{photo freedom}

stacy julian's library of memories class is now being called finding photo freedom and begins in june. she is offering this for free to anyone that has taken the LOM class, as i did two years ago. i pretended to take it again last year but honestly did nothing with it.

i'm super excited that the course is getting fresh updates. i think it's amazingly wonderful that stacy is allowing all alumni to participate at no cost. but most of all, i'm tickled that this is good timing for me. why is it good timing?

:: may will be over. it's a long story but basically...may has been CRAZY from a professional standpoint. april was pretty crazy personally and that has carried somewhat into may. if i can survive this month, i should be able to take a deep breath.

:: i am determined that i have to figure out a way to get creativity and memory keeping back into my everyday life!!! (the key there is *everyday*, not just occassionally). i will always be busy...that's not going to change. it's time to make this part of my life a priority.

so, i'm ready...ready to jump in when june comes. and i'm hoping to spend a little time over the next few weeks (if possible) doing some of the class prep work. wish me luck.

if you are participating in the class, leave me a comment and let me know!

looking forward {2011}

if you are interested on my thoughts surrounding new year's resolutions, read the first part of my post from last year. i will spare you a recap.

with the new year here, i'm once again pondering what lies ahead. what has worked this year. what needs to change. i'm reviewing my major posts from last year: look forward 2010 and mid-year update, and sharing how i did.

i've been pondering goals for this new year, but more importantly, i've been pondering how to be better focused on making them happen. a blog i follow (ap freewriting 101) has put together a concept of 3 in 30. the idea is to set 3 realistic and attainable goals each month. these can be small, stand-alone goals or individual steps to bigger goals. i'm hoping to lay out the big stuff below and then work to break them down. i think i fell short of a lot in 2010 because i didn't make an attempt to break the "big things" down into "little things".

one significant change: last year's list consisted of a lot of conceptual things. though most of these things are still relevant to my life (patience, balance, etc), i feel my current list needs to be more concrete.

{organization}
i'm a pretty organized person. but i often feel totally unorganized. i'm not sure why that is. it might be because i have great organizational ideas that i never implement. or it may be that my type-a personality just leads me to believe i'm not organized, but i actually am. i typically don't lose things or forget appointments, so overall, i guess i'm doing ok. but there are parts of our home that are getting out of control (in my opinion) so it's time to deal with them.

{time management}
i wavered as to whether to combine organization and time management but ultimately decided to separate them. my biggest struggle with time management is actually based on motivation. after a day at work, it's difficult for me to find the energy to be motivated once i'm home - to do something beyond the standard taking care of coleman and feeding the family...something other than vegging in front of the tv. some days, i can't even find the motivation to get on the computer, and that's pretty sad!

{blog improvement}
i want to work my way through the online course that will (hopefully) help me visually re-design this blog. i also want to get better at planning posts ahead so that there are not so many peaks and valleys in my posting. i want more good quality content, but plan to still wiggle in my useless ramblings (if i didn't, it wouldn't really be *me*).

{scrap studio}
though this kind of falls under the umbrella of organization, i feel it's large enough to deserve it's own official goal. i have accomplished absolutely nothing in 2010 as far as improving this year. no improvements to work flow. no adapting so that coleman can be in there with me. very little purging. as a result - very little creating.  i need to get the room under control and get back to creating!

included in this, i should mention library of memories. i haven't done much of anything with this in 2010. right now i'm not feeling the *pull* to work much on it, probably because of other priorities. but a year is a long time and hopefully other things will come together so i can put more emphasis there. my focus will be on general organization of that room and improving my ability to create. the LOM process is secondary.

{weight loss}
you knew it had to be on there! this was on last year's list. i didn't lose any weight. but sometimes people asked if i did. when i look at pictures from last christmas, something is definitely different. i think what happened is that my body shape kind of recovered from the whole "having a baby" thing. even though i didn't lose pounds, my body resituated itself back to where it was. NOW it's time to lose the poundage. luckily, matt's on board with this. his focus is more on "toning up" which involves exercise (something i hate). my focus is more on controlling diet (a tougher thing for him). i am hoping that by our focus & strengths being different, we'll be able to support each other in the areas where we are weaker. in other words - i can help him eat better and he can motivate me to exercise.

