All Things Creative

This is SO me...

2011-06-07T09:13:00.001-06:00

Just thought I'd stop and share a snapshot of sorts about what is currently running through this brain of mine, because it's just so typical... ME!

Short-term projects I'm currently mulling over, planning in my head & in various stages of tackling over the next month or so...

Kitchen overhaul... WAY WAY overdue. Finally going to at least start with some cosmetic stuff. We have a table we bought several months ago that I won't use until I've made some improvements. First up will probably be painting the cabinets & walls, doing something with the backsplash and soon after, the countertops. Jacques & the kids are heading out of state toward the end of the month for almost a week to help enable this process....
Home office/scraproom redo... I just hauled my ginormous table outside this weekend to use in the yard sale and it's not coming back in, plus I got rid of a little bit of the stuff I'd been storing. Now in the process of coming up with lots of interesting ideas to really transform this into a space I really love. This week I plan to scout the local secondhand stores for some cabinet/furniture possibilities and I've been collecting interesting & pretty containers for a few months now. Will be sharing more in the process via the Log Your Memory blog...
Re-organizing (and in some cases just simply organizing) my photos, scrapbooks and general scrapping process via the Finding Photo Freedom class by Stacy Julian, currently underway.

Biz development...

Continually maintaining, tweaking & otherwise working on Log Your Memory, including getting serious about the 2012 Memory Logbook plus another book that's been in the cooker for over a year now.
Developing a new sister site to Log Your Memory ... more on that to come ;)
Developing another biz idea that I've been mulling over for quite a while now in one form or another. It's starting to take shape in my brain finally to the point where I purchased a domain name for it this morning. More on that to come also... ;)
Noticing an interest from others in yet another area related to scrapbooking, so adding that to my stuff-to-think-about mind bank.
Participating in the Art of Action six-week online course via Tara Gentile that I'm currently enrolled in and contemplating membership in Kitchen Table Companies and/or Foolish University.

Health & wellness...

Continually reading every self development, biz and wellness book I can get my hands on that fits with my current interests & mindset... right now, that means I'm simultaneously reading Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action and The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play. Waiting in the wings: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. (affiliate links)
Pushing myself to stick with the programs I started over eight weeks ago - Couch to 10K, a weekly yoga session, and Weightwatchers Online.

Ode to My iPod

2011-06-02T10:04:00.002-06:00

Everyone over the age of 10 in my household has had an iPod of their own for years ...

Everyone except me, that is.

I put it on my Christmas wish list several times, hinted at Mother's Day and flat-out asked for one on one occasion, to no avail. I think the response I got was something along the lines of ...

"What would YOU do with an iPod?"

So this year I got smart... I did NOT ask for an iPod for Christmas. Instead, I did a little research on exactly what I wanted and just went out and bought myself one soon after the holidays ... the top-of-the-line, best and newest at the time iPod Touch!!

Since then, I have done all kinds of magical things with my now-favorite toy ... things that I've had good intentions of doing for a very long time but simply had not because I hadn't found the right combination of time, tools and motivation that worked for me... until now.

So here's my answer to that "What would YOU do with an iPod?" question at this point in this 40-something-year-old, stay-at-home, not particularly "hip" mom's life...

Keep a daily gratitude journal via the Gratitude Rock app where every evening right before I go to sleep, I jot down a minimum of three things I'm thankful for at this stage in my life. Very, VERY helpful in the effort to appreciate the good stuff and maintain a positive attitude!
Make better use of waiting room and otherwise wasted time by reading a few paragraphs of whatever is currently on my Kindle via the mobile app on my iPod. The best part... my Kindle knows where I left off with the iPod when I open that same book later on at bedtime.
Jot down my constant stream of biz & other ideas via my Evernote and QuikCards apps, both of which I can then sync to my iMac versions at home so everything is up-to-date no matter where I am or which tool I am using!
Quickly check the temperature and week-long forecast in Lewistown, as well as the cities where my parents and in-laws live.
Check my calendar, which allows me to schedule appointments on the spot and look at our family plans months in advance... also synced to my iMac.
Keep up to date with my Twitter and Facebook streams.
Play week-long rounds of Scrabble and/or chat with my online buddy (hey Jen!) clear across the country while simultaneously doing the dishes, cleaning my office, folding laundry or whatever else is on my plate at the moment.
Manage and/or check in on my Log Your Memory blog and forum from wherever I happen to be at all times of the day.
Check out the latest pins on Pinterest and re-pin to my board anything that captures my interest.
Play around with different ways I could re-arrange/re-design my office space via the Mark On Call app (where was THIS when I was a kid?????)
Warm up (or distract) my brain with the Sudoku, iReverse (just like Othello!), Yahtzee and Shanghai (Mahjong) apps (eh, games).
Indulge my urge to shop, even in the middle of nowhereville, via the App Store, Amazon app and iTunes.
Capture my kids antics, crazy family life, multiple music performances and all kinds of other great stuff in all formats, from audio snippets to photos to video.
Automatically, with literally NO DAILY EFFORT WHATSOEVER on my part, aggregate all kinds of cool memories & daily observations in one easy place, including photos and my Twitter & Facebook comments, via the Momento (genius!!) app, which I can then back-up to my iMac and use in all sorts of fun memory-keeping projects.
Watch movies in the bathtub, thanks to the Netflix app and the subscription we already use as a family via our Wii.
Search for, look up or check out whatever I want to online via the Google and Safari apps.
Time and/or remind myself to do anything and everything, from how long Kody plays Madden Football on the Wii to reminding myself to take the tater tots out of the oven to making sure I don't forget to jump online for a group call in the latest class I'm taking.
Track my crazy moodswings via the MyMood app... if I'm in the mood, that is! ;)
Keep a log of every book I've read, including start and end dates, and any notes I want to take along the way via the iReadItNow app.
Explore various types of music based on a few artists I already know I like (ie. The Beatles) in my attempts to figure out just what I DO like to listen to these days (which I seem to have lost over the years), thanks to the Pandora app.
And last, but definitely not least... in fact, my absolute number one reason my iPod Touch is my favorite and most personally influential tool right now ... get up at 6 a.m. nearly every weekday for the past 8+ weeks to run/walk a total of 130 miles so far in my efforts to become the healthier me that I've pretty much always wanted to be. How does the iPod help me do this? A combination of the Couch to 10K app (go from couch to 10K ready in 13 weeks!), the LogYourRun app (helps me track & measure all those miles), the amazingly entertaining, inspiring (and thankfully distracting) podcasts from the gang at Paperclipping (both the Roundtable and Digi Shows) and the very convenient Weight Watchers app which has helped me get my eating habits back on track while losing 13 pounds so far in the process! I can't even begin to tell you the difference this has already made in my general well-being and attitude toward life, but I can tell you that there is no way I would have gotten to where I am right now WITHOUT my iPod Touch. It gets me out of bed, prompts my next move, reminds me of how far I've already come and entertains me along the way. It just works for me.

So... what would I do with an iPod, you ask?

Careful kiddos... if it comes down to it, I might just sell one of YOU to replace it if it ever konks out or disappears on me!! ;)

Photo-A-Day: March 2010

2010-04-02T14:01:00.001-06:00

That time again... at this point, I'm just going to be happy I've kept up with the photos so far this year and not worry about writing! LOL

Photo-A-Day: February 2010

2010-03-03T17:34:00.001-07:00

My goodness... where does the time go?

Scrapping Again... Finally!

2010-02-07T23:52:00.001-07:00

It took the challenges at my own Web site to get me scrapping again. While I love Log Your Memory & spend the bulk of my time immersed in the scrapping world, I haven't actually felt like scrapping since I started the biz in October - until this week, that is.

I launched the Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge on February 1st and have had fun playing along with our members. Here are the pages I've put together so far for the challenges, each based on a different type of journaling.

Challenge #1: Lists

Challenge #2: ABCs

Challenge #3: Conversation

Challenge #4: Fairy Tales

And then just because I felt like it, I also did this one about Danica.

Can you believe she is 19 months old already? Does not seem possible. Of course, Skylar has "decided" that she is already 4, even though her birthday isn't for a couple more months. She decides a lot of things these days - she's quite the stubborn one!

We're looking forward to a little 3-day ski trip to Red Lodge next weekend, the first time in a couple years we've been able to go. Nana & Pop, plus Dick & Rachel's family, will be there as well. Kody's been asking to go skiing for weeks and is already very excited for next weekend - it's going to be a long week!

As for me, I have a ton of new projects in the works for my business and not enough time (or energy) to concentrate on them all. If only I didn't need sleep... LOL. Speaking of which, I'd better head for bed. Night! :)

January: One Photo a Day

2010-02-01T14:20:00.003-07:00

I've started a "photo-a-day" project for 2010 in which I choose one photo each day to represent life at the given moment. I'm putting together an album, but thought I'd also do a round-up of each month's photos at the end of the month.

Here's a peek at January 2010 ... one photo at a time. (Click on the image for a closer look.) The photos go in order of the days of the month...

Join Me For Some Sweet Talking!

2010-02-01T06:00:00.008-07:00

We’re kicking off a month-long challenge at my favorite site today … the Sweet Talk Journaling Challenge at Log Your Memory!

I hope you’ll come on over and check it out today … there will be an entire month of scrapbooking challenges with a focus on “real life” journaling, plus the chance to earn points and prizes along the way! And if you’ve never visited before, you’re in for a treat! We have a wonderful group of friendly, helpful scrapbookers just waiting to say hello and show you around!

Get started by visiting the Log Your Memory Blog HERE and get ready to journal your way to becoming a Log Your Memory Sweet Talker!

(And tell the rest of the gang that Kristin sent you!)

Better than Hallmark ...

2009-12-29T22:48:00.001-07:00

Just had to share my birthday cards from my family tonight, which they presented after Jacques & I had returned from a nice dinner out at The Mint ...

First, from 12-year-old Kody:

And we all had a good chuckle reading the card from my hubby ...

Now what could possibly top that??? :)

How about this cake secretly baked & decorated by 14-year-old Karstin? First attempt and no one to ask for help ... tasted pretty good, too!

Apparently it took a few matches to light all those candles... LOL.

Throw in a nice little envelope of spending money for my upcoming "girls weekend" with my mom and sister and it all added up to a very nice 40th birthday.

Couldn't ask for anything more. :)

Favorites @ 40

2009-12-29T09:54:00.001-07:00

1. quiet, uninterrupted mornings with my 3Cs ... hot Coffee, Carbs and my Computer!
2. new inspiration and ideas

3. great photos that really show the heart & personalities of my kids
4. tortilla chips with a mixture of fresh avocado with sour cream, fresh tomatoes and salsa
5. chicken and artichokes at The Mint

6. Cherry Zero
7. watching 14-year-old Karstin perform on the drums
8. Facebook
9. the Internet
10. watching 17-month-old Danica break into spontaneous dance whenever she hears a strong beat

11. my black Clark's slip-on shoes
12. Ali Edwards
13. real life scrapbooking
14. having found the right business for me ... finally!

15. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Rosenthal

16. the Today Show
17. Brothers & Sisters on Sunday evenings
18. online shopping
19. Barbara Delinsky

20. playing with the Loving Family dollhouse with 3-year-old Skylar
21. working for myself from home
22. a clean house
23. listening to an enthusiastic 12-year-old Kody share a story
24. digital scrapbooking

25. rising book sales
26. a clean, organized desk
27. giving away free books and more free books!

28. the movie "The Proposal"
29. cheesecake
30. unsolicited offers of a dinner out with just my hubby (just got one!!!)

31. my Kindle loaded with my biz blog, the entire Twilight series just waiting to be read & a couple great new business books!
32. the click of a great D-SLR
33. brainstorming new projects
34. Christopher & Banks

35. our flowering crabapple tree in the spring
36. Adobe software
37. french vanilla lattes

38. a very supportive hubby
39. banana chocolate chip muffins from Crabtree Coffee
40. this quote: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Time for a shift of focus

2009-12-20T09:24:00.002-07:00

I have blogged every single day since officially launching Log Your Memory on October 8th, yet since that time I have only done one post here on my personal blog. That seems like a pretty good illustration of why I've chosen this particular word as my "word" for 2010.

If you recall, I blogged and scrapbooked not quite a year ago about choosing one word to serve as a mantra of sorts for the year. This particular practice was inspired by scrapbooking queen Ali Edwards, and thousands of us have adopted it for ourselves. The act of choosing a word kind of lodges that thought into the back of your mind, serving as a pretty consistent reminder as you go about your day. Almost like your conscience.

Last year was my first year doing this. As you might recall, my word was "begin." It proved to be a pretty effective word, particularly in the scrapbooking realm. I went from calling myself a scrapbooker, but not really ever doing it, to BEGINning what turned out to be a scrapping frenzy. I've created just short of 300 scrapbook pages since last January, which includes two complete theme albums and tons of other pages for our family and individual scrapbooks. The number would be even higher, however, if I had managed to continue my scrapping after BEGINning my new business this fall. Since that time, I've only created a handful of pages, and they've all pretty much been driven by something I wanted to illustrate at Log Your Memory.

Hence my new word.

Finding balance has always been a struggle for me. When I get interested in something, I tend to have a very difficult time focusing on much else and it becomes something of an obsession. A more flattering word might be "passion," but whatever it is, it does a good job of throwing the rest of my life a bit out of kilter.

Granted, there are generally good reasons for this focus - at least that's what I tell myself. It's pretty tough to get a business up and running and make it successful without a lot of time and attention. All of that focus has paid off, too ... Log Your Memory is quickly becoming known throughout the online scrapbooking realm and I have a very steadily growing membership base on the site, as well as continually growing book sales & customer numbers. We're getting the attention, and hopefully the respect, of some pretty well-connected scrappers. Best of all, it's been fun and I feel more strongly every day that this is the right biz for me... finally.

But as my husband pointed out early on, this level of attention is simply not sustainable over the long run. You can only put in so many long days and short nights before it will catch up to you. My house could use a pretty thorough cleaning - and not just right before company comes. If I don't get my butt out of this desk chair and get some exercise and do a little menu planning instead of throwing less-than-healthy meals together at the last minute every night, I'm going to need to squeeze in time to shop for new clothes - literally. And if I don't take time to just sit and actually scrapbook once in a while, I'm going to lose touch with that which prompted this whole thing in the first place. It's been at least three months since I updated our family's photo site at Shutterfly because I haven't taken the time to process our photos. I haven't even touched my jewelry-making supplies, crochet hooks or other hobbies in almost a year. And at some point, I need to go through the girls' closet and sort clothing so maybe they can wear clothes that actually fit for a while before they've already outgrown them.

I need to find a balance between my online pursuits and the rest of my life.

How am I going to do this? I'm not real sure. As I mentioned, this is something I've struggled with my entire life. Looking back on my younger years, I can remember many "phases" where a particular interest consumed my every waking moment. When I would read a book, I would read it start to finish, pulling it out of my desk at school at every little opportunity and barely pausing to eat once I got home. I could literally sit for hours drawing imaginary floor plans or devouring dollhouse catalogs or designing Lego houses. As I got older, these obsessions were replaced with new ones - new jobs, new babies, new (short-lived) diets, new homes to decorate ...

So now by choosing balance as my word for 2010, I'm hoping to make it my new obsession. And if I'm successful, it will be one "obsession" I can sustain. If you have any good tips on how to achieve this goal or examples of how you maintain balance in your own life, I'd love to hear them! And if you're curious about my progress, keep an eye on this blog. It seems to be a pretty good indicator of where my attention lies!

An amazing first 10 days ...

2009-10-18T09:51:00.000-06:00

Wow! What an amazing first official 10 days I've had since the official launch of my new business, Log Your Memory. I can't tell you how excited I've been, except that I've found it nearly impossible to sleep for the last week ... and now it's catching up a bit. I'm a bit groggy today. It wouldn't have hurt my feelings a bit if Danica had wanted to sleep in today. But she was raring to go first thing this morning, so here we are.

