A few of my favorite things

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Originally uploaded by JScrappy.

Steph from Two Peas posted this challenge in her blog: to take a picture of your favorite thing in your scraproom. I have a few favorite things in this shot: my vintage cups that hold q-tips and cotton balls, the card I made with a picture of my nephew, my niece and nephew's handprints, my altered clipboard, and two of the magazine covers I've had projects on. This is the least messy corner of my scraproom. :p

Cycling

Okay, day three of rain and I'm starting to get grumpy. Actually, I have been feeling that old depressive cycle start up again. It's so funny, when I'm at the top of the cycle I feel so good, being depressed feels like a thing of the past that will never happen again. Then the descent starts and it's, "Oh yeah...this again." The one good thing about it is that I can see now how the cycle works and that the bad feelings will go. All part of my efforts to avoid defining myself by my depression, to see that I am not my feelings, and the things my brain tells me are not always true.

Last night I was feeling sad because I think my days as a published scrapper are over. For a couple of reasons: the magazine calls for submissions have dried up to almost nothing, particularly from the Primedia mags (CK and SS) which incidentally are the only ones that pay reasonably. I checked out Scrap-Submit for the first time in a couple of months last night and there was almost NOTHING, even less than there was the last time I submitted to several calls. (With no luck, incidentally.)

Also, I think my style has remained more-or-less the same, while the scrapping industry's style has moved far, far beyond me. I have a simple mind that thinks of simple things...not a desirable look anymore. I am generally satisfied with my talent--until I see what other people can dream up in their amazingly fertile minds. LOL.

I keep making this decision to get over myself and scrap for my own enjoyment...the problem is that I don't really enjoy it too much anymore. Feels like a chore. Yet I feel like I can't take a break or I will get even further behind and also not be able to keep up with trends lest I decide to jump back in and submit again down the road. Ridiculous!

Ah well, there are far worse problems to have. This is the time to be nice to myself, and take myself in hand to get through the low part of the mood cycle, however long it might last. It's like preparing yourself for a journey and packing the provisions you will need--in this case, a sense of humor and perspective, patience, and kindness/gentleness towards myself.

Now. Let's get this day over with. LOL.

A case of the drizzles

I came in the front door looking like a drowned rat this afternoon--why did I put a mirror in the hallway? It wasn't pretty.

I had my typical "day off" dilemma this morning: "It's my day off! Time to get something done around here!" versus "It's my day off! Time to go do something fun!" I dithered around in my scraproom pushing papers back and forth, and then at 10 decided to give up and do some shopping.

I headed up to Williamsburg via the Colonial Parkway, which is a lovely little tourist road that runs along the York River and then heads into the woods and on up past Colonial Williamburg, on to Jamestown. It's a dismally cold and rainy day here, and the trees were a million shades of lush green, with wet black trunks. Driving that road is one of my favorite things about living here.

I stopped in at Stampin' Memories, which I swore I would never go back to last fall, after one too many trips during which I needed a bathroom and had to walk halfway down the plaza to T.J. Maxx because the store doesn't let customers use their bathroom. But while cleaning out a purse, I noticed I had an almost-full punch card, so I thought it would be worth running up there to finish it off. Besides, I needed some inspiration for the magazine calls that are pending this month.

I didn't do too badly: a couple sheets of new Scenic Route paper, a silver leafing pen (because I ADORE my gold leafing pens--they're from Krylon and they're fantastic), a Hero Arts "dead flower" stamp, some little odds and ends. I can't believe I can be sitting in my scraproom one moment, literally feeling the weight of all my scrap/stamp crap pressing in on me...and then the next minute, be off buying more of said crap. One of my charming little idiosyncracies.

On the way home, I drove through Yorktown in order to check out some of the new shops by the river. Yorktown has spent several months and a pile of money spiffing up its riverfront area, spurred on by some of the flooding and damage that took place during Hurricane Isabel in 2003, and it's all looking pretty charming. There never was much by the river: a small beach, a few restaurants, a motel...but now the beach has been enlarged, a pier/marina has been added, and a cute little brick parking garage with cute little brick shops and a visitor center along the water, in the shadow of the Coleman Bridge across the York River. The new shops are perfectly proportioned for the tiny waterfront area, and nothing competes with the massive bridge, which dominates the scene, as well it should.

