pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Writing into the future is…a little strange. Since I can’t add current photos, I’ve resorted to going through my archives a little, and Flickr tells me this is my most popular photo I have ever uploaded. Hmm. It’s making me hungry for both cupcakes and springtime.

There’s a very tenuous link between that fact and today’s card, and maybe it’s so tenuous I should give a prize for the person who guesses it correctly, but since I can’t read your comments until later, I don’t think that will work. I’ll just have to tell you. The tenuous link is modern convenience.

Click for print-sized image.

I mean really, when I first had that disc camera with the little mirror on the front for self-portraits (that were never, ever flattering) and I had to change the film every twelve shots, I never would have guessed that someday a computer could tell me that this was my best picture. Of course, I wouldn’t have believed that I would have camera accessories that weighed more than that original camera either. Nor that none of those accessories would be film. Who knew?

xlovesx

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With any luck, I’ll be up in the sky right about now, on my way to sunny California. It’s a place of many good cupcake bakeries and many excellent scrapbooking stores. And also many overpriced hotels. Although our winters are technically pretty mild (what is that white stuff you people speak of? The only white stuff we have here is called ‘fog’.) I am really relishing the opportunity for a few days without needing a wool coat. Not a lot of days. Just one or two will do me fine.

Also, I am hoping some lovely people will come order stamps, of course!

But enough blathering from me! Here’s something for you to blather about instead.

click for print-size image

If you can squint to see that photo, I am the S with 103. I have broken 100 three times in my life. Despite once playing in a league (okay, I was filling in because someone cancelled and my friends didn’t want to forfeit the rest of the season, but still! it was a league!) I am not at all good at bowling. Plus I am severely inconsistent. Like if I bowl two games in a row, one will be a 42 and the other will be 101. True story.

Mostly I like bowling because there are usually dance machines in the same place.

xlovesx

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A little blue hedgehog asks ‘how are you?’ and I reply:
->I’m a little tired and a little too awake.
->I’m quite excited and a little nervous.
->I’m a little flummoxed as to how to correctly pack for two very different sets of weather conditions.
->I’m very grateful that someone else around here is techno-savvy and can do things like make our UK satnav know the roads in America. Because I get lost. A lot.
->I’m looking forward to sitting back and watching some movies tomorrow but I will probably feel like I should be doing something more practical.
->I’m still in love with hedgehogs.

{Grandma, I still don’t have a garden for my hedgehog to be in, but I am now claiming the park as my own. Everyone else seems to. But I don’t think ‘There’s a Hedgehog in my Park’ sounds nearly so nice as ‘There’s a Hedgehog in my Garden’. Nor does ‘There’s a Hedgehog on my Balcony’. Plus that would be quite wrong, unless the hedgehog grew wings or is being held captive. Clearly, we need a garden for the hedgehog. I have tried explaining this to someone and he keeps mumbling about seeing what happens to the housing market. So we’ll see.}

Hmmm. Maybe little blue hedgehog just wanted me to say ‘I’m fine; how are you?’

As promised: a little card related to yesterday’s exercise, but the end result is very different. And today’s little trick? You really can find plenty of ways to use lists. It’s not cheating, it’s not a shortcut. It’s your writing and some days you will choose to write that way. Here is a little list you might find interesting, if you appreciate quirky literary trivia.

Click for print-sized image.

Would love to see if you make something with this one. Tomorrow it will be time for something completely different.

xlovesx

PS: Look up at the top of your screen. I finally gave my blog a name. Silly, I know.

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Every year I quietly resolve to write real letters and every year I quietly fail. It’s the 6th of February and I haven’t written anything that started with ‘dear’ and included a postage stamp. I can rattle off a string of people I want to write to…people who deserve more than the convenience of e-mail, people I wish I saw more often. And still, no letters.

I have plenty of stationery. And if I just stopped thinking of other things that ‘need’ to be done, some days I really could write real letters. I have no excuse.

Clearly that’s why I’m posting it here, so I will not quietly fail this year, because one or two of you are bound to remember and in June I’ll be blogging away about how I’ve decided to take a three day weekend and sit in the park with a good book and you’ll tell me to pick up the flipping stationery and write a real letter. You will be right and I will be ever so thankful that you said so. So that’s why I’m saying this here. We’re all clear on that now.

As for why it’s related to today’s little notecard, admit it: you could do with writing a little letter now and then too. (Just nod and agree. It’ll make me feel better, and you’re all polite like that.)

click for print-sized card.

The trick for today is not to overthink, just review. Dear ___, Today was a nice day and I… Love, ___. That’s all for now. Nice and easy. No right, no wrong.

You know, that’s one of the best reasons to teach English instead of some other subjects: so rarely is there an actual wrong answer. Which is its own little kind of peace.

xlovesx

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I’ve been carrying around this little tote bag recently that says ‘Happiness comes from within your heart, not your surroundings’. I carry it because I do believe it has some truth, and also because it is an lovely shade of aqua with a picture of girl in a polka-dot forest. Admittedly the picture may have a bit more weight than the saying. This has been bothering me.

I think I have figured it out though…if you are the type of person who likes to make stuff when you are happy, then the happiness comes from your heart at goes into your surroundings. That makes sense, right? Because recently I am feeling very happy but I also have a crazy need to (re)decorate my surroundings constantly. Sometimes physically. Many more times mentally. Because daydreaming is easier than moving the furniture.

Pictures of rooms shout moods to me—like this one shouts happy and this one shouts calm, though it does shout quietly. This one shouts ‘Please come make awesome cookies in here with the perfect colour of sprinkles’, but that’s an entirely different story.

If you like for rooms and arrangements of pretty things to shout at you, but in a good and polite and well-meaning way, you might like to download this lovely compilation of what inspires a variety of creative people. It’s in words and pictures and it’s ever so sweet. I found it thanks to Creature Comforts which I have found extra inspiring as of late. I think there’s plenty to see there that can influence creativity without moving the furniture. It’s the same way we move bits of ribbon and paper and ink around another piece of paper until we like it. Our rooms are much smaller, but then again, my back is pretty happy I lift stickers more often than I lift bookshelves. Yours will be too.

Inspiration is a funny thing—we know it is everywhere and yet when we need it most it can be nowhere. When I looked back at what I had planned for today’s little card, it reminded me of this ode by Pablo Neruda. So I found it online and read it and it gives me goosebumps, and yet it’s just about something normal and everyday. I am hit and miss with Neruda—some things I adore, others I don’t find so inspiring at all, but I think that’s because my everyday is not his everyday and that’s the beauty of it. Which leads us, in far too grand a way, to this little card:

Click for print-sized image.

I would really suggest trying this with an object that inspires you. Visually, like that chair I’ve still got stuck in my head. Physically, like how to this day I feel better after I drink purple grape juice. Maybe practical inspiration from an item that makes your day-to-day life easier or comfort inspiration like a grown-up version of your favourite teddy bear. Since the nice thing about inspiration is that once you find it, it keeps on giving for a little while more.

xlovesx

PS: That’s the woodgrain stamp you could maybe see in the package of the first sneak peek. Please be prepared that I will use this stamp far more than I should over the next year. I am half tempted to use it on the walls in my bathroom. Really.

PPS: For those who are having trouble printing the cards at 4×6, don’t just hit print from your browser. That will make it full page or bigger. Instead, save the image to your computer, then open it like a photo. Then click to print and say you want a 4×6 print, just like you would print a photograph. Obviously that can vary from program to program but you should be able to print it at a size that will work for you and not waste all your ink!

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My favourite word in the English language is cataclysmic. Not for its meaning, which is actually pretty sad and dire. But because it is so beautiful to say. Cataclysm is okay, but it isn’t nearly as fun as cataclysmic. For fifteen years, I have been finding ways to work cataclysmic into conversations just because I like to say it. And I am perfectly fine with that.

Unfortunately I was not very subtle when I started that effort. I was on my school’s debate team and I could find seven or eight cataclysmic things in every round, no matter which side of the argument we happened to be discussing. My debate partner happened to like the word linkage, and between us we could always find some linkage between the other team’s ideas for global change and one or two cataclysmic results that would shake the world for the worse. Better yet, we could say all this while keeping a very straight face. But today, if anyone says linkage, I will fall about laughing and be unable to explain this except to say ‘you had to be there’.

A few years later I realised I had a friend who would always order the focaccia, then quickly change her mind and order something else. It turned out she didn’t actually like focaccia. She just thought it was fun to say.

I’m guessing now that you’re either in our camp and you have a word or two that you love to say, or you’re ready to click your way out of here to some sane website where people do not like words for their mixture of clattering consonants. Fine, be that way. We will call you vagarious or crotchety in your absence. Not because we mean it. Just because it will be fun to say, clearly.

Actually, you needn’t worry if you don’t have a favourite word. You just need a word that will work for a particular photo or event. I chose content, which has a much better meaning than cataclysmic, even if content isn’t as fun to say. It’s also easier to spell.

Click for print-sized image, and remember to tell your printer to print 4×6 size, like a photo.

A couple of you have asked for a blank card so you can write on something that matches—so here is one of those!

Happy writing…you know, you could even do this with your one little word if you fancied it. (More info on that idea here, if you’re not familiar.

xlovesx

PS: all the red stamps on that layout are from one of my sets for Banana Frog. It’s called Circus Stories, and also has that polka-dotted journaling box I used on yesterday’s layouts. The letter stamp is also from BF, but from an existing alpha called Willing Race. I use that set all the time and it always looks great.

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You know how I kept saying there was news about CHA (the big trade show for the craft industry, which is just a week away) but I couldn’t explain just yet? I think this might just explain it. This weekend I got to hold these in my actual hands and get all giddy because I designed them. Yep—that little set of five stamps is my own little collection from Banana Frog, and those five will be joined by a bunch more stamps plus Bev and I in booth 324 at CHA. That’s the new exhibitors section because it’s the big American launch for Banana Frog, and I must admit I am quite excited. I know it’s just five little sets but it’s a big deal for me and I hope someone out there likes them. So that’s the explaining, pretty much.

And since this is the week before CHA, you should now go to your favourite scrapbook store and tell them you want to buy these stamps! Well…it can’t hurt to ask, right? I’ll see if I can show you a few little peeks at the actual designs as we go this week…I’m sure you’ll be sick of me using them soon enough!

Never fear, we’ll get back to the journaling now. This exercise is short enough that it can fit in a little journaling box or you can extend it for lines and lines. It’s one that works well with a photo in mind, so it’s quick from rough draft in your notebook to final copy in your scrapbook. And give you a chance at winning one of those kid versus adult game shows too.

When I drafted out my ideas for twenty-nine journaling prompts, I didn’t intend to make them into an English lesson. Really I didn’t. I promise. But sometimes I found it just happened that way. So today we’re writing with prepositions. But it’s so much easier than that sounds, okay? It’s all just words. And in fact, prepositions are some of the easiest words to use—it’s just that sometime after the seventh grade we forget that they have a special name. That’s all.

Click for print-sized card.

Oh come on, you knew there would be at least one cupcake. There just might be several.

xlovesx

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A month into 2008, and this project is still going strong. This page is probably my favourite so far, but I can’t take any credit for the design. It is a little strange to lift projects, but these are pages just for my albums and most importantly, the process of using the inspiration from the calendar each day without reinventing the wheel has meant that pretty much every day I have a layout done by 8am. When I started, I hoped it would act like a little warm up in the mornings, and most days it does exactly that: after I put the calendar page away, I am in a groove to start working on other projects and I’m far less likely to find other things that ‘need’ my attention around the house. We’ll see if that’s a good thing or a bad one in the long run!

I just wanted to share this with you because it links to today’s journaling exercise. That photo of The Boy was taken during the holidays. He spends an awful lot of time and energy every year telling me that he is not a fan of the holidays. Too much stress, too much fuss, too much disappointment when life has to get back to normal. And I’m pretty much the opposite. So I just listen and say the necessary ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ and go on with Christmas.

But then I get a picture like this and I have to think ‘yeah right’. This boy hates the holidays? Somehow I don’t think he’s totally accurate on that one.

Click for print-sized card.

The trick for today is that using someone else’s words to start your journaling can make it much easier to get on a roll. After you try it with the words of a friend or member of the family, you might be able to try something similar with a favourite quotation as a lead in to your own words on a related subject.

So today is your chance to find something you hear too often that makes you roll your eyes or otherwise think ‘yeah right’ or any other response that you would like to set straight for once and for all. Be it that you think secretly, someone really does enjoy the holidays or you want to put it right that there are various definitions for ‘clean room’ in your house and it’s only your definition that counts. Whatever it is, it’s time to set the record straight.

xlovesx

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