scrapbooker's blog tour: tagged!

i have been tagged by the lovely evie erickson at artful scrapbooking to participate in the scrapbookers' blog tour.  what a fun concept!  i always love hearing a little more about what my favorite scrapbookers are interest in at the moment.  i am a little late to the party, per usual (sorry, evie!), but here goes . . .
 

1.What am I working on right now?

good question!  at the moment, nothing.  i want to be working on some pocket pages, but haven't found any motivation.  or maybe that's not true.  maybe fall is a really busy time of year.  hmmm.  but, anyway, i'd like to make accompanying pocket pages for the layouts i created with my september jbs mercantile kits.  and then, my october jbs mercantile kits are ready to be picked up tomorrow.  it's always such fun to get my hands on new product.  i foresee some paper playing for this weekend.  maybe i will have a little peek to share with you soon.

2. How long does it take me to create a project?

an hour is a fast and focused layout.  this happens rarely.  pages can take days.  i tend to get the design part, the part that i love, done quickly and then a page can wait days for things like adhering, stitching, stamping, journaling, etc. to happen.  as you can imagine, this is a problematic habit in a feline household.  i often find little bits of my in progress pages scattered and in need of reassembly before the page is finally complete.

3. What are my favorite things to create at the moment?

last year i would have said my project life album pages.  i was so driven by my first year in that arena.  this year i am in love with layouts once more.  they are just so much more expressive.
2014 must be a contemplative year for me.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

i begin with the photos.  i think of what story, thoughts, or emotions i want to share with them.  then i begin  designing a page around that.  i find that i tell over half my story through color and theme.  this is the artistic side of scrapbooking for me.  i love conveying emotion through design.  

5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired?

photos and the stories they tell are my inspiration.  i think i stay inspired through the social outlet of scrapbooking.  the scrapbooking community filled a huge void in my life ten years ago when i was alone with a newborn.  i will be forever grateful for the friendships i made at that time in my life that have supported and sustained me in so many ways.  i know one of my scrappy friends, christy strickler, brought this point up in episode #2 of the digi scrap geek (and, no, i am not a digi scrap geek, but inspiration is everywhere!).  knowing scrappy friends are scrapping is motivating.  i like to hang out on the get it scrapped! forums for this reason.  there are lots of scrappy peeps hanging out there who i relate to.

6. What is my signature style?

sometimes, i think style is over rated.  i like what i like.  i feel no need to conform, and yet, i feel no need to deliberately rebel.  i just do what comes naturally.  that being said, i am also very much a freedom loving organic scrapbooker.  i'm never particularly happy with a page that doesn't have an easy flow about it.  but then, as i said earlier, i do adore design.  i studied it quite a bit when i first started scrapbooking and do not like my pages to have glaring design flaws.  what can i say?  i am a series of contradictions and my pages show it.  :)

thanks so much for inviting me to share, evie!

quality literature: the heritage of shannara series

i have been into the series books lately.  when i want a little "ignore my world" time, it's easier to get absorbed in another world if there are three or four books to keep me occupied for a good amount of time.  housework is so over rated.  i had read and thoroughly loved the first shannara series when i was in high school, so when i noticed a section of them in the library of the high school where i teach, i decided to make a return trip to shannara.  terry brooks did not disappoint.  the first book was a typical intro to a series book that introduced all the characters and their tasks and set the stage for an epic tale.  the second and third books were like his original series in that they were stand alone tales that fit within the larger story.  i especially enjoyed the second, the druid of shannara.  the storyline and extra characters involved in this one were fantastic.  and then, of course, the last book wrapped up the adventure nicely with a battle and a victory.  i ripped through all four books in five days.  the housework was graciously awaiting me upon my return.  and now you know why i didn't read during g's early years.  it's okay to ignore my housework, but not my child.  :)

cedars of lebanon state park: mushroom hunt

we did actually make it back to cedars of lebanon state park this morning.  i did not, however, get rewarded with gorgeous early morning sunlight.  our walk in the woods was under a densely clouded sky.  goodness.  it was bordering on darkish.  the hike quickly became an easter egg hunt for me with mushrooms standing in for the eggs.  they were everywhere!  i was bringing up the rear and had to run to catch up several times as i kept getting caught up in fungus photography.  i was just a little sad at the quality of my photos when i got them home and uploaded.  i didn't realize till over halfway through the hike that my camera settings were off.  plus, i really just need to buy a new 50mm.  i've been making due with my old kit lens since my last 50mm broke, but really there is nothing like having the 50mm's aperture in lighting conditions such as these.  ah well.  i'm sure you will think there are sufficient mushroom pictures for one post anyway.

 

cedars of lebanon state park

look!   i caught a photo of the hummingbird moth again this year!  is this exciting, or what?!  you can see my first ever sighting last year HERE.  the bee balm that he is enjoying is a little past its prime, but this is more of a close up than last year.  gosh!  can't wait till next spring to try for another!  i love this sort of thing.

these were all taken at a trip to one of our local state parks, cedars of lebanon.  we have three state parks just within a 15 minute radius of our home.  how lucky are we?  we are actually going to this one again with our cub scouts for a hike in the morning.  although i'm not so keen on the early hour, i'm trying to encourage myself by thinking of the nice early morning light and the change in scenery due to the changing seasons.  there is always something new to see in the great outdoors.

this is not the best photo of the underbelly of a spider, but i sure loved the bokah in the background.

fascinating foliage.

queen anne's lace is such a trooper.  from early spring straight through to fall it blooms.  amazing.

we found lots of blackberries this trip.

the boys decided it might be illegal to pick them at a state park.  i think they were secretly excited about breaking the law.  they sure were nervous when we had to walk past a park ranger with berry stained hands and clothing.

another thing i like about our state parks is that there is always a bit of history.  this one has more than most as it was part of the state park system formed with the public works initiative program during the great depression.  i'm going to try my best to finally make wpa day this year.  it looks to be a good one!

homer's farm: a ride

on our last trip to homer's farm, we took a ride in the back of his pickup as he was scouting out good spots for more bee hives.  there is so much beauty on this unspoiled 150 acres.

more seed pods everywhere you look.  summer is getting ready to transition to fall.

i wanted to get a better pic of this guy, but he was gone on the return trip.

homer was allowing cattle to be kept on the farm, but has decided to get rid of all of them in favor of more bees.  the rest of these photos show how nature is reclaiming the rich soil in the old cattle pens.

i am fascinated by the difference in perspective between the horizontal and vertical photos here.

i must make homer take me on a farm joy ride in the spring!  or goodness, even this fall!