I'm excited about the shops because my one spot for buying clever little gifts closed up shop a month or two ago, and I was badly in need of some new sources of fun little luxuries for gifting others as well as myself. I bought the neatest tote bag for my sister's birthday--it's vinyl orange gingham with teal trim, and it converts from a tote bag into a small handbag with the help of a bottom piece and some snaps on the bottom edge. I mean, this thing is CUTE. I guess they featured this line of bags in Country Home last month.

I bought myself some lip gloss...I think the last time I bought lip gloss was in 1986, so I was due. I spent a hell of a lot more this time around than I probably did in 1986, but then, thankfully I have more money now, which isn't hard since I was a broke teen in 1986. This is some nice gloss, vanilla cupcake-flavored, which should make me irresistable to my better half. That's the plan, anyway.

And the bridge was opened while I was down there, to let a ship through from the Cheatham Naval Annex upriver...I stood in the rain and drenched myself to get some pictures, because it's a really cool sight...got home, opened the camera, and--no memory card. These are the moments in life that will eventually drive me crazy, I just know it. Todd thinks he can retrieve the photos somehow, but I am dubious.

So the "day off dilemma" was solved in favor of Fun rather than Work, my shoes and purse are soaked, and I have new toys to try to find a place for. A successful day in my book, and I'm grateful for the luxury of it!

My nephew Angelo during a recent trip to visit us. 

Sing a song of June

I hate it when people have birthdays at the very beginning of the month, because by the time I realize the month has changed, it's way late to send a card. Case in point, my aunt Molly who will be celebrating a milestone birthday tomorrow. The card goes out today because June snuck up on me. As did May, April, March...this whole year is speeding by in record time.

My aunt Molly is one of those gifted people who knows how to make a house a home. When I was 6 or 7 years old, she and my uncle John bought an old brick schoolhouse in the countryside and spent the next 20 years or so remodeling it and making it into a house. But it was always a home, even when there wasn't much money at first to fix all the things that needed to be fixed. There was always room for my siblings and I to have tea parties with our cousins, and books to curl up with and read; there were always photos and knickknacks and treasures appealingly arranged. I have always felt welcome at Molly's house.

And she, along with all of my aunts, always made me feel treasured and valued, too. Molly has such a soft heart for kids and their needs and wants. I love seeing her with my niece Kylie--they have a little song about a squirrel that is their special song to sing together, complete with hand motions. Molly is one of the people who taught me how to be an aunt and how to cherish the little people my siblings have blessed me with.

One of those little people is due to arrive this month, too--another fact that snuck up on me with the month of June. My brother's second child will be making an appearance this month. The other night I dreamed they had a boy (which I am secretly rooting for) and named it Towando Brian Raymond...and a couple other names I can't remember. I was appalled and arguing with them--Towando? Towando? They always keep their baby names a secret until the baby comes, so I guess I was worried deep down that they've chosen something awful for this baby. LOL.

So here's to June...my calendar is full of events and deadlines already and the month has barely begun. And I'm starting off the month sending a belated birthday card...this doesn't bode well, does it?

On kits and messes

I work 25-30 hours a week in a small scrapbook store in Newport News, and on my unexpected day off yesterday, I sat down with a few products I pulled on Sunday to make some more displays for the store. We got in some fun family-themed papers from Flair Designs last week, and those will be fun to play with, but most of my layout and card displays are set up to try to sell product that has been sitting around the store for months. Sometimes people just need to be reminded that this stuff is there and that it can be appealing to use.

But the kit I pulled to use yesterday—oy. We have a whole stack of these things; they’re kits from Deluxe Designs/Two Busy Moms in a variety of themes, and they have just been sitting in the store until I am sick of the sight of them. They are monochromatic kits and contain 6 sheets of double-sided cardstock, tags, a frame, mini tags, mini squares, alphabet stickers, etc. The idea is that you can make up to 6 scrapbook pages with each kit. I pulled the birthday kit to make samples with…it’s done in shades of dark blues. Now, there’s not a thing wrong with these kits, the quality is nice, the designs are bold and graphic, and the tags and sayings and stickers are nicely-designed, but people just don't get what to do with them. And I’m having a hard time jazzing them up. Anyway, here's a sample of what I came up with. (below)

But I am determined that, if I can get a couple of pages and a couple of cards up on the wall, with the kits underneath, so that the customers can see exactly what’s inside these kits and what they can do with them, maybe they’ll buy them and I won’t have to move them around the store anymore. Wish me luck.

