National Scrapbook Day Blog Hop!

I'm so glad you found your way to my blog. It's national Scrapbook Day, woo hoo!

I discovered scrapbooking 13 years ago after my Honeymoon to Alaska. I had all these gorgeous pictures that I couldn't bear to keep in boxes, so naturally I discovered scrapbooking through a friend and I've been hooked ever since. I've come a long way since that first scrapbook, I've learned countless techniques, bookbinding, card making,and how to use a myriad of embellishments. I love how all those things make my scrapbook pages and card drop dead gorgeous, but they take time, sometimes lots of it. Sometimes I need to throw something together quick, which is what I'm going to share with you today.

Now, a secret... Club Scrap. Oh man, they saved my scrapbooking life. I have no eye for coordinating.. I hate shopping... And quite frankly shopping and coordinating takes too much of my time, so I gladly pay them to ship me a box full of paper goodness every month. It's all coordinated around a theme with coordinating paper, stamps and embellishments. SCORE!

In this project I used paper and embellishments primarily from Club Scraps April Kit, Spring Chorus. Now, I don't know about other moms, but I'm horrible about sending out my kids school pictures every year. So I though for my moms birthday, I'd send her a scrapbook ( of sorts) of all my kids school pictures (surprise mom, its not in the mail yet). Now instead of a traditional book, I opted for one of those decorative tabletop scrapbook page holders so she could display her grandkids proudly. No fancy techniques here, I just used what was in the box, and just placed things until I felt the page was balanced. Quick and easy and I was quite pleased with the end results, scroll through my creationa nd you will find the link to the next blog below.

Oh wait...I lied.  I did use a bleach masking technique on the page below.  I basically layed down the leaf mask that came with my kit on a green 8.5x11 paper, and misted bleach on the paper.  The areas that were touched by the bleached turned a blue, while the areas underneath remained green.  Love the bleaching techniques and love making my own background paper using masks and stencils.

I do apologize for the pictures...I was using my phone, and certainly have not perfected the art of taking photos for my blog when I am doing it at the last minute.  

When you are done here, hop on over to Debby's blog and see what she had in store for You can find her blog here:

                           http://masculineinspirationsinpapercrafts.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for stopping by!

My Journey Through 7:An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess"-Clothes Week

One of our church's ladies Bible study this spring is Jen Hatmakers "7. An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess".

In its most basic form the premise is to "fast" from seven areas of modern life for seven weeks, one area per week. The seven areas are:

• Clothes
• Food
• Media
• Possessions
• Waste
• Stress
• Shopping

I was excited about this study because I've always wanted to do something similar in a much more looser and relaxed manner and in some of the areas but not all of the areas and probably for the wrong reasons, selfish reasons. I do realize that my family, like most Americans, suffer from the modern diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence, but my original reasons to wanting to do something like this was to purge my life of clutter, and to " force" my family to purge their life to make my life cleaner, neater and easier. Yeah, wrong reasons indeed. And I'll get more into that later.

Of course, the first two weeks of this study, I was out of town. I had great intentions to start while out of town... But Jen really goes into making sure your heart is prepared and in the right place before doing a fast. She refers back to scripture and what a fast should look like. Reading those scriptures, especially the picture Isaiah 58 (go ahead, go read it) paints of a fast, really spoke to me, and I realized that I wouldn't get anything out of this study or experience without really preparing my heart. And being on the road working 14 hours a day non stop in high stress situation with public and delivering bad news, probably would not be the ideal situation to start a study like this. So I waited until I got home.

I started with Clothes. As early as Day 2 of my clothing fast, and I  already learned some things about myself.

