Once Upon a Time...

I had crammed my entire 3-bedroom (to include craft room) home into a travel-trailer where I dwelt and scrapped 24-hours a day while enduring a very active bout of my MS.  Those conditions have changed somewhat... I no longer live in my RV but instead have moved - along with my daughter and her two kids - in with my parents in order to take care of everyone.  This is definitely not an improvement on my personal living condition.  Now I have my clothes in various places (no dresser but two shelves of our 2nd pantry, part of the coat closet and a small section of my moms closet - and things disappearing all the time) and I no longer have my comfy big bed but a small twin that, along with all the rest of my daily belongings (to include crafting supplies, a library of books and a 40" TV), reside in a 7x8 foot space.  However, my scrappy place is actually better as now I have a mid-size Expedit and a desk rather than the back-breaking 'booth' of the RV with my supplies stored on shelves of my 6x6 room-turned-closet.  The serious up-side of my situation is that now that everyone is in one place, I am constantly aware of everyone's condition and whereabouts rather than worrying about that all the time... and yet, it is a very stressful situation with all of us in one house - 4 disabled adults, 2 teenagers, 5 dogs, one new kitten and one 'outside' cat.

Once upon a time I watched Harry Potter DVDs and Sex and the City reruns while scrapping... my productive 'playlist'.  Now I have rediscovered my passion of old movies - a much more interesting subject than harping on how bad I feel or how much life just sucks sometimes. 
As a result of these changes in attitude and latitude, I have decided to reprogram my blog... from here out it will contain small updates of life as they come to mind, a little movie data as I feel needs to be spread to make everyones life a little wiser or happier, and of course the main-event - updates regarding my thoughts and progression on all things scrapbooking.  So here goes...

Once upon a time...  I took so many pictures I didn't know what to do.  And, I must admit, just between us, that it was during a time when my scrapping was rather haphazard - here and there - not an everyday thing.  But lately, though I do get some great photos of the happenings of our life and I create something nearly every day, the quantity of my photos is not nearly as many as it once was - and I often regret that I missed so many photo ops.  But it is truly because I am so busy paying attention to life.  You see, I was getting ready to scrap one day and realized that even though I had photos I had taken of football/cheer events, I couldn't remember the actual happening - I had literally missed whole competitions because I had been so busy trying to get a great shot of GiGi performing.  I made a determination that day that I would take photos but not make the photography a priority ever again.  But then, where does the line get drawn so that when you get to scrapbooking you have everything you want/need?
For instance, I didn't take photos of the pile of food we got at the Busch Gardens Smokehouse though I'll never forget it.  I was so hungry and busy making sure everyone was okay and had everything they needed, that pictures were the last thing on my mind.  (And, less we forget, when I get overheated - as I obviously did on more than one occasion during our vacation - my MS kicks in and my mind just kind of stops working, especially in multitask mode.)  So what to do about such quandaries?  I definitely don't regret that I was so busy living the moment that I forgot to bring up the camera; however, I do have an issue at the lack of photos to document that event because, believe it or not, it was actually a huge deal.  I will definitely scrap about that meal, but I haven't quite figured it out yet (it will probably come to me in a dream as so many layouts and changes do).  So how do you handle a very specific, descriptive event when you don't have a photo?  Do you just make a journaling page or do you add it to another layout? 
It has taken an entire week in bed to recoup from our vacation... obviously the combination of MS, heat, walking, driving, etc. totally took its toll on me.  But now I'm all ready and chomping at the bit to start on those vacation pages.  Honestly though, I am utterly destitute since our vacation and resupplying upon our arrival home.  But next week the photos will be processed and supplies will be ordered.  Today I am diligently going through paper lines to determine what I want to use - the only sure criteria I have is that I would prefer it be white-based and that there must be a dark blue in the mix... I just love dark blue combined with those fresh pinks, mints, yellows, etc. for bright summery photos - something I learned about my scrapitude when I started scrapping the St Augustine photos.  Any suggestions?  Any at all???  

Once upon a time there was a man named Cary Grant.  I have been in love with Cary Grant for as long as I can remember - probably stemming from my first viewing of Arsenic and Old Lace (1941)... such a handsome guy who could make me laugh out loud, a definite keeper.  Cary Grant is my west-coast eternal boyfriend. (I should explain here the 'eternal boyfriend':  while boyfriends like Brad Pitt and Hugh Jackman may come and go, occasionally we will find one that is above and beyond all of these - someone who has a place right smack in the middle of our heart as if we actually knew them - a kind of 'first love' relationship that you will always cherish and sigh when you think back or see a photo.  These 'eternal boyfriends' will be around when Brad Pitt loses his place because his hair falls out, he gets fat, or says something totally stupid (aka Tom Cruise).  I once thought you could only have one eternal boyfriend; but because I have two men that I am in love with equally but who are very different and I love for totally different reasons, I have decided to name them my east-coast eternal boyfriend (ECEB - James Cagney) and west-coast eternal boyfriend (WCEB - Cary Grant).  Now you cannot possibly have more than two 'eternal boyfriends' just like you can't have more than one first boyfriend (but then, your first boyfriend may not be your first 'kiss' - if you get what I mean), but I bet you have at least one!).  Now, Cary Grant is funny, but pair him with Irene Dunne and I actually laugh so loud the kids come check on me.  And really it's Irene Dunne that just cracks me up, something I totally didn't expect after first seeing her in dramas.  But her comedy goes from subtle hints to all out craziness - and her voice is like a kitten purring, it's lovely.  If you get a chance (check TCM - I don't know about Netflix or Hulu), definitely watch My Favorite Wife (1940) and The Awful Truth (1937).  Honestly, these two films are the absolute best romantic comedies I have ever seen, and this from a girl who has You've Got Mail on my 'Favorite Movies' shelf.  Tell me what you think of these movies and what are your all-time favorite romantic comedies?

I hope everyone is well, safe and scrappy!  Hopefully, tomorrow I will catch up on my blog reading as well as my fix of Glitter Girl... if there's not a really great movie on (LOL!).

And that's all she wrote!
xo

P.S.  What do you think about North West... love child of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West?  Personally I'm surprised that the little girl's name didn't start with a K after Kim & Kanye; and, I think North West sounds like a stripper name (which every woman should have as an alias even if they aren't a stripper but really shouldn't put on a child's birth certificate).   Honestly, wouldn't it make for great scrap pages?!! You could put a compass on every baby layout!  I truly believe everyone is entitled to their opinion, it doesn't need to agree with mine, and I am especially interested in what yours is (that's why I ask all those questions!)... so comment on! 

"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness." - Charles Spurgeon