and then there was none

For over 10 years I have belonged to a relatively small community of papercrafters. A community built around a shop, a message board and a gallery. People who participated in the same hobby as myself. There were times when I saw people come out of the woodwork to support fellow members...there were other times I watched as grown people descended into madness and meanness. The whole time I kept returning...to shop, to read the boards, to see what's new and to learn new things.

Two Peas in a Bucket changed things for me...you see as a child free middle aged woman, I never felt like I fit into the world of scrapbooking. The covers of most memorykeeping magazines reaffirmed the fact by rarely ever depicting layouts of people without kids. I attended crops filled with moms who questioned why in the world I would bother with this time consuming sometimes expensive hobby...who would care? For whom are you doing it. I felt like saying "myself" was never good enough. This feeling of exclusion remained until I found Two Peas.

Suddenly I found a place where other scrapbookers not so different from myself existed online. I was never one to share much...either in the gallery or the message board, but I always felt like I could. I now had tons of inspiration...travel, fun, daily life, school, jobs, friends...all kinds of topics that were important to me and didn't involve children. I started really making stuff and eventually opening a small papercrafting shop of my own.

Years after discovering digital scrapbooking on Two Peas...I became one of their designers...Kristina sought me out and expressed how much she loved my work. I was on cloud nine for a week. I was the girl who never submitted a single layout for publication...who had zero layouts in any gallery anywhere. I was the girl who was always on the outside looking in.  By choosing me,  a leader in the industry made me feel included, and that's a big deal. Sadly I had to end things a year later when my workload became insane. Kristina understood, and I went my own way.

As the news that has left my beloved scrapbooking community reeling settles in, I will begin to ponder the future of my hobby. I hope that wherever the members find themselves that they are kind to one another. I hope that this hobby expands and grows to include more men, more people of color, more childfree folks. I intend to continue my support for small business, but more than anything I will keep taking pictures. I will keep writing stories even and be thankful that for a while I got to be a part a something pretty neat.

on gardens and gardening

It seems like everywhere I look folks are talking about their gardens. Truth be told, I like it and I get it. Up until a couple years ago...I didn't get it. You see, up until a couple years ago I never lived in a house, never had a garden and had never grown something from the ground and eaten it.

That's all changed since I moved into this delightful little house in the lovely PNW, but I still reminisce about my childhood. I grew up in a 10 unit apartment building with a pool in the center of a small courtyard. Although I didn't know it back then, the apartment I grew up in was bigger than a LOT of houses and we didn't really ever want for space. The best part besides the pool is that each unit was occupied by families with kids around our age. Some of which have remained in my life to this day. Over thirty years later, a couple of those families still live there...including my mom. These people that started out as neighbors and became like family have all changed and grown...some have become grandparents recently. EEK! Some have fought in wars around the world...they have children and jobs and struggles.

Even though I didn't have a garden then, I now realize as I walk through grass still wet with dew, as I pick flowers to give away or to perfume my home, as I anxiously await my budding tomatoes and pop warm raspberries in my mouth...Gardens come in many different forms. As a child I still got to watch things grow. I still got to see things being tended and loved.  I learned the lesson that what springs from the earth will eventually return to it and that you reap what you sow.

I am so thankful for what I have now, but it can never compare to what I had then. I don't own this garden...but for now, for today, it's mine to enjoy.

this girl

 allie and antonio Cancun 2012

this girl was actually the second baby I ever witnessed being born up close

this girl is all laughter and light...until she becomes the moodiest person on the planet

this girl is kindhearted and easily offended

this girl is just beginning

this girl turned my wild sister into a mother at 19

this girl has given me a taste of motherhood...and yeah, i'll pass:)

this girl is loved

 today I am celebrating her and my sister as they both achieve one of life's finest milestones.

a walk down memorykeeping lane

Happy National Scrapbooking Day! Yes, it's a thing.

I thought that it would be fun to share some of my early scrapbook layouts and kinda see how much...or how little I've evolved:)

This may very well have been my 2nd or 3rd layout ever. 8.5x11 because that was my jam and still is sometimes and lots of distress inking and stamping. I made those flowers free hand so yeah, the making of my own embellishments started from the very beginning. Just to give you a frame of reference, my niece was about two in that picture and she just turned 18 four days ago. EEK!

Another Allie layout because early on I thought scrapbooking was all about kids and since I didn't have any I used the one and only child to whom I had somewhat unlimited access. 2005 and I was super into layering and patterns. Oh, and tearing paper...i don't know what I was thinking other than
TRY EVERYTHING!!!!

Still on the "scrap my sister's kid" train. I decided to try 12x12 and it felt like a lot of real estate to fill up. I also realized that I'm a one maybe two photos kinda gal and always have been. More layering, more handmade embellishments. I still love this picture and remember that day fondly.

Yup, I was way more prolific in my early scrapbooking years. This was pretty simple and I think it was a scraplift...so if it looks like something you made back in the day, thanks for the inspo:) To those that think using embroidery floss on scrapbook pages is new, it's not. I'm glad that it made its way back around again but I'm no longer really into it.

Yay! Seven years later my sister gives birth to another child just so I'd have someone other than Allie to scrapbook. Okay...that might not have been the whole reason. Clearly my style evolved very little. One picture, layers, buttons and handwritten journaling along the side. I have about 50 more that look just like this one.

A rare two picture layout, but it follows my basic formula. It was around this time that I started machine stitching on everything. My nephew was about two or three in this picture and he is now 11. Love that I was still using buttons and cut out embellishments.

