Just a Couple of Layouts...

Okay... I am sooo tired.  Took GiGi and a couple of her friends to the movies last night, then Waffle House, then Frozen Yogurt, then WalMart, finally home at about 12:00.  Then I slept on the couch so that the girls could have some privacy even though I was hurting from head to toe.  I'm just not as I used to be - when staying out until 3:00 then work by 8:00 was almost normal!

By the way, I saw 'Argo' while the girls saw Perfect Pitch (?).  It was a really good movie.  Not normally what I would go to the movies to see as I prefer to see big time scenery or action if I'm going to spend money.  But glad I took the plunge albeit alone.  I remember the Iran hostage situation pretty well (believe it or not!), maybe because that's when ABC's 'Nightline' was started in order to give us the daily blow-by-blow.  But honestly, I didn't remember it as well as I'd thought.  The movie interweaves archived news footage into the movie (in which Ben Affleck excels) making it all the more poignant. Surprisingly, even though I knew how the story would end, I bit my nails (and almost walked out) because of how stressed I got worrying about the entire situation.  Okay, I know that's a little psycho on my part, but it is seriously a good movie.  The only thing I had to complain about was that, as a smoker, between the anxiety and the 1970's constant smoking, I desperately wanted a cigarette all through the movie!
It was actually a shock to see the Iranian protests and violence once again - that part I had forgotten.   It has made me think a lot today about the difference in our cultures:  America has a 'live and let live' attitude most of the time, embracing what may be perceived as the underdog, and a right to protests - but only because we don't, for the most part, protest with violence;  Iran was so very much the epitome of the MiddleEast and perhaps if 911 had happened on MiddleEastern soil, there may have been public executions of Americans right away.    I am proud to be an American and live in a country that has a "live and let live" mentality but a "don't mess with me" attitude.   It's just very sad that countries don't realize that it is this pride in our nations/religions that makes us all very much alike.*

Okay, enough about that.  People asks me why I don't do more layouts of JC... well, simply put, there just aren't as many photos.  GiGi takes pictures of herself almost daily (making us a little leery of her ego, but then we realized it's just what kids do nowadays in their constant communication with their peers - ah, cellphone/computer technology at its best!) She also writes alot of stories online and as part of those stories will dress in specific outfits and post those photos within the stories to show how her characters' styles are different from the others, how they look for special occasions, etc.  (I don't necessarily get it, but she'll come in and say, "Nonna, take a couple of pictures of me in this outfit for my story" and off we'll go.)  Also, she's much more social than JC so there are always photos of her friends and herself.  Finally, both kids have taken Graphic Arts classes at school and GiGi has decided her future includes a degree in Graphic Arts with a side job of modeling to help make ends meet (she's been to modeling school as well) - she loves to use Photoshop Elements and other editing programs to play with photos.  So yes, there are thousands of photos "laying" around of GiGi while, although he was the first grandson on both sides of his family and with scrapbookers on both sides has had possibly millions of photos taken in his short life, JC has taken to shying away from the camera unless it's a special deal.  Boys!!!

With that being said, here are the layouts I worked on yesterday and today: 

Cardstock:  Paper Studio; Patterned Paper:  Echo Park & Sassafras; Stickers:  American Crafts, Recollections, Cosmo Cricket, Echo Park; Journaling Spots:  K&Company; Pen: Sharpie; Ink: Ranger; Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements

Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants, American Crafts; Stickers: American Crafts, Doodlebug; Flowers: Recollections, Paper Studio; Punches: EK Success, Martha Stewart; Gems & Button: Hampton Arts; Twine: Doodlebug;  Ink: Ranger; Pen: Sharpie

I'm thinking about removing the small flowers on the left banner and replacing them with her initials: LSBW... I don't know, I'm still looking at it!  That's one thing about me, I will put my layouts in a page protector and pin them to the wall to look at for several days before I put them away into an album.  (Which, believe it or not, makes me miss my RV.  Of course it was, in its own way, easier to scrap at the RV because I could just move all over the place (from table to couch to middle of the bed) with my supplies for any given layout so that I wouldn't become too uncomfortable.  That's been one of the hardest parts of scrapbooking for years - the fact that it only takes very little time before I cannot sit at table or desk no matter the chair & I can't stand but for a few minutes at a time because of my feet and legs.  As a result, when doing the challenges back in the spring with Shimelle (and you guys), I did a few actually laying in bed.  But getting back to hanging my layouts, I had a clothesline in my RV that went right across the 'living space' from end to end so that I could hang photos to scrap and completed layouts - and it was just fine that way because I didn't have anyone that I had to worry about but me.  Sometimes I would change things, but mostly I would just look at them with pride... pride at accomplishing something, pride for getting something done that I felt needed done, and pride if I actually liked the way they turned out.)  I'm just not one of those people who feels that it's all about the process or the preservation of memories.  Don't get me wrong, those things are very important to me.  But moreover, it's the end result that I love the most:  the accomplishment of making something I feel is lovely & cherishable.  I don't think I have ever made a single layout that I immediately just put in the books and started the next without a second thought.  I try to make each one aesthetically pleasing to me; and so I like to look at them as much as the owl and bird paintings in my bedroom, maybe even more so.  Let's face it - we make scrapbook pages because we love the way all that pretty paper and embellishments look after we put them all together (sometimes we even like the photos we put on the page too - but they don't matter half as much really).  I'm not an artist, but I'd be willing to bet that I love to put patterned paper, flowers, butterflies and Thickers on a piece of cardstock as much as Van Gogh liked putting paint to canvas!  And he probably didn't hang those on the wall and stare at them for a week after he finished!

So today's question is:  What do you do with a layout after you've finished it?  Do you stick it in your scrapbook immediately or do you hang it up for a while?

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  Both of the kids have gone to the "Mullet Festival" we have locally (just like all festivals it has music, food and crafts) with family or friends so our house is pretty quiet as they won't be returning tonight.  So I'm gonna stick a heating pad on my back, take my meds and lay in bed watching "Ancient Aliens" (now there's something to think about!). 

Cheerio!

 *  I don't talk politics and especially don't believe they should be a part of this blog.  I do not believe in parties as I have voted on both sides of the spectrum.    I have served my country along with each of my siblings as well as my dad.  I sincerely hope I have not offended anyone in anyway as that was not my intention.

"Happiness is not in the mere possession of money;  it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort."  -Franklin D. Roosevelt