First off, in her Book, Jen suggests we count the items in our closet. As ladies started posting the number of items on our Church's Facebook page, I admittedly looked at some of the numbers (200,300,400) and thought..ha there is no way I have close to that many items of clothes. I mentioned this to my husband and he agreed. I mean, I've spent all year losing weight and tossing clothes I've shrunk out of, and I haven't replenished what I've tossed because I'm still losing. So I started the task of counting. 177 items of clothes including shoes, scarves, underwear, pajamas, etc between my closet and my dresser, AFTER PURGING CLOTHES ALL YEAR.  What does anyone need with 177 items of clothes? I purged that down to 75 pieces...in the first pass . I am going back to purge again. Do I need that many clothes? If I answer honestly, no. I can easily justify those clothes with " I work hard for my money, and I deserve it". I work in a professional setting, I need clothes for work. Yada, yada, yada. First of all, it's not my money, it's God's money. And I have a deep desire to further Gods kingdom .   How many times could I have showed Christ like love by fulfilling a need with money I used to buy a 50 or 100 dollar pair of pants I really didn't need?   Whether that need was a blanket for a homeless person, a meal for a child who's parents have fallen on hard times, or whatever.  I certainly did not necessarily always need a piece of clothing when I bought it, want it, yup, absolutely, but need it, nope not at all.   So by day two I already realized that yes, I can be judgemental (noway I have as many clothes in the closet as THOSE girls, my friends, my sisters in Christ), and I had a lot of clothes I just really did not need.  And the real reason to be conscious of how I spend "my" money on myself.   Here is my pile of purged clothes before I tool them to church where they went to a few well choose intentional organizations like a homeless shelter and a home for abused women:

There was another pile that just was not acceptable for donation on any level, why I still had them, I am  not sure.

When Jen Hatmaker and her group of friends she lovingly refers to as the council did this, she chose seven pieces of clothing to wear for a whole month.  Ok, I thought easy peasy.  I only have to do this for a week.  I can pick seven pieces of clothing.  Well on day two I already was justifyng why Jen could do it an not me (I work outside the home, I workout 4 days a week, etc, etc).   My workout clothes alone take up three pieces of clothes, one pair of pants, one shirt, and a pair of shows.  The shirt and pants would be totally not acceptable to wear to work even on casual Fridays and I had five days of work to cloth myself.  So my list of clothing for the week was as follows:

•  I counted the workout clothes in their ensemble as one piece of clothing. 
•  Khaki pants,
• Jeans,
• Solid T shirt to wear around house on weekends
• One short sleeve shirt for work
• one long sleeve shirt for work and church
• night clothes.
• One pair of shoes (casual heels to wear with khakis)

I know its more than 7..no need t o point it out.   Really!

I did not count underwear.  I also limited myself in what I put on my face to the following:

• Cleanser
• Moisturizer
• Foundation
• Blush
• Mascara
• Eyeliner

So Days one and two...20 degrees when I left the house.   No jacket, cold.  I did not cheat, I stuck to the plan.  The make up the entire week..so easy.  Clothes..oh my not so easy.  Saturday, we went shopping for my daughters Birthday, I did not shower or do hair, I threw on a hat, and my loving supportive husband casually asked me after we are at the store, is that hat part of your designated wardrobe?  Really!  couldn't you have pointed that out before we left?  And I certainly don't see you go through this little experiment"  (ok so maybe my hear was a little far off that day)!    I also was trying  not to do my laundry for the entire week as well, after all, many countries do not have the luxury of throwing their clothes in the wash like we do.  Yup, I made a birthday cake Saturday, and anyone who knows me knows I am not the neatest cook in the world, so I ended up with strawberry cake batter all over my T Shirt and Jeans.   I canned strawberry preserves Sunday, yep, all over my short sleeve shirt for work and church.  Its the last day, I did not do laundry, and I woke up this morning and put on two pieces of clothing not on my list, I caved.  However, I realized during this whole experience how much I take for granted having a sweater or a coat to throw over me when I am cold, or a hat to put on my Medusa (as my kids describe it) like hair, or the washing machine and dryer sitting two steps away from my kitchen where I can easily wash a whole weeks worth of clothes in less than an hour.  Or...better yet, not do laundry for 2 or 3 weeks because I have enough clothes to get me through those 2 or 3 weeks without washing.  

