Finders Keepers

Finding old photo albums is like discovering a gateway to the past.

This tattered, mildewed and decaying old wedding album was begging to be cherished.

The photos it held were suffering,

as the album was no longer fit to house the treasured memories.

Over the weekend, I took apart the old book

and gently separated the photos from the paper they were glued on to.

Inspired by the elegant shots,

I came up with a simple plan to showcase the bride and groom

in a fresh, new album ~ simple mounting, delicate accents.

Let the photos tell the tale.

I hope William and Dorothea are happy in their new dwelling place.

It's good to know that they are safe here...

preserved in a way that will endure.

No more yellowing.

No more tatters or decay.

No more fading away.

No, they now become a lasting treasure

just waiting to hear the gleeful cries of their great children

{or their great greats}

as they exclaim,

"Oh my! Look what I've found!"

Joining

Little Things Thursday

and

Mama Kat's

Reflections of a Scrapbooker

A little over a decade ago, I was introduced to a scrapbooking company called Creative Memories. While the company has suffered some corporate ups and downs during that time, one thing remains true - I'm a fan. I love the basics, the core products that define who they are {have always been} to the scrapbooking world. All my my family memories are preserved on the pages and in the albums that they produce. And the tools that I most enjoy working with are made by them. As with any creative industry, there's a wide variety of choices out there ~ and I'm not one to be exclusive to any one brand...but for the basics of my craft, I'm a CM girl at heart. And I'm glad to see them thriving once again!

As the late afternoon sun poured into my new scrapbook studio yesterday, I was working with some photos and was, yet again, struck by how much I enjoy using the tools of the trade. There are a set of blades that CM makes whose little peg legs fit into the grooves of multiple plastic shapes. Once those legs are set inside the groove, they follow the track around the shape and - presto - in seconds you have a perfectly cut circle. Or oval. Or star....the possibilities are numerous!

Now, I know this isn't for everyone.

But as someone who enjoys freeing her photos from their digital holding cell, and using them to tell stories of all kinds, these tools have provided me with hours and hours of fun!

In the afternoon light, the little blade's reflection caught my eye ~ and I couldn't help but take this 'work in progress' shot. Cause that's just what my blogging/gramming/scrapbooking self does!

Linking to

Little Things Thursday

and

Weekend Reflections

{Good Random Fun} Week 5

The Good

One month in to 2016.

How, you ask, is it going with my word choice for the year?

I know you're on the edge of your seats!

Well....

The word I'd use to describe the month of January is....revealing.

There was a 2 week cleanse.

There was yoga.

And there was fresh air, sunshine and walking.

Physically speaking, a pretty darn good month!

The interesting thing to me is that, as we prepare for our move,

and I focus on this idea...

The idea of being efficient.

Of having nothing in excess of what is needed.

Of being single minded in my objective....

As I focus on lean and mean,

I'm finding that the real "house cleaning"

is taking place inside my head and heart.

Facing the facts about what we need/can afford in this house hunting journey

is bringing to the surface all sorts of feelings.

I've been fighting demons of regret.

The woulda/coulda/shoulda demons are knocking at my door.

Those "unfair" demons are dancing all around me.

And the self-pity demons...well, they're trying to throw a rager!

{a rager with no alcohol...cause I was cleansing...and - well - don't actually drink!}

But boy oh boy are these words - lean and mean - grounding me.

Reminding me.

Bringing me back to mindfulness.

To my chosen path.

To my heart center.

And, most importantly...to gratitude.

Stay tuned - I feel like I'm in for a wild ride on my 2016 journey!

The Random

I so delight...

...in these amazing little...

...weeds of winter!

The Fun

The artsy component of my new recipe book is complete!
{that's the fun part}
Let's see if I can get all my recipes transcribed onto the cards in the month of February!
{not as fun...but it'll feel oh-so-good to get it done!}




Joining Tamar and Judith

{Good Random Fun} Week 3

The Good

This Saturday, the Scrapbooking company I rep ~ Creative Memories ~ held their first Virtual Crop.

Since it was a football watching day,

I signed in right at 10, and cropped all day!

My goal for the day was to go through some boxes of scraps.

{remember that lean & mean moving goal I have!?!}

I use my scraps to create Page Completion Kits ~

pre-made borders, title elements, journaling boxes and photo mattes that coordinate

so that some lucky scrapbooker can easily finish an album page or two!

I love the challenge of using 'leftovers'

and I especially love seeing these kits come to life when a friend adds their photos

and uses them to tell her story!

The Random

 Finally.

A pretty snowfall!!

The Fun

Someone's got her 'grand-puppy' here for the week!

Let the warm puppy cuddles commence!

