Setting Goals...

I found this poem the other day in a book that I bought.  It hit me since just recently I shared with you that I have been setting some goals and really working at achieving them.  Let me share it with you.

I believe in setting goals really high.  Then, if you stumble, you still might be very good in the eyes of the others.  But, if you set them low, once you get there, you're going to be satisfied with what is probably not your best.  You're never going to push yourself to achieve even more.  That's what dream are about, aren't they?

- Derek Jeter

 

 

I think this says a lot.  Because this weekend I seem to be struggling, and am feeling a little down because I didn't obtain some of my goals.  However, I was a little under the weather and I still did get some stuff done.  So what I did to make myself feel a little better was I decided to write down the things I did accomplish.  That was very helpful and made me feel a little better.

 

I am happy to report that I am so close to finishing my daughters 2 year album volume 3.  I have only two pages left (actually one 2 page spread) to finish and I am so close to it being done but believe it or not with all the paper I own in this scrapbook room, I didn't have the sheet I need to finish this page.  I had to order it so as soon as it comes in I will complete that and be done.  What a huge accomplishment that will be.  Doing this journaling is tough all at once but I WILL do it!!

 

This weekend I worked on getting some objects cut out on my cricut for some signs a committee I am on is making for our schools MCA testing.  Tomorrow we will be meeting to put the signs together.  It will be fun and hopefully the kids will find them encouraging for the testing.

 

Well I am off to chill with hubby while watching Army Wives and then off to bed for it is work tomorrow.

 

Hopefully you in Minnesota are staying warm and dry this weekend.

 

Tracy



JOURNALING; JOURNALING; JOURNALING....

Hello There -

I have to say that this is the year, yep I have set goals to paper, (phone actually) and this is the year I am going to reach them.

I have come up with a plan and bought a task/goal app for my phone and I have to say so far so good.

First of all, I should let you all know that I love scrapbooking, however, I tend to leave all my journaling for later, along with a lot of my titling.  It is just hard for me to stop the creative flow and journal the page.

I have finished many pages of my daughter's 2 year album volume 2 and volume 3but do not have all the journaling done on the pages.  I am so excited to report that over the weekend I finished journaling 28 pages which completed all the journaling in her volume 2 album and left only a two page spread to complete in order to complete the album.  That two page spread is just waiting for some paper to come in and then will be complete.

It was very hard though I have to admit to sit and journal for a whole weekend.  I set the goal though and I am very close to obtaining it.  I have another 20 pages to journal/title to have her two year albums caught up with journaling/titling.  Goal is to have them done by end of April.  If I stay on track like I am so far, I will reach this goal.

Next goal is to journal/title my Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary album in its entirety.  That will be another long weekend or two.

The goal moving forward is to perhaps acknowledge that I don't like to stop my creative flow but to not let the journaling build up.  Perhaps scrapbook like 6 or so pages and then allow time to journal them all before scrapbooking any more or to simply journal as I go.  Not sure how I will move forward but for sure will have to come up with something.

I will be sharing some of the pages once I get the camera back down in my scrapbook room and can get some pictures going.

If you are struggling with the journaling and have come up with some ideas to keep you moving forward please share them.  If you don't have any to share and are struggling I hope my story helps a little.  I do have to remind my self often, slow and steady and you will reach the end.  I wish sometimes it could be fast and steady though.

Thanks and tune again soon for more updates.

Good Night
Tracy

Gymnastics Level 4 Pages Completed

Well I have been working on finishing my daughter's first year of Gymnastics (last year 2011/2012) scrapbook album.  I managed to finish a few pages.  Here they are.  I have all the rest sorted and paper picked out, so hopefully this book will go together fairly easy and then I can start on this years.

 

Gymnastics Album (not by CTMH)

 

 

The black paper and star embellishments, and bling burst are from CTMH. 

Purple glitter paper is another company.

 

 

Close up here of star and bling.

 

 

More bling by CTMH and star, Title cut with Cricut.

 

 

Again Star wood chips and bling from CTMH.

 

 

This is CTMH paper, easy page with her mock meet results.

 

 

Schedule for the season, and paper from CTMH.

 

 

Pacifica paper from CTMH.  This was her letter from State Rep and News Article.  Very Nice.

 

 

News paper articles that her dad wrote.  Paper is Pacifica from CTMH pattern paper is not CTMH.

