Ethnic Scrapbooking

Inspiring Children

Inspiring my children...my new mantra.

In my effort to bring more balance to my life, I’ve been scrapbooking less and trying to inspire more.  Joseph (age 4) has been having a good time with his watercolor painting, pretty much on a daily basis.

Jonathan’s (age 7) spark for creative artistic realization started at Easter when we were dyeing eggs…he seems very fascinated with color.  He is also taking note of my artistic pursuits and calling them as such.

Leah (age 9) has been busy making cards for different teachers and aides using any products at her fingertips. How could I forget the wonderful die-cut flowered card she made me for mother’s day.

Tavien…well upon his visit with us this weekend, he perched right up to the art table and resumed his artistic endeavors too.  It was sweet watching him be so diligent about his coloring…but’s it thoroughly in his blood, both his mamma and daddy are creative and artistic souls, into color, graphics, drawings & a bit a of drama too if ya know what I mean.

I owe my creative pursuits mostly to my father who crafted with me my whole life.

How were you inspired during your childhood?  What do you do now as an adult to nurture your creativity (or the right hemisphere of your brain)?

The Creative Family

The Creative Family

Amanda Blake Soule

Two things struck me when I first saw the cover of this book.  One, was “Wow I thought it would be much bigger” and two, “Hey that’s us!”  The reason for my first reaction is because I look at too many 12x12 scrapbook pages on line and I just assumed this square book was that large…you see my perspective was skewed.  My second reaction was because so many people say those very words to me about my family.

Unfortunately, I didn’t buy this book, I borrowed it from my friend Chela because I couldn't wait for it to come in the mail.  She was hesitant to loan it to me, being new and all, but I promised to return it in two days and that I did.  I really enjoyed the format of the book, especially the small chunks of easy reading, with just enough photography and how-to instructions to keep my interest.

I found many of the arts and craft ideas a bit retro, but that just means they are good solid activities that can span multiple generations.  I also had to keep reminding myself that Amanda is a young mother and although I have four kids under the age of 12, I’ve got a lot of these crafts under my belt having done most of them at least 2-3 times in my life already since my oldest is 21 years old.

Other reviewers seemed to enjoy her idea of a nature table, I took that a step further years ago and actually made a sand box area in my basement laundry room a number of years back complete with the shells and beach toys (we live over 200 miles from the beach).  One “nature table” I have created with my daughter, is by putting her beach finds in a hurricane candle holder, that way “nature” is contained, but visible.

After reading the book over two days I was inspired to pull out all of those crafts I was saving, old scrapbook tools and supplies and droves of paper that I was hoarding and create an art basket for the kids.  I realized that I hadn’t really nurtured the artistic side of Joseph, my four year old and I set up the basket on Sunday night and on Monday morning instead of the usual routine of watching Sesame Street, Barney & the Back Yardigans, I introduced him to the basket and he hasn’t turned on the television since.

Reading through Amanda’s book I started to jot down all of the creative things we have done in our family and you never know, they may make quite a series of articles in the near future.  In the end, I felt very inspired and plan to incorporate a daily “art hour” into our schedule this summer.

I highly recommend reading this book especially if you are striving for more balance in your life...nurturing your creative soul is so necessary for a healthy balance.

Being Present

Our lives are so busy and can quickly spin out of control.  Last week I was really busy with work but thank God for my Joseph.  He was playing right outside the back door and whispered into the house, "Mommy get the camera, I see the yellow bird again".  I managed to get up to the neighbors fence and get a few shots for him...he was so proud that he didn't scare of the bird.  I was so proud that I didn't just blow him off and showed up in the present and enjoyed the moment.

So that I nurture Joseph's curiosity for nature I bought him a birdfeeder so he can pay even more attention to the wildlife in our yard.

Thank you Joseph for bringing some balance to my life that day.

Major Organizing

Last weekend was a rare weekend.  There was absolutely nothing on our calendar...nothing!  No meets, no parties, practices, book promos...nothing.

