The Joys of Scraplifting

I got another picture out of my stack of "I'm going to scrapbook that someday pile." This one if for my Fifty States Album. Chad and I decided that we want to visit all 50 states together. To prove that we did it, we have to take a picture of us somewhere or doing something state specific and that picture goes in the album. So far, I have 9 pages, but we have visited at least 5-10 others that I haven't scrapped or haven't gotten the required picture. As a scrapbooker, it is an interesting experiment also because it shows how much trends change.


This page was a scraplift from the July CK. I thought I'd scan the original to demonstrate how I "scraplifted."


The

Politics...Oh, wait, no.

I have been reading lots of blogs and facebook entries on politics and it has been enlightening and confusing to see where different people stand. Part of me wants to talk it out and part of me does not want to impose on others and part of me feels like maybe I'm just missing something. There are obviously a lot of parts of me today...

So instead of politics, I bring you another page that I did today. It is again out of the "been holding on to this photo forever" pile. (And no, I didn't pick blue paper as a subliminal message).

My name is Katy Gorrell and I approved this page. I promise to continue to fill my blog with cute pictures of Megan and the occasional scrapbook page.

Christmas...2004

For my birthday, Chad is letting me take the day off (via his mom coming to watch Megan) and a friend and I are going to go to the scrapbook store. In preparation for this, I decided to spend today getting organized to make the most of my time. I pulled out my "to be scrapped" file and found this picture above that has been waiting almost 4 years. When I saw it, I grabbed my December Creating Keepsakes Mag and found the inspiration I had apparently been waiting for and my organizational plans flew out the window.

Megan saw me get out a jar of buttons and immediately started asking, "Please?" At first, I thought no, but then I decided to give it a try. She played with the buttons for 1 1/2 hours. She put them in and out of different containers. For the most part, she stayed in one area, but I'm sure I'll be finding red buttons for the next 6 months...

Scrappin'

Two weeks ago, I spent a few days in Ohio with the in-laws and got to spend some time at the scrapbook store. I didn't get a lot done, but these are the two pages I started and two weeks later finished.


This is a new thing I'm trying on some of my 12 x 12 pages. When I have extra pics to include, I'm going to use a 6 x 12 page in the middle of the double page spread. In the picture below, the insert is to the left.


Here is how it appears in the album:

The cutest lion

Megan was an adorable lion for Halloween thanks to Grandma Gorrell's smart shopping after Halloween last year. She was a little reluctant about the costume at first, but once it was on she was okay with it. I had left the lion mane out with her toys for weeks trying to get her used to it and every couple days I'd ask if she wanted to try it on, she always said no. Lucky for me the photo crazed parent, the mane snaps to the body of the outfit. We slipped it on, snapped it in place and the poor thing couldn't get it off...

We took her across the street to the neighbors who had M&Ms just for Megan because they know Megan loves M&Ms.


She didn't want to take pictures, she wanted candy.


She was trying to discover how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of the tootsit pop.


If candy weren't bad for her, I'd give her a sucker everyday. She sat still for 15 minutes working on the sucker. There are days where I would do some crazy things to get her to sit still for 15 minutes.



After the local trick-or-treat night ended, Chad and I went to a costume party. For those of you none locals, our costumes need an explanation.


Everyone in DuBois refers to the plant Chad works at as, "the Cheese Plant." The strange thing is, they don't make cheese there. When the plant was being built there was an article in the local paper about it and it said the plant would make cheese, which at the time was true. The cheese business never really took off and so instead they make coffee syrup for duncan donuts, beverages, mayonnaise, ketchup and anything else that seems like a profit could be made. The community still refers to it as "the cheese plant." We have received many a blank stare when we say, "Chad works at Giuseppe's Finer Foods." We follow that with, "it's part of ICP?" When the confusion still exists, we resort to, "the cheese plant on Oklahoma Salem." At which point a lightbulb seems to come on and the person usually asks something about cheese and what the plant makes and we have to explain that, "No, they don't actually make cheese."


Okay, now that the background is clear, Chad and I dressed up as superheroes. He was Cheese and I was a Plant and together we combined forces to be, "Cheese Plant."



And finally, this is the pumpkin we carved at the party. I was pretty proud of our effort. We went boys versus girls and the boys made a Steelers emblem and then used a DRILL to write the word "Steelers" into the pumpkin. It was Chad's idea. We ladies made due with our little carving knife.

Meeting Clifford

Our local library had an event this past Tuesday to meet Clifford and get a free book. We took Megan and she thought it was pretty fun. She wouldn't sit on his lap, but she touched his foot, pointed to his eyes and gave him high-5s (well, low 5s, afterall he's the BIG red dog.) She had a good time.

We visit the library every two weeks. The children's department is nice, they have puzzles, a play house, blocks, puppets and of course, books! She loves "Spot" books and recently has been into the "Thomas the Train" books. Our favorite right now is called, "You and Me Baby" and she will randomly say the first two lines even though we returned it last week. Since I have the book memorized, I tell it to her while she acts out what all the babies in the book are doing. Very cute, very funny.

What a difference a year makes.

Kim, Tracy and I did a retake on last years photo shoot with the kids. The obvious change was that both Kim and Tracy had a baby this year. I didn't realize though until I went back to look at last year's picture how much the kids had actually changed. Obviously there has been a dramatic change when I stop to think about it. Last year, she couldn't sit up, let alone run, jump and dance. Last year, drool was about the only thing coming from her mouth. Now we laugh, moo, give kisses and say about 75 words. She has also become a blonde...hmm. Enough words, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.







The kids sat down and immediately let us take pictures. We took a brief break to readjust the babies and after that things went down hill. Lily informed us that "it's too cold" and proceeded to cry. It was very sad (and also cute in that weird parent way that sobbing children are adorable).



This is Connor Matthew, he belongs to Kim, Matt and Caden. He was born July 21.


This is Ella Rose. She belongs to Tracy, Phil and Lily. She was born June 24.