Well Summer is Coming to an End

Summer is coming to an end and with that comes the New Autumn/Winter Catalog.  Again filled with great items for the stamper and scrapper that lies with in all of us. 

The most exciting news of all though is that there has been some price dropping - you read it correctly I wrote ya PRICE DROPPING.  Our D size Stamp Sets are now $17.95 instead of $22.95 what a great savings.

There is so much to see and the prices are incredible you have to see them for you self so pick up a copy of the catalog from today for only $3.00  it is well worth it.

Also just want to let all you know that my email address has changed and you can now reach me tlbcreates@gmail.com.

Thanks everyone and I hope you had an awesome summer.

Tracy

Creating Creating Creating

I Love Creating things especially new things.  I just recently created something it turned out really good I think however, I can't post it yet because it is a Christmas gift and I am afraid they will hop on to my site and see it.  So you will have to wait a few more days to see it.

I was wondering do you have any fun, crazy or just basic traditions that you do during the Christmas holiday.

Since I was about 12 years old have made, yes made a gift for everyone in my family, 4 brothers (older), one younger sister, and my parents.  I  do have to say that they have gotten better since I have gotten older.  Oh some of them were really well now that I look back ugly but my family all pretended like they liked them (or perhaps they really did at the time).

Now it is harder some years since we are all older but I still try to make everyone a gift at Christmas time.

Share your traditions please, I would love to hear them.

Happy Thanksgiving to All

Hello everyone -

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  My family did we had a wonderful meal (two actually) and got extremely stuffed and then managed to eat more.  You know how it goes.

I did some black Friday Shopping - got a few new cricuts to play with (very excited to break them open this week hopefully).  Got a few gifts and a few things to just buy for me.  Had a wonderful time shopping with my Mom, and brother.  Our first stop was Target - we waited 50 minutes (yes my brother timed it) to check out but it went very fast line always moving and actual check out went speedy too.  Target did a great job.

All in all we had a blast just being together and being a part of the hussle and bussle of the season and I do have to say it helped put me in the mood.

Charese and I decorated the house on Saturday have it all done except for the trees which will go up tonight or tomorrow.  Then comes the start of planning the days of when we are going to bake cookies.  Also this year Charese and I are going to attempt to put together a Gingerbread House Kit that we purchased this weekend.  She of course wants to do it NOW but I told her we will wait a few days to do it.

All in all it is getting exciting around here - and we are enjoying every minute.

I wish you all the best and hope that you got to enjoy Family time this Thanksgiving as well.

THANK YOU!!

I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your kind comments.  I also want to thank those of you that are now followers.  I have gone to those people who have left their blogs and became followers of your blog as well. 

It was really fun blog hop that I did and the people I was with were great.  I wish I would have been feeling better so I could have done more but perhaps on the next blog hop I will.  I am so excited to enter some more blog hops and hope that you will continue to follow me on them.

I will be posting some new pictures soon on my site hopefully before my vacation of an upcoming class that is coming.

Well again thank you for your support and wonderful comments on my Think Pink blog Hop.

Tracy

I AM BACK

Hello everyone -

Sorry was gone for a while if you have noticed I have posted a information about an upcoming 50 Holiday Card Class I am offerring.  Well I had to step away from the computer for about a week and 3 days to get all the paper cut for this upcoming event.  I put 30 kits together.  Just for the card bases I had to cut 750 pieces of paper.  It is relaxing to me most of the time.  I am going to shut out a huge THANK YOU to my husband who counted all the papers and put them into their kits.  He is such a great guy.

Well I am back and I have exciting news about an upcoming event so stayed tuned.  I have entered my first blog hop and it will start on the 9th and run the 11th.  I am so very excited. 

Have a good one everyone.

Thoughts from a Mom today

Today - I woke up to my daughter still in pain.  She fell off the monkey bars Friday at school.  It didn't seem to bother her to much yesterday but through the evening it got worst.  So I sent her to my husband (he handles those things better - after all I have never had a broken bone he has) and he told me I should bring her in before Gymnastics so we know what is going on.  Sure enough - not good news - broken elbow well she thinks there is a bone in there broken so we have to see the specialist on Monday.  What a morning!!  So right now it is wrapped in an ace bandage and in a sling and she is bored out of her mind.  Which is making it difficult on Mom what kind of things can you do?  Well we are starting with movies and now I am trying to get some cards designed out for my upcoming class.  I really need to get them done this weekend.  I hope I can get inspired and get my work done.  Well that is what I am off to do.  I hope and pray that my daughter recovers quickly and that on Monday we get perhaps some good news.

Now to work.

CENTER PIECES

These are the center pieces I made for my Husbands 40th Surprise Birthday Party.  I did a Duck Hunting there which was very hard to find decorations for so I had to use the creative force.  I think I did a good job.  Also I am posting the Invitations I made and sent out for his party.  Hope you enjoy.

This above picture is on the back wall of our garage - my niece drew it free hand and then she and my daughter helped me paint it and then I finished the painting by adding all the little details etc.  It was a lot of fun and we did it for my husband who really likes it.  Now we feel like we are driving into the hunting blind every day. 

I don't have a picture of the invitation yet so I will get that and load it as soon as possible.
Thanks for taking a look.

An Apology

Hello everyone -
I want to extend an apology to all of my customers and followers out there.  I have pictures of upcoming classes and dates etc. but I have not been able to get them out on my blog.  I am hoping that I can finally get them out on the blog tomorrow.  So please check tomorrow evening or Tuesday for updates.  Again I do apologize for this delay.

I hope all of you have enjoyed your summer - the Browns sure have and of course we are gearing up here for our favorite season FALL!!!

I miss all of you and I am looking forward to meeting up with you at my upcoming classes.

Have a great rest of the Sunday evening.

Tracy

In with the New out with the Old

I am very excited to say that CTMH has come out with the 2010 Fall Catalog which will be available to customers in September.  There are some very exciting new products and stamps in the catalog. 

With the new catalog though also comes the publishing of the 2011 Retired List.  Which is available now.  I will send to those of you that would like to see it upon request.  These items will be available while supplies last until December 31, 2010.

CTMH has announced some changes coming in 2011 and therefore the retired list will seem very big to you.  So don't miss out on this opportunity to get the items you have been waiting on - because as of December 31 they may not be there any more.

Make your shopping list now!!

July 3rd

Have you ever set goals for yourself only to find yourself getting bored with them and drifting off in another direction?

I have had that happen to me just this week.  I had set a goal to stay focused on finishing two albums (they are basically the same albums one is a 40th Anniversary Album for my parents and the other is Our Family Disney Trip - they are the same in the fact that for my parents 40th we went to Florida almost the whole family - anyway I am doing some of the pages the same why rethink the wheel) my parents 40th Anniversary Album and Our Disney Vacation Album.  Now I was cruising a long getting lots of pages going but then all of a sudden I decided to go through some boxes of pictures and pull out some and start working on them.

WHY.....

I do wonder why I did this but I do have to say that I whipped out several pages and got a new inspiration so it must of been what I needed.  I ended up pulling out all of my daughters Tball pictures from when she was 5 she is nine now.  I completed up to date (except for I am waiting for last years pictures to come in the mail - I had to get them printed along with this years.)   By the end of the month they will be completely caught up to date.  The other pictures I pulled out were all of her Dance pictures since she was 3 or 4 years old.  They are currently in the loop of getting worked on.  But through all of this I am still working on the other two albums as well.

Here are some of the pages I finished the first week of July.

I hope you enjoy them.  I so love capturing the memories my family makes.  It is like reliving it everytime we look at the pictures.  That is what it truly is all about.

No Glue What can one Do

Well I was off to a good start in July with 17 pages completed and then I ran out of glue.  I ordered some but have to wait for it to get here.  So what can one do to stay in the creative groove.

Well - decorate a CTMH Clip Board.  That is what my daughter and I did today.  She is working on hers for her craft project that she has to complete for the 4H County Fair coming up.  She decided to paint some of hers so she is not done with hers but I did manage to finish mine today.

Mine is for Charese's teacher.  I didn't get it done before the end of school because my husband had surgery so that distracted me.  But we stay in touch with her so we can give it to her when we see her.

Anyway here it is.  Charese's teacher has this saying "A day without MATH is like a day without SUNSHINE!", she loves math.  So that is the saying I went with for the board.
Hope you enjoy.

