…4 years of age and I have been there for two of them. I`m forever thankful  to Stacy Julian and her team for creating this wonderful community for learning and growing. I joined BPS January 1 2008 after reading this blog post @Feast on Scraps. In December 2008 I had made a total of two scrapbook pages. But I was shopping and admiring Ingunn`s beautiful pages. New Years Eve I entered LOAD (Layout a Day) hosted by Lain Ehmann at BPS. I have no idea what possessed me to do this – committing to make a layout every day for 31 days. In the dark and cold month of January, working crazy hours – I still managed to make 31 layouts. Not great work, but I was scrapbooking!

Later that spring I found the courage to join Kolette Hall in her Art of Becoming More class. That was an amazing experience.

I had to work hard with this class. First of all it was done in a foreign language and that stressed me out – totally. I was listening to a foreign language and I was reading it. So – how was I supposed to write my journaling. My head was spinning. Reading in my album today I find a funny mix of English and Norwegian.

This is the last page in the album. I locked myself into the store after midnight to be able to take this photo because when Kolette and Jason Hall said that they believed I was a champion – I believed that too.

I have completed a lot of classes at BPS and I have made several albums, but this is the album I love the most. Because it is beautiful and because of what it means to me. I learned so much about myself. About how I have lived my life and how I want it to be. I wrote my wants and my goals. Looking through the album it feels complete and it is me. Maybe it is time to  revise the goals? Maybe it is time to set new goals?

Congratulations to Stacy Julian and her Big Picuture Scrapbooking Team!

…and I bet it will be a long ride home for the supporters.

I have spent time trying to get back into the paper scrapping again today. Always find it hard to play with the paper layouts after spending too much time on the computer. Digital scrapbooking is fun and I enjoy that you can put up a layout in no time and the photos look much better on-screen. I even like how they look when printed. Love digital when I have a lot to say.

But – there is something about the paper…

I have enjoyed myself with the video handout in May Flaum`s kit class at BPS this afternoon. Since I don`t have kits I looked for inspiration for how to approach his class. May is showing us to put together kits on our own, but I find that hard to do. (That is why I always buy lines of paper that coordinates from the manufacture). There were a lot of talk about Jenni Bowlin and I knew I had something of her lines in my stash. And now I know why I still have it. I found both the paper and the embellishment difficult to work with. I have a whole stack of journaling cards, a unopened pack of crepe paper ribbon and some label thing . Love her alphabet though.

And one just for the fun of it.

We are one week closer to Christmas and I had to look at the calendar to make sure that I still have three weeks to get ready. That is plenty of time if nothing goes wrong. (Although – something always goes wrong).

Happy creative week to everyone.

… My family has had a few of those – like most families. In the 60`s my father and his brother had a good idea. They wanted to build a cabin together. They were brothers, colleges and best friends. Thankfully their wifes put their foot down, so  in the end they built two cabins. My father would leave early Sunday morning and come home late in the evening. Building this cabin was his way of therapy from a stressful job. It was finished in 1969.

In return for the land my uncle  built on, my father was to receive the same from my uncle, who had settled in their family home. Only – this never happened. They both died without either of them getting any papers on land.

It has been an ongoing talk for 40 years. And finally – we are so close.

Mostly this story comes out of Ali Edwards class at BPS, and the photo my brother gave me of the pin – marking the land he now receive on behalf of our father. The pins were put down a few days ago and  after 40 years – issue solved. I also found my father’s word, written in the cabin journal from September 14 1983. It is a statement where he direct us on how he wants things settled.

 It is settled, and crazy as I am – I can see these to sitting up there, raising their glasses…

Childhood memories from the happy days – at the cabin…

1971 – 72.  Me – dragged out of bed. My mum with a bottle of beer. My mother that never touched any kind of alcohol – ever:) You can see how uncomfortable she is just holding the bottle. And my dad with the accordion. Always with an accordion. Almost every photo I have of my father – there is an accordion. This photo bring up so many memories and I can see a long line of scrapbooking layouts coming out of this. Good thing Ali E is showing us how to do layouts with words – a lot of words.

