Seanna (n. shaw-nuh)

LOAD: May 15th through May 20th

Oops!  Guess I got a little behind posting these.  I’ve been faithfully completing a layout every day, though!

I really sorta dug the colors on this one.  I loved the photos but at 4x6 they were not going to be appreciated.  Cutting them down to a uniform size really emphasized them.  This is one of those rare layouts that I didn’t give a title to—although I guess the “Oh happy day” could sorta serve as a title. 

The prompt for this one was about simplicity, I think.  Another one where I loved the photos but some of the water photos were too big at 4x6.  That boat is one of the more picturesque things I’ve photographed in a while, though, yes?  Really cool.  And I ended up getting such a good shot of that lighthouse (not this shot) that I had it blown up to an 8x10 and am going to frame it.  I liked that these were sunset photos without the traditional sunset colors. The journaling is in that little pocket.

Continuing on the small-photo trend—I think this is a recent favorite.  I liked the circle (you’re going to see that again real soon…).  Poor little Paige was so broken that she had to stay in the hospital overnight.  It turned into a party room with pizza and soda and lots of family/friends visiting.  She remembers basically none of it, I believe.  I had to salvage this layout because the kraft paper I used was faded around the edges from being in the sunlight in my old studio, so after I was done and I realized it was more noticeable than I had thought, I made a quick mask of an old piece of cardboard and sprayed the layout with the blue glimmer mist you see on the borders.   I think it turned out pretty cool!

These are older photos, from 2005, and I believe before digital—what a difference.  Much better photos coming out of my camera these days.  Despite that, I love the cake photo even with its too-dark and shadows.  The prompt was again to be very simple with the embellishments, and I think this was pretty basic.  I love the photo of Victor and Beth laughing in the background!

I’m going back to my favorite kraft background, huh?  I see a trend!  Another set of photos that I LOVE.  Those condos on the hill just kill me—so picturesque.  This was before the ski lesson at Sol Vista.  Also, you can see little packages to the right of the layout—I got a “mystery box” in the mail from Sassafras FULL of stuff.  I mean, that thing was packed.  Other than the kraft cardstock, that’s what I used for this layout. I love the alphabets!  You’re going to be seeing more of those…

In fact, here’s more of the alphabets right now!  More old photos—these are from 2002, I think.  Not great, but so so funny.  After I took the photo, I switched out the positions of the big button flower and the one on the top left and I think it looks better.  The children pictured in the photos enjoyed this layout and so did their dad.  The photo on the bottom right where you can see the “Joe” on both of their hats cracks me up.

So there we have it. I have a layout in mind for today, and it’s a putter around the studio day, plus a “put in some overtime” day.  I can live with that!

Life With the Neighbors: Here’s a small visual for you…

So, I’m not to the part in the story yet where we put up our own fence, but when my daughter went to Florida recently, I had asked her to take some photos.  I didn’t specifically ask her to get a shot of this, but I sure am glad she did.  It speaks to where the story has been and where it is going.  I give you:  The Fences and No-Man’s Land:

Don’t you love the old worn-out “Posted: No trespassing” sign?  And look, there is a “Bad Dog” sign.  Oh yes. That’s coming, too.  At one point, the fence on the right (the one on the right is Darryl’s fence that he made all by himself) was higher along the part that spans the length between our properties from front to back.  I guess somebody made him take it down because it was illegal.  Me, I sorta liked it.  Less Darryl, less Wanda, less headache.  The no-man’s land in between the fences actually belongs to the house on the left, our former house.  We elected to sacrifice a little of the backyard so that if they were touching our fence, they were trespassing.  Oh, such good times. 

LOAD: May 13th and 14th

I would say this first one took me about three times longer to do than the second one, for some reason.  Also, I cleaned up my desk, which means we might be saying a temporary farewell to some of the things I’ve been using on the past 5 or 10 layouts.  Or we might not.  When something is working, I tend to stick with it. 

The pile of college stuff in my dining room vs. the pile of college stuff all set up in a freshman dorm.

I’ve shared that photo on my blog before, I think.  Books!  Happy, fun books.  Yay!  P.S. They were all pretty decent except for one, which was basically phoned in and tolerable.  I can’t remember which one for sure, though.  I think Critical Conditions, maybe?  Anyway, who cares?  Books!  Happy!  Fun!!