Accomplishment for June 2010

I am so excited about June.  My daughter went to Camp Lebanon for 5 days and 4 nights and I promised my self that I would scrapbook while she was gone and start to get caught up on pages.  I am so proud of myself I did and stock to it when she came back as well.  I completed 92 pages for the month of June.  YEAH!!  Here are some of my favorites.  Click on the title to view the rest of them in a slide show.  Thanks for sharing with me in my accomplishment.

This is Charese at two years old playing with an old popping toy.  She loved it she was so fascinated by it.  I am off to finish a 100 pages for July that is my goal we will see what happens.

Bachelors Degree Earned

I did it.  I am so excited.  Close to my Heart offers its consultants a Training Academy where we can take courses and earn a Bachelors Degree, and then a Masters Degree, and finally a PHD in scrapbooking and stamping. 

Well I finally told myself I am going to take these courses.  I started last night and completed my Bachelors degree today.  Yeah I graduated.

I am now working toward my Masters.  I will keep you posted.

Along with that today, I finished 81 cards.  I feel good.  I am still feeling a little overwhelmed with all I have to do or rather all I want to do and finish but I have decided to set smaller goals the night before and work the next day on accomplishing them.  It seems to be working.  I felt good at the end of the day because I got some things done.

Well I am off to work on some other projects.

A New Toy

Hello everyone - I went shopping today to Crafts Direct - one of my favorite stores.  Although my checkbook doesn't really like it.  Anyway, they are celebrating Craft Month and have a ton of items on sale.  I just love March, first day of Spring, Craft Month, St. Patty's Day, and my Birthday.  Okay back to the subject at hand.  They are having a huge sale on items so I bought a new toy today.  One of the things I love most about scrapbooking is the toys, and well the paper.  I bought the Cuddle Bug today.  I am very excited.  Although I have the Cricut Expressions, I bought the Cuddle Bug for the embossing it does.  I have not had an opportunity to play with it yet but I am very anxious to.  I don't think I will get to play with it tomorrow for I am off to celebrate a birthday.  I will post some of my projects I make with it once I get some done.  If one of you has the Cuddle Bug let me know what you have done with it and if you like it.  Would love to hear from you.  Have a great day everyone!!

Could We Ask

Could we ask for a more beautiful day.  It was so gorgeous today.  I hope we get a full week like today.  Charese is off to two field trips this week at school - so I hope they have nice weather.  I did not get out to much to enjoy the day but rather enjoyed it from the inside.  Charese was out for a little while playing with the neighbors today.  It is so nice to see the kids again in the neighborhood out and about.  In our development we certainly hibernate in the Winter.  So with the nice weather coming also comes seeing the neighbors again, which is always nice.

We also went bowling today - I do have to say I won not by much but I had a pretty good game.  Charese did very well and Charlie did really good considering he was still probably half asleep.  It was nice to be out and about having a fun family game.

What did you gals do today to enjoy the nice Spring weather?  Happy Spring everyone!!

March Is Here

March is here and so is the beginning of Spring which also means allergy season.  So I had these big plans to get a bunch of work done this week and guess what - my whole family is ill.  Yeap all of us, Charese, Charlie, and me.  Sick with sinus infections.  Saw the doctor today and got some medicine so we all should be better soon.  Which means I should be able to get back to working on my pages soon. 

I did get an opportunity to go to a crafters retreat in Loretto Friday through Sunday - only I had to leave on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.  Thanks Wendy and Terri for inviting me it was wonderful to get away and get some pages done.  I will post my pages a little later.  I somewhat finished 22 pages.  It was a great feeling.

Well hope you all are healthy and enjoying the Spring that is heading are way.  Hope the Spring is inspiring all of you to do some cards or some scrapbooking. 

Happy Scrappin'

YEAH!!!! I Did IT

I am so excited to report that I did it - I accomplished one of my goals.  I finished an entire album today.  Okay well I have a page that after I did the journaling I didn't like it so I am redoing that, and I have a two pg spread that I am waiting for a specific paper to come in and then it will be done.  For the most part though this book is done and up to date as of today.  Granted I did not do all the pages today - I have been working on it though all week.

It is Charese's portrait book.  Baby photos to her current 3 rd grade Fall picture.  I am so excited to have this done and off my to do list.  Here are a couple of my favorite pages click on the title to view the slide show of the rest of the pages.

I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed doing all the pages.  It certainly brought back memories.  Oh how I wish I could keep her little.  Thanks for sharing with me.