Today  is the last day of the clothes fast for me.  I am bored with the same clothes (as indicated by my cave in...but I also did not do laundry and just cold not bring myself to wear stained shirts either),  but I am ever more aware of how I spend  money entrusted to me on clothes.   It's became a lesson on how do I want to spend God's money on myself, by over stuffing my closet or by being more intentional so I can use the money in some other way to show Christ's love?   If you remember Isaiah 58 VS 6 it says:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice    and untie the cords of the yoke,to set the oppressed free    and break every yoke?'

 What does that mean and how can I apply that to how i buy clothes? Have you ever thought about where your clothes come from.  Some people are so on the buy American Bandwagon, but when you cannot how much thought goes into the labor practices that the manufacturer used to produce that piece of clothing.  Oh boy, just a little research and I was mortified, I read a statistic that there are more slaves in the world today than any other time in history, and the apparel industry is one of the worse offenders.    I  became more aware of the clothing industry itself.  Do I want to spend the money God has entrusted me with to support companies that encourage human or child trafficking, or sweat shop type conditions?  NO!  Jen made me aware of resources I can use easily to see if a piece of clothing I am buying utilizes labor practices that encourage trafficking or not. After all, money is what drives trafficking and oppression of any sort, and I am going to do all I can to make sure the money entrusted to me does not support this type of activity.  The resource she mentioned, is called free2work a project of not notforsale.  Free2work its a handy dandy little app I can download to my phone and scan a bar code of a piece of clothing and receive a grade A-F on that company.  I used it when buying Phoenix's birthday gifts, and the clothes I scanned got a grade of B.  Acceptable in my book.    

The other thing I learned is when purging clothes, I am going to be a lot more intentional in where it goes.  It's not going to a Goodwill (I could go into my thoughts on Goodwill, but won't)  store for sure.    Actually, mine will be going to houses that shelter abused women and their children, as that is a cause near and dear to my heart.  I think its more meaningful when you can connect with the people you are donating to.

Next week I'll be focusing possessions, and I have a craft room full of supplies I have refused to let go of or purge, and I am not sure why.   I am also including the kids in this one.  Phoenix seemed OK, but Griffin was quick to point out he does not have that many toys.   I think this area may be a little harder for me and my family.

Club scrap Bookshelves Bloghop

Welcome to this months Club Scrap Blog Hop featuring March's kit Bookshelves. If you ahve just stumpled upon me find your way back too www.clubscrapcreates.blogspot.com to see all the wonderful projects created this month.
 
I have to admit,  I had my doubts I'd get my project done as I've been on the road all month. But I got it done (and I am apologizing in advance fr photo quality, its best I could do on road). My 13th wedding anniversary is in April and I wanted to make a card and since this collection is so masculine it was perfect.

Now for some reason I did not want to make an ordinary card, I wanted something a little different, and since I am challenging myself this year to step outside the box a little bit and try new techniques, whether they are artistic, folding, etc I thought Id go to my inspiration file and see if anything caught my eye  One did.  Admittedly,  I can't remember where I found the inspiration otherwise I'd give due credit, I don't even know what the name of the technique is and I had no directions, I had to create based on the photos I had cut out.   But basically the base of the card is 1 12 x 12 piece of card stock, cut scored and folded in such a way to have four folds. Here is a photo of the front all folded and tied together:

Each of those squares open and fold out creating lots of little places to put photos and sentiments. I placed a few photos taken throughout our marriage and little sentiments from various club scrap kits, including bookshelves. I also added lots of layers.

Finally, in the full open card, the bottom left square (with the Memories stamp on the front) opens up and I'll write my own personal sentiment in there

In  the bottom right square below, I am just trying to show tha sqaure featured above with the I will remember this quoute is simply a folded piece of card stock that opens up and I added another sentiment in there.  We have been sayign "I love you more" since we were dating so I thought that was fitting.

