Once upon a time

..

Well this is it - page 67 and the last layout for the 2001 album. I will celebrate this weekend by sorting through all the 2002 photos and hope there are far fewer so I don't feel guilty only doing say .....40 pages for 2002?

Allison loved her dolls. She had plenty of baby dolls in her room growing up and of course a few favorites, all carefully named. There were lots of fairytale stories attached to each one and make believe was a part of every day.

For Christmas this year Santa brought her an American Doll - a very special ordered doll - with eyes and hair to specification along with specially chosen period clothing. She came with her boots, reading glasses, hair accessories and a little book with her history and family information - everything needed to make seem so very real. Also exciting for this Christmas was her two new porcelain dolls with their very shiny hair and fancy clothes.

Remembering Allison's loving care of her dolls is one of my favorite memories of her.

Christmas - the most wonderful time of the year.

She is now 19 and planning a wedding. Somewhere packed away are all these dolls and in her journals are some of the stories.

God is good...all the time ~ when we lean on Him and trust in Him.

I used the new Bo Bunny Christmas line - "Noel" and Wonderful" and some rub-one from the new Creative Imaginations swatch book "Narratives" Also used some Beary Patch and daisyd rub ons. You just can't have enough rub-ons!

Believe

This photos was part of the batch for the Christmas morning two page layout...but it was such a cute picture of Allison trying on her new hat and mittens from Santa...well it just deserved it's own page. This Best Creations Inc paper was perfect and so was the Pressed Petals scrap metal word. Added some Prima flowers and those fabulous Craft n Craftin' glitter snowflake stickers again(so beautiful and delicate), some bling on the flowers and voila - she is done. Her fiance came to the door just as I was finishing up - he thought it was very cute. Allison thought I should just put is away somewhere.
..... oh brother.

Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming

This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns and I love to sing it. I have sung it at church and in an adult choir with beautiful harmony. These photos are from our churches Christmas Gospel outreach. David played his guitar, Paul and Allison both performed pieces on the piano and our whole family (plus a friend of mine who was an alto) did four part harmony of my favorite hymn - Lo How a Rose E're Blooming. It is an old 16th century German hymn.

The layout is rather unique. Every picture had the back of a fellows white head on it and a rather large one - it seemed to pick up most of the flash. I am not sure who took the photos. So I have them overlapping in such a way that I was able to cover the head in all but the bottom one. I actually like the layout.

The paper is the new Moxie Winter Wishes. I used some music rub-ons from Maya Road, some heidi grace rub-ons, beautiful Craft n Craftin' glitter snow flake stickers, my white gel pen and I put the words to the song on a transparency. Somehow the transparency picked up some green on the scan and I could not photoshop it out - but there is no green in this layout. Christmas 2001 celebrations.

I forget just how busy life was back then. Good thing I was a whole lot younger. Loved doing this layout and remembering this time of singing with my whole gang. I love em!

Christmas Morning

What a wonderful time of joy, laughter and utter chaos - Christmas morning. We do open one gift at a time and savor this special time together - but there is an element of chaos and I am glad to be past the small toys with batteries and little parts era of our lives. I enjoyed such good memories putting this page together. We have so many Christmas traditions and we so enjoy this time together. How do I leave any pictures out? They are each part of the whole Christmas morning experience - and what make us family!

This page was a challenge - 12 4X6 photos! Some cropping and trimming and I fit them all. I know it is busy - but the point was to capture the morning.

I have noticed that when my family look at my layouts, they focus immediately on the pictures and the memories - the journalling. They seem impervious to the product or technique. When fellow scrapbookers look at a layout they comment on the impression, the products, the technique. Sometimes it is fun to use a new product in a special way. For other pages, it is the memory that needs recording.

The paper is Reminisce "Snowglobe", Pressed petals 'Monday Metals' (from my stash), Basic Grey 'wilma' chipboard letters inked and glazed and some of the new Beary Patch Christmas rub-ons which are very, very nice!!

Christmas is coming to JSI - a big box of beautiful Glitter stickers came yesterday and they are very nicely priced! Check em out!

Some really cool Hallowe'en paper also arrived along with matching embellishments.

Celebrate

Celebrating Allison's 12th Birthday. Sigh...birthday pages...so many pictures and how do you get them all on the page. This is page #61 of the 2001 album - I have been working on 2001 for over 6 months...hmmm that means....that means I will NEVER catch up! But I will press on. By my calculations, I have four - get that? 4...more pages to finish up the year ~ Allison's birthday party with friends, our church Christmas concert and then Christmas - which has to be a two page layout - cause there are too many of us and too many pictures. Have you noticed that I am in very few pictures? There is one of me in the Christmas batch though.