Joining Tamar and Judith

Crock Pot Season

weather is cooler

darkness is swallowing us earlier and earlier

it's time

soup time

crock pot time

and

it's time for me to find some of that clean eating mojo

i've had

and {somewhat} lost

haven't abandoned the basics

but the menus have gotten

lazy

boring

and

repetitive

so...

to help me with my mojo

i turned to a favorite hobby

{scrapbooking}

to help me rekindle a fire for a not so favorite necessity

{cooking}

and

VOILA!!

i'm creating a recipe book!

it stands up!

isn't it so cute?!?

i'll tell ya...

sometimes it's the little things

cause

thanks to my friends Paper, Stickers, Scissors and Tags,

i am 

smiling 

while cooking once again

This simple and delicious recipe found HERE

Recipe Keeper found HERE

{comes with paper for printing that slide into the sleeves if cutting and pasting isn't your thing!}

I'm joining Kim for

Little Things Thursday

and Kat for her

Writer's Workshop

a gift that keeps on giving....

Our fourth of July was spent with very dear friends at a wedding!

Few things are better than all the fun we share

when good friends get together for such a wonderful celebration!!

One of my favorite gifts to give is a blank scrapbook.

I do all the decorating so the only thing left is to add the photos.

I made this book for the newlyweds so they'd have a place to save all the instagram fun!

Their hashtag?

Fourthofjoeleen

{fourth of July + Joe + Kathleen}

I hope they enjoy putting all the random shots from their special weekend into this album!
I sure had fun making it for them!

Joining Tamar for
The Good. The Random. The Fun.

So....I'm {truly} a homebody...

De-clutter.

No more red, green and twinkle.

Clean space.

Writing desk is ready for Writing Naturally ~ Winter with Corrine.

In these weeks where the hope of good, new habits is strong,

this space, the journals, the pens are asking the words inside 

to come join the light of day.

We'll see what becomes of them!

I've enjoyed four days at home.

Four straight days!

Each and every corner has been arranged.

The address book filled in for the new year.

And a new recipe book project begun.

If I wished for a big ol' blizzard so I could be snowed in for

another four days, would that be bad?

Lazy days gave me time to clean out my kitchen, 

try some new recipes and use my fun, new mixing bowls.

This Quinoa Salad with Pears and Dried Cherries was yummy!

{and fits right in with clean eating to kick off the year}

Perhaps my favorite bit from this long weekend

was a little random project I started just for myself!

I've wanted to make this for years...

it's a book to keep track of special dates by month

and put aside cards for people.

I'll tell you more about it when it's done -

but I'm so happy to have it well under way!

As hard as it is to think of the full week of work that awaits,

I head to sleep satisfied, grateful and rested!

The beginning of 2015 has been perfect.

And my "word" has been chosen...stay tuned!

So pleased to be joining Tamar today for this year's first

The Good. The Random. The Fun.

a little about me...

OUR MEMORIES

LIKE OUR

Dreams

ARE OURS ALONE

AND TELL

Our

STORY

{Flavia}

Today I am participating in a blog tour ~ I've been asked to answer four questions and then invite some of my blogging friends to do the same. I have found these questions very thought provoking and have enjoyed reading the answers of so many of my blog friends! I was officially tagged by Tamar, a fellow Bostonian, Sox Fan and inspiring young woman. She blogs at Random-osity and hosts my favorite Monday link up! A few days after Tamar tagged me, May from Achieving Clarity tagged me as well! She's my favorite Kansan and, I sometimes think, my alter ego! We've seen kids leave the nest and find comfort in each other's words. Her answers are up on her blog today too.

On to the questions:

One: What are you working on? In my heart, I believe that I am a storyteller. Whether I am scrapbooking, blogging, taking photographs or writing, at the heart of all of it, I am thinking about the story. I love the notion that each of us has a story - is living a story. And I value the telling and passing on of each narrative. This summer I am focusing on launching a business which would {hopefully} connect me to people who want to tell their stories through scrapbooking....with any luck they will entrust their photos to me and I will create for them a keepsake to hold their stories. It is my fervent hope that this space will always be filled with stories...as, to me, it is a living scrapbook.

Two: How does your work differ from others in the same genre? As a scrapbooker, I do my best to let the photos do the talking. I try to highlight the photos, do what I can to enhance them...and not distract from them. I would say that my style is fairly simple - clean lines and clear themes. When I began this blog, I thought it would be all about scrapbooking...and, in fact, it rarely is! It has become more about finding my voice and sharing my heart and my little corner of the world. Through blogging I've discovered a love of nature and rekindled a love of photography...two things I'm learning about as I share...a trial and error kinda thing! I find with myself, as with others I enjoy visiting, that our work is as unique as we are - the more we stay true to ourselves, the better it is.

Three: Why do I write/create what I do? For me, to write is to process. To create is to work through what's happening in my life. Or what has happened. It has always been my pathway to clarity. I can't seem to hold on to what's inside ~ I have to work with it until it finds expression. 