Anyway, it seems like I spend a lot of time looking at numbers related to my Web site, a little bit for information but largely for fun. It's just amazing to see everything coming together ... and exciting to watch these numbers grow. I'll probably create a scrapbook page about it (you know me....) but for now, I just want to get some of the numbers documented.

In our first 10 days, we've ...

Logged over 60 new member registrations... (I enjoy thinking of this as a 600% increase!)
Had guests from 12 different countries (US, Canada, Australia, UK, Israel, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Europe, New Zealand, Singapore, Germany, and 1 unknown)
Welcomed visitors from at least 36 of the 50 states in America.
Sold almost five times as many books already as the last little datebook I published.
Officially enrolled six members in our Book Club ... and others are waiting for their books to arrive so they can join, too...
Announced my first two Creative Team members ... and received applications already from more than a dozen very attractive candidates interested in filling out the remaining slots.
Had over 100 scrapbook layouts posted in our gallery.
Hosted as many as 20 visitors at once in our forum.
Received my first offer to review my book - and it was from an amazing lady well-known in the online scrapbooking world!
Posted almost 150 messages and replies in the forum.
Had more than 30 Facebook friends join our official Friends of Log Your Memory fan site!
Showcased a dozen amazing "real life" scrapbook pages in our first Story Board and another fantastic page in our first "Layout of the Week."
Had several people at least start an entry in our Kickoff Contest. It's a three-step process, so we have a few folks that need to finish up a step or two.
Lined up several great sponsors for our Grand Opening SPOOK-tacular to be held at the end of the month.
Almost finished planning our first online workshop, which I'll announce on Thursday.
Had our CT call mentioned in one of the popular online industry newsletters.
Introduced two scrapbooking challenges, both of which offer a prize.
Arranged for free product giveaways on three different blogs in the next month.
Enjoyed seeing my teeny, tiny little ad on the blog of one of my all-time favorite scrapbookers ... with plans for it to appear on that of another in the next month.
Had about a million new ideas for things to do in the coming months, thanks to all of this creative energy swirling around the blogosphere!

On top of all that, I found out this week that a two-page layout I submitted a while back was chosen to be featured next week in Scrapbook News and Review! :)

Whew! I get tired just thinking about it all ... and energized at the same time! It's all just so much FUN! I have to keep reminding myself it's only been just over a week, because it feels like so much longer.

And I suppose I'm going to have to move away from my computer pretty soon to make sure there's food in the fridge and clean clothes to wear ... I've had a hard time tearing myself away the last several days! It's worked out okay, though, because I've been home with just Danica for the past several days. Jacques, Kody and Skylar will be home this afternoon after a hunting trip to North Dakota, and Karstin just got home last night after his trip to Butte for the Divisional x-country meet. So "real life" is about to interject itself anyway, whether I'm ready for it or not!

Speaking of Karstin, he did pretty well at the meet yesterday - his time was 21:21, so I don't want to wake him up to ask...). He competed at the JV level, but he gets to go to State next weekend in Missoula as an alternate for the Varsity team. He's excited, because chances are good he'll get to go and have all the fun - and not have to kill himself running! But he does have to practice this week, including a 6 a.m. run on Monday, so it's not ALL fun and games. He's had a great first year and was telling me last night just how much he's enjoyed the season. I'm so glad ... it's fun to watch him when he's excited about something. He's also started getting busy with a couple other extracurriculars at school - now he's gearing up to do a humorous duo with his buddy Jacob for the Speech and Drama team, plus he's practicing every week with the Science Olympiad team. So cool to watch...

I just found out this week, too, that I'll be representing Skylar's Head Start class on the Policy Council, which means I have a four-hour training to go to later in the month and then a meeting every month. Add that to my monthly visit to her classroom to volunteer and it gets pretty busy. She's LOVING Head Start, though... it about drives her nuts to have to stay home Friday through Sunday when there's no class!

Would you believe Danica is 15 1/2 months old already? I'm finding it hard to believe... she's a total crackup right now - and is trying to talk all the time. Most of the time, I don't have the foggiest idea what she is saying, but sometimes I can make out a word or two. She can also point to her nose - and mine - and I catch her dancing to the kiddie videos on TV all the time. She just LOVES the music in Veggie Tales. Of course, she's also playing with the VCR buttons all the time ... I took this picture after I found her yesterday parked in front of the TV. She had started a Blue's Clues video all by herself AND hauled her Bumbo seat in from the other room. She was just sitting there watching, like it was no big deal. Ha-ha. She's also sprouting teeth left and right, which I think is why she's been a bit fussy at night. But overall, she's been her adorable, sweet self most of the time.

And Kody, I'm sure, will be FULL of hunting stories when he gets home. I guess he shot his first flying pheasant this week ... and scores of other flying objects, which I don't recall the details about ... so I'll have to update more on him later. Between talking to him and to Skylar on the phone, I'm not quite sure what either of them really said, except that they're having a blast! So that's good...

More later... now I'm off to find out what's Dani's been up to while I've been jabbering away... ;) If you haven't checked out my Web site yet, please do!! And spread the word... the more, the merrier! :)

The time has come!!!!!!!

2009-10-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

Lots of excitement, loads of creative energy and a little fear all wrapped up together. That's how I've been feeling the last several days leading up to the launch of my new Web site ...

It's been all I could do not to share it with everyone before it was completely ready.

First, a little background... This little venture has taken about two months ... and FIVE YEARS ... to become a reality. For a long time now, I've had a real desire to work from home. And the more I scrapbook, the more I want to ... scrapbook. Obviously a job gets in the way of that. So how about a "job" that allows me to spend tons of time scrapbooking ... and hanging out with scrapbookers ... and researching lots of great scrapping ideas ... and reading about scrapbooking ... and creating great stuff for scrapbookers ... and be at home with my kids?!?!?

That's been what I've been on a mission to find ... and after many, many trials & errors (my husband refers to me as a "serial entrepreneur"... LOL), I have finally found my niche. And once the whole concept came together, it's amazing how quickly everything fell into place ... for me, that's a real sign I'm on the right path. I've been working steadily on getting this ready to share since late August and everything really started to come together in the last 2 or 3 weeks or so. As the final details have come together, I've been just dying to share... but making myself wait until the the was right.

Well, the time is finally right and I'm very exciting to introduce ... Log Your Memory!!

Log Your Memory is my new offshoot of Spring Creek Design, that little freelance graphic design biz I've been dabbling with for the past two years. Log Your Memory is dedicated to helping busy scrapbookers make sure they get their memories documented ... NOW, not when they "get around to" getting them scrapbooked. Because face it, very few of us really have the time to scrapbook everything we'd like to remember. So I've created a book and a supporting online community to help myself and everyone like me who is ready to drop the guilt and start doing something very, very constructive (and FUN at the same time) to make sure those memories are recorded.

You should have seen my "happy dance" when my book proofs came back from the printer!!

This book - the Scrapbooker's All-In-One Memory Logbook - is really a 2010 calendar, planner, journal, idea book and sketchbook all wrapped up in one. It's meant to take the place of all those different calendars you might be using to record your daily "stuff," plus the notes, the half-filled notebooks, the sketchpads, and the rest of that stuff that you're just keeping in the back of your mind for later.

I don't know about you, but I don't trust myself to remember all that ... my memory just isn't what I'd like it to be. My kids & my family do so many things that I want to remember. And I get a ton of ideas all the time that lead to scrapbook pages I'd like to do. But even when I'm scrapping like crazy, there's still a million things I don't get scrapped ... but hope to someday. This book is how I'm going to tackle that problem from now on... and the Web site is how I'm going to help others like me through the process - and let them help ME, as well.

I could go on and on about this, but I'm not going to right here... I would much rather have you check it out for yourself and see what you think. I really hope you'll take a minute to stop by and visit... run on over to my site and let me know what you think!!!

Whew... much better. So good to finally have this out there!!!! :)

Can you feel the excitement???

2009-10-06T10:03:00.005-06:00

So anyone who knows me pretty well will probably tell you that I'm generally pretty even-keeled. I don't get terribly excited about a lot of things ... or at least not that you would probably notice. In fact, my husband is forever telling me to smile more because apparently I often look a bit, eh, cranky.

But those who have known me forever also know that when I do get excited about something, I can hardly conceal it and tend to become a bit obsessed with whatever it is. I guess the word for it is "passionate."

Well, that's where I've been for the past month or so. So much so, I can hardly sleep and it takes everything in me to drag myself from the computer to tend to the rest of my life.

Why, you ask??? If you're one of my Facebook friends, you've probably already guessed because I haven't been able to keep myself from dropping hints left and right. (I promise not to bug you guys everyday with business stuff after my launch ... if you want to stay in the loop, though, be sure to join my Fan site!!)

For those who still have no idea what I am talking about, I am getting ready to launch a new online business that I am TOTALLY excited about. In conjunction, I have also just finished putting together a new book for scrapbookers. It is already available for sale through the bookstore on my new Web site. Better yet, I expect it to be available through Amazon.com by early December! Exciting, eh?!?!? Let's just say I did a little happy dance when my proof came in the mail last week!

I am going to hold off for a couple more days to share any more details. Thursday is my official launch date, at which time you can anticipate hearing much, much more about my new venture. Keep an eye on this blog or connect with me on Facebook to be the first to hear all the details!!

Can't wait to share more!!!! :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!! :)

2009-10-06T09:42:00.001-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Crop, er CHAT, till you drop ... and other fun news

2009-09-13T13:19:00.000-06:00

I'm slowly sneaking back to the computer after more or less taking today off. Yesterday I woke at 5:45 a.m. with Jacques' hunting alarm and immediately realized that an all-day scrapbooking chat at Designer Digitals was set to start at 6 a.m. Do you think I could go back to sleep knowing that? Nope ... not a chance. So I settled in with a couple hot cups of coffee and chatted away, all the way until 10 p.m. last night.
The last time I did this, I could not figure out how people chatted AND scrapbooked at the same time. But this time, I took little mini breaks from the chat screen and in the process, completed five layouts in response to the various chat challenges. It was tons of fun, even though my eyeballs were sore, sore, sore by the end of the day. Here are the layouts I did for the challenges & a little info about the "rules" of each little contest...
First challenge: Use the word art provided in a layout. Here's what I came up with...
 

Next: Cassie's 30 Minute Masterpiece Challenge
The rules: 1) Use only one photo; 2) Use at least 3 of the items provided in the freebie download; 3) Use punctuation elements as part of the title; 4) Use a non-frame element as a frame; and 5) Tell a story about the photo ... all in under 30 minutes!!! Here's my result ...

Next challenge: Template challenge
The rules ... use the template provided in the freebie as a starting point for a layout. Here's mine...

Next challenge: Use the word art provided in conjunction with a photo of my hands. This took a little brainstorming first, but here's my page...

The last challenge I did was probably the one I was least excited about the result. The task was to take the template provided and use a scrapbook page by someone else that was based on that as inspiration for my own page. I think by this point in the day, I was too tired to feel very "inspired," ya know? This isn't my favorite layout, but it's okay ... and I do like the photos!!

All in all, it was a fun day and I'm already looking forward to the next all-day chat, which is scheduled for early November.
My other fun news is I have recently been given the opportunity to do something I've been wanting to do for a while now and that is be a member of a digital designer's Creative Team (CT). Even better, I have been asked by not just one, but THREE individual designers to serve on each of their CTs! That means I have full, free access to all of their digital scrapbooking products - including their newest releases before they are made public - in exchange for helping to promote their products by creating scrapbook pages featuring those products and then posting them in various online galleries.
Fun, fun!!! I have spent the last several days downloading lots and lots of goodies. Now I get to poke through my new wonderful stash and make lots of new scrapbook pages to share. I am already enjoying this immensely, as you can imagine. Here are the first couple layouts I did in this new role, creating almost entirely of products by "my" three designers ...

All three designers that I am a CT member for sell their products at Two Peas in a Bucket. Check out their individual products and/or blogs by clicking on their names below...
Mary Ann Wise
Jen Allyson
Carina Gardner
I'm excited about this new opportunity ... and you can expect to see lots more pages here and everywhere else I post as a result!! :)

Labor Day weekend wrap-up

2009-09-07T16:13:00.000-06:00

This weekend ended up being a very productive one for me & a fun one for the campers, judging from just how dirty Skylar was upon their return!! Let's just say candy suckers & lots of dirt are not a great combination for a 3-year-old!!

The crew got home early this afternoon and got busy cleaning up, then it was time to get ready to return to "real" life. Karstin had x-country practice & Kody had flag football practice this evening, so they ended up going back to their dad's a little earlier than usual. Judging from how sleepy Jacques was all evening, there was not much sleeping done on the camping trip and he & the girls hit the sack soon after 9 p.m.

My weekend went well, too. Karstin & I had lots of time to hang out together with Danica. We ended up taking a couple nice walks, one of which was spent getting some nice local photos of the downtown area & the very ripe chokecherry bushes.

We also watched a movie (17 Again), as well as spent a fair amount of time on the computers chatting with friends & playing around online. With the relative calm in the house this weekend, I also managed to get several pages scrapped, as well as lots of progress on my business planning.
I was thrilled to discover this morning when I checked my inbox that a layout I did yesterday highlighting how Karstin likes to spend his free time was featured at Gallery Standouts. This website picks a handful of pages from around the virtual scrapbooking community to feature for various qualities they think are worthy of mention. Here's the page of mine that was featured (click on the image for a larger version) ...

And here's the link to the page & comments at Gallery Standouts.
I made another exciting decision today regarding my scrapbooking and an opportunity that recently presented itself, but I need to wait a day or two until the details have been worked out. More on that later... :)
Another page I did yesterday was one I've been planning in one way or another all summer. I made a concerted effort to take photos of each type of flower in our yard as they came into bloom. I then featured these photos in this two-page spread...

Now I can't take credit for anything beyond the photos. We are fortunate to have some great perennial gardens that basically came with the house when we bought it five years ago, plus a great flowering crabapple tree & lilac bushes. The few annuals we have were planted & cared for by Jacques, so if anyone gets credit, it would have to be him. I'm just glad I remembered to take photos this year, since I really hadn't done it any of the summers prior to now.
Now I'm thinking about calling it a night, so I can get some "real" work done tomorrow after sending Skylar on her way back to preschool and be ready for another busy week. Karstin has his school open house on Thursday, as well as his second team x-country dinner. Kody's first flag football game of the season is also on Thursday. Kody's busy taking hunter's education classes this week, too, and it's school & team photo time again already... then the annual Chokecherry Festival is next Saturday, as well as an all-day chat at Designer Digitals. Lots of fun on tap ... and lots of memories to scrap!! :)

Scrapbooking on the brain

2009-09-05T04:39:00.000-06:00

I've been waking up ... or more accurately, not sleeping ... because of all the scrapbooking-related stuff buzzing through my brain these days. Maybe it's because school has started again and I have a little more time to scrap since our schedule is a bit more regular. Or maybe it's because I've recently given myself permission to venture outside my normal virtual hangouts to explore some new designers, both of pages and products. Perhaps it's because I just found out this week that one of my layouts has been chosen by Creating Keepsakes magazine for publication in their January 2010 issue (yay!!). It might be because the online class I signed up for a couple months ago in which we create an all-about-me type of scrapbook finally started this week. Or it could possibly be because I believe I have finally hit upon the right combination of scrapbooking, writing, web & other skills in my most recent business brainstorm. Whatever the reason - probably a combination of all of the above - I've been rather consumed lately with thinking, playing, shopping, wandering & designing in the scrapbook realm.
I plan to do more of this over this nice long weekend. Jacques, Kody, Skylar & our neighbor Kevin left this morning for Esther Lake for a weekend of hunting & fishing with Kody's brand new compound bow. That leaves Karstin, Danica & me home alone for a few days of relative peace & quiet. I've already had a chance to do a little scrapping this morning, finishing up a layout I started last night about Kody's transition from cute "little piggy" days to one filled with "big boy toys."

