Going Scrapbooking!

I am heading to Virginia Beach, VA for a weekend of scrapbooking with one of my besties - Sally! The crop it associated with the scrapbook store, Beach Scrapbooks. We stay in a motel for the weekend and scrap away. I can't wait! And with my new scrapping organization - using my Scraprack - I am set to go (well, a lot faster than I used to be!) I even bought the extension to the Scraprack on Ebay with 5 spinders because I have so much STUFF. But now I am so organized. I even feel like scrapbooking now because I'm not so overwhelmed with my total disarray of supplies, papers, and embellishments. AND the Scraprack site has FREE organization videos. I have watched most of them and have learned alot about how to organize my supplies: the 6 categories, using color to organize, and the yearly events/holidays sections. It just all makes sense to me and I am going to scrapbook better now that I'm organized. I can feel it! hee, hee.

I have a few pictures of our wonderful weekend in Blowing Rock, NC. We had a great time. The weather was stunningly beautiful and the view off our back porch were priceless.

I am truly an Appalachian State girl and Eric is a App State boy. We fell in love at App State and enjoy every minute in the mountains around Boone and Blowing Rock. I dream that one day Eric and I will own our own piece of the mountain. I pray and hope so!

I have submitted some layouts to Cricut Magazine and Scrapbook Trends and have heard nothing. It makes me so sad. BUT not sad enough to quit submitting AND realizing that I LOVE my pages - whether a magazine validates them or not.

figuring it out...

i have been thinking alot lately about WHY I scrapbook. I used to feel so much pressure to produce the most amazing pages - hoping that it would get me published in a magazine. That attitude really was exhausting AND took all the joy out of scrapping for me.

I also wanted to keep up and stay current with my pictures. I had all these "rules" to my scrapbooking - like matchng colors on all the pages, or both sides of a two-page layout had to be the same; or how about the "rule" to use only odd numbered items on your layout? I had so many "rules" that I couldn't just go with my instincts and enjoy creating my layouts!

In the past couple months I've come to relax so much more. MOSTLY, because I thought that if it isn't fun and enjoyable to me, then I am not going to waste my time and energies on it any more. Life is way too short for something like scrapbooking to be a chore!

Now, I use pictures to scrap that I want to scrap - not in chronological order either. I put as many or as little pictures on a page based on what looks good to me. I am realizing that it's FUN to scrapbook when I take all the pressure off myself.




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Mountain Weekend

Another great weekend in the mountains! We all planned on going snow TUBING on Friday evening and we had the warm clothes and the attitudes to boot! MY main concern was that we would all end up with broken bones.

Well, the slopes closed around 5 pm due high winds - 30 mph gusts! So, we were not able to go "tubbing" (as Teshia affectionately called it). I would have been extremely disappointed if it weren't for the fact that it was SOOOOO cold and the winds were bitingly chilly. Just thinking of tubing down the slope and being blown off the mountain by the wind was kinda a scary feeling.

We ate dinner at Mellow Mushroom - delicious pizza and salads. Michelle G. and I slept upstairs in the loft of the house. The roof is lined with sky lights; therefore, the wild, noisy wind would wake us up all through the night. The wind didn't die down until late a.m. on Saturday and there was snow flurries all through the day.

After Sat. lunch at Macado's, we headed to Blowing Rock to continue shopping. I bought Ugg's brown clogs at Monkees along with the cutest sock monkey mittens - ALL 50% OFF! I also purchased really cute reading glasses 1/2 off. I used my grammar tutoring money for the purchases so I was thrilled with that.

Dinner reservations at the Bistro Roca were at 6:30 pm. The 7 of us were seated in the back of the restaurant - but by the time we left, I wished that they had seated us IN THE PARKING LOT! Teshia was in rare form - and I couldn't believe Michelle C.!! I was completely shocked. That's all I'm going to say about that. (with a Forrest Gump accent...)

I ate the most delicious salmon dinner. We celebrated Maria's Birthday and ate black & white cake from Blue Moon Bakery. It was delicious!! I gave Maria a silver flower and heart necklace - I loved it and I knew that Maria loved flowers - so I was so happy that she liked it!

I'm tired after such a busy weekend. We laughed so much that I cried - especially about Teshia. She's so sweet to let us stay in her mountain house all weekend. She is truly generous and sweet.

I love BUSYNESS!!

