Love in a Tin

It was a few days before Christmas and Shawn was feeling unappreciated. Pretty unhappy with me and life in general.

I thought it was time to give him his Christmas present early. It was a small foofala tin with an accordian album inside. About 6 entries about why I love him...in masculine black and white old KI stuff with a touch of red.

The first 2 pages made him cry. It was a picture of him in front of our new house on move-in day. I wrote how much I appreciated all the hard work he's done on both houses. I wish I had a picture of the project, but he's taken it to work to sit on his desk as a reminder of why I love him.

Though I try to say things like this to the people I love, I am much better at expressing my feelings in writing. It's times like these that I am glad that I discovered scrapbooking.

Giddy

I went to bed last night feeling giddy. CKU Chicago sold out in 18 mins...or so it is rumored and I am one of the lucky ones who is IN. Just the thought of going to CKU again with my good friends and meeting new ones; learning, eating, drinking, and sleeping scrapbooking for 3 days. I just felt extremely happy. I could've danced a jig if my scrap room wasn't so messy and full.

The BIG PICTURE (not Stacy J's)

You know you are a scrapbooker when you spend weeks getting ready for a picture. Yes, 1 picture. Every year the program that Shawn and I work for has a fabulous holiday party. This year was no exception. Held at a famous art gallery/museum in town with Wolfgang Puck's restaurant catering it. Pretty much an open bar. It is quite the event. And every year they take your picture.

For a 30-something mom like me, this is one of the few times left in my life where I can get all dressed up. Also, one of the few times that Shawn and I will take a picture together in such fancy attire. All for the picture....I have agonized over my dress. Red is not usually my color, but I thought with my new blonde hair, I could pull it off. I have agonized over the shoes which are not in this picture. I spent 40 minutes and $30 having my hair spiral curled by Brea. I bought Bare Essentials make-up on QVC 4 weeks before the party so I could get my face just right. I even did my nails.

Maybe it's the hype I put into it, but getting the picture back was kind of a let down. It just seems to emphasize to me how much bigger and taller I am than Shawn. Which usually isn't such an issue for us. I think I liked last year's better. Probably because I was sitting and Shawn was standing...we could have our faces closer together. Oh, well. Here's the "Big Picture."

Quick update

Since we've moved into our new house, our internet has not worked. I was able to use my neighbors' wireless a couple times, but felt too guilty using it. Shawn assures me he is close. Something about resetting the ISP. OH and when he called the cable company to get it reset, now the cable to the box in the livingroom is screwed up. We've had problems with the TV cable several times now.

I spent Sunday afternoon with my daughter's 10 year old friend. She wanted to make a scrapbook for Meg about their friendship for Christmas as a surprise. I just pulled out a bunch of paper, sticker letters, word stickers, and some old KI stuff that matched the paper. She made a totally cute 6x6 scrapbook in about 3 hours with minimal help from me.

Got me thinking....

I usually have to pull out an idea book or a sketch to get going. I need to just go with my emotions and instincts more. It was that and getting Stacy Julian's new book The Big Picture this weekend. Totally inspiring!