While I'm on the subject of recent scrapbooking, I've also done a handful of pages highlighting Skylar's venture into preschool. She is thrilled to be going to Head Start and has made the transition quite easily so far. She will get to attend for two years and then, believe it or not, it will be time for kindgergarten already! Hard to believe ...

The whole transition to preschool got me thinking about how grown up Skylar is getting, but at the same time how she refuses to let go of some of her more baby-like ways, such as insisting on keeping that dang binkie in her mouth. So I woke up Thursday thinking about how I could document the irony of it all, which led to this...

This type of layout is an example of my favorite type of scrapbooking - telling the stories of the lives of myself & my family. It is this type of scrapbooking that is the basis of my newest business plan. I'm not ready to share details, but I will say this - I do not plan to actually scrapbook for other people for pay or design digital supplies for scrapbookers. Instead, I plan to provide some unique resources that hopefully will help all types of scrapbookers share their stories and ideally, allow me to make a career of this hobby that I love. More details to follow, once I'm ready to launch... :)
I do occasionally do a layout just for the sake of making a pretty page, especially if I have a photo I particularly like. This is one of my recent examples...

I took that photo while Danica & I were in San Antonio last month. She was wandering around the rock courtyard in front of the Alamo in her bare feet. Isn't she a cutie??
I have tons of other pages on my mind right now that I'd like to get done ... Karstin just started high school, as well as his first year on the boys x-country team - both of which I plan to document. I also have the entire month of July to somehow record, though it's a bit overwhelming because I took over 1,000 photos that month and I'm not sure what I want to pull out and scrapbook. I did a 4th of July album highlighting the Rutten family reunion, which you can view here. We also spent a week at Pelican Lake, which accounts for about half of the photos for the month...
Part of the reason I didn't document much of July is I was so busy last month putting together my San Antonio album, which you can see here. I also realized one day about a week ago just GOOD things have been going lately. So I documented that with this...

One of the things hinted at on the above layouts warranted a page all its own ... my neighbor & I decided about a month ago that we wanted to get to know our neighbors a bit better, especially since several of them have young kids and are relatively new to our neighborhood. So, we planned a "Summer's End East Broadway BBQ" block party. It was a big hit and we've had several people thanking us afterward for putting it together. The moms on the block even went out for margaritas after the BBQ, which was tons of fun. Hopefully we'll continue to get together, now that the ice has been broken. Here's the page I did about the BBQ...

This past month I also did a page about Danica that I like ... I've gotten in the habit of calling her "doodlebug" for some reason. Not sure why, but it fits her...

I want to do another page about her soon, documenting all the cute new things she's learning & doing right now. For example, she now waves bye-bye, says "boo" when playing peek-a-boo while changing her diaper, points & says "that," can make a ride-on toy go forward by walking her feet along the ground, sleeps through the night all alone in a crib by herself, has finally started napping in a crib instead of the laundry basket, and lots of other adorable things like that.
Speaking of my sweet baby, she is now demanding my attention after playing very nicely while I've been writing this post. That's my cue to wrap it up... one last thing - a quick thank you to everyone who voted for my entry in the Designer Digitals "Summer's End" contest. I didn't win, but I think I had the 4th or 5th highest number of votes, which is cool. Here's the page I finally entered ...

More updates on all of the above coming soon ... I hope!! :)

Attitude adjustment

2009-08-24T09:28:00.000-06:00

• The sun is shining, it's not too hot or too cold or too windy, the girls are napping & there's my favorite soft drink waiting for me in the fridge.
• School starts tomorrow and the boys are ready to go and excited about a new year and new opportunities.
• I am able to work from home, create my own schedule and pretty much control my days while contributing to the family income and having a little time left over for my scrapbooking hobby.
• Skylar starts Head Start next week - at no charge to us - and gets to ride the bus every day with her little friend from across the street.
• My friend & I have planned a day each week where we'll take both of the younger kids in exchange for the same favor later in the week, providing each of us a free morning all to ourselves.
• The chokecherries are about ripe and I have ample equipment and supplies to properly make syrup and jelly this year, not to mention the opportunity to share this experience with my friend.
•I am relatively healthy and have just about mustered up the motivation and ability to take on an even healthier way of eating and living.
• I have several supportive friends, mostly online, who share similar interests with which I interact on a daily - and sometimes hourly - basis.
• I have a great husband who comes home from a good job every day to help with the kids and share the load.
I'm sure I could continue this list for quite some time ... and probably should do so on a regular basis as it helps me shift from what seems to be an all-too-easy negative or pessimistic outlook on life to a more positive, realistic, happier view. My tendency to land here was brought to my attention again today when contrasted against a post by my friend, who is currently doing a great job of seeing her glass as more than half full...{thanks, Heather!!}
My husband has more than once suggested that I am simply destined to be unhappy. That he can't understand why, when everything seems to be going well for me, I can still find a way to be miserable. Though I don't exactly agree with him, there does seem to be at least a little truth to his statement. And I really don't understand why, especially since I've been aware from a very young age of the power to choose an attitude and basically create one's own experience. I've read tons of books in an effort to figure this out and the quote below has been a favorite of mine since high school ... but it seems I still have a lot to learn. For today, though, I choose to remind myself of all of the positive in my life ... and spare you (and myself) the details of my latest frustrations.

 {Butterfly & patterned paper available free from The Shabby Princess Promise Collection}

Summer's End ... Take 3

2009-08-18T04:00:00.000-06:00

So I just keep playing with potential contest entries for the Summer's End contest. I went out and took some photos Sunday of our crabapple tree, which is probably my favorite subject in our yard to photograph year-round. It's beautiful in all seasons ... my favorite, of course, is when it flowers. But right now, it really looks like the first sign of fall with its little apples.
Anyway, here's my current favorite ... what do you think?

Where did the summer go?

2009-08-17T16:47:00.000-06:00

Wow... I fully intended to blog more about my trip to San Antonio while I was still there, but obviously since I've been home for over a week now, that didn't happen.
This last month has been a flurry of activity ... we spent 10 days at the family cabin at Pelican Lake, returning home on Sunday, Aug. 2. Then Monday, Aug. 3, my Uncle Lennie & cousin William from Texas came for a visit, as well as my Uncle Terry from Chester. They stayed until Wednesday afternoon. Then Thursday, Danica and I left for Texas, returning Sunday. On Monday, my uncle & cousin returned, this time with my Aunt Ceci and cousin Adelia. They left Tuesday morning.
It took me the rest of the week just to get back to some sense of "normal." Apparently, this did not include blogging. I did, however, manage to complete a 46-page scrapbook about our San Antonio experience. So instead of blogging about it, I will share the album below.
Now we are getting ready for school to start in about a week, as well as playing host to more company. Jacques' friend Wayne from Livingston showed up here tonight after calling this morning. Then Jacques' Uncle John & Aunt Mary will be here Thursday for a "few" nights. And hard to believe, but school starts next Monday ...
I hate to say it, but I think I'm actually looking forward to September and a more routine schedule!!
Anyway, here is the link to my San Antonio scrapbook.
I've also been playing around with a couple entries for the Summer's End contest at Designer Digitals. The only real requirement is that the page use a particular set of flourish brushes and/or paper letters. Here's what I've come up with so far ...

I may or may not use one of these. The deadline isn't until the 28th, so I have some time to play. Let me know what you think...

Destination: San Antonio

2009-08-06T17:36:00.000-06:00

So the big weekend finally arrived - my trip to San Antonio for the Designer Digitals digi-crop! After dropping Skylar off at the neighbor's house around 8:30 a.m., Danica and I hopped in the van and headed for Billings. We arrived just before 11, which worked out great. Enough time to get through security unrushed, which went perfectly, and not so much time that we had to sit around and twiddle our thumbs for hours (that came later!!).

This was Dani's first time on an airplane and she did great, pretty much sleeping the entire flight from Billings to Denver. The ride was a bit choppy thanks to some cloudy skies, but otherwise all went as planned.

Things weren't quite as smooth for the second half of our trip. What was supposed to be about a 2 1/2 hour layover in Denver ended up being closer to 4 1/2 hours because of weather and mechanical issues. We did lots of wandering while we waited and ended up sitting with a young gal for a good deal of the time who did a great job of entertaining Danica.

We finally boarded around 7:15 and arrived in San Antonio a couple hours later. Once again, my little angel slept for the entire flight!! By the time we got our luggage and traveled across town on the SATrans shuttle (great service, by the way!!) to the Hilton Palacio del Rio, which is right on the Riverwalk, it was almost 11:30 p.m. with the time change. Too dark to see much, but it was fun to look at the lights from our 19th story room, complete with balcony.

Arriving this late may have been a blessing, since even at that late hour, it was still over 90 degrees outside - and humid. Breaking us in gently, I suppose, since it was only about 70 degrees when we left Billings!!
The motel is great ... very comfortable and lots of nice touches, like the pewter-like finishes in the bathroom, eight fluffy pillows to choose from on the beds, sinks both inside and outside the bathroom, a coffee maker that can make two different cups of coffee at the same time, and details like that.

The staff also brought me a crib for Danica right away, assuming I'm sure that she'd be needing it soon. She had other plans, however, and at 1:20 a.m. was still wide awake. If only she'd call it a day ... we're both going to need our beauty sleep for our big day tomorrow.
More coming later ... Looking forward to meeting everyone at the crop tomorrow afternoon!!!

Inspired.

2009-07-10T04:05:00.002-06:00

These lyrics have been running through my head for the past several days. The words come to mind when I first wake up in the morning ... and then I find myself humming the tune as I go about my day.
I imagine they first came to mind with all of the recent coverage of the death of Michael Jackson, who gets credit for the song.

But that isn't what has kept them there.  

I had the great fortune this past weekend of spending some time with a very special person. She is my husband's cousin and has had the great misfortune of having her body invaded by a very persistent cancer. But you wouldn't know it to look at her as she tickled and played with Danica. And to sit and visit with her, you would never know just how serious her prognosis may be.

Her name is Heide. She is only in her late 30s, has a very funny, loving and supportive husband, and two adorable little girls under the age of 7. She also has a twin sister and a brother, mother and father who I'm sure would go to the ends of the earth for her.

Because Heide lives in California and the extended family has only gotten together a handful of times since I became part of the family, I hadn't really ever spent more than a few minutes here and there talking to Heide before this weekend. We knew about her health condition, thanks to frequent communication through the family lines. But at our distance, it didn't seem very real ... and we, or at least I, didn't really know what to expect when we first arrived at the family farm in North Dakota last weekend.

It seems far too real now.

As it turns out, I really like Heide. She's warm and friendly and open and positive, everything I wish I was more of. She just radiates a quality that makes you want to be around her as much as possible. After more than a year of battling this most recent bout of cancer, I'm sure she has had many highs and lows and moments of anger, frustration and sadness. I'm sure she has had a least a few "why me?" moments.

But all I could see as I sat and visited with her this weekend was a woman with amazing STRENGTH.

She talked about her family. She laughed about her girls, two very adorable little dark-haired, dark-skinned sweethearts who alternated between running and playing with their cousins (including kissing a frog or two) and crawling into their mom's lap for a few snuggles. She openly answered questions about her treatment and how her family is handling it. She explained how a careful regiment of naps helps her continue to be an active part of her family's life, which is very important to her. She even joked around with her husband and brother-in-law by taking off her wig, placing it on her husband's head, and allowing several photos of her with her other "follicly-challenged" family members.

She made me really, really wish there was a way to give her back the "normal" life the rest of us are leading.

And now, sitting back at home in Montana, I find myself thinking about her a lot ... and humming that song. I also found my way to the Website her family started back when her cancer was first diagnosed, which they use to update friends and relatives on her status, as well as raise funds for this expensive interruption into their lives.

What I found there was incredibly inspirational. I'm not referring to the updates posted there occasionally, sometimes by Heide and other times by her husband or other family members, though it is wonderful to see the support of this wife, mother, daughter, and friend that comes through in those writings. The thing that touched me the most was the message from Heide. Read it for yourself and you will understand what I mean. It's such an amazingly positive and hopeful way to look at a situation that initially seems nothing but horrible and unfair.

Thanks for reminding me to appreciate what really matters, Heide, and for letting me into your life, even if just for a weekend. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, and I really hope for many more opportunities to visit with you at future family gatherings.

Many {hugs} to you...

Sharing in the loss of an icon

2009-06-26T09:36:00.000-06:00

Like most of the world, I was shocked to hear the news yesterday that Michael Jackson had died. After all, he was only 50 years old and he was, well, Michael Jackson! I was not surprised, however, to see this event dominate the news media, both on TV and online. Having been a teenager during the time Michael really hit it big, he obviously made a real impression on me. In fact, I still have my copy of his Thriller album, which I dug out of the basement today while thinking about this turn of events.
What did surprise me a bit, however, was the reaction of certain members of my family and a handful of folks I ran into downtown when I mentioned this news. My husband seemed much more affected by the death of Farrah Fawcett, who unfortunately lost her battle with cancer yesterday as well. The 20-something clerk at the local Albertson's, overhearing my conversation with a friend in line behind me, sarcastically commented only that "yeah, that guy really made a contribution to society the last few years." And my 11-year-old son Kody yesterday pretty much said "big deal ... that guy was weird." When he saw my album today, he said "Who's that?" Talk about making me feel really OLD.
I imagine my dad felt something similar when he told me that John Lennon had died. At the age of about 10, I really didn't see the big deal and remember saying something stupid about how a "Beatle" is just a stupid bug. I was just about as sensitive when my mom told me about the death of Bing Crosby, another amazingly talented human being I was relatively unfamiliar with at the time. So I guess I can understand the lack of reaction from folks who are a generation or two behind me. But my husband? He's only a year and a half younger. I don't get that one.
The Thriller album was one of the very first albums I owned and like many other teenagers at the time, I had the words of every one of the songs memorized and stayed up late on Friday nights to watch Michael dance on "Friday Night Videos," and later, MTV. This was the early 80s and back then, music videos were a "new" thing ... and it is largely because of Michael Jackson that they became so tremendously popular. Not only could that guy sing, but could he ever move.
You would be hard-pressed to argue that Michael Jackson lacked talent or that he did not earn his title, "King of Pop." Anyone who paid any attention at all ... before all of the weird stuff that happened later on ... has to recognize why "MJ" has so often been considered a genius, enormously talented, and a major influence on our culture.
At 14, Karstin, at least, seems to be a little more aware of the significance of Michael's death. When he came home today from staying overnight at a friend's house, he asked if the news was true. When I told him it was, he commented on what a great musician he was ... something Karstin respects because of his own interest in music. Michael Jackson is right up there with Elvis, the Beatles, and so many other icons who played a huge role in the entertainment industry. My husband disagrees with me on this, but frankly I just don't think he GETS it. This surprises and frustrates me a bit, especially since like Karstin, he is a big music buff ... but I guess that's life. It is some consolation that it takes only a couple seconds on the Internet to see that there are MILLIONS that share my opinion on this, even if my own husband does not.

Michael Jackson's death made an impression on me ... and because of that, I'm taking this time now to reflect on the role he played in my earlier years and to document my reactions. Not because I am one of Michael Jackson's biggest fans ... there are a lot of musicians I like just as well or better. And not because I approved of his strange behavior the last couple of decades, which I neither understood nor particularly trusted. I just feel sad that his life has come to an end already and realize that this is a loss shared with millions of others around the world, demonstrated by the hours of air-time already given to commemorating Michael Jackson's life ... not even 24 hours after his death ... and the fact that the online networks were nearly brought down yesterday afternoon because of the enormous activity that followed the first announcements that "Michael Jackson is dead."

Today.

2009-06-22T14:40:00.001-06:00

Once again, I was inspired by Ali Edwards to take a few minutes to simply document what's happening in the here and now...

