Life...As I See It

From a friend

Ready to blog a few fun links and misc rambling until a friend sent me this...

MAYA ANGELOU'S

BEST POEM EVER

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
enough
money within her control to move out
and rent a place of  her own,
even if she never wants to or needs to...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
something
perfect to wear if the employer,
or date of her dreams
wants to see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD
HAVE ...
a youth she's content to leave behind....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a past juicy
enough that she's looking forward to
retelling it in her
old age....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
one friend who
always makes her laugh.. and one who lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a good piece
of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her
family...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
eight
matching plates, wine glasses with stems,
and a recipe for
a meal,
that will make her guests feel honored...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE...
a feeling of
control over her destiny..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD
KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to quit
a job,
break up with a lover,
and confront a friend
without;
ruining the friendship...

EVERY WOMAN
SHOULD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK
AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves,
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her
childhood may not have been perfect...but it's over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she
would and wouldn't do for love or more...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW....
how to live
alone... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY
WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to
go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table..
or a
charming Inn in the woods....
when her soul needs
soothing....

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
What she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a
month...and a year...

What I've been up to since it obviously isn't blogging.

• cheer...Alyssa is loving it!
• Science camp...Alec is loving it!
• running...training for my next 10 K in Aug and marathon in Sept.
• photography...going back over some of the 2Ps 12 Week photography class
• Photoshop...learning a lot from Pioneer Woman.
• oh and then there is the interviewing. I've had one since the bad bad day and I'm happy to report that I rocked! LOL Not sure if I got the job. Of course it would be nice to get the job but as I was leaving getting the job wasn't foremost on my mind. It was how well I did. Thank you to everyone for their kind emails and words fo encouragement.
• making plans for my niece to come visit in July.
• and today I'm back in scrapping mode! Kind of lost my mojo for a while and even considered giving it up all together. NOT! What was I thinking?!?!
• reading and more reading...more urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Waiting for Escape to come out in paperback. Wanting to buy the 2 newest James Patterson Women's Murder Club books.
• typical summer stuff...grilling, pool time, staying up late!
• Movies...I recently realized what a great selection of DVDs are available at the library. New titles and old favorites too. Very cool and the best part is they're free! I would be remiss if I didn't mention PS I Love You . Did anyone else cry through practically the whole movie?!?!
• and last but not least Project 365. Still going strong! Now if I could just get them posted to my blog on a more regular basis.

that's about how life looks for me right now :)

coming up a few really cool sites I've recently discovered, photos and fun scrapping stuff!

video worth sharing.

Finding Joy

laugh hysterically or cry?

I'm back to blogging after a week of...I don't even know how to describe this week. That can't be a good thing.

I had my first interview on Tues. A little nervous but nothing out of the ordinary. The morning not going as smooth as I like. A little off kilter. Something isn't quite right but I' not sure what. So, fast forward. Bad hair day and I'm not happy with what I decided to wear. It matters in an interview! I can do this. I can pull it all together. Check the weather. Chance of rain tonight. For now blue skies with a few fluffy white clouds. Cool. No rain until later.

I left in plenty of time or so I thought. Unbelievable traffic due to the never ending road work that appears to be an epidemic in Cincinnati. So that extra time I gave myself is not more. I'm fine. I'm almost there. Then I notice the blue skies and white clouds are not more. It's gray and getting darker. No problem. I'm almost there and have time to get to my interview before the rain starts. NOT! I pull into the parking lot and I kid you not as soon as I put my hand on the door to open it a torrential rain fall started. I parked close to the entrance. Do I make a run for it or do I get my umbrella out of the trunk? On the verge of tears at this point. Considering how close I am to the entrance I decided to make a run for it. Step out of the car and it was like someone dumped a huge bucket of water on me. My shoes are soaked. The bad hair day becomes a moot point. Wet clothes not great with a white shirt. This is where the laugh hysterically or cry question comes to mind. I felt like I was frozen in that moment. Not going inside and not going back to the car. Just giving up. Then...oh it gets better. I look down at my shirt to see that my file folder bled all over my wet white shirt. A deep shade of burgundy. I never was one for the tie dyed look. No freakin' way! Where did this rain come from anyway? Out of nowhere in a matter of minutes.

So, I go in for my interview and totally bombed it. I was at my wits end at this point and wished I could have rescheduled. You know that saying about an elephant in the room (at least I think it's an elephant). Don't pretend like it's not there. Just address it and move on. I was so uncomfortable sitting there. I wanted to talk about  my elephant of being drenched, burgundy and unable to compost a coherent thought. The elephant never came up. When was this nightmare going to end? It was all so surreal by now.

I didn't get the job...big shocker there! I'm still not where I can laugh at the whole thing but I no longer want to cry about it either. That's progress...right?