LOAD May 11th and 12th

TERRIBLE photo.  Layout is much prettier in real life!  Look at that carpet.  Wow, that could make you dizzy after a few drinks.  I keep grabbing cruise photos, seems like.  Mostly that’s just because that’s the storage binder that is closest, but they are also EASY photos to scrapbook.  Great colors, great scenery, what’s not to love, right? The prompt for this day was to do a black & white layout. 

Can you see that I took the photo while the glue on the letters was not quite dry yet?  GO ME!  I love these pocket pages—quick and easy to pull a layout together, and really very practical, too.  I am trying to spread them out amongst the different “eras” of photos.  For this one, I found some of the memorabilia from our cruise, so I tucked it in there, put a random photo of the ship on the front and added a little journaling and some embellishments and called it done.  The memorabilia was one of the daily “capers'” or itineraries of all that was going on on a particular day, and this one was from the last night of our cruise, so they tucked the bill in.  I also threw one of the photos and folders that they go crazy taking and then trying to sell you and a few other little things. 

LOAD: May 9th and 10th

This one was super fast because I woke up and hit the ground running and it was like that all day. I made it during my dinner break at work in like 15 minutes.  I had to do my part-time thing and then hurry and get ready and drive Emily to Chattanooga, where she met her friend David and they went to his house in Atlanta.  Yesterday morning they landed in Manhattan, where I was sort of hoping they saw either the escaped girl peacock from the Bronx Zoo (seems unlikely) or the crazy naked guy in the subway (also seems unlikely because I don’t think David is a subway sort of person, which is unfortunate).  Then I got home from the gorgeous trip to Chattanooga and Paigey was home from school, so that was pretty exciting.  But I had to do some emergency stuff for my part-time thing that I wasn’t expecting and then I had to work. Busy day.  But, I got it done.

Here is yesterday’s, which still makes me laugh. And I know I am not crazy.  That statue DOES look like Chris Rock.

I have yet to do today’s layout, but the prompt is to make a black-and-white page.  Kind of like the cruise one above; I am just ahead of my time, that’s all.  Sometimes I follow the prompts we are given and sometimes I don’t.  Both of the layouts above represent days when I veered off and did my own thing. 

Today is another busy day. Not as busy as Monday, but I have some paperwork to do, my part-time thing and I also have to get my layout done and then put in 9 hours of work later on this evening. I am off to get going on it!

LOAD May 8th: Getting Underway

I sorta used a sketch for this one, but it was mostly about the prompt, which was about color.  I was so happy to get to use that photo of the dumb “ship’s whistle” sign.  I wonder what prompted the need for the sign.  It was right by a ladder-thing.  Maybe the whistle had gone off in the past, startling a drunkard and causing him to tumble down the steps to his doom?  I guess that’s as good a story as any. 

LOAD May 7th: First Night at Grand Lake

This one came together super fast.  I actually took this photo during the daytime, maybe the next day, and I liked it so much that when I ordered it, I had it enlarged a little.  Fun to find little independent places on your travels. Unfortunately, that night it did not agree with one of the children and chaos ensued.  But…man, was it funny.

On an unrelated note, things were starting to get out of control by Day Six of my Layout A Day project.  I had to clean up right after I took this photo so that I could work on the layout above—it was just getting too stacked up and claustrophobic (and cat hairs, yikes—the cats love to sleep on this desk). Here’s what it looked like:

Could be worse—this is literally how I left it when I finished my layout and a card last night.  It’s better now…but probably not for long!

LOAD May 6th: please come to Nashville

This one was pure joy.  Terrible photo, crumpled up ticket stub, writing going downhill in the beginning...I don't care.  It's about the time Garth Brooks came to town and helped a lot of people, about how seeing him live has been on my bucket list since I discovered him, and how at the very end of the night, he came right over to us and sang "Please come to Boston," one of my all-time favorite songs, just a few feet away...just Garth and his guitar.  Great cause, great night, great guy. Plus I got to use my slice, some of my scraps, and my current favorite color (orange).  Pure joy.

LOAD May 5th: The Dropoff

The “D” is really attached—it just looks like it’s about to “drop off.”  Hahahaha, I kill me.  This one took me forever for some reason.  The prompt was an easy one—create a visual triangle.  Not a problem—I try to do that on my layouts all the time.  I ended up just deciding to go simple and make a few easy triangles.  I’m sure you can pick them right out.

LOAD May 4th: surprise

Good times, good times.  Look at little dude on the left sportin’ a tear!