{faith + spirtuality}
matt and i have continued to fail at finding (or even searching for) a church home. i have been consistent in my daily time with God and the Bible in the mornings. i've worked my way through the Old Testament and will continue my current plan until i'm done with the New Testament. then i will find a daily devotional plan that will allow me to dig deeper into scripture. as coleman gets older, i need to search for ways to share my faith with him.

{financial}
matt and i totally fell off the dave ramsey bandwagon and both agree it's time to hop back on! again, matt is on board with this and will take will power from both of us!

{writing}
continue to focus on writing, not only on this blog, but in journals. i am sometimes able to do this during my morning quiet time but not often. during december, i've used the reverb10 prompts for my writing, but i want to get back to the "pen to paper" journaling more often. this seems to be an "ebb and flow" type thing for me. i'm aiming for consistency.

so there you have it. eight main goals for 2011. stay tuned for my focused january plan.

lom {connection layout}

during the weekend that i unplugged, and after i created the wallet photo pages, i finally did the actual *connections* layout from my category drawers. these photos were all found behind the grandparents tab. i originally pulled four, but ended up only using three. my goal was to capture my mom with her grandchildren when they were pretty young. there is no journaling, only a handwritten note under each photo to indicate who the kids are and the general time the photo was taken.

if you're curious, the far left is my oldest nephew, bo who just turned 18! the middle photo is coleman. the far right photo is teddy on the left (now almost 14) and maggie on the right (now 12).

these are the same papers i used to create several welcome gifts for neighbors. i really love them for some reason and have enjoyed using them (maybe because they are feminine...a type of  product i don't get to use very often). they are actually hand-me-down supplies from my mom's unwanted stash. interesting coincidence that i ended up using them to do a layout featuring her! thanks mom.

lom {wallet photo pages}

two weekends ago, when i decided to *unplug* on saturday, one of the things that i enjoyed was how it forced me to do something more productive with coleman's naptime. i spent time in my scrap studio working on my LOM system and projects. i wanted to complete one of the early assignments from class, which is to create a "connections" layout from your category drawers.

as i was looking for the connection, i came across all these extra wallets behind spencer's tab. i have a 5x7 album where i scrap all of his portraits (usually in a wallet or 3"x5" size). but since i was hanging on to these wallets, i figured i might as well do something with them. i came up with this super easy idea. i stole a few baseball card pages from spencer's room and slipped the wallets into them in a logical fashion.. no frills. no embellishments. no complications.

this first page contains portraits unrelated to school. i'm pretty sure there are some missing and if i find them, i can easily add them. i used my boring, but beloved, labelmaker to add dates/ages. this will be added to our all about us library album.

this is the backside of the above page. it contains photos that were all from the same photo shoot. we had so many that they warranted their own page.

this page contains his school portraits. i had some tabs with number words on them, so i used those to label the grades. there is room on the back to keep adding future grades. this page was slipped in the back of his school album. on the back side, i tucked in the tabs with future grade numbers so that i don't have to hunt them down when i add future portraits.

these are his actual baseball cards from his baseball seasons. i'm pretty sure we've ordered these each season that he's played, so there might be some missing. i am in the process of moving all of spencer's baseball related scrapbook pages into their own album, so i will probably add this to that album.

i love how quick and easy this is. now when we get new photos, i can just slip them into the appropriate page. i will definitely start this for coleman as well.

guest post {simple scrapper}

part one of my guest post at simple scrapper went up yesterday. the article is a three-part series, with parts two and three going up today and tomorrow. it's called dealing with digital overload and is a detailed description of the process i use to manage and organize my digital photographs. i'd love for you to swing by the site and read part one. please leave a comment over there as well! i love comments!