FOR TODAY  June 22nd, 2009  
Outside my window...hundreds of daisies - my favorite - in full bloom in our perennial garden.  
I am thinking...it is nice to be at a place in my life where Monday morning is welcomed with open arms.  
I am thankful for...being in the right place at the right time this weekend when Skylar slipped into the deep end of the pool.   
From the kitchen...leftover pizza from the weekend and a growing pile of dishes to be dealt with that I am avoiding until tomorrow.  
I am wearing...jeans & a cream-colored, hooded pullover I picked up at Goodwill a couple weekends ago in Bozeman.  
I am creating...a double-spread layout highlighting our weekend trip to Polson and Kalispell for the annual state newspaper convention.  
I am going...to take advantage of having Karstin at home this afternoon so I can run a few errands and do a little last-minute birthday shopping.  
I am reading...a couple great books - "It's All Too Much" by Peter Walsh (very inspiring!) and "That's Life" by Nic Howard (also a GREAT book!! Exactly my kind of scrapbooking!)  
I am hoping...to have time this week to catch up on a growing list of layouts I'd like to do.
I am hearing...giggling girls and thumping boys. Our house is NEVER quiet when the kids are all at home. It's a happy, productive sound today though.  
Around the house...signs of a typical summer day. Kody's shoes, Skylar's sandals, the boys' job lists, a stray glass, baskets emptied by Dani, pipe cleaners & stray beads left by Skylar.  
One of my favorite things...sun streaming through the window and an uninterrupted hour to myself behind closed doors.  
A few plans for the rest of the week...Rotary picnic tonight, dentist appointment and Jacques' birthday tomorrow, then getting ready for Danica's first birthday on Sunday with the possibility of a visit from Nana & Pop.  
A picture to share... cruising Flathead Lake this weekend during the annual MNA convention.

Taking a different approach this summer...

2009-06-16T08:38:00.000-06:00

Summer at our house is not what you would call nice & peaceful. In fact, as the end of the school year was approaching, I was beginning to dread the chaos of having all four kids at home - and their accompanying noise, inevitable messes, lack of predictable schedule, and frequent requests for money to finance trips to the pool, get-togethers with friends, must-have toys, etc. etc. I'm a creature of habit and I like my regular routines and, I admit it, I like my quiet afternoons when the girls nap. I was not ready to give this up...
So this year I decided to try something a little different and so far, just a little over a week into summer vacation, it's working out pretty well. My plan consisted of three parts:
1) I wrote out my expectations of the boys for the summer ... This includes the frequency with which I expect them to shower, clean their rooms, pick up after themselves, etc. It also included mention of the fact that the majority of the time, they could expect to have to shell out their own cash for any extracurricular activities, camps, purchases, etc. they wanted during the summer.
2) I created a list of "Responsibilities," otherwise known as "jobs you GET to do in exchange for the privilege of living here." This included tasks such as setting and clearing the dinner table, emptying the dishwasher, doing their laundry, sweeping the floor, etc. Here's the kicker: Next to each job was the price the boys would get to pay ME if they did not fulfill a given responsibility that week and I had to do it for them.
3) I created another list titled "Opportunities," otherwise known as "jobs available to you for which you can be PAID." This included a list of jobs I was willing to pay THEM to do, as well as when & by what deadline they needed to be done. For the most part, these are left blank and the boys get to choose their own deadlines, a privilege they will keep as long as they follow through. Jobs on this list will vary from week to week, depending on what needs to be done (and my budget). So far, they have included babysitting the girls for two hours in the morning while I work on my grant-writing, mowing the lawn, cleaning the fridge, weeding the garden, cleaning the bathroom(s), etc.
Kid Payday is every Friday, at which time I add up how much each has earned and deduct any fees incurred for not following through with responsibilities.

I presented these three items to the boys on the evening before the first real day of vacation and then they got to take turns signing up for the paid jobs until the blocks were filled in. They weren't too excited to see this at first, but once they started figuring out how much money they might earn, they really started warming up to the whole plan and those blocks filled up very quickly. I especially enjoyed listening to Karstin plot how he could sign up for the jobs that would bring him the greatest reward... $$$$$!

So far this plan is working, though I've already had to be flexible in order to work around a last minute decision by Kody to go to Day Camp last week and a crazy schedule this week as we get ready to head to western Montana for a few days. It helps that both boys feel a real need for cash this summer - Kody is saving up to buy himself a mini-bike and Karstin has discovered that daily visits to the pool and coffee shop tend to add up, especially when he likes to be able to treat his new girlfriend to her favorite coffee drink!!
I like that this system is helping create a bit of routine for the summer while simultaneously teaching the boys a bit about money management & how to be a good employee, not to mention start to be more aware that money doesn't just grow on trees!! It's also interesting to watch them figure out that work isn't always a heap of fun ... but that it's worth the effort sometimes. (Of course, it doesn't hurt that it is also giving me a solid two hours of more-or-less uninterrupted work time every day ... something I didn't even have BEFORE school got out!!!)
So far, so good ... maybe for once I won't be quite so anxious for school to resume again!!!

Taking a bit of a leap of faith...

2009-06-15T16:49:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited tonight because I finally made a decision I've been weighing for over a month now. To make a long story short, I booked a flight to San Antonio during the first week in August, reserved a room at the Marriott for three nights and bought my ticket to the first ever Digi-Crop hosted by my favorite digital scrapbooking store, Designer Digitals.
Now this may not seem like a big deal to some people, but this was a big decision for me - for several reasons. First, I will be traveling alone with Danica, who will be just over 13 months old at that time and just recently learned how to walk. This means dealing single-handedly with a toddler in an airport, including switching planes on both legs of the trip, as well as juggling luggage, a carseat for use once we get there, a camera (a definite MUST!) and quite possibly my laptop computer. Not sure how I'm going to do it, so it's a good thing I have several weeks to figure it out. (Any tips on flying alone with a little one would be very much appreciated!!!) Fortunately, my new DD friends have already offered to lend a hand with Dani once I get there ... otherwise I don't know that I'd have the guts to give this a try.
Next, this isn't the cheapest way to spend a weekend, once you add up the cost of the flight, motel, food, transportation, etc., etc. I could find a million other ways to spend that money - including a lot of scrapbook-related items - but the idea of actually meeting all of these wonderful people I've been getting to know the last few months who share the same interests as I do was more than I could pass up. I know I would regret it if I there was a way I could go and I didn't follow through. It does feel a little odd (and guilt-inducing) to spend that money entirely on myself, though...
Finally, I've never really taken a purely recreational trip just for me, especially one where I will be hanging out with people I've yet to actually meet in person. Of all the things that make this trip feel a little risky, however, that's not really one of them ... through our sharing of scrapbook pages, comments, posts on Facebook, Thursday evening chats, and other messaging, I feel like I know many of these people better than a lot of others who I HAVE met face-to-face. There's something really special about the DD community that's hard to explain unless you are a part of it. For that, I'm very thankful ... and anticipate this will truly be a weekend to remember. Hopefully, it will simply cement the beginning of many wonderful friendships... :)
For now, it's time to pinch my remaining pennies to make sure I don't end up stranded and hungry somewhere in the middle of Texas in the August heat!!!

Celebrating Five Years

2009-06-05T15:12:00.000-06:00

Jacques and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary yesterday. It started off rather humorously ... I had left him a card in his vehicle so he would find it on his way to work. In it, I had included a P.S. that we had 6:00 dinner reservations later that day at The Mint Bar & Grill. He found the card ... and came back into the house chuckling.
As it turns out, he too had left a card for me that morning. In it was the note ... "let's celebrate at The Mint at 6:30!"
Nice to know we're on the same page... :)

It turned out to be a very enjoyable day - and date. Because this was the last week of school, we had the treat of attending the junior high school talent show during the afternoon. Karstin & buddies Jacob, Chad, and Dillon played a piece under their current band name, "Name Pending." It was very loud - and very well-received by their peers. Lots of high fives & cheering followed their performance ... a great way to end <gulp> Karstin's elementary school career!! By the way, you can view their performance here.
Then later in the evening was our turn to get out and celebrate a little, just the two of us. Doesn't happen very often, so it was very, very nice. We enjoyed a very leisurely (about two hours!) dinner at The Mint, including our new favorite appetizer - batter-fried shrimp with a special house jalapeno sauce - and drinks, tap beer for him, white zin for me. We pretty much stuck to our favorite entree's too - I had chicken & artichokes (very, very good!) and he had the pork medallions. This was accompanied by fresh-baked bread, so by the time we were done, we were too full for dessert ... at least for the moment.
We had walked down to the restaurant, which is less than a mile from our house, so around 8:30 or so we started back toward home via Main Street. We didn't get far, though, before we were drawn into Lola's, where they were hosting open mic night. We listened at the door for a while and eventually decided to get a bit of ice cream and sit down and listen. It was great ... the musicians were very good, the atmosphere even better, and the break from our usual routine was probably the best. We stayed until they wrapped it up around 9:15 or so, then walked back home to where Karstin was holding down the forte.
I then managed to sneak onto the computer for an hour or so and catch the tail-end of my weekly chat with my friends from DesignerDigitals.com before calling it a day. All-in-all it was a very nice day and a great way to celebrate our first "milestone" anniversary...
Reflecting on our first five years also gave me the urge - finally - to start a scrapbook about "us" as a couple. Since we eloped, I didn't ever really do a wedding album and rarely do a page that doesn't involve the kids, or just me. So, I'm adding a "Story of Us" album to my project list ... Here's the first page I did...

Hopefully you will see pages toward that effort in the next few weeks. I need another project or two, right??? LOL. This should be a fun one, though... I already have a long list of topics I'd like to include.

For now, I'd better continue packing ... we decided at the last minute to head to Bozeman overnight tomorrow for a Rotary gathering where, we found out this week, Jacques will accept a "Club of the Year" award on behalf of his group, of which he has been President for the past year. He is also going to sit on some sort of panel while the kids & I hang out at the motel pool and maybe do a little shopping. I love Bozeman, so I'm looking forward to a fun weekend. Plus, the forecast this weekend includes SNOW, so we're not missing any big outdoor opportunities.
Here's to a great "official" beginning of summer vacation!!! :

Karstin's first digital scrapbook page

2009-05-24T15:19:00.000-06:00

Since we gave Karstin his own digital camera for his birthday, I asked him if he'd also like to give digital scrapbooking a try. He responded with an enthusiastic yes ... and we used this rainy evening as an excuse for his first lesson. He did great, don't you think???

Love this...

2009-05-24T02:59:00.000-06:00

Today, in our front yard ... spring is in bloom! Isn't it pretty?? If you stand near the tree, you can literally hear it BUZZ with activity.
 

Kicking off a busy weekend...

2009-05-21T16:43:00.000-06:00

You might say we started celebrating our Memorial Day weekend a little early today - or at least it felt like it. For starters, it is Karstin's 14th birthday today. 
He was the first one up this morning, as usual, and Danica was soon to follow. So we took a few seconds to pose for a birthday morning shot before Karstin headed off for school. A couple hours later, the girls & I did a little running around to finish up the birthday preparations, including delivering a coffee shop gift certificate and balloon to the school for their big brother.
For once, I actually had the cake done ahead of time. Knowing that this would be a busy week - and that of all my kids, Karstin is most interested in upholding traditions like being "surprised" by what his birthday cake looks like, I actually had it all finished, decorated and hidden from sight by early yesterday afternoon. A guitar seemed to be a pretty fitting theme for Karstin's cake this year, considering how much music dominates his existence.

In fact, music was pretty much the theme of most of his gifts, too. But more on that in a minute...  After school, Karstin was pretty much bouncing off the walls ... or at least bouncing off the tramp! Whether this was a result of all the candy he'd eaten during the day or the cool new drumsticks and guitar picks from his girlfriend, I'm not sure ... either way, he was a happy camper - and that's what I love to see, especially on his birthday!

How that kid can talk on the phone and jump on the tramp at the same time, I do not know!!
Anyway, we had an early dinner of shrimp scampi, corn on the cob, garlic bread, etc. and then had to dash off to Kody's last band concert of the year. Kody did a great job and was relieved to have it over, since he was pretty nervous about this concert. I think with all the attention Karstin gets on the drums, his little brother was feeling the pressure to measure up.
After the concert, we returned home and showed Karstin his cake. I say "showed" because he is having several buddies over tomorrow night for a sleepover and he decided he wants to save the cake until then so they can see it, too... We did light candles and sing, however, and Karstin posed for a traditional birthday shot. The foot is intended to represent the extra digits to get to 14, by the way... done in true Karstin humor!

After cake, it was everyone's favorite ... presents. Karstin was a total ham and really managed to get me giggling with all his theatrics as he opened his gifts.
 We gave him a digital camera, as well as a microphone & stand, a charger for his iPod, and a framed photo of him with Jacques & the deer Karstin shot last fall, which is now hanging upstairs with the mount Jacques also put together for him. He also received a guitar-themed t-shirt from gramma & grampa, as well as an iTunes gift card - always a big hit - and some little gadget type stuff like a flashlight (I think... I hardly got to see it!).
As I sat here watching him wander the house for the next hour or two singing into that microphone and being goofy in general, it dawned on me ... a microphone is not going to make things any quieter around here!! But that's okay ... he loved it and it supports his passion, so that's what matters most.

We eventually did get to eat cake ... I had frosted a chunk of cake left over from trimming pieces for the guitar and we ate that before sending everyone off to bed. The birthday is over, but the busy-ness is just getting started ... Jacques & Kody are heading out around 5 a.m. tomorrow morning for a guys' fishing trip to Devils Lake, ND with several of Jacques' buddies & relatives.
Meanwhile, Karstin's friends will come home with him after school tomorrow and celebrate his birthday again with a sleepover in the camper. Jacques helped him set up the propane fire pit tonite and in the morning, I'll stock up the camper with the tv from the garage, a cooler of root beer, a bunch of junk food, and at some point we'll order a couple pizzas ... party prep is pretty simple for teenage boys!! The girls and I will hold down the fort in the house ... and then hopefully after the dust settles and Karstin catches up on the sleep he won't be getting Friday night, I can get him to lend a hand over the weekend so maybe I can catch a little "me" time somewhere in there!!
Jacques & Kody will be back Tuesday sometime and then it's the countdown until school ends June 5th. Then soon after that, we'll have the Montana Newspaper Convention in Kalispell, Father's Day, Jacques' birthday, Danica's first birthday, swimming lessons... like I said, the busy-ness is just getting started!! :)

A few pictures worth a thousand words...

2009-05-17T16:27:00.000-06:00

For once, I'm not feeling particularly wordy. (Pretty much got that out of my system yesterday!...) But here are several of my recent scrapbook pages, which will give you a pretty good idea what we've been up to lately, in case you haven't been following along ...

Can we slow things down a bit, please??

