All About Me – the book!

Because having a blog isn’t narcissistic enough.

I am a digital scrapbooker. I’ve been doing it for 4 years now and have over those years been active on a number of boards and done a great many challenges.  Mostly I scrap my kids but sometimes the challenges are to scrap something about you.  Recently we had a discussion on one of the forms about Scrapbook Fantasies Book of Me blog. She gives you prompts all year & you end up with I think around 35-40 prompts and 60 pages. 

I’ve been thinking about doing some sort of album of me for a month or so now. Maybe a collection of scrapbook pages about me or maybe an All About Me Project 365 next year.

Me me me me me me ME!!!!

Sorry, just had to get that out. Now back to…um..me.

I am self-centered enough to want an entire book about me but I am realistic enough to know that if I went with a photo project probably by mid February I will have run out off interesting ideas and be taking pictures of my toothbrush and sock drawer. Which I could assemble in a photo book with little post ironic snarky zeitgeist comments, or not because I am not entirely certain what I just said actually means. I can certainly see the humor in myself & am not above self mockery but I don’t think I can manage 365 photos of it.

I spent a few days going through old challenge notes and visiting forums and blogs and have assembled about 75 prompts for a Book About Me. Not that I will use all of them but it’s nice to have a list to work from.

Then I went though all my layouts (643 to be exact) and found about 60 that were about me. There is a lot of overlap on topics. For instance I have 4 layouts about my home and 5 about my childhood and 3 about crochet and an embarrassing number about my electronics. About half of the layouts are bad from a design standpoint. The scale of the elements is off, the shadows are either huge or non-existent, bad recolorization, bad photo adjustment, hideous color choices etc. But I saved the layered .psd (or .psp) files so I can fix them or at least have a base to rework them.  I’ll weed through them & remove the duplications (I have 3 that feature my mp3 player) and then sort out what prompts I still want to do and that will be my project for next year.

I’m also going to do another 365 Photo project in 2010 but I need a topic.  I did the boys play in 2008 and that came together nicely. This year has been topic free, more random & I find it harder to do. It’s not looking as cohesive. I think I work better with guidelines. I’m looking for ideas now.  Any theme suggestions?

I’m leaning toward monthly photos of the same things, with some other general topic mixed in. I’m thinking of every month having an individual photo of everyone, a photo of some outdoor feature to be determined (like the maple), a photo of some indoor feature (like the sink full of dishes or a pile of laundry) and a photo of my book stack. That is 7 out of approx 30 photos a month.  What other things can you think of that change yet stay the same over a period of time? I’d like about 10 things that regularly appear and the other 20 or so will be on a general topic.

Go Mountaineers!

I went to college at WVU. We have a history of being able to play 3 excellent quarters of football and one not so good one.

And of winning nearly the whole season and being trounced in bowl games.

So far we’re 2-0 this year.

quick and quirky questions:

1. Do you wash your own car or do you go to a car wash?

Car wash

2. Are you wearing socks right now?

no

3. Where were you 3 hours ago?

paking lunch for the boys

4. Do you have laundry waiting to be done?

haven’t checked yet but probably

5. Can you pick objects up with your toes?

yes I can

Exercise

I bought myself 10 personal trainer sessions for my birthday. At the end of them I had lost 6lbs and an inch at my waist. I had gained inches elsewhere which are muscle.  I have toned & firmed up a good deal. I plan on continuing to visit the gym 3 days a week and do the 30 Day Shred at home at least 1-2 days as well.

My big need is to lose weight and exercise is not going to do that at this point. I need to eat less. So my focus for this month is on my diet, cutting back portions and swapping fatty snacks for fruits & veggies.

Music to craft by

I listen to my Zen when I crochet or digi scrap. What I listen to depends on what I am doing. 

Digi scrapping requires music, generally 80’s pop with random punk thrown in. Occasionally I go for a Celtic theme, listening to Clannad, U2, Celtic Women and Flogging Molly

Crochet needs an audiobook to keep me mentally occupied. I prefer historic mysteries by Anne Perry, Kerry Greenwood, Ellis Peters and Roberta Gellis

Aunt Becky doesn't quite visit

Aunt Becky, my BFF, who I would totally love to hang with in person, was unable to come visit in person but she sent her cards instead. Which if you love Aunt Becky like I do, is almost good enough. After all - Aunty Becky herself actually *touched* these cards!

Look Aunty Becky’s card has arrived!

