Catching Up on Scrapbooking: Seattle Album Done!

 WOO HOO! I'm very excited to report that the 2005 vacation album is DONE! My scrapbooking friends know that it's a great feeling to have a big project finished!

In case you missed it, I started working on this project at the end of February, which isn't all that long ago now that I think about it! I expected it to be an easy album to complete and that was basically true. The hardest part was getting it organized!

 When yesterday started, I had all the photos in the album but only one page of journaling done. Spouse was gone for the day so I didn't have any guilt about hunkering down on this project! I put a pot of coffee on (first things first!) then started with page 1. As soon as I opened the album, I noticed that it wasn't even done...oops!

 I usually like to reserve my favorite trip photos for the first page, but for this trip, it was hard to choose. I settled on three and wrote a small paragraph as an introduction.

As I worked on this album, I discovered  details which I had completely forgotten. In the mountain photo below, for example, Bailey is actually standing in front of the "Bailey Range" with her arms extended. That's always been one of my favorite pictures but I had forgotten the rest! :)

 

I went through the album, adding journaling, captions, or quotes as needed. I printed them as I went along, refilled my coffee cup, and continued on. I love this photo of Bailey, who did not want to wake up early to go hiking on Mount Rainier. Of course, I had to include the Dr. Seuss quote we've all heard: "Your mountain is waiting so get on your way!"

Someway around mid-morning, I remembered a paper collection I had in my stash which came in a grab bag from one of my favorite now-defunct companies, October Afternoon. It's a pirate collection which I've saved to use for my cruise pictures (I know...LOL) but some small pieces were perfect for the car ferry pages. Scrapbookers will also understand how good it is to use stuff from your stash!

 

As I was working through this project, I found an additional photo for this Starbucks page. I definitely wanted to include it but since this is a smaller page, space was tight.

So I removed the bottom photo and cut a new folding mat for it which flips up to show that third picture. Since I had some extra space inside, I found some awesome Seattle clip art and printed it on photo paper to fill the space. There's almost always a way to include an extra photo or two!

After finishing this page, I took a break and went on a Starbucks run, of course! :)

With so many photos in pocket pages, I tried to consolidate my journaling to save time rather than make tons of little captions. For example, this little journaling block covers all the photos on this page and the facing page. I found the British Columbia paper at Memory Bound which has some awesome Butchart Gardens artwork! It matched my photos perfectly.

I used smaller sleeves for pull-out memorabilia such as this flower guide...

 ...and this map.

In cases where I had a space to fill but didn't have a specific caption, I printed quotes.

On this page, the travel itinerary that Bailey wrote can be pulled out to read. As I've said previously, that little list was the key to putting this album together! 

In a couple of cases, I printed journaling directly on a photo when space was tight. This was a single photo with no great place to put it, so I reduced the size and adhered it to the front of a pocket with the information from this museum.

On a couple of occasions, I had extra space on the back of a pocket page which was a nice place to add postcards I'd saved. Here I also printed a small collage of favorite Seattle photos for the space at the right.

Memory Bound also had Washington paper which included this little Space Needle piece! I made sure to use all of those elements which matched my photos.

 I had some really colorful pictures from Pike Place Market, but I still found myself needing something additional to fill spaces. I did a quick search for Pike Place clip art and was surprised at how many great options I found. For this section, I re-sized and printed out two pieces on photo paper -- the flying fish piece at the left and the "Public Market Center" at the right. On that same page, I had a small gap at the bottom of my journaling block, so I found an additional market photo, re-sized it, and added it to that piece to fill the space.

My cat-loving friends will appreciate the photo at the upper right. This guy was outside the market with his two cats (wearing sweaters!) who were trained to offer advice for a small fee. Maybe "Try the fish!" :)

 

 I typically save a few favorite photos for the final album page, but in this case I just used the photos we took before we left Seattle to go home along with a few final thoughts about this trip.

I'm so glad to have this album done! None of these pages are very exciting, but the important thing is that the photos and stories from this trip are safely in an album for us to enjoy. As vacations go, this one was one of my favorites and I'm glad to have it documented for posterity!

