This Is Why I Scrapbook

Shimelle really spells it out here.


This Is Why I Scrapbook: pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}: This is just the beginning

But not my children...

Pets are better than kids because:

1. They eat less.
2. They don't ask for money all the time.
3. They don't raise your car insurance.
4. They don't hang out with drug-using friends.
5. They don't mind when you pass gas.
6. They never roll their eyes at you.
7. They are never embarrassed to be seen with you.
8. When they give you c**p, you can bag it up and throw it away.
9. They love you unconditionally even when you're sick in bed or have garlic breath.


And (drum roll . . .)

10. If they get pregnant, you can sell their kids.

Walking to the Westin

By late afternoon yesterday, the blizzard of 10 let up and my dh said "Let's go for a walk." I had been determined to stay in my jammies all day but it was not to be. "Ok.", I said without a lot of enthusiasm for getting dressed. I do like a walk in the snow though, and it would be dark soon so dressed I got.














What a sight to see West Street covered with snow and ice but passable. It's so typical. West St. gets cleared, and we, two houses off West, never see a plow. My dh felt the need to take the lead though had I fallen down in the road, he would never have known. So much for gallantry... Looking back into the sunset, it looked like this.














The Veterans Cemetery had been plowed but the graves just stuck up a bit to give a different look to the familiar place.














Next we headed into the Westin lot.






















Mortons' had recently closed shop but we weren't looking for that. Fado was open though. Never underestimate how far we'll go for a meal! I wasn't that hungry so I split the fish and chips while dh had an appetizer of corned beef rolls. A good walk and a good, hot dinner.

Wordless Wednesday

February 2

February 3

White Space

In this week's lesson at Cathy Zielske's DYL-Design Your Life class at Big Picture Scrapbooking , the subject of the week is White Space. In painting, the negative space. But negative tends to have a bad connotation while white is neutral or better at least. Empty space. Space where the rest of the design, the life can be viewed more clearly. Where what's important stands out, rather than being lost in a jumble, in chaos.

Cathy asked us to look for white space in our homes. Oh how I've longed for white space. It was one of my primary goals in renovation. The redesign of the kitchen to make it more functional and spacious was the immediate goal, but the underlying goal - for me - was white space, spaciousness.

I have it, as long as I don't jumble it up with more, more, more. I did very little decorating for Christmas, so it's not the dregs of Christmas that clutters up my space. It's the little things that I don't take time for. Time to put them away, time to throw them away, time to stop hoarding little things Just In Case. Here are two examples for the cloudy space made into white space.







Here is my kitchen island early this a.m. The things on it are left from last weekend's pantry reorganization. It was something I hadn't intended to do, but a shelf started falling so it had to be done. I've seen that if something irritated me I am less likely to finish it.










5 minutes of work putting things back where they belonged resulted in this.























I am always surprised how little work it takes to get something from a 'hot mess' to white space. It only takes forEVAH in my mind. Are you the same?