In the Storm

Shoes.

 

What do you think? Is it crazy documenting about my shoes? I don't think so.

Because there's a story behind each pair of shoes. Maybe not for everyone. But, I don't own, or buy, that many pairs of shoes. Although Jeff would beg to differ. And, that comes from a man who has 3 pairs of Red Wing work boots, all the same, that he rotates daily. Of course, there's a level of genius behind that decision.

Wanting to tell the story about my shoes, and the individual small stories about each pair, motivated me to purge, purge, purge and fill a kitchen trash bag full of shoes I haven't worn for over a year. I LET THEM GO!

Until I purchased those KEDS yellow floral, most of my shoes were pretty non-descript - except, of course, for my leopard print pairs. Lots of neutral colors that can go with almost anything. Missing is a pair of my dream shoes: I would love a pair of Tieks!

 

I have a small story to tell for each pair of shoes. It would be so fun to look back on and see what I bought, why I bought them, and where I spent the money.

Here & Now.

I haven't made a page this big with this small of a photo with this much white space in a very long time. Reminiscent of older days of traditional scrapbooking, and yet I like it. It is sweet. Of course, it was a simple template that provided the design and I added the photo and pattern papers. I still L - O - V - E, love using templates. While I mostly purchase clean and simple templates in grids, because - grids - and grids are clean and simple, I occasionally step outside of my scrapbooking style and pick up cutesy pages like this one.

Digitally, I used papers by Sahin Designs. She has become a favorite digital scrapbooking designer I have come to love for her beautiful papers, clean lines, and minimalist and modern style. Even her script pieces are slim and clean, not bulky and harsh. So, I kept it sweet and simple. I used one of the larger hearts for my journaling home, about Ian.

Six Pages.

Today I am sharing six pages I have made over the past couple of months. Created when something caught my eye or a story needed to be told. For this first page, I saw an advertisement on Pinterest (by the way I always say advertisement like ad · ver · tis · mint; it always sounds pristine and professional). I loved the triangles within the page and the shaded triangles with in the photos. 

This is the ad I used as my jumping off point:

Digitally, I used Ali Edwards' WILD Story kit only to tell my story:

I’m not sure when my fascination with waterfalls arose in me to the point that now, when we’re planning long weekend or week away trips, waterfalls seem to be a part of our adventure. Lately, I have an unwritten goal to see as many waterfalls as I can possibly squeeze in with our lifestyle. I love the rushing of the water as it crashes over the rocky ledge and plunges, hitting the rocks below. The chill in the air from the wind and water is breathtaking and I can stand and gaze in awe and enjoy the beauty, lingering as long as possible. I love how the water flows along the eroding rock patterns and worn formations, where water pools in all the nooks and crannies, or gently streams, and then cascades downward once more.

On our most recent trip to see waterfalls, it is those falls that we have to hike in to see that were the most exciting - the anticipation was exhilarating. Even better if we caught glimpses of what is to come... heightened sensations and the thrill of the adventure mounted. If it’s been an arduous journey in, and almost all of them were, I was, all the more so, appreciative of the view.

But, it’s not simply the mammoth waterfalls that please my senses, it is the rivers and streams of rushing and swirling waters that ramble below and I’m always intrigued by how the waters make their way in and out and around rock formations and masses, to trickle here only to flow rapidly further below. As we’ve seen quite a few waterfalls in Georgia over these past few years, I’m thinking northeast South Carolina will be our next adventure to the waterfalls.

For this page I went with a clean and simple template from Shannan Manton at shannanpages. She scraps digitally, mostly, and is a minimalist scrapbooker - my go to style. Her template did all the work for me. I simply inserted my favorite television shows in 2020 and added a bit of word art from Ali Edwards' WATCH Story kit plus my journaling.

 

Probably my favorite page of the six, I was reminiscing our trip to North Georgia visiting 4 different waterfalls in 4 days in November 2020. I used Ali Edwards' newest quarterly digital mini kit, the Hearts Collection. I think the tags are from Sahin Designs.

Journaling: Jeff and I spent our birthday week in November 2020 hiking the trails in to see the waterfalls of north Georgia. Our goal was to come home having soaked in the beauty of a different waterfall everyday and we did it! We visited 4 water- falls and loved every minute of our trip. I won’t say it was easy for me, but I wouldn’t have changed a minute of our time together. The hike in to Dukes Creek was the longest, Amicalola the shortest (because we used the handicap trail), Anna Ruby was the steepest trail in (but, so worth the lung squeeze), and Desoto Falls was the flatest trail for the most part. Waterfalls have always been on my favorites list of places to visit and I am thrilled we’ve been able to check a few more off our list!

