The words…

 

…Sometimes I want to kick some ass. I have been removing photos from magnetic albums. Mostly from albums covering my nephew’s childhood. Very carefully I removed the photos. Scanned every photo and put them into files under year on the computer and I filed the actual photo in a photo box. I wrote the year on the back of the photo.

But…there are no words in the album. Nothing. Nada. I might forgive my sister in law because she is no writer, but my albums are almost as bad as hers. I am no writer, but I love to write so I don`t have any excuse. My mother was blessed with a good memory and I was stupid enough to believe that she would live forever. She did not. So – what do I know about this man?

 

 

 Torvald – my grandfather. A photo with no names and no words. I remember my grandfather, but I do not know any of the things I would like to know about him. The really bad thing is that it is my own fault that I don`t know.

So – what now? How do you know what story to tell?

 

 

 

 

In 2050 – what does this little boy want to read about in his album? Does he want to know the date? The place? Why  he was there? Who was there with him? How we felt about him? 

A lot of questions, and maybe it is time to think about why I scrapbook and how I do it…

Prizes…

 

…Lain Ehmann knows how to give away prizes. Everyone who uploaded a digital layout on Friday won a free download from Pixel Gypsy designs . It is hard to say no thank you to a free download, even if I try to. Mixed up with yesterday`s cute photos of Kristian and Cathy Zielske`s template number 2:

  

 

Kristian wanted to go home after dinner. He had no time to waste. He wanted to go home with his daddy. Because his daddy had promised him that he could help him working outside. At two – he is already eager to spend time with his dad.

I had no inspiration when I started working on today`s layout for Load. We are half way there and the energy level is hitting rock bottom. I surfed for inspiration and found a sketch at Ella Publishing. It is a page call, so you might want to start working on it. It is one of my favourites. I made mine with only cardstock – a first time for me. The scanner killed it but it looks good in real life.

 

 

Tomorrow is the big dayat Ella. They are publishing their new e-book written by Lain Ehmann and Stacy Julian. Can`t wait to read that e-book. With the two of them together it is bound to be a lot of happy and colourful content.

A tired boy…

 

…can fall asleep all over the place. Like on the kitchen counter:

 

 

Or – he can fall asleep while the dinner getting served:

 

 

A long and active day in kindergarten can do this to you…:)

Yesterday`s Load page :

 

 

It is time to start working with the photos from Tor Magnus baptism. Sometimes it is hard to get going with the major events. Playing with the everyday photos is far more fun. Like the summer shots…

 

 

It is Friday afternoon and time for work.

The colours of fall…

…I love everything about fall. The colours, the feeling of starting fresh, the smell of crisp air…only, this fall is not like any normal fall. Summer ended the first week in August and it has been all rain and storm ever since. Now winter is peaking around the corner and I think we missed out on the fall season. Except today. Today we have had a beautiful day even if I spend most of it at work.

I was playing with Stacy Julian`s colour inspiration using photos I took when I came home this afternoon. Using Jessica Sprague`s template. The final result is not what I planned it to be. Not at all. But, sometime you have to go with the flow…

 

Today`s Load layout is about nephew Tor. I found these two photos from the last weekend in August and I realized that he is an adult. I have treated him as a grown up for years, but he is an adult man now – starting his own family. It is time to dig out those cute baby photos and make some cute and funny layouts

 

 

Oh, I have a lot of cute pics of this guy…

Sunday morning…

…at least it was when I climbed out of bed. Knowing that this is the last day of my rather short vacation week, forced me out of bed early. Because this is the day to do everything I had on my to do list when the week started. I am just saying – it is a long list.

I made my layout for the Load challenge early yesterday:

No baby colours for baby Tor Magnus. He will be the youngest of three siblings and I decided he needed strong colours.

A good thing I made my layout early because my brother came to help putting together my Expedit. Thanks to his wife we managed to get it right. I am very proud of myself for doing the drawers all by myself.

I did clean and organize my room last night, but I still have some organizing left to do. Even with a lot of new shelving there is still not enough space. But, the most important thing is to know where to find what I need,and easy access to my storage albums and category drawers.

Kristian and his dad came to see us on their way home from the doctor. Young Kristian had an unpleasant meeting with a table and needed some stitching.

He was a trooper about it all. At least he was doing fine after digging into my chocolate stash…If he is anything like his dad, this will not be the last time he needs stitches.

