The End and the Beginning

I love looking back at things my family has done in our scrapbooks. Even if the events are fresh in my mind, looking back always gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

When I get to the end of the year in the annual scrapbook, I used to take all the index prints from Shutterfly, cut them up and paste down up to 100 photos on two pages.  Index prints are the teeny, tiny images of each photo I order on the site, about 20 photos on each 4x6 print. Shutterfly, though, stopped making index prints early last year.  Try as I might, I could not get them to send them to me.  So, I had to create my own.  It was no mean feat, but there is no point in going through a tedious process that involved flash drives, Photoshop, and a printer which refused to print on photo paper.

I spent a fair amount of time looking through a year's worth of photos from 2013.  I remembered most things, but, nonetheless, seeing those pictures again put a smile on my face and reminds me that it was a very good year.  Since I count none but sunny hours, only the good remains as the old year turns into the new. There were more photos of scenery and landscapes than of people since my boys cut and run when I take out the camera, but that is how things were before my boys came along anyway.  What goes around, comes around, right?

At any rate, I ended up with about 90 teeny, tiny photos printed on plain old copy paper and a bunch of tickets from movies, concerts and museums.  Everything ended up on just two pages - a year in review.  Some events were more memorable than others, but I love every page and every photo.

And, now, we move on to 2014. . . .

(Okay, I admit it.  Three of those photos are from 2013, of course, but it matters not since I will probably take ones almost identical to these in the months to come.)

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Layout Notes:

2013: Supplies and Sources

cardstock - unknown; snowflake - unknown (holiday decoration); trees - Studio Calico with paint - Plaid, Diamond Glaze; leaf button - Blumenthal; chipboard flower- Dusty Attic with paint - Viva, Ranger Adirondack Dimensional Paint; mountain chipboard - Tim Holtz Grungeboard with Ranger Distress Ink and Diamond Glaze; holly - unknown; metal flower - Making Memories; chipboard numbers - unknown; paint - Plaid, Ranger Paint Dabber; marker - Y and C Gel Extreme; other - tickets.

2014: Supplies and Sources

cardstock - unknown; patterned paper - Bo Bunny; chipboard letters - handcut based upon Magistical Memories font; stamp - Stampers Anonymous; markers - Y and C Gel Extreme; paint - Ranger Paint Dabbers, Plaid.

Please note that this layout was "scraplifted" directly from a layout I found on Pinterest that can be found at this location: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/144959681730438279/.  I could not find the original source, but would like to give credit to the creative spark that inspired the cover page of my 2014 album. If I ever find it the original source, I will edit this post.

Throwback Thursday: Moving On Up

In just 48 hours, my years of mothering, technically, come to an end for my younger son will turn, gasp, 18.

Turning 18 doesn't mean what it once did.  When I was 18, it was the legal age for drinking. Still, though, he will be old enough to fight for his country and vote for the politicians that send our men and women to war. It means the end of the halcyon days of high school although I am sure no high school student sees those as their halcyon days and won't for a very long time.

Birthdays have never been a major holiday in our house.  Sure, when the boys were little we had the usual parties although we never got more complicated than an event at Chuckie Cheese or the local gymnastics school. We never hired a clown (God forbid) or tried to out do the party that came before.  No ponies. No bouncy houses. No caterers.  It seems, though, that there was always lots of pizza and cupcakes.

As the boys got older, we had a couple of sleepovers which I absolutely despised and was relieved when those went out of fashion.  Movies and dinner seemed popular and, as parents, we really liked not having a dozen or so teenage boys running around our house.

So, in just two day, my nearly six-foot son will be eighteen and I just have to wonder once again, as I seem to do every day, where did the years go? I could swear he was just eight only yesterday.

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Layout Notes - As many of these layouts came before I kept track of supplies, I have but one list - for the day my Andrew turned 16.

Supply List for "16": patterned paper - Paper Company, BoBunny; cardstock - Bazzill; corrugated paper - unknown; jewels - Michael's (blue and silver), unknown (gems); green diecut paper - Bazzill Doilies; chipboard letters - Magistical Memories; tassel - EK Success; stamp - Glitz It Now; paint - Plaid; glitter - Ranger Stickles.