Graduation Gift

I made this mini-album for a graduating senior. Kelsey is going to be an English major and has been the editor of her high school's literary magazine. I wanted to give her a special gift that would allow her to incorporate her journaling and/or photos into this mini-album. I included rub-ons that highlighted key words and sayings that I believe will be beneficial to her as she moves forward in her career.

Back on Track

Hello all!
I'm sure many of you were wondering if I had dropped off the planet. I haven't. I didn't realize that life had taken control for this long. Here's a bulleted update of all that's been going on with me.

* I finished my spring grad course and got an A+. I was so pleased with the outcome of the course and when it was all said and done, it was well worth the work i put into it. I'm hoping to work with my professor on an article and maybe do some consulting work with her in the fall.

* Graduation went well. It about put me under the table while I was trying to manage the end of school, a new grad class, and problems with my summer program. It was a beautiful ceremony. It occurred on Friday, June 13th and, in true Friday the 13th form, the panic alarm went off in the building three different times prior to the ceremony. The IT director finally cut the wire to the alarm system. Apparently, someone had pushed panic buttons on three different floors and the system was confused to the point that the security company couldn't reset it. But, in the end, it was wonderful.

* My summer program was filled with problems from the beginning. In the middle of May at orientation I realized my point of contact had not been doing his job. The majority of the students had not been placed with mentors. I was a wreck, because this is the one part of my summer mentorship program of which I have no control. And, you know how much I hate to be out of control. I had to go over his head and just pray. In the end all of the kids have been placed. I'm midway through the program and all is going well. It's an excellent group of kids and I love having them here.

* I started a new online grad course toward the end of May. It was on special education. I love the online class process, but a summer school class was not what I should have been doing when I was consumed with so many other things. I pushed through it and finished it with an A+. I wasn't as pleased with the content and rigor of this course, but one more course off my checklist toward my supervision and administration endorsement.

That's about the bulk of the update. I'm still at my summer program and will be here till July 19th. Then I head to Charlottesville for a few days. I'll get to see Daughtry in an acoustic concert. I can't wait for that. Chris Daughtry is from Fluvanna county and does a concert in Charlottesville each year. I'm just glad we got tickets. At the end of July, I'll be headed to Camp Hill, PA for a four-day scrapbooking weekend. I can't wait for that. I'll get to see a lot of friends I only get to see once a year.

I hope everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from you.

I'd just like to give a couple of shout outs to a couple of friends:
* Congrats to Jill for making the callback to the Chatterbox design team.
* Congrats to Kate for her new business in Digg Deeper mini books kit club.
I wish you both the best of luck!!!!

Sample Chatterbooks

I thought I would share some of the mini-albums I have been working on. Each of these is a TLC Chatterbook. They're so easy to put together and make such nice canvases on which to work. I used Glossy Accents on each of the letters to help make the letters pop. I plan on using the "Adore" album for my godchildren. I just haven't had time to get pictures together to fill up this album. Then, the "Friends" album is also for me. I haven't decided how I plan to structure that album yet.

Enjoy!

What I've Been Up To

Well, it's been a crazy few weeks and I haven't been feeling great the last couple of days. Then, I started thinking about everything I've done in the last few weeks. I thought I'd just do a calendar review:

February 11 -- Job Fair
February 12 -- School
February 13 -- Job Fair
February 14 -- Engineering Curriculum Writing at VDOE
February 15 -- Engineering Curriculum Writing at VDOE

February 18 -- Teacher's Workday
February 19 -- Back to school and recovery from being out most of the prior week
February 20 -- School and chauffeur to friend shopping for French exchange program
February 21 -- School during day and class in evening
February 22 -- School and chauffeur to friend whose husband caught the flue and was in charge of the French exchange program
February 23 -- Back to school to help out with the French exchange welcome dinner (set up and dinner)
February 24 -- Back to school to watch "The Wiz"
February 25 -- School
February 26 -- School

Whew! No wonder I feel tired. It's been an emotionally draining time as well. I've tried to take some time for me, but it just doesn't seem to be working out. The positive thing is that the French exchange program is going well and everyone seems happy. So, I'm glad I could help out this past weekend.

I am looking forward to this weekend. I'm going to visit my godson and we're all going to a Cirque du Soleil show. My friends and I have decided to not do "birthday" and "Christmas" for us (the adults). We'll just find other events we want to attend and go. This is our first event of the year. I can't wait. I've been to one Cirque show before, but each one has a different theme. I can't wait to see how this one is.

I haven't had much time to scrap but I'm hoping that will change soon. My eye is on Spring Break at the end of March. I can't wait for some down time. I am making it my goal to complete my scrap room renovation and post a few pictures.

In case I don't get back to post this week, everyone have a good week and I'll chat with you soon!!!

Scrapping Disaster Part 2 & Other Stuff

Well, I have continued to work on organizing my scrapping room. It's really quite sad to see how much stuff I have that I haven't used. What's even sadder is that I haven't bought anything significant since August. But, I did see a glimmer of light yesterday. While trying to figure out the best way to organize my room, I decided to create my own solid cardstock rack out of the wired crate storage units. I accomplished my task and all (that I have found so far) of my 12x12 solid cardstock is organized in rainbow order. As I locate more of my solid cardstock I can simply add it to the rack.

