Being Childless Sucks, Life Doesn’t

When I blogged about how being childless sucks Wednesday, I received several words of encouragement which I did appreciate. But, I guess what I failed to get across in that post, is that it was just a moment. . . They come, they go. Sure, being childless hasn’t stopped sucking. But, it’s not the only thing in my life.

I honestly didn’t share about that moment when I searched google for those that know me, but rather because I know that there may be others I don’t know who feel the same way and are looking for something to perhaps validate their feelings or just someone who understands. (OK, that’s a really bad run on sentence whith far to many “thats” in the beginning, but you know, it’s a blog not a term paper)

You see just because being childless sucks, it doesn’t mean that life does. All-in-all, I’ve got a great life. A house over my head, a loving husband who truly spoils me, time to be creative, a job, etc. (Since I just made a long list New Year’s Eve, I spare you the long version ’cause I have a feeling this post is going to be long enough.)

(OK, in proofreading this, this next part is going to seem really off topic and a rambling tangent, I promise I’ll be bringing it back around.)

Last weekend as Cody and I were celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary, we discussed a new class that I want to take. This morning as I thought about that class, I realized that my hobbies all seem to piggy back on themselves. Last year, I spent a lot of time learning more about photography and taking pictures. This year, I’ve gotten back into scrapbooking. This new class is about organizing pictures with a scrapbooking purpose (well, that’s just the surface.) One of the assignments before the class starts is to go through your digital pics and printed pics and put them in chronological order. I’m in luck since my digi pics are all in folders my month and year and named by the date and a sequence that keeps the approximately 16,000 pictures in order. . . not to mention digi pics can be sorted by date/time taken. But, our printed pics, that’s another story. The class talks about not trying to do all your pictures but a portion so that you can learn the process and then repeat with the rest later. So, I decided to just tackle the years from when Cody and I met until we went digital- Fall Semester 1994-Deer Season 2003. (Another tangent. . . Deer Season, you may be wondering, why I associated that. . . Because I got my first digi camera on the way to the Campwood and I remember taking tons of shots along the 8 hour drive there. Looking back now, I realize it was purchase and trip that would change my life.)

So this week, Cody and I have been sorting those printed pictures. We really don’t have that many. They filled two plastic shoeboxes longwise (aka short side so that the pano shots would fit). It was so much fun to remember those days. We really enjoyed looking back. We were both amazed at how young we look. . . even though we don’t feel that much older today. In many ways, despite the things we’ve gone through, we’re still like newlyweds or perhaps even those kids in college. We’re still like those two lovebirds in those pictures- two lovebirds who got married and watched as their friends got married, two lovebirds who used to eat on the floor in Etoile, two lovebirds who have watched their nephew grow-up, two lovebirds that have seen great vacations, two lovebirds that met in college, moved to Corpus Christi, and came back to that college town. We’ve been blessed. I’ve been blessed.

And, I realize just how blessed to live in the digital age! We narrowed that lot of pics down to just a little over one box. Purging a lot of awful and failed shots, I realized how much I benefit from being able to instantly see my pictures. Going through the so-so pics, I realized how much easier it is to take advantage of learning photography in a digital world. Looking at how few pictures there were compared to fewer years of digital, I realized just how glad I am that I don’t have to pay for film and processing.

Creative Updates: 365 Link and Scrapbooking

Just wanted to share a simple update for those of you who are interested.

1) My 365 Project is going strong. I’m not sure whether I’ll get around to sharing a bit about each picture in blog posts but I plan to upload them to this gallery on about a weekly basis. (I’m also having them printed and putting them in my 365 binder). You can also see images from that gallery on the right hand side. . . and there’s a link to the gallery in the top menu.

2) More Scrapbook Layouts. . . I haven’t posted the other layouts I’ve done for my class so far. I’ve got one more to do before week 5 of the class starts on Thursday. It’s a 12 week class so just imagine how many layouts I’ll have done by then.

