She Scraps for Sanity?

Since the first of the year we have had all kinds of struggles to say the least. Multiple Sclerosis is that ugly little critter we keep hidden in the basement. WE KNOW it is there and can raise its ugly mischievous head at any time. Because of it, Viruses and such are so much easier to just knock me down sadly. I had done SO good. 2013 had been a GREAT year. 2014 started out EHHH kinda yuck. Some wicked stomach bug attacked me like kryptonite to superman. IT WOULD NOT LET GO. THEN because of the fever and Viral infection (Cue psycho music) out came shingles. NO I wasn’t upset about stuff. well some stuff, it was mainly the infection that caused it. SO I have been in my house back like the old days since January. A good reminder of how things were.

NO Driving No gym (can do a little at home but mostly stretching blah) … No going out into the world hanging out with friends… No church activities.. NO CHURCH much. I did get to go one Sunday before she shingles started then wham… out again. I do listen to it online but it just is not the same as getting to participate. I love our church so much. I had been feeling like A NORMAL person again. Like before. How quick the lord can remind us that we need to be ourselves and not try to be something we are not! And we all definitely know I AM FAR from normal.
HEY… I heard all the AMEN’S. YOU DID not have to agree so quickly to that! <grin>

SO what exactly have I been doing? I knew you all were sitting on the edge of your chair just wondering and just pacing the floor in angst waiting to find out. WHAT has Nancy BEEN DOING.

I have been scrapbooking.. yeah I know.
I have been doing the 2012 photos of our Disney trip which have really been bringing back good and also some sad memories. Most are wonderful but also make me miss Ma.
I have laughed so much but also shed so many tears. I have sooooo many photos to scrap.
I have joined a challenge group for February called L.O.A.D. (layout a day)
Where you do a challenge layout a day. I have done this before and it is soo fun. I have really been getting things done. I have 22 ish pages done so far. (some of them I did BEFORE I started this challenge group)
I wanted to share some of them with you. (I KNOW you cannot wait)  

These are phone photos so … (hey I have had shingles be nice!)

 

(I did these before LOAD)

The silver circle things… those are wishes that Fairy Godmother gave us.

This was from a sketch I found on pinterest

first page in our Disney album

 

another sketch

photo of this layout didnt turn out so great (night time in my kitchen)

Bella didn’t like this page.. she said it was boring.. and that I COULD DO BETTER. ha I will remember that dear child.

Whispering Canyon (our favorite place to eat)

Photos out and about around Wilderness Lodge where we Stayed. 

I have since I am feeling better, but still couldn’t quite get out yet, have started cleaning out, organizing, donating, and rearranging in my crafts and art space. I found lots of pages I made from when Bella was a baby.

I have learned some important things.

1. USE GOOD ADHESIVE. When I started I used glue sticks and whatever adhesive was cheapest. Those pages are now falling apart, missing letters, and I am now reattaching things and missing things off of them that I cannot find.

2. EVEN THOUGH alphabet letters have adhesive on the back of them.. GLUE THEM DOWN ANYWAY. Especially things like self adhesive chipboard letters or embellishments. I have so many that are missing that there is no way I can match them again. Some of these are 8 and 9 years old. I will just photo them and pray someone has hoarded the few letters I need and pray they will share. MOST scrappers are nice that way 🙂

3. KEEP YOUR FINISHED PAGES IN SCRAPBOOKS WITH PAGE PROTECTORS (that way if the embellies fall off you have a good chance they will fall off into the page protector!!) although I did on some of these but they were put back upside down and fell out of the page protectors…sigh.

4. KEEP RELIABLE glue and or adhesive YOU KNOW  is reliable and dries quickly at hand so when you look through your albums. You can make quick repairs. DO NOT put it off till later. YOU WILL FORGET and then the letters will be lost. (yeah it happened)

5. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ALBUMS for your pages at least put them in page protectors and put them in a safe place. I found a STACK of layouts (yes at least 20) that were a couple years old in a shelf. just stacked up there.  YA NOT GOOD. buttons had come off the edges were bent up. I was NOT happy. 