What's great is that even though this is a small goal achieved, I feel great satisfaction. As I am putting all of one thing in a location, I am seeing progress in other parts of the room. I just have not been able to put a lot of time into this project yet. I know patience is a virtue and I will love the end result, but sometimes I wish I were a genie and could blink and have the project completed.

In addition to working on my scrapping room, I started a graduate class this past week. I am working toward getting my administration and supervision endorsement. I think I'm going to like the professor. She is demanding but she wants us to gain something from the class. I personally don't mind hard work if I'm going to see some positive results in the end. I just need to make sure I stay ahead of the curve with respect to my reading and writing assignments.

In the next couple of weeks I'll also start attending some recruitment fairs for our school. I'm the lead person in recruiting faculty for our school. I think I'll be going to three specific education fairs and then try to hit a few of the Career Services offices in other universities. The next six weeks is going to be absolutely, positively crazy.

I also got a good news email today. My new lens for my digital camera is on the road as we speak. I should be getting it Thursday. I absolutely can't wait. I've been using my 35 mm lens on my Nikon D40 and it works, but I don't have access to the automatic features the camera has. Plus, the Nikkor lens I'm getting has received rave reviews. I'll definitely start posting pictures once I get adjusted to my new lens.

Exams started today at school, so half days for students. I'm hoping to keep up with the exam grading, so I'll have little to do on Monday on our teacher workday. I need to get ahead of the curve with respect to a lot of work right now. So, I'll be checking in but I don't know that I'll get more than this one post done for the week.

Scrap Disaster

Well, I finally did it. I finally started ripping apart my front room to get it organized. OH MY!!! Those are the only words I can use to describe what I have started. Instead of looking like only one bomb had been set off, now it looks like three or four have been set off. I have scrapping stuff everywhere. It is embarassing to say the least. (And to the answer the unasked question, "NO, I will not take a picture of it.")

On the positive side, I did put together my metal cubing section the way I wanted it and added another layer to it. I have organized my Sizzix supplies. I did sort through all of the "Stacks" that I have from JoAnns and have started a sizable stack of giveaways. I have an idea of where I want to move some things around.

On the downside, again the best words to describe this are "OH MY!!!" The work I have ahead is tremendous. My goal is to finish my room by next Monday evening. I'll work on it a bit each night and then finish up the bulk of the work on Sunday and Monday. When I'm done, I'll post a picture.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all of the extra "stuff" that I will be giving away. I hate to throw anything away, so I think I'll be looking for some local organizations to give things to. Right now the bulk of what I have is paper and OLD scrapping idea books.

I actually started looking through some of the paper I have and "OH MY!" again. What was I thinking? And, more importantly, how old is this stuff? I think I still have supplies from when I was using mostly CM stuff. The sad part is that I'm not even going through my stickers and stuff yet. I've decided to re-organize the big stuff and then I'll have room to go through the small stuff piece by piece.

Note to Rosa: Rosa, if you're reading this, I have two priority mail boxes of embellishments for Nolan's school. I'm waiting to see if I see you in a couple of weeks before I mail them. Hugs!

I promise I'll have pictures to add in the next few posts. I went to our school's fashion show Friday night and I really want to share some of the talent with you. You will not believe some of these creations.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Family Mini-Album

This year I decided to make a TLC chatter book for my good friends for Christmas. My friends adopted my godson from Guatemala in January 2005. This book represents family pics since that date.

Enjoy!

Online Scrapping Crop at 2 Scrappy Chix Designs

2Scrappychixdesigns is having a FIESTA! crop on Saturday, 19th of January.

This crop is going to be different from others in that YOU will post the layout challenges! Do you have a challenge to share? Come over to 2SCD and share it with us!

Also don't miss online Bingo, hosted by Michele, happening that evening. Last month it was a BLAST!

Inspiration for the New Year

Each year Ali Edwards and many other scrapbookers choose a "word for the year." This word becomes a focus of activities for the new year. As I have been thinking about 2008 and what I want to achieve for the new year, I found it hard to pick just one word. So, I picked three words to reflect how I am feeling right now.

BELIEVE.
FOCUS.
DO.

As I started thinking about my new year's resolutions, I realized that I needed more than one word to reflect what I hope to accomplish this year. As I considered my choices, I selected my words to reflect my goals. So, instead of just picking one word, I decided to create my own "motto" (so to speak). I want to be able to BELIEVE, FOCUS, and DO.

I need to BELIEVE in myself.
I need to FOCUS on the task at hand.
I need to DO whatever is necessary to accomplish my goals.

I am hoping that this year will be filled with positive changes both in my personal as well as professional life. I hope to create works of art through my scrapbooking and even my blog entries that will reflect my current thoughts and feelings. I want to be happy and healthy (mentally and physically) for the new year.

Have a great start to the new week!