September roundup

My reading has slowed down this month and I find I'm doing more pages. But my to-scrap list never seems to get any shorter! I've done a bunch of random number pages, some other pages for my Art & Science class and some scrapping from my last staycation.

Well, I am officially caught up on Easter pages. I wanted to do a little page to commemorate the year we stayed home and had a nice time even though we missed out on the fun with the extended family.

My friend Amanda sent me a pretty photo of her daughter and I've been wanting to scrap it. She is one of my favorite kids.

 My baby niece has the coolest clothes.

This was one of my class pages. The challenge was to start with a story and I wanted to tell the story of how we spent just about every weekend before Maddie arrived shopping.

These are lots of random photos of Penny from my iphone.

This was another class page. The challenge was to pick a photo and then mix up the dates to find another shot and then connect them. Well, as you can tell from the page above - I picked an easy subject!

I had a great time with my co-workers in NYC on Valentine's Day. We had a pretty crazy adventure with cover bands, Ryan Gossling and Katz's Deli!

More fun with co-workers! Some crazy pics from our spirit week earlier this year.

 I saw Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes last summer with my friend Francie. So much fun. Good music and great night at the Tiki Bar in Point Pleasant.

During my staycation, I wanted to hang out with my friend Melissa and we decided to check out Governor's Island. And we found this pretty cool little festival of old-timey carousels. 

 I also went to see Let It Be with Amanda (a different one!) on Broadway. We both love the Beatles so we had a great time singing along.

And I also got to spend time with my favorite doll hunting family during my week off! 

Left Brain vs Right Brain Homework

I swore I was never going to take another class, but when I saw a promotion for The Art & Science of Scrapbooking from Big Picture Classes, I was intrigued.

I've been feeling very uncreative for awhile. I work with all these amazing designer who just kill me with their work. I just don't have the skills to keep up with them. And I feel like this kind of self-pity I've been feeling over that has trickled into my scrapping. I've been getting a lot done, but I don't really love my pages. I looked through one of my older scrapbooks the other night and I could really see a difference in what I was doing maybe a year or two ago.

So I think this class is going to be good for me. Before it started, they gave us a link to an online quiz, which told me I was 56 percent right - and at first that just made me depressed. I thought I was more creative than that. But then it was like a light bulb went off. I need to stop trying to be like my co-workers or maybe other scrappers. I am not artsy. I am not spontaneous. I'm not good at concepts or creating things just because. Instead, I am organized. I remember stories. I am good at stuff like photoshop or design because I research and practice. I get stuff done. These might seem weird - but I think they're awesome skills to have at my job and for scrapping. And they do help me be creative in my own way.

When I took a class last time, I wrote two things and then I just had no mojo to write anything again. It was a journaling class with Ali Edwards and I was so excited to be taking it and then just bummed that it wasn't working for me. But this weekend, I did two pages for my class challenges. And I really like them, too.

Fun with newspapers: Maple syrup edition

So I have ben in kind of a creative slump. I have been feeling stressed at work and I think my work has been showing it. I haven't had anything I wanted to share in a while.

But I've been having a good week! First I found out that the Burlington editors chose this page I had designed as their page of the month! It's a pretty simple design and the photo is really the star.

Check out my prize.... real Vermont maple syrup. That's a lot of syrup! I am already thinking of how good that will taste on pancakes. (You know, that's one thing I'm not good at cooking! Maybe I can get Mom or Grandma to help!) 

And this was a kind of crazy project. TJN had a story they wanted us to illustrate about bullet-proof school supplies. And in our meeting they also talked about an idea of doing some kind of visual story telling about the weather. So here's what I came up with for the centerpiece and skybox and the inside chart on weather. Really fun to create - I was at work an extra two and half hours trying to get it all done!

This was another fun page to work on.  TJN had a Sunday story about Twitter and student athletes - and there were lots of pieces to it and I wanted to make it look a lot more interesting than our typical inside pages.

Binge TV

Summer is usually a time for me to binge watch. Why go outside and enjoy the nice weather when there are lots of shows to catch up on? (Ok, I did get out a bit this summer - I wasn't that bad.) I started off the summer with Arrested Development - which I thought was wacky and just fun - even though I heard some bad press for it. My usual summer shows - like True Blood, Royal Pains, Dexter (on earlier this season), Drop Dead Diva, Franklin & Bash, didn't keep me busy enough because I had time to watch a few more things....

 

If you don't have Netflix yet, Orange is the New Black is really a good reason to sign up. I think I watched all 15 episodes in four days. It's so funny, but touching and even scary sometimes. Nice to see a show that really focuses on a diverse group of women. The casting in just about every role was perfect.

I started Breaking Bad a few years ago - but there was a scene in the second or third episode that really grossed me out. While I do watch some pretty gory shows, Breaking Bad just seemed too real. But then my sister started watching again and I found out that Chris Hardwick would be hosting a post-show after the new episodes of the final season, so I wanted to try again. And I developed a really bad addiction. It's probably up there on my favorite shows ever. Really great twists and amazing performances. And it's kind of fun now to watch it in real-time while all the end-of-series hype is going on.

I've been home the last few days (long weekend  plus pink eye = gross!) so I decided to watch Sherlock. And why the hell did I wait so long!  Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freemen are my new hereos. The show kind of reminds me of Doctor Who without a police box! And it was only 6 1 1/2 hour episodes long. 

I haven't watched Futurama in years - but I thought I'd record some of the final episodes. I think Comedy Central must air this show all day because my DVR has been filling up with it. But that's given me a chance to realize how funny and nerdy Futurama is. The finale was just so super sweet - and also gross - but mostly awesome. 

And then there's The Awesomes - I guess I only had to binge 3 episodes - because it's still pretty new. But it's hilarious! It stars Seth Meyers and a lot of SNL peeps. They are like the misfit version of the Avengers or the Justice League. I need to laugh after all that Breaking Bad!