Regret and Road Blocks

[Sunday, December 21, 2008]

The holidays are once again upon us, and, with them, the end of another year. This time of reverie conjures many mixed feelings: longing for years gone by as well as hope for years to come. If you're feeling any measure of regret, ask yourself why. When you are able to answer that question, commit to reversing it in 2009. Obviously, you cannot go back in time, but you will no doubt be presented with similar situations again. Life is too short for should-haves.

Not long ago, a mentor of mine left me with this thought, imprinted upon a small keepsake card:

"Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

While I haven't always admonished its creed, I refer to it daily, and remind myself that, apart from God, my future is only up to me.

In the last decade, Adam and I have both lost grandparents who are dear to us. We both regret not spending more time inquiring about their lives. We are both committing to trace more of our family trees in the coming year and filling in some of the blanks. We are each motivated for different reasons, but we both feel it's important to learn as much as we can about our roots. Armed with this knowledge, we will be able to educate our future generations via scrapbooks and heirloom-quality family trees.

With that, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I leave you with my final blog post of 2008.

[August, 24, 2008] - Happy B-day, Nana!

Finally moving onto the 2nd floor in Biltmore House, I need to print out a few more descriptions of the rooms on vellum. I also decide to combine the grand staircase and second floor living hall onto one page so the Vanderbilt's bedrooms occupy a two-page spread.

I begin the page with the elements I have, leaving room for items I'll add later, including a title and the vellum accents. (image 1)

At this time, Adam and Summer leave for Mickey D's to grab some lunch (which we had promised her the day before). We aren't big fast-food eaters. In fact, when possible, we tend to take detours to avoid driving past those restaurants. However, at a very young age, Summer, having never visited the establishment, was omniscient about Mickey D's. I'm convinced kids are somehow programmed with this knowledge in the womb. All the unborn babies telepathically receive survival tips from earth-dwelling kids, which include the must-know details on McDonald's, Disney, Santa, etc. What's more, the knowledge is very specific. For example, rather than being cognizant about kids' meals at fast-food restaurants in general, it is typically Happy Meals at McDonald's. When have you ever heard a pre-schooler request a stop at Wendy's or Arby's? Kids whose tireless parents keep TV away from their toddlers uncannily still know about Mickey Mouse and Elmo.

Anyway, whilst Adam and Summer are off to retrieve the artery-clogging food, I open up MS Word and type the text boxes for the rest of the Biltmore House tour so they're ready for printing. I manage to fit them all on page. I'll print them out later. First, I need to trim the vellum to 8.5 x 11 so it will fit into the printer tray. I use the 12-inch straight trimmer.

Adam and Summer return from Mickey D's, so I break for lunch. (It's okay, I tell my body, you'll survive - at least today.)

After putting Summer down for a nap and after printing the vellum accents, I turn my attention to background color. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but it's worth repeating. If your photos or images are light, use a dark background color. Conversely, if the photos/images are dark, use a light background color. This puts the focus on your pictures and not on the background.

I choose black single color cardstock to charge a few images. Because I want to use black for most, I don't even bother trimming the paper. I just use the entire sheet as background. I did find an image online of the chandelier suspended in the staircase, so as soon as I print it out, I'll use it in place of the photo of the staircase exterior. I use splashes of color - peach, gold - to charge a few images on the right, but I can't adhere anything until I print the photo of the chandelier. (image 2)

I run upstairs and run off a black/white copy and determine the printout image can't be more than 4 x 4, so most likely it'll end up 2.75 x 4. But at least I know it'll fit. I adhere the vellum with frosted splits and everything else with tape runner. I decide to raise the vellum accent under the chandelier picture but I'm not sure what color paper to use. I pull out my color wheel for guidance. By pointing the star end of the isosceles triangle at the start color (peach), I follow the other two points to their respective colors (lilac and teal). I select teal because it will throw back to the palette from my previous page. (image 3)

I decide to use the copper metallic round tip pen on this page because it will show well on the black paper. I pull out the journaltopia to guide my strokes. Freewriting is hit or miss. Don't sweat it if your handwriting makes the common ascent at the end or if the letters aren't exactly the same size. This contributes to the personalization of your project and contains a piece of you. (This little pep talk is as much for me as it is for you!) The result is not bad. Good but not perfect. So, sans the pic of the chandelier, this page is finito. (image 4)

One final word, if you hit a road block because you are missing a photo or piece of memorabilia, don't let it halt all progress. Mark a space for it and scrap around it. You can fill in the hole later (even if "later" is two years from now!).