So you'd think I'd scrapbook all weekend, well...almost.  My studio was a wreck from packing and unpacking from book promos and black history month events.

I decided to "straighten up".  Which I intially intended to just put things away...I still have Kwanzaa display stuff to put away!

I was feeling energized from meeting Stacy Julian and reading her new book, Photo Freedom, although the topic is not new to me, for some reason, meeting her and taking her fast paced Finish Line album class, I returned to her photo sorting philosophy with a fresh perspective.

Here's the deal, last year I took her on-line class called a Library of Memories, which is closed this session, but watch for it in the future, if on-line classes are your thing. I tried to keep up with the reading material from the class last year, but just don't do well with routine events.  Plus I wasn't really feeling her whole sorting philosophy because I've scrapbooked our family & children's albums through 2004.

Well, last weekend I came across a BUNCH of photos that one, hadn't been scrapbooked, nor really sorted.  So I set out to give her system a try which is basically about sorting in categories/person instead of chronological (which I do).  Because I couldn't put my finger on ALL of Grandma Bryant's photos when she died last month I decided to re-sort a few years worth of photos using her category method.  What I ended up with (besides a bunch of new projects to work on) was an entire box of Talisa's photos (which I am thinking of sending off to be scanned so she can have them electronically...watch for these details in my next newsletter, sign up in the box in the right side bar) and a box of "Family Branches"  photos of family members that can go into those "Branch" albums my Dad has started, that we carry to family reunions, weddings and funerals. Family loves to look through the albums looking for themselves.

I'll be demonstrating this method detailed in Photo Freedom on March 22nd at the crop in Bowie, MD...if you are interested in attending and participating in this photo sort at 2:00 pm, contact me and I'll give you the prep details.

Here's a few before and after shots of my organizing frenzy.

Starting with top left...my super cluttered work table, My messy embellishment counter, my untidy photo boxes.

middle row:  the boys helping with the tags used to label some of my drawers and cabinets, my clean embellishment area (look Jerry the laptop playing itunes songs instead of Mary J Blige's Growing Pains cd over and over), the cute tags the boys stamped.

bottom row:My idea list of pages to do after seeing these themes in Jerin's photos while sorting, neatly stacked photo boxes (about 1/3 of what I have), A DIY basket of mini-projects I plan to grab and take with me to crops and work on.

The Photo Freedom, I experienced was that while I was sorting photos and recalling memories, I actually did the journaling for  three pages I want to complete and clipped them to the photos...why, because the memories where fresh and I'm not afraid of my handwriting and it felt good to get those memories down on paper and out of my head!  I did mark the backs of some photos with the year and who the children were...Jonanthan and Joseph look so similar and the clothes are passed down...I didn't want to make the mistakes my Dad did in putting the wrong kid in the wrong album!

Did I mention I did all of cleaning and sorting with my Dad?  Now how many of you do that with your Dad?  It was fun, we chatted about his childhood, projects we want to do together, research we want to accomplish this summer and how we can fine tune our family history presentations...GOOD, GOOD Times.  Just the dose of BALANCE I needed in my life at this time...being creative and organized makes me feel good, free to move on.

Don't have another free weekend until April 26th.

BALANCE

Balance...my word for the year.

A few years ago I heard Mark Rutland preach a sermon around one word...he wrote a book on the word nevertheless.  I was so impressed for a number of reasons. One, I had never really even used the word, two, his mother instilled in him the love of words and built up his vocabulary and three he wrote a whole book about the usage of the word.  So I read his book and paid attention to that word for a year. 

Last year I focused on the word PERSEPCTIVE...if you've read my book, Ethnic Scrapbooking you know why.

This year it is balance.  Being an accountant, balance is a part of my everyday life.  Usually you think of weights on a scale, or a state of being in equilibrium.  I'm looking for it in my life for mental and emotional stability; sanity! I'll be focusing on how to bring more balance to my life and household in areas such as rest, scrapbooking, reading, food choices, blood sugar levels, extracurricular activities and etc.

Leah works on balance 15 hours a week.