My next interview is in a few weeks :)

Ever start creating a layout with a plan mind only to have it turn out totally different than you planned? That was this layout. Watching You Grow. Gradually. Slowly but surely. Almost all of my planned ideas for this layout were replaced by spontaneous ideas that were inspired simply by using my stash. I must admit spontaneous is not something I do often but I'm happy with the way this turned out.

Journaling: Seeing the changes. Personality. Likes. Dislikes. Priorities. Independence. From pink to anything but pink. From Chicken Little to High School Musical. From Barney to Hannah Montana. From Goodnight Moon to A Series of Unfortunate Events. From favorite dresses to favorite jeans. One of my favorite things about being a mom.

  

A few photos from Project 365

Yummy time of year

No TV (on Tues and Thurs)

PS is like running, scrapbooking, and practically anything online...I can easily spend hours doing it and totally lose any concept of time.

Thank to a super user friendly tutorial at One Little Word on how to create photo strips. So cool and great for multiphoto layouts.

Playing with photo strips...

 

Now just print and trim! I'm sure you'll be seeing these on few layouts :)

I've been scrapping the past week! Weird how sometimes creating just comes together almost effortlessly. 

One of my favorite layouts

       

a few details

 

 

 

Still adding to Alyssa's birthday mini

  

Plans for today

• I have a few more layouts planned and product out. Ready to create.
• Completed layouts into albums.
• Order April and Project 365 photos.
• Decide what I want to use to create a Marathon album. Keeping it simple.
• Go to Archivers to pick up the 7 Gypsies ATC punch I ordered. Finally!

Typepad Question

If you use Typepad blogging what specs do use to post an image? Size? px? And with the new Typepad posting options how do you post an image so that it scales to the size of the column? Can that be done?

Wonderful childhood memories! Hours at the rollerskating rink!

Last weekend Alyssa's new cheerleading squad hosted a Meet the Team at a rollerskating rink. I begrudgingly agreed to go thinking there were so many other things I'd rather be doing. Little did I know. First, I was kicking myself for not taking socks so I could skate. I went not particularly interested in skating and I have this thing about wearing something that has been on other people's feet. Like bowling shoes and skates. As soon as I got there I regretted my decision not to skate. Rinks have not changed one bit. From the disco ball

To the DJ booth

and even the images on the walls. It was all reminiscent of childhood.

3 hours later we decided that summer break will include skating and that mom and dad will bring socks!

Inspiration!

No more little idea piles to flip through. Folders don't work for me. Needs to be in view. Rotate new ideas. So, I want to add an inspiration board to our studio. A few "flickr" ideas

1. Inspiration Board, 2. Scott's Inspiration Board + Watercolors, 3. Inspiration Wire(s), 4. inspiration wire, 5. painted the inspiration board black, 6. desk vignette, 7. inspiration board, 8. mood board 1, 9. ikeapimp 009, 10. inspiration update, 11. inspiration strip in workroom, 12. inspiration, 13. Inspiration board, 14. Inspiration Board, 15. inspirations, by my desk, and baskets of work., 16. Inspiration Board in my Studio

Shapes. Size. Walls. Wire. Colors. Cork. Magnetic. Framed. So many fun ideas to add to my own. It was cool to see the different things that inspire people. Inspiration for scrapbooking, photography, crocheting, embroidery, sewing..... 

a few changes

When I planned, organized, decided on storage, and added personal "this is our space" touches for our new studio I kept in the back of my mind that a few things might be temporary but I just couldn't be sure. I needed time and creating to see what works, what doesn't work, what I love about and what I want to add be to feel like this is it. This works for sharing a space with my dd and this works for how I create.

First change. I decided I want very little on my work space. When working on a project or layout I spread out in a major way. I want to take advantage of the size of my desk as one big work space.

That brings me to my MM carousel. I changed what is stored in here based on what I almost always need within arms reach other than tools and adhesive. They're both stored on each side of my desk in baskets (again with the easy access).

I wanted easy access to:

ATC supplies. Keeping with the idea that my Rotating Memories project is quick and easy.

Easy access to scissors. Can't scrap without them.

MM's tiny alphas. Used frequently.

 

Tags. A variety of tags. Using them a lot for mini albums.

And lastly my BG file set, favorite clear stamps (all of which are words and short phrases) and a stapler.

With the plan to clear my work space I needed an open and in view to use storage. That would be the Expedit book shelf! 

This thing seriously holds a ton of stuff! Giving me in view to use storage for things that have in the past been stored in drawers and subsequently not used.

Brads, eyelets, photo turns, favorite MM embellishments, tins for often used chipboard shapes...

Flowers. Definitely need to start using these more often.

Chipboard alpha sets.

 

A few personal touches.

And photos boxes!

Another change. Clear stamp storage. I needed a place that my daughter could easily reach.

Which also provided a new not-on-my-desk home for my Rotating Memories.

 

A little bit of planning and time. Happy with the changes that make it work :)