Big Picture Scrapbooking…

 

…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.

Political views…

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.

Talking about family…

…kind of hard to forget that I have a brother. How could I forget that? Maybe because he hasn`t been on the phone for three days? Maybe he is sick? Anyway, I do have a brother. Seven years older than me. That means we were both spoiled. Very spoiled. And it took some time before we were working together as siblings. Okay, it took 30 years, but you can`t work hard enough on a good thing. We might not have been friends, but I always trusted my brother to be there for me if I needed support.

 

After one week of dieting I stepped on the scale this morning and …yes, 5lbs down. I know – first week luck and all, but it do wonders for the motivation. After yesterday`s horrible dinner I had more luck with today`s menu…

Delicious! Well, you can`t go wrong with baked potatoes, ham, corn and pesto.

I am resisting the work out. Is it possible to get the bikini to fit without working out?

At least I want points for taking them outside.

Ice cream and weight watchers…

Ice cream and weight watchers, originally uploaded by elinjanne.

…and I forgot to upload what I have done to my journal this week. I am blaming it all on the fog.

After two weeks with cold wind and sun the fog came. Fog is no good for humans.

But we keep going. And like Jamie also suggested I followed my mood working on my “wrecking” this week.

I finished my family section in “The Challenge of Me” at BPS.

And besides working this weekend I did find time and inspiration too play with Jessica Sprague.

Yepp – it has been a long Sunday. A good Sunday. Except for the dinner.

It is time to call it a night. The International Jazz-festival in Molde starts tomorrow. That means a lot of extra costumers and good sale – if the fog leaves. If the fog stays – the tourists go…

Jessica Sprague`s…

…new free class at Jessica Sprague.com started today and as always she gives a great class. This time around she offers a two weeks free class in frames and special effects and I can already tell it`s going to be fun. I do try to take this step by step but I do tend to rush things and sometimes I miss out on the teaching. It is so easy to believe you know it all, and suddenly I have taken a short cut and boom…I am lost. I used a photo taken of baby Elin this weekend. It is a little blurry, but I love it. It is so her!

Yepp – Sassy – that is her second name!

I also made another page for my family section in the ME-album.

I have always been grateful towards my sister in law for sharing her family with me. We may not always have been bestfriends but I have always been welcome to share the moments. And I can honestly say that I can feel a mothers hart beating in happiness and worries.

And Happy Birthday to Tor Helge who is turning 26 today. I am looking forward to August and Mallorca.

Sunday evening depression…

I am not happy about spending Sunday evening planning a diet plan for the upcoming week. Even if I know that eating less and more healthy makes me fit and happier in the end. My change of vacation plans involves a bikini and I need to lose 6 kilos in 6 weeks. It should have been 10 kilos, but I am human and realistic. It is scary that the training program says I should do 45 min on the step machine – as a start, when I feel totally dead after 5 minutes. This will be hard, but I can do it.

I finished my first layout for the family pages in “the challenge of me” class. I do agree with the girls having trouble doing these pages when they are single or have no children. But even the singles and the childless have family. At least I had excellent role models in the mother, father and 2.5 child department…

After last nights wedding celebrations I have been tired and lazy today. That has not been the case for the young ones in the family. For them summer means water and the kids love water wherever they find it…

Yepp – he knows were to go.

 And he knows what to do with it…

But…the big sister is ready for fight.

The challenge of Me – week two…

This album can be what ever we want. I want it to be the story of my life today. Just little glimpses of what my life is about this summer of 2009. I could have made it about my life, but I am not. I could have used a lot of words, but I am not. And the main reason for my choice is that I am absolutely sure that no one will ever want to read more than two lines about my life. But if someone is to stumble over this album in the future, they will see the essence of me and I believe this will trigger  their own memories. That is a good thing.

The theme this week is Family. Funny theme for a single girl at 48. I could go with my brothers simple statement; “We are family, and that is the most important thing in the world”. But I had to look for the Norwegian state`s definition of family.

With family we mean all the modern relationships that exists. Including; Parents, foster parents, step parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings and cousins. It may also include other networks that people are depending  on and learning from through their life.

 

 

I made a first page and I have a plan for how I will approach this theme. All I need now is …more hours in the day or more days in the week. That would be a good thing in July!

Signature style…

Do you have one? I do. It may not be easy to detect but it is there.

Yepp – me and sloggi – best friends. I had no trouble at all to make my layout for Lisa Day`s challenge.

Still weeks before my vacation, and my plans changed last night, and once again tonight. I have been determent all year about spending  my three weeks at home, with no plans at all. Would have loved that – so would my alter ego, the accountant.

I could not resist. Closing my eyes - I can smell the familiar feeling of this:

So – Hola Viva Bahia – here we come. Again….

A change of plans can be good, but tonight I have a greater understanding for Cahty Zielske`s post earlier today about weight. I did not stress the weight thing this summer because  I was not to wear bikini. Wrong again.

 Gaining weight is a obvious result of finding your fitness tools scattered around the house with lairs of dust.

The good thing about Viva Bahia – they have an exellent beach bar. Who needs a bikini?

Sunday mornings…

…is at the top of my list for good things in life.

Today`s theme in Lisa Day`s class; the challenge of me – is health. My health has never been an issue, but I do feel bad about the lack of fitness. I do have a job that keeps me on my feet all day long, but that is not enough. Since January I have tried to get back into a training program with no luck. Walking around the house this morning looking for evidence of an active lifestyle I found dusty traces all over the place.

It is obvious this has not been used for a long time. I can feel my muscles screaming in pain just thinking about it. I could state that I now planned to climb up and move forward – but I am not.

But – one of these days I have to…for now I will have some ice cream for lunch!

It`s summer…

…in the city! I wanted to say that so much, even if it is miles from the city where I enjoys life at the moment. It`s one of these days – it`s warm, the sky is blue – even if it is almost midnight, everything grows and blooms, the kids have finished school and life is good.

Summer  and a new class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Lisa Day is teaching ; The challenge of Me. She is a wonderful person and I have a feeling that this will be a great class. We were assigned the size of our album after taking a survey about what sizes we have been working with. I was assigned to do a 12×12 album, a dessision I have been dragging my feet about. I also took Lisa`s challenge of using our stash earlier this month and using my stash means I should use the 6×12 album I already have.

This was not easy for me to decide. I so much want to take the challenge given to me, but Lisa did say that we could use what ever we want. So I am doing just that. I want to make this album about my life today. With photos taken today – the words written today, without to much  hassle.

The meaning of life: Well, these days I am happy with my life and I feel that I am living a meaningful life. Going out my door in the morning feeling good. Turning the corner and look at the blue ocean and feel that I am the luckiest girl in the world. Feeling lucky that I can still feel excitement about my work. Feeling good about coming home and have hobbies and interests that gives me joy. And I have a family to share joy and sorrows with.

What more can one want in life?