel corn and apple cider!

a bit o' journaling

so tuesdays with marnie are a reference to tuesdays with morrie which i actually haven't read. how illegitimate am i? however, the meaning of the day is journaling. and making your journaling more meaningful. now i consider myself a pretty avid journaler (not in journals, mind you, but just on the kids' pages) however, i was flipping through Nigel's volume 20 and realized that there are several pages that are missing the story. me, my book. how did this happen? why bother including the photo of nigel holding the pumpkin without adding that that was the year we went to the market in the mall parking lot as i was too busy/otherwise occupied to go to Eugsters' farm?
oh, i know, the story is missing as i was embarrassed at the time. but c'mon, isn't that important, too? that others know that we were human in our parenting? that we at least cared enough to go to the parking lot rather than not get a pumpkin (or the pumpkin photo) at all?
Your challenge today is to open an old book and find a page that you "forgot" to journal on. turn the page over and add the story. in your very own handwriting for ease. just write right on the reverse. don't be fancy. just be practical and tell the story behind the photo that is so prettily displayed on a wonderful page. the one that is begging for the words. you know the one. add them. you'll be glad that you did!

a page about change

today's journaling challenge is to write about something that has changed. an opinion, a point of view, a hairstyle, a house, a pet, the color of your living room, anything. this can then become two pages in one. it will tell the story of before (for which you may not already have a page) and the story of now. it also lets us take a minute to see progress. to see how we are growing and changing. to see how quickly life moves and to note our place in this changing universe. i would love to see pages of you and your changes. don't forget you are important to document too!

the truthful title

here's the thing. sometimes we go with the obvious title. it's the easy thing to do. it makes sense. it seems right. but is it truly why you are creating this page? why did you take that picture after all? i know that sometimes the photo is unrelated to the specific journaling, but when it is a part of the story, take a minute to rethink your title. have a little fun and put the real title as a subtitle. or as a parenthetical afterthought. (parentheses make me happy, so i have included my truthful title as a parenthetical.) (i think often parentheses are sort of the story behind the story. a bit of insight into the narrator's mind.) (often times the behind the mind part is the most interesting afterall) (don't you think?) (no, you aren't sure if i think at all, are you?) (oh, now you're thinking that too much antm has softened my insights...) (oh, Ellipsis!, another favorite of mine...) (i digress...)

today's challenge is to be a bit more authentic in your title. and if you are scared to do it, put the boring thing down first ie jumping, and then pretend you are going to tell someone a secret about the story in your photo(s) and add that as a parenthetical title. Suddenly, Susan, you have a more truthful title!

enjoy! thanks for visiting!

photograph your heart

do you ever have those days where something takes your breath away? if it is something you can see, pull out your camera and snap a quick picture. this way, you can create a page about it. (off the record, you can COMPLETELY scrapbook without a photo as well, though, 1. many of us area afraid of this, 2. you might need the photo to jog your memory, and 3. well, it might just help your story to show what you saw!)
sometimes we are so busy scrapbooking the milestones or the events, or the kids did this and that, that we forget to take a page or two here and there and tell the story of what moves us. so today, tell me a story that moves you. and if you are scared to begin, remember that you don't need an essay. a few lines are fantastic!

Journaling Prompts

This layout

was inspired by this book .

There was a discussion in this book about how children play alongside each other but not WITH each other for a period of time. This sparked me to watch Poppy and see her playstyle. [Oddly it was as described. Nigel never really fit into book descriptions...hahaha]
Today, look elsewhere for a journaling prompt. Are you reading a book? Did it spark a memory? Trigger a discussion that led to some introspection? take a minute. do a page. i dare you.... :o)

even the bad photos

why are we discussing photos, you ask, when tuesdays are about journaling? well, daniel-san, that is because i often overlook the pages that have not-so-perfect photos. like this one.

now the truth is, this page should have been made long ago. one for nigel's love of butter, one for poppy's and now one for lavender's. but i have never taken the time to take that photo to tell the story. probably because my counters are always so cluttered. with the dishtowel, the bags, the brown bananas. But this story was dying to be told. And now it has been. Complete with a very imperfect photo. Except for the butter smeared all over the bumbo. In that regard the photo is perfect as it tells the perfect story. So today, record a story that is longing to be recorded in spite of not having a beautiful photo accompaniment. the clutter will really only bother you, right?

and she returns...

ah! i am back. sorry for the absence. we have been battling all sorts of flu bugs and  persistent/worsening/spreading ear infections for so many days now. i think it is wednesday though i really have little faith that it is! all i know is last saturday i was so tired that i could barely crawl up the stairs and i was leaning so far to the right that i chose to not drive for a few days. yikes! today we have one almost smiling and another even squeaked out a giggle (hooray!) so i am sneaking away to my quiet room for a few minutes to check in and post a little something.

i actually thought it was tuesday all day today (keep in mind i have changed two weeks worth of diapers in the last 5 days so i'm bound to be confused... teehee!!) so i went with a journaling page for you today. sorry. [tomorrow i will try to do both a wild card and a take five!]

here is my page and my tuesday tip. (on wednesday!) if you find yourself telling the same story at least twice (did you call someone to tell them something? did you have to pick up the phone to relate the happenings? was it too cute/precious/delightful/hilarious/embarrassing not to? then take a minute, find a cute photo and scrapbook it. this page is a photo of poppy that i l-o-v-e- love from the counter at the bellagio hotel (the lighting was simply ethereal...) and the story that i have told no fewer than three others. maybe more. usually more. you don't need a photo of the exact moment (you actually don't need one at all - whoa, try that on for bravery!) you just need to record the story. stories and pictures. that's our business. no reason to complicate anything.

so the next time you find yourself repeating a sweet nuthin', make it a sweeter sumthin' by writing it out, and adding a bit of paper and glue and you'll have a great page.

goodnight! hopefully tomorrow i will know it is thursday!

a bit further...

Today is about journaling. Sometimes I admit that I am a bit abbreviated in my journaling. I prefer to use the computer and let's face it, sometimes I have too many hands and feet clawing at the keyboard and the big blue button that turns on (and off) the computer. Trouble is, for me, it's really all about the journaling. And I really don't love my handwriting. So then I am stuck. Sometimes I find that if I just think about things for more than a second, I can usually crank out just what it is I hope to say, and not just the title, or some basic stuff. So today, write out your journaling. Then go back and make it more lovely. Say what you really meant to say. Sometimes the picture is the focus. But other times it is the prompt for your thoughts. Let today's layout be that. A story with a picture prompt.