The Rescue

[Saturday, August 23, 2008]

This morning an interesting adventure awaited us while we were out on our boat. After riding 2 miles over to Berley Cove the motor stalled. It had been idling here and there, but Adam thought we could make it. Twenty minutes and two fresh blisters later, Adam was unsuccessful at re-starting the boat. Anyone singing the Gilligan's Island theme yet?

We began drifting toward several piers, so Adam and I had to break out the orange collapsable oars. Summer wanted to row, too, but we didn't want to risk the chance that one of the oars might fall into the water and drift out of our reach. I was trying to keep Summer entertained and in the boat while rowing at the same time, but my inexperience was evident as we floated around instead of going straight.

Adam was about to radio for help when, fortuitously, a group of locals were about to launch their cabin cruiser a few feet away from us. Out of the kindness of their hearts, they offered to tow us back. We couldn't have been more grateful since the tide was rolling back in and rowing against the wind would have taken us hours if not days. We were also grateful that we had decided against going out into the bay that day due to the chop. We really would have been stranded then!

Adam rowed the boat as close to the dock as he could get while our rescuers loaded up their boat and backed it away from the dock. Adam threw them the line, and they tied it off. Adam joked that ours was their life boat. We made a bit of small talk and snapped each other's pictures, for storytelling, of course. Although Adam was slightly embarrassed, I reminded him that it could happen to anyone much like a car breaking down.

Our new friends weren't put out at all. In fact, they seemed thrilled to be sailing for purpose rather than mere leisure. They dropped us at our dock, threw us the line and sailed away. Below are some images commemorating the event.

Since we made it home safely and in time for Summer to take a nap, I reward myself with a little scrapbooking time. Still plugging away at the images from the tour of Biltmore House, I have nearly concluded the main floor. This page of the library won't take much space so I plan a border for the left side of the page. Color choice is easy: brown and cranberry single color cardstock to coordinate with postcards. I use the tearing tool to create a staggered effect on the border (image 1).

At this point, I come down with a case of cropper's block in deciding how to embellish the border. I consider making tags with the tag maker and writing one-word descriptions on them. I consider punching paisleys with the paisley maker. I consider using letters to spell a title. I search and search my stash but nothing seems brainy enough for the page. What images conjure confidence of knowledge? I ask myself. What images are indicative of learning? The brain? Spectacles? Reading lamp? Notebook and pencil? I can't think, and unlike on Nabbs Creek, I receive no rescue, so I step away.

[Sunday, August 24, 2008]

When I return to it the next morning, I find a tag in my stash that contains autumn hues of orange, red, brown and teal. I use this to journal a few sentences and anchor the border. I also discover a remnant of aqua paper to change the brown and the red under the vellum and the as-built. When I add the tag, it will unify the entire color scheme (image 2).

For the journaling, I choose the cocoa fine-tip pen, then adhere the tag to the page with 3-D dots. Finally, I attempt to create a pair of reading spectacles using the mini-circle maker and the black round- and fine-tip pens. I punch two 3/4-inch circles each of white and mediterranean single color cardstock. Then, using the black round fine-tip pen and scrap paper (to catch ink run-off), I outline the mediterranean circles in black, then with the tape runner, adhere them to the white circles, leaving a bit of the white exposed to the left. With tape runner, I adhere the double circles to the border on my page at a slight angle. With the fine-tip pen, I free draw the frames of the spectacles, then outline the frames with the round tip pen (image 3 and 4).

With that, I've logged another page. It doesn't rival the relief of being rescued from a breakdown in the middle of Nabbs Creek, but it is still one step closer to a completed album.