What happened to all my typing? It's gone... Well, here I go again. I have been extremely busy - Cade's basketball practices and games, Cade's soccer practices and games, my work, school, family, learning my new iPad, scrapbooking, working out, work - but I would rather be busy than sitting around. I bought a $25 keyboard off of Amazon.com It has bluetooth and is re-chargeable. It's amazing albeit a lttle on the small side. But you can't beat it for the price! Made by MiniSuit for Apple iPad. I have a few layouts to share with you that I haven't posted yet. o dear, I can't figure out how to get a layout from my photo app to blogger. I will upload it tonight on my laptop. I'm meeting Eric to go to Cade's Middle School tournament game in basketball. First game of the tournament. Maybe we'll win - if so, we will have another game with a higher seed on Thursday. The basketball season is such a LONG season! At least 20 games over 3 months. And it's not like Cade is very good. He's extremely athletic - just never practices shooting or dribbling... He says his game is soccer. He played Sunday in the Greensboro tournament and scored all 4 goals for the team. He didn't play at Saturday's 2 games because he was at our church's Middle School retreat.

Happenings

I had to work overtime this afternoon - due to an open house at the school. We are trying to increase class sizes and draw in new, like-minded families. Deborah, the teacher I work with, presented some new ideas today that I really need to ponder and pray about. I can't share now - but I could be very excited about it!

I took my first picture with my new Instax polaroid camera yesterday! And I already put it in my Smash journal - FUN! That was the main reason I bought the camera - to have pics to smash it in my journal- pictures that aren't necessarily scrapbook page-worthy but pictures that are still of my real, every day life. And it is going to be so much fun - I really love instant gratification too. Take a picture, wait for it to "develop", glue it in my Smash book, and journal.

If you aren't familiar with Smash - you should be. Absolutely. I went to an Archiver's crop this weekend and found a much smaller Smash journal that fits into my larger purses. I also have a larger Smash journal that I have almost filled up already. And of course, I have all the elements that you can buy to go with it - stickers, journaling cards (every theme, of course), date stamp, paper clips, etc. Just visit smashstoriesblog.com and be amazed. Lots of ideas - and these books can be used as a journal but ALSO, as so much more. There's also no pressure whatsoever in how you decorate it or smash it in. It's so freeing to have a place where I can journal, create - so unlike my layouts which I try to have look very good and "artistic". So, if you need some down time and creative freedom, Smash is for you. I can't wait to start a second book!

Also, I have 6 layouts that are going to be published in 3 of the upcoming Cricut magazines! I'm SO STOKED!!! I have a 2 layouts and a home decor piece in the March, 2012 issue; 1 layout in the April, 2012 issue; and 1 layout in the May, 2012 issue. IF you haven't discovered the Cricut magazine yet, you are really missing out. It's eye candy from cover to cover and continuously inspires me. I was first published in the October 2011 issue and the November 2011 issue. I can't tell you how humbling, gratifying, exciting and encouraging to have your "creation" being published. My goal this year is to be published in the Scrapbook Trends magazine by Northridge Publishing. I'm working on it... I'll let you know...

Got to go, peeps!
Heather





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

sorry for long absence!

I got an iPad for Christmas - it has been so much fun just playing with it! I have a few games, a few photo apps, twitter, etc. and I am still lookingfor some great apps. If you know of any I just gotta have - leave me a comment! I would love to play Words with Friends with you, also, so give me a holler. I just purchased a little keypad on Amazon so I can more speedily update my blog. I've been waiting for it so I can type with any kind of "speed" and agility. I spent Friday and Saturday at a crop at Archivers. The store was chock full of new product and I wanted EVERYTHING BUT of course, I had self-control and only spent $30 or so. What I love about attending the crops is the 20% off your entire purchase. And you can still use your 30% off one item coupon, also. I decided to totally free myself up from all my "limits" that I put on myself when I'm scrapbooking - like, the "rules" in scrapbooking. I decided to have FUN and play with my paper, embellishments and photos. Just been reading Ali Edwards blog. Talk about inspiring. Ali never shifts from her FOCUS - TO tell the STORY of your life through scrapbooking. And have fun doing it. I love that. So that is what I focused on on Friday and Saturday. I sat with three really nice ladies and we all got along GREAT. I will be posting pictures of my layouts later this week. Thanks for dropping by.

I can't believe I have been so negligent on my blog. I think about writing on it every day... but then I get so busy, I forget to post.

I have a small "business" called Heather's Paperie. I sell handmade cards and other items using beautiful papers. I made some Post-It Note holders to sell at work. I really blinged them up with flowers - Prima flowers, or accordian-folded handmade  flowers, rhinestones and jewels, ribbon, chipboard, etc. I sold about 20 of them at work and my husband is trying to sell them at his work. I really like how they look and for $5.00 - they are a steal!

I also made sets of notecards - 4 cards with envelopes - for $8.00. I spent so much time on them and loved the results. I sold only 2-3 sets. Most people say that they don't even send cards anymore! They only email or facebook people. I guess that's why the Postal business is going bankrupt... But it IS expensive to send a letter now - $.45 a letter! That's outrageous. BUT, anyhoo, here's a picture of about 6 sets. I used my Cricut on every one of them.

My favorite cards are the top, middle, pink, set in the picture. I used vintage lace on them, also.

Well, I will post more later...