…who do you scrapbooking for? Honestly – I do it for me. Because I enjoy what I do. I also do it to collect bits and pieces of life for generations to come. To give them a taste of what life was about before they were born and snippets of their life growing up. In many ways it is harder to do this when the children isn`t mine. I can`t use the wording parents naturally use. I am their aunt or great aunt, sister and sister in law – so I have to be the observer and the storyteller. Sometimes that make it easier – sometimes harder.

I enjoy Ali`s teaching so much. She teaches us to embrace imperfection. I like that someone confirm that every picture does not need to be perfect. The scan don`t have to worked on and you don`t have to be a writer to tell your story. Of course we all know this, it`s just that it is so hard to believe. I don`t need everything planned to get started. It is so easy to think that you need to have everything planned out before you start.

Looking through the old pictures I found this:

It is my nephew Jan Arve eating his first ice cream in grandma`s kitchen in 1980. It is one of my favourite photos and I have used it more than once. He was - still is – a cutie.

Here he is with his family in 2009:

 The ice cream is still essential.

For todays Load layout I used Ali`s template from this weeks lesson in her Big Picture Class – Yesterday & Today.  I did not put so much thoughts into what to write. I took her advice: just put one letter in front of the other and keep writing. I will not do this digital but I am out of ink for my printer so for now they will be digital. I bet this will look even better when printed.

Love this format for scrapbooking and storytelling. It will be great for those short snippets of every day life.

…oh no, not my thoughts – or rather it is like this;  Usually I am careful about sharing what is going on in the message boards at Big Picture Scrapbooking, but when Ali Edwards share her thoughts from the shower…

Often it is hard to see where you are going when you start out in a new class, and teaching in a big online class for the first time must be a challenge. You don`t see your students, and even if you have online communication you can`t see if your message is getting across. Now – there is nothing wrong with Ali`s message! But it was okay to get her clarification about how to work with her ideas and teaching. I believe I said something about this a few days ago: Me – I am not ready to make one more album about myself already. But, I am learning how to tell a story and how to present that story with photos and words. And Ali E is an inspiration for both.

An album with 12 stories would be a thin album or what? What she is giving us is an idea of how to tell our story. I like that.

 Even if I am not making a special album for this class I had to make the intro page. Because it is cute. So am I – @ 4.

Since I don`t know how to get 12 x 12 printed in Norway I also made a paper version:

After posting this in the gallery I got a mail from a nice person telling me that we could order photo books from Shutterfly without paying taxes because it was considered books. I had not thought about that possibility. Before printing a photo book I would need a lot of layouts and stories ready. So that may not happen any time soon. In the meantime I will keep getting my stories together, and patently waiting for the next tutorial from Ali.

I am out of food and coffee, and I can`t live without coffee so it is time to go shopping.

…would describe me accurately and will make a good entry in my“MeTAV-album”. At the beginning of my vacation I made a time-line. I had to start there because I had to face the fact that I don`t remember the details anymore. Maybe I never did. Working my way up, from 1961 and up to date, did awaken some forgotten memories and made it easier to see things in perspective. It is hard for me to pinpoint the stories that make me who I am, but I keep remembering all these little things. Like when I was a little girl and my grandparents would come downstairs every evening to watch TV, something that finally forced my father to buy them a TV. I remember that every Sunday evening we would gather to watch “The Ashton Family”. The series went on and on, and every Sunday we would watch. When I close my eyes I can see the scenes and the actors.

It will be difficult to edit the entries, so I may have to use more than one page for each letter. Because when I finally sat down to actually write the stories I find it hard to stop. 350 words don`t leave much space for the stories.

Today I finished the to-do list I made before starting my vacation. I have removed all clutter and cleaned the whole house and still there is the weekend left before going back to work. It feels so good. But, I know I have to work hard to maintain the cleaning habits. C – cleaning, the chores I do not like. Yes, I`m on a roll.

I will go back and write some more while I have the inspiration…

…a warm nice summer day. When I woke up this morning it was raining and I needed a sweater. A few hours later it was like walking into a wall of heat when I came outside. Now it looks like it is brewing up some ugly weather. I better get ready and unplug before the thunder hits.