Since I plan to make scrapbooking a better part of 2010, I thought I’d go ahead and create a gallery for the pages I’m amassing quickly. Again, you can find a link up at the top directly to the gallery too!

(Again, these are all using Cathy Zielske templates from Big Picture Scrapbooking’s Design Your Life class. . . and the papers/embellishments I did not create are mainly from Crystal Wilkerson/Jessica Sprague)

3) Later this week, I hope to post some of Cody and I’s pictures from the zoo Saturday. There really wasn’t a movie we wanted to see for our anniversary and we had the church’s 50th anniversary dinner Saturday night leaving us with a limited amount of time. So, we went to the zoo in Lufkin after we went out to lunch. You’ll have to see the racoon pics we got! (Cody actually out shot me by 100+ shots) Truth be told neither of us is that much of a movie person and we’d rather be outside and taking pictures any day. It was a rare warmer anniversary as the temps were around 70- so we took advantage rain or not.

Gimme 5: Mini Album Project/ Assignment

One of this week’s assignments for the scrapbooking class I’m taking was to create a mini-album asking the folks I love for five things that described them. So, I emailed a few of those folks to get a start on the album. Except for my nephew Jack, they were all quick to get back with me. Here’s how the pages wound up.

Templates are by Cathy Zielske for Big Picture Scrapbooking’s Design Your Life. Papers are by Mindy Terasawa available at Designer Digitals. Oh and that cute cursive font- Amelie

Hoping to post my other layouts tomorrow. . .

Scrapbooking in 2010

I know I’ve been MIA. . . I’ve got several posts I hope to get out this week and then get back to a regular schedule. One of the things I want to do more of is scrapbooking. I wound up signing up for CathyZ’s Design Your Life Class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. . . Although I signed up a week late. I’ve spent the better part of the week and most of this weekend trying to catch up. I’ve scrapbooked more layouts in 2010 then I did in 2009 already- and probably more than I did in 2008 and 2009 combined.

I thought I’d share them here. All are using papers from the 2009 Paper Collections at Jessica Sprague by Crystal Wilkerson (June, July, Sept., and Oct). Layout and concept provided by Cathy Zielske Design Your Life workshop at BigPictureScrapbooking.com. . . Loving those templates!

School Is Back and So are the Memories

The college “kids” are back in town.  And you know what that means- Walmart and the traffic in town are crazy.  But, for Cody and I, it means something else.  Today is the 15 year anniversary of the date we met.  I don’t know if I’ve told you this or not. . . It was Chemistry.  Chemistry was my very first college class and the first of the semester.  Technically, it was after chemistry lab that evening that my lab partner, Lane, introduced Cody and I. 

Five years ago, I did a little album celebrating the 10 year anniversary of this date.  These are a few of the layouts from that album.  The first one features the area where we walked that first night- and many, many other times over the course of our lives.  The second one includes the Chemistry Building and pictures from the Ag Pond when/where Cody proposed.

And looking at these pictures, I realize we were “kids” ourselves.  I also remember all the fun we had in those days and realize we still have a lot of fun.  I’m so glad that God’s plan for me included Cody in my life.

(I can also see the evolution in my scrapbooking over the past five years when I look at these.)

Flashback Friday: Robber’s Cave and Broken Bow

While going through my old pictures, I decided to implement Flash Back Friday’s here on my blog- a chance to tell the unblogged stories our snapshots tell.

Today’s Flashback: September 2007.  We took a week off and headed north to Oklahoma.   We got a room at the lodge at Robber’s Cave.  That was super cool in and of itself.  It’s 20 rooms that look like hotel rooms.  We were only one of two rooms filled that night and it was like we had the place to ourselves. . . Your room- like a hotel, step outside, like you’re camping.  What a view we had!

(Here’s the problem with blogging this far after the fact. . . I have no idea.  I don’t know if he just didn’t want to cooperate or there was, at that time, some type of story behind this one.)

