The end is in sight—28 layouts in 28 days. I’ve gotten lots accomplished and learned a bit in the process. More about that at the end. I have the rest of the layouts planned. Regardless of the prompts, I’ve decided to finish scrapping the layouts I want to do from our road trip this summer. We’re in the midst of planning two trips this spring, one of which is the biggest trip we’ve ever taken, so I want to clear the decks for the most recent trip.

Not sure what the prompt was for Day 18, but once I scrapped the first Find Your Precious blog post, I knew I wanted to do them all. So here’s February’s.

Day 19’s prompt was about relationships, and this is one of my favorite photos from Sarah and Caleb’s visit in November. The journaling on the tag reads: 

Caleb is a particularly active baby. He’s on the move and busy all day long. It’s so nice to see that he is willing to sit quietly for a book to be read to him. He’ll now toddle off to his nursery, take a board book off the shelf and sit down to look at it. Sarah and I have shared a love of reading since she was Caleb’s age, and it looks like we’ve got another reader in the family.    

Day 20’s prompt was to hide your journaling. I’d done that the day before, but decided to use a cute little envelope that came in the Simon Says card kit to put the journaling in for a layout about our trip to Florida in January.

I went back to the Home album for this day’s prompt and documented how we came to own the home where we now live. All the photos were taken the day we looked at the house or a day or two after our purchase offer was accepted, a month or so before we moved in. My kids were so little!!!

Here’s the story:

I hung up on Mitch, our realtor, when he called to tell me he’d found the perfect house for us. We had only lived on Bradford Road for ten months. I was working full-time; Sarah was four and Matt was two. There were still some boxes that had never been unpacked! Fortunately, Mitch ignored me, and called Tracy so we came to look at the house on Summit Drive.

This would be our third house. The first one was a total fixer-upper, and the second one needed lots of cosmetic work as well. Summit Drive was filthy and the walls were covered with hideous wallpaper. Despite that, it was absolutely charming. Lots of beautiful wood, built-in bookcases, a built-in desk and china closet, a fabulous fireplace, and pegged hardwood floors throughout the house. Add to that a patio and an amazing two-tiered yard surrounded by old trees. Although it’s in the heart of the city (actually the edge of the first suburb), it feels like you could be in the country. We were sold after the first look. Along with four other prospective buyers, we put in a bid for the asking price. It’s thanks (again!) to Mitch that we have lived here for the last 28 years. He called the lawyer every day until the lawyer got so exasperated with him, he said, “They can have it!”  It took us a lot of years to work our way through the house, removing wallpaper and making repairs, but it’s all been worth it. We love this house, and we love the neighborhood. There’s no where else we’d rather live.

After I finished the layout, I decided to add three sets of divided page protectors to the album with other photos of the house the way it looked before we moved in.

In all, I managed to get 33 photos into the album. Glad to have this done, and I was surprised to find I don’t have a lot of other layouts I’m ready to do for this album. There are photos I can’t seem to find (did they ever exist?) and photos I need to organize (about our new kitchen), but a lot of what I wanted in this album is done. It’s a good feeling.

 

 

I’m keeping up with LOAD although some days it’s a stretch. I’m not doing so well with posting here so I’ll try to keep the words brief and share the last five layouts. I must admit I like this project. I have a hard time getting myself to scrap sometimes, but this provides a lot of motivation.

Day 13’s prompt was to try a new technique. I don’t often mix a lot of patterned papers and I’ve never gone to one of my 6X6 paper pads for a layout. All the papers came from Love Me by MME.

Day 14 was to scrap “Home.” I started a big album about all the homes I’ve lived in several years ago, and haven’t done anything with it in a long time. I scrapped about the first house I really remember living in when I was in K-2nd grade in Kansas.

I don’t remember the prompt for Day 15 except I know I didn’t follow it. I took the opportunity to do a two-page layout about my niece’s wedding last July.

Day 16 was to scrap something you’re grateful for. I’m hardly ever on Facebook, but I’m really grateful my son-in-law and Tracy both post regularly. Otherwise I’d miss the photos like this one. Evidently Caleb insisted on pushing the cart around for over 40 minutes before he was willing to get in the cart and take a ride.

Day 17’s prompt was to scrap some object that was meaningful to you. Sian‘s StoryTelling Sunday’s “Pick Your Precious” was right there on the blog waiting to be scrapped.

Hope you are having a good week! I’m making progress on some cleaning projects, busy with committee meetings, and keeping up with the elimination diet we’re trying. Although it hasn’t answered the questions I hoped it would, it’s been worthwhile, but takes a lot of time, both at the grocery store and in the kitchen. I’ll be back later with more about it.