edit: below are links to all three parts of the series

dealing with digital overload
part one
part two
part three

stream of consciousness

sorry, no fancy pictures tonight or anything snazzy for that matter. i feel like rambling. i've seen on other blogs where people ramble and call it "stream of consciousness". i guess it makes them feel smarter. :-) whatever. it's rambling. confession: i had to use spell check in word to figure out how to spell "consciousness". i'm actually a very good speller but i have a few words that always get me. the family of "conscious" words always do. and i don't like the way they look. they don't look like they are spelled correctly. i don't really like saying that word either. odd.
so, this was an interesting and very cool week. spencer was with us for a full 7 days (actually more like 8). love it when he's here for so many days in a row. things feel normal. right. not so much bouncing. it was a busy week. holiday weekend. last week of school. lots of "extras". matt was off all week. i was off monday for memorial day, then took wednesday off. then tonight, matt leaves for work and thirty minutes later, spencer is gone too. i looked at coleman and was like "oh well, guess it's just us now". feels weird. at least it's summer and we have three more of these weeks to look forward to. i enjoy my nights alone sometimes, but it always take a night to get adjusted after matt's home for a week.

i did a lot of laundry today. five or six loads. i normally don't let it build up like that, but as i said...busy week.

oh...get this. we signed back up for netflix now that all the good shows have ended. tonight, i set up the "instant streaming" on our ps3. ***awesome*** lovin' it. tonight i watched "penelope" - a cheesy teen type romantic comedy. coleman actually watched some of it with me and even laughed at the funny stuff. how cool is that? matt and i were just chatting on the phone about super smart he is :)

i'm watching the mentalist. it's an old episode that my rude husband watched without me, so now i'm watching it. it has clowns in it. odd.

i'm also looking for a june wallpaper for my computer. i used to try and download a digital template each month and drop in some photos. but i'm slack. i need something easier. even with "easy" i somehow managed to totally skip may. april's is still up. my *go to* source now is smashing magazine.com -- i honestly have no idea what this website/blog is about or for. but at the beginning of every month they have a blog post with tons and tons of free wallpapers. the styles vary immensely so there truly is something for everyone. you can download them with or without a calendar. i usually have a hard time choosing.  here's what i finally settled on tonight...fun, huh?

earlier i actually spent some time in my scrapbooking room. i didn't scrapbook, but the good thing is that i wasn't scared to walk into the room. since i cleaned it up, i've done a better job of not letting junk collect. i wrapped a gift (super cute baby stuff for xan). then i spent some time going through old layouts and resorting them in my library albums. a neat little trip down memory lane. as a result, i decided to pull out all of the layouts that are from spencer's birthday parties and put them in a separate album. it'll be cool to look at every year on his birthday and maybe display at future parties. i was adding a few layouts to my gamecock album and i was thinking that i need to put it on display when we have folks over to watch the games. i love displaying *relevant* scrapbooks when folks are over. some of my library albums are getting really full so i'm going to have to invest in some more soon.

i didn't eat much for supper tonight at all. now it's 10 pm and i'm kind of hungry but know i shouldn't eat this late. but don't want to be lying in bed hungry. hmmm. maybe i'll see if i can find a little snack that is not too terribly bad for me. wish me luck.

good night.

lom {lesson 1 - least common layout}

as i mentioned in this post, i needed to create a layout that combined my least common categories (places, us, where, and why). i tend to associate the library of memories more with paper scrapbooking (though there is no logical reason why). however, i knew if i realistically wanted to do this assignment in the near future, it'd get done more quickly if i did it digitally. ultimately, the point is to capture memories so it doesn't really matter how that's accomplished, now does it??? exactly.

so, i did this last week while watching american idol:

JOURNALING READS:
seven years: the first set of photos was taken just days before matt and i got married; before we became an official family. the 2nd set shows how our family had recently grown. these illustrate how so much can change, while some things remain a constant.

photos taken 4.7.2002 & 9.7.2009 @ GLENCAIRN GARDENS IN ROCK HILL
 
as always - i used a layered digital template, for which i take no credit. i used a freebie kit and i'm horrible and keeping up with who designs what.

i just added this layout to the LOM galley...Lesson ONE is officially DONE (better late than never).