Four: How does your writing/creative process work? I am a synthesizer. I like finding a beautiful piece of paper and combining it with a photograph...or taking a prompt and using it as a vehicle for my story...or discovering a quotation that brings meaning to a picture I've taken. I am, like all of us, I suppose, a collector of tid-bits. Of ideas. And images. It is the weaving together of all these morsels from my life that brings me the most joy and feeds my creative process.

Thanks, also to Jill from Daily Bread for inviting me to share ~ visit her next Monday, discover her blog and her creative process! I've sent an invitation to Deborah from Learning as I Go, Ayala from A Sun Kissed Life, Brandi from Picking Peonies,  and Deb at It's All About Purple to share with us their answers to these questions! Hope you all visit their lovely blogs ~ they all bring me so much inspiration to my life.

And today,

as every Monday.

I'm linking with Tamar!

These random questions were good for me to think through.

And I hope you had fun reading my answers!

Link up is HERE

Of Memories and Back Doors

One of the best things about the back door of my childhood home, is that there were two screen doors to let slam before I reached the yard. The first was at the back of the kitchen, and the second on the other side of the tiny back porch. For some reason, my goody-two-shoes self enjoyed this tiny act of rebellion. Even if I was careful with the first door, so as not to "hear about it" later, that second door was waiting to be released, snapping back with a bang, as I ran out to freedom! 

Japanese magnolia blossoms...walls of ivy...giant oaks...forsythia...beds of pachysandra and lily of the valley.

A tree house...a rope swing..a bat and some balls...a dog to chase and fireflies to catch. 

My back door.

The back yard.

A childhood path to freedom!

This lovely morsel of my childhood is nestled safely in a scrapbook.

And today...this simple photograph, in an album spread out by the back door, took me back.

Took me home.

{Inspired by the Nickelback song Photograph}

Joining Kathy for

Song-ography

and Rebecca for

Simple Things Sunday

Treasures in a Plastic Box

On my lazy, rainy Sunday I had a few really good moments while digging through a storage box full of my mother's photos and paper mementos. This photo (from 1972) was taken at my Grandfather's 70th birthday party. He's the second from the right...handsome guy! In this photo we have his wife, his three daughters and their husbands...and all the cousins except one. I'm the groovy girl in the middle. The one who looks like she belongs in an episode of Little House on the Prairie.... My grandparents, aunts and uncles have all passed. My parents have been apart for years. And it's been decades since I've seen most of my cousins...so this photo really struck a chord deep in my heart. I'm pretty sure this is the last time we were all together.

AND!!!!

I found a copy of this photo of my dad - a photo I knew I had somewhere, but couldn't find! This was taken when he was in France in the 50's for his military service. Such a gorgeous shot of my sweet daddy!

As I was dealing with this box of photos, I found a few old albums ... those awful old magnetic albums which are full of acid and lignin - the chemicals that ruin photos!! I thought I'd gotten rid of all of them! So I'll take this opportunity to make a random public service announcement! It's so important that photos NOT be stored in albums like these. Or in those old black albums our grandparents used. If you don't have time to scan them, or transfer them to photo safe albums, take the time to remove them and store them in those photo boxes you can find at any craft or office supply store. Please! Save your photos!!

The most fun I had in this box, was finding a folder full of great-great-grandmother-style photos and a typed out family history. Tucked into the folder was this book mark. Such a mystery! Did a relative stitch it? Receive it as a gift? Was it actually made in 1876? Lots of questions...no answers. The only thing I know is that it is very delicate...crumbling a bit. There are teeny-tiny stitches that form the date, stitched right into the paper. It's so pretty!! Couldn't resist getting a few macro shots of the details...

Linking up with

The Tood, The Random, The Fun

and

Macro Monday

Childhood Favorite

If you want to transport me back to the warm fuzzies of my childhood, just hand me a book of Peanuts cartoons. Oh, how I wish I still had some of the well worn paper back volumes my brother and I used to trade back and forth. Whenever we read a really good new cartoon we'd go find the other one so they could read it too. Sure, we sang the songs and watched the animated specials. But nothing beat those books full of Charlie Brown and his adventures. Those guys were more than just sketches on a page. They were our childhood pals.

A few days after I learned that my brother was having a baby boy, I "happened" to spot a sweet Peanuts themed scrapbook at the Hallmark store! Now, my brother isn't as obsessed with sentimental photo collecting as I am...but he'll NEVER be able to resist this book! I've had so much fun getting it ready for the new arrival...turning it into a baby memory book. 

It was so easy to start with the pre-decorated pages. All I had to do was add a few special, baby-themed extras!

I had so much fun playing with my old pals as I put this book together. So, as soon as these goodies are in the mail, I'm going to head to a bookstore and find some of those old comic strip books. With any luck I'll discover a few well used copies. That way, I can pretend they used to be ours!

Linking up with

Little Things Thursdays

and

Mama Kat's