2009-05-16T17:46:00.000-06:00

The end of the school-year marathon is always a bit of a whirlwind. It seems like we run, run, run ... from the all-school carnival to the earlier than usual buses for field trips to the sporting events ... and to the store or fast-food joints for all those last-minute meals because we planned even less than usual.
This year, though, has felt especially hurried and has made me extremely sensitive to just how quickly time passes. Why? My first baby is growing up really, really fast and it seems to be happening all at once.
I started noticing this bittersweet twinge about a month ago when it dawned on me that Karstin is not only about to finish 8th grade, he is on the verge of becoming a HIGH SCHOOLER. That means the collection of memorabilia I've been saving for 13+ years is about to become complete and it's high time I actually get working on the scrapbook I've been intending to make with it all before the whirlwind of high school takes over.
Adding to my awareness of how old he's getting is the fact he has been counting down the days until his birthday for about a month now. (Less than 5 days now, by the way).
This feeling was pretty vague until this week when Karstin handed me the high school registration packet. Choosing a career path, thinking ahead to what classes now will help in college... eeks. My kid is already at that point??? Walking into the high school Wednesday evening with him to actually complete registration for freshman classes ... and seeing a huge sign saying "Welcome Class of 2013" ... that pretty much made my stomach flip over. Not only had I never thought about what year he would graduate, but I'm pretty good at math - and 2013 is awfully dang close to 2009.
Ouch.
Then there's last night. Karstin's first official semi-formal dance. With a date he arranged almost three weeks in advance. A date with a girl who he is calling his official "girlfriend." Not just a girl who his friends told her friends they were "going out" and who he never actually speaks directly to but a girl who he actually hangs out with before school every day and who he blogs about. We couldn't resist dropping in at the dance for a few minutes with the camera. (I was FAR from the only parent doing this, by the way.) The kids were having a blast and dancing up a storm ... a far cry from his wallflower mama, that's for sure. Karstin even introduced us to his date and they let me take a couple photos of them together. It wasn't until I was looking at the photos last night (and yes, scrapbooking the event already), that I noticed they were holding hands in the photo. Gulp.
As if that wasn't enough to make me desperate to slow down the hands of time, we spent this evening at the dinner celebrating the fact that Karstin & 6 of his classmates will be confirmed during church tomorrow morning. Yes, I've had two years for that one to sink in while he has faithfully attended confirmation class every Wednesday after school. But still, it sure wasn't seeming real until this week.
I think I tend to be pretty level-headed most of the time and there are definitely times when I'm looking forward to the day when the kids are out on their own. I didn't even cry the first time I dropped Karstin off at kindergarten - I was just excited to see him growing & learning. But this whole series of milestones this month has made me realize just how much I am beginning to enjoy this person that started out as that cute little curly-headed baby almost 14 years ago.
We blog together (or at least in the same room). I absolutely LOVE to watch him play the drums in his school concerts. He's a great help with the girls. He actually gets my jokes ... at least most of the time. He notices things others miss. He's just nice to have around ...
Yeah, I love him. But I'm noticing just how much I LIKE him, too. And I know how fast these next four years are going to fly by. The realization that life as we know it - the six of us all living together in one house doing the normal, everyday family stuff that we take for granted - is so incredibly temporary and short-term... that's becoming a little too concrete these days.
So forgive me if I'm a lot more sentimental than usual (and take even MORE photos than usual, if that's even possible) and if my scrapbook pages get a little sappy.
... And maybe, just for a while, could we slow this train down a bit???

Three years old.

2009-05-04T16:46:00.000-06:00

It's official. Skylar is now three years old. We celebrated with a fun little "girly-girl" party with her neighbor friend plus all 5 of her cousins on my side of the family, as well as Gramma & Aunt Sara, and of course, her sister and brothers. It was lots of fun ... jewelry making, fingernail painting, dress up ... and of course, lots and lots of presents and a cake made especially for the birthday girl.
This year's cake was my first real attempt at fondant. It didn't turn out quite as I had envisioned it (Karstin kept saying it looked like a hat!), but it was cute anyway and tasted pretty good, too. I learn a little more every time I make one of these special cakes ... someday I'll have it down!!

After the "party" was over, the kids all enjoyed playing outside on the tramp, in the sandbox and on the various riding toys. The bigger kids took a jaunt over to the park to play a little tennis with Jacques while the babies slept (and the mamas rested!) and then later we all filled up with pizza and more cake.

The final special treat of Skylar's big day was a bit of a campout in our pop-up trailer, with Jacques serving as willing chaperone to five of the nine kids.
 

The day went fast but Skylar seemed to have fun and hopefully will have happy memories of her third birthday when she is older. To help that along, here are the scrapbook pages highlighting her celebration, which will go into her birthday album ...

Thanks to Nana & Pop, Skylar even managed to spread out the birthday celebration a couple days longer with the arrival today of her final birthday gift... a child-sized play kitchen. It was delivered while she was napping and I managed to get through all 10 pages of instructions and get it assembled in two hours, just in time for her to wake from her nap and discover her new toy. She was thrilled ... and I'm sure will enjoy many, many hours of pretend play in the days and weeks to come.

Now it's time to catch our breath, but not for long. This weekend is Mother's Day ... and as Karstin keeps reminding us, his 14th birthday is less than three weeks away, followed by Father's Day, Jacques' birthday in June ... and then Danica's first birthday. Whew... makes my head spin just thinking about it!

Here they are ... all nine cousins on the Gunderson side of the family! :)

My wish list ...

2009-04-27T07:02:00.002-06:00

So I've decided to compile my wish list here for two reasons ...
1) There is a tendency for people to ask for ideas when a birthday, Christmas, Mother's Day, etc. approaches and when that happens, I almost always immediately forget all these great ideas and end up mentioning a handful of things I don't particularly need or want; and,
2) I think of things from time to time that I'd like to have when the funds are available and then totally forget what they are when that situation presents itself (rare as it is ;) and then remember immediately after the funds are, eh, no longer available. Very annoying! Either that, or I write them down and then forget where I wrote them. So, this is going to be an organizational tool for me, as well as a way for me to document my interests & wants at this stage of my life ... you know, so I can scrapbook it later!!!
Anyway, if you don't like the whole concept of writing down and sharing a wish list, then this would be a good time to wander elsewhere on the Web... :)

 Stuff I really don't NEED but would love to have:
• Gift certificates from Designer Digitals
• Gift certificates from Shutterfly
• Books: - Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian - The Big Picture by Stacy Julian - Imperfect Lives by Tara Governo
• Renewal of my existing subscription to Creating Keepsakes
• 12x12 3-ring black leather scrapbook albums by Keeping Memories Alive
• 12x12 3-ring page protectors by We R Memory Keepers, with and without pockets for photos, including: - these 6-up pocket pages - these page protectors - and these gated page protectors from Fancy Pants Designs
• the QuicKutz Silhouette Digital Cutter
• Software: - Adobe CS4 for Mac OSX - Design Standard
• Digital SLR camera - haven't developed a preference yet ... thinking maybe a Canon Rebel SLR or a Sony

Loving this new digital world...

2009-04-27T06:19:00.000-06:00

I had a blast this weekend in the chat room at Designer Digitals (DD). Spent way, way too much time on the computer judging from my sore eyes and shoulders, but it was soooo worth it. The occasion was the quarterly sale & all-day chat/challenge sessions at DD, my absolute favorite source of digital scrapbooking "stuff." Starting at 6 a.m. my time on Saturday and going all the way until after 10 p.m., it was a great chance to get in on some really inspiring, educational, oftentimes hilarious, and just plain fun chatting with a whole lot of people who enjoy digital scrapbooking as much as I do, not to mention a freebie digital kit every single hour. And in my neck of the woods, that kind of interaction with digital scrappers just doesn't happen. In fact, I do not know one single person outside of DD that scrapbooks digitally. Heck, I hardly know anyone who even scrapbooks. So it's a lot of fun to have a whole bunch of people with similar interests to visit with, including people from Norway, the UK, Australia, Spain, Canada... all over the world, really. I only missed one chat... the very first one. Just couldn't drag myself out of bed quite that early!!
It's a good thing the all day event only happens every three months, though. Jacques was very cooperative and took care of the girls all day for me so I could indulge. But I know I couldn't do that very often - and my eyes wouldn't let me even if I could. Thinking I need to invest in a glare screen, for starters... That and some new software - I took a lot of heckling for still using Photoshop 7.0!!!
With all of the chatting, I hardly did any scrapbooking. There are challenges every hour with prizes drawn from the list of people who complete layouts. But that was just too much multi-tasking for me. I was pretty content to just sit and talk. But I did get LOs done for two of the challenges, which I've attached below. One was for DD and one was for a sketch challenge for a birthday celebration chat at another site I discovered recently ... Get It Scrapped! (GIS), which offers lots of classes. In fact, I was pretty lucky this weekend, too. I won a free pass to a class at GIS, plus a free softcover 8x8 album from Shutterfly during one of the DD chats. So, it was well worth my time, even if I hadn't had so much fun!!

Anyway, now I'm back in the "real" world and have lots of "real" work to do, so I better get to it. Thanks for visiting ... and have a great day! :)

Caught up ... for a few days, anyway!

2009-04-22T02:46:00.000-06:00

Yay... finished the pages for Skylar's second birthday to go in her birthday album. With her 3rd birthday in just 10 days, I officially have one album caught up (if you don't count the fact that I haven't actually gotten the pages printed and in the book, yet!)
Here are the pages...

Now, to decide on a theme for birthday number three ...
If you are new to visiting my blog, thanks for visitng and please leave a comment and tell me how you found me!! I've been playing around with Twitter & Facebook in an attempt to find what works best in my effort to document my existence. It would be helpful to know how these things are working!
Have a great day! :)

The birthday book.

2009-04-16T00:00:00.000-06:00

As promised, here are shots of the first year's section of Skylar's birthday album...

Each year will start with a gated 6x12 inch spread like this ...

Followed by a full-size 12x12 page like this ...

Notice the gift list on the left ... and a pocket for cards on the right.

This opens to another 12x12 page on the back, followed by several photo pocket pages for all the pics I wanted to include but not necessarily scrapbook.

I created a few photo-size cards to highlight a few other memories, like the one you see here ...

But for the most part, the photos speak for themselves...

And that's about all. The next birthday will come next ... once I get it scrapbooked!!!
And speaking of birthdays, a big {Happy Birthday!} today to my dad!!!

Growing pains.

2009-04-15T07:39:00.000-06:00

I still find myself tip-toeing around my office and avoiding all things that make noise, even though I moved Danica's napping crib upstairs today and I could probably scream and yell without waking anyone. Both girls are sleeping peacefully upstairs and this is my work time, so I guess that should be a good thing, right? But for a variety of reasons, I've been resisting this kind of "progress" ever since Dani was born.
I guess it's probably because Dani's my baby and I've decided she will be my last. I love to watch her grow and learn new things, but it's so bittersweet at the same time. When the boys were little, I don't remember it being difficult to make the decision to move them from our bed to the crib ... or the crib to a toddler bed. But with the girls, each of these has felt like an enormous step - one that I have to actually force myself to take.
Skylar will be 3 years old in less than a month ... and she is still sleeping in the crib. I tell myself this is because she is such a good napper, I don't want to upset the routine. And we don't have a bed yet to move her to. Or a space carved out to put it in. But I suppose these are all just convenient "excuses" to keep me from letting her grow up. I think it was easier when I didn't know from experience just how quickly that happens. Case in point: Karstin will be in HIGH SCHOOl next year!
Guess I know what we should get Sky for her birthday, eh? And I guess I should now try to focus on getting some work done, since these few short hours of uninterrupted quiet time are somewhat scarce. Then maybe when they do wake up, I'll be able to enjoy them without feeling guilty for not doing something else...
It's a vicious cycle.

Spring in Montana.

2009-04-15T01:43:00.000-06:00

Need I say more? :)

Trying to get back in the swing of things...

2009-04-14T16:05:00.000-06:00

For some reason, I'm having a tough time getting back in the swing of things after returning from our Easter weekend. First the boys had Monday off from school even though most people had to go back to work, which I think threw me off a bit. Then Karstin ended up staying home from school today because he didn't feel well. I think this feeling of being just off balance is probably a combination of these scheduling variations and the fact that the weather has been pretty dreary. In fact at this moment, I am looking out at a whole new layer of snow. The forecast for later in the weekend is warmer, so hopefully this is more temporary than it feels.
In an attempt to get back into routine, I did manage to get two sets of scrapbook pages done - basically a set for each of the girls highlighting their Easter. The boys were with their dad this year, so I don't really have anything to scrapbook for them - at least not for this year. I have piles and piles of stuff from prior years, when I get around to getting it all organized ...

 The album I'm using for Skylar's birthday book also arrived and I assembled her first birthday pages this afternoon. Check back in the next few days for pics of that... it's coming together quite nicely.

A quick look back...

2009-04-12T14:49:00.000-06:00

We made it home from our Easter weekend in Minot. About a 7-hour trip ... not too bad but definitely glad to have arrived back home safely! Now to the task of unburying ourselves from the piles of stuff we brought in from the car...
But first, here's a few highlights from our weekend with Nana & Pop...

Skylar really enjoyed coloring eggs with Nana on Saturday evening.

Doesn't Danica look cute all dressed up Saturday to go to church? Too bad we missed the service because of a schedule misunderstanding, but we had fun going out for dinner instead at Up A Creek. We also ran into Jim Harris and his wife while we were there...

Each time Sky found an egg, she would rush back to empty the candy inside into the bowl.

Danica checks out her basket of goodies left by the Easter Bunny.

Not too sure she likes the extra long ears!!

A moment together before another egg is spotted...
Hope everyone had a nice Easter!!

She's my friend...

2009-04-12T02:15:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to take a quick break from the Easter morning action to say hello and record a cute thing Skylar did... she had just found about the 40th egg and came running in, as excited as if it had been the first.

"I found one!!!" she squealed.

"I think the Easter Bunny likes you, Skylar," says Daddy.

With the cutest little smirky grin, Skylar turns around and says...

"She's my friend..."

Happy Easter!

Because I'm a mom ...

2009-04-08T08:43:00.000-06:00

• I vacuum the living room at least once a day … and my floor is still not clean. • I know every word of at least a dozen VeggieTales tunes. • My fridge resembles a community center bulletin board. • I rarely wear white. • I drive a mini-van. • I take an average of 500-800 photos a month … and rarely appear in one myself.  • I make a trip to the grocery store at least every 3 to 4 days, sometimes more. • I can play LEGOS without feeling a need to explain why. • My house is never quiet. • I am in frequent contact with our community’s doctors and dentists. • I always vote in support of the school levies. • I will never have enough wall space to display all of my favorite photos. • I live in a five-bedroom house. • I have a tendency to repeat myself.  • There are always toys in my bathtub. • My schedule generally revolves around naptime. • There are always band-aids in my cupboard. • I still have homework. • I hide my tape, permanent markers, glue, matches and chocolate. • It is not unusual for me to be decked out in stickers. • I can’t wait for garage sale season. • There is always something – or someone – in my house that needs to be cleaned. • I have the phone numbers of all five schools in Lewistown saved in my cell phone memory. • There are always fingerprints on my glass front door. And the bathroom light switch. And the door to the fridge. And probably just about everything else in my house. • I tend to find it difficult to concentrate. • I’ve learned to watch my step, especially on the stairs or near any source of water. • I frequently have to go looking for the phone. • I can never seem to buy enough ketchup, cereal, milk, bread, or Ranch dressing. • I appreciate my parents a lot more than I used to. Act like them, too. • I have a stash of confiscated toys in my closet. Most of them make noise. • The phrase “what’s for dinner?” can be like fingernails on a chalkboard. • I get to wave bye-bye to “poopie” at least once a day. • My shoes have a tendency to walk around the house without me. • I use words like “nigh-nigh,” “sockies,” “cutie-bucket,” “boogies,” and “outchie” on a regular basis. • My top wish list items include a personal chef, a housekeeper and free prints for life from Shutterfly. • My yard could be mistaken for the city park or school playground. • I own electric hair clippers and salon-quality scissors.  • Hearing the word “mom” can bring both a smile to my face and get on my nerves multiple times a day … mahhhhh, ummmmmm! • I am surrounded by laughter. • I’ve experience true panic. And anger. And fear. And love. Sometimes all at once. • My most recent restaurant visit was to McDonalds. • I have the power to make pain go away instantly with a simple kiss. • I consider a hot bath behind a locked door a decent substitute for a destination vacation.  • My kitchen is never clean. Or my bathroom. • I have chosen to work from home. • It can sound strange to hear someone call me by my “real” name. • I still live in a small Montana town. • I’ve spent three entire years of my life pregnant. • I make regular attempts at playing tennis. And Taboo. But not skiing. (The lodge suits me fine, thanks!) • I voted for Barack Obama. • I can get – or give – a hug whenever I want. • I know what it feels like to have my heart walking around outside my body. • There are diapers, wipes, Smarties & a bottle of acetaminophen in my purse.  • You can’t walk up my stairs without stepping over a gate. • There’s a good chance there will be someone to take care of me when I’m old. • I rarely have a moment to myself. • I will never catch up on or run out of stories to scrapbook or things to blog about. • I consider LAUNDRY a four-letter word.  • I could add to this list for days … and still have more to say. • I am one of the luckiest people in the world.

