you make me smile

Well, I guess I decided to take another blog break...after a really long blog break. But I can honestly say that I have a BUNCH of projects to share now!! Now that things work related have calmed down and life seems to be getting back to normal, I should have more time to blog regularly!! Things were just so crazy through December and January, and I really needed some time to readjust to my normal again.

Anyway, I have been working through some of the Studio Calico kits that had been starting to stack up...with bigs plans to kill a few of them this week (I am on vacation...and it's just a rest, relax, and do what I want to do type of vacation...no big plans). I have a cart of 12x12 drawers that I got at target a few years back and I have converted it to house my kits...but it only has 7 12x12 boxes...and right now they are all full. With April's kit coming to my house in the next few weeks, I need to get at least one emptied out...but I am hoping to get two emptied out this week!! That means that there will be lots of crafting and a big mess in my office this week!! I love it when it's messy while I am working in it, but once I am done, I really need it straightened up...if not it totally messes with my crative mojo!!

But on to the project I wanted to share today. I actually just put this one together today...it's not one that's been sitting around waiting to be shared. I decided to play along with Shimelle's latest starting point (which you can check out here). With the exception of the Jenni Bowlin White Doily Flowers and the clear gemstones, everything on this layout is from Studio Calico's Glee Club kit and add-on's. I picked up all four add-on's that month so, even after 9 layouts done, I still have lots of stuff left to work with...and plans for at least 4 more layouts. But here's the layout I put together with the latest starting point...

This photo is from my wedding to my dear hubby about 10.5 years ago. I had started putting layouts together for our wedding album years ago, but I never finished it...I work on scrapping photos from all across the years. I can't scrap every photo from one year, event, or vacation all at once...that's not how I work. I need variety and change. I can work on scrapping photos from the same event or trip pretty close together, but somewhere in there at some time, I will break it up with other photos (most recently I did that with layouts from our trip to Hawaii back in 2004...but I still have some layouts to put together and share to finally finish that up). In this instance, beacuase I didn't finish the wedding scrapbook, my style has changed over the years. And while some scrappers can look at those older layouts right up next to new one's...I am not that scrapper. Thankfully, I don't have too much done...call it fear, if you will, to scrap those precious photos. Even though I have two HUGE albums of professional photos from our photographer (Baker Studio in Baldwinsville, NY, in case you're wondering, and yep...the one on the layout above is by them)...I have a hard time scrapping all of the photos taken with people's camera's and sent to us after the wedding. I just want them to be perfect...this album to be a perfect reflection of that day for us...but as that day moves further and further away from me, I am really feeling the need to get those photos onto pretty paper in an album everyone can enjoy looking at! So, that being said, I am being BRAVE and scrapping those photos...re-doing layouts here and there if I think I need to...and I am OK with that!

Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble on tonight. I hope you have had a fabulous weekend and here's to a great week ahead. Thanks for stopping by!!
Deb