Playing hide and seek

Post without pictures is no fun.

Uploading pictures without a cord is impossible.

Finding that thing would change the silent status of the blog, but it's not happening.

When you are looking for something, you're trying to figure out where you used it the last time... Well in my case it was Myrtle Beach, SC. And going there to check if it's there is not an option. I know that the cord is home somewhere, but I just didn't have any luck finding it yet.

Talk to you later.

My photographer...

I just love finding pictures on my camera that I didn't take. And my oldest daughter seems to be pretty good at leaving anonymous photos. Even though she doesn't like to deal with camera settings, that's why she usually shoots in Auto, her images are still really good!

This is one of my favorite pictures she took this week:

And here is my photographer:

I am so glad to share interest in photography with her! That makes me happy!

Thanks for stopping by! See you soon :)

Myrtle Beach updates

"The best day ever" is how kids like to describe it. Yes, it was definitely one of those. Beach, ocean, volleyball, pool, lazy river, sunbathing, lunch with the ocean view, more beach, more pool, playing in the sand, water slides, dinner by the pool, sushi for dinner, perfect weather, series of heated pools at night...

Some of the memories in pictures. Morning swim...
Cleaning hands from sand - didn't see a point...

Enjoying flowers surrounding pool areas...
Myrtle Beach - view from the beach...

Part of the "Educational trip"...

Happy faces like this make me happy...

Husband enjoying water slides...

Lazy river (for people who doesn't want to swim)...

Or those who want to read...

Capturing stress free smiles...
Visiting place with greatest sushi variety...
Having sushi for dinner...

Our neighbors ate something too...

Precious memories I don't want to forget.

Not everyday

Not everyday your window has an ocean view... not everyday you get to sleep in... not everyday you see your toddler get dirty playing with sand and smile about it... not everyday you get to enjoy a day without a "to do" list... not everyday you get to enjoy a sunny 85degree weather when it's raining and 62 on your own street... not everyday you don't ask your kids about doing homework... not everyday you ask yourself "Am I really at Myrtle Beach? the second time this year?"...

But today I can say YES to all of those questions and be thankful for TODAY.
Got to go enjoy it!

Workbook

I've been noticing that my scrapbooking related ideas are not as organized as I wanted them to be. I have at least 6 different notebooks and journals with scrapbooking ideas all over the place.

So, today I finally decided to decorate a notebook and try to keep everything in one place.

I started with a plain notebook from Target. Liked this one because the lines in it are very light. Then I added some page dividers with tabs inside and rings to hold these additional pages in place.

And then I decorated the cover. I wanted to use this calm palette with my favorite papers at the time. I had to add stitching again, since I have stitch fever right now. I think, it just gives a book the more finished look.

The letters "w-book" stand for workbook, I just couldn't fit them all on a white piece of paper. And the circles at the top happened to apear there because I wanted to cover the blue flower print in the corner.


My book has 9 tabs with 9 different categories :

1. Chart. I made a chart that Becky Higgins recommended and add page ideas there that I want to complete in the future.

2. Page ideas. This one just has random thoughts on what I would like to scrapbook. Whenever I get an idea for a page or just a page title, it gets recorded here.

3. Quotes. I do have another journal with quotes, but since I wanted to kind of have everything organized in one place, I left a few pages in case my other book is not available at the moment.

4. Work in process. This section has the most pages. Whenever I'm ready to make a page, I start here with possible pictures, color palette, and jot down some journaling ideas.

5. Mini books. Similar to the previous section, but here I record ideas for mini books and other projects.

6. Good advices. Whenever I hear a good idea or advice (most of them come from listening to Roundtable episodes) I write it down here.

7. Journaling. Since it's the biggest challenge for me in scrapbooking, it deserves a separate section.

8 and 9. Each of these two sections have only a few pages and are for my personal notes. And here is a "before" look.

I really hope it will help me keep ideas more organized and all in one workbook instead of being scattered all over the place. And I hope it will help my scrapbooking process go a little smoother.

Have a great day!

Shopping

Today I stopped at local scrapbooking store "Times to Remember". I wasn't planning on buying a lot, I just love to see what they have. Since I have more paper then I could ever use, I had to make a deal with myself - getting only five pattern papers per visit. These were the winners for me today:

There was a men shopping at the store, and I heard him telling his friend that the only reason this store didn't go out of business is because his wife shops here. I thought it was funny.

Yes, we love to support scrapbooking industry.

Back to school

I love this back-to-school time of year. And knowing that my kids like school helps. I made a page about my oldest daughter starting a second grade.

Had to include journaling on back of the page (heard that idea on roundtable) because when I was designing layout I didn't leave a space for journaling and now it just doesn't look good anywhere. I need to learn writing journaling in the very beginning and plan where on a page it's going to sit.

Learn something new everyday.

Учат в школе....

