Brown paper packages tied up with string...

Ok, so they're not wrapped with brown paper or tied up with strings, but coming home to a package on my doorstep is a favorite thing- or at least a fun thing.

On Monday the Derby trophies arrived. It's weird having them so early. I opened them up to make sure they're spelled correctly, and then they went back in their box and down to the basement with some of the other Derby stuff.

And then according to the tracking, I should be getting another package on Friday. This one makes me VERY happy! A little over 3 years ago I ordered a new trimmer. They were being made by a small family run company who made each one individually, so they took a long time to produce. And there was a lengthy waiting list. Then the family sold the company so the new owners had to take some time to get things up and running to the same standards. But now mine is on its way! I hope it was worth the wait and that it lives up to its hype.

And for those of you wondering why I would wait 3 years for a trimmer? Because I've already gone through at least 6 other trimmers. Favorites aren't favorites for long. They always seem to develop some kind of quirk that you just can't fix. And many of them can't cut a straight line. At all.

Days 6 - 8

So what have I done, scrappy-wise, since last posting?

Day 6 I didn't do anything. Everyone needs the occasional day off, right?

Day 7 I worked on a 2-up album of some photos from the days before my wedding- an Open House that we had, rehearsal, bowling, etc. This project should be really easy, but 5 1/2 years later it's still not done. Nothing really worth posting, but I think it will be my project for the next few days so that I can finally cross it off my list.

So that brings us to day 8. Tonight I did both of the layouts pictured here: Suzanne's graduation photos from May, and the cover page for our 2008 album. Chris' mom requested photos of the kids and their families for Christmas, so on Thanksgiving I had Andrew do a mini photo shoot of Chris and I.

Not happy with it

Here's my day 5 of LOAD, and I'm not happy with it. I liked it much better when the photo was centered over the strips of paper and it was centered towards the bottom of the page. But I wanted to add the little journaling block. The only way I think I would have been happy with it stylistically would been to have hid it behind the picture, but I didn't want hidden journaling. Oh well. I guess not all of my pages can be winners. (I realized this fact a LONG time ago!)

And since I haven't posted it yet, here's day four. I like this one. Not sure when I realized it, but somewhere along the line I realized that when I had taken a photo during my UK trip in '98, I took a picture of the same rock that my mom found in '86. I wish the pictures were a bit lighter, but I wasn't up for lightening it in PhotoShop. I guess I'm more happy that they are done.

So today I joined Weight Watchers Online. For a while now I've been less than happy with my body. After going through adolescence and never having to worry about what I eat, I think it's starting to catch up with me. Over the past few years, whenever I go to the doctor, there has been an increase in my weight. I'm still within the "healthy" range, but I'm personally not happy with my weight, the extra bulges of fat, and the slowly increasing clothing sizes.

So, please, if you see me, don't make the comments about "you look great, you don't need to loose weight." Remember, clothing hides a lot of the flab.

But I don't think I realized how restricting this would be! I only get 21 points a day. I plugged in what I've eaten already today and what I plan to have for dinner, and I'm already over. And I'm sure that I normally would have added an afternoon snack, and even more at dinner, but now I see what a real portion size is. Ugh.

I think one of my issues is that I have absolutely no self control when it comes to food. If I'm hungry, I grab a snack. And I'll admit, I'm really bad about the portion size of that snack. If I want a cookie, I'll have 5 or 6. I also eat when I'm bored. And it certainly doesn't help that there's a well stocked kitchen of snacks here at work.

This is going to be tough!

January LOAD

Lately I seem to have gotten out of a scrappy groove. I know I'm in bad shape when I'm behind in my albums going back to about May. To help remedy this, I'm hosting a LOAD (layout a day) challenge over at Tally.

Unfortunately, I really need to find the time to sit and edit photos for my 2008 album, so until I get a chance to do that, I'm working with some photos that I had on hand.

So here we have the start of my challenge. Yesterday I did Halloween 1984- The Indian and the Witch. My scanner really doesn't like lumpy and bumpy stuff, so it had a hard time with the numbers. That's why it's so dark and blurry.

Day two I did Christmas 1948. I need to find out who Santa was, and once I have all of the names I'll slip them into the gold label holder on the upper right.

On day three I was on a roll. Still working on the older photos, so I looked through my stash and found this one of some rocks behind my childhood home. When we were younger, Andrew and I each had our own rock that we would climb on. Mine was the jagged one because it was easier to climb- more foot and hand holds. He got the nice smooth one.

Then, since I was still in a crafting mood, I decided to make some cards. I have some really fun supplies that I was itching to use, so decided to make some birthday cards. And I used some older supplies as well, which is always nice.

I have so much stuff in my craft room I often think that I could scrap for a year and, except for adhesive, not need to buy a single thing. Too bad I'd never do that.