Sneak Time

Here it is, Write.Click.Scrapbooks's August sneak peek. 

My scrappy mo-jo is a little slo-jo these days, but I like the way this came out. I can't wait to share the rest on August 1st!

Max

A little while ago, Sam had Color War at school. At dinner, he talked about how his team lost, but he didn't think the the teams were judged fairly. He wasn't upset, he was just mentioning a fact. Max said, and I quote, "I should have been the judge, because then everyone would lose."

Max, by nature, enjoys pointing out the negative in things. This used to bother me terribly, and I used to give him such a hard time about it. And then one day, I decided to stop nagging him. Mostly because it  felt like the majority of our interactions were negative, and that is not how it's supposed to be. And, because each time he made a comment, I made a big deal about it, I think he just started saying things out of habit. Breaking that cycle, has changed the general tenor in our family. I think we all get along better and laugh more easily. Now, his negativity, or realism, (depending on one's point of view) is something that we joke about all the time, and most importantly he can laugh at himself about it. It's who he is. Sure, sometimes it gets in his way, but we all have personality traits that do that. He's smart. He's funny. And he is kind when it counts.

On our  Mother's Day excursion to Central Park, I snapped this photo on my phone. Sam was excitedly watching a leech squirm around on a rock, and Max stood over him telling him all the reasons it was probably not a leech. I love the way his body language captures his attitude, and Sam's captures his as well. Namely, that he liked this little creature anyway, whatever it may be.

I asked Max if it bothered him if I scrapped this photo, and we talked about why I thought it is a significant snapshot. He was not bothered in the least. After all, he was simply being realistic. Who ever heard of leeches in New York City?

Fast forward to Memorial Day, when Max was away for part of the weekend. However, my nephew, who is Max's age was with us, and we spent some time outside walking around. Different teenager, same attitude. It was quite funny, really. So, maybe it's not all personality. Perhaps it's the age, or perhaps it's the role of being a big brother. (My nephew is also the oldest in his family.)

I have had this blog post sitting here for a while, but I worried that it was a bit negative. In reading it over, it doesn't feel that way to me. And since starting this post, I also made this layout, also about Memorial Day Weekend, and it leaves things on an even more positive note.

July Gallery Time

I am not one of those people who listens to music all the time. I have a tendency to listen to the same music over and over, and I have trouble finding new music I like. And then one day, a coworker played this song by, They Might Be Giants. And I fell in love with it right away. It's a romantic little ditty about New York City, and since that is where we have built our life, it spoke to me. And, scrapbooker that I am, I knew right away that I wanted to use the song for a scrapbook page. 

As I was working on the page,  I realized that it fits perfectly for Write.Click.Scapbook's July gallery theme, "Top Ten." I have gathered ten images here that capture a little of the grit, the landscape, and our life here in the city. 

I had one little issue in making this layout, which was the fact that I couldn't find any photos of me and my husband together in the city. The best I could do was some silly Photoshop work, perching me on his shoulder. See?

Once I realized we were sorely lacking in the couples photo category, I started to get to work on rectifying the situation. 

Stay cool, people. Stay cool.

WCS Sneak Peek

July is soon upon us, which means it's time for some sneak peeks into the Write.Click.Scrapbook gallery layouts for July. Here is mine.

Keep an eye out for links to more sneaks from WCS on Facebook!

Sam

This Mother's Day, we went to Central Park to walk around, to climb on the rocks, and to just generally be. Outside. I took my camera along to record it all, knowing that I will have many repeats of pictures that I have taken before. Sam loves those rocks, and I have photographed and scrapped about him climbing there for years.

When I realized how far back these pictures went, I decided to put some together on a page, for a "Then and Now" approach:

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And then there is the other thing Sam loves to do; look at bugs. One of my first scrapbook pages are of a four-year-old Sam enjoying a potato bug. This Mother's Day, he discovered a leech. I know neither of those are technically insects, so "creepy crawly creatures" would really be more accurate.

And while we are talking about Sam, I made this layout about another Sam love: Pickles.

He likes a lot of stuff, that kid.

Write.Click.Scrapbook. JUNE

This month is Write.Click.Scrapbook's 4th birthday, and to celebrate we each found one thing from WCS  that inspired us in the past year. I didn't end up going too far back for inspiration, and I took Marnie Flores' mother day idea. Each year she takes a picture with each of her children on mother's Day, and fights the urge to delete those photos.

I am madly in love with the photos. The kids are alright, too.

And, in honor of  WCS's 4th birthday, we have a blog hop for you filled with  writing, clicking, and scrapbooking tips for you. So let's take a look at this layout for some genius tidbits.

Write: 
I loved the way these photos turned out, and I knew right away that I wanted to scrapbook them. I put them on the page, and was pleased as all heck, and then I thought to myself, "Hmm, but what is the story that I am trying to tell here?" Is it to recap the activities of the day? Is is that I love these kids? Or, that spending the day in Central Park is becoming a Mother's day tradition? Maybe there is no story, other than I like the pictures. That is fine, too. Ultimately, the answer was that I wanted to capture the fun I had being the center of attention for the day. As the grown up, I am always balancing what others want to do, respecting other's opinions, and all sorts of mature tasks. On Mother's Day, I said, "You. Your turn to be in a picture with me. And you have to like it." How fun is that?
So that's my advice; ask yourself what is the story you want to tell. Then tell it. Sometimes a story takes a lot of words to tell. Sometimes just a few will do.

Click:
Oh, this is not anything new, but I repeat: "Hand over the camera to someone else." In the moment of living life, I often forget to do this, but I have found that when I tell my husband before hand that I want to be in some photos, it is more likely to happen. I also switch my camera to auto-mode, before I hand it over to someone else. Also, is you have a teenage boy, a slightly off-color joke will help you get a good smile. See above.

Scrapbook: 
For lots of photos on a page, print them small, print them in a strip, and in Photoshop Elements, I added a frame to each photo to help it stand out. You could achieve a similar effect by matting the photos with black paper.

So, happy June. Happy birthday, WCS. Please check out the blogs of the wonderful ladies at Write.Click.Scrapbook for more tips about this lovely hobby of ours.


Aliza (That's me!)
Amy C.
Amy S.
Christa
Christine
Diane
Jenny
Katie
Lisa O.
Marnie
Valerie

Dinnertime Moments

We never set out with the goal of eating dinner together as a family. It just kind of happened. Maybe because that's how we were raised, or maybe because we just get hungry at the the same time. Either way, I am glad that we do, since many laughs are had over dinner. And every once in a while, someone says something really nice, and kablam! into the scrapbook it goes. Sam actually said the words about Max, "He is a good brother." (!!!!!)

Those photos above are not from the dinner table, but in the following layout, I had to capture the extreme laughter that was taking place.

There are many other ongoing jokes and topics of conversation that happen around the dinner table. I suppose some will get scrapped and some will end up being stored just in our heads. I guess there are worse places a story could be.