Lucky Girl!

Okay, so here is my assignment in my new capacity at Sweet Memories. It is based on this sketch from Creative Scrappers. If you are a scrapbooker, you so need to bookmark their site!





Loving the ribbon roses on this layout. I kind of faked the large rolled one, and found the idea for the more open designs here - so easy and super cute.

Also got to meet all of the new Sweet Memories girlies this weekend. I cannot wait to work with them all; they seem like a great group of ladies - very tallented & alot of fun. Be prepared to have your socks knocked off!

Later,
~MM

Time to "Focus"

So it is no secret that I LOVE scrapbooking. I really enjoyed my year on Sweet Memories Design Team. It was so much fun, and I loved all of the girls. I stepped down a month or so ago because I had Legacy Banquet for NPCA coming up, and I had began to struggle with creativity. I felt like it wasn't fair to Erin that I was just not producing at my best. But deep down, I knew I was going to really miss it.

Well, Ms Erin (that's what J loves to call her) revamped the positions on the design team, and the opportunity came up for me to have a chance to step into a specialized role. I will still have monthly requirements and deadlines, but it will be something more managable for this over worked, over booked, overly eager to please girl to handle. I will now be on the "Focus" portion of the team working with one of my favorite aspects of scrapbooking - working with sketches. Plus I will have a couple of month stints where I will be contributing like one of the main design team members.

I am so excited about this new role, I could just do flips! I love working with sketches - they take all of the design struggle out of projects, and allow me to focus on all of the fun! Here's a double page I did last week using a sketch from Two Chicks Designs. (It's of our field trip to Vulcan Rock Quarry. I know, sounds boring, but we were 400 yards below the surface in a granite pit - the kids LOVED it!)




Have a GREAT week! I'll be back after the Legacy Banquet and Auction to share a funny story that happened a couple of weeks ago. Let's just say that we woke up one morning and discovered we had been broken into some time during the night. And to top it off, the "burglar" was still in the house! (That should keep you coming back - lol!)
~MM

Do what you love.

In today's crazy random world, there is so much stress and sorrow. If you find something that brings you joy, and it doesn't hurt anyone else - go for it! Other people don't have to "get it".

Case in point, a couple of weeks ago I took J to a dear old family friend's house for a little photo shoot. Charles is a very talented artist, who lives a little unconventionally - like most artists. He lives alone in his studio. It is a beautiful clearing at the base of Tally Mountain. He has meadows of daffodils around his studio - dozens of varieties. (But that will be a special story for another day...)

The other thing that Charles has is "bottle trees". I'm sure most of my readers do not have a clue what I am talking about, so I will show you.

(That sheepish figure trying to hide behind the base is Charles. I consider him part of my family because he's been around as long as most of the blood members. I really need to find out how he ended up in our family, but it really wouldn't change where we are now - lol).

Yes, this is petrified pine logs with bottles lining the trunk and branches - exactly what it looks like. But if you look deeper, you will see where someone took such painstaking measures to make sure every bottle was placed in it's on spot. And look a little closer, and you will see where some bottles were placed where they could radiate their own color in the sunlight....


Sadly, photos do not do justice to what these things looked like with the sun rays dancing over the colors - it really is a sight. I was mesmerized. Charles told me that a census worker had came by earlier in the week - how she found him up the little pig trial that leads to the studio, I do not know! He said she walked right by the trees and stood emotionless at the door. She never even looked up from her clipboard. He said it was odd for someone not to have any reaction to his creations - he usually gets some feedback whether it be a skeptical "Interesting...", or a "man, I wish I had a BB gun", or "That's alot of bottles!" This lady....nothing.

He turned to me, and asked me what I thought. I immediately said "Joy!" He asked me was it because of the pretty colors. I shook my head and said "No, I say that because it obviously brings you joy. There is no way that you would put forth the time and energy if you didn't enjoy it. I don't have to understand it or 'get it' - it's your joy." He smiled and nodded, and I knew for once I had gotten it right.

And on the way home, I thought about it, and realized we all probably have our own type of "bottle trees". Our friends and family don't really understand it. They try to humor us and nod and smile when they see it, but they really don't "get it". But that's okay.....it's not really for them to "get". It's about doing something that brings us joy.

My "bottle tree" is scrapbooking - I do love it. The whole process of reliving the memories behind the photos in my mind, picking out pretty paper, trying to put a new twist on things with each new page. It's okay, you don't have to "get it" - it doesn't lessen the joy I get out of it just because it brings no value to you.

So what's your "bottle tree"? If you don't have one, you really should find one - it will enrich your life more than you could imagine.

~MM

Right here, right now....

(LO from last spring, but it is fitting w/ this title, right?)

So I have once again neglected my blog. Not intentionally. I mean I come up w/ brilliant blog posts at the most inapprotune times. When I have a chance to blog, I am just not motivated. So I am going to take a prompt from one of my fave bloggers, Stephanie Howell, and post the randomness of this life right now and where I am.....

* dying a slow death from all of this pollen. According to allegery tests a few years ago, I am only allergic to 1 thing - hard wood pollens. Guess what is in full force in GA?!

* utterly shocked that my 9 year old is a)almost to my shoulders, b) going into 4th grade next year, and c)quite possibly could be bi-polar! (bi-polar b/c one minute she is sweet as pie, next possessed w/ her head spinning from emotion. I really DREAD the teenage years!)

* rehabbing my knee w/ a very sweet physical therapist

* finally able to start walking some - yay

* working on the Legacy Banquet auction, and a nervous nelly that it is less than 2 weeks away

* really dreading next week at work b/c they will complete the "restructuring process" and people will be let go

* excited to be a "radical, right-wing activist" b/c I am volunteering for the Carroll County TEA Party rally on tax day

* eternally grateful that Deuce Mullenix is feeling better from his flare-up of back disk issues

* desperately wanting to scrapbook, but can't seemed to get motivated when I have the time

* ready for spring break to be over so we can get back on schedule

* "thriving" and discovering that peanut butter is not as bad as I remembered

* not really doing well w/ my couponing, and it is okay

* loving this Brandon Heath song

* tired of picking up the living room only to have hurricane Jordan plow right thru it 30 seconds later

* not even caring about how many words I have misspelled in this post - not even going to run spell check :)

* refusing to beat myself up about not blogging more

That about sums it up. I have a couple of funny, pee-in-your-pants stories that have happened over the last couple of weeks. I promise to share them soon. Hope you all have a GREAT weekend.

~MM