No Scrapping Today.

Big Frown.  It's not that I don't want to, I do.  It's just that it's about 90 degrees in my scrappy place and let's face it, with the MS I cannot be in 90 degree spaces at all.  It's the pain that wraps around my abdomen to my back, the pain in my legs and feet intensify, I become fairly blind, and exhausted.  My eyes are going fast now - the neuropathy I suppose - so please pray I don't go blind; I'd rather stop walking than lose my sight.  This disease is wearing me down, exacerbated by stress and depression.  And the cure for stress and depression - scrapbooking of course.  It's a horrible cycle: need to scrapbook to make the illness better, can't scrapbook because of the illness.  But then, I am so very fortunate.  It could be much much worse.  We endure a lot of pain and illness in this house, but I'm still walking and occasionally driving.  So I thank God every morning that I can get out of bed, for coffee, that my parents are alive, that my kids are okay, there is still a lovely planet for me to live on, and that I can still glue precious photos to pretty paper... seriously, that's the list as I walk from the bed to the bathroom and then outside with my coffee after checking on everyone.  Then often it's back to bed, but life is short so I remember to be grateful.

So here I sit in a dark room on my white comforter (why does white feel cooler even in a dark room?) with the fan blowing on me wishing I could scrapbook.  Instead I'm stalking... stalking blogs, message boards, whatever I can find.  Trying to watch Dr. Who but have to stop so JC can play Xbox - kids, geez.

But surprise, I do have a couple of layouts to share.  This one is of GiGi and her boyfriend.  Unfortunately it didn't get scrapped until a few days after they broke up...ROFL!!!  But she really liked him so he deserves a place in the book.  Besides, the reason she broke up with him is something I want us both to always remember.  It seems that Boyfriend was getting way too possessive: telling her who she could talk to, wanting to erase the contacts on her phone, threatening guys who said they liked her Instagram pix, and then wanting her to check in with him every 45 mins or so.  She handled the rest pretty well, just telling him he needed to back off cause he wasn't her dad; but when the demand for a 'check-in' came up, she had enough.  She told me that she was glad that her family put curfews on her and made her check in several times whenever she wasn't home because it shows we care and so many parents don't seem to at all; but, she's only 15 and not about to let some boy tell her how to live her life or have the same demands her parents have - or worse.  We've instilled that whenever she makes a decision to do things with other friends she should always consider a boyfriend's feelings on the matter (like parties where he doesn't know the people etc) because high school boyfriends are the training grounds for how you want adult relationships to be.  But I have to say that I'm very proud of her attitude in this situation - his possessiveness seemed unhealthy - and believe that this was a seriously good training ground for how she does and doesn't want adult relationships to be.  Anyway, that's the end of that story... I just thought I'd share as you guys get to live so much of her life through my layouts that you're kind of an audience to her growing up.  So here's the layout:

Wow...just thought about that twice - you watching her grow up through my layouts.  And boy has she ever - that little preteen we started out with together has grown up to be a beautiful 5'9" young lady - well I am her Nonna so I can say beautiful.

Anyway, another blurry picture... it's kind of scary because when I pulled it up on my computer it looked perfectly fine.  (When GiGi gets home from her dad's I'm going to try to get her to photograph some of my layouts; at 15 her hand is much steadier and her eye much truer.) But I am really proud of this layout; it's kind of a throwback to the ones I was making before I took my long break.  I'm using the twine, lots of my wood stash, mist and tape - and of course, flair.  I so often forget that I have all this (and what to do with it) so it was great to get a layout going that uses some of this stuff up. And yes, I'm still using those bright papers; I started to do this layout using some DearLizzy, but changed my mind when I thumbed through and found the Heidi Swapp stripe for the background. I'll admit it, I am just kind of stuck on the bright stuff, it's just so cheery that it makes me smile just to cut it.

Then I also made this one this past week for the Shimelle weekend I missed.  I used this sketch:

The background is Echo Park, letters October Afternoon, hearts are Pebbles and I think everything else is Maggie Holmes FleaMarket for Crate Paper.  The reason that it's titled The Harry Potter Bookmark is because I move that bookmark from book to book and that is the text when I Instagram these photos.

Okay that's enough for right now.  I may be blogging two or three times a day, so don't be surprised - getting caught up for all I missed I guess, or preparing for when I go down again.  But bear with me and if you get tired of it, I understand.  Good thing is it will all still be here if you change your mind! LOL.

I've been checking you guys out.  Furry Pig has been busy busy busy.  But I miss Cynthia and her beautiful photographs - where are you????  My reading list has gotten zapped at some point so please leave a comment or email me with your blog address so I can fix that up.

I hope you all are fine and healthy and scrappy.  You know I love you guys.

Stay Safe and Scrap On!

“Dance above the surface of the world. Let your thoughts lift you into creativity that is not hampered by opinion.” - Red Haircrow