For the Love of Books

I love to read, and I love books. I love the feel of books, I love the smell of books, I love to page through them slowly and devour every word on the page. Recently someone was asking about e-book devices, and while the concept is interesting (so many books at your fingertips wherever you go), I just don't see myself moving away from having that book in my hand to see and smell and feel. While hardback books look best on the bookshelf, the truth is I'm partial to paperbacks. One of my favorite scenes in Ever After (the Cinderella movie with Drew Barrymore) is when she is lovingly holding the paperback copy of Utopia* in her hand, a gift she received from her father. I can't really explain it, but there's something comforting in the bend of the book and the smallness of it. Hardback books are just so darn big. I do love the teeny tiny hardbacks, though, teeny tiny books are just adorable. My grandmother gave us small copies of a few of the classics when we were kids and I still have them - Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables.

So imagine my delight when a friend recently (ok, yesterday) introduced me to Goodreads, a web site dedicated to books and reading. This website allows you to search their book collection, rate the books you've read, write reviews and save it all to your own book profile. You can also read the reviews other people have written, review lists that people have created (and create your own lists), and much much more. There are author bios and links to other book sites. I've already rated over 200 books and posted 10 reviews. This was made a little easier since I've started keeping a book journal in 2007 to track the books I've read and what I thought of them. Just like on Netflix, you can have friends and recommend books to them (or have them recommend books to you). I'm in the process of getting Sandy, Lisa and Tabatha to join, they are my book buddies.

I love books so much I've even scrapbooked about them. Case in point, a layout about my all-time favorite book, King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, and how it's forever tied to my memories of my all-time favorite horse, Copper. It was actually for a theme challenge (the theme was your favorite book) held by ACOT in November 2007. I scanned and printed out the book cover (my copy is a large paperback) to use on the page along with a picture of Copper and me. I used the We R Memory Keepers Urban Window Collection because the colors coordinated with the book cover and my picture. The quote is one I'd been saving from a package of canvas stickers by Paper House Productions.

In 2008 I created a layout about some more of my favorite books, the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I found images of the book covers online and included them in this digital layout using Kathryn Balint's Farm Kid kit. I believe that reading these books is why I have fond memories of maple sugar candy, which I found at this year's Food & Wine Festival at Epcot (Canada was selling this yummy dessert in the shape of a Canada Maple Leaf). And I know that reading these books inspired my love of the old west and the life of a settler. I also know that as romantic as it sounds in the book, suffering through droughts and cold winters and Indian raids would not have been the ideal life for me, but it's certainly fun to read about.

In 2008 I met author Beverly Lewis at book signing at the local Christian bookstore (which has since unfortunately gone out of business). She has written many fictional Amish accounts including the Abram's Daughters series. Here's a layout I created this year (2009) showcasing the picture of Beverly Lewis and I taken during the event. I cut a tree shape out of patterned paper from a DCWV stack and used plenty of American Crafts flowers and Creating Keepsakes brads to embellish the page. I was also able to use this fun book tag by Daisy D's that I've been holding onto forever. The buttons are Bo Bunny and the letters are All My Memories and EK Success.

Putting up my bookshelves earlier this year was a dream come true, as now my favorite books are out of the boxes and on the shelves where they belong. Since my bookshelves are almost full, I usually choose to find new books to read from the library and only buy the books I'm in love with and plan to read over and over (like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, a gift from Lisa for my last birthday). Right now I'm reading several books, some are mine and some are borrowed from Lisa and Tabatha, who are still in the beginning stages of growing their book collections. I'm halfway through Native Dancer: Thoroughbred Legend by Eva J Boyd. I've read the first chapter of Marked (book 1 in the House of Night series) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, a mother-daughter writing duo. And of course I'm chomping at the bit to read Sea Glass (book 2 in the Glass series, a spin-off of the Study series) by Maria V Snyder. I would be much farther along on all 3 of these if I didn't keep stopping to reread parts of New Moon in anticipation of the New Moon movie that comes out November 20!

I hope this post inspires all of you to pick up a good book today!

* By the way, as proof you never stop learning, by looking up the link for Utopia to include in this blog post I learned that the man who wrote Utopia in 1516, Thomas More, is the same Thomas More I've read about in the many books I've read on the Tudor reign and Anne Boleyn.

Speaking of Children

Here's a face I haven't seen in a while - I haven't seen Miss Bianca all month. That might have something to do with me barely being home, but I still miss her and Libby Lynn. I need to get myself on their calendar. In the meantime I'm scrapping some past pictures. This one was from September when I took Bianca to the Children's Museum. She loved the airplane - at one point she insisted I get in the airplane with her and let me tell you that was a tight fit, so after that I managed to escape actually being in the plane.

