Hi guys!
First up is the great news: My computer is back! She Liiiiiives!
*ahem* I'm pretty excited about that.
Also, I'm working on a great new way to showcase all the layouts I made for the May LOAD challenge that I just finished up: my husband is helping me with the geekery, and I'll be sure to let you all know when we've got that finished up.
But the point of my post today comes from something I heard while listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable last week. If you don't listen to the Roundtable, rest assured that I highly recommend it. Lots of industry type folks, just chatting about interesting scrapbook-y stuff. The boys and I listen to it (for free!) on my iPod every week.
Last week, one of the topics that came up for discussion was about scraplifting. Many people brought up that inspiration is everywhere, we learn by lifting (yadda yadda) but one comment really struck me. Izzy (the show's producer) was talking about direct lifting, and how it's OK for learning, but not really something he'd be "proud" of. He said something along the lines of, "Would you be proud of a paint by number?"
Well.
Let me show you my latest "Paint by Number"
The sketch of this layout was taken from Cathy Zielske. The photo was inspired by one from Ali's December Daily in 2008.
So I lifted not just the design scheme of this layout, but also the idea for the photograph. Am I proud of it? You betcha.
For one, it tells a story that wouldn't otherwise have been told. That's always priority number one for me and my pages. Always.
But here's the thing, as I see it: Scrapbooking combines the best of three separate forms of art. Graphic design, photography and story telling. Every layout is essentially three pieces of art blended into one. Did you lift the design? The stories and photos are still yours. No matter what you copy, there are still other elements that are yours. The way you choose to combine any of those three separate art pieces is uniquely you. Even in the layout above, where I copied two of the three elements, the story is still distinctly mine (mostly because I'm sure no one else is quite crazy enough to have done what I did).
Picking and choosing the angle of my story makes that layout, that work, whatever, MINE. And you know what? I'm still proud of it. I still took a moment to step back from my very ordinary life and recognize that there was a story to be told within it. I don't think trying to re-invent the design wheel would make me feel any better about THAT.
But enough about me. What do you think?
This is my son. He is grabbing a fistful of my neck skin. He and his brother love this, and find it hilarious.
Don't most babies just pull hair?
[This is something I blogged entirely for myself. I intend for it to be journaling on a layout when my laptop gets back. If you don't read it, it won't hurt my feelings. Promise.]
(This is me wrestling the wires off my son on the day he was released from the NICU. Believe it or not, this is the larger one.)
As a parent of babies, I've heard it a million times. Cherish it. It goes by so fast.
When I was only getting 45 minutes of sleep every night, it surely didn't feel fast. It felt like hell. Like I couldn't remember what day it was because I was on the same schedule 'round the clock and every day melted into the next like some kind of endless Groundhog's Day of diapers and bottles and stress.
And now that things are a little more stable, it still doesn't feel fast. My boys are only four months old. Four short months. Less than a football season. But my life is so utterly and completely different, and THEY are so utterly and completely different, and we have all been through so much together that it defies imagination to describe these four months as FAST. How can a time that seems like your whole entire life be fast?
There's just no way.
But the other day we were at a coffee shop, and there was a mom's group chatting at the table next to us. And there was a woman there with her newly released preemie son hooked up to his heart monitor. He weighed five pounds, or so I gathered from eavesdropping. And I could NOT believe that my boys, who were once even smaller than he, were so utterly changed. I think moments like that are what make parents say, "It goes by so fast."
Not that it does, because I don't think it has. I think, at least for me, that what happened was that I had my head lowered down in a "Let's Get Through This" stance. Let's get through force feeding preemies who aren't great eaters. Let's get through waking up every 45 minutes to start the whole painful process again. Let's get through crying after shots. Let's get through the things that are the hardest and most heart wrenching things I've ever had to do, and yet the most singularly satisfying as well. Let's take the roller coaster one turn at a time.
And then one moment you look up from the grindstone and see that the things you're getting through are entirely different things. The babies don't need force fed. They need to be slowed down so they don't throw up. You're not sleeping 45 minutes anymore- last night I got 8 hours and panicked when I realized because I was afraid they'd stopped breathing. My babies don't get looks of concern from strangers and I don't get their judgment for having them out. I still get paparazzi levels of attention, but because they're admired everywhere we go. But the change is so subtle, sometimes we (I) don't notice.
Until we see someone standing in the shoes we thought we were in, and think to ourselves, "It goes by so FAST." Because it's gone before we know it.
Here's the good news: my computer, which has been with our IT guy since March, has finally been recognized by Toshiba, and the warranty box has arrived. This means I may actually get it back by the end of the summer. I'm pretty darn stoked about that. I am So, SO very tired of only posting bad cell phone pics.
The bad news is this: I'm tired of waiting and waiting to post my nursery tour, so you're gonna have to suffer through unretouched/ unresized photos with RIDICULOUS color cast. Sorry, pals. Soon, all shall be restored.
Anyway: here we have it. The boys room.
There isn't one single piece of new furniture in the room, and I'm actually kind of proud of that. They all came from thrift stores, or came to us as hand-me-downs. I think my favorite is the changing table pictured below. It's not actually a changing table, really it's my mom's old dry sink, which she has had as long as I can remember. She painted it years and years ago, and I decided to just leave it. I think it's just perfect.
Yep, there's only one crib. They both fit in it (when they were born they were so small that they both fit in one bassinet), and they seem to be happier when they're together. So, for the time being, they share a bed. I'm sure they'll outgrow it. Eventually.
The other side of the room. We have a twin sized bed in there, mostly because we had it, and there was no place else in our house to keep it. But you know what? During those early weeks of 'round the clock feedings, it came in pretty handy.
Some details:
You all know how we love to make stuff. And I just couldn't resist the Name-as-Bunting trend. And I made it all with stuff I already had. You gotta love that.
We also have Manny's and my childhood teddy bears there on the chest. I love that, too.
I also made their mobile from the same papers, some monofilament, and a couple of cross stitch hoops. Super Simple, and in my opinion much less cheesy than the cutesy plastic ones. In hindsight, the only thing I'd change is to hang it a little bit lower. Their vision is just now good enough to see it hanging so far above them.
This is my little feeding area, and the one and only nod to cartoons in the place. When I went nursery shopping, and saw that pretty much every baby room out there was decorated with cartoon-like cutesy stuff, I got stubborn and dug my feet in. No cartoons! No safari theme! No sports theme!
Did I mention I was pregnant, and got a little overworked? Heh.
Anyway, I figured these Disney cartoons were OK, because the hubs and I actually drew these ourselves on a couple different trips to the parks. And frankly, I'm too big of a Disney fan to leave the Mouse out altogether.
Hanging over the twin bed is an adorable quilt that my mother-in-law got us from Etsy, which ultimately decided the color scheme of the room (because crazy stubborn pregnant lady did NOT want a blue room just because she was having boys. It would have been blue if I'd had a girl *eyeroll*). It's also accompanied by some shots from the boys newborn session.
Books! Books! Books!
My husband says I'm trying to turn our children into nerds. I say, Um... YEAH! Of course I am. :)
We're also keeping their toys in these baskets for the time being. I have an old wooden toy box from my own childhood that we'll use when they get a little older.
So there it is: my personal decorating masterwork. I'm pretty proud because hey: 6 months ago it had purple walls and pink carpet *shudder*.
See y'all 'round. :)
