Yet to be shown is my kitchen arrangement which is of chickens. My big kids made me chicken related gifts for my 43rd and they made a nice grouping over the sink to add some interest there.
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Check out this link http://www.2modern.com/s.nl/it.A/id.926/.f
Use this rug to inspire your style, and for a topic, make a page about night. How you feel about it in general, what your bedtime routine is, a special memory that happened out under the stars, anything along those lines.
Have fun!
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Here are a couple of pictures I have used in a layout using large (and small) photos.
The layout is probably my favorite in many months. I'll post that later this weekend, its still stuck on the camera
These photos are sized 3.25" x 10.50" and are made up of a composite of four or five photos.
PSE has a function that stitches together photos of a similar scene, overlapping and adjusting perspective to blend them seemlessly.
I was inspired by this site to do some stitched photos because they really help represent the presence of some buildings that a single photo cannot.
I had some trouble doing this in a side by side series in this room because I think my camera made automatic adjustments due to the semicircular shape of the ceiling. I'll have to try that one again with presettings that are locked in place.
Off to collect a few things at the grocery for a lock in tonight. The weather isn't as bad as they predicted...yet, but its bad enough to make me think we should hang near home!
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Perhaps you have all figured out by now that Tuesday nights is scrap night at the Shultz household. Erin comes over somewhere between late afternoon and evening, Lisa joins us when she can, and away we go. I cherish these times together and although I often have competing demands for my attention I always get something done that night, even if its just a little fun and rest for my soul.
Last night was no exception, even though it took some exceptional efforts to make it happen. Erin didn't get alot done, she had to wait for me to print pictures and her man was needing alot of attention, but Lisa and I both finished a layout.
Lisa's cracks me up! I hope you can read the journaling, because the cute layout is even more cute if you can read her words.
Let Lisa's layout challenge you to do a layout in all reds and pinks. The more shades the better. You can throw a little gold in for definition. And if you do it about something other than love, EXTRA kudos to you!
My layout, which I'm sure you can't see well at this small size, is entitled Serenity at the State Fair.
the journaling is all about how I find peace before the start of each business day when running the booth at the fair, and about the beauty that surrounds the Agriculture/Horticulture building. The bottom lefthand photo is a photoshopped digital print where I superimposed a picture of one side of the building over another, so you could see both the word Agriculture and Horticulture. I like how it worked out.
This is a total scraplift of a Sketches page in BH's 2nd book. I had 10 photos I wanted to use and I knew I needed help.
Man scrapper Wes posted yesterday about larger than life photos and whether folks scrapped in the 8x10 size often. I don't do it often, but I did find these that I did for my Europe album. I think that size lends itself to two types of photos: Portraits and Vacation photos. The large size denotes unusual importance, and I think we have those kinds of experiences most often on vacation. I loved the reminder to look through this album, which although it remains unfinished is enough done to remind me of what a fabulous treat that trip was. I also included two pages that did not have large photos, but on which I included fun envelopes to hold a variety of photos and post cards and receipts that I didn't want to dedicate a whole new page (or 10) to. I love those little pockets. I need to remember to do that more often.
In one is a receipt from the master carver from which I purchased Scotts "Falkner" statue. I know the guy's name, Josef Albl, I know the date I purchased the piece, and I know how much I paid (okay, I might have been happy to forget that) But looking at that receipt reminds me of so much more. Of the beauty of his little shop in Oberammergau. Of the smell of all that carved wood. Of his sweet disposition. Of the excitement when I saw the statue and KNEW it was the thing to send back as a present to Scott. He only charged me 20 Euro to ship it back to the US, and it was worth every penny knowing it would be safe.
Okay enough reminiscing, and back to posting the layouts!
this photo was taken out the window of a speeding tour bus as we navigated northern italy/southern austria. The bushes along the side of the road created a lovely pattern along the bottom of the photo as they partially obscured the town. The ruined monastery at the top of the mountain looks austere. The colors are strange and muted which gave the photo a mystical quality. You can't plan photos like this, you just have to snap, and sometimes something magical occurs.
