Another digi layout!

I finished this layout a few weeks ago and just never got around to finishing it. This layout was the second of the Digi in Deep class at Jessica Sprague's website. I think this is probably my favorite digi layout that I've done. I just started looking through old pictures and found one of Caleb when he was one and a half and then thought about some of the pics I'd taken when we went skiing in January and I knew I had the photos that I wanted to use. I'm so happy with how it turned out:




The companion page was a page that I designed and completed myself. It's not as good as Jessica's page, but I thought it turned out ok. It took forever. But, I'm learning as I go so that's a good thing. It just takes awhile to get all of this stuff in my brain.



List of materials used:
SP Lima background papers: From Monoblendz Paperie - Lima paper pack by Anna Aspnes
Rounded corner square die cut: from Border Templates pack by Katie Pertiet
Striped Paper: From Spontaneous Delight by Carrie Stephens
Dirty Journaler Label: from Dirty Journalers set by Katie Pertiet
Grunged Up Photo Block: from Grunged Up Photo Blocks No. 2 set by Katie Pertiet
Staples by Katie Pertiet

First 5K Baby!

I decided about a month ago to run a 5K. My niece was going to run it and my sister in law was going to walk it. I probably didn't give myself quite enough time to train for it, but I've been working out pretty consistently for the last several months so I was in decent shape. I started running at the Y and have just been trying to ramp it up as the race got closer. I've been so stinking nervous about it that I haven't slept well the last two nights. I really wanted to run the whole thing and I think I just put too much pressure on myself. Once I got there I was fine, but I was nervous about getting there, parking, being in the right place, etc. It was definitely chilly while we were waiting, but once we got going it was fine. I ran with Holly for the first mile. I stopped at the water station at the 1 mile marker to get some water and ended up with a cup of beer. Now I like me some beer, but didn't want it while running, so I shoved that back at them and missed my chance to get my water. I kept Holly in my sights for a while after that, but lost her after going up a big hill. I think if I'd stayed with her longer that I would have done better, but I'm still proud of myself. My official time was 33 minutes 5 seconds. Not bad for a first 5K, if I do say so myself.
Before the race:



My lovely running shoes with my timing device from the race:

A digi layout for your viewing pleasure ;0)

I've been doing some digital classes for about the last 6 months. I've meant to post more of the layouts that I've done, but never have. I am now taking the Digi In Deep at Jessica Sprague's website. If you are looking to learn digital her site is the place to go. I've wanted to learn photoshop for several years now and finally took the plunge. It's fun, but it is also frustrating for me. It's one of those programs where you have to constantly practice so that you don't forget what you've learned. It is also extremely complex, but it's amazing what you can do with it. So without further ado, here are my latest digi layouts. This layout is from November of last year when we planted some bushes and trees at the house. Caleb really enjoyed digging in the dirt! The first page is a straight copy of the layout that Jessica does in the first lesson:


The second page was our challenge page for this lesson. It took me forever to complete just because I have a hard time envisioning what I wanted it to look like. The circle shapes kind of throw me off. I'm just not good at incorporating them into my layouts, but I think it turned out ok.


List of supplies:
defining flowers and lumiere papers, journaling strip (red)-jen wilson
hemp tie, King Me Paper, -katie pertiet
dd wise-a la mode flourish
tag-Linda GB
barcelona button 2-lynng
funky vintage frame-NRJ
the house-hardwood 3 (blue paper)-tjd-kuwtj

Snow, snow, and more snow!

I felt a bit like a kid yesterday when I saw that it was snowing. Caleb had his Valentine's Day party at school yesterday so we headed for his school yesterday morning. All the way to school he kept saying, "It's snowing! Hooray!" I'm glad he shares my enthusiasm for snow. I hung out at his school so that I could be there for his class party. There are only 5 kids in his class, so it didn't take long to pass out the their Valentines. I headed out after the party to get a few things done and then got the call that they were going to do an early release because of all of the snow.

On our way home I told him that when we got home that we would play out in the snow. I got another rendition of "It's snowing and we get to play in it. Hooray!" So, we got home and the search began for all of our snow clothes. Luckily we had just been skiing so they were fairly easy to find. We got all bundled up and headed out. Several of our neighbors were out too, and Caleb was excited that his buddy Matthew was outside playing. Caleb had said that he wanted to make a snowman, so I started building one. I've never had the experience of just rolling a snowball and rolling it around to make a big ball, but this snow worked that way. In fact, when I was making the middle ball for my snowman, it got so big that I ended up making it the base of a second snowman. John got home and he helped me get the snowman put together. We started our search to outfit the snowman. We used rocks for his face, and sticks for his arms. Caleb started getting excited at that point and said that our snowman looked like Frosty. John found the snowman a hat, and when he put the hat on our snowman Caleb asked if the snowman was going to come to life! Too funny. He really got into the Frosty the Snowman song this Christmas.