On a semi-related note, I am SO SICK of the mess my photos have become. I’ve got film photos in boxes, digital photos on the computer in a million different files, and then my sister and sisters-in-law send me pics of the various kiddies, which I admire and then promptly lose. I know for a fact I have some cute shots of Anna and Evelyn that came in a few months ago, but not a clue where I stuck them. I just recently unearthed some pictures of Tanner and Kylie that my sister sent me a year ago. For five years, I was an organized scrapper—some might even say an anal-retentive scrapper—albums relatively up-to-date, negatives neatly organized, photos neatly filed. Then we moved to Virginia, and I finally embraced digital photography, and life generally got busier and messier, and there went my wonderful organization that I used to pat myself on the back for. And every day I get farther behind. I may have to forget ever producing anything publishable again, and just concentrate on getting the damn things scrapped.

Ugh. Time for some tea and a novel, enough of the scraproom mess for this afternoon.

Sample layout for Deluxe Designs 12x12 Scrapbook Kit 

Airport Shopping

I had to make a brief trip to Wisconsin last week, and I discovered something I hadn’t realized before: airports are fun. Usually when I fly, I am rushing from one end of the airport to the other to catch my connecting flight, but this time both my layovers, coming and going, were a nice pleasant 60-90 minutes: time enough to grab a bite (those three pretzels I was offered on the plane didn’t quite fill me up) and meander to my gate, peeking into stores along the way. It was the most fun part of the trip.

My layover was in Minneapolis on the way out, and I was ridiculously thrilled to be in the state that claims Garrison Keillor, Al Franken, James Lileks, and all those knucklenuts on MST3K. Funny people are always from Minnesota. Or Canada. I didn’t meet any comics at the airport, but the cute, slightly nerdy guy at the Starbucks stand definitely had potential. And oh, the temptation of the Minnesota-themed gift shop! I came *thisclose* to buying a Paul Bunyan shot glass, but resisted somehow. Everything was so exotic—it was from Minnesota!

Coming home, I changed planes in Detroit, which was a real big-city airport, with a soaring ceiling, expensive shops, and lots of groups of people speaking various non-English languages. Coming from the rural American boonies, I’m always slightly startled by this phenomenon—there are languages other than English? (Yes, I know I’m a rube: excited by Minnesota and amazed at hearing Japanese spoken.) I loved the shops—I can’t imagine how people keep from blowing huge chunks of money at airport shops. There’s something so devil-may-care about flying anyway, so why not go all the way and blow out on a $150 backpack? (No, I didn’t, but I came close.)

I managed to restrain myself and only bought a CD at the Motown shop: a double-disc history of the early Motown years, which I can't find in my cursory search at Amazon, or else I'd link it. It has all my faves (My Guy, Shop Around, I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Dancing in the Streets, etc) interspersed with interviews with Berry Gordy and most of the early Motown artists. I've only managed to listen to a couple songs so far, on the way home from work, but it is beautifully mastered and sounds wonderful. If I wreck the car in the next few days, Smokey Robinson will be directly responsible.

Well, that worked...

...now if I can just figure out how to get some pictures up, I'll be set.

It is a beautiful cool night here in VA. My in-laws are here for the weekend, and I can hear spoons clinking against bowls down in the kitchen, which means that DH and his dad are having another helping of strawberry shortcake. I came across some beautiful fresh-picked strawberries at the deli where we ate lunch yesterday...expensive, but so worth it. I baked up a pound cake yesterday afternoon, got some french vanilla ice cream, and deliciousness abounded. Tonight we're eating up the rest of it.

The pound cake is the recipe my mom always used for shortcake, straight from the Betty Crocker cookbook she received as a gift when she and my dad were married in 1969. I found a duplicate at a used bookstore five or six years ago, and it was such a pleasure to look at all the pictures I used to pore over as a child. That cookbook also contains the roll-out sugar cookie recipe that we used for every holiday when I was a child. The pound cake tasted like home.

Loaf O' Gold Cake

2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 c. milk
1/4 c. shortening
1/4 c. softened butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x5x3" loaf pan. Measure all ingredients into a large mixer bowl.Blend 1/2 minute on low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. Bake 65-70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Is this thing on?

My very first blog post...I feel like such a sheep. Who really wants to know what I think, anyway? I guess I'm about to find out.

Janelle 

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