We spent most of the few hours we were in St. Moritz Switzerland on the slopes. Of course since we didn't ski we spent alot of time observing: and drinking VERY expensive cappuchinos. When sitting out in the sun near the top of a mountain we had hang gliders taking off right at our feet off the roof under the deck and we got to watch as they floated down to land on the lake at the foot of the city. This one photo best represents how I felt in Switzerland. Snow and sun and floating and in awe of the majesty of the mountains.
We went to several cities and towns in Italy while we stayed in Europe, but of course the pictoral highlight was Venice. We arrived during Carnivale time and costumed citizens, sidewalk painters, bold pidgeons and of course the canal boats meant I spent most of my visit behind the lens. The scale and mood of Venice is so unique that I would confidently say that every person should attempt to get there at least once in their lives. This wasn't the highlight of our trip by any means, and we have spent many hours trying to discover why, but oh the wonder of it!
How to choose one picture to capture Austria? We spent the majority of our time in this country, sleeping there every night and traveling across it every day. I chose this photo of a pretzel vendor because it was something unique to Austria and because Salzburg was an especially exciting part of our trip. Mozart lived just around the corner from this spot. Chills when I saw his house. Tears now spring to my eyes as I realize how incredibly fortunate I am to be able to recall being there. How were the pretzels? The size of your head and like nothing you've ever tasted here. I'd weigh 500 pounds (how many stone is that?) if I lived there!
Arguably the best photo of the trip. Again, taken out the window, about 1/2 an hour into our trip from the airport in Germany. I'm sure Germany is lovely in the spring, summer and fall, but in winter? Its magical. It was about 10 minutes earlier that we had passed the Volkswagen plant. The comment from a woman on the trip with us? "I didn't know they imported VWs to Europe!" DOH!
Here is one of the pocket pages
to which I made reference earlier
in the post:
and here is its mate.
That guy is Josef, of whom I made reference earlier. Actually, I believe its Josef's brother.
Let's turn Wes' question into a challenge: Scrap an 8x10, but let's make it harder, scrap a picture that is NOT a portrait or a photo from vacation.
Now, I just heard it is 50 degrees, so I'm off to go for a walk outside.
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I haven't done a challenge for awhile, so here is one:
Watch this video on YouTube featuring 100s of famous works of art, and then let that experience inspire a scrapbook layout. No other rules, no other guidelines. Be inspired by "high" art. Then create. Then share if you will, by emailing me a picture of your creation.
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Sometimes in homeschool in February, you just need a little boost of fun.
So, today we are going on a treasure hunt.
When Andrew woke up the first clue was on his bedroom door. It leads him to seven
other clues, six of which are written in the form of a riddle. Such as,
"What has keys that open no locks, space but no room, you can enter but not go in?"
or
"Buckets, barrels, baskets, cans; what must you fill with empty hands?"
researching riddles to include, I ran across this site, which is more adult level then
seven year old level: http://www.theproblemsite.com/treasure_hunt/default.asp
I have only gotten two of the seven riddles solved so far...something to look forward to when we get home from our adventuring. Oh, you want to know where we are going?
Well, we will be seeing Play Days, Don, Toby, Azaleas and Crest of a Wave, not to mention the latest addition from Bainbridge Island, Washington. Any guesses to any of my riddles?
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When I was a child, one of my favorite books was The Phantom Tollbooth.
The Phantom Tollbooth (1961, Alfred A. Knopf) is a children's book and a modern fairy tale full of wordplay. Written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, it tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who drives through a magic tollbooth into the Kingdom of Wisdom, where he chooses to visit one of the divided country's two capitals, Dictionopolis. En route he gets lost in the Doldrums, but is found and rescued by the steadfast (and literal) watchdog Tock, who joins him on his journey.
I don't know about the rest of you Minnesota stay at home moms, but I could use Tock right about now.
Unrelenting cold. Unrelenting illness on the part of my child. My mind has dulled. My senses have dulled. My mind has dulled. I find myself repeating myself, repeating myself.
Sigh.
Now don't get me wrong, my life rocks. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my husband. My little guy is making me laugh every other minute. My big kids threw me a surprise party and thought of everything, right down to the homemade gifts. I mean they got it perfect.
But Tock, where are you? The doldrums are H-E-R-E.
Help!
I loved that book.
I'm gonna find that book tomorrow and reread it.
Yep, that is my plan.
While numbed beyond reason, I did surf a bit and found this awesome video.
Here is an exerpt from PT to take us out. Over and out.
"Well, if you can't laugh or think, what can you do?" asked Milo.
"Anything as long as it's nothing, and everything as long as it isn't anything," explained another. "There's lots to do; we have a very busy schedule-
"At 8 o'clock we get up, and then we spend
"From 8 to 9 daydreaming.
"From 9 to 9:30 we take our early midmorning nap.
"From 9:30 to 10:30 we dawdle and delay.
"From 10:30 to 11:30 we take our late early morning nap.
"From ll:00 to 12:00 we bide our time and then eat lunch.
"From l:00 to 2:00 we linger and loiter.
"From 2:00 to 2:30 we take our early afternoon nap.
"From 2:30 to 3:30 we put off for tomorrow what we could have done today.
"From 3:30 to 4:00 we take our early late afternoon nap.
"From 4:00 to 5:00 we loaf and lounge until dinner.
"From 6:00 to 7:00 we dillydally.
"From 7:00 to 8:00 we take our early evening nap, and then for an hour before we go to bed at 9:00 we waste time.
"As you can see, that leaves almost no time for brooding, lagging, plodding, or procrastinating, and if we stopped to think or laugh, we'd never get nothing done."
"You mean you'd never get anything done," corrected Milo.
"We don't want to get anything done," snapped another angrily; "we want to get nothing done, and we can do that without your help."
"You see," continued another in a more conciliatory tone, "it's really quite strenuous doing nothing all day, so once a week we take a holiday and go nowhere, which was just where we were going when you came along. Would you care to join us?"
"I might as well," thought Milo; "that's where I seem to be going anyway."
End schmend, I found more good stuff. Here is an exerpt from a Salon interview with Norton Juster in 2001, 40 years after the book came out.
You had no idea when you started this book how it would turn out?
I had no idea. One of the first things I wrote was that scene where the Mathemagician, the ruler of Digitopolis, explains infinity to Milo. I'd had a conversation with a child who said to me, "What's the biggest number there is?" One of those wonderful children's questions you never know how to answer. I asked him a question: What do you think the biggest number is? He gave me one of these 80 skillion, 159 trillion numbers that went on and on, and so I said, "OK, add one to it." He thought that was enormously funny. I realized that we were talking about infinity as only two total mathematical illiterates could and having an absolutely wonderful time.
I started with that scene, because I loved it. I wrote the book from all different angles. It wasn't completely sequential, but just little bits and pieces. One thing that was extraordinarily useful to me was when I had a character or an idea for a scene, I'd write a lot of conversations between the characters, which was my way of getting to know how they sounded and what they might say. After you do this, and you're writing the scene, you sometimes get the feeling that you're sitting back and simply recording or eavesdropping on what the characters are saying. They're making the conversation and you're just there as a scribe. That's a wonderful feeling.
This quote reminded me of my husband. He is writing a book right now. Well, right now he is driving to work, but sometime tonight, I'm sure he'll be working on his book. He's been working on it since December, and he's getting very serious about it. I love that.
Its been on his list of dreams to write a novel since before I met him. And now he's doing it. He's talking about how the story is taking him away now, how the characters are developing to the point where they are doing things unexpectedly as he writes. Goosebumps!
And as a final footnote, I know there are at least two fine women out there who will read this and think, "Whiny $&%^%! How can she complain about her life which is truly wonderful when there are people in the world who are really facing hard times."
And to them I say, "You are right. How can I?" And yet in all honesty I am. Its the old wheelchair argument. When someone is going through their version of a hard time it isn't uplifting to them to point out that woman in a wheelchair is worse off. I know I don't have it bad. I know people I love are suffering more. Still. The doldrums. I honor you for keeping your heads up so well in the face of true adversity. I'm back here struggling with tedium, and I am a bit ashamed. Hope you have grace for me.
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