Mother's Day Scrapbooking, Food, and Fun

I had the most wonderful time with friends this past weekend. We all traveled up to the mountain town of Big Bear, Ca for a 4-day scrapbooking retreat. The whole event is hosted and organized by my friend Melissa Papke, owner of the Scrapbook Garden and avid scrapbook teacher. The event is held at Apples Bed and Breakfast each year.  There is room for 40+ croppers to sleep, and 3 large, well lit workrooms for us in which to spread out our projects. Everyone has ample room to work, while sitting in big, comfy office chairs.

Apples from the front.

Backyard. Main house in center, one crop room and guest rooms off to the left.



Our room, Pippin 1.



My friend, Jill, and our work area.

It always takes me weeks to just figure out what to work on in order to pack. Of course I pack WAY too much stuff. But I would rather have extra things to work on and supplies to use or swap, than getting stuff up there with nothing to do. ...On second thought, "stuck" in the mountains, surrounded by pine trees, birds and warm sunshine and nothing to do sounds kind of nice. (Maybe next year I should forget to pack something...)

I arrived Thursday afternoon and after unpacking and settling in, I managed to get 20+ pages done, minus the journaling, that night. I have a hard time journaling on the spot. I wanted to consult my journal from the trip I was scapping and have time to think about it.

The folks at Apple's are the best! We were spoiled with more GREAT food than one could possibly eat, created and served by our wonderful hosts. Here are just a few of the yummy breakfasts, snacks and desserts we were served each day.



Apples' famous Apple shaped cheese balls. Yummy!



Breakfasts are always extraordinary. Homemade biscuits, muffins, granola...along with great egg dishes, yogurt, apple sausage, and maple brown sugar glazed bacon, aka "Bacon Crack" as Jill would say, are just a few of the wonderful treats greeting us in the morning.

We had the pleasure of the company of a sweet little cat who had taken up residence at the B & B a few weeks earlier. He was a friendly little guy, who loved to come see what we were doing.



Not sure why he won't stay rotated the right way....hmmmm.

 The first morning, I got up early to enjoy the trees, birds, and quiet...only to find it wasn't as quiet as I had hoped for. Why? It seems a pair of Stellar's Jays and the cat have a ritual of playing tag through the backyard. The jays were squawking away, to the angst of many of the other scrapbookers trying to sleep in. But they were funny.

All in all, I finished 89 pages, almost the whole 15 day cruise through the Panama Canal. Yeah! Now I am ready to take the next cruise we have booked. I cannot wait until next May. For our next adventure. In the meantime, I will keep working on the journaling. I promise to share finished pages as I get them done.

Caution: Scrapbooking Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!

Yes, I said it - scrapbooking can be hazardous to your health, or at least mine anyway. My story starts about 2 weeks ago. I went to hang out at my friend's LLS and crop for the day with a few other friends. No biggie. We have all done all day crops right?

So I set to work, getting up occasionally to wander through the store. Mostly I just sat in my comfy office chair working on getting classroom photos finally on to pages. I was enjoying myself. I got 26 pages done. Not a lot of fancy stuff on the pages, very old school - mats and boarders, and maybe a journal box or two. My goal was to get rid of these pictures so that I can move on.

Nothing hazardous so far you say? How about just sitting for 10 hours? Yep, that did it! muscles between my shoulder blades began to spasm and the rest is history. I spent most of the next week, flat on my back. Oh well, at least it was during summer vacation when I can "afford" to lay around.

Here are some of the layouts I accomplished that day:



Gyotaku - Fish Prints





Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner in our classroom.





Dinosaur dig.





Create a machine to pop a balloon - science fair projects.

I have to say, ignoring the pain, I really had fun going through these pictures. They are from 1996-97. There are several projects I forgot about until I unearthed these pictures. I am feeling a bit rejuvenated on the teaching side of things. Now to keep working on my back, a bit of exercise and taking breaks in the middle of a project is definitely what I need to do!

Say, "What--e va ?"

As soon as I saw the "theme" for last weeks Cricut Circle Blog Challenge, I knew the picture I wanted to focus on. Lyndsie is a niece in our adopted family (best friends we do many family things with). Christmas morning the kids were doing their gift exchange and I began snapping pictures. The picture of her facing the camera is one of those not planned but love the look pictures. She really was not copping an attitude but it sure looks like it.

I had wanted to enter this in the weekly challenge, but as I began putting it together I did not like my attempt at using spritz ink/glitter paint (one of the requirements of this challenge). So I substituted the paper I used for that with something else. Oh well, still like the page ---though it does look a bit like a Red Hat Society page, doesn't it?
Recipe:

Purple, Red, and black solid paper is from a DCWV glimmer pack

Glass Affects on the glasses to give it a plastic look

Purple snowflake and teal at bottom are from an older CM paper pack - I think

Sunglasses 2.25" and Medallians2" from "Forever Young"

Words made with "Nursery Rhymes Font" at 3"

Let Me Introduce Myself - A Profile Expanded - Scrapbooking

I am an Elementary School Teacher, part time Assistant Principal. I have taught for more than 20 years in this district, as well as 2 in Japan. I have taught all grades K – 6th , but enjoy 2nd through 4th the most. I have always kept journals and created scrapbooks. Approximately 18 years ago I was introduced to Creative Memories Photo Album/Scrapbooks, about the only choices back then. I loved the removable pages and the longevity of the product. I was hooked, a way to combine both. I figured I would do my wedding album. Funny, I did not even start that album until 2 years ago.

Since then, I have completed more than 35 albums. I have 4 more in the works right now. My style has changed, but then so have the tools of the trade. When I started, we would take our acid free papers to work and cut shapes from the Ellison Die Cut machine. Rather limiting. Mrs. Grossman was the only sticker maker available, and printed and textured papers were very rare. Now, the array of tools, paper, embellishments, and even album style choices has expanded. I now have a Cricut Expression, instead of the Ellison at work. Here are few examples of what I am talking about.

One of my first pages:

A few from my last completed album, with a few simple flourishes from my Cricut: