Sierra and Kyle, Kristin and Jim — we’ve met some very fun 2010 couples this summer.  It’s great to see them having fun!

I’ve never had so much fun in a park before!!   

John and Nicole introduced us to their favorite spots at the park they like to visit with their boys.  We had a beautiful morning (except for the mosquitos!) and the boys were perfect gentlemen.  John and Nicole’s sons were a joy to work with because they were sooo cooperative and they have beautiful manners.   They also stay on the path because we were in rattlesnake habitats.

A session that portrays (similar to portrait, yes?) the relationships of the subjects is the very best kind.  You can see this family likes to explore together and observe the surprises nature has to offer.  We loved hearing the big frogs calling to each other!    

Let us help you create a portrait that tells your family’s story.  Call to schedule an appointment during whatever season is your favorite.

When I left for work this morning it was hardly daylight and almost at freezing point. By the time dinner was done with the sun was almost gone. It has been a great summer. Stacy Julian got me going all summer long with her Have more FUN class. It was challenging for a few days there…seeing the FUN in all this. Still working on that one, but I did enjoy the whole thing. July was great with the four very talented girls challenging our creativity. I loved Stacy’s photo album scrapbooking in August. I will be making a lot of those. And I never thought I would finish my 30 days Hath September album…but, I did.

Welcome October...

Most of all I enjoyed Tena’s 52 card pick up class. I had never learned anything about techniques before, so to be given 52 lessons in a row by this talented girl was fantastic. It was so fun to make these 5×7 cards and the deck look so great hanging right there by my desk. I will do this all over the next time Tena teaches this class.

The last card to the deck...

I also had the pleasure of joining Ashley Wren’s class at Scrap in style TV. That was fun. She is the most amazing girl. If I ever need ideas for scrapbooking I just go to the files of her class. She gives you a prompt….followed with 20 ideas of how to approach this…which gives me 20 new ideas…

Obsessed. Inspired by Ashley Wren.

Between all this “paperwork” we had a wedding in the family, the most important event this summer. Jan and Linda was the most beautiful couple and we had some really good days with family and friends. And I am so happy about the “honeymoon” baby arriving in May. Three babies in six years ….that make us feel blessed.

And the kissing just would not stop....

And finally at the end of the summer comes our two weeks at Viva Bahia, just totally relaxing and gathering strength for a long winter to come. I have to admit that I did spend some time on the computer looking up what was going on in my Have more FUN class, and I was seeing Stacy’s FUN colours all over the place.

Have more FUN at Mallorca...

It is 12 weeks before Christmas, and we just finished our class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. I had to celebrate that making a layout about this summer. Since I seem to be obsessed with Squares these days it turned out like this;

Intentional Play......Productivity.....Present-moment awerness....

At the end of this summer I have some thoughts about what I want to do with my time in the months to come. But right now it is all about Cathy’s Design Your Life, starting tomorrow. I do have a few other projects coming up also…..

I just want to say thank you all for a great summer.

…and that means 30 days of Hath September finish in two days. A little sad, but it feels good to see the end of this project. It is time to move to the next project. We did learn something in this class: to be present in our life, and to value the everyday life.

Since this is the last weekend and because this is the first Sunday we haven’t been able to have dinner together as a whole family I did some special pages today. I asked for a photo of everyone, taken today wherever they were.

Elin Janne - Bud - 28.09.08

Tor and Marita - Heimdal - 28.09.08

Jan and Linda - Lyngstad - 28.09.08

Of course…not everyone is able to do what they are told…It was supposed to be photos of Tormod and Kjellaug here too…Well, I can be good with revenge.

Tormod has been busy today. The weather is wet and nasty so there in no hikes in the mountain today, but he did learn some new actions in photo shop. From now on I am going to send my tired old face to him. He might be able to make me young and beautiful…..

Elin Marie

…is soon over.

The idea behind this project is to be present in the moment. It is a good idea. But, how much present in the moment can you be when living alone. I have made my pages everyday, and I have enjoyed the process. I have to admit it has been hard not to do anything else. These last days all I have done is hanging over the computer. I don’t think that qualifies as being present in the moment. ….so I am going back to my way of life as I know it. I will be doing my page every day for the rest of September, but it is time to move on.

To be honest I came to this realisation two days ago. A little bird called me Saturday to sing a song about a new baby due in May, so I made this page to celebrate the number one grandma.

!!!

.

Pleasure…., originally uploaded by elinjanne.

Pleasure…..So, after two days at home I want to go back…..but, I will get over it.

I came home last night and had a good night sleep in my own bed. That is the only good thing about coming home….sleeping in your own bed. Nothing beats that.

 Stacy Julian gave us an assignment for the first day of September. We were to get out of bed and take a photo of the sunrise. Even though I am still on vacation time I got out of bed at 6 am and went outside to get my photo. Lucky me….I had forgotten my memory card at my brothers…. My brother, who can be a nice guy found my card and went outside this morning and got my sunrise.

I have not decided yet how I want to do Stacy’s project: 30 days Hath September. I am in….and I want to do it….but I am not sure how to do it. I really like Stacy’s idea and I will do this her way sometime, just not now. It does not fit into my plans to just concentrate on this for the whole month. There is so much else I want to do in September. I will feel this out for a little while. I will make a page every day and I will make it about present time, but hopefully there will be time for it all.

Index, originally uploaded by elinjanne.

In August we did several of this cute photo albums. It is fast and fun and get the photos and the story into the albums and out of the way. This one is from our homecoming from Viva Bahia last year.
We are packed and ready to go home. Maybe not so ready…but packed. Still four hours until the bus leave for the airport in Palma and we plan to enjoy those hours left. Grandma can not wait to get home to Elin and Kristian. She just left to spend some time at the beach before we go home.

…I was so exited when I came down to the reception to log in this morning to read Stacy  Julian’s presentation for the third part of her Have more FUN class. I read her one hour long presentation and I love it. To get involved with life here and now….To scrapbook every day life one day at the time….for a whole month…. At first I wasn’t sure if I would do this, because I have done it before. But, so has Stacy…. I just have to think this through, maybe I want to do this another way.

This two last days have been so good. The weather, the temperature, the beach, the bar, the food, the company….just perfect. A vacation you just don’t want to end. It is a long time since we have been so blessed with perfect weather. Now it is almost over…just one more day left.

 I was the first one in the shower today, and I am spending some time in the reception waiting for Tormod and Kjellaug to get ready for dinner. I love the buffet and I have to do a serious weight program when I come home. …I am not so happy about that.

How to get tougher when you need to be…, originally uploaded by elinjanne.

Inspired by Ashley Wren.

…that I get the fine details in what Stacy Julian is teaching us, but I don`t care so much about that as long as she keeps inspiring me to have fun and to get the photos into the albums. I am not going to quote Stacy, just in case…. Instead I am going to tell how I did this photo album scrapbook.

My sister in law turned 50 last August, and her parents came to visit for a week. We took a lot of cute photos of the kids and their great grandparents during that week. Not so much happened…just playing, hugging and being plain cute. I started out making a front page;

Front page

 There were supposed to be questions asked and answered in this album. I made 12 questions wich I sent in an email to the great grandparents and their daughter. Just some : where, when, what…..and I had some photos from Kjellaugs childhood in black and whith, wich I used to divid the days.

Spending summer holliday at Ona in 1961

Then I just kept writing the answeres and slip in the photos, day by day.

The hugging cermoni...

A bit of information for the kids to enjoy ...in the future.

One thing they all have in common - the love for fishing...

I love this mini photo album scrapbooking projects. I got 75 photos stored in an album. I got to tell a story we all can enjoy, and we got bits of information documented for the future.

I tend to make things more difficult then it have to be, and sometime I am worried about doing it right. But I am sure that Stacy just want us to have fun and enjoy.

…

I have spent the last hour listening to Stacy Julian’s presentation for the august part of the”have more fun” class. I never took time to go through it all earlier. She says to let go of the expectations, and to stop and ask your self if you really want to scrapbook all this photos. Honestly, I never thought I could. It was a good idea when baby Elin was born, because there weren’t that many photos. And I never “scrapbooked” the photos, I just put them in albums and did some journaling. I made the whole album with 50 pages in an evening. I can not believe that there a people out there who thinks that it is possible to scrapbook the thousands of photos that goes in to the computer during a short period of time.

The big question is; what to do with the big chunks of photos. Stacy showed some cools things to do. I have been looking around for these albums with no luck. It seems to me that to scrapbook ordinary one page album is not a big thing in Norway. Unfortunately we don’t have Target, Wall marts or whatever….

So…this fact means that this part of the class is not so exiting for me. I would love to follow Stacy’s directions, but I just have to tag along and work with what I have at hand. That is okay. The idea works fine with whatever album I am using.

Tonight I have been playing with my paint. I put all this work into something that just did not turn out that great. It might just go into the paper bin. That is okay, it happen sometime. At least I made my card. And here comes one more honest moment. Tena`s technique class is a lot more fun. I you feel like learning something new you should take her 52 card pick up – class. You really get a lot more than you are paying for.

Writing with glaze pen directly on the photo.

…before going to bed I always search my favourite blogs. Sometimes that takes me in to the early morning and that’s the bad thing. The rest is my pleasure. I was so happy to find out that Kolette Hall has gone blogging. I am so looking forward to follow her input in the world of blogging.

I have finished one more mini scrapbook for my BPS class. This one is all about a summer day in young baby Kristian`s life.

Mini scrapbook about Kristian`s day of July 16 2008.

Grandma says he plays like a BOY...is that a good thing ?

….for StacyJulian’s August gallery. This is such a smart way to handle all photos piling up. I can`t scrap them all and I am not able to keep them all in the computer. I just have to see them on print. Not all of them, but sometimes I just need to see the prints. Making mini albums this way is so much faster and simpler than making them from scratch.

How to do this? Just buy a cheap 4×6 single page album. Put the photos inside and put the text and the stash you want on the pages left blank. It is so simple and cute. I had my vacation photos from 1994 that I never put in an album. I picked a few and put inside the album and put the rest in the trash. Now it is done.

I painted the whith greyes cover...

The first paper I got ...a long time before I was able to use paper.

I used a text stamp when I hade few words to tell.

When there was nothing to say I used stamped letter.

With a long story I used the same stamp all the way down.

And for the fun...a little paint and stamps

…baby Elin came home with this friend today;

Blood sucker....

 Ok…… So the ladybug probebly don`t like to be called a blood sucker……..the newspapers seems to affect my brain…..

I am so grateful I don’t have a dog anymore. She came home with those beasts all the time. The newspapers are full of horror stories of how sick you can get being bitten of those small ugly things. I bet grandma got that sucker out of baby Elin pretty fast.

I have been productive today. I have made all my cards for last week, and I have played with Ashley’s prompts.

Using glitter and tacky tape on the photo turned out great irl.

In my “Have more FUN” class we have closed the July chapter and moved on to August. Stacy Julian’s philosophy of being productive and creative speaks to me. I really like her ideas of making mini photo albums. I almost finished this week album challenge tonight, and I have started on my second. We were supposed to make only one, but I have a lot of envelopes with old pictures I want to do something with.

The weekend is definitely over. I have eaten the last ice cream from the freezer and there is no coffee left. I am saving the last cup to heat in the micro in the morning. There is no way I can wake up without coffee. And there is no reason to stay awake without coffee.

…photographing today. My nephew Tor was so kind to take me out there so I could use my camera somewhere outside my doorsteps. I had fun, but of all the photos taken, I only got a few that I was happy with. Among all the tourists at the Atlantic Road today I met this little happy guy;

A happy tourist on The Atlantic Road

One more happy tourist.

Tourist?...No, I think I know this guy....

Freedom Friday challenge was Tina Bennett’s to give. And what a fun challenge that was. I picked the only photo I was happy with today. Not because it was good but because I liked it.

Freedom Friday with Tia Bennet - front page.

...and the back...

Tomorrow I will read the small print in Barbaras lessons.

…for “wacky Wednesday” was …..kind of special. My first thought was; ..no, I am not doing this one.  During the last week it has become clear to me that this girl love punches….but…hundreds of them? I really meant to skip this one. A few moments later I was …punching, and I am having a good time…punching….. I might be finished punching tomorrow…or, sometime before Christmas. 

Last night i finished Kelli’s bonus idea for “Funday Monday”. I have done something similar In “the becoming more” class, but this was meant to be a double 12×12. The punched photos was supposed to be 2×2 but my photos was to big, and I did not have a punch that size anyway. So my pages ended up being a little different, but that is okay. The photos I used was taken in July last year. Baby Kristian is 6 months old and is showing us a little personality for the first time. And grandpa is there with his camera. Actually I think there is two cameras involved.

When I ordered the prints from this happening i could not choose which one to order. So I did plan to make a mini album. Never got around to do that. We also had an accident with some ice cream eating. So I had to make two more pages.

When the ice cream fell grandma was there in a blink, grabbing the ice before it hit the ground and showing it into her mouth. So there was not any time to get cranky about this. Look at the boys face during the action.

Well, I better hit my bed. There is a lot more punching to do tomorrow. Also, I am a little exited to see what the next guest teacher on Stacy`s list have for us tomorrow.

So, here is a part of what Stacy Julian said to my confusion about her Have more FUN class.: 

“I hope it is clear that for me, scrapbooking is NOT just a hobby or set of skills/techniques that I use to preserve pictures. Scrapbooking is the way I LIVE my life — it is the lens through which I am processing and sharing my experience as a human being. Scrapbooking and the creative process are to me, magical things that can teach you what is most important to you, before it’s too late.”

I knew it. I knew there was a message hidden in all this FUN stuff. I think one of the reasons I had a hard time taking in all this stuff is because this is how I do it already. When you start a new class you expect to learn something you don’t already know. Because all this is pretty new to me I don’t have any set way of doing it. I am ready to try anything. What I have learned in this short period of time is that; there is no right or wrong way to do this. And the most important thing is to enjoy doing it.

I finished my butterfly project. I got a cactus in my back trying to photographing this so you better like it. I may not survive, but the cactus did…

If you click on the frame you will see the pick……

I did a lot more today, but wordpress is having problems with uploading images so it will have to wait until they have solved their problems. While working with my pages I finished listening to my book. It is written by Anne B. Ragde and loosely translated it is called; a cold day in hell. If I should talk about the book I would say it was all about dogs and it was walking very close to porn. I enjoyed the listening.

….cutting butterflies. This week Kelly Crowe is teaching the Have more FUN class. She came up with this great idea for making a layout framed in a shadow box. We were to make the butterflies by punching them out of paper scrap. I never got around buying the shadow box. I remember them to be very expensive and I rather use the money for something else right now. And I could not find a small butterfly punch to buy on the internet. So what to do? It seemed such a fun idea so I looked for another way to do this project. I have had some frames of pressed paper for years without knowing what do make of them. So I started painting one last night. Thanks to the gesso I finally managed to buy, the acrylic paint behaved nicely and the frame survived the treatment. It did not survive last time I tried. Then I tried to emboss the poor thing. That did not work out so well…and I had to paint it all over again….

Kelly use to punch when she have a hard time finding inspiration. And when punching she is watching star trek. I found my scissors and some butterfly paper, put a book CD in the player and went to work. Lucky me found some paper that had butterflies. Since I enjoyed listen to the book reading the cutting took some time. And the result of that; I am not finished yet.

Stacy Julian gave us a download for us to colour. Me – I don’t have crayons. That is normal I think for a 47 year old without children. :) I hope….. Instead I used chalks. Because chalks I do have….We was supposed to write down our 8 principals of FUN. And since it is well known that I do have issues with having fun, I am not ready to show you me principals. I am not so sure I am ready to look at them myself. Anyway…now they are up on the wall so I can see and think them through.

This was kind of fun. Maybe I should buy some crayons…or maybe not. Well, I better find my bed. Tomorrow is another working Sunday. Hopefully the paint and the repaint are ready for some butterflies tomorrow night.

…and that makes me feel a little down. Taking a class called Have more Fun and not having fun at all makes me feel really stupid. Does that mean that I don’t get the message? Or does it mean that I had fun scrap booking before I started this class? What level of fun is it possible to reach while scrap booking?  I choose to believe that Stacy means that those who take scrapping too seriously to begin with should relax and have more fun. I am taking a few steps back and just lurk in the back. I am sure Stacy Julian has some idea of where she is taking us in this class.

I have to admit that I took my journal out for a walk today. And before I could regret it I had it stamped and in the mail addressed to myself. How fun is that?  I kept thinking; oh my…it is a thin line between being smart and crazy.

I finally finished uploading the wedding photos and sent them off to be printed. It took some time to do that. I almost gave up.  This fine Monday has not been my day. Funday Monday did not inspire me, I did not have glaze medium so I could make my card and I have a cold.

I did make this 6×9 page. I thought it was fitting in my Becoming more album. It is hard to tell why, but it did.

…Stacy Julian added this project as a bonus to the Have more FUN class. I just had to order one from Amazon. I have been reading about this fun project before and was kind of intrigued with the whole thing. When it arrived today….well, I am not so sure anymore. Where is the fun in dragging a book in the mud? Or, how about slipping it into the bathtub? Every page has some stupid idea of what to do. OK, that is me – completely without humour. I am not worried, I will find someway to use it. I just haven’t decided if I want to join this crazy bunch of people wrecking their journal….

I started out carfully by putting it outside in wet grass for just a little moment.:)

I made one of the cards for my 52 card pick up class today. We made mosaic of paper scraps on contact paper. That was fun. Don’t think I will be doing much of that with the price of the contact paper. That was expensive, but fun to work with.

I have been working with the photos from the wedding today. It took forever to upload from the computer. I need to order some prints to work with. And I can not decide what pictures to use for the album without seeing them on print.  I will try again early tomorrow. It might have been a lot of traffic on the line.

I have a slight cold so I have been sleeping this afternoon. That is what you get, running around with little cloth – during late hours….

…

I felt inspired to make a page of my sister in law today. She made such an impression giving her speech in the wedding. While doing that she sent a LO around the table for all the guests to see. This was one of the first I made. The LO is showing a photo I took of Jan at three. I love this photo. It describes Jan so well.

Yesterday I bought a download of some digital work that Ali Edwards made. I like her clean style. I have never done anything digital before, and I don’t think I am ready for that yet. But, I thought this could be a nice frame for some wedding pages. I will make some mini albums and this could be easy and stylish.

It turned out a little dark, but it is not in real life. Here is a close up:

In my “Have more FUN” class today is Photo freedom Friday. Stacy Julian gave us a fun challenge this Friday. My page started out with a good plan – to be funny. As it often do, this one took on a life of its own. I just could not stop my self using Ali`s template. It was laying right in front of me and I just had to put it into work.  This one is showing baby Elin. She just came home from kindergarten, and she is on her way to see her grandmother. (For a bath ?)  I believe I have mentioned that she is attending a farming kindergarten?

I love this girl…dirty or not.

I have been thinking about that today. Stacy Julian “Have more fun” class have a fun concept I have trouble grasping. Bobble gum, piggy tales,funky colors, flip flops and summer season. Ok, that sounds fun. The only thing on this list I posses is bobble gum. Boy…do I have bubble gum. Summer fun…OK, for me summer is all about work…and work….and no flip flops. And I have no humor.

Anyway, I am enjoying myself with Stacy`s happy colors and good ideas. This first week we got to make a mini album using 4 PP`s and a ribbon.  I have to admit that I used 4 papers I was having trouble using, but I finished my mini album.

I am showing it up side down so you can see my cool tags.:) It says BOYS flying.

Even grandpa Ansgar loves to play. I have posted some more on my flicre.

In this class we got something called wacky Wednesday. I have no idea what that is all about. I just made a scrap lift and I have to admit that it`s nothing wacky about it….I hope.

I made another 12×12 and I am so happy about this one.  It is a little hard to understand that it is almost 30 years since I carried this boy up to the same alter. Someone have been doing something right for him to deserve this beautiful bride.

Sky or water?

31 May 2008

[ thanks Ren pentru titlu , chiar se potriveste   ]

Girls have more fun!

[thanks tricoului lui Alyce pt titlu ) ]

31 May 2008

My Model : Ren

1 June 2008

My Model : aLeha

1 June 2008

My Model : Danetthe

1 June 2008

And of course , me

1 June 2008

[ nu e real :| , era doar 'arta' ]