LOM 2010 {lesson 1}

well...it's over a month into the library of memories class at big picture scrapbooking. i knew i haven't had the time or energy to devote to it so instead of doing it *halfway*, i've intentionally ignored it all together. my attempt at balance. today, i decided to start diving in. i read through and reviewed the pre-class information and i'm working my way through lesson 1.

since this isn't my first time at the rodeo, i am skimming through parts. supposedly a lot has changed this year, so i plan to focus on the new stuff and the areas where i know i need help. i am particularly excited about the expanded digital information and hope to learn a lot!

here's my progress on lesson one's task list:
i'm not done, but keep in mind that i only started TODAY...

**begin personal page assessment**

1) what are your scrapbooking strengths? in other words, what would you say you are very good at when it comes to creatively capturing your memories?

i believe my strength has always been in scrapbooking events. my mind functions in a very chronological manner and therefore scrapbooking events, in order, is what came naturally to me. i have always taken a lot of photos (even more, after going digital) and, as a result, i became good at scrapbooking a LOT of photos. i was not the "one photo per page" kind of gal!

2) what are your scrapbooking weaknesses? where do you feel you most often fall short in creatively capturing your memories?

my weaknesses, as expected, are the opposite of my strengths. even though i used to do a ton of scrapbooking - and there was even a time when i was "caught up" (a long, long time ago) - but there were so many memories and stories that were not being captured...things that were so much more important than some of the things i was spending hours documenting. it was a true *lightbulb* moment for me when i first started to understand stacy julian's ideas on scrapbooking.

**flag completed scrapbook pages with sticky notes**
and
**label sticky notes with 5Ws**
last year, i completed this portion of the assignment in many of my albums - very thorough. so, this year i opted to just go through the (depressingly small) collection of layouts that i've completed in the year since the last class.

**print and complete the tally sheet**
THINGS = 12

PEOPLE = 4
PLACES = 2
US = 2
        and
WHO = 16
WHAT = 17
WHEN = 16
WHERE = 12
WHY = 12


oddly enough, there was a tie for last place in both categories. so, i guess that means i either have options for my layout assignment, or i need to create two :)

**create layout assignment**
i need to create a scrapbook layout (or two) that combine PLACES, US, WHERE, and WHY.
 
**post layout to lesson one gallery**
obviously need to create a layout before i can do this :)

**finish personal page assessment**

1) describe the type of scrapbook pages you want to create?

i want to create layouts that will tell the real story of my life and my family's lives. i want to capture everything from the special events to the everyday nuances. i want people to look back on my pages one day and know that i loved and adored my family, that i enjoyed every moment with them. i want them to know what i did with my time, but also where my heart was.

2) based on your answer above, list three qualifiers/requirements for pages you will create from here on out. my pages will...

 - tell a story. no more "we went to the park and it was fun". why did we go to the park? why on that day? why to that park? who was there and why those people? what happened at the park to make that day worth capturing? why should someone generations from now care about those pictures?

- capture personality: birthdays are great, but would 11 layouts of spencer's birthdays tell me anything about him? about the fact that he has a kind soul? that he is incredibly intelligent? that he's a daddy's boy through and through? that he loves all sports? that he's a kick butt big brother? NOPE. it needs to be about what's behind the cheesy smile and decorations.

 - radiate emotion: i don't want to get too mushy, mushy...but ultimately, when i'm gone, i want my layouts to reflect to spencer, coleman, whoever, how much they were loved by me. i want them to know that creating those pages was more than just using pretty papers and fun accents.

3) what is it i most want to accomplish with my passion for scrapbooking?

a creative release that captures memories and tells stories for our family and future generations.

i have no idea when i'm going to get around to completing the layout assignment, but at least i've finally started the class!!

{projects galore}

i love lists and goals and all sorts of motivational goodness. i love projects. i have a natural tendency to over-commit myself. but i honestly don't know if i'd be happy any other way. i had a list of things i wanted to blog about and realized that a lot of them fall under this "projects" category so i thought i'd just do one post to cover them all. these are all things that i'm doing right now or very soon.