These guys are thrilled to get their picture taken with her

They immediately rush off to entertain her. Many muffins were eaten

And much wine was drunk

They thought about going swimming but Aunt Becky’s card thought the water was a little too Jurassic green

The kittens gave Aunt Becky’s card a much more mixed reception

Some were interested. “Will it give me lovins?”

Some were aloof. “I’m not even going to look at it.”

Some were downright hostile. “Cards! bah! I eats cards!”

Smoke though, was very welcoming. “Come lay down with me Aunt Becky’s card

We can read a book together

Everyone else was so happy to see Aunt Becky’s card that they held a parade

And that was Aunt Becky’s cards lively visit.

Favorite zoo animal

My favorite zoon animals are the elephants and giraffes.  They are so huge!

My favorite animal

Favorite living animals would be kittens. We have 5. 2 indoor, 2 indoor/outdoor and one outdoor.  I like them because they are low maintenance & independent. They come when they feel like it, leave when they feel like it & don’t expect much but occasional petting & food. An a warm place to lay.

No longer living would be dinosaurs. I am up to my knees in plastic dinos. I like them because they general stay where they are put & don’t bother me much.

Happy Birthday George Lucas

Thank you for your intergalactic epic and thank you for introducing me to this guy

The object of my affection since 1977. 32 years later I still get that giggly little girl feeling when I see him.

It’s a bit more of a grown up feeling when I see Indiana Jones.

Thank you for him too

My boys love the Star Wars & Indiana Jones sagas. They love the Lego Star Wars game. Mayhem is so obsessed with it, we had to enforce a game play time limit because he was getting up at 5am to play it.

He is currently watching Return of the Jedi as I type this.

George, you have brought a lot of happiness & imagination to my life. Thank you and Happy Birthday!

I did the blogthings Star Wars name & title & this is my result

Your Star Wars Name Is Stacr Hiwhe

Your Star Wars Title Is Drocho of Mehyam

What Is Your Star Wars Name and Title?

FOBTY

You Are Blooming Flowers

You are an optimistic person by nature. In even the darkest times, you are hopeful about the future. You feel truly blessed in life and can sometimes be overwhelmed with emotions. You have an artist's eye. You are always looking for beauty in the mundane. You have a good sense of aesthetics, especially when it comes to shapes and color.

What Part of Spring Are You?

Just can’t let go

I like going out to eat. We’ve had to cut back on it of course but we still manage to go out a couple times a month. Though instead of the Japanese steak house we go to Buffalo Wild Wild on ‘kids eat for 99 cents’ night

easter candy

You Are a Cadbury Creme Egg

You're the type that stole little brother's easter basket so that you could have MORE CANDY!

What Easter Candy Are You?

TV shows I have loved

The question this time on the Sweet Shoppe blog is to list 5 shows you have seen every episode of.

I am spoiled for choice if I reach back into the mists of my childhood

1. M*A*S*H

2. Little House on the Prairie

3. Star Trek

then coming into the 90s

4. Babylon 5

5. The Next Generation

6. Voyager

then more recently

7. Star Trek Enterprise

8. Firefly

9. Eureka

10. Rome

Ok, so that is 10. There are more but I’ll stop here

what’s the word

Your Word is "Fearless"

You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary.

What's Your Word?

no. not one bit is this my word.

Sweet Birthdays

SSD is having a birthday party & they want us to tell them how we celebrate ours.

In may family now, a birthday is YOUR day. You get to call the shots, within reason. Obviously you have to go to school & do your homework, should the birthday fall on a weekday and I’m not driving you 3 hours to the Air & Space museum on your last minute whim (though you can choose to plan that ahead of time). You get to pick the meals & the activites you want to do. The TV is yours to control. If you want a party we’ll have a party. If you want to go out to eat, we’ll do that. If you want to spend the day playing Wii Lego Star Wars & eating chips, fine. It’s all about you today.

This is a reaction to my own birthday celebrations as a kid. My birthday was in summer, during baseball season and baseball was a religion in my house. NOTHING was more important than freaking little league. So if my brother had a game on my birthday, the birthday celebration was moved to another day and I resented the hell out of it. I have one birthday a year. He has a couple dozen games. Seriously would missing one matter that much?

So I make it all about my kids on their birthday and DH makes it about me on mine.  DH’s birthday is Dec 31st, making it all about him in the face of New Year’s Eve is a bit of a challenge but we try.