…here`s what I think:

Through out 2009 Big Picture Scrapbooking has prepared me to make this album: Me:The Abridged Version. 

It all started back in January with Wendy Smedley`s class: Get Organized, Be Inspired.

I was so overwhelmed when I started this class. The only way I knew how to deal with the mess was to get the stuff out of my house. Now – nine months later – I have not missed a thing. It is so much easier to work with less stuff. Now I know what I have and where it is.

In  February Stacy Julian followed with her class: A Library of Memories.

Stacy does not advice anyone to do these two classes at the same time. Did I listen to her? No, and I am so happy about that.  To set up this system takes a lot of time and effort, but I am so glad I did. I still have a lot of fine tuning to do, but that will happen over time. Thanks to the LOM system, finding photos for my MeTAV album was so easy. They were sitting right there, in the box labeled “All about us” -elin janne. When I needed a photo from a travel I made, I opened the box labeled “Places we go” -Mallorca.

In March and now in September BPS gave us: Telling Stories Deeply -with Karen Grunberg.

I learned so much about writing from Karen. I wrote all the journaling for my MeTAV album. I made a print and I edited. I read through all my entries one more time, with all I learned from Karin in the back of my head, and I wasn`t happy at all. I rewrote every entry!! Thinking about audience and the tone in my writing.

In July Lisa Day challenged us to do The Challenge of ME!  I made a really cute 6×12 album based on Lisa`s prompts. I covered a lot of base making this album and I tried to avoid making repeats in the MeTAV album. Actually I think that was a good thing for me. It gave me more freedom to skip the obvious things.

 I was so looking forward to do Me; The Abridged Version with Cathy Zielske. I got my album, photos, craft cardstock, photo paper, OP cardstock and ink. The only thing missing was patterned paper. Usually the online shops offers you more paper than you can buy. In September it is mostly all about Christmas.  The only thing I had in my stash was a kit from Crate Paper I had bought with something else in mind.

You will not believe how much time I spent browsing for patterned paper. Nothing was good enough. In the end I had to settle for this. I cut all the pieces – still not happy about my choise. I inked them – still not happy. I moped around for days. The whole album project almost collapsed because of the dam paper.

Something changed when I started putting things together. It is just plain cute.

More tomorrow. I have to empty the buckets that collects the rain water dripping from my ceiling. Yepp. There is a leak in the roof. It is all about getting through the stormy night without drowning.

…a word invented by Stacy Julian. After filling the storage binders with chronological photos we take some out of the binders and put them in category drawers. The photos will be taken out of their setting and put into another setting where they will be ageing. That way we will be able to se other connections with our photos. I have always loved to make this kind of connections when I work with albums, and now I will have a system to do so.

I was not going to do any scrapbooking today. I am cleaning and triaging. But, looking into the LOAW group at flicr I got inspired. This weeks challenge is to make a layout after a sketch from PageMaps.

She is such a brave little cookie. Crawling naked in the attic looking for the birds nest.

I am feeling good. This took me just a few minutes. I knew where I had the pics. My work space is organized – tank you Wendy Smedley. And the girls in the LOAW inspires me.

No – I feel great.

…and it feels like I have been for a long time. I have been reading about Stacy Julian`s Library of Memories for a long time. Last summer during her “Have more FUN” class, everyone said this system was the solution for all my problems. I am sure I could have organized my pictures on my own, but who wants to organize pictures? It will be a good thing to have some structure doing this. And I like how she thinks and work with her photos and memories.

I am okay with the printed photos, but I am so bored creating the albums on the computer. And I do not want to talk about tagging. Now I know why students come back to this class over and over again. No way you can do this with the thousands of photos we have on the computer and implement the rest of Stacy`s system in 16 weeks.

Well…I am ready. I have gathered a lot of photos, my workspace is cleaned and I have nothing else planned. Except LOAD…

She is a beauty - but no fashonista...

Good thing I am good with the fast and simple…

Okay, I am still working on organizing stuff in my room. I really like having more space and less clutter.  Love that Wendy Smedley`s class got a slow pace. I think we have reached the planning stage now. Since there is no way I am going to do any renovation in the middle of the winter I have a lot of time to dream and plan. Before doing anything big in here, I have a window that need to be replaced. In the meantime I plan and dream…

I slept long into the morning, I did my Load page, I have been at work and now I am emptying my workspace. What a day. I am taking some short cuts here. Since there is no way I can stop working for weeks I take everything out of the room, clean and then moving in again with the stuff I know I want to keep.

One down...

Ready to work again.