Birthday #3 is just around the corner...

2009-04-08T02:20:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe, but Skylar's third birthday is now less than a month away. In addition to the urge to come up with a theme of some sorts so we can have a little party with her and her little friends (a theme which can be SCRAPBOOKED, of course!!), her impending birthday has reminded me once again that I have yet to get her birthday album together.
I did actually START it, though ... a couple months ago, in fact. I decided on an album and format, designed the pages for birthday #1, even ordered prints of the photos I didn't use on the layouts. I just didn't get around to actually purchasing the album ... until this week.

Fancy Pants Designs - 12x12 Fancy Gated Album

I just LOVE the album I picked out and I'm very anxious now for it to arrive. It's made by Fancy Pants Designs and what I love about it is that it is gated, meaning it opens from both sides, like double doors. PLUS the unique feature of this album is that it also has binder rings on BOTH sides. I have not found any other 12x12 albums with this feature (if you know of some, PLEASE let me know!!) So, what that means is that I can use the 6x12 clear protective pages, also made by Fancy Pants Designs, plus the regular 12x12 sheet protectors and photo sleeves, in all kinds of cool combinations. I plan to make this a combination album rather than strictly a scrapbook ... that way I can incorporate the zillions of photos I seem to take on birthdays, plus the cards, snippets of wrapping paper, etc., without feeling the need to scrapbook every single thing (which I would NEVER get done!!)

Fancy Pants Designs - 12x12 Page Protector Refills with 4x6 Photo Pockets

Fancy Pants Designs - 6x12 Page Protector Refills

 I still need to scrapbook birthday #2, which may or may not happen before Skylar's birthday on May 2nd. I will follow the same format each year, though, so it should be a little easier once I get the ball rolling.
I will share photos of the album in progress once it arrives and I start getting it all together... In the meantime, feel free to click on the links above if you're interested in getting one of these great albums for yourself! The link will take you directly to Scrapbook.com, where you can also make a purchase, if you so choose.
Have a great day!

Addicted.

2009-04-03T06:36:00.000-06:00

Signs you’re ADDICTED to {designerdigitals} scrapbooking …
~ Your friends are known by usernames. ~ You prefer the “sound” of a digital staple over a real one. ~ Your first thoughts after waking up are “how could I use Katie’s negative sleeves today?” ~ Sleep takes a backseat to computer time. ~ You have nightmares about losing your hard drive. ~ You watch your baby’s first steps in the reflection of your computer monitor. ~ Your favorite day of the week is Sunday … because that’s when DD releases its new items AND offers two new goodies for just a quarter each. ~ Thursday is your next favorite day … (30% off sale). ~ The subject line on at least 75% of the messages in your inbox starts with “New reply to…”  ~ Photos are planned around items on your wish list (to give you an “excuse” to move them to your shopping cart!”) ~ You’d rather lose your car keys than your digital camera. ~ It takes months to notice when an actress has been replaced on your favorite soap opera because your eyes are on your computer screen. ~ You have more date stamps than shoes. ~ Your favorite brush will never be found in a beauty shop. ~ Imitation has truly become the most sincere form of flattery. (Can you say “scraplift?!”) ~ The idea of being limited to just one typeface is absurd (and horrifying!)  ~ You haven’t visited your local museum or art center in years, but your visits to your favorite gallery occur at least daily (if not hourly!) ~ Your kids recognize the back of your head more easily than your face.  ~ You think a “skeleton in the closet” could make a fabulous scrapbook page! ~ Your favorite font is more recognizable by your family than your handwriting. ~ You no longer feel silly for making a credit card purchase for just 50 cents. ~ One of the criteria for a family activity is whether or not it can be scrapbooked. ~ You’ve cleaned up your wishlist more times in the past month than you’ve cleaned your bathroom. ~ Your kids’ clothes for the day are chosen based on 1) the photos you plan to take and 2) the digital kit you’re dying to use. ~ It can totally make your day when a DD friend makes a nice comment on one of your LOs!

A short list: Life's little luxuries.

2009-04-02T16:19:00.000-06:00

One more quick post to share the scrapbook page I put together tonight. It's basically a short little list of the little luxuries I'd prefer not to do without at this point in my life.

In case you can't quite make it out, the journaling reads:  "Coffee. Big windows filled with sunshine. Cherry Zero. My digital camera. A hot shower. Cable TV. Most of all, my computer, complete with Internet access & everything I need to scrapbook digitally. I could live without all of them, but I definitely would prefer not trying. They are my ingredients for a good day at this point in my life ... the “things” that, combined with my family, good health & time, make life enjoyable."

Life by lists.

2009-04-02T05:01:00.000-06:00

I love lists. I think maybe because they are so easy to write, much less intimidating than sitting down to write a paragraph sometimes. So when I see someone else making a neat list, I often feel compelled to follow suit.
That was the case when I happened upon the blog of one of my husband's co-workers. On her blog, Tracey has two lists - one is 100 things about her and the other is 101 goals to be completed in 1001 days. You can find out more information about the latter here. In the meantime, I'm thinking I'm going to start working on both lists for myself, which you can expect to find here on my blog at some point.
I also added another list here to my blog ... it's a list of the sites that I find inspiring, entertaining ... and often both. Check it out on the left-hand column of my site. Check back often, as I'm sure the list will be growing soon, especially since I've recently acquired a whole new list of blogs maintained by my fellow scrapbookers at Designer Digitals.
Until next time, here's my latest scrapbook page ...

9 months.

2009-03-30T14:02:00.000-06:00

Nine months seemed like FOREVER when I was pregnant with Danica (with each of the kids, for that matter) but it sure has flown by now that she is here! Dani turned 9 months old on Saturday and had her well-baby doctor's check-up today. Doing great ... 17 lbs 12 oz, 26 1/2 inches tall ... in the 25th percentile for both height and weight. No health problems and scoring really well on her fine motor and social skills. Always nice to hear...I hate that she's growing up so fast, but it sure is fun to watch her learn new things!

It's been a bit crazy around here the last week or so because we have two extra little house guests during the day while their mom is at work. It's a temporary situation because the family is moving soon, but it's been kind of fun, especially for Skylar. The kids are all real close in age (38 months, 35 months, 21 months, and 9 months) so they have lots of fun (and practice sharing) playing together. We'll miss them when they move!!

Another tooth. She's growing so fast...

2009-03-27T16:27:00.000-06:00

Just a quick post to share a scrapbook page and our latest development ... Danica just popped out tooth #2 last night. It was a long night because she was pretty fussy, but now she seems to be happier and is currently snoring on my shoulder. Guess that's my cue to get some zzzz's of my own...

Front page-worthy.

2009-03-26T13:57:00.000-06:00

Have to brag for a moment ... check out who was on the front page of the News-Argus yesterday ... way to go, Karstin!! You might think with family in the newspaper business that this happens all the time, but actually the opposite is true. So that makes this extra exciting! Be sure to drop him a note at karstinneill@yahoo.com. :)

Great day to stay cozy inside.

2009-03-26T01:35:00.000-06:00

It's snowing once again... sometimes it seems like this winter will never end. But today it's kind of pretty and feels nice to be able to stay inside with nowhere I need to go, a cup of coffee in hand and kids playing underfoot. Also a good day to scrapbook, if I can squeeze in a page or two.
Here's a couple I did last night with photos I took while I was at mom and dad's ...

I spent some time searching for photos of myself with my own grandparents while I was at home. Didn't find a whole lot, but I did scan a handful so I can do some pages later. I'm so glad technology has made it easier to take photos ... I have TONS of pics of my kids with their extended family.

Home again.

2009-03-25T07:48:00.000-06:00

We made it home yesterday, which is fortunate because Rogers Pass is a blustery mess today, judging from the MDT webcam view here. Everyone seems to have survived our absence, which is no big surprise. They're all pretty self-sufficient when they need to be! Now we're just trying to get back into our routine and catch up on the things we missed.
Here's a scrapbook page I put together last night before calling it a day.

Isn't she sweet?? They're so adorable when they're sleeping. Speaking of which, have both of mine - plus the neighbor's two kids - all napping right now, so better get busy with some grantwriting while I have the chance!
Until next time, have a great day!

Photogenic.

2009-03-22T10:43:00.000-06:00

My niece is so amazingly photogenic - it was easy for my sister & I to get some great photos of her today. Here are just a few of my favorites...

Family time.

2009-03-21T11:08:00.000-06:00

Well, I made it to Polson on Wednesday and have spent the last couple of days letting the girls play with their cousins. Skylar has lots of fun with all of them - she and Tias even hammed it up for me so I could take lots of photos, such as the ones in the layout above. Sara has some fun with my camera, too, taking a bunch of photos from her living room window. She has the most amazing view - you could literally sit and stare for hours and always see something new.
  We stayed at her house the first couple of nights and then moved up to mom and dad's last night, where we'll camp out until we leave - probably Tuesday morning, weather-permitting. While here, we've mostly been trying to corral all of the cousins, but I have had a little time to scrapbook, catch up on email, etc. this afternoon.

Not sure what's on tap for tomorrow ... probably more of the same, though we're hoping to squeeze in a photo shoot with Sara & her kids. If we get that accomplished, you can expect to see lots of photos!! Until then... have a great weekend!

How to be (almost) 3 ... Skylar-style.

2009-03-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

1. Treat the world as your sketchbook ... draw pretty pictures on the walls, put stickers on the wood floors and furniture (and on mommy), and scribble designs on your baby sister or her clothing at least once every day. 2. Choose a favorite movie and watch it at least four or five times every single day, beginning from the moment you wake up and continuing until bedtime. Current recommendations: Monsters, Inc., followed by Finding Nemo, Elmocize and the Fisher Price Little People video. 3. Subsist on pop tarts, orange juice, "chocolate-chocolate milk," and candy treats earned for using the potty. 4. Insist on jumping up the stairs and getting an airplane ride as a pre-condition to a peaceful naptime. 5. Talk ... a lot. Talk about what's happening on the movie, talk about what you see on the computer screen, talk about what your brothers and daddy might be doing and when they'll be home, talk on the play telephone and talk about what you just did, want to do and are about to try. Most of all, though, just make sure you keep talking. 6. Dance around the living room at least once a day and insist that mommy and baby Dani dance with you. The kitchen works fine, too. 7. Ride your bike in the house. Better yet, have another riding toy on stand-by (in the living room) in case you need a change of pace. 8. Inform mommy with a really loud announcement whenever the microwave beeps, phone rings or toaster pops. Repeat, if necessary. 9. Play in the water as often as possible. Find every toy that could possibly need to be washed and insist on doing so, preferably at 5-minute intervals so mommy has to repeatedly turn the water on for you. 10. Insist on wearing pink tights, a red dress, purple shirt and pink shoes on the wrong feet - on St. Patrick's Day. 11. Help mommy put on her shoes. Do not let her attempt to do this herself. Insist that she wear the black "comfy" ones, even if she thinks she would prefer a different pair. 12. Change your own shoes at least 5 or 6 times a day. Be sure to put them on the wrong feet at least half of the time. 13. Make sure that you always put a hood on right after mommy fixes your hair. 14. Always bring mommy a cup of (pretend) coffee or tea if she's at the computer. Don't forget to ask her if her hands are cold and tell her to blow on the coffee, "cuz it's hot!" 15. The most effective time to throw a tantrum is right after your baby sister goes to sleep. Right outside her door is a great place to do this. 16. Be sure you help mommy finish her Diet Coke. Start by asking for a drink and when she lets you have one, say "keep it?" Sometimes she actually says okay! 17. Keep an eye on mommy and daddy at dinner. If they start to look bored, insist that they feed you. 18. Make sure you put ketchup on everything - meat, eggs, potatoes, even rice, veggies and potato chips. Ranch dressing is an acceptable alternative. 19. As soon as you hear mommy get her vitamins for the day, holler "I need a via-min, mommy!" Then insist on a purple one (red if they're all gone). 20. Look absolutely adorable all of the time and talk really cute to make it nearly impossible for mommy to get mad at you!
 

Good to be (related to the) Irish...

2009-03-17T06:45:00.000-06:00

  
Since I couldn't get on the road today, I decided to put together a double-pager in honor of the holiday. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

It's our lucky day ... I hope.

2009-03-17T00:00:00.000-06:00

Are you wearing green?? Thanks to Pop, our kids always have something festive (and usually a bit crazy) to wear for St. Patrick's Day.

This year was no exception ... Kody spotted the package from Pop - addressed "to the kids at O'Ruttens" - on the table as soon as he got home from school yesterday. They managed to wait until after dinner before tearing in and were delighted to discover an assortment of green headbands, stickers, fake mustaches and beaded necklaces. Thanks, Pop!!

As for me, I'm hoping the luck o' the Irish comes my way today as I attempt to make the trip home to Polson to spend the week with my family. The girls and I had planned to leave Monday, but Old Man Winter had other plans for us. Here's crossing my fingers that the weather report is more favorable today or we'll be postponing again until tomorrow.
In the meantime, here are a few pages I put together yesterday while stuck at home ...

 
  UPDATE - 8:55 a.m. Tuesday: Well, it's gorgeous outside here in Lewistown but the picture isn't so pretty over Rogers Pass. So, we'll give it one more day ... but we ARE going tomorrow!! Guess I'll have to do some more scrapbooking ... :)

To be 11.

2009-03-14T11:24:00.000-06:00

After posting yesterday and sharing several more layouts featuring the girls, I was feeling guilty for having done so few for the boys. Then I came across these photos that Jacques and Kody took a few days ago... the rest speaks for itself!

Ready for spring.

2009-03-13T03:09:00.000-06:00

I don't know about you, but doesn't it seem like it's been a really long winter?? The sun is shining today, which gives us hope that spring is getting nearer. With the time change, it just FEELS like the weather should be warming up as the days get longer.
Anyway, all this cold weather has meant more time indoors to scrapbook. Here are a few of my pages from the past couple of days...
A few for Skylar:

And a couple for Danica: 
 
 Eventually, I will go back and do a bunch of pages for the boys from their baby days. It's just such a huge task right now - I have to sort a ton of photos first and then scan the ones I want to use (pre-digital age, you know) - that I just haven't had the drive to get started.
Speaking of the boys ... Karstin's MathCounts team took SECOND place at State on Tuesday, so of course he was very excited and we were very proud. You can read all about it on his blog here. If you can't get in, email him at karstinneill@yahoo.com and request an invitation. We have it password-protected in an attempt to keep him safe on the web... He would LOVE to hear your positive feedback!!! :)

a Day in MY Life...

2009-03-09T00:00:00.000-06:00

  So, I finished up my first "Day in the Life" album this weekend. It is a rather detailed look at a somewhat typical day in my life, including more than 130 photos and 30 pages!! I'm glad to have it finished so I can move on to other projects, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out ... You can view it at Shutterfly by clicking here.
Let me know what you think!! :)

Even though I don't speak "ski hill" ...

2009-03-08T07:59:00.000-06:00

... I'm pretty sure "shredding the mountain" means they had fun!! The guys returned last night full of stories plus a video clip of Kody "doing the bull dance, feeling the flow, working it" (apparently a line from Happy Gilmore... I don't speak movie clips, either!!)
You can view the video on my uTube site or via our family Shutterfly Share Site.
Here's the layout I put together for Kody's scrapbook.

You can also check out Karstin's recap on his blog. If you can't get in, email him at karstinneill@yahoo.com for an invitation and I'm sure he'll happily send one.

March: in like a ... tornado!