Now – lets  see what I have been up to today. I made two layouts for Shimelle`s class at Two Peas. I didn`t know what to do with yesterdays handout, but slowly it turned into an idea. It was all about nature. I do have a lot of nature and flowers printed out,  but I had no inspiration. Seems like weddings are my inspiration these days…

The bride is not known to spend the money on her self so her mother in law and I were very anxious to see how her dress would turn out. To be honest we were a little nervous that she  would look like a low price act. She did not.  She was the most beautiful bride – ever. We were so proud of this girl, that now belongs in our family.

Today’s handout was about the weather. Well, the day started with rain so I could not help myself thinking about how life would be different if we had been were we should have been. Hanging out on the beach, digging into the buffet and drinking cold beer. So I made a layout about the reason why we are not doing just that.

Grandma was not willing to travel and come home with the svineflue. No one was raising their voice. Now – I did not write anything about the fact that grandpa was scared about being put in quarantine – and not being able to travel home with the rest of us. The kids does not need to know everything. And we need some goodies to tell some other time as well.

Since I am 1 kg down according my weight,  it was time to make a new page in my mini-book. Using Kolette Hall`s beautiful art. I am still passive in the training department. Ah well – some day now…

Karen Grunberg`s class -Telling Stories Deeply, started at Big Picture Scrapbooking today. I need to focus on that one. It is more intensive than a lot of classes – if you want to take the most out of it. It`s not to late to sign up. Karen is a wonderful teacher and I promise you will learn and enjoy. If you sign up – you also get Karens selfpaced class Change of Plans for free. I have made my album ready to go. All I have to do now is to find out how to remember 10 – 20 years back.

It`s time to get ready to unplug, before the thunder hits…

…in the book of Sunday Depression. Actually I feel good today. Only three more days of work before vacation. And one more Tuesday. I can`t wait for Thursday to arrive. Even if that means a visit to the dentist – again. I am still feeling the inspiration from May Flaum`s Recipes for Scrapbook Success.

He knows how to work with his small fingers.

The lace thing isn`t me, but we are talking about using our stash here.:)

That is more like me. Even if I wish I had stopped before using the snow crystal brads. Sometime I don`t know when to stop.

 It is more than two hours since I started to turn in for the night. But I had to stop in on the Jessica Sprague class and I got lost. Her tuturiols are so easy to follow but I am a slow learner.  Making brushes was fun.

And we learned to make frames. I loved learning that, even if I messed it up when I was using it.

The cute bride deserves a perfect frame.

…new class up at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I did not intend to sign up for this class. I know…I always say that. I have taken a class from May Flaum once before without making one layout. I just don`t get how to use sketches. So – no, I did not want to sign up for this class. The things is – when the day arrives – I jump on board anyway. I am so glad I did.

May`s sketch and Shimelle`s downloads. The swiss cardstock, which I needed yesterday, surfaced today. We needed transparency for Shimelle`s print today and I was so lucky that I found a tiny bit so I could print the three. I really like this sketch. It can be used over and over again.

One more of May`s sketches. I made a  third, but there is no light for taking pictures so it have to wait until the morning. It is not to late to sign up for May`s class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It is a fun and productive class.

We have started the last week of this great class at The Big Picture Scrapbooking; The Challenge of Me. Lisa Day has been pouring inspiration our way every week. For a while I was worried that I wouldn`t have enough space in my album. Now I am happy to see that there will be room for adding some layouts later. Lisa really sparked some memories that need to be documented.

One of the prompts this week was to document our political views. For me – this was a simple one. I have never doubted where my heart belongs.

The Norwegian labour party – Always.

Jessica Sprague`s class is coming to an end. I have learned so much and I love that we can go back into the class whenever we want. I am a slow learner and will need to come back. Again and Again. Today we learned how to add colour to our converted B/W. I always wanted to learn how to do that.

A real cutie. I am thinking about this little guy tonight. His baby brother, Tor Magnus, who is 8 weeks tomorrow, had surgery at St.Olav on Monday. For now – everything is looking good and we are so thankful for that.

The kids parents bought a small estate in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains, a few weeks back. While baby Tor Magnus and his mother are still at the hospital, daddy took Kristian and Elin to this place for a first time sleepover today. I wonder how that works out. No electricity, no indoor toilet, no television…But, I am sure this place will be a sanctuary for this young family. Being together without the everyday distraction, hiking, fishing and just being together.