Now hop on over to Jen's blog and see what she has cooked up for you.   Just click the following link to take you there.  http://scraphappysistersink.blogspot.com/

Thanks for looking.  Hope you enjoyed!

Up Up And Away Blog Hop

I am so excited to be part of Club Scrap's Blog Hop featuring February's Up, Up and Away kit.   This is the first time I have participated in a blog hop.   I kept it simple for my first hop so lets just "hop" right to it.

I am featuring a card I made.  This kit is by far one of my favorite kits ever (and I've been receiving kits since 2002), and I immediately fell in love with the art noveau stamp that says "Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud" (that needs to be my personal mission statement).  I knew when I saw it that I would be using it to make lots of cards.  This is the finished card.

 Notice the "sparkly" accents.   It is a technique I just learned at Christmas (apparently I live in a box when it comes to techniques) and I fell in love with it for it's simplicity, it's reuse of something I would normally throw away, and the wow factor it punches.   It is very simple actually and it uses a used dryer sheet, spray adhesive, some glitter or embossing powder.

For this card I used the following:

• Turquoise pre-scored card from Up Up and Away Greetings to Go kit
• Red Panel from Up Uo and Away  Greetings to Go kit
• White Panel from Up Up and Away Greetings to Go kit
• Pink Printed cut apart from Up Up and Away Greetings to Go kit
• Art noveau Be a Rainbow Unmounted Stamp
• Ribbon from Club Scrap Embellishment Side order
• White Card Stock from POP collection
• Used Dryer Sheet
• Spray Adhesive
• Holographic Embossing Powder

1. Spray the dryer sheet with spray adhesive
2. Position dryer sheet over pre printed pink cut apart with edges overlapping and press sheet to panel.
3. Trim dryer sheet to panel edges
4. Spray panel and dryer sheet with spray adhesive
5. Sprinkle embossing powder on panel while adhesive is still wet
6. Shake off excess powder
7. Adhere pink panel to white panel, add ribbon to bottom of panel grouping.
8. Layer onto red panel and attach to front of turquoise card.
9. To get the rainbow effect on the stamp, I used green, purple, yellow and green markers to color the stamp then stamped onto white POP
10. I cut around the greeting stamp in the shape of the cloud and then inked the edges. 

When my daughter saw this card she immediately demanded I use this technique on her birthday card.

Easy Peasy, yet big impact.   It can be used over stamped images or stenciled images.  I have used this on a 4x6 panel with stamped images to fill a spot on an ALSB page when I do not have enough photos to fit the page. 

Thanks so much for visiting with me today.  I hope you had a great time visiting all the creations created by these awesome artists using Club Scrap's Up Up and Away Kit.   I  know I did, and learned more than a few things on my tour.

If you happened over to my place without going through the blog hop why don't you go take a look at some of my fellow hoppers creations.  Start at Club Scraps blog by clicking  here.

Happy crafting.

Shona

One Little Word - CHOICE

How many times have you started a new year out with a list of resolutions, only to slowly give up on a few if not all of them within a few weeks or a few months?  Yep, I am guilty of that.

Many people who are part of this amazing little creative community I am part of choose One Little Word to concentrate on all year long.  Studying that word, immersing themselves in that word, discovering how it fits and applies to their life.  Ali Edwards, over at Big Picture Classes (www.bigpictureclasses.com) offers a year long workshop complete with prompts to help you discover that One Little Word You have chosen.  This sounded like a worthwhile endeavor to me so I jumped in, and boy, I have already learned a thing or two, like sometimes your word picks you instead of you picking a word.  I originally wanted to do the word "serve", like serve God, serve my husband, serve my kids, serve my coworkers, serve my community, but the word CHOICE  kept coming to the forefront of my mind, after all every little moment of every day is wrought with seemingly little choices that when combined make a big impact (whether good or bad) on you and the people around you.   So I am immersing myself in the word CHOICE this year and sincerely hope by the end of the year I can totally embrace the choices faced with me every day.   I have no idea where this word is going to lead me but there a few things I want to invite as I move through this journey:

1. An open mind
2. Fun, after all I still have two little ones at home, and I more often than not choose the obligatory mundane things in life over building a fort with my kids, and they will not be here forever. 
3. Compassion, for others, sometimes this is a choice in of itself. We are all human beings and will all reach a time in our life where we will need some compassion, I do not always choose compassion over judgement.
4. Commitment, sometimes commitment to something is very much a conscious choice that has to made each and every day you wake up, whether that is commitment to exercising, eating well, loving, daily devotion, date night, etc. 
5. Joy
6. Excellence, which interestingly enough is a definition of choice.

New Year, More Time, and Freezer Cooking

It's a new year, and boy have a taken on a ton of projects.  Most of them are year long projects, I am sure I will be sharing as the year progresses.  I have some ideas for this little blog of mine, so the first thing (which will likely take me a long time because of the effort involved) I want to start working on is a new design for this little page.   Its time to clean out and re-decorate.  So as we move forward you will likely see little changes along the way, they are intentional.

As we start this year, I am looking for ways to streamline my time, so I have more time for the fun things like my dear husband, my two children and my hobby.  There are certain things that have to get done..laundry, dinner, packing lunches, exercise is not negotiable too, I have to do that to make sure I am around for those people I love in the future.  I want to learn to choose the fun things when there are little nagging things that really are not important (like dusting) hanging out there.  This will be a journey for me, wrought with lots of twist and turns and lots of big bumps, I am somewhat of a control freak and am learning that this compulsion to keep everything clean and in my order is nothing more than my way to try and control something,  since there is so much I have not control over (when the next disaster is going to hit, Chris's schedule, and Lord knows anything that has to do with my  kids).  So I am concentrating on choices, the little choices we are faced every moment of every day that mold and shape this bigger thing called life.

So, one of the first things I have to get back under control and streamlined is dinner.   In Georgia I was so good and efficient at once a month freezer cooking. I got out of that habit, partly because when I was laid off followed by a big very expensive move which we paid 100% for, we just did not have the money to buy a months worth of groceries at a time.  That has changed, but the kids are a lot busier now, so I am compromising.  I have started freezer cooking again, two weeks at a time.  And, I have found this satisfies my inner control freak, it feels so good to have two or three weeks worth of dinners prepped and in the freezer.  Yes, it is the little things.  Not only that, I now prepare a weeks worth of lunches for the entire family over the weekend, so all I have to do the night before is grab the main lunch dish, the two sides and a snack and throw it all into each of our lunch boxes.  This is so much more efficient and time saving than trying to do it at night or God forbid in the morning.   Again , this satisfies my inner control freak very well and both of these methods saves tons of money.

One of my basic freezer recipes is Hearty Meat Sauce.  I have no idea where I got the recipe from, to give them credit,  but it is an awesome base because from it I can make several different dishes like sloppy joes, spaghetti sauce, chili and taco filling.  I suppose if I tried hard enough I could figure out a hot dog sauce as well.  I am going to give you the recipe along with two variations, sloppy joes and spaghetti sauce.

When I make a full batch of this is makes 15 cups.  I divide this into 5 freezer bags of 3 cups each (this is for a family of four).   So I get five meals out of this.

Hearty Meat Sauce Base

3.5 lbs of ground beef (I use ground round, and sometimes I use ground turkey)
2 cups of chopped onion
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
4 cans of diced tomatoes
2 cans of beef broth (if I have none on hand I use chicken broth)
2 cans (the small ones) tomato paste
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
2 large bay leafs
1/2 cup chopped parsley (if you don't have any omit it)

1. Combine the first four ingredients in a large skillet or dutch oven, cook over medium high until meat is browned, stirring until it crumbles. 
2. Drain and pat dry with paper towels
3. I wipe the drippings from the skillet
4. Return meat to the skillet and add all the ingredients except the parsley
5. Bring to a boil
6. reduce heart and simmer uncovered 35 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add parsley towards the end and cook no more than 5-10 additional minutes.
7. Remove and discard bay leaf.
8. Spook 3 cups into each of 5 labeled freezer bags.   
9. You can store in refrigerator up to a week or in freezer 4-5 months.