In other news, we're praying for the swift recovery of John's Tio Cesar. If you are the praying-kind, please send some prayers up for him as well. "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the main who does not fall away on account of me." (Matthew 11:5-6) Praise be to the Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, to Him be the Glory.

Baby Logan Is Here

We've been waiting for him all year! Baby Logan arrived on Monday, November 2, at 12:18. He was 7 lb 8 oz, 22 inches long, and entered this world via C-Section. And though she's still working through the pain, I know Nicole (and Dana) are just thrilled to have him with them at last. Dad and I drove up on Monday once we'd heard the news and spent the week getting to know him and spending time with the family.

I managed to (just barely) finish Logan's baby book before we had to head up to Alabama to meet him. I promised Nicole I would make his baby book, and after the length of time she had to wait on her wedding album I didn't want to show up without it. That being said, I am a true procrastinator and waited too long to start as usual. Luckily my creative mind works well under pressure. I went with a jungle theme to match his nursery. Originally I thought I would do a baby book like the ones you buy - fitting the first 7 years into one book. But that didn't really work out for me, lol, it was too overwhelming to get more than one year into the book. I'll just have to give them another book next year, to capture all the joys of the 1 year old baby. The book I gave them covers birth - 12 months. I'm really excited with how it came out - my initial thought was to use Disney's Jungle Book items, but just like with the nursery there are a shortage of actual Jungle Book supplies. I did find one set of stickers with Mowgli and Baloo that I used throughout. The rest of the supplies came from the animal section at Violette's. I chose 3D stickers to cover all the different jungle animals (EK Success and Jolee's "The Wild Collection"), animal print alpha stickers (Reminisce), and two pieces of patterned paper to compliment each animal (most of the animal patterned paper is from Reminisce's Safari line). Die Cuts With a View cardstock, both Fall and Neutral stacks, were my mainstay to work with these jungle animal patterned papers and embellishments, as well as Karen Foster and Junkitz brads and journaling cards from My Mind's Eye. There were other supplies used too, but for once I didn't take the time to catalog my supply list, I was too busy creating layouts. Here are a few of the pages that were included in the album:

The cover page - I've always loved these journaling cards by My Mind's Eye, so I had to include one of those. The colors in this lovely sunset paper inspired my color schemes as I worked on the book.

This two-page spread is dedicated to the day of his birth - the birth certificate or pictures can go on the left side, and pictures can go on the mats on the right. The calendar, from the Maya Road sheers collection that my friend Claire gave me, can be marked with the date of his birth and his and Nicole's hospital bracelets can go in the library card pocket.

When I was looking through my jungle purchases I immediately fell in love with the zebra paper for this two-page layout on Logan's first visitors. The herd of zebras just screams "Welcoming Committee" to me, and that's exactly what we were. The Creative Imaginations lined paper is attached to form a side pocket, where congratulations cards and other papers can be tucked.

The giraffe paper is one of my very favorites, the colors on it are so rich, and I paired it up with the glitter cardstock that I found. This two-page layout is for Logan's homecoming - the jungle nursery pictures should look great on here. Of course some more journaling cards were in order as well, this album gave me some practice on how to incorporate those into layouts.

In order to allow Nicole and Dana to capture important moments and events in Logan's first year, I felt I needed to include some strictly journaling pages as well. I used PowerPoint to create these chart pages - some of them have room at the bottom for pictures or memorabilia, such as the Hearing & Speech Page on the left, while some of them required all of the 12x12 area, such as the milestones for baby's first year on the right.

Here is Baby Logan:

And here I am with my newest nephew:

I'm back home now and I miss everyone already! Of course at the same time I'm glad to be home to see the rest of my family - it's hard to have loved ones spread across the country.

Orange You Glad It's Almost Halloween?

Speaking of orange, I’m just glad we’re past another weekend of College Football and one win closer to the SEC Championship game. C’mon Gators, hang in there! The game against Mississippi State was a nail biter, much closer than it should have been. And I love my Gators, but even I think that one touchdown call they got could have gone either way. Next stop - Jacksonville, where we meet up with Georgia.

Lisa invited me to carve pumpkins with the kids on Saturday, remembering my comment that I hadn’t had the chance to carve a pumpkin in years. For some reason I got it in my head that we were going to a pumpkin patch to pick out the pumpkins. I’m really not sure why I thought that, maybe I’ve seen one too many pumpkin patch layouts posted in the ACOT gallery, lol. Anyway, just before I went over to Lisa’s house on Saturday she mentioned that she was at Wal-Mart and would be home shortly. But it wasn’t until I had parked in front of her house and was walking up to her door when it occurred to me that she had probably bought the pumpkins at Wal-Mart. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw 4 pumpkins sitting on her kitchen table. Hopefully I’m right about people not paying attention when I talk, because I know I told at least a few people that I was headed to the pumpkin patch, including John.