Первое сентября. Это всегда была знаменательная дата в нашей жизни. Каждый учебный год начинался с этой даты. Это был настоящий праздник когда все ученики в нарядной форме с бантиками и цветами со всех сторон стекались к школе... Этот день всегда был веселым и радостным...

Свой первый раз в первый класс я шагала двадцать пять лет назад и это единственное фото которое у меня есть с того дня...

Школьная форма... портфель... первый звонок... линейка... первоклассник... белый фартук... рассписание... новые друзья... учитель... октябрята... дневник... домашнее задание... таблица умножения... мел... пинал... обложка... перемена... манжеты... диктант... закладка... контрольная работа... переобувачка... сочинение... санитар... субботник... изложение... заместитель... самоуправление... спортивная форма... задача... библиотека... продлёнка... подсказки... пионерский галстук... соревнования... сокращенные уроки... последний звонок...

Это слова которые так тесно связанны со школой и каждое из них несет с собой столько воспоминаний.

А с этой песни - "Учат в школе", заканчивался каждый первый звонок Первого Сентября и начинался каждый учебный год.

Я когда первый раз услышала эту песню, у меня все внутри перевернулось от наплыва эмоций...

А теперь пару фотографий с первого дня учебного года наших деток. Алена начинает 7й класс. В 6:55 уже на остановке.

Сузанна начинает 5й класс, и на час позже идут на остановку все трое.

Так жизнь все круто изменила - теперь я выполняю роль мамы, а детки мои роль веселых школьников...

Time flies

Time flies. You can't really see it flying like a butterfly or hear it flying like a plane, you can only see the changes it makes as it keeps flying by.

These two... I can close my eyes and see them playing together in the sand, running around the park, splashing in the water, walking holding hands, screaming with joy when they see each other and crying when they had to say goodbye.

Now entering teenage years makes me a little sad that time flew by way faster then I was expecting.

If I could change one thing when they were growing up, it would be - taking more pictures. A lot more pictures. I wish I knew about scrapbooking back then, which changed the way I think about pictures now and taught me to grab camera more often then phone or keys or purse.

And I could wish for one thing to stay the same -it would be friendship they share as cousins. I wish it never changes but grows stronger and deeper with years.

Letter or a Layout

Parents love to receive letters and how much better it makes if letter is attached to a layout with pictures? It makes a much better statement. Well, here I replaced letter with blank cards, but that envelope is made to hold what my heart has to say...


The word GRATITUDE was cut out straight from the text patterned paper by Teresa Collins...

I just looove text paper. I often struggle with journaling and seeing text paper on a layout kind of makes it a part of a story for me.

Pink is one of my favorite colors to work with, and this collection by is awesome. Some of these papers have glitter on them others have text or a little distressed look.

Have to go now!

Pattern paper challenge

Sharing a page I did as a part of the challenge. Usually I tend to use monochromatic colors on a page and don't use a whole lot of different patterns on one page. Here I ignored what my inner voice was trying to dictate and used five different papers in one LO - that's a record.

Having some blockage for journaling lately. I will ask one of my kids to write a few words for this page. Well, if Alena writes it I might need another 8.5x11 page just for journaling. She doesn't know how to stop. :) I wonder where she got it from...

Summer don't go!

Can't believe that summer is almost over! I just found out today that there is only 9 days left before kids go back to school.

As soon as that hit me I grabbed a pen and went to make a "to do" list before summer vacations is over and it ended up to be a mile long. I feel like I lost a month somewhere...

Besides being so behind (I am behind most of the time anyway) want to highlight how great this summer was. Here are just some of our memories:

It was a good summer! Lots of great memories...

Painting

I've been using a lot of paint in my latest scrapbooking and my canvas is a little bigger then 12x12 and I'm not enjoying it as much as traditional scrapbooking...



Yeah, you don't realize how big your ceiling is until the day you have to paint it. And who said you should only use weights for exercise or weight training? Doesn't matter what you do around the house, as long as you get sweat running down your back - it all counts. At least I think so.



Why do I even complain when I have such a great help? These little hands get into everything and volunteer to add just a little bit more work anytime! My other daughter says - maybe she is the next famous designer.


Besides those little hands I do have some real help from other two pair of hands where the first ones reassembled entire chandelier after its being cleaned and the other ones captured all these memories on camera.

Million Red Roses

Hi. I came across this video on you tube and wanted to share it with you. This was one of the most popular songs in the history of our country. "Million red roses" performed by one of the most talented singers - Alla Pugacheva. I have this song on my MP3 player and listen to it when I go for a walk.

The other day Liana was listening to it, and when this song ended she totally refused to listen to other song and ordered more "millions".

If you never heard it before, I hope you will like it.

FIVE

Hello. I heard Stacy Jullian talk about this book on one of the Roundtable episodes and now I want to read this book. Very inspiring. I'm thinking about getting it next time I stop at Borders. Hope you will like this video too.