A slight retraction

As I continue through my scrapbooks in search of layouts for this blog, I came across this 2-page layout which is sort of Shenandoah National Park. Now in a previous blog post I mentioned that my first set of NP layouts was Gettysburg. Which chronologically is true. However, what I realized as I took the photo of this spread is that this was the first layout I actually made about a national park.

When my niece was born in 2000, my sister decided we should learn to scrapbook. I had toyed with the idea a bit but didn't really understand it. However, I bought a scrapbook album kit and went to a crop at her friend's house. The consultant said I should start with the photos that I had most recently taken and that would include a weekend trip to Virginia for Memorial Day Weekend. We walked through Luray Caverns and then chose to drive along Skyline Drive. We did not understand how long it would take to see everything while making all the scenic overlook stops so we probably saw about 1/3rd of the road during this trip before heading home.

Technically, the only national park photos are the ones on the right page as the cloud formations were taken from our hotel room in New Market. I'm actually pleased with the composition of the photos considering how early this was in my scrapbooking life. The scrapbooking technique used here is called "wallpaper"--you simply use 2 background papers as the backdrop for all the photos. I chose this pale blue to represent the sky, and between that and the clouds, I think the top turned out fairly well. I wish I had matched the flowers on the left and right pages. I do like symmetry. Also, if I had to do it over, I would do something to stretch out the grass and place them more evenly across the 2 pages.

The page looks unusual because I ended up tearing the first scrapbook apart and using Creative Memories pages. The original CM pages were not quite 12x12, but the paper was. So there is a bit of paper overlapping the CM page edges and that's where the edges are getting worn even with a page protector.

What is most interesting to me is the fact that I layered photos. This is something I still struggle with today as I inherently want everything to be distinct. (I also don't like food touching on my plate so perhaps there is a correlation there). A couple weekends ago I participated in a scrapbook challenge to put more than 8 pictures on one page or more than 12 on 2 pages. I ended with a 2-page spread of 14 photos. After struggling with placement I realized I would need to stack the photos and it was as strange to me today after years of experience as ever. So I guess my take away is that everyone has room for growth.

Back to the Mall

Another trip to DC. This one is with my husband Jim. It was an extremely cold weekend and I'm surprised we got to see so many things outdoors. This is our first look at the Korean War Veterans Memorial and though you can't see it in the photos below, when we arrived it was foggy. You really felt like part of the patrol.

On the left page I made a border with what I think is a "Fast Formulas" design from Creative Memories. The red accents really work with the photos but I think I could do a better job with the title. As I noted earlier--more footprints! I had several pages of these so I know I used them on a lot of pages.

A Taste of the Big Apple

Time for my next installment which is a one-page layout of a trip my mom, sister Sue and I took to New York City in May 1998. This would have been a birthday trip as my mom and Sue share the same birthday in May. Unfortunately it rained ALL DAY and we had no other plans but to walk around the city. We started with a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty. You can tell this is pre-9/11 because there was no security and no need for tickets as I recall. We simply got in line and waited our turn to walk up the statue. As you can see, we are all pretty wet. Still, it was a fun day.

In terms of the layout, there isn't much "technique" here other than some rain stickers--ok, a LOT of rain stickers. The blue accents bring out the chill of the day, so that worked well. It sort of looks like I stole a piece of the photo mat to make the title and in hindsight the photo would probably look better with a full mat. Additionally, I think I could improve the title strip a little--but overall I'm still happy with this layout.

Next up--a return to DC!

A couple of "firsts"

I have researched my scrapbooks and my first page of a National Park visit is this 2-page layout to Gettysburg in 1988. My Uncle Larry and his family came to visit from Texas, and we took a family trip. This is not my first ever visit to a national park--I know that my family took a trip to DC in 1976, but I don't seem to have any photos of that trip.

What I like about this layout is the fence I created out of paper strips. I also like the ivy letters (and I think I still have a few to use). I do wish that I had been better at placing the letters in a straight line though. Like many layouts from this era (and I'm guessing I created this around 2000-2002) there is a lot of white on the page. I think I could have put a little more paper behind the photos. But overall the composition is pleasing.

A couple of pages later, I found this layout from a trip to DC (which I am including here in order to tie in my first visit to any national park). My brother and I went specifically to see something at the art museum though I don't remember what. We also walked over to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and I remember buying a poster of the wall. We parked outside the city and rode the Red Line from Shady Grove. I still remember the sound of the conductor reciting "This is the Red Line to Shady Grove" on the way back to the car. I wish I could record that sound here--probably the one drawback to scrapbooking.

The technique I used here is called "Between the Lines". I created a double border with design lines top and bottom and then filled the middle with small decorative stickers. The title sticker worked well for this technique and then I matched the stars and stripes along the bottom. This may be the first use of the footprint path, but definitely will not be the last.

Overall I like this page though again I think I could have used more paper under the photos.

So that's my first entry. Stay tuned to see how my scrapbooking progresses!

Changing directions

So to begin 2017 I thought I would take the blog in a new direction. I don't really have that many culinary epiphanies and I DO love to scrapbook and visit national parks. So what is going to start happening soon (within the first few weeks anyway) is this blog is going to be a place for me to post my scrapbook pages of my national park trips. I will start by going back to the archives of my scrapbooks done in the early 2000s. I hope to describe the trip and any important points about the construction of the scrapbook pages. For the early ones it may be "if I did it over I would....". So I hope you join me on my journey and let me know your thoughts!

Don't Do It Yourself

I am a big fan of cooking from scratch. I'm rather proud of my knife skills (learned through watching chefs on TV so probably still a little rough, but it suits me). And I love shopping at the local farmer's market where I can get locally grown produce and other delicacies. One of my favorite "other" merchants is a spice shop where I can get just about anything dried.

That being said, I recently purchased some items from the Tastefully Simple line which were purported to make dinner preparation a breeze--and they turned out to be right! Their "Onion Onion" flavoring mixed with various other ingredients has really made a tasty addition to our evening meals. So when I ran out I thought I could make my own to "save" time and the effort of seeing who was having a party so I could order more. But, after pricing the dried ingredients at the shop mentioned above it turns out that it is actually cheaper to order it through Tastefully Simple.

Lesson--sometimes you DON'T have to do it yourself!

Half-baked idea

My husband is not the best cook. I actually had to teach him how to boil water for pasta. I am not making this up. So there are limits to what I can ask him to do if I'm running late from work. To make things a bit easier, frozen pizza used to be a staple of the freezer. Until I learned that grocery stores stock bags of pre-mixed pizza dough--already proofed (proven?) and ready to roll out and bake. Now rolling dough is still a bit above my husband's skill level so what I do is buy 3 or 4 bags at a time and spend an hour or two par-baking the dough. Roll out the dough to your favorite thickness and shape (I prefer rectangular) and bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This bakes most of the dough but leaves it a little room to finish once the toppings are on. I stack them with parchment paper between and wrap in non-stick foil and put in the freezer. Now I can call and have him pull a crust out of the freezer, top with jarred pasta sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. He bakes that for another 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and by that time, I'm home and ready to eat!