Now that I've finished it, I need to get back to my chronological scrapbooking (can't even remember where I left off!) and my heritage albums. And there very well may be another vacation or two lurking in those photo boxes. We shall soon see!

If you've read this far, thank you for stopping by today! If you're a scrapbooker, I hope you'll be encouraged by these posts. It IS possible to go back and catch up on your scrapbooking projects. 

So let's git-r-done! No time to waste!

jp

Feline Friday with Rory

IT'S FRIDAY!
Seize the weekend like Rory goes after her catnip!

 

 Check out those HUGE mitts! 😸

 

Happy Feline Friday, everyone!

jp

Scrapbooking: Seattle/Vancouver Vacation 2005

Hello, friends!

It's been a very long time since I've shared any scrapbooking posts. The reality is that I haven't been doing much of it lately due to work-related projects. I've taken on a few new tasks which slowed me down for a bit, but I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. YAY!

So with that, I have been able to spend a little bit of time working on my current vacation album project -- FROM 2005! We visited the Pacific Northwest that summer, spending time in Seattle and Vancouver and nearby areas. It was a wonderful trip, and I'm glad to get the pictures into an album!
 

The last time I posted about this project, I was struggling to get the pictures into the right order and roughly placed in the album. Well, that's all done now. WHEW! All pictures have homes but the pages are not embellished, nor is the journaling done. I'm hoping to start/finish the journaling this weekend since -- because it's been so long -- it will mainly be captions.

So I thought today I'd share just a bit about how this album is coming along to encourage those of you who may be in the same boat. It can get overwhelming being SO FAR BEHIND in your memory-keeping. I'll be honest: It does take some focused, dedicated blocks of time to make a dent in it, but once you get started, you'll be surprised at how momentum kicks in!

Now my disclaimer is that these pages all look pretty plain, so keep that in mind when you're scrolling through! Hopefully in the next part of this project, I'll be able to spruce them up a bit!

OK, now back to the album! At Memory Bound, we are now carrying Kiwi Lane products which are templates you can use to trace decorative borders and other elements for your pages. I've been making a bunch of samples for the store so while I had the templates at home, I thought I'd try them with a couple of "real" scrapbook pages in this album. You can see the curved template at the left. I'm a pretty linear scrapbooker so the curves do spice things up a bit for me! LOL

 

  In this album, I'm using a variety of sleeve configurations in different sizes. This really helps when you're trying to squeeze in a lot of memorabilia! Here you can see an 8.5x11 sleeve at the right with 3 pockets. I'm even OK with those postcards being sideways! 😊 That's progress, people!

 I kept a couple of maps which are actually pages out of an atlas. When folded in half, they fit perfectly in an 8.5x11 sleeve, as you can see here at the left.

 On this trip, we took a car ferry from Port Angeles, Washington to the Vancouver area. That was pretty interesting and not something we do everyday! So these pages will describe that experience.

 

In a few cases, I printed a title directly onto my page using my wide-format printer. This is a really handy thing to do -- if I would remember to do it! LOL

 

On this trip, we visited the original Starbucks in Seattle. When I was digging through memorabilia, I found the sleeve from my coffee cup which I kept all these years, so of course it had to go on the page! There is an empty space for a title and journaling at the top.

 One of my favorite stops on this trip was Pike Place Market. I have many pictures from this quirky and colorful place so I'm looking forward to finishing these pages!

 I purchased just a few die cuts for this album such as the "Washington" title below. This area is the historic Pioneer Square in Seattle.

 

 So while this album is far from done, completion is now within striking distance! I'm hopeful I can wrap it up in the next few days and get back to my chronological scrapbooks, because honestly I can't even remember where I left off. In my closet are many boxes like these which are stuffed to the brim with pictures to be scrapbooked. No time to waste!
 

I will share a few pictures of the finished album in the coming days! Thanks for stopping by!

jp

Feline Friday: Welcome, Spring!

Today we have something exciting to share! Spouse -- possibly now known as "Cat Dad", or perhaps more accurately "Not Quite Cat Dad" -- purchased a window bird feeder...

wait for it....