2009-03-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

Wow... the days are just flying by. I didn't realize I haven't even posted yet this month! What have I been up to?? Hmm... trying to keep up with all of Dani's new tricks. She is soooo close to crawling, I don't want to turn my back for a second or I'll miss that first time! Skylar is keeping pretty close tabs on her, so we should be ready. Can you believe Danica is 8 months old already???
Karstin is cramming for the state Math Counts competition next Tuesday in Bozeman. Let's just say he's VERY excited - and a bit nervous, I think. And Kody is wrapping up basketball and itching to play outside now that the weather is getting a bit warmer. Jacques is busy at work and now is tackling a project that's been in the back of his mind for a while ... putting a shower in the basement. Not a bathroom, mind you, but a shower. And now he's adding a utility sink. ALMOST a bathroom!! But it's for the guys, so I guess I don't really care. He also bought a used pop-up camper last weekend, so I think everyone's kinda getting the bug for spring & summer to arrive.
As for me, I'm just trying to keep up with everyone and at the same time, remember appointments (note to self: dentist this afternoon), complete a layout every now and then (see below) and work on the latest business idea that inspired me, though I'm not quite ready to share... :) Also went to the community concert with my neighbor friend, Stef, last night - Dale Gonyea - which was very entertaining and a nice break for me, although I also found out last night Stefanie's family is moving to Billings in the next month or two. Not the best news, but I guess we'll make the best of it. Maybe some shopping playdates?? ;)
Anyway, here's some of my most recent pages ... and stay tuned for more info on my biz plans, coming soon!!

21 things that make me smile :)

2009-02-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

1. Sleeping babies, especially MY sleeping babies. Extra smiles for both of them sleeping at the same time!!
2. A clean kitchen. A clean bathroom. A clean anything, especially if it stays that way for more than 15 minutes.
3. The sound I imagine being made when I put a staple on a digital scrapbook layout. I know, it sounds crazy, but it really does make me smile ... and want to add lots of staples to my layouts!!

4. A hot bubble bath with a new, unread magazine and a glass of wine. Extra smiles for a few chunks of chocolate to go with it!
5. A quiet but full house at the end of a busy day.
6. The name of someone I know (and like) in the "From" category of my email inbox.
7. Positive comments listed under the scrapbook layouts I post at designerdigitals.com
8. Hot coffee with just enough creamer along with a chocolate chip cookie or warm pop tart.
9. Cherry ZERO, icy cold from the can.
10. A really good photo of someone I love.
11. A well-designed scrapbook page, by me or anyone else.
12. New posts on Ali Edwards' blog (aliedwards.typepad.com). She's just so inspirational.
13. Dinner cooked and ready to eat, without any effort on my part.
14. Sunshine streaming through the windows in my house, especially during the morning hours.
15. Smiles on my little ones' faces. And my big ones, too!!
16. The sight of the mailman or delivery guy coming to the door with a package, especially if I'm expecting a packet of photos or printed scrapbook pages.
17. A great new book full of creative inspiration, like Ali Edwards' "Life Artist" or Becky Fleck's "Page Maps" or similar books.
18. A great font. My two favorite additions to my collection this week ... LD Letterpress & LD Olympia Portable. The first is a distressed, stamp-like font and the second is exactly like the type produced by my gramma's old italic typewriter. I can't wait to use each of them in some new scrapbook pages.
19. The chain & pendants I wear almost every day. It's just a basic chain with a key, a lock and a ring that says "imagine" on it. Nothing fancy, but I really like it.
20. Clothes that fit and look half-way decent. I have a ton of clothes, so you'd think this would be an easy thing. But somehow it's just not. Someday...
21. The consistency of a routine day. Morning coffee & email. The Today Show. My soaps ... Young & the Restless, As the World Turns, Days of our Lives ... the peace & quiet of afternoon naps and time to work. Return of the boys & husband at the end of the day for a few hours of family time. Quiet again and time to reflect...

Chaos reigns.

2009-02-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

  Things are crazy around here. Somehow I didn't notice on the school calendar until last night that there was no school today and tomorrow. The boys knew, of course, and have been bouncing off the walls all day, including an additional friend of Karstin's. Somehow in the middle of the chaos, I managed to get quite a bit of grantwriting work done, plus a layout or two. But I definitely understand why mom used to say she was ready for us to go back to school whenever we had a break of more than a day or two!! Apparently, something is pretty funny on YouTube because the boys spent a LONG time giggling at the computer!!
Anyway, here are a couple of layouts I put together for Danica's first-year album... 
  Now I'm off to the tub with a glass of wine and my new edition of Creating Keepsakes to check out what's new and maybe brainstorm some new kit ideas of my own ... these days, that's about the only place I can go and get a little peace and quiet!! :)

Making progress.

2009-02-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

I can check two projects off my list. I finished my gangster layout yesterday ...

and I also created a sixth layout for the Designer Digitals contest.
  If I happen to do another page I like better than one of the six I already submitted, I may swap one out. But if not, I've completed the contest requirements, so at least I'll have a shot at being considered!
The other items on my list are much more time-consuming, but eventually I'll share when I get them completed.

My current projects...

2009-02-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

1. A "Day in the Life" album.    I spent last Thursday taking photos all day and jotting down our activities so I can make an album depicting a typical day in my life. Turned out, it wasn't entirely typical - Jacques came home a little early and took 3 of the kids with him to the 7C basketball tourney, leaving me with just the baby and a few hours of (somewhat) free time.    The album will still be a pretty accurate glimpse into my life at this stage, though... I have all of the photos (136+) on pages and now just need to go back and do the journaling and some embellishing.
2. Scrapbooking my uncle's 60th "gangster" birthday party.     It's not every day that I see my parents dressed up like a scene from The Godfather! We had fun celebrating my uncle's 60th birthday with a theme party in Great Falls this weekend and of course, I took lots of photos. I sat down last night to put together a fun page with some of my favorite shots - when I get that finished, I'll be sure to share...
3. Planning a layout (or 2) highlighting memories of my gramma's house.    My aunt & uncle live in the house that was my grandparents and I always loved visiting there. I took several photos this weekend of that house so I can incorporate them into some pages about my memories of the house - and my grandparents, too.     I used to always say that my Gramma Stephens was my "favorite person in the whole world" and have been wanting to document some of my memories of her for quite a while now. Hopefully this first step will help me get that done...
4. Deciding what to do for my final entry for the Guest Designer contest at Designer Digitals. 
I decided to go ahead and give this contest a try. DesignerDigitals.com is my favorite digital scrapbooking site, both their store and their gallery. I upload all of my pages there as they are completed and most of the digital goodies I buy are from that store. They are currently running a contest where you upload 6 layouts during the month of February, with the chosen "guest designer" winning the opportunity to be a guest on their design team for 8 weeks, during which time they receive all of the new products for FREE. I've submitted 5 pages so far, including the one above, and have one left... still deciding what to do for that.
Wish me luck!!
5. Working on a little gift album.  It's a surprise, though, for the recipient, so I won't be sharing details of that until later!! :)

Soft and sweet...

2009-02-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

... just like the emerging signs of spring, the new "Josie" digital scrapbooking kit is packed with goodies just waiting for you to download. Included are 8 full-size, 300 dpi, patterned papers in hues of sage green, raspberry, soft yellow and brown. The kit is also packed with elements, including word charms, jewelry findings, fabric patches, beads, journaling tags, a complete alpha-numeric set of rub-ons and more.       Contents include: 8 patterned papers 5 charms (4 with words, 1 blank); with and without jump rings 3 journaling tags 2 ribbons 1 coordinating bow 1 straight silver chain 1 looped silver chain jewelry findings (bracelet, jump ring, eyelet) multi-colored circle sticker beaded charm bracelet set of 6 fabric patches, with and without stitching complete alpha-numeric set of rub-ons     A Spring Creek Design exclusive.
Files in png or jpg format delivered as ZIP files; compatible with most design software. Note: This product is a digital download; you will not receive any physical product.
$6.50 (USD)

 
Sample Layouts
  

Note: A few items in this layout are not included in this kit (date strip, vintage frame, staples).
Also just for you ... a special FREEBIE add-on to coordinate with the "Josie" Kit ...
  This FREE add-on includes: 1 charm ribbon, complete with 4 charms string of coordinating beads 1 12x12 patterned paper 1 felt journaling tag
Get your download here: Download Krutten_josie_freebie_add-on
Be sure to come back in the next few days for another FREEBIE from the "Josie" kit! Also be sure to check out my other FREEBIES, as well as my other items for sale here! And if you download my FREEBIE, I'd love for you to leave a comment! :) Have a great day!

Good things...

2009-02-17T00:42:00.000-07:00

come in threes.
That was especially true yesterday when our little neighbor celebrated her third birthday. Skylar, Danica and I spent the morning over at their house and had fun watching the three big girls play. It's hard to believe they're all turning 3 years old within the next couple of months! Time is going by soooo fast, especially lately.

Skylar is walking around quoting the movie, Finding Nemo. "Are you my conscience? Yeah, I'm you're conscience." She doesn't even know what it means, but it's hilarious anyway. And Danica is starting to cut her bottom two teeth, gets up on her knees to crawl and is beginning to clap. It seems like not that long ago she was so tiny.
Then there's the boys. I let Karstin start a blog ... and unleashed an enormous writing streak! It's fun to get inside his head every day and see what makes him tick. Definitely a good decision. And Kody is on the run ... running to school, running to basketball practice twice a week and games once a week, running across the street whenever possible to play with his buddy, running around the house and getting Sky all wild and excited.
I'm beginning to see why I haven't had as much time to blog lately!
Currently, I'm working on a little gift project, plus taking lots of photos and doing a family page here and there. Need to spend more time on grant writing and I also try to squeeze in my OCR editing as often as possible, which helps fund my digital habits. Am also cooking up some ideas for some new digital kits and FREEBIES ...
Better run... seems like I have a lot to do!! :)

Free photo printing!

2009-02-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hi there. Just wanted to share an online printing company that has a ton of freebies for signing up, including 100 free 4x6 and 50 free 5x7 prints every month for 6 months (not including shipping). You also get a ton of credits for other free stuff, like 8x8 photobooks, calendars, etc. If you don't use the credits, you can even transfer them to someone who will! Check it out here.
Have a great day!

Weekend recap.

2009-02-09T02:46:00.000-07:00

Well, we survived the long weekend without daddy and had a little fun in the process. I took several photos and kept track of lots of activity so I can create a scrapbook layout out of it. Not sure when I'll get that page done, so here's a few preview photos...

Curious how many diapers I changed this weekend? 22 How many loads of laundry? 10 How many viewings of Finding Nemo? 8 How many cups of coffee? 16 And the list goes on. I did manage to scrapbook about 10 pages, somehow. Generally in the wee hours of the morning when the girls were finally asleep. That's probably why those 10 loads of laundry are still largely unfolded and sitting in piles around the house! Mommy logic: If I wait long enough, we'll wear half of the stuff in the piles and I'll have half as much to fold! Ha, ha.
  Speaking of laundry and such, guess I'd better get a few things done this morning so I can focus on some grant-writing this afternoon ... and maybe sneak in a layout or two somewhere in the process!! Here's a couple from the weekend to enjoy... you can check out all of my scrapbooking projects here.

  

Girls' weekend.

2009-02-06T02:41:00.000-07:00

My husband has escaped for the weekend to head east to go coyote hunting with his buddies. And the boys are with their dad shearing sheep. So, it's just the girls and me this weekend. Inevitably, when my husband gets home from these weekends, he wants to know what we "did" all weekend. Hmmm... not a lot of surprises in my answer considering the girls are just 2 and 7 months! But I thought it might be fun to focus a scrapbook layout around it, so I am currently snapping lots of photos and tracking things like how many diapers I've changed, how many cups of coffee I've had or juices I've refilled, how many loads of laundry and dishes, how many times I've watched "Finding Nemo"... Will be fun to put together the pages (and add it all up!)
In the meantime, I've got taxes to do, some grant-writing to catch up on and some valentine gifts to assemble. But I have managed to get a couple pages done in the past few days. Here they are...

 

  You can check out all of my scrapbook pages here. And if you need a great valentine gift idea, check this out! In the meantime, have a great weekend!

It's about time...

2009-02-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

  So I managed to pull myself away from the computer this weekend and finally rework the watch I wrote about on Friday. It took a while to be able to relax and enjoy the process without feeling like I should be doing something more "productive."
  But eventually I was able to do that and I like the results. Of course, I had to do it twice... I seem to always make watches and bracelets too big the first time around. But that's okay, too. It's how I do most things - make a "rough draft" to start with, then fine-tune it until I like the end result. Here it is...    While digging through my jewelry supplies, I also came across some beads I'd forgotten I'd purchased to make a name bracelet for my baby girl. So, now I have another project to keep in mind the next time I feel a need for more balance.
I'm thinking that will be pretty soon! :)

Balance.

2009-01-30T01:10:00.000-07:00

I just love this watch. Or rather, I love the potential I see in this watch. I picked this up at one of our local second-hand stores in November for about $2 and have been meaning to take it apart and restyle it ever since. But somehow that hasn't happened... first I got sidetracked with the holidays, then my scrapbooking bug took over, and then most recently I've had some grant application deadlines sneak up on me.
It's all about BALANCE, which is something I've never been very good at achieving but continually feel I need more of. I have a tendency to go, go, go when there is something I'm interested in, only to burn myself out on it and then not want to touch it again for a while. After almost two years of not really feeling motivated to scrapbook, I'm suddenly feeling extremely motivated and want to do it ALL the time. I want to take advantage of this new-found energy to do a bunch of projects I've had in mind, but at the same time I don't want to burn myself out and take another two or three years to get going again. So I'm trying this time to find more balance before that happens.
So, this weekend I am making it a goal of mine to take some time out from everything else to design this watch. Perhaps I'll do it between Super Bowl commercials, since I'm not much of a football fan. (My husband, on the other hand, is a Steelers follower, so I'm sure he'll be glued to the set!) I'll put a photo of the new and improved watch here Monday ... hopefully my saying that will help me follow through on this plan!!
Have a great weekend! :)

First challenge entry

2009-01-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

I've never paid much attention before to the "challenge" contests on the digital scrapbooking websites, but I was inspired last night to go ahead and do one at designerdigitals.com. The task was to create a page centered on "love" using only designerdigitals products. I LOVE their stuff, so this was not a problem. And I've been wanting to do something with this great photo of the girls, so this seemed like a good time to do it. Here's the page...
  In case you're interested, the challenge winners will be based on the number of times each entry is viewed and the number of comments. The winner(s) will receive a free iPod. So, if you want to help me out ... take a look at my page here. If you visit, be sure to leave a comment!
Thanks!! :)

Baby's first Christmas

2009-01-26T03:09:00.000-07:00

  Just finished up this layout of Dani's first Christmas ... I started it last night but my little angel interrupted and insisted we go to bed!! Now ... off to write a grant application. Deadlines are looming!! :)

Teens, babies and organization.

2009-01-26T00:12:00.000-07:00

The weather here is still really cold, so it was pretty easy to stay huddled inside and do a lot of scrapbooking this weekend. With four kids - and 13 years of scrapbooking that only happened hit-and-miss - I could do this 24 hours a day for quite some time before I ran out of things to document or stories to tell on paper. So, I've been jumping from project to project pretty frequently.
After doing several baby and family focused layouts, I decided I needed one that would reflect my teenage son and where he's at right now. So, I handed him my camera and told him I wanted 5 photos that would tell a complete stranger pretty much everything Karstin wanted them to know about him. This is what I got and what I did with it ...
    Pretty cool, eh?? It will be fun to look back at someday, because he did a great job taking photos... this really is KARSTIN.
I also decided to get going on Danica's scrapbook, since she only had one layout in it compared to her sister, who has about 40! Here's what I did this weekend...

