Art Appreciation

Out of Blog Mode...

...and into Scrap Mode. Digi-Scrap Mode - to be more exact.

Since little Luke left for daycare three weeks ago, and since my baby girl will be ONE YEAR OLD in less than two weeks, I was determined to get her First Year Baby Book done before the big day.

I used to LOVE scrapbooking even before scrapbooking turned into the phenomenon it has become. I did it when I was kid. I still love it - but life's just different than it used to be and all the stars have to be in alignment, supplies laid out, time set aside etc. in order to get anything accomplished. It just doesn't make sense for me anymore.


When I discovered Shutterfly several years back, I began making Photobooks - just slipping in digital pics to pre-made layouts, clicking a button, and receiving a beautifully professional bound photobook in the mail less than a week later. It has made life much simpler and memories much easier to preserve. (And I can order more copies at any time - for gifts and such.) There is no mess issues, no space issues, no time issues, no spending a gazillion dollars on supplies, papers, tools, machines, contraptions, etc. In the end I'm spending less money with a fantastic end result that takes up FAR less room. (End of commercial.)


One of the main reasons I began blogging, was to chronicle our lives in words and pictures in order to help me formulate our Photobooks whenever the time was available. Added bonus: family and friends could keep up with us without flooding their inboxes with pictures, etc. I had purchased new digital scrapbooking software a while back and finally have been able to put it to use. I've been a Digital Scrapping NUT during naptime, night-time, daddy/baby bonding time -- every free minute. About halfway through, the program froze up and I lost everything. I was sick. Thank God my hero-husband was home and managed to find all the pages in a different form - so I couldn't edit them. (small potatoes!)


There's good news and there's bad news. Good news: I finished the book this morning....all 101 pages of it. I know what you're thinking. 101 pages!!!! Could that be any more ridiculous for a baby book? Why, yes, it most certainly could. So now for the bad news: The book only covers her first 6 months. I know what you're thinking.....I've thought it myself. That's just our reality. (Even more amazing - I've only used about 40% of the pics I have stored.) So now I'm working on volume 2. Pitiful, I know. Oh well....that's my reality. :) Here's a sample of a couple of pages. Can't wait to receive the book next week.

Facebook for Baby

Facebook has been such a fun little accidental discovery. I joined because a friend was spending the summer in Canada and she wanted to keep in touch, post pics, etc. With a newborn, I really didn't think much about it til last fall when people started finding me - friends from college, from high school, middle school - and even classmates and friends from NY when I just a little bitty kid. It became quite the firestorm with my brother, my parents and even my inlaws joining. What a hoot.

Well, I came up with the idea for doing a little Facebook for my baby - but not what you might be thinking. I wanted to begin a book for her with the photos and names of people in her life so we can start looking at them daily and making those connections. My husband's entire family lives out of town, so pictures are really going to be key for her knowing/recognizing them.

I compiled pictures of family (I'm still working on family friends & children) and put their names as well as their relation to our daughter. I'm just printing them out and sticking them in a little 97 cent photo book from Walgreens. I've made several copies for home, diaper bag, car, etc. for when we have a few minutes to kill here and there.

Here's an example of what I'm including:

It's an idea that Works for Me! Check out We are That Family for other great ideas!

Just cause it's cute....

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

What a Basket Case!

I know what you’re thinking – you think that I am going to say that I consider myself a basket case because I’m being driven nuts by a demanding five month old who’s coming into her own. Actually, you would be wrong. I’ve been that kind of basket case for years, but this entry is really about baskets. Basket weaving, to be more exact.

A little over a year ago my friend Chellie and I started taking leisure learning basket weaving classes at the local university. I loved the concept because it was a one-night class and you came home with a finished (or almost finished basket.) Our teacher is wonderful and amazingly gifted and we actually go to her house now to make baskets.

Remember how people joke about really easy classes in college saying, “Oh, we may as well be taking basket weaving.”?? Well, I don’t know who started that little saying, but they’ve obviously not taken a basket weaving class. I have HUGE appreciation for basket weavers….and it’s not as easy as you might think.

Here's the sleigh I completed this week:












I’ve had the base for about a year and decoupaged it, but now it is woven and complete. I'm using the basket for our Christmas cards.