{the journey}
if you refer back to my "looking forward" post, you will see that spending more time with my faith is something i'm *striving* to do in 2010. one of the many blogs that i follow is that of the photographer that did our most recent family photo shoot. in addition to her incredible talent as a photographer, i have come to admire her as a young woman, enjoy reading her blog and respect her musings, particularly in regards to her faith. the timing could not have been more perfect when she announced the journey she was starting. she is hosting a daily devotional that will take us through the entire Bible. the journey began this monday.

{pedometer challenge}
at the end of last year, i learned that a local community was sponsoring a pedometer challenge. i have always wanted to wear a pedometer and i thought it'd be a neat thing to do, particularly in the winter when it's a bit harder to stay active (in my opinion). it only cost $5 and that includes the actual pedometer. it started two weeks ago (the first monday of the year) and lasts for 8 weeks. you are to record your steps for at least five of seven days. at the end, there is a health fair and a chance to win door prizes. goals can be set at 6,000 or 8,000 or 10,000 steps per day.

overall, i was surprised how many steps i take on a 'normal' day. supposedly, the average person only takes 3,000 per day. my average is much higher than that, and i have a boring desk job. after two weeks of involvement, my average seems to be in the range of 7300-7400 steps per day. that is with very little "intentional" walking (in other words - walking for the sole purpose of increasing my step count).

though the challenge hasn't really increased my walking for the sake of exercising, it has increased my awareness. i have found that i am more likely to go do something on my lunch hour (shopping, etc) rather than stay in the office at my desk. when the weather is nice, i'm more motivated to walk to pick up coleman from daycare. and i think twice about lounging in front of the tv all night when i could be doing things around the house. basically, i *strive* to take a few extra steps every day.

you will notice that i'm including challenge updates in my weekly recap posts.

{library of memories}
last year, i paid to participate in the library of memories class, taught by stacy julian and big picture scrapbooking. since i paid once, i am now allowed to participate for free as an alumni member. the class begins in early february. implementing this system is a long-term project. i definitely made strides last year while on maternity leave, but after that (and the class) were over...everything kind of came to a halt. i'm looking forward to participating in the class again this year. this relates directly to one of my goals for the year and *striving* to improve my scrapbooking area and work flow. you can see blog posts from last year, related to this topic here.

on a somewhat related note, i also found out about this blog. throughout 2009, the author hosted weekly organizational challenges to get your scrap area in tip-top shape. i hope to use these archived posts to help with my goal as well. the name of the blog is "my love affair with the label maker"...i mean, seriously??? how awesome is that!?!

{middle school committee}
spencer is currently in 5th grade. when he enters middle school next year, he was supposed to be attending a brand new school. however, the opening has been delayed a year. so, his sixth grade year will be spent in one school and then in seventh, he will move on to this brand new one. in the meantime, they are putting together groups of volunteers to assist with things in regards to the new school. and of course, i had to sign up for something. based on a phone call i received yesterday, i'm pretty sure i'm officially part of the "events and activities" committee. our first event is a mascot revealing pep rally next month.

{homeowners' association}
and of course, there is my neighborhood involvement. as of october of last year (and through at least october of this year), i am the vice president of the board of directors for our neighborhood's homeowners' association (about 190 homes). as a board member, i also have to chair a committee and mine is the social/welcoming/communications committee. this is a pretty big commitment, i have come to realize. on the slow side, it's two meetings a month (one board, one committee). however, we have some issues right now and the board is meeting more frequently. we are also the first board since the neighborhood has actually been turned over to the homeowners. we are starting from scratch on all of the communication and social things. i have developed a newsletter and a blog for the community. it's all very exciting! but also very time-consuming.

thankful thursday {6.18}

sorry i'm a day late on this....

(1) buy one, get one for a penny coffee sale at the gas station near work (it might be gross to some, but i've been getting the 2 coffees in the morning and then i save one until afternoon and reheat when i need a pick-me-up).