Yesterday I decided to take a break from actually scrapbooking and get organized. If you could see my computer files, you would know why. I had digital kits scattered in about 5 different places on 3 different hard drives. Not easy to find - and really hard to know what I had to choose from. So, I put everything in one file, cleaned it all up by creating consistent folders and labeling, backed it all up on one of my external hard drives, then imported everything into Shoebox, which makes it super easy to view and sort all of those papers, tags, alphabets, etc.
It took 5 or 6 hours to get it all done, but I'm sure glad I did. Now I can focus on the fun part of scrapbooking without all of that frustration!

THIS is why I scrapbook

2009-01-24T01:35:00.000-07:00

My adorable 2-year-old is becoming quite the reader and I just love sitting and listening to her and her daddy "read" Hop on Pop. He starts the page, she finishes it. "STOP!," she screams happily. "Don't HOP on POP!" And this is why I scrapbook ... to help me remember these precious moments that don't last long enough.

Fun stuff for scrapbookers!

2009-01-23T01:59:00.000-07:00

My new items from CafePress arrived yesterday and I wanted to share... last year I designed a combination datebook/gratitude journal for scrapbookers. With the birth of my youngest daughter in June, my design work took a huge back seat and I didn't do much of anything scrapbook-related (except take 100s of photos!!) until the last month or so. But then I was contacted by someone who purchased my datebook last year and wanted to know if I was doing one for 2009. Since she loved it - and so do I - I decided to go ahead and do one, even though the year had already started.
  So... here it is. There's an individual page for the beginning of each week with an inspirational quote, "to do" list, and room for a grocery list. That is followed by an individual page for each day of that week, with room for appointments, a place to mark holidays and occasions (major holidays are already filled in for you), room to jot down the dinner menu, a list for photos taken that day (so you can remember when you find time to scrapbook!), a box for little things you just want to remember, and a place to list 5 things you are grateful for that day.
    New this year is a two-page full month calendar at the beginning of each month (thanks for the great idea, Nancy!). There are also various help items at the back of the book, including 2010 calendars and holidays, places to list gift ideas, favorite websites and phone numbers. The book itself is 5x8 inches, 458 pages. If you're interested in having one for yourself, you can find it here in my CafePress store. If you like it, let me know ... I'm planning early to do one for next year.
The other item is a mousepad, which I actually designed last year but just now got around to buying for myself. It has my favorite quote on it: "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away." You can find it here if you'd like one of these.
  Now, to get back to work ... I've been doing so much scrapbooking lately, my other "to do" list is getting a little long!! Enjoy!!!

Family scrapbook: winter play

2009-01-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here's another addition to the Rutten Family 2009 scrapbook...   This was created in Photoshop 7.0 using the Wonderland kit by Atomic Cupcake.

Me: inspired.

2009-01-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

After making my "16 things" list this morning, I was inspired this evening to do a couple layouts for my album about ME. The first is my list and the other is just a record of one of my favorite ways to spend a few quiet minutes at home.
  
The "story" image above and the overlay below are both by Ali Edwards from designerdigitals.com.
  

16 things about me

2009-01-21T01:16:00.000-07:00

Was inspired this morning by Ali Edwards' blog to jot down "16 things about me" at this moment in time. It was a lot of fun and now I'll probably incorporate this into a layout for my scrapbook about me. This would also be a good exercise to repeat in a few months...
Anyway...
1. Morning is my favorite time of day, especially if I manage to get up and get a cup of coffee before my little girls wake up. I just love the sun streaming in the windows, the quiet, the Today show on in the background and the chance to check emails and wander around the Internet for a while before real life sets in again.  2. My home office drives me crazy. Simply stated, it’s overpacked with a ton of stuff and always ends up looking like a cluttered mess. I would love to streamline but just can’t seem to get it done. I don’t like letting go of things… I might need it someday!  3. I think I’ll probably write a book about my life someday. I’m just worried my memory won’t hold out and it’ll be a bunch of blank pages.  4. I LOVE Legos. Have ever since I was little. I discovered the digital design program at legoland.com over Christmas break and have literally had to stay away for fear all I would do all day is build Lego houses on my computer.  5. I’m not a big fan of winter, except when viewed from inside my cozy house with no need to go out. It’s pretty, but it’s a pain in the butt. I’m terrified of ice, especially on the roads and it has to be a MAJOR event before I’ll take a trip that requires me to drive over an icy overpass.  6. I’m a combination eater. Certain foods just have to have their counterpart – pizza requires Diet Coke, coffee almost always needs a sweet treat – caramels, brownies or sweet rolls are best – I would probably be half my size if I could find something I loved that would go with lettuce or fruit!  7. I find office supplies very inspiring. I love finding a great new notebook or kind of pen.. I REALLY enjoy a great tag with lots of fun little boxes to fill in, so the new trends in digital scrapbooking make me want EVERYTHING right now!  8. Love dessert. My favorites are chocolate cheesecake, a good plain chocolate brownie, cherry pie made with real pie cherries, turtle brownies and snicker cake.  9. I’m somewhat addicted to Diet Coke and Cherry Coke One. Gave up all diet pops for a couple years about 12 years ago because of the fear of what artificial sweeteners do to your brain but don’t think I’ll do it again. It’s kinda like coffee is to others – if I don’t have it, I feel an intense need to GET it!  10. I definitely prefer quiet and calm over loud and chaotic, but it can’t be TOO quiet, either. The TV is on all day in the background, just to keep me company. Of course, quiet isn’t an issue around here much right now … my 2-year-old never stops talking except when she’s asleep!  11. I’ve always wished I had thicker hair. Not super thick but thicker than my baby fine hair. Something that could withstand a nap or a hat without being a frizzy, flyaway mess afterward. Something that could hold some of the cute cuts I can’t pull off with my own head of hair.  12. I love to decorate, though you might not guess sometimes to look at my surroundings. If I had an unlimited budget and lots of free time (and didn’t have to worry about what the rest of my family likes), my house would look entirely different.  13. One of my favorite parts of having two little girls after having two boys is the adorable baby clothes. Boys are great but they are not much fun to shop for. But it’s SO much fun looking at baby girl clothes … I especially love the combination of pink and brown!  14. I’m a bit of a serial entrepreneur. I keep changing my focus, but right now I feel like I’m slowly making my way to where I really want to be, professionally speaking… Ali Edwards is as huge inspiration and role model for me in this area right now. Also love the digital kits by Katie Pertiet.  15. The best gift right now would be lots and lots of free time to work on all the scrapbook and photo-related projects I feel inspired to do … without feeling guilty for not working on something else.  16. I feel like the Internet and the ease of blogging has opened up a whole new world to me … there are so many neat people and great ideas out there, I could easily spend all day just wandering around and collecting ideas, to the point of almost being overwhelming. I love it!

"Change" is here...

2009-01-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

Watching the inauguration of Barack Obama today on the TV, I was reminded of how certain events stick in your mind long after they occur. Moments like when I heard about the bombing of the Twin Towers or the first time I saw each of my babies' faces.
Many people talk about where they were when JFK was assassinated, but that was several years before I was even born. I realized my two young daughters - ages 2 1/2 and almost 7 months - will have no recollection of this event when people talk about the day the first black President took office, even though they were alive to witness it. So I decided to put together a page for them to look back on later to give them just a glimpse of the event.
  
The row across the top is a handful of screenshots of what was happening on websites across the country following the swearing-in ... definitely something that didn't even exist when most of the past leaders took office. The backdrop, though you can't read much of it, is President Obama's inaugural address.
Note: The pin holding up the note is from Andrea L. Burns' "Seeing Stars" kit. The rest is of my own design and/or borrowed from images on the Internet.

Birthday memories

2009-01-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to start my 2-year-old's birthday album this weekend, which is going to be a gated album with a combination of 12x12 and 6x12 layouts and photo sleeves. Her first birthday is nearly complete - now I just need to get everything printed and purchase the album. Here's a peek at the layouts that will go into this book...
 
     These were all created digitally using the Kaylee kit from Atomic Cupcake. I also have 60 photos that will follow these pages in protective sleeves. The two sets of narrow layouts will go into the gated 6x12 pages and I'll slip her birthday cards into the one that says "cards."
Now I just need to do her second birthday and I'll have ONE album all caught up!! :)

Testing out a "blended album" approach

2009-01-18T04:41:00.000-07:00

  Just enjoying a quiet weekend at home and managed to put together the first calendar page for our 2009 family album. I'm trying a new approach this year, referred to in the industry as a "blended photo album." Basically it's a traditional photo album with photos slipped into sleeves but you add scrapbook pages and/or scrapbook-like elements mixed in.
I've decided to do this with the bulk of our family photos, since we take so many every year and there's no way I'll ever find time to scrapbook them all. I'm going to do this album chronologically, with each month starting with a page similar to the one above. Hopefully by the end of 2009, I'll have a finished album instead of what I have at the end of 2008, which is a ton of photos still in my computer!!
BTW - I scrap-lifted the design for this page from one I saw at digitreats.typepad.com. Love her stuff ... be sure to check it out!!

Inspired to stay inside & scrapbook!

2009-01-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

We woke up this morning to a new blanket of snow ... very pretty but most enjoyed from inside the house. It's days like these when I really appreciate that I am able to work from home with my little ones. I'm also very glad our appointment in Billings (2 hours away) was yesterday, as I am NOT a fan of winter driving or traveling.  Came home with a couple great finds yesterday after a quick trip to Target. One is a really cool "notebinder" that is going to be home to the "idea catcher" I am starting to help me get the ideas out of my head and onto paper where I hopefully won't lose them! This little binder is made of some kind of flexible plastic and has pockets for index-card sized items, larger transparent sleeves and dividers, three-ring paper and graph paper, etc. It's perfect for my plans! Will share more about this as it comes together.
I also found some great little items from the Real Simple line that I plan to turn into mini albums. One is a business card sized "card wheel" with clear pockets intended for business cards (I'm envisioning photos...) and the other is a similar wheel with larger sized cards in place of the pockets. Lots of inspiration coming from those!!

 

Time to BEGIN

2009-01-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

If you're a fan of Ali Edwards, you know she encourages everyone to choose a "word" for the year ... something to serve as a daily reminder and guide toward whatever area is a priority for you at the moment.
My word for the year is: BEGIN.
I've decided to incorporate my word into a project I've taken on this year, and I plan to share my progress along this way with you on this blog. I just turned 39 a couple weeks ago and somehow this, my 40th year, seems like a big turning point for me. More on that later, I'm sure.
My project is a scrapbook album focused on ME at this stage in my life. My many roles, my goals, my interests and hobbies, my priorities, my hang-ups. And as you'll discover if you follow along with me, one of those hang-ups is moving beyond the planning stage to actually DOING. Hence, my word for the year.
Inspired by the colors in a bouquet of pretty flowers my father-in-law shared with us last week, I've designed a new digital kit focused on my word for the year. At the moment, I'm hoping to make this an annual project. I will be making that kit available for sale later this month. In the meantime, I've used some of its pieces to create a first page for my album... a BEGINning.
Here it is...
 
This page will eventually go into a fun 8x8 acrylic album I found on eBay from a store called www.inkognitoart.com (it's on the top of the pile - literally & figuratively - in the photo in my scrapbook page). I've never used acrylic before, so this will be another fun challenge. More on that later...

An easy way to save those holiday cards, letters and photos

2009-01-08T06:32:00.001-07:00

I discovered a great new use for one of my kitchen gadgets and just had to share.

Every year, we get a nice stack of holiday cards, letters and photos, which, of course, I want to save. But I usually end up tossing them into a drawer for "later" and, well, later never quite comes. So, this year I decided (with the help of my word of the year - BEGIN) to actually DO something with those holiday wishes.

I have now started a scrapbook album devoted exclusively to our holiday cards and letters. Nothing too fancy - it's basically a binder with clear protective pages where I can slip each item into. All of the items for each year go in one section and I'll add cute index pages for each year once I have a chance to visit a scrapbook supply store. I used a white binder with a clear cover, so when I have time, I can make a cute holiday-themed "cover" to slip inside the front, back and spine "pockets."

The part I wanted to share is how I created the inside pockets for the items that are smaller than a standard-sized page. We don't have any suppliers in our area that offer more than your basic 8.5x11-inch protector. And I wanted a way to store smaller sized photos and cards without using a whole protector page for each. I knew (from experience!) if I wait until I could go shopping for specialized pages, the project would never get started. So, I used my vacuum heat sealer from the kitchen to create my own pockets on the pages.

I enjoy freezer cooking and was fortunate to receive a Foodsaver Professional III sealer last year for Christmas. But I'm guessing just about any sealer would work if it has the option of sealing without "vacuuming." Basically, I just laid my protector page in the sealer where I wanted a side seam and then used the manual seal option on setting 3 for heat sealing time. I sealed the top of the page closed, then added seams to make smaller pockets within, depending on what specific items I wanted to put in each page. To make openings to slide the items in, I then used my rotary paper cutter and removed the original seam from one side of the page. It worked really well and I plan to use this method again for my other scrapbooking projects, especially when I'm in a hurry and don't want to wait for an order of special pocket pages to arrive by mail.

Now that this album is started, it should be easy next year to just add another section. Plus, this will make it much easier to go back from year to year and see how people have changed!

About Spring Creek Design

2009-01-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

 Founded in the spring of 2007, Spring Creek Design is the home-based graphic design, digital scrapbooking and contract-grantwriting studio owned by designer Kristin Rutten. A lifelong scrapbooker and self-taught graphic designer, Kristin enjoys the creative process and expresses this talent through a variety of avenues. Her current focus is on the development of planning books, calendars, digital kits and other resources for scrapbookers. Her experience includes several years as a community newspaper reporter, designer and editor where she designed all kinds of print media, ranging from newspapers and special editions to a soft-cover book, several print advertisements and various other materials. She has also been involved in several non-profit agencies, including long-time service as a board member for the local Boys & Girls Club, as well as Executive Director for a local agency serving senior citizens. Through both, she has created all kinds of marketing materials and further honed her design and public relations skills. She is also currently providing contract grant-writing and design services for a Central Montana non-profit economic development agency.

As a work-at-home mom to four kids, ranging in age from 6 months to 13 years, Kristin is especially interested in supporting the ability of mothers to be available to their families while pursuing their own career interests and contributing to the family finances. You may contact Kristin directly be emailing kristinmrutten@yahoo.com.

Spring Creek Design will conside all kinds of design and production projects, with a special emphasis on digital scrapbooking, publishing, and production layout. Projects of all sizes will be considered, both short-term and ongoing. For more information or to obtain a cost estimate for a particular project, please contact Kristin via email.

Making progress...

2009-01-06T00:58:00.000-07:00

 My move to this new site is coming along.
I am currently working on putting up my scrapbooking pages, as well as examples of my design work. In the process of designing my site, I am also refining just what it is I want this site to do and my "creative manifesto," or "mission statement." At the moment, this includes representing the "real" me and my creative endeavors of the moment, which generally vary from scrapbooking/documenting the life of myself and my family, designing helpful booklets such as calendars, journals, planning guides, etc. that help me - and hopefully others - in their pursuits, decorating my home, creating various photo-related pieces, jewelry-making and occasionally sewing.
I also hope to share the sites, books and other resources that inspire me. At the moment, a huge inspiration for me is Ali Edwards. I just finished her book, "Life Artist," last week and have now started her newest, "Sharing Your Story." Both are wonderfully inspiring, as is her blog, and her philosophy toward documenting her stories through her "life art" resonates strongly with my own. I hope to incorporate her many ideas into my work as I continually shape my own scrapbooking and "life"style in general.
All of this is done between contract grant-writing, monthly website maintenance for a local non-profit, OCR textbook editing and caring for my 4 kids, ranging in age from 6 months to 13 years!
I hope you will join me in this journey...

Welcome to my new home on the web...

2009-01-04T04:03:00.000-07:00

A new year and time for change, including the creation of my new online home base. In the next few weeks, this will become the point from which my online life is anchored, including my home-based business, Spring Creek Design, as well as links to my personal sites. Check back soon - and often - to keep track of my progress in the creative world and beyond. Thanks for visiting and Happy New Year!