Scrapbook Weekend

I haven't been doing a lot of stitching lately. I'm getting ready for a three-day scrapbooking weekend coming up on the 29th, so I've been busy sorting through and packing up the stuff I need to take with me while also trying to lay out some pages ahead of time. Other than the beach chipboard album, I haven't really scrapbooked since July. I'm planning to work on my second daughter's first year album (never mind the fact that she just turned three). It will be about 40 pages and I've never completed more than 35 pages or so at one of these weekends, but I'm going to try my hardest to complete the whole album this weekend. I hope to have some photos of finished pages to post when I return.

Sand Pail Scrapbook Album

On Saturday, I was finally able to exchange Christmas gifts with my girlfriends, which means I can finally post pictures of the scrapbook I made for my friend Wendy. They own a condo at the beach and spend a lot of time there, so she has tons of pictures of her daughter Meghan at the beach. I found this little sand pail chipboard album from Art Blanche and decided to make a little mini-album for Wendy featuring pics of Meghan. I had never worked on a scrapbook album like this before, but I think it turned out pretty good for a first try. I used paint as a base on the chipboard and then most pages have the background paper Mod Podge'd on. That could be painfully slow sometimes. When I had time to scrapbook, I wanted to keep moving, but I had to wait for the Mod Podge to dry first. Then I just used different beach and summer-themed papers and stickers, with a few tags and ribbons thrown in here and there.

Now that I have this first one under my belt, I'm anxious to try some more mini-albums. I have two I bought last year to scrapbook my daughter playing basketball and softball, plus one shaped like a cupcake to scrapbook birthdays.

2009 Reading List

Every year when I post my reading list, I complain about not having enough time to read, blah, blah, blah. Well, this year I have no excuses. After being laid off the second week of the year, I should have been able to read more this year than ever before (and perhaps some more quality reading, but earlier in the year, I become slightly obsessed with Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood after we got digital cable). But, on the plus side, one of the reasons I didn't read as much (other than watching way too much television) is that I was busy doing crafty things instead. I did more cross stitching in 2009 than I have ever done and I also did a lot of scrapbooking in the beginning of the year. So I'm stating here that one of my resolutions is to go back to reading at least 25 books a year. Here's the 2009 list:

1. Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein
2. Show No Fear by Perri O’Shaughnessy
3. Dead Connection by Alafair Burke
4. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson
5. A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
6. What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman
7. The Dirty Secrets Club by Meg Gardiner
8. The Turnaround by George Pelecanos
9. Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian
10. Death’s Half Acre by Margaret Maron
11. The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid
12. Multiple Blessings by Kate Gosselin
13. The Way Home by George Pelecanos
14. The Coal Tattoo by Silas House
15. The King of Lies by John Hart
16. Down River by John Hart
17. Angel’s Tip by Alafair Burke
18. Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
19. Borderline by Nevada Barr
20. The Dark Room by Minette Walters
21. sTORI Telling by Tori Spelling