(2) iphone - anyone that knows me, knows how much i love, love, love my phone.

(3) lady antebellum - i've really enjoyed their last few singles.

(4) swag bucks - this a cool site where you basically get paid to do internet searches. it's a search engine, powered by google, and every now and then a search will give you "swag bucks". you can spend these on products or gift cards. my plan is to save up and get a gift card to somewhere generic like amazon, around the holidays, to help pay for christmas gifts. you can even download a toolbar to make it super easy. highly recommend. click the link on this blog page and i'll even get credit for you joining up :) (PS - I just used the site to search for lady antebellum and i earned a swag buck. see, it works!)

(5) library of memories - the class is over, and i'm so thankful that i took it. i feel like my entire attitude around scrapbooking has changed (for the better). more importantly, the emotional quality of the layouts i create is so much more valuable! if you don't know what i'm talking about and are interested, scroll downo this page and look for the "lom" label for related posts.

layout {s & s}

i completed this layout a couple of weekends ago for a LOM assignment - to use photos from our "people we love" drawer. it is about the relationship between my stepson and the daughter of a friend of ours. i had never really thought about doing a page about the two of them, but when i found the photo that included them many years ago (ages 2 &3, they are now 10 & 11), i was immediately inspired. the two more recent photos were digital files on my computer that i printed, but thanks to tagging & my digital "category drawers", they were a breeze to find and print. lovin' it!!!

layout {missing you} - lom

i created this layout a couple of weekends ago as part of a LOM assignment. we were supposed to make a photo connection from our "people we love" drawer. i chose a few photographs of my uncle and some items from his funeral. then i handwrote about my experience with his passing. this is something i've wanted to scrap for a while. glad LOM inspired me to complete it.

thankful thursday {5.28}

today i am thankful for...

my charm bracelet
which i just picked up from the jeweler where i had 3 new charms added on. yay.

google reader
i can't believe i went so long without knowing this existed. i used to enjoy browsing blogs but never knew how to keep up with them. now, i can easily stay updated on the handful of favorites. i can even easily access them from my phone for on-the-go entertainment :)


new tennis shoes
probably shouldn't be exciting, but i like my new brown tennies :)

american crafts 3-ring fabric albums at michael's
these are the albums i chose to use as my "library albums" for the LOM system. i did so because they were available at hobby lobby and i could therefore get them easily and with a coupon. i was tickled to discover that michael's recently started carrying them as well (even in the right color - dark brown). so, now i have another destination that is easy to access and has coupons!

gac
when i was on maternity leave and when i work from home, gac is almost always on. it serves as great background music/noise when i'm alone. they play more music than cmt and have a better selection than cmt pure (in my opinion). coleman and i enjoy dancing around the den to the music (kelly pickler's newest song, best days of your life, is a favorite of ours).

LOM layout {matt & spencer}

I completed this layout yesterday as an LOM assignment. It felt SO good to do this. First, I went to the "Who's Your Daddy" tab in my Category Drawers. I already knew what pictures I wanted to use of Matt and Spencer. But as I flipped through the photos, I was totally inspired by so many photos of Spencer in Matt's lap over the years (and I actually had a ton more than what is shown here). So, the basis for the layout totally changed.

What I love about this layout, thanks to LOM:
- It was 100% based on what inspired me at the moment
- It's all about the pictures and not product or design
- I was able to get my hands on the photos in a matter of seconds
- The page only took 30 minutes to put together.
- I used random bits & pieces of old embellishments and scraps
- It captures a relationship over the course of several years, not just a single moment in time.

LOM layout {I had no idea}

Yesterday I completed this layout as part of last week's Library of Memories class assignment (create a layout for our "All About Us" album). There are two awesome things about this layout that LOM made possible. First, I was able to easily grab these photos from my storage binders and they were already printed (saving me a substantial amount of time). Secondly, I actually scrapped photos that were only a couple of months old. I would've never done this before because of the guilt attached to all the older photos that haven't been scrapped yet.