*** FOR LILY! ***

Spouse's sister was visiting and MIGHT have had just a TINY bit (OK, a BIG bit) of influence over this purchase. But that's OK! We'll take it! 😊

So the feeder is now attached to the window for optimal viewing by Lily. Spouse has taken on this project and is waiting until the weather warms up to add bird seed to it. Now that spring is officially here, that should be happening any day now!

The cat tree has been positioned in front of this window, and Lily has been patiently waiting for the show to start! It will be just like watching YouTube bird videos...but interactive! We are quite excited for this new addition to Lily's daily routine.

Thankfully, the weather has been warming up around here, such that I've shed my winter coat for a lighter one. I recently left it lying in the laundry room and came home to Lily curled up in the hood. I'm happy to lend my winter coat for a nap...I'd much rather she use it than me!

Happy Spring!

jp

Feline Friday - Now with More Rory!

 This has been a busy week catching up on projects after being in Texas, so I'm re-surfacing only today for a Feline Friday post. Can't miss the most important day of the week!

While I was in Texas, Cat Dad (using that term loosely!!) took care of Lily. Because he barely even interacts with Lily, he had to endure some detailed training before I left. In addition to following her daily schedule, he vowed that he would be putting Lily on a diet so while I was in Texas, he texted me that she was having to work for her breakfast. I'm not sure how effective this technique was for weight loss, but it did serve to keep her from gobbling! :)

 Meanwhile in Texas, I enjoyed a lot of lap time with Rory. I really need to get some better pictures of her paws, but this may give you an idea of how large they are. My thumb is provided for scale. They are absolutely HUGE!

 While I was in Texas, I re-introduced Rory to bird and squirrel videos on YouTube (search "Paul Dinning cat videos"). She loved them! Hopefully her mama will let her watch occasionally.

She also loved the cat games, especially those with scampering mice!

 After screen time, it was time for Rory to help make dinner. She never waits in the kitchen for a taste of people food. Her mama said she was showing off for me!

I loved spending time with BOTH of my girls in Texas! Can't wait to visit again soon!

Happy Feline Friday, y'all!

jp

Feline Friday with Rory!

 I've had a good excuse for the lack of posts this last week: I was in Texas visiting my girls, Bailey and her sweet kitty, Rory!

 I was a bit under the weather with a sinus infection on this trip, but it didn't stop me from enjoying every minute! Of course, I loved hanging out with our daughter who I don't get to see nearly often enough. 

And Rory is just about the sweetest kitty EVER. I took so many pictures of her on this trip that it will take me more than one blog post to share them. So brace yourselves for a LOT of Cousin Rory!

 

She loves the kicker I sent to her! It's a good thing that it's extremely well-made because this girl delivers some SERIOUS bunny kicks!

Bailey was working during my visit, and on the first day I got up after she left to find sweet Rory a bit puzzled to see me. But it didn't take long for her to remember that she had a visitor.

 As soon as I had my coffee in hand, she nestled right in on my lap!

And let me tell you, this cat is HUGE! I don't mean that in a disparaging way (although her mama does have her on a diet). She weighs 12 pounds but carries it well on her ginormous frame. When you pick her up, it feels like you're lifting a Thanksgiving turkey. Cousin Rory is solid muscle!

Rory, who is 4 years old now, didn't start out a lap cat. It took some time for her to jump on laps, and then she'd only stay for a few minutes. Now she'll stay a very long time, so long that you need someone to bring you a refill on your coffee because you don't want to move! And her paws...well, we'll get into that in another post!

The first day of my visit, I stayed home with hopes of feeling (FELINE) better, enjoying a quiet day with my book and my new best friend. SEE HOW BIG SHE IS?

It was such a treat to spend time with my girls! I'm so glad Rory is a full-fledged lap cat now!

Happy Feline Friday, y'all!

jp

Feline Friday

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time! 

Lily recommends shortbread -- or most any flavor, actually!

Enjoy your Feline Friday!

 jp