I AM SURE there are many more tips you all have learned that you could add to this. FEEL FREE to add them in the comments. Things you have learned over you’re years of scrapbooking. Care wear and tear of pages, mini albums etc.  I welcome your advice. 

I am sure we have some new crafters or even those that have been doing it a while that may learn something. 

 

 

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Photo a day 2 oh ya and 3

Ya ok so Im doin a 2 fer Yesterday was kinda wild so Im getting yesterday and today up today. I am just happy I am doing it! I was VERY ill during L.o.a.d. and I was able to do 1 page. BUT I am so proud of that ONE page.

Ya the photo was kinda crooked. The layout is straight. HEY I HAD SHINGLES all around up on my head and ears I was doing good to take a picture of the layout better yet scrap anything! I didn’t post it in the gallery though. Kinda embarrassed because I only got to do ONE page for L.O.A.D.

WHICH BRINGS ME THOUGH… to todays PHOTO OF well yesterday <blush> yayaya

I KNOW yesttterday but whatever. The topic was FRUIT. (was gonna take a picture of my neighbor but thought nah saving that for one of the other subjects) SO, I decided to do a PLAY ON WORDS errr Pictures.
See if you can Figure it out.

Should be pretty easy for you to get….
Our topic for today is :
OUR NEIGHBOR HOOD…
The light I really wanted was yesterday afternoon. It was so pretty but it was also VERY windy. I didn’t get the photos I wanted then.
I think I did capture a little of what I think is quaint  about our neighborhood without having to wander off.

Mobile is the AZALEA capital of the south.
Our neighborhood comes alive bursting with color it seems like down here we have the greenest grass, the prettiest trees, the flowers bloom huge,  I can’t explain it. it isn’t like it was back home.
Everything is just… pretty.
flowers all over the place. stuff blooming all the time. maybe its the tropical air. (Don’t get me wrong there are things about back home that are beautiful too!! Different beautiful)

One of the things that makes me smile. I see this when I look out my window in the kitchen. Mr. Dupont. He is in his 90’s LOVELY man. Love him so. In his electric wheel chair going to check his mail admiring the beauitful scenery of our neighborhood, calling for the kitties (yes our ferocious beasts)  waving to the girrrl (me or my daughter or diane  any of us that may be outside loooking to see that he makes it back ok) Love that man!
They have the most gorgeous back yard. David and Diane took some GORGEOUS photos of Bella when she was around 3 in their backyard. The most gorgeous photos I have ever seen. I will have to link you to their website. They are amazing photographers here in Mobile. (I am blessed to call them our neighbors)

This is our backyard. See how biggg those azaleas are. Now I did kinda cheat on this a little. I took these photos yesterday. I was afraid the storm was going to take the blooms off. I wanted you all to see how beautiful they were already. They have been lit up since Feb. So early this year. Amazing. That is Fraidy Cat down there chillin. They love to run and play up under all those. They jump out at each other and up into that dog wood tree. They run up into Bella’s play house and across to the shed. It is such a fun time to sit and just watch them run and play and chase each other. Don’t walk by though or you might get got! (by a kitty)

I wanted to go down to the other end and take a photo coming back the other direction. It is much prettier. You get the idea though. We have rolling hills, coming back the other direction you can see going up the hill the flowers blooming better. Maybe this afternoon. The light will be better. Things are blooming so it is so pretty. I want to take a picture of the entrance. Oh my it is so  pretty with all the azaleas. They have worked soooo hard on it. The temperature has really dropped. We were 80 degrees yesterday, now it is 56, Can really feel it. But I am not going to complain at all. it was as if God put his arms around us and every thing went up.  Our thoughts and prayers remain with everyone. This has been horrific. We continue to pray for them weather is so scary and I DO RESPECT the weather.

So did you figure out the photo??
When life gives you lemons… make…. well Lemonade or whatever you wanna make.
Ya kinda corny but I had some lemons and I had fruity pebbles so those were my choices.
🙂
Hope you have a blessed Saturday. (both of you that read my blog haha)

ps what do you think of the white background? dunno what happened but the green got lost but Im kinda diggin it. thoughts?