How a Thunderstorm Changed My Outlook

We rushed home. It was Friday and I just wanted to relax. I unloaded the car and ushered the kids into their father's care. After flipping on the TV, I stared into the pantry to find what we would eat.


The weather man was talking. The regular programming was interrupted by a storm warning.


On and on the forecast continued. Town after town warned with the time the storm would bear down. Finally, our town was named. 30 minutes would elapse before it was our turn.
80 mile per hour winds. Baseball size hail. I started to get bit worried. I brought a few things into the house. My husband pulled all the cars into the garage.


I started to get even more worried. The kids were finishing their supper. I was ready to rush them downstairs to take cover.


We stood on the back deck and watched the rain and clouds roll across the fields. The rain started and we ran inside. Hail! We looked out the window and in about 60 seconds the wind died down and the hail stopped.


We turned to each other and exclaimed, "That was it?"Yep, we lucked out. The storm died out just as it reached us.


What is the lesson here? Sometimes, while we're waiting for a thing to occur we make it bigger and scarier in our head than it turns out to be.


I'm not discounting being prepared and taking action. But, imagine how much less stressed we would be if we didn't try to live the emotion of a situation in advance?


I'm going to try and keep that in mind more often.

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Learning to Scrapbook

Learning to scrapbook will take some commitment and it is really like a piece of art. When you learn the techniques to scrapbook you will be able to enjoy, however, you will have to get to know a few basic tools, supplies, and learn some skills before you get started.

Pictures First

Everyone has boxes filled with pictures, but you may notice that some are discolored or warped because of the poor storage. The world around us in our homes is full of acid and moisture, which breaks down the chemical balance, used to produce photographs and causes them to change appearance. With scrap booking, you will want to use acid free supplies so that you can preserve the pictures for many years and decades to come.

Basic Scrapbooking Tools

• You'll need a cutting tool. You will need to get sharp scissors and specialty scissors that will cut scalloped edges, but you may also want something that will cut a straight line and circles.
• You will also need some form of adhesive. Beginners may find that the easiest products to buy are photo mounts, which are tiny pre-cut pieces of tape, and glue dots, which are pressure-sensitive strong spots of glue to hold larger embellishments.
• Create fancier pages with rubber stamps, paper crimpers, and punches. Start with a few smaller items and increase your inventory as you learn more and more scrapbooking skills.
• Other supplies that add interest to your pages include paper dolls, stickers, die cuts, and three-dimensional elements.

Scrapbook Album

You will also need a few basic supplies before you begin, the most important of which is the album itself. Make sure whatever you purchase is large enough to hold all the pictures you want to include; two to five pictures will fit on a standard 8 ½ x 11 page with cropping, with the most balanced layouts having three pictures. You can also choose from larger or smaller albums.

Remember that the size of album you purchase will affect your long term costs. 12x12 pages means no extra scraps from the papers for making embellishment. Larger albums cost more, but you may get more pictures to fit into the album.

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From My Scrapbook Room - The Big Mess

Hello from my scrapbook room.

I was so excited that I was going to have part of a nice room to scrapbook in. Our home has a nice office area. We moved in 4 years ago. All my boxes of scrapbook supplies, the boxes of cardmaking supplies, my scrapbook albums and all my projects in progress were stacked into that room.

Some things have been unpacked. Many boxes remain full! I've had two babies and I've done a little paper scrapbooking during this time. It hasn't been to the extent I'd like.

I've done almost zero cardmaking. I can't remember the last time I made a card. Who has time? That makes me sad.

I used to live close to a couple consultants who had wonderful workshops. I'd rather pay for a nice workshop and go home with completed projects than buy a bunch of rubberstamping supplies. What good does it do piled up? Now, I live by no one that scrapbooks or rubberstamps on a regular basis. I used to be a Stampin Up junkie. I find it not as fun to stamp alone. Maybe it's just me?

So anyway, the scrap room is big mess. I'm tired of it. The kids are finally getting old enough that I can craft again. We're finally starting a big clean up to get rid of some of the mess. I think I'm going to clean out a bunch of stuff and start over with new supplies.

I promise to post some pictures.

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