Sloppy Joes

3 cups Hearty Meat Sauce Base

2 TBSP chopped green pepper

2 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

4 buns

1. Combine first five ingredients in a pot and boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes uncovered or until almost all the liquid is evaporated/absorbed.
2. Top buns with meat mixture

Spaghetti Sauce

3 cups Hearty Meat Sauce Base

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp basil

1. Combine all ingredients in a pan bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

FlashBack Friday-The College Years

Its been a while since I did a flashback Friday, but I find myself with a few minutes to indulge myself.   I am traveling back to my college years, I probably could do a whole month on college.   Seems fitting to do this now, as so many of my younger cousins and even some friends children are heading off to college just this week.  Such exciting times, but boy oh boy, just thinking about Phoenix going off to college makes me go into a fit of anxiety.  One of my Aunts commented to a cousin regarding her daughter going to college, "at least you are not there to know what she is doing, Ignorance is Bliss"...heck no..ignorance is not bliss...I am an admitted control freak, and well quite frankly, I've been there, and I want to know everything, but I do have a few years to overcome my control issues and let go.

So anyways, I went University of Florida and majored in Environmental Engineering. I did not arrive to UF until 2 years after high school, and I really had not known or kept in touch with any of my high school classmates who ventured to UF after high school, so I arrived, alone, not a friend in the world (yeah, ya hear it?..woe is me).  I lived off campus.  I was soo excited to have my very own place, until  some crazy man decided to murder and mutilate 5 students. I think that was  still the most scared I have ever been in my life,   not knowing anyone, living alone in a strange place, but I got through it.

Now I know, some of you will not believe this, but I was kind of shy being in that real big place not knowing anyone except my boyfriend when he finally arrived,  so I concentrated on studying and working those first few years.  But those last two years came,  I came out of my shell.  Probably something to do with attending class and being involved in activities with the same group of people over and over and over again.  There was a core group of us that seemed to do pretty much everything together.  Those are the years I remember the most, really good times and really good memories of Gator Football Games, Wine and Cheese Parties, Softball, pizza with no cheese (please don't ask),  a wastewater design competition, even a St. Patricks Day Party at my place, the yielded me in the emergency room the next morning to get a  tetanus shot (that's what happens when 20 people crash at your place and you get up to tinkle and step on that part of the belt buckle that goes in the hole of the belt) and some really good memories of some really good people of which most I have lost touch with.

So I have a smathering of photos from that time, I lost many of them in my divorce so many years ago, but I still have a few.

We (actually I think it would be proper to say Dave) formed a intramural softball team one year.  I remember this game well, because my best friend Elaine and I singlehandedly saved the game with our uncanny and amazing softball skills.  So let see from left to right that's Dave , Jamie, me Kevin, Greg, and Elaine (in the top picture).  In the bottom picture thats Dave and Kevin.

A few pictures from Gator Stompin (probably best I don't include all of them).  So Gator Stompin occurs the last week of school, you buy a ticket or a wrist band (the details escape me) that entitles you to a a free drink special at all participating bars along University Avenue.   I cannot name half these people anymore, but, soo much fun that night. My favorite memory of this night was crashing a non participating (that happened to be entirely empty until we showed up)  bar to drink and dance...

Below, Me, Dave, his buddy, and Elaine before the  Gator Stompin Activities. 

Random photo from that night. 

So where we got all the money to do all we did, I have no idea, but that last year I swear it seemed like a typical  night consisted of going out to eat every night (third pict below) followed by either a night of dancing, playing pool or drinking.

My friends Chrissy, Dave and Me. 

Chrissy and me out to dinner.

 I would go back to those years, but I would not trade those years for anything either!