Pre-Informal October LOAD Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Hop.  Here is the whole blog lineup:

                             Lisa:                        http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

                             Katherine:            http://www.csmoferret.blogspot.com

                             Tambur:            http://myhearties.blogspot.com

                             Pam:                          http://dailypamage.blogspot.com

You are Here:     Katrina:            http://k84mansramblings.blogspot.com

Next Stop:          Christie:            http://mrsingie.com

                             Lisa:                         http://lisamzepponi.blogspot.com

I am Katrina, also known as kskreations on Flickr which is short for my little crafty business Katrina's Kreations.  I am a widow & a mom of one, my DS Ryan who is turning 9 the 17th of October (I can't believe how fast time flies).  Do you already feel like you know him from my Layouts?  Feel like I've been scrapping my whole life, I did some scrappy kind of things with magazine pictures & cutouts of certain hearthrobs when I was a young teenager, in 1994 I did a whole album from a vacation I took in an old magnetic page album with only photos and ephemera I collected on the trip.  I started doing what we think of as scrapbooking when I did an album for my parents 30th Anniversary in 2001, and then started scrapping again after Ryan was born in 2002. When my husband died in April of 2003, it gave me an even greater motivation: preserve his memory for my son.  I haven't done a whole lot of pages about him recently, but I do at least one every LOAD-it's like Therapy for me.

 

I have been very busy working on the layouts for the Mother LOAD this month and will only have a few days off before Our Informal LOAD starts the first of October.  This will be my 4th LOAD including the MotherLOAD and I have enjoyed Every Single one so much!  

Now I don't usually do a whole lot of prep.  I have a gazillion photos in boxes in my studio or in my PSE Organizer (Or both sometimes) so I often just let the prompt inspire which page I do that day, but I wouldn't be able to do that if my photos weren't organized.  I haven't taken LOM, (but I do have the book Photo Freedom) so most of my photos are still stored chronologically.  

I have a big 12x12 album that all my LOAD LO's go in, then eventually I will move them to the individual albums they belong in.  I have several that are as follows:  Ryan's Baby Album (separate from the baby book but you knew that already right), Then 2 more Ryan Albums (one is full), which have pages from various ages.  An Album about my husband & my memories of him. I have an all about me album which has a surprisingly large number of pages.  I have a travel album, a disney album, and a misc for those pages that don't fit anywhere else, & a couple albums with no particular theme from when I first started scrapbooking.   

My Scraproom is my favorite place in my house, except that it usually looks like a paper truck exploded, so I am going to work on cleaning it up & organizing before LOAD starts too.  My supplies are mostly sorted by color.  I do have a whole bunch of binders with themed embellies stickers etc.  And some file drawers with themed paper.  (I have really been breaking into it a lot this month.  I have only done 1 digi layout so far, which is very unusual for me.)  I always make it my goal to use my stash & not buy anything new for LOAD.  It doesn't always happen, but I certainly have enough in my stash to keep me busy for a couple of years...even if LOAD was every month.  Sooo for those of you who have read this whole thing, if you want me to share some of my stash with you, leave me a comment saying so & I will randomly pick somebody (or depending how many comments I get maybe a couple somebodies) to share with.  I've got some great stuff, I promise, even if some of it is getting a little bit old, I also promise not to share anything I wouldn't use myself.

Enjoy the rest of the hop and enjoy LOAD.  I look forward to seeing all your wonderful pages. As well as hearing all the wonderful comments.  You are all so encouraging I just love it. Thank you so much! While I'm at it, Thank you Leslie for all of the hard work you have put into organizing the LOAD and Lisa for organizing the hop.  And of course, THANK YOU Lain for putting us all together in this wonderful community!!!

If you are interested in some of the place I get ideas for my LOs (besides from ScrapHappy) check out this earlier blog post: journaling & inspiration made easy.

Your next stop is  Christie:            http://mrsingie.com Be sure to stop by and show her some love.

See you October first.

Clear it out

It's Clear it out Challenge time again:  This week our challenge is to Alter something.  Our Sponsor is Karen's Needle. She is giving away a treat bag of some of her lovely crocheted flowers to one fortunate person who participates in the challenge.  Here is my Item:

Oops sorry, That's part of my sofa table.  Here's my Item:

 I crocheted those little pansies myself. It was such a pretty pattern.  A  little lace. a bit of ribbon,  a couple scraps of ecru cardstock, 3 acrylic tags,  some stamps & some Tim Holtz Distress ink and you have a little photo holder or place setting holder.  I enjoyed making it so much!  Don't forget to check out the Clear it out Challenge blog & link your project for a chance to win. 

My Studio (AKA Scrap Room)

I am in need of an organizing makeover in and I thought if I blogged about it maybe I would be more committed...Especially since I've