Write My Life

I discovered recently how to engage fully into three kinds of scrapbooking: total digital, total paper and a hybrid of the two.

Digital is my newest addition to my scrapbooking repertoire. There are some great advantages to digital scrapbooking: no mess, I can do it anywhere I can take a laptop (including on the coach, on the porch and the jury duty waiting room!), and there are design options that are just not available on paper.

I’ve learned, too, how to do hybrid scrapbooking where I use some digital to get the effect I want, then print it either on paper or a transparency. All that cool digital stuff can be used right on my paper layouts.

Then, I’ve also done some totally paper layouts – and it’s been fun!

I think what has really inspired me is the ability to go back and forth. If I can’t do what I want on paper, I can do it digitally. That frees me and I don’t stress about what I can’t do. If I want to do something lumpy, include a non-digital photo or some memorabilia, I can do it with a paper layout. I can even mix the two! It’s been very fun and inspiring. Here’s a few of my latest creations.

All digital. Spring Hike is based on sketch by Debi Boler, http://www.scrapsupply.com

All paper except journaling.

All paper except journaling.

All digital.

All digital.

(Digital supplies by Katie Pertiet, Anna Aspnes, and Jesse Edwards at http://www.designerdigitals.com except round tag by Kate Teague)

What happened to May? It just seemed to disappear. I think this happens in May often between school events and birthday parties. A look at the calendar will reveal part of the story:

May 1-3: My trip to Pepperdine University Bible lectures in Malibu.

May 4: Mike’s 75 mile supported bike ride.
May 6: School prayer group, groceries and laundry.
May 8: Jury Duty. Thankfully I got excused for being a mom with children in my daily care.
May 9-10: Birthday parties. It was the ultimate weekend for birthday parties with Jackie attending 2 and Jennifer 1. Jackie had to decline on one other party because we just couldn’t swing the logistics. The first was an overnighter, of which I think she got 4-5 hours of sleep.
May 10 evening: Eating out early for Mother’s Day at Outback Steakhouse
May 11: Mother’s Day. Grilling in the backyard with friends. I made carrot cake.
May 12: Finish Scrapjazz article. Brownie Girl Scout meeting to plan and prepare for Camporee.
May 13: Groceries and laundry.
May 14: 3rd grade walking field trip to the San Mateo Historical Museum for a program on immigrants. Pretty hot for a walking field trip.
May 15: 7th grade Renaissance Day, serving and eating at the lunch feast. Brownie Girl Scouts at my house for skit rehearsal.
May 16: I’m sick. I lay around the house and endure the 95+ degree heat.
May 17-18: A little sick but take the Brownie Girl Scouts to Camporee. Stay overnight and leave about 10 a.m. the next morning.
May 19: Sleep all day long to recover!
May 20: School prayer group, groceries and laundry.
May 21: Cook and provide dinner for our church group of about 15. I served BBQ beef sandwiches, Spring Radish Salad, Strawberry Spinach Salad, Cauliflower Gratin and Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheesecake bars.
May 22: North Star Academy dinner and open house. Glad to not be cooking!
May 24-25: Cadette Girl Scout trip kayaking at Elkhorn Slough and staying overnight at the Santa Cruz hostel with Jackie’s troop.
May 25: Mike leaves for Japan. One of Jackie’s friends from church sleeps overnight with us. We eat out at Chili’s restaurant.
May 26: Memorial Day and no school. To entertain the girls, we hit the mall for a few hours then come home and make Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips cookies.
May 27: Our wedding anniversary. Mike isn’t here but I create a digital layout in celebration.
May 28: 3rd grade International feast. I brought Irish Soda bread, which I made for the first time ever the day beforehand. Luckily, Jennifer liked it!
May 28-29: 7th grade San Francisco Zoo overnight trip for Jackie. Jennifer and I enjoy the evening together. She takes a disposable camera, but doesn’t take any pictures!
May 30: Finally, a hike! This is usually a weekly event but it has kinda fallen by the wayside. So we hike Windy Hill for 5 or 6 miles. A good hike but I can tell I haven’t been hiking – I am so tired! Mike returns from Japan. Overnight birthday party for Jackie.

I also sneaked in quite a bit of gardening this month. What I didn’t so is bring the camera along much. Not much of this has been photographed. 🙁

I see all this and wonder how I scrapped so many pages this month! I guess I took advantage of any relaxing times to work on those pages.

The Cadette Girl Scout troop chose to use their cookie earning to go kayaking and to stay overnight in Santa Cruz.

We started Saturday by kayaking in Elkhorn Slough through Kayak Connection. Elkhorn Slough is the largest tidal salt marsh in California outside of San Francisco Bay provides habitat for hundreds of plants and animals, including more than 340 types of birds. Kayak Connection did a great job outfitting us and leading us through a tour (about 2 hours) of the slough.

Jackie and I kayaking together with her in front and me in the rear. These kayaks have foot petals that control a rudder so they are very easy to maneuver. Along the way we saw small jelly fish, harbor seals, sea otters, birds and sea lions. We cruised by a large group of harbor seals laying on the small beach on this overcast day.

One harbor seal was sitting on the bank along one of the thinner side passages of the slough. We got a real good look at him.

At other times we saw sea otters popping up out of the water. One sea otter we saw pretty close and he was resting on his back cracking open some food. We could hear his pounding!

The girls all did really well kayaking. We were wet when it was done, but everyone had a great time – even the girls who were apprehensive at first.

From there we drove to the hostel in Santa Cruz where we had one of the cabins to ourselves. We cooked a taco dinner and did some scrapbooking. Before sunset we walked down to the beach boardwalk, which was only a few blocks from the hostel.

After breakfast the next morning, we packed lunches and headed to Natural Bridges State Beach. The girls played on the beach, exploring and playing games. I am amazed that some of these girls (12-14 years old) still play “pretend” games. It is fun to watch them laughing and using their imaginations!

More typical for their age, we left the beach and went shopping! We walked down main shopping road in Santa Cruz. They stopped at a shoe store, the bookstore (many items purchased here) and the ice cream shop.

19 years…so happy and so blessed…