how do YOU find the time?

A friend of mine asked me the other day..."how do you find the time to scrapbook?" She didn't really have the tone, you know the tone...she was being sincere and seemed interested in my answer. The fact is, I am a master time thief. I don't make time, I steal it. I jack time from random places. You see...instead of doing laundry, I make stuff. Instead of cooking, I order and make stuff while waiting for the delivery guy. Instead of reality tv, I tivo and make stuff instead, Instead of gossiping about celebs, I make stuff and gossip simultaneously. I multitask, I squeeze things in, I skip tv, I don't really cook. Time is there for the taking...so take some time, steal some, make some...bargain for some...do whatever you've got to do...because it doesn't wait for anybody and it's gone before you know it.

Speaking of time...Keith and I spent some with his uncle who was in town on business. We traveled to San Dimas which is about 40 miles south east from our little hood. I am one of those rare people that was actually born and raised in Los Angeles, yet there are so many places I've never been. San Dimas is one of those places. Although I didn't tour the San Dimas hot spots, I did discover this little gem of a store tucked amidst other shops along Arrow Hwy.
They were stocked to the brim with goodies...tons of paper, spools and spools of ribbon, the newest yummiest embellies, Keith was on my back like a hawk so I didn't get to do nearly as much damage as I would have liked.

As I walked through each little section I couldn't help but think...there's just so much stuff. Don't get me wrong...I love scrappy stuff as much as the next gal, but I remember when I started scrapping about eight years ago and there wasn't much of anything. Boy oh boy have things changed, and change is good, but to be honest, I stopped scrapbooking for a while simply because I felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff and it was taking me too long just to finish one page. The fact is I really needed to downsize and get back to the storytelling aspect of scrapbooking that I always loved. I've recently begun to scrap again, and while I'm fairly hip to what's hot and what's not...I'm a lot more discerning. I am more into using what I have on hand and creating my own embellishments out of bits and pieces and old stand-bys.

So...I decided, that in addition to my weekly solo scrap challenge, I would also spend some time spreading the many little tricks I've learned...some are pretty obvious, but I love to share.
It's all about getting more bang for my buck...and focusing a bit more on the "making" part of "making stuff"


Check back later for challenge post #2 (stars and stripes)