There were 4 pumpkins – one for each of the kids and one for me. First we had to cut off the tops and gut them, and we had a great time tormenting Lisa with the slimy mess of pumpkin guts as we mashed them down into the provided pans. Afterwards I had to separate the seeds out so Lisa could bake them for us to eat as our after-pumpkin-carving snack. The kids wanted me to make a pumpkin pie from the remaining pumpkin innards, but Lisa insisted that you have to buy special pumpkins to make pies. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but I didn’t have a recipe for pumpkin pie and she doesn’t have internet so I let her throw it all away.

We had a book of patterns to choose from when it came time to carve our pumpkins. Trinity chose a happy cat, Taylor chose a Goblin, Trevor chose a skull & crossbones, and I let Trinity pick my pattern out. She chose the Jack-O’Lantern for me, and I let her help me carve it after she was finished with her own. Trevor finished his first and went on to carve the back side, then headed over to play the Wii. Taylor took more time on her pumpkin, but also carved out both sides and joined Trevor in front of the TV. Trinity and I were the last to finish up. It drove the kids crazy that I took pictures of the finished pumpkins, but how could I resist those works of art? Here they are:

Supply List:
Kit – Falloween and Falloween Add On by Kay Eflin
Font - Memo

Lisa insisted I take my beautiful pumpkin home with me, so it’s sitting in front of our front door. And decomposing fast, I’m not sure if it’s going to make it to Halloween. I guess you need colder weather to preserve pumpkins. Lisa says their pumpkins aren’t faring much better.

We’re Grown-ups Now (Says Who?)

I wrote up the best blog post last week after a fantastic weekend of Gator Football and Sister Hazel Concerts and then forgot to post it. Now it’s all ancient history, so I guess I’ll just save it for a layout instead. I only have one more thing to say about that. Go Gators! It was great to see Tebow back in action and to watch my boys pull out a victory over L.S.U.

This past weekend John and I attended a wedding in Key West for my almost-sister Holly. After 6 years her and Frank decided to make it official and I couldn’t be happier for them. Not only did we get to see these two get married, I also had the chance to reconnect with Holly and her sister Ashley after too many years of silence. The last time I was around the two of them together they were 11 and 13, I believe. And they were both shorter than me. What I have noticed is that except for my cousin Anna and my brother-in-law Jimmy, every single kid in my generation has outgrown me. In fact the kids in the next generation are outgrowing me too – Tabatha is already as tall as her mom and Trinity is catching up.

Here I am at Holly’s wedding with Holly (right) and Ashley (left):

Notice how I even remembered to use Holly's new initials.

Layout credits:
Tulip Papers and Tulip Elements by Werinka
Fonts – LD Enchanting, LD Formal

Holly’s wedding was amazing. She put us all up for the weekend at Old Town Manor, a B&B on Key West, and the wedding was held in their courtyard. Holly’s dog Dillon was the ring bearer, which I thought was absolutely precious. All of her guests served as the “aisle” as she walked towards her true love. She was beautifully decked out in a gold dress and a dazzling smile of happiness. A steel drum played in the background. The reception was held in the same spot with a delicious meal of pasta, chicken, fish, garlic bread and veggies. And for desert – Key Lime Pie on a stick!

The B&B was just off of Duval Street so those of us who didn’t go for a late night swim after the reception went off to join the all-night party that defines Key West. John, Ashley and I stopped at Bilmar Station for a late night meal after hitting a few of the local bars. One of John’s favorite discoveries about Key West is the number of live bands playing at local bars and restaurants for no cover charge; towards the end of the night we came across a seriously good rock band performing a Pearl Jam cover at Dirty Harry's. Key West nightlife doesn’t cut off until 4 am (well, that’s the official cutoff, although it seems most of the people in Key West prefer to watch the sun come up before they think about crawling into bed) and we surprised Ashley by lasting until the end.

8 am comes too early when you don’t go to bed until 5; we almost missed breakfast on Sunday morning. Breakfast at the B&B is not to be missed – it’s the best Continental Breakfast spread I’ve ever seen with delicious mini pastries, fresh fruit salad, several different fruit spreads for the bagels and toast along with the traditional cream cheese and butter, hard boiled eggs (for that boost of protein), yogurt with fruit & nut toppings, gourmet cheese, and of course plenty of coffee and juice. We were sorry to have to call it a weekend on Sunday, but duty calls and we had to head back home for a full day on Monday of “things you have to do” like returning the rental car and going back to work. On our way home we stopped in Miami to visit the family – Richard met us at Fernando’s house and we ate dinner with them (Fernando grilled meat – skirt steak – YUM!). By the time we got back on the road Highway 27 was pretty deserted and we had smooth sailing all the way home.

Luckily the Gator Nation did not disappoint, to cap off a wonderful weekend Mom sent me a text message that the Gators squeaked past Arkansas to win 23 – 20. That’s a little closer than I like to see them get, but a win is a win. Go Gators!

Oh Baby - The Trick to Recognizing Babies

Scrapping baby pictures, particularly of people who are no longer babies, can be very tricky. I have two sisters and it's fun to scrap our childhood photos, but more than once I've scrapped a picture of my sister Nicole as myself. And there have been times I've mistaken my other sister Lisa for Nicole. In my defense we looked a lot alike as babies and even as toddlers. I'm learning to check with Mom first on the identity of the children in the picture before I start scrapping all willy nilly.

Now you would think that telling babies apart would come easier for the actual parents of said babies but I'm here to tell you that is not always the case. I came across a picture in my stash of family photos that was obviously one of us. And there's a 33.333333% chance of getting the identity right - after all, there are only 3 choices. On the back of the picture, in what is clearly the handwriting of one of my parents, my name is written. And crossed out. Then Nicole's name is written, along with her age. Hah, Mom, not so easy now is it? (Watch her tell me that's Dad's handwriting. Wait for it...)

Mom claims there are ways to tell us apart - Nicole has the big brown eyes, Lisa has the lighter hair, etc. I'd like to point out that we all had brown eyes, brown hair, and we were pretty much the same size for the first 5 years. Plus we shared clothes. And we lived in the same house for all of our infant and toddler years.

Assuming you will recognize your child 25+ years and thousands of sleepless nights later is not the best plan I’ve ever heard of. A better plan, one that should have been born in the sleepless nights while you were pacing the floor comforting a crying baby, would have been to slap a big ole initial on our foreheads before taking a picture. Or dress us in clothes with our names on them. Even color coordinating by child - this is the blue child, this is the green child... Probably I should write a parenting book. I could call it "How to Turn Sleepless Nights into Marathon Planning Sessions." Don't tell my parent-friends that I said that, they'll lynch me for sure. I'm not supposed to be giving parenting advice. Or baby advice. Or toddler advice. Or child or teen advice. In fact I was given specific instructions not to give out any advice at all. Good luck with that.

This week I had the opportunity to digi-scrap with some really cute baby kits, starting with Karen Aicken's Oh Baby. That's when I reached back into my stash and came up with the now infamous "I'm not sure who this baby is" picture. After having my work corrected a couple of times lately for mislabeled people, I was happy to scrap about someone else's failed labeling attempt. Here's my layout:

And that sweet baby is about to have a baby of her own. I'd better make sure to share my baby labeling tips with her pronto. The first one should definitely be the Blue Baby.

(For the record, the easiest way to make something "infamous" is to call it that on your blog. It worked with Tampa Airport; someone got lazy during a newscast and now every Joe and Jane on the street is calling it TIA. Years from now you'll hear someone refer to my sister's infamous childhood photo and you'll remember that you read it here first.)

Welcome to My Blog - An Introduction

Hello all, and thanks for visiting my blog. My name is Tania and I'm addicted to scrapbooking in all forms - paper, digital, and hybrid. I'm almost as addicted to challenges; they play a big part in how many layouts I manage to churn out each month. Challenges force me to stretch out of my comfort zone and I believe I've become a better scrapper for doing them. I've also found that digital scrapbooking, with the handly Ctrl+Z command to undo all my mistakes, has made me a more daring scrapper willing to try new techniques and use more supplies. This has carried over into my paper creations as well, I'm hapy to report.

My online scrapbooking history:

• My first Creative Team position was for Katie the Scrapbook Lady back when she was a digital designer. She's retired from designing now but I still follow her blog. She has a lot of great information and helpful tips to share.
• A Cherry On Top is my home base in the scrapbooking world and I was honored to be named Guest Paper Creative Team Member for August 2009. During my month as GCT I hosted a month of challenges (posting one challenge per day). As usual, ideas born in my head are larger than they appear once they enter real life, but although it took some serious brainstorming I had fun coming up with 31 different challenges and examples.
• In June 2009 I was invited to become an E-scape Artist, a Creative Team position for E-scape and Scrap, an online digital scrapbook boutique that sells products from many talented digital designers such as Julie Mead, Kay Eflin, Karen Aicken, Ruth Davis, Laura Burger and more. These ladies are always creating new and beautiful designs, it's a pleasure to be among the first to scrap with their latest kits. The E-scape Artist layouts are posted on The Nifty Boutique blog each week.

So here I am, sharing my love of scrapbooking and challenges and my layouts with the world wide web of scrapbooking. I'm just another scrapbooker making and preserving memories and having oodles of fun while doing it. If you choose to hang out with me here on my blog, thanks! I'm ready to tell my story, one page at a time.