Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

How To Get Back in the Creative Zone for Scrapbookers

How to return to your creative zone after a vacation or hiatus:

I've been away from my scrapbooking desk for about 2 weeks, this picture was taken on the plane during my scrapbooking on vacation frolic. I'm back home now and I have some time today to get creative but I'm not warmed up.  Instead of spinning my wheels and wasting a lot of time, which I have totally done more than once, I want to get right back in the creativity zone.

Here are 10 links to creativity warm ups - lets see if any get my scrapbooking mojo back  in gear:

1. Drawing Warm Up Exercises by Category.  I think this exercise could be translated into a nice grid scrapbook page highlighting one category of thing. I just might try that.

2. Left Brain-Right Brain Warm Ups  Dance, Draw, Juggle, or Play the Color Game.  Hmmm.  Ok.  I do think sometimes its good to play some peppy music in the scrapbooking room to get things going, nothing too distracting, just something with a fast beat.

3. Find Out What Kind of Creative Type You Are.  I took this test but I think I didn't add them up correctly or something because I was the worst kind of creative and I just don't buy that.  My results were: 1. C, 2. A, 3. D, 4. A, 5. C, 6. C.  So I had had A=2, B=0, C=3, D=1.  Then following the math instructions I did A-B = 2; C-B = 3; D-B = 1 for a total of 6.  Then I wasn't sure what to do with the uppercase /lowercase thing but I think I was an "acd" or else I did it wrong and I'm a "ACD" so either I'm not at all or totally creative.  If anyone "gets" how this test is scored, please clue me in and leave a comment.

4. How To Be Creative.  This is a very visually appealing slide share and the maker of this one has several good one to check out.  Here are the tips in short:  1. Seek Widely.  Seek Deeply.  Steal Ideas. 2. Talk to Strangers.  3. Do Not Be Afraid to Fail.  4. Keep Dreaming.  5.

5. Creative Drawing Exercise with Both Hands.  There's some trippy music and this video is a bit mesmerizing but the exercise looks like an easy warm up, something that looks like it belongs in an art journal.

6. Simple Scrapper's Reclaiming Your Creative Mojo.   I like #5  Play with Your Supplies.  I often use this technique and make what I call "half-baked" pages that I come back to later and add the photos and the journaling to, making the base of the scrapbooking pages often gets me going and later makes scrapbooking much faster.

7. Busy vs. Meaningful Scrapbooking.  Nettio discusses her desire to give up on the scrapbooking obligations like Project 365 and push her creativity.  Good food for thought.  But remember, sometimes it is good just to "get busy" just to get the creativity going, but the busy feeling should be one of play not obligation, I think this is what she means.

8. 7 Ways to Beat Scrapper's Block.  I like #2 Take a Scrapbooking Challenge.  I often use this as a way to get started, I like the challenges over at Two Peas.  I miss the sketch challenges at Sketchy Thursdays.  If you know of good scrapbook challenge sites, please leave a comment with a link!

9. 3 Things Amy Counts On To Get Her Scrapbooking Mojo Back.  Amy says she likes a clean slate workspace.  I like this too, but I typcially clean up my space after every session so when I get back to scrapbooking after a hiatus, I have a clean slate.  Sometimes, I need to mess it up a bit to get my scrapbooking mojo back.

10. Scrapbooking Inspiration on Pinterest.  I've been trolling Pinterest lately for scrapbooking inspiration, for me it has taken the place of scrapbooking magazines and I love that it is as handy as my iphone.  I love to randomly pick a scrapbook page on Pinterest and "scraplift" it.  It gets things moving in my scrapbooking world.

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All Caught Up with Project Life!

Here are my Project Life pages for weeks 1 through 7.5 of this year 2012.

 

I've been sort of keeping up with Project Life but there were gaps in each week.  Tonight I ordered a bunch of prints and picked them up in an hour and filled in the gaps and did a bit of journaling and I'm done.

 

I will mention that I did not include a lot of journaling in this Project Life album since I was playing catch up.  I think it is better to do the journaling everyday, however, if you didn't I think that should not be a deal breaker and I think its ok to have sparse journaling and have it be photo heavy.  Going forward, I will try to do a bit of journaling everyday or at least every couple of days so that I will have more journaling included.  But I'm glad that its done and I am doing forward with this project.

I think it is important to remember that you can start Project Life at any time and even if you've missed a bunch of weeks, you don't have to have it be continuous - it would be totally ok to have a gap.  Really, it would.  I think the important part is to not give up just because you haven't been fully committed to doing it everyday because there are going to be days - even weeks - where you fall off the Project Life wagon - its, Ok, its easy to get back in to the groove of this awesome album. 

Are you doing Project Life?  Are you keeping up?  Do you have any tips for staying caught up?  I'd love to hear all about your Project Life process.

Seven 7 Gypsies Inspired Layouts: #5 Tennessee / Scalloped Circles

This layout was inspired by 7 Gypsies by:

1. The scalloped circles.

2. Several of the papers are actually from 7 Gypsies - especially the striped papers.

3. The travel theme.

I had lots of fun filling in those scalloped circles with random odds and ends embellishments and even though none of the papers or the embellishments really match, I think the layout works because of the repetition of the scalloped circle shape and the three lines of the shapes; and that the rest of the layout is fairly simple so the embellishment overload is limited to particular spaces.

Seven 7 Gypsies Inspired Layouts: #4 Hancock County / Patterned Letters

These photos are of my husband and my dad at his "cottage" near Bar Harbor, I took these photos back in November 2000.

How is this page inspired by 7 Gypsies?

1. The patterned paper letters, I made these with patterened paper and QuicKutz but I think 7 Gypsies has some patterened letter stickers coming out for Winter CHA 2012.

2. The vintage tag stickers which aren't from 7 Gypsies but definately have that vintage feel.

3. The striped red and white grunge paper is actually from 7 Gypsies.

 

 

Next Up on Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking's CHA Knock-Offs: Bella Blvd. at CHA 2012

I just pinned a bunch of the new Bella Blvd. layouts from Winter CHA 2012 {click this to see}.

I have started the scraplifting process and made seven of what I called "half-baked" scrapbook pages, I have basically started the page by setting up the base of it: the cardstock and the patterned paper and machine stitching where applicable. 

My next step will be choosing photos, placing them and then I'll go about finding the embellishments and letter for the titles and I'll probably do the journaling last.  This doesn't mean that I can't start with story ideas, however, I like to look at the page and get a feel of it and that will usually spark a story idea.  So even though it seems like story comes last, it doesn't really, story is usually the beginning. 

I'll be posting the finished pages, one a day for seven days, starting on Sunday, February 4th. 

I might even do some ustreaming - especially if anyone is interesting in playing along in a virtual crop?  Leave a comment to let me know if you are interested and if there is interest then I'll schedule one (rather than just turning on the video camera and hitting record which is my normal method).    {click here for the link to the Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking Ustream Channel}

You can also leave a comment with a link to your page on your blog or you can upload your page to the Flickr Group: CHA 2012: THE KNOCK OFFS FLICKR GROUP.

Ok, happy scrap-lifting crafters.

Meantime, check out the Bella Blvd. bargains on Amazon:

Seven 7 Gypsies Inspired Layouts: #2 Gatlinburg 37738 / Grid Layout

We took a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee mid January and even though this winter has been warm, they had snow on the mountain and Allison learned to ski like a pro - we had a fantastic time.  In this series, I focused on Places We Go layouts and I got the idea to use zip codes in the titles so the "37738" is the zip code of the ski mountain Ober Gatlinburg.

What makes this layout 7 Gypsies inspired?

1. The vintage papers.

2. The colors of black and neutral with a touch of red (not so much the blue).

3. The word stickers used like tape so that they appear to be taping up the pictures to the layout.

Here's what the page looked like before all the embellishments:

I forgot to take a photo of this page before I put the photos onto the grid, but here it is mid-process.  I used 9 different vintage patterned papers and cut them into squares and laid them onto a 12x12 cardstock page and then I machine stitched along the seams.  A grid design makes putting together a scrapbook page very easy.

Seven 7 Gypsies Inspired Layouts: #1 All 50 States (Chevron Stripes / Triangles)

My family made a goal of seeing all 50 states before my kids graduate from highschool; so I imagine this layout as a title page in a themed 12x12 scrapbook that I will at some point put together. 

Mostly, this was a playful page for me.  I made the chevron stripes by punching patterned paper with a square punch and then cutting them on the diagonal to create triangles and then arranging them and pasting them down into the chevron stripes.    I saw this idea on Pintrest as a pattern for a vintage quilt.  It is fairly self explanatory - just start playing with those triangles and you'll see - or leave a comment and I'll do another post with a step by step.

So how is this connected to 7 Gypsies?  It is not one of the most inspired by 7 Gypsies layouts - it was actually one of the last pages I made in this series, but one that I had the most fun with so I wanted to post it first.  But looking back the colors are in the theme of 7 Gypsies - especially the black, taupe/neutral, and white/creme; and there is some hot pink in the new Trusseau collection by 7 Gypsies and I've seen lots of polka dots in the 7 Gypsies lines over the years, so I think it qualifies as 7 Gypsies inspired.  And the typewriter number stickers - which I picked up at the scrapbooking yardsale recently - look very 7 Gypsies to me.

Dec 5

December Daily - Day 5! 

The left page I'm going to use for Christmas card photos that I recieve from friends and family.  That picture is of my college roommate's kids - and I'm pretty sure the last time I got the Christmas photo card she only had 2 kids - so call me Donna or link up to me on Facebook ok?  I miss you.

I have decided it is ok for me to make more than one page per day if I am so inspired, which most of the time I seem to be.

I made both of my photo collages in Picasa:

I took these photos after yoga class when I got home - so they are in my bathroom - I don't think the fellow yogis would enjoy photos during the hot Bikram Yoga; I used a self timer app on my iphone and did not adjust the quality of the photos at all so they are a bit yellowish because of the low light and no flash.  Standing Bow Pulling is my favorite pose - when I printed out this photo collage for my December Daily book, I added text onto the collage, just like I did on the Mac in front of the computer collage.

Here is my shorter than yesteday but still on the long winded side Ustream video of making my December Daily & Project Life entries for the day.

 

I was on the Simple Scrapper live chat for a bit tonight & here is the awesome Brickle recipe (which appeared in the St. Petersburg Times) that I was talking about:

December Daily: 12/3/11

Busy Day - trying to maintain momentum with my December Daily and Project Life.

 

Project 365 - Trying to Edit

Hello, My Name is Katie and I have a tendency to go on and on if allowed to talk without bounds or write OR BLOG! or scrapbook, so Project Life is challenging me to edit down the week.  It is hard because I keep wanting to add more stuff about each day, especially more pictures.  My first week I did add and extra 8.5x11 page protector because I felt like it was a special and eventful week, but this week, despite it also being special and eventful - which I have a bit of a feeling that I'm going to feel that way about every single week! - I am limiting myself to the two pages allotted.  Today is Thursday.  Here is what my week looks like so far:

And I have two days left and I didn't even include much of today here - although more of today did make it into my December Daily Album.  Most of the advice I see online about keeping up with a Project Life Album is how to come up with ideas for each day - but I seem to have the opposite issue - too many ideas and stories.  Does anyone else have trouble editting themselves down?

December Daily!

In the scrapbooking world, December 1st has come to mean the first day of December Daily. 

Side Note on Scrapbooking as a Subculture:  I went to a business ladies morning tea yesterday - in a real tea room with crumpets and everything - totally adorable - and I we were talking about New Years Resolutions and I told the ladies about the One Little Word concept and the Learn Something New / New 52 concept and how I know these things from my scrapbooking hobby and we got into a discussion about how scrapbooking is a whole other world with its own customs and language.  There was another self proclaimed "closet scrapbooker" there so we instantly bonded over scrapbooking.

Ok, so Scrapbookers - you know that December 1st means you've got to make a decision - are you going to do December Daily this year?  Maybe you've do it religiously every year?  Maybe you've tried to keep up with it in the past but fell off the wagon mid-month?  (Like Me).  Or Maybe you've never tried December Daily?   Even though I typically start the project with lots of gusto and loose steam midway through and then somehow regain it towards the end, I love participating in December Daily. 

Ali Edwards, who created the concept of December Daily and has vast resources on her blog, wrote a post recently that I really love about December Daily - click here for ideas about writing stories for December Daily.  For me, this is the go-to post for ideas and I even jotted them down on a list and posted them up on my board in my scrapbooking room - I scanned it in so I could share it with you. 

Rather than using my list (which you are perfectly welcome to do if you wish), I recommend you go to Ali Edwards's site and look through that post and then jot down the list yourself - do it by hand and I think you will remember it better than if you just copy and paste it, just try the handwritten list even if you don't like your handwriting, I think it "sticks" better in your brain and when you look at it it means more.

The two albums in the picture are 8x8 American Crafts.  I stocked the brown one with very neutral Christmas themed papers and I stocked the red one with bright and happy colored Christmas themed papers; I'm not sure which one I will be using yet; and I might use both and then consolidate them into one album at the end.  I'm just not sure yet.  I plan to post updates to this blog often in December so we'll see.

Here is an Amazon affiliate link to the American Crafts Albums I am using (the red and the brown) and I added a link for another 8x8 option with the American Crafts Modern Albums - I have several of these in 12x12 and some in a 6x10 format that I love - but I think that the customizable feature of these albums would make it work perfectly for December Daily:

If you want to use something you already have instead for your album:  I am planning to make some videos of my previous December Daily albums and in the past I have used the shells of very old magnetic photo albums with the magnetic photo pages removed and my own pages inserted - I'll have more on those soon.

 

Ella Boot Camp: Custom Backgrounds {Stamping}

I'm a bit behind on the Ella Publishing Boot Camp because I came down with the flu this week, but I'm on the mend now and catching up on the challenges.  I made this layout by stamping the circles in the horizontal border strip in the bottom third - and then I punched patterned paper to fill in the circles. 

 
I don't often stamp on my pages so this was challenging for me even through it was very simple to accomplish.  Trying something new - or something you haven't done in a while - is a good thing.

 
The circles and the papers I used made me think of the seasons - and that there were more than four circles running all together made me think of the seasons in Florida and how my Floridian children don't really get the experience of the changing seasons like I did growing up in New England.

Journaling:  Growing up in New England, I felt very connected with the 4 seasons because it was always very obvious from the weather which season it was.  The quote by John Keats "The Human Seasons" which goes "Four seasons fill the measure of a year; there are four seasons in the mind of [humans]".  I do think the seasons mimic our lifespan and my kids are Floridians and all the seasons blend together.  I do my best to take them to other states to see and feel the seasons, but its hard to know withtout experience." 

I sort of ran out of space before I could write something better to end upon; but its ok, I'll maybe put this page near the beginning of a seasons scrapbook & then the rest of the layouts will finish this thought that even though they haven't gotten the seasons here in Florida, we have done many things to fill in this gap and the other layouts will exemplify that.

I also did a scraplift of Nichol Migouirk's boot camp layout:

 
I tried to do this with stamping - but the patterned papers I already had were close enough - somehow stamping always seems like too much effort for me when it is actually not all that time / effort intensive.  Do you stamp on your layouts? 

 

 

School Themed Scrapbooking

I started a School Scrapbook Album for this school year inspired by Becky Higgins' Project Life and Stacy Julian's 180 School Album.  I just used some 8.5 x 11 page protectors with slots for 4x6 photos and three ringed notebooks from the office supply store, I also used some calendar stamps for the side panels to make sure I keep everything in order.   Here are the title page and the first couple of weeks:

 
Yes, we are guilty of letting our kids skip two days in the 2nd week for our trip to Maine - it was a highly learning experience, so I'm ok with this.  I actually ordered a photo book for our trip to Maine and had it done the day we got back - I'll post that soon.

I like to include some pages in my school scrapbooking that is not all about school but are about things that happen over and over - like getting the kids ready in the morning.  I made this page about the morning rush to school and how its always a challenge to get my kids in the car with all their stuff and their shoes on!  I used some old photos that were appropriate, but we still have this issue many days (thankfully not today).

 
Journaling:  "Photos Taken 4/2010 2nd Grade.  These photos explain why we now have a rule that you must put your shoes on before getting in the car to go to school.  These Photos could go in the "No David!" Books!"  Love Mom 9/2011.

There is a contest for school related scrapbooking pages at The Studio Challenges Blog and there is a prize from Ella Publishing.  Go check it out & Good Luck.

Musical Beds and The Tooth Fairy Banned & Project 180

 
5 Notes from Today:

1. MUSICAL BEDS AND THE EVER-CHANGING FENG SHUI OF OUR HOUSE We have some funny sleeping arrangements in our family, I won't go into particulars, but its something like musical beds; I'm pretty sure I've slept in all 4 bed rooms and so has everyone else in the family. We had some movers come this morning to move stuff around - part of my grand impromptu reorganization of the house - which I'm pretty sure I do about this time every year. The one constant thing about our home is that if you have been here in a few months & come back to visit, chances are the furniture will be re-arranged and/or switched up since you were here last time. We are the same way about the office, but Charlie is typically in charge of those changes. We both like to switch things up with the furniture, decor, etc. I think that our surroundings have a big effect on our mood and its good to clear the decks and re-arrange the chairs every 6 months or so. Right now I'm in streamlining mode. I took a ton of stuff off the walls in my scrapbooking room and the area that we use as our entry and exit to the house and Charlie did Spackle-ing and touch up painting tonight. I love a fresh start and this time of year seems like the perfect time for this sort of thing.

2. TWINKLE TWINKLE & MAKING UP LYRICS: Allison had her first music class with Daddy tonight and she learned how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Start on the piano / keyboard. Of course she also demanded (yes, sassy pants) a microphone - and of course Daddy had one; when I suggested a mic stand, he opened a closet and revealed that we have 3 mic stands, 2 stands for I don't know what, and 2 music sheet stands. Yes, we could totally have a recording studio in Charlie's music room. I'd like for both of them to learn to play guitar. Of course I'd like to learn too but I'm not very musical and have a hard time clapping to the beat - although I love music and singing, I just don't do music or singing very well. Ally & I did have a dance party later to Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, and J Lo, and Pit Bull - whom apparently she thinks is awesome. Her favorite song right now is "Tonight - Give Me Everything" but she makes up her own words. This morning I pulled out the old Ben Folds CD for the car ride to school - we used to play it every morning on the way to school when Mac was in kindergarten (he's in 4th grade now - gasp). They each have their own take on the lyrics and title to "Rockin the Suburbs" - Mac thinks its "Rockin the Sunburst" and Ally insists its "Rocking the Summers" - either way, its pretty cute and it was funny to listen to them remember all sorts of stuff from several years ago when I played it - music has that ability to take you back - even for kids. Scrapbooks should have soundtracks.

3. NO TOOTH FAIRY ZONE:Mac had a playdate afterschool today and he and his friend went on more geo-caching adventures and then ate popsicles and Mac heard a crunch and it was his lose tooth coming out! He showed me the tooth and asked me for something to put it in. I went upstairs to find the tooth-fairy pillow and when I got back, Mac had an elaborate system in his closet where he had put his tooth under lock and key in several containers and then stacked a whole bunch of stuff on top of them. He said he didn't want the tooth fairy to come take his tooth because that tooth had so many memories and because he always pretends to be happy when the tooth fairy comes, but actually - truthfully -literally it just makes him sad when the tooth fairy takes his tooth and he just wants to keep this one. I told him that I had a deal with the tooth fairy that I'd told Allison about after she found several teeth in a jewelry box in my safe - I have this deal with the tooth fairy so that she comes and takes the tooth and leaves the kids the money, but the next day - she brings it back and I leave money under my pillow so that I can keep the teeth. This didn't convince Mac and as far as I can tell the tooth is still hidden in an elaborate hiding place and he didn't leave a letter of explanation so I don't know what the tooth fairy is going to do about that tonight. We'll see in the morning I guess.

4. BUSY BUSY ME. I've been seriously diligent about cleaning up the house and staying on top of daily chores and I've been putting in lots of mom time getting ready for school and adjusting to the new school year. I finally made it to yoga today. Lately, I seriously go from the moment I wake up until way after everyone has gone to bed. Yoga makes me slow down and clear my mind - I love it. I need to get in there more - Its been since Sunday and I like to do at least every other day.

5. BED TIME STORIES:After school I brought Allison to the Library - the same one that she stuck a popsicle in the book depository when she was 3 or 4 and when we told the librarian about it she was relieved that it wasn't a snake because apparently someone thinks its funny to put snakes in there; the same one that she did the puppet show for me at - sadly the puppets weren't there today, the same one where we always pee when we go to any event in Gulfport when its hot and we don't want to use the port-o-potties. We got Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Boy for Mac to use for his daily reading log and we read 2 chapters of that one tonight. Allison picked Courdoroy Lost and Found - she loves that little bear. Speaking of Bears - Beary Weary came out of hibernation tonight to help Mac adjust to his new sleeping arrangements - but at this very moment the two of them and Dandy are on the couch in the living room right behind me waiting for me to put them back to bed - again. I'll have to add the photos for this post later.

Scrapbooking: After the kids are finally asleep, I'm going to set up the framework for my Project 180 school scrapbook - Stacy Julian's blog has some posts on this project. I'll post photos of my book in a week or two.

 

Last Day of Summer 2011

Its not the official last day of summer but it was the last day of summer 2011 in the Scott household.  We had a hectic day of making sure school uniforms were ready and fit properly - I still have 3 more skorts to hem, but we are basically ready for 2nd and 4th grades and we plan to be up early tomorrow morning all bright eyed and bushy tailed! 

 
School Days Layout:  I chose 4 photos that represented routine to me and lined them up in an orderly grid.  Then I found two shots of me and my son to mat and place all wonky - representing that neither of us are particularly fond of routines or staying in the lines and following the rules - we are both rebels and don't like to be told what to do.   The journaling is about how Mac did not enjoy the family meeting about the reward system for good behavior during the coming school year and how he was generally unhappy about school starting tomorrow.  What makes matters worse is that until Friday we thought that school didn't start until Tuesday - major bummer there.  And my picture is on the diagonal too because I had to play the role of drill sergeant this weekend - a role I don't particularly enjoy but I know is necessary to get things rolling in the right direction.   I stitched on the layout since I had the sewing machine all ready out and threaded from hemming all of Allison's skorts.  The embellishments relate to the theme - "journey" "life" (Jillibean Soup) and "school days" as does the patterened paper which I'm guessing is Basic Grey but I"m not for sure on that.  I also used a sticker at the top left from the school uniforms from Target, it says "ultimate school uniform" and tied in well with the color scheme of this page.  I used the aqua blue and white checkered pattered paper in the middle of the page to represent a calendar or routine and I intentionally chose a paper that didn't match the grungyness or mood of the other patterned paper - I wanted to show a break in the routine - like the abrupt stop we had to our Summer 2011 - something jarring.  Overall I'm happy with this page and it didn't take too long to create - maybe about 35 minutes.

Journaling:  We had a hectic last day of Summer getting school uniforms and shoes and socks and underwear and back packs and school supplies ready.  It took us until 3 pm to get through the dress rehearsal for tomorrow and then Daddy took you two to Target for some last minute things while I squeezed in Bikram Yoga.  Mac was less than thrilled during the family meeting setting out the rewards system, Allison was totally on board with earning an allowance.  But Mac got hung up on the details.  We worked through it and I read you "Oh The Places You'll Go."  You're ready for 4th grade.  P.S. I know routines and getting up early aren't fun and I'm a rule breaker too - but we need order to have an awesome year.  Love Mom."

 
5 Notes from August 21, 2011:

1.  I took photos of Mac after his school dress rehearsal - check out the less than happy expressions on his "I wish summer could last forever" face, I didn't catch Allison in her uniform because we had hemming issues, I have to remember to get pictures of her tomorrow morning.  And I should probably get some happier ones of Mac.  I did find these awesome pictures of Allison when I was uploading my photos.  I put up the blocks in the kitchen and they spell out "Have an Awesome School Year 2011 to 2012 - Grades 2 + 4."

2. I've been in purge mode with the housekeeping and it is looking pretty organized around here in the common spaces and even in our rooms, but there are some closets and drawers that I know are hiding some clutter and I'm all about getting rid of it in the next few weeks.  A couple times a year I get like this - full on house cleaning and organizing mode - and I don't rest until its completely done.  

3. We had smorgashboard for lunch today - all the leftovers from the party we had for my mom yesterday - I am not a fan of "post party fridge" and I like for the fridge (fridges in our case) to be super organized so that I don't run out of healthy choices and enough to drink.  I am not the planner-est person in the world, but there are certain things and times that call for order and we're in that zone right now.

4. I created an Agenda for each of the kids so that they have the potential to earn an allowance of $55.00 each week; we will no longer be buying them any stuff that is not necessary; and a portion of the allowance is going into their savings accounts.  Allison was so excited about this opportunity but Mac focused on the fact that earning money required him to do things - lots of things - and in his opinion too many.  I'm hoping that he comes on board too, I made the first week's to do items fairly easy, I have my fingers crossed for him on this - and I'm hoping that some new changes will help him conquer 4th grade homework - because 3rd grade homework was a bit of a nightmare around here.

5. We filmed what was supposed to be a documentary-ish bit for the office but it turned out to be a regular old commercial (if you ask me) and Charlie played it for me this morning.  When I look in the mirror I see some wrinkles but mainly I see a cute young looking woman who has a couple of pounds still to lose; but when I see myself on the video I see someone who is in major need of botox and an eye-lid lift and to lose a whole lot more weight.  I made it to Bikram Yoga tonight and I know I'm getting stronger, and I also know that at 41 it is natural to have some wrinkles; but vanity makes me want to run to the plastic surgeon.  I'd like to hold out for a couple more years on that eye lift thing - but judging from my Mom's eyelids, I'm definately going to want it at some point.   Ahhhh, aging, I know it beats the alternative, but it would be cool if I looked like what my mental image of myself is - it is much cuter than the real life version - I think my mental image stopped somewhere around 15 or 16 years old; which also may explain why whenever I have anything to get dressed up for I instantly go for big hair - I was a teenager in the 80s - so I am hard core programed to make it big; and then I have to tame it down.  Its a weird process, I should probably photograph that whole routine one of these days.   

Here's to hoping we have an awesome first day of school!