 

One of my favorite ways to create a page. Use an enlarged photo the size of the page. This is 12 x 12 and one of my favorite subjects: Athena. This was a scraplift from Ali Edwards. I used pieces from various kits and various designers: Cathy Zielske, Ali Edwards, and Sahin Designs.

Journaling: 1) Athena, I love how you show love to me by snuggling and sleep on my thighs all night; 2) Athena, it is funny how you 'knead the throw blankets before you lay down on them; 3) Every morning ' you jump up on Jeff's lap so you can scrounge from the yogurt lids; 4) It amazes me how you will sleep on a pillow or blanket after I have been using it. making it your spot only; and 5) The game of hide the toilet paper while we are on the toilet is laugh out. loud hilarious! 

 

Using Ali Edwards' BLOOM Story kit I used -ing words to tell my story along with a photo of a bunch of photos we brought home from the grocery story.

Journaling:

BRINGING a bunch of fresh flowers every week onto our home.

LISTENING to records as much as possible on our new player.

LOOKING forward to a long weekend trip (this week) with Jeff to Charleston.

FINISHING up watching Downton Abbey and wondering what to watch next.

SETTLING in to my current swim routine improvements

STAYING away from all the St. Patrick’s Day madness downton, Savannah

NEEDING to work on organizing my scraproom

READING is slow gloing, again, this month. I am reading Dead Wake by Erik Larson and while I love his books, it has been a slow read.

DREAMING of raised beds in the back yard, new siding on the house, a backyard sunroom, and a freshly paved driveway

EXCITED that Ashley, Brad and the kids will be able to come for a long week visit in April.

HOPING we’ll get some rain to wash away this pollen; it has hit Jeff hard and he has never had allergies

For this outside of my comfort zone page, I used the CONNECTIONS Story kit by Ali Edwards.

Gathered Thoughts.

I've been creating a few pages here and there. My phone's photos are filled, mostly, with Athena. I'm creating simple pages. Of here and now. Gathered thoughts. This photo wasn't that great. Definitely, not staged to be 'pretty' or anything special. I thought I could still use it to gather some thoughts about what I'm seeing through the lens.

1. There are a few grocery items that are becoming harder to find in our city, and unfortunately, even non-existent in any local grocery stores, I am sad to say. Muir Glen pizza sauce, so rich and full-bodied, and organic, as well, is no longer stocked on shelves anywhere, even the fresh market. We use a boxed hot roll mix for one meal on our regular rotation of recipes and probably eat it about 7 times a year - gone from shelves. I had to place a pantry order from Amazon to stock up for the coming months.

2. With a distressed natural-pine and a graywash finish, our new dining room table and chairs make me soo happy. We are ‘keeping’ (storing in the attic) our other dining room table (still in fabulous shape but desperately needed re-stained). However, the chairs need an enormous amount of work that I, nor Jeff, has the time or energy to make happen. These will go to one of our sons, whoever moves out first. Our new table is such a nice addition to our home. We are solid wood furniture snobs!

3. This little stinker regularly jumps up on the table, although thankfully not while we’re eating, mostly, but especially when I am working on my laptop. She inevitably will walk across the keypad and makes something, on whatever I am doing in photoshop elements, go wanky. When I have a vase of flowers, they are her next destination, for sure. When petals fall, Athena considers them her personal play toys. We keep a pillow on one of the chairs so she can ‘join’ us at the table, too.

4. I have been saying yes to a simple bunch of flowers as I pass by in the grocery store, either from Publix or Kroger’s. Simply adding a bunch into my cart sends my spirit soaring, then getting them home and arranging them in a vase and enjoying them for the weeks to come has been life-giving. Jeff has even, on occasion, been the one to select a bouquet on his own. Without prompting. He sees the importance. And beauty. And, happy wife - happy life, as he likes to joke.

5. With our new dining room table and chairs and - well - for many, many months, I have noted my discontent with our dining room and kitchen walls, the color, their peeling paint, their need for a little fresh paint and color. Without a complete kitchen overhaul in our near future (it is not at the top of our list of home improvement projects), a little paint might just do the trick.

Stories 2021

Taking action.

I created this page to document my swimming life right now and how I am take charge and action. I have had to work through, work out some things - in my mind - and then I needed to act on those things.

Thankfully, I have been making that happen.

Taking action:

after resolving for myself to swim - no matter what - it still wasn’t a done deal, unfortunately. But, everyday I show up it gets easier and is becoming a hard and fast part of living.

Taking action

and digging deeper into swimming by adding in some strengthening. I purchased paddles first and have already begun to feel the improvement. Next, I added a new pair of fins and kick board to improve my kick. 

Taking action:

working through the new routine, and the added time it is taking to make the improvements  to my swim sessions, talking things over with Jeff,  and being encouraged.