I am so happy I had the courage to purge before getting to Super Saturday. That made this so much easier. I already did the papers and this is all I have left of my stash. I am kind of proud of myself.

Almost forgot. Load day 7;

Kristian is a smart cookie - he brings his own public to the concert.

Now -off to sort through the drawers. There might be some ink and pens that need to be purged.

That was the essential message in Lain Ehmann`s mail today. Even if there isn`t enough time to do what you should be doing, it is important to set aside a few minutes to do the things that make you happy. I am not complaining about lack of time. I have the opportunity to choose what to do with my time, and even then there isn`t enough time.

Lain`s fast formula for today was to use three photos or three of whatever…I could do that and still have time to do the rest of my to do list. Here is Load day 6;

Enough is enough -he does not want to play anymore.

 Kristian is not the born natural with grandpa`s photo sessions like his big sister, but he is getting more comfortable with the camera. (Like the rest of the family).

Late New Years Eve and he is still in a good mood.

One good thing about working the evening shift this weekend – I can join in on the most of what`s happening online during Super Saturday in my organizing class at BPS. I will be missing the first chat – but that is okay. And I may be tired on Monday morning, but who cares about that…

Now – I better spend some time cleaning outside my room before taking everything out of here…oh boy…All my sympaty goes out to Lain Ehmann who is packing up to move AND coaching us through Load 2009.

…Since I knew I had a busy day I worked out todays page in my head this morning. Coming home from work and a late meeting it was so easy when I had Cathy Z`s design to work from. I love this designs because I can use them over and over again.  I am also saving Lain`s ideas for pages. The are really good when I need inspiration.

Thursdays are busy since that means new handouts in the BPS classes. The most important one this days is Wendy`s Get Organized  – Be Inspired. The upcoming Saturday is Super-Saturday. That means we get to completely empty our workspace. That is so scary. Not the emptying part…I have already given up on the things I want to get out of the house. But, will everything ever get in there again? I wish I had a plan to paint and get new furniture and…and…, but I don`t. So why empty the room? Good question. I will come back to that one.

At least I made my layout numero 5. ( Thanks to Cathy Z.)

She is too lazy to walk to the playground.

This song has been on my mind all evening. To days challenge was to do a layout using our own approach. Not so easy since I usually is involved in some kind of class – challenging me to do something…I had the story. I visited my family yesterday and baby Kristian is saying all this cute things now. I have no idea what he is saying. But it is pretty clear that A is JA. ( Y for Yes) because he is eagerly nodding his head at the same time.

Det er virkelig moro når veslegutten med hissig stemme kommanderer pappa til å fiske opp “øser” fra lapskausen. Da er guttungen fast og bestemt i tonen. Øser skal han ha. Tok ei stund før jeg forstod at det var pølsene han skulle ha.:)

What did I learn to day? I can do this either way. But, I think it is a good thing to be organized and to know what you have to work with. Maybe less stuff and more scrapbooking is a good thing…

Remember when you just had to have every tool out there? The layout couldn`t be done without it…One of the first thing I bought (that I could afford) was the cute pink edge distresser from Heidi Swapp. I never use it – and I never remember having it.

Today we are starting making the layout with choosing tools first, and Wendy Smedley used the cute pink one, and I was thinking ; yes, I got one. I remember seeing a cute layout on the Internet on Sunday and used that idea for design. Didn`t remember where I saw it so I had to work from memory. Spent some time tonight looking for this blog and I so glad I did. Her name is Kirstii Lockart and she makes the most beautiful pages.

I cut the story short because I think the page tells it all.

 To see the page that inspired me you can go to Kristii`s blog and see her great work.

Today I got confirmation from Lain Ehmann on the LOAD 2009 challenge. 28 layouts in 28 days. It is not to late to join in. Just visit  Lain`s blog or send her an email. It was so fun and productiv last year. After a few day it was so easy to make one page every day.

I am still doing my “home work” for my Get Organized – Be Inspired. Doing this third layout we were to approach with; Product – photo – tool – design – story. That was easy since most of the time my product is paper. I love this paper from 7Gypsies but I have never used it before. Happy about my choice and the rest was piece of cake.

Sketch: Cathy Zielske.

My weekends are all to short. I have a feeling that working six days a week is coming to an end pretty soon. We had a beautiful clear day – outside the windows. I did not have the energy to move outside and now I am just as tired as I was yesterday. Good thing I love Mondays.

I have been doing the third layout for my organizing class. Today we were to start with the photo. That is how I often do. For the design I  used one of Cathy Zielske`s sketches and it turned out okay.

Elin Marie having breakfast with grandma.