The concept for this page has been floating around in my head for the last several weeks. I found that everytime I thought about Coleman, my thoughts began with "I had no idea...". I've had a really hard time finding words to capture how I really feel about my son and motherhood - it's just so beyond words. Listing out these "I had no idea..." thoughts that have been consuming me was the closest I could come. I think if you click on the photo, you should be able to read the journaling, if you're interested.

LOM {categories}

These are the categories I set up for my Category Drawers. I used the same titles for each of the four "drawers" as Stacy Julian (in larger font). Each drawer has larger categories (underlined) and subcategories. Going through the photos a second time really helped opened my eyes to some new category possibilities. I provided explanations in many cases (in italics).

All About Us (immediate family)
To Each His Own
Matt (dad)
Holly (mom)
Spencer (child)
Coleman (child)
Rio (dog)
Cooper (dog)
So Happy Together
All in the Family – all three or four of us
Odd Couple – Matt & Holly
Mama’s Family – Holly with Spencer and/or Coleman
Who’s Your Daddy? – Matt with Spencer and/or Coleman
Brothers - Spencer & Coleman together
Man’s Best Friend – Someone interacting with dogs

People We Love - extended family and friends
Relationships
these are relationships from any generation - it could be myself and a cousin, my mom and her cousin, my son and his cousin, etc.
Cousins
Sisters
Grandparents
Aunts/Uncles
In-Laws
Group Shots
Family
these are set up by last name for the "branch" of family
Cotton
Blackwell
Doty
Bishop
Hutchison
Moore
Pets
Friends are Forever
as more photos are added, I will probably pull out more specific families to have their own tabs
Herrons
Comers
Williams
Family Friends
Spencer’s Friends

Places We Go
No Place Like Home
Mancke Drive - first home as a married couple
Winding Branch Rd - current home
Older Homes - any of our homes from before we were married
Home away from Home - important homes in our lives, but not where we actually lived
In the Yard
Around Town
photos from our current city
Glencairn Gardens
Winthrop
Downtown
Parks
Far and Away
Beach - common vacation spot
Mountains - common vacation spot
Columbia - nearby city we visit frequently
Charleston - nearby city we visit frequently
Georgetown - childhood city

Things We Do
Everyday Life
Music (concerts, etc)
School
Games (video games, board games, yard games, etc)
Food (anything associated with food, eating, cooking, etc)
Wheels (bikes, wagons, motorcycles, cars, etc)
Yard/Flowers (things having to do with the yard, but not activities - that would go into "in the yard" in the previous drawer)
Work
Technology (computers, cell phones, TV, etc)
Sleep
Hobbies
Fishing
Scrapbooking
Horses
Volunteering
Crafts
Sports
Reading
Special Activities
Sporting Events (attending, except Gamecock - see below; if participating it would go under "sports" in the hobbies section)
Gatherings (cookouts, parties, etc)
Festivals
Gamecocks (we are big fans, so lots of related pictures. Gamecock sporting events go here instead of under "sporting events")
Water (pools, boating, ocean, water parks, etc)
Holidays
Christmas
Thanksgiving
Halloween
Easter
St. Patrick’s Day
Birthdays
Seasons
I'm not convinced the color tabs will make sense for me. So, for right now, I'm skipping them.
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter

LOM {Lesson 4}

Still getting caught up on LOM lessons...
Earlier this week I accomplished a pretty large project - Category Drawers. Luckily, I'd already pulled together a good number of photos for them. I did this based on the book, Photo Freedom, prior to starting the class. This past week or so, I worked on the *bubble charts* part of our class, which helped us set up categories. From there, I created dividers for my Category Drawers. My *drawers* are actually just a photo box. Right now, all four categories fit into one box. But, I have plenty of boxes that I can use as my collection grows.
This was a good exercise. I had come up with some "rough draft" categories in the past, but was able to really fine tune them and get a better understanding of what categories made sense for me. I also enjoyed "touching" all of these photos again and moved around a good number of them, as I found categories that were more appropriate. I was making plenty of connections throughout the process (and making notes along the way).