I had to document the first stitches, and since Designer digital launched Cathy Zielske`s first layered templates today I just had to buy that one. I did try to resist, but I am weak when it comes to CZ`s design.

Template – Cathy Zielske. Paper – Bohemian kit, Mindy Terasawa.

Loved working with this template. Changing the Here & Now title to the Norwegian Her & Nå probebly would be the right thing to do but it did not look so good…:) And Here & Now is pretty universal and understood by everyone.

At last – todays Load layout. Yes I am early. You know – the to do list is next.

Snapshots from the window. I have had those photos on my desk for some time now. They are not the best shots, but they do tell a story. She may consider her self to be a good doll mother, but getting the mail is more important. She is a persistent young girl – I will giver her that…

Now – the to do list…

Hope…

 

…he give us hope – and he gets a Nobel Peace Prize…

 He did say: Yes we can!

Maybe it is the right thing to do – to acknowledge a man who works hard to give us hope. Because without hope - where does that leave us?

 

Despite of the excitement about the peace prize shock today I did make my layout for the Load challenge. I finally took Lain Ehmann`s summer loving kit out of the box, and I had so much fun playing with it.

 Give the kids a play camera with a water tank inside and they can not be stopped

 

And grandma is helping out because sometime the tank isn`t filling up fast enough…

A proposal…

 

…it was supposed to be an ordinary cold and rainy Saturday. Then the good news hit home. This brave girl had the guts to ask this boy to marry her. And the way she did it is so cute. The boy was delivered this cake at work yesterday:

 And as the wise boy he is – he said yes. Good boy.

A good decision. Now – she is also a lucky girl because he is the kindest boy I know. I have to say that since he spent his day off – in line – at Ikea for me today. Thank you Tor Helge! You are the sweetest.

I was up early this morning going into work. Then it was home making today`s Load layout. I found this really cute layout to lift at this blog made by a girl named Sheri Reguly. Never heard of her but her layout is really cute. Here is mine:

Now I am going to browse  the Load gallery at Flickr before I take an early night. I can feel that I was up at 5 am this morning…Again, congratulations to the cute couple.  I have already made a saving plan for the wedding gift.

Yesterday & Today…

…It`s Thursday and it`s the first of October. That means Ali Edward`s class Yesterday and Today opened today at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I have seen the one hour long video presentation and I loved it. The assignment this first week is to make a 15 min brainstorming to come up with the 12 story’s you want to tell. I believe I did say just a few days ago that I am getting bored – telling my own. Feels like have been doing nothing else since January. I am sure there still are stories untold but I need a break from myself. Still, I did the brainstorming and came up with 4 pages and 18 stories I want to tell. All of them from my early youth. So I guess there are still some stories untold. I just need a break…

Doing Load at the same time gives me the break…I hope. Lain Ehmann gave us a simple prompt today. Do Simple – with photo, paper, title and one embellishment. I could do that.

 

This is my sister in law – Kjellaug. She is turning into a decent photographer. Grandchildren can do that for you. Here`s what she is looking at:

I just visited Stacy Julian.com, Stacy`s new blog. She wants us to think about where we are in 5 years. I know Kjellaug had those thoughts this beautiful day of May 30 2009.  Thinking about where she would live and how she would live her life five years from now. Inside the calm harbour, or out there…free as a bird.

Y – for years…

 

September 10

I learned that the years are becoming to short. Realising that my brother turned 55 was a little shocking. That means I am almost there – in the middle of life…

Happy birthday big brother!

I took some time this morning working on the layouts for Jessica Sprague`s Beautiful Evidence Class. I had big plans for getting up to date with those layouts today, but that was before my hairdresser called and told me she was waiting for me. Anyway, here are a double layout about being together:

 

 

One evening shift and one morning shift – then it is weekend again…and so it goes. Years passing.

R – for roadblocks…

 

…and how to work around them.

In Aby Garvey`s organizing class we are tought to acknowledge the roadblocks that keep us from getting organized, and how to work around them.  I had to acknowledge a lot of roadblocks the first time I did this class. Maybe I still believe that being unorganized is a treat I am born with, but at least now I know what to do about that.

Filling in the form once again last night there were only one roadblock left; The fear of failure. Just the thought of doing all this work, spending all this time on getting organized just to find myself in the mess again is enough of a reason to forget the whole thing.

So – my organizing binder is my new bible. Off to clean something…