Getting it Done

It is now 1:34 pm on Friday afternoon and I am still in the process of getting it done!  That was my motto for the day.  I was going to achieve great things today - I was going to forgo the sunshine and just get it done.  What exactly was I going to achieve?  Way more than is realistically possible but here is the list:

1.  Start my art journal
2.  Finish my Solelim Layout as promised
3.  Print pictures for a layout
4.  Create a new layout - double page 
5.  Post on my blog - so many ideas!
6.  Read my new book about journaling - how can I just do it - got to know the 'how'!
7.  Work on an album I have to deliver soon
8.  Sit in the sun

So here's what I did:

This is my first attempt at my art journal - don't look too closely!  I feel so silly.  My kids will hate me for this - the sexy is so big! Sorry kids, but what's wrong with me feeling good about myself at the ripe old age of 43 - it took me a long time to be comfortable saying that.  Don't wait so long.  It needs colour desperately, but I didn't think I would want to get so into it.  Now I do!  Dena - help!! It looks like I'll have to take Emily's class (lol).  I want you to know I thought about how this first 'title' page would look all night long! Clearly it's not done yet.  Number 1 - done.   

Here is the layout - I used the new Basic Grey Oliver line and October Afternoon 'thrift shop'. I did borrow the basics of this layout from a layout in Scrapbooks Etc. August issue (page 30).  I'm sure I did something like this myself once - but why copy my own layouts? Oh, and I finally used the Slice that I borrowed from my friend.  It only took me a month. That's how I cut out the title and I did like using it - the my boy part is a sticker.  Number 2 - done.

Couldn't print pictures for my layout because I'm out of ink and at the cottage.  I'm determined to do it because I brought up all the elements.  So, off to Barrie I go! 

Number 3 and 4 - not done.

Number 5 - in progress.    Number 6 - in progress - which is why my journal looks so blah. Number 7 - not even close to doing anything, but the suns not out, so lots of time!  Number 8 - that would be a negative!

So here is Number 10 - get out of my pyjamas and go to Barrie.

The getting it done kind of day....

Shabbat at Solelim

We had a great weekend visiting with our son at  Camp Solelim in Sudbury - yes, you read it right, there is a Jewish camp in Sudbury!  I have so much to write about the weekend that you'll be hearing about it for a couple of posts.  This is our 4th Visitor's Weekend and we have at least two more to go as youngest daughter will be there next summer and the summer after. Oldest daughter may end up being staff there - do you see the pattern?  This was actually my 11th Visitor's day weekend and I have to say - I love it!  It brings back so many fond memories of my summers spent at Solelim as a camper and a counsellor.

My son teaching me some
new moves.

These pictures and the layout I'm working on (but I'm too tired to finish) are a little taste of Friday night traditions.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Cleaning up the camp site, cleaning our tents, showering, dressing up, taking pictures with friends, services on the beach or the rock, chicken soup, roast chicken, challah, shira (singing) and rikud (dancing).  Things have changed so little - the camp site is a lot prettier, the songs and dances are a little different - but the ruach (spirit) is the same and that is what makes it so special. Fourteen and Fifteen year old teens engaged in the spirit of Shabbat (the Sabbath/day of rest), it is so hard to describe the feeling and the closeness - they will remember it and carry it with them forever.  I get so much joy out of watching my children continue the traditions.  The amazing thing about it is that so many of the people that I went to camp with and worked with, or were my counsellors, are there visiting their children too.
As my hubby would say - "It warm the cockles of my heart. And there's nothing like hot cockles!"

Leading Services

The Solelim Shabbat kind of day...

Getting It Together

As promised I have created a layout with the pictures from my Summer Sunset post. I used an adorable paper line that I picked up at Stamping Bella (my favourite place to shop and teach) called, "Sweet Summertime" from Echo Park Paper Co.  I do tend to use papers from the same line when I scrapbook because it's easy and I don't have to think as much.  I 'scrap lifted' (yes, I do!) this one from a layout in the June issue of Scrapbooks Etc. (page 24).  I stepped out of my box and created that flower from the papers which was a technique used in the layout.  I buy the magazines for ideas and new techniques but I so rarely try them.  It's actually a nice effect. One page layouts are also not my forte but sometimes it works. I think it needs ribbon - one of my favourite embellishments. Oh well, I shall self critique no more.

As for the rest of the day....  All was great until I decided that I needed to do some of the filing that I'd been ignoring.  You know the kind of stuff that takes 1 minute if you do it right away but 2 hours when you leave it for like forever. Yes hubby, I do mean 'like' forever!!!!  What was I thinking? I planned to do more layouts.  I think the two martinis I consumed clouded my judgement.

I went from doing this...

to dealing with this.

The sad thing is, I didn't even finish.  The rest is neatly piled in an 'in box' for when my son comes home from camp. I just couldn't deal with having to find new homes for some things.  I did clear some piles on my floor and in the space that usually holds my paper! The joke is that when I'm not scrapping, blogging or chauffeuring children around, my part time job is an administrator! 

The organizing kind of day...

Summer Sunsets

I have been playing with the technical aspects of this blog thing and I'm frustrated so I decided to take a break and just add a post! Much easier!! 

There is something about a summer sunset that makes us all feel good.  I wasn't so keen but my hubby persuaded me to go for a ride in our little putt putt boat and take it in.  It's not the sunset, it's the boat - it's small and leaks and for some reason it makes me nervous.  It was the first sunset of the summer that I actually observed and it was the perfect way to end a gorgeous hot day by the lake.  I hope this will be the summer of lots of sunrises and sunsets, unlike last summer which was the summer of rainbows.  I do have a layout of that - I'll try to remember to photograph and post that one.  

This will end up being a layout some day soon, but I was too tired and lazy tonight to do anything! 

the lazy kind of day....

It's official, I'm a blogger(I hope that's the right term)! I've been contemplating this for months and I finally got up the nerve to "just do it" as they say in Nike-land. A little rain at the cottage helped push me to get started. I'm excited and I have a whole host of topics I want to explore.

First of all the name for my blog, which was the main reason I did nothing for so long, the stress of being clever and creative and finding something that no one has used was paralyzing. But it's done, and now the next obstacle - can I be clever and creative like so many of you out there? Invariably, that remains to be seen - I will let you be the judge.

How I came up with my name? I am a CTV late night news watcher and an admirer of Lloyd Robertson, who is retiring shortly and I love the way he signs off every news cast "and that's the kind of day it's been, this......" I wanted something that I could end each posting with and I wanted something that didn't pigeon hole me as a mom and a scrapbooker in spite of the fact that this is what I am. Not that I'm not proud of both, but I wanted to appeal to a wide range of followers. So I didn't want to choose anything cutesy or artsy. In the end of course - you will mostly find me blogging about my family and my scrapbooking, but it's really about life in general. The good, the bad and the ugly (cue the whistling, as per hubby's directive) - now that would have been a great name!! Although I'm sure it's taken.

Ok, here's my other fear - verbal diarrhea! I'm going to end this post here and go figure out what pictures I want to post, layouts, etc. before I send out any official announcement. So for those who may be among my first followers - be gentle! I'm so green and we of the Sesame Street generation know "it's not easy being green".

The kind of day...