Anyways, this is my sweet daughters 12th birthday and what a lovely sweet and pure young woman she was becoming - and still is - getting married! YIKES! Of course a fine young man spotted her and immediately claimed her. LOL smart guy! ...but does he know how much she loves to shop for clothes???? And this 12 year old started University this week and is on her way to getting her education degree.

They do grow up so fast - so hug them, kiss them, tell them how much you love them and try to ignor the mess in the bathroom! Before you know it they will be married and you will have your bathroom back. :)

Birthday Party

Allison and her friends had a fun time watching movies, playing games and combing all the knots out of her Barbie doll's hair. Girlfriends are a lot of fun! Birthday celebrations and a lot of fun too!

I used the new Dream Street Paper. It is fun paper! The photos are dark - 2001 (page 62 and counting) but the event is recorded. A bit of mesh because the colour was rights and some Creative Imaginations rub-ons. A few flowers from the stash too.

Andy Rooney quote of the day...

Everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile. :)

I am going to try and remember this one!

Well "Seasoned" Chef

Ralna did it again. Sometimes I just get bogged down with a page because it lacks a theme or idea or message. I just can't find the right words for the title. I guess that is why I was a Science major and not an English major. Here I had a picture of Mark in November 2001 out on the back deck in the SNOW in his SHORTS and his winter BOOTS - cooking our burgers on the BBQ.

Mark loves to BBQ no matter what the season....but I was stuck on a title. Winter BBQ er, Hot burgers in the cold, yes, well these were not going to work. I pop the pictures out at work and ask Ralna....two seconds - that is all she had to think and came up with "Well Seasoned BBQ/chef" and pulled out the paper with all the seasoning stuff on it. A great play on the word "season"
How does she do it?

Paper Loft, Flair Designs and Basic Grey along with some of that super cool mesh, thickers, MM sticker letters, Creative Cafe rub-on letters (oh I need MORE of these), scenic route star - for my star bbq'er, heidi swapp clock cause he times the meat perfectly and my signo uniball white gel pen that I would never be without. I added some journalling on the right side after I scanned it - reads.

Mark, I love how you love to BBQ. No matter what the "season" you are willing to get out there and cook.

Ambrosia page

Angie asked me in a comment on my last post if I had the new Basic Grey paper yet and if I was going to make a page soon. I told her, are you kidding? It never made it to the shelf (I worked yesterday). Actually I just said yes I had it :) but that I had pages underway and would get to it by the weekend. Two hours later.... how could I resist?

I used Ambrosia "pome" and "ebony". That's a BG Christmas tag from last year. What I love about BG is that it is so timeless. This paper is never wasted - it gets used somewhere.
The new lines will go fast and so will the Basic Grey letter stickers so, no pressure here, but you might want to head into JSI soon.

Has anyone kept count of all the "music" pages from 2001? My kids can never complain that they were not well cultured in their upbringing. And did I ever put a lot of miles on the van those years. We were at band two nights a week and I got bored of hanging around so I joined - and played the bass drum. And we did the Hallelujah chorus (tons of bass drum in that) - I had such a blast doing this!! One of the joys of home schooling was being able to learn and experience right along with my children. And act goofy and fool around too.

Today's Andy Rooney thought...."No matter how serious your life requires you to be, everybody needs a friend to act goofy with.

Amen to that! Go act goofy today! Play a bass drum!

Serious

Yup! that's our Paul - serious about life since he was born - always in a hurry to grow up, be mature, reading veraciously - and dang it! retaining it all - smarter than his Mom by age 12!
journalling reads.... SERIOUS about life - that's you. And serious about reading...hmmm looks like you are reading Church History. Okay - good book, I agree.

Easy page - pull out those scraps, cut em, sand em, lay em down and add a title. A little bit of the new mesh - cause I just like the stuff!

Any serious kids in your gang?

All Grown up!

I looked at this picture of Mark and saw him all grown up (he is 18 in this photo) but I could still see in his eyes the little boy I loved so much. How did he grow up so fast? Made me sad, and yet I was so pleased with what a fine young man he has grown up to be. Truly he has never given us any grief. A good student and hard worker, always willing to help around the house. A guy who loves to hang out with family eating pizza and watching TV on a Friday night. I feel blessed. So I took a look at some of those old photos of Mark, cropped and converted to b&w and put them on the page. Just to remind me that he once was a little boy of mine. And what a cutie pie he was! (and still is! )

Card stock, BG 'boxer' and sticker letters, heidi swapp chipboard letters and my white gel pen.