While working on Lesson 4, I actually completed a piece of Lesson 3 that I had skipped - the Photo Connection. Below are two photos of Matt & Spencer in which they are play fighting. The pictures were taken four years apart, in two different houses. It really captures the playfulness of their relationship and how, despite Spencer growing up, some things never change. I look forward to doing a layout of these :)

Also this week, I was able to do something that relates back to Lesson 1 (yeah, I'm slack). Now that I have purchased 4 storage binders, I need something to put in them. I had spent a ton of time paring down photos from 2006 to 2008. I decided to start my printing with 2008. I went back through them, cropping them all to 4x6 and paring some more. Then I uploaded them to Shutterfly. I was shocked at how many I still had - 568 photos!! But I ordered them. They are scheduled to arrive next week. I still need to order the other two years, but am getting over the shock from the one year!

LOM {Lesson 3}

Yesterday and today I got caught up on Lesson 3 of my LOM class. We had worksheets to fill out for the main Category Drawer categories (see photo): All About Us, Things We Do, People We Love, and Places We Go.

We were supposed to pull out 100 photos from our Storage Binders to put in these 4 areas. I am sort of skipping this. When I got the Photo Freedom book, I got a head start on the Category Drawers. Though the photos didn't come from the Storage Binders, I definitely have more than 100 photos in them already. And I'm behind on my Storage Binders, so I couldn't pull more photos right now even if I wanted to.

The last part of the assignment was to make a photo connection from the photos we pulled (and do a layout if we choose). I'm putting this aside with the layout assignment from Lesson 2. I hope to go back and do these, but am more concerned about getting caught up on the lessons right now. (This week is a "break week" which is good!).

LOM {Lessons 1 & 2}

Adding little Coleman to our world, obviously has slowed down my participation in the Library of Memories class. I think I'm 4 weeks behind (but whose counting). Just thought I'd provide an update on where I am and what I have accomplished - even if it's not much :)

Lesson 1:

- We are supposed to print 5 years of photos and put them in storage binders. However, I'm working with digital prints that I haven't yet scrapbooked, so it's only 3+ years (2006, 2007, 2008 and YTD 2009). I have made my way through 2006 and 2007, digitally purging. I'm currently working on 2008 and haven't printed many photos at all yet. I think I've done a pretty good job of paring down photos to scrap.

- I finally ordered some actual storage binders (4 from Costco). My thought is to have one binder for each of the years mentioned...at least to start. We'll see if I'll need more. Stacey's max of 15 binders isn't relevant for me because I simply don't have that many photos to manage.

- I am also working on gettting all photos stored on my EHD and I haven't made as much progress here as I'd like. This lesson will continue to be a work in progress as I try to work on the remaining lessons as well.

Lesson 2:

- I used the supplied sticky notes to go through a few different scrapbooks. I found that "Things We Do" is most definitely my most common type of layout (mainly because I do so many event pages). "Places We Go" and "All About Us" are tied with about the same number of layouts. "People We Love" falls into last place by a large gap. This makes perfect sense and I wasn't very surprised by the findings.

- As for the 5 Ws, I found that I thoroughly cover the What and When on my layouts. Who is covered pretty well, also. Where and Why are the areas lacking. The "where" is usually just a matter of not noting that these photos were taken at our home, or something relatively obvious. To me, the fact that "why" is lacking is much more important.

- I filled out the provided worksheets for this lesson and basically have committed to better capturing the full spirit of my life and my family's, focusing less on the "events" and much more on the important details of who we are and what we do.

- Though I'm trying to follow Stacey's instructions pretty closely, I did opt to skip part of this lesson. She wanted us to create a layout that covers the least covered area and W from our exercise. Since I'm so behind, I'm not doing this.

LOM {Pledge & Clipboard}

As part of the LOM class, we have to sign this 'Scrapstrong' pledge :)

In our class kit, we were sent a plain clipboard. We could alter it if we chose. I've been hanging onto this "organization" themed paper forever and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use it. The round lined die cuts just happened to fit perfectly in the circles of the patterned paper (and I hand wrote quotes on both of them).