To My Sister - Thank You for Introducing Me to Scrapbooking

My sister, Sandra (aka S.A.M.), introduced me to scrapbooking over 10 years ago. I don't know if I ever thanked her for that or not - but it has become a very big portion of my life and a major creative outlet for me.

Last year, I did a layout that featured early pictures of the two of us. Click here to see the post about the layout.

On March 1st, 2009, Sandra passed away, a day before her 47th birthday, after a 7.5 year long battle with ovarian cancer. She continued to fight right up until the end, but the dreaded disease proved to be too much for her.

For her service, Ruth (Sandra's BFF) and I created a unique guest book for everyone to sign - a 8x8 scrapbook with pictures through the years of her life. That way the people who attended did not just sign their name on a line, but could pick a picture that might represent the time or place in Sandra's life that they knew her, but also write a note or two either to Sandra or us.

After the service, reading the notes left by everyone was both hard and good at the same time. To be able to have a record of all the wonderful things that people had to say about my sister is a great comfort and I will treasure the book forever.

I will at some point in the future, do memorial pages for Sam, when I am able to (to join the ones for our parents).

Scrapbooking has always been a way for me to preserve my family history and the stories that go along with the photos, and that is even more important now. My sons will be able to remember their aunt, who loved them very much, and whose life ended much too soon.

So, if I haven't said it before - thank you Sam for introducing me to scrapbooking - it has been a blessing and a way to carrying on through all the tough times....

Brenda

Retreat at Timberline - How it Went

Well, Maria and I had a good time at Timberline - not much sleep for various reasons, but a good time. One of the highlights was meeting and getting to know Jessie from "Cherish the Thought".

I managed to get 22 pages done!! Not bad.

I have to say that pre-kitting my pages made a really big difference - both on the speed that I was able to get going on things and just the amount of stuff that I did not need to take with me. On top of that, I ensured that I used my stash first!!

Before the retreat, I had spent quite a bit of time sorting my pictures and gathering any cardstock and pattern papers that I already had on hand and placing them in 12x12 plastic bags. If I had enlargements, I included them as well - so all I needed to do was to pull out the next package and I was off and running.

I also used a form from Creating Keepsakes - a 'to do' form that had space for the title, and if the photos and/or paper was there waiting. I found this to be a big help as it kept me organized.

Now I just need to keep going and I might even catch up to 2006 or even 2007 this year!!

Happy Scrapping,

Brenda

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!