Allison's sweet smile

Pretty simple. Two pictures on Dream Street Paper with a block of deja views timeless pp, some Creative Imaginations rub-ons and she's done. Letting the pictures be the focus. This is Allison with our Black Lab Sam during the fall of 2001.

Family Fun

You would think all we do at our house is sit around the table and eat while Mom takes pictures of everyone. You know there are not a lot of pictures of me in 2001! Or any year for that matter. But I suppose enough pictures that they know I was here....taking a lot of pictures.

Who takes the pictures in your house?

Happy Birthday Harold

Dream Street papers, BG Chipboard letters "Wilma", Heidi S. chipboard and Creative cafe rub ons, white gel pen.
I think it looks much better in real life - this one didn't scan too well. Page #60 for the year 2001. I was kind of hoping the year would fit into one album- it ain't gonna work!

Family

Together time. Journalling reads...

These photos were taken in the fall of 2001 – I think. At least the pictures, when I came across them, were in with the rest of the 2001 photos and it looks like fall. I DO remember that this was our outing to get a family photo taken. The final photo now hangs in our front hall. We call ourselves the “Fong” family because the photographer put his signature on the bottom front corner of the photos. :) After our photo shoot, we went to the Park Town hotel for lunch. So it was a fun family outing and I am of course always happy anytime I have good photos of my kids.

Giving Thanks

Are ya gettin' a little tired of Creative Cafe? I have lost count of the # of pages I have done with this line - but it is really working well with my summer/fall pictures from 2001. There seems to be a lot of teal and burgundy in these photos -not sure if it was the old camera I was using or just coincidence - the result is that Creative Cafe colors work beautifully.
Add all those embellishments that coordinate and well... I have got a lot of pages done in a short period of time.

All Creative Cafe except for the new mesh and some Prima leaves from the stash.

Carpe Diem!
Julie

Forestry Farm

Hidden Journalling reads...
Forestry Farm Fun

Sunday July 14/01 - after a time of fellowship with all the Saints from Saskatoon and Leask, a Pot Providence BBQ and some music, the guys had a competitive game of "tag" football and the girls took a relaxing walk through the Meditation Gardens. The mothers cleaned up and sat down!

This is layout #46 for the 2001 album - getting there. I figure another week and I can start sorting through all the 2002 pictures.

Happy Birthday Dad

Got to love Thickers letters, and Creative Imaginations rub-ons. Paper is from Dream Street. Sticker letters are Making Memories.
Page number 45 in the 2001 album. Not the greatest birthday pics - but I'm still liking this fun page.

Just Listening

This is page number 43 for the year 2001 album - I didn't think there were that many photos - but I was wrong I guess! sigh - I still have a stack of photos about an inch think to get done before I call this album complete.

Simple picture - two guys on the swings at the beach...but they are special guys. I used the new mesh that just came into JSI - great stuff in several colours and very easy to use.

Journalling reads...

Harold and Blair are two of the most unpretentious, shy, quiet, definitely 'not in your face' kind of people. You won't hear much from either of them, although I am sure they have much to say because they are observers of the world. They watch, say little, think - there is a humbleness about them. I wonder what they are thinking when confronted by those who feel the need to just talk.
So, it was kind of nice to catch this picture of the two of them on the swings talking. Two shy, quiet listeners... talking (listening) to each other.

Classy Guy!

....just be yourself

Paul always has been himself and it has always been something I have been so proud of. Here he is dressed in his Sunday best - because sometimes it is a good idea to make an effort to dress well on a Sunday. People seem to only dress up for weddings in this province and even then it is iffy. So we have encouraged our children to take pride in how they present themselves and to not be swayed by the trends.
Even if we are up at Emerald Lake for a few baptisms, and climbing on the swings, Paul looks and is classy! He has always had a "professionalism" about him. Studious in his school work, focused, goal oriented and yet a fun kid who loves his music. It can't all be in the genes - I must have done something right! :)

He has now graduated from Commerce (who'd a thunk!) has his own business at age 24 and is married to the most perfect gal in the world that I love as one of my own. God is good!

Friends

There were a lot of photos from this summer of 2001 - but this is the last of them. I find it a challenge to get so many picture onto one page - and these were not very cropped because I wanted all the people in them.

Now on to fall of 2001.