Robber’s Cave in and of itself was quite a feat for me.  I’ve become so scared of heights as I’ve grown older.  (This didn’t use to be the case as I loved the Astroworld ride that dropped you 8 flights in a matter of seconds.)  Robber’s Cave also meant lots of climbing.  The views were spectacular from up high as well. 

I was a tree hugger.

 They were my friends.

Cody had no fear.

Even after this.

He was no worse for the wear.

And, I had a great time despite my nerves being shot.

We took a windy scenic drive before we headed back down south to Broken Bow.  We aren’t likely to take that drive again any time soon.

But we were anxious to get to Broken Bow.  We knew they were stocking with trout.  We knew the trick to geting them.  And we knew it would be perfect fishing the next morning.

Or so we thought. . . Turned out the lake must have turned over.  There was too much sulfur in the water (and it stunk too) and no one was catching fish.

But we still enjoyed the beautiful water while we tent camped there at Beaver’s Bend.

And, we enjoyed getting on and in the water- but thankfully that was two activities instead of one.

Oh, and then there was the No Tell Motel Cody took me to. . . .

I created a little post card to myself to commemorate this great moment in our marriage.  It reads:

“Just a Note

We’re having a great time here in Oklahoma.  I really enjoyed climbing around at Robbers Cave.  You should be proud of yourself for not letting your fear of heights keep you from climbing.
But, stopping at this no-tell motel was not one of your finest moments.  This sign which seems to be from a by-gone era had been captured in my memory from our last trip here.  Cody obliged your request to stop and take pictures.  But as I took pictures I slowly realized that this was not the kind of establishment I should be parked in front of and began wondering what those on the highway were thinking of you.
Me, Myself, and I”

Creating on Monday Keeps the Blues Away

I’ve enjoyed my day off to be creative. Among the things I’ve done today: Issued another challenge, scrapped a couple of pages, and added a template and papers to The Old Front Porch Downloads.

This layout, led to a challenge:

It’s a “sequel” to this layout:

This layout is created from the Agua Dulce Papers and Yegua Creek Template available for download.

Chalkboard Paper

Inspired by the cover of the current issue of Creating Keepsakes and the work in this post, I’ve created a chalkboard paper available for download over at The Old Front Porch.  I used the paper in this simple layout.

(The font is Eraser, you can download it here in case you want to use it.)

It’s actually just one of many downloads I plan to have available over at my site The Old Front Porch now that the downloads section is working.

Teacher and Student

Last month, I took a class at Jessica Sprague called Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects.  It was a lot of fun to step outside of my box and do things to photographs that I don’t typically do. . . it’s just not really my preference or style. 

This month, I’m taking the Brush*Abilities class at Jessica Sprague.  It’s been some more fun experimenting and learning.  Although during the last class, I really tried to stick the script, this time I feel like I can play a lot more.

The first image was yesterday’s task.  Below are some of the things I played with for today’s lesson.

(For both the top image and the bottom image, I used the Digital Distressing Kit from Scrapartist owner Nancie Rowe Janitz that came with the class.)

Wacom Me Momma

Poor DH, he is so sweet. When he got off work Friday he was planning to go straight to the deer lease. But he knew I’d try to go to Lufkin to get my pen tablet. . . and that probably wouldn’t be a good thing because of the rain (and a car where the windshield wipers don’t work) and the sinus meds I’ve been taking. So, he drove the 45 miles to Lufkin and back to take me to get my new Wacom Bamboo pen tablet, then went out the deer lease. I love him!

So, this weekend, I’ve been playing by the fire with my pen tablet listening to some great Americana Music including The Old Crow Medicine Show’s “Rock Me Mamma”.

Candid Shots

I finished this layout the day of our home study. I thought we were just having a pre-home study visit and was not concerned with making things were perfect. To pass my time, I scrapped these pictures from our Sept trip to Oklahoma. . . I really couldn’t wait to scrap them. They just speak to me.

White Space

A White Space begs for color. . . A white space begs me to scrapbook in vibrant colors and try so many of the inspirations I get from others who aren’t afraid to include some white space in their layouts.