Banners? I Don't Need No Stinkin' Banners!!

When I first saw banners on scrapbook pages, I knew I'd never do a page with them. I remember remarking to my friend, "Why would anyone put a BANNER on a scrapbook page?" I might have even scoffed, though I can't be entirely certain of that. Time went on and I continued to see pages adorned with banners, and would shake my head, secure in my banner snobbishness. Eventually I decided that maybe, just maybe, they'd be OK on a celebration page. Perhaps a birthday page. So the next time some birthday pictures rolled my way, I pulled out a banner, and behold--I was somehow magically converted. Banners have slowly worked their way on my pages, just in time for them to be going out of fashion. It's all good, though--I don' t generally care if what I'm doing is "trendy" or not. Heck, every once in awhile, I'll even pull out some decorative edge scissors or an old Doodlebug Charm. So, until I get tired of them, I'm going to keep using them, by golly. So I added them into this page, all Simple Stories stuff for the most part. I think I've already proclaimed my love for Simple Stories. In some ways, they're actually pretty hard to work with, but in other ways, it's nice to have stuff that works well together and that you don't have to do a lot with to still have it look nice. I added a few little gems to the banner and partook of some of my beloved ric rac and obviously, a button. I had to use a flash this morning because it's a gray and gloomy day, so that's not a ghostly apparition in the bottom picture, just a flash glare. These are pretty old pictures from 1990. And if you were able to deduce that it was Thanksgiving from the "Count Your Blessings" and "November" items on the page, you're doing well. I bounce all around in my scrapbooking (and boy it's starting to hurt my forehead and elbows). I might do pictures from last week one day , then photos from 1987 and my frizzy, scary poodle perm the next. I do put them away chronologically though. Otherwise, it'd be just wrong.

9 Months Old

Monday, Monday...what the heck are YOU doing here? I was all totally into the whole weekend thing and then YOU had to rear your ugly head. I had a super weekend, including the 12 hour crop, that I made it to, snow and all. Growing up in the snow belt of Ohio, you'd think that snow wouldn't phase me. We'd literally get dumped with a foot and a half of snow in an hour. They sometimes have snow on the ground in May. People laughed when I moved here and said, "Oh, wait til you see our New England winters!" and I laughed back jovially and said, "I'm from Ashtabula." (Yes, Ashtabula. It's an Indian name for "River of many fish." I'd probably add "and toxic waste" to that, but I digress.) Anyway, I used to drive with no problem in the stuff but now having lived in New England for 11 years and because I work at home, I've grown unaccustomed to doing so and I totally wuss out about it. And these roads were pretty bad on Saturday. But, as you can see, I lived to tell the tale and to scrapbook a few pages, and engage in general mirth with my scrapbooking homies. This is one of the layouts that I did there. I'm slightly dubious about it because it's not totally my style. I'm more of a "add everything and the kitchen sink...plus the decorative soap" kind of scrapbooker. I admire people who can leave artful space on their layouts but I seem to find a way to add something to just about every nook and cranny. The photo is of my sweet nephew, Chris--when, as I'm sure you can read since it's SO huge, he was 9 months old. He's 21 years old now. Ouch. So hard to believe THAT much time has elapsed when in the same period, I've only gained 10 years. Weird how that works. The papers are all a My Mind's Eye Fourth of July collection. I don't do very many patriotic pages because we never seem to have Fourth of July plans, but I do really love red and blue as a color combo and well...his outfit pretty much stipulated that I use it. That and the steely "use blue and red" glare in his eyes. Originally, I'd planned on making flags instead of a banner, but was convinced by my friend Laura that the banner was the way to go. Once she'd showed me the light, I embraced the idea. I held it for awhile and then finished the page. I pulled out one of my Cricut cartridges (Cuttin' Up) to make the title, added some twine and some cute buttons, too. I still look at it and feel like there's something missing, but I've decided to leave well enough alone. I hope that doesn't make Well Enough feel badly.