Around 2006  I stopped scrapbooking my niece and nephew. I wanted to scrapbook my family as an extension of my own life and not as the primary subject matter. I also cancelled all of my scrapbooking magazine subscriptions since they never really got behind depicting layouts that looked like my life. I switched to the Internet where I discovered the Dares and other styles of scrapbooking that more closely fit my aesthetic.

Cut to 2010 and I was still keeping pictures to a minimum...still layering and still machine stitching. The big addition was mist. Let me tell you...it was short lived. I still like mist, but I don't do it very much.

Almost 20 years later and I'm still participating in this amazing hobby. It has helped my unwind, it has helped me become far more observant, it has helped me remember things I had long forgotten...but really it's made me happy and grateful for my life. I think all these layouts pretty much look alike...except for that first one which was kind of an anomaly. I still like all of the same things. My favorite embellishments are still the ones I make myself. I still use some of the exact same paper punches and supplies. I now scrapbook 6x8 layouts which is really a slightly smaller version of 8.5x11 and these days it's almost all about me:)

Here's to another 20 years.  Oh...and note to self...use my own handwriting more.

it's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday

in addition to the demise of my beloved Domino, I am also bidding a fond farewell to the three columned blog template. How sad that it was Perez Hilton of all people to break the tragic Domino news yesterday about noonish. Go figure, I just subscribed to the mag I've been buying off the newstand for so long, only to find out that its time in the sun is over. I know I must end my lament, but I just can't stand Conde Nast...why don't they get rid of Vogue...there's more than enough fashion fodder on-line. Okay. breathe. I do love Vogue and how it satisfies my sartorial inclinations...but, oh well ces't la vie.

As you can see...I have also axed the old template in favor of something say...a bit more low maintenance. I'm just over the sheer volume of stuff blinking and clogging up my precious white space. I needed to strip back down to the essentials and do a little blog clean-up. I know you don't recognize it, but this started off as the Scribe template and after a flurry of activity is now this. Not too bad, eh? I'm happy with it. I can see a few imperfections that I have just decided to let go. One of the things I hate about uploading a new template is that I lose all my widgets. It's a bit of a pain having to add them all back in...and I always make the mistake of not writing them down somewhere. So this is by memory...if I forgot to put a link to your blog it's not a slight but rather a lapse in memory. I also added a few links. I had no choice but to get rid of blogs that are never updated...that makes me grumpy...

incidentally...speaking of blogs that are not regularly updated...I will try and practice what I preach.

roadtrips and trees

So, I am off to enjoy a few days of fine family fun. Looking forward to it since this may be the last time we are all together for a little while. Don't want to get all weepy...but this girls voice is making me bawl. Makes me think of my grandfather and how much I miss him.

One of my favorite memories is unpacking all the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving while my mom baked and my grandfather and I would dance. He was over 6 feet so it was awkward...but fun, oh so fun.

On to happier fare...






don't know why but I'm really into Christmas trees right now. In addition to the idea on my previous post, I found two more ideas here. I love that these would work if you're going low budge this year or just don't have the space or time to do it up big. Wouldn't it be nice to have a few of these of varying sizes in different areas? My furniture won't arrive until the 15th so that will give me enough time to try at least one of these ideas.

on knowing it will never really get cold here

I am trying my best to make peace with the fact that it will never get very cold in my neck of the woods, which has a considerably different climate from the woods in Vermont shown in the photo above. I mean in a few months people a bit further to the middle and the east will be ankle deep in snow and I will still be frolicking in the sunshine. That's what's nice about living in LA right? The weather...the eternally fabulous climate. The sunshiney and 70 all the livelong day.

Yes, I know I should be thanking my lucky stars, but that's hard to do when my east coast friends are blogging about new scarves and coats, pumpkin lattes and soup. Wonderful soup. I know I could just push the little knob on my thermostat down a bit and pretend...but what's the use. Plus...that's kinda wasteful.

I'm an autumn girl...born in October and a Libra through and through. I love fall. I love that I sprung from my mother during such a perfectly lovely season. Nevermind that it's always a little warm on my birthday...it never feels like fall to me until I turn another year older. I guess you could say that for me...fall is like spring. A time for new beginnings. So what does a gal do when longing for fall in all its frigid glory ...I flip through seasonal catalogs...I make a pot of spiced cider so that the smell wafts through my 76 degree apartment, I buy a couple of sweaters that it will never really be cold enough to wear, I knit scarves, I make things, I drink hot chai instead of iced and at the end of it I discover, once again, how this time of year is beautiful no matter where you live.


photo courtesy of Paul Schwarz

taking off

I have not really been in a blogging mood this week as if you haven't noticed. No color combo this week. No typography spotlight. No Good Things. This week has been one of work and tying up loose ends. I am not happy to see summer depart. Some of my favorite memories happened during summer. Neighborhood hide and seek, staying out really late, swimming in the pool until midnight, my parents taking us to the beach at dusk and playing on the swings with the ocean crashing behind us. I love LA, I love the weather. I love the ocean and the mountains and the desert all converging. This is my home. A city where everyday feels like summertime and anything can happen.

As much as I love home...I often need a new perspective and that requires getting away just long enough to appreciate all the little things that annoy me. So I am taking off in the morning. no dog, no hubby, just me and my mom. I will be heading east as the sun rises. I will be gone for about ten days but I'll be blogging from the road.

I wish you all a happy holiday.

see you on the flip side

xo
-f