LOAD Recap and blogging

LOAD ended a few days ago and as the month wrapped up I realized I didn't do too badly. Certainly not bad in the LOAD department but also in life in general. Dishes weren't piled up, the garage was clean, the laundry room is tidy, dinners were fed etc etc. Oh and Light the Night went without a hitch and without major late hours. Jump back to LOAD May - not quite so smoothly. LOAD went great but the rest of the household suffered a wee bit. Why the change this time? I'm not entirely sure. I did have less church commitments but I was even less prepared for LOAD this time - I didn't do up a month's worth of page kits. I had some ideas but they weren't all laid out. I probably had a little bit more time during the day this time around (although I don't recall doing a lot of scrapbooking during the day) but it probably freed up my time in the evening. Either way, this time went a lot more smoothly - I was way productive and my family was still happy (mainly Drew) - so thumbs up for the next one.

And now on to other projects. As October wound down and November begins, I'm excitingly awaiting a new project. This one begins November 2nd and again involves Shimelle (Journal your Christmas). It's all about blogging and scrapbooking and how they are related and how to make the blogging part work for your scrapbooking. I'm in! That has always been the main goal of my blogging - to use it as a sort of on-line scrapbook - a place to help me jog my memory and give me a common, organized format for when I actually get around to doing a layout. Either way - I'm looking forward to what I can learn. Stay tuned - I'm not usually able to keep up with the pace of the classes I take but I am betting better at at least getting the daily information down.

So, how did I do at LOAD?

39 items uploaded

31+ layouts submitted

15 double page layouts

12 8.5x11 or smaller layouts

5 digital layouts (YEYYY!!!)

7 photo-less layouts

175 photos scrapped!

oh and SOOO much inspiration!

And just to show off... here are my favourite 5 layouts:

Favourite Layout #5:

I finally finished Matt's calendar page for December 2004. This has been sitting around for ages. I don't do a lot of this style anymore but I am so glad to be done and now I can bind it and show it off. It was a calendar following all of the daily things he did for his second year. It's hard to believe he is almost 7!

Favourite Layout #4:

This is one of 3 layouts I got done on Christmas cards received layouts. Very simple in design and quick to make (Becky Higgins scraplift CK Dec06) - I don't know why I procrastinated so long on these ones. I think I am going to start a separate album for them as it will be neat to see the changes in families as they grow over the years.

Favourite Layout #3:

Another catch-up project I got back to working on. This one is 28 days through Big Picture Scrapbooking. I actually can't find all of the journalling I thought I had done but once I made the cover page and got my head around the format I wanted, I got several pages done. It still isn't complete but I know now it won't take long. It's very much a everyday life type album - one that will be really fun to look back in a few years (what am I saying - it was Feb07 that I started it!!!) Note to self - who would have thought it would be the start of something similar to Project 365!



Favourite Layout #2:
I found this quick page on Scrapping with ikea goddess and loved it (other then the skull but I'm choosing to overlook it). It really was quick and it has become a favourite because it really showed me that I can actually do some digital layouts without a lot of difficulty. I like the colour and simplicity in this layout.

And now for Favourite layout #1;

This is my favourite for a number of reasons: 1) I didn't actually scraplift this one - it's mine! 2) I really like how the masking turned out. It was fun and I like the result! 3) I love that it shows all of a month's work at one time on one layout 4) it doesn't hurt that quite a few people doing LOAD liked it too =)

So there you have it in a nut shell. What I was doing for the month of October. For more check out my flickr account and the slide show going at the side. I think the next LOAD challenge in coming in February. I just hope I actually get some layouts done before then!