Here's Caleb just as we got outside!

And here he is perched on the makings of our snowman.

And here we are with "Frosty"!


Then in true Jones family tradition, John hooked up a sled to the four wheeler and took Caleb and the neighborhood kids sledding. When I was a kid, my Dad would do the same for us. Caleb had a blast with the sledding. If we had done it all night, I don't think that he would have gotten bored with it.

We did finally come in for a while to warm up. I got dinner started and after some hot cocoa and marshmallows John and Caleb headed out for another round of snow fun. This time they headed out to the back yard where Caleb discovered that his fort was covered in snow. What do you do when your slide is covered in snow? Well, you slide down it, of course. Caleb was fascinated with sliding down and landing in the snow. Then Caleb and John decided it would be funny to come knock at the door and try to peg me with a snowball when I opened it. Caleb would get so tickled that he could hardly stand. Then I'd shut the door and open it again and he'd have another giggling fit. After being out for quite a while John told him that they probably needed to come in. Caleb said, "I'm sorry Dad, but I'm having too much fun to go inside."

This morning when we got up Caleb was very anxious to go out again. We actually have received record snowfall amounts and got more than a foot of snow. Caleb played on the slide some more and then I put him on the trampoline that was covered in snow. He was just amazed at it all. He got to play some more with Jacob and Matthew and he and Jacob had a snow ball fight. Caleb was cool with that until some snow went under his shirt. I didn't see it happen and he started saying, "My tummy hurts!" Then I realized it was the snow that was just freezing him. He also ate plenty of snow. Every time he fell down he would lay in the snow and lick it. He kept saying that it tasted like ice cream. He is so funny. After we were out for a while we came inside to warm up and to get some lunch. I asked Caleb what he wanted to eat and he said "marshmallow lasagna." I told him that I didn't know how to make marshmallow lasanga, and asked him how to make it. He said that you get some marshmallows, put some cheese on them, stir it in a circle and then add some chocolate. Sounds like a lovely combo, but those are three of his favorites.

Check out how deep it was.

My little snow eater

John made it home from work and helped Caleb make a snow fort. Then of course they had to have a snowball fight. Caleb can't ever get anyone because he's laughing so hard when you get him.

We have definitely enjoyed the snow, and I know Caleb will be sad to see it go.

A few layouts

Well, this is some sort of record for me. I don't think I've ever finished scrapping a trip so quickly. I don't get much of an opportunity to scrapbook snow pages, so I pulled out all the snow themed embellishments I've collected over the years and my Aspen paper packet from Close To My Heart and went to town. I ended up using a lot of old stuff from my stash and that felt good too. The metal letters on this first layout I bought at Joann's years ago on clearance and finally used some of them. The journaling on all the layouts are basically the blog entries
I made about the trip, just tweaked a little. While my new hero may be the queen of simple scrapping, I don't know if I can make that leap. I like adding a bit of bling to keep things interesting, but that's the great thing about scrapping. They are your pages and you can make them any way you like.

The layout below is from Christmas 2008. I used the It's a Guy Thing paper packet from CTMH. This layout took forever, but I like the way it turned out.

I have a new hero

On the very long drive back from New Mexico (10 hours) I was actually able to read a book that I've been wanting to read for several months now. This was cool on several levels because I normally can't read in the car without getting a huge headache and I got to read a great book. It's called Clean and Simple Scrapbooking - The Sequel by Cathy Zielske. So, if you haven't figured it out Cathy Zielske is my new hero. I just loved this book. Most of it was stuff that you've heard before if you've delved into the hobby that is scrapbooking, but the way it was presented was both humorous and inspiring.

But after reading the book, I was ready to go scrap. I've kind of been in a weird in between place with my scrapping. I've started devling into the digital realm, but I still love the hands on aspect of paper scrapping-so I've ended up doing neither because I'm terrible at making decisions. I also finally "get" the layouts devoted to your favorite cup of coffee or how much you love paper towels(Cathy has one on paper towels in the book). I don't know that I'll be scrapping a 2 page spread on my love for diet dr. pepper, but I did finally realize that I need to start putting a little more of ME in my scrapbooks. I've concentrated on recording Caleb's life to the exculsion of everything else. I need to remember to take the time to focus on other aspects of my life. Caleb might be interested to know what his mom was into in 2010. He might think it's interesting that I love 80s music, time to myself, and Mexican food.

I liked the fact that her book was real and showed us a glimpse into her life. I like that she scraps very specific things about people at that particular moment. The little things are the things that we forget ,5, 10 years down the road, but a lot of the time the little things are what makes life fun, interesting, and humorous.

I also really liked her chapter on journaling. One of the reasons I started a blog in the first place was so that I could write about life events as they happened and then be able to go back and use that post as my journaling for my scrapping. In that vein I'm hoping that this blog becomes a much more interesting place in the next year. I'm going to try to get better at giving my thoughts a concrete home. I will still post layouts, but I'm also going to post about life in general.

Gotta go now. Life is calling.

The rest of the NM trip

Our third and last day in New Mexico started with Caleb's ski lesson. We saw one of the instructors, Josh, working with a 4 year old the previous day so we requested that he teach Caleb's lesson because he worked really well with the other little boy. Plus, Josh can ski backwards in front of his students. John and I don't quite have that trick down. John and I really talked the lesson up so that Caleb would listen and do what he was asked. John told him that he was going to have a ski partner show him how to be a better skier. I think the partner bit comes from the Buzz Lightyear movie because Caleb's always talking about Buzz's partner from that movie. Anyway, the lesson started and off go Caleb and Josh. It was really cute watching Caleb take his lesson. They worked together for a while. Josh showed him how to put on his skis and then they skied down to get on the rope. Caleb was already a pro with the tow rope. They would ski down with Josh giving Caleb pointers and then they'd get back on the rope. This went on for a while and then I noticed that they'd taken off their skis and were walking back up to the building. Apparently Caleb told Josh that he needed a little break and that he needed to talk to his mom and dad. So, we took a little break, got Caleb some blue Gatorade, and then Josh came over and said that he had to take over another lesson at 10 so that if we wanted to get the lesson in before noon that it had to be then. So, we sent Caleb off again with his partner and they continued their lesson.




After Caleb's lesson, we decided to go tubing for a while. They have a little tow rope that takes you to the top of the mountain. This was much better than having to hoof it up the mountain with your sled in tow. Everyone has to sled down on their on tube, or tuba, as Caleb was calling it. So, after Caleb had a couple of run ins with the cable, he decided to climb onto our tube with us and we would hang on to his empty one as we went up the mountain. I got lots of hugs and kisses on our way to the top. The tubing was a lot of fun, but it was a bit cold. The snow was pretty hard and as a result you had to dig your toes into it to slow down and eventually stop. Well, let me rephrase, if you didn't want to end up with any broken bones that's what you did. There were 2 broken bones that day of folks that were more into speed than sense. One had a broken collar bone and one a broken leg. Believe me, we made sure that we slowed down. So much so that in fact, my trusty hiking boots of about 13 years bit the dirt. The soles started coming apart from the shoes because of the snow being forced into them. Before the end of the day, I had one shoe that was completely without a sole. My feet never did get wet though. Anyway, tubing was fun, but did make for some chilly rides as the snow tends to get in your pant legs and the spray from digging your toes in covers your back with snow. At the end of the day, I had icicles for hair. Caleb really enjoyed himself and one little boy of about 10 remarked on how brave Caleb was for tubing. I think our little dare devil takes after me and my dad who are both dare devils. I'm not quite the dare devil that I was when I was a kid. I think motherhood tends to bring out the caution/common sense in a person. We tubed for about 2 hours then headed to the cabin for lunch. When we got back there was a huge youth group that showed up to tube, so we decided to go practice skiing with Caleb again.









This time, both me and John stayed in our regular shoes and just let Caleb ski. I think his lesson really paid off because he finally seemed to get the hang of the snow plow a bit. Then after practicing for quite a bit more, he finally figured out how to stop. And it wasn't any safe snow plow stop, oh no, it was more of a bad ass skid to the side kind of stop. Oh how I wish we could have had one more day on the mountain because we definitely would have taken our boy to the top of that mountain and skied all the way down. Ah well. Next year. Finally the youth group left at 3 so we headed over to the tubes to get another hour in. John went down once and opted to sit out for the rest of the time. Caleb and I went down quite a few times, and I got to experience tubing without waterproof pants as I'd changed clothes at lunch since my pants had gotten snow in them. Let me just say that my nether region has not been so cold in quite some time. We closed the place down though and got the last run of the day. Our little trip was fun. I wish we'd known that the whole school came to ski on Friday and that the tubing was only on the weekends, but all in all it was a good time.