Retreat at Timberline Ranch

I can hardly wait - next weekend my scrapping buddy, Maria, and I will be attending a scrapbooking retreat at Timberline Ranch in Maple Ridge.

It has been almost 2 years since I was away at a retreat!

I don't care that they have only bunk beds - I won't be spending much time in my bed anyways! With the crop room open 24 hours a day - who wants to waste time sleeping when they can be scrapping!

I am getting all my pictures organized - I want to pre-plan a lot of the pages, so that I don't have to carry my entire scrap room with me to the retreat. Hopefully, Maria will do the same, otherwise we might have to hire a utility trailer to take all our stuff with us. ;o)

Only seven more days until we get away for a nice break!

Happy Scrapping!

Brenda

99-in-09 is On for 2009!

With the close of Remember Me Scrapbooking, I thought that we would no longer have our "xx-in-xx" club running - but Pick of the Patch that has opened up in the store front where Remember Me was - has carried on the club.

So.... "99-in-09" will meet of the 3rd Thursday of each month in the crop room at Pick of the Patch.

I am really happy that this has been able to carry on - just to have a goal in mind for the year gives you something to shoot for. Getting together gives you a chance to meet up with other scrapping enthusiasts and check out what interesting layouts they have been working on.

See you at 99-in-09!! Happy Scrapping!

88-in-08 is Over for 2008

Well, we wrapped up the 88-in-08 club last Thursday.

I have to say that I did not come any where near my goal of triple 88, like I did "triple 77" last year. This year has been a lot different, with lots of stress and I am finding that it is telling in my scrapping.

I am hoping now that Pick of the Patch is taking up where Remember Me left off, that I will get back into the swing of things. I really missed the Friday night crowd scrapping - I need my estrogen fix.

So, if I did my reach my personal goal for 88-in-08 - there is always next year - 99-in-09 - maybe I can 'triple' that one??

Happy Scrapping,

Brenda

Scrapbooking through it all

Well, I was reminded over the weekend why it is so important to take the time to take the pictures and write down the stories of our family.

We lost one of nephews in a car accident. He was only 21 and just starting out in life. He was very special to us as we used to to 'rent-a-baby' when he was just a few months old to give his parents a break. We used to take him, his younger brother and our eldest away camping every year with visits to Dinotown and Victoria.

When he was three years old, he was our ring bearer at our wedding and one of the pictures that I love most from our wedding, was the shot of the little boy in a grey tux, standing inbetween my hubby-to-be and his best man - both of them 6'3"+ - so tiny in his matching suit.

So this week, I will be combing through all my photos and pulling out the photos of Ryan Michael Johnson so that we can tell the story of a life ended too soon.

And, in my scrapbook, I will leave a place to put memorial pages for him - so that my children can remember their cousin and the fun times we had together.

Scrapbooking is not only about the good times, it is about the bad times too and everything inbetween - don't forget to include everything as these are the chronicals of our lives. Scrapbooking helps us get through it all.

Take care,

Brenda

Getting back at it....

Well the kids are back in school and the summer is winding down - time to get back into scrapping.

It has been a long time since I managed to sit down and do some scrapping, but last night I had a couple of my buddies over to get going again. We brought out all our stuff, but as we have not seen each other since before the summer, I have to say that we did more chatting that scrapping. It always takes a little while to get back into the groove.

As we no longer have Friday nights are RM, we will be doing our own Friday night crops - just moving from house to house with the occasional store thrown in. Not quite the same, but at least we are still scrapping!!

I need to get some supplies - completely out of Xyron glue and all that I managed to do last night was use my Cricut to cut out a title that I now need to glue down - I guess that I will have to stop somewhere today to pick it up.....

I am looking forward to spending more time doing the hobby I love.

Happy Scrapping!

The End of an Era

The recent news that Remember Me Scrapbooking will be closing down shortly is certainly sad news indeed.

Due to health issues, Dianna has decided to close down to focus her energies on herself and her family. I can understand completely where she is coming from.

Just a few thoughts on things that I will miss and memories about Remember Me:

• the staff - they make it feel like family
• Friday night Free-4-All crops at the store with all the people in the Scrap Loft
• 30-hour crops - you sort of get real silly in the middle of the night with Dianna
• teaching classes at the store
• taking my son into the store when he was young for him to pick out some paper and spending the next hour happlily playing with the die cut machines. Dianna would ask him how much he had spent that day and he would pipe up with something like "$2.93" and he was usually right on the money.
• the people who I have met at the store who have now become good friends - including the staff

All, in all, it is hard to believe that I have going to the store for nine years - the store has been my escape, my estrogen-fix in my testosterone laden world.

My skills as a scrapbooker have grown considerably during those years - from rank beginner to teaching at the store.

I want to thank Dianna for those years and the fun that we have had along the way. Take care of yourself and I will be thinking of you lots. See you in Scrabulous!

Happy Scrapping!

Thirty Years - Very Hard to Believe

This weekend I will be heading over to Victoria to meet up with some of my fellow high school classmates to celebrate the 30th anniversary of graduating. I know that I don't feel like 30 years has passed since that June when I walked out of the doors of St. Margaret's Girls School and into the 'real' world.

I have already packed my camera to document this milestone event and I will be scrapbooking adding this to my personal scrapbook - the past and the present.

I guess you are only as old as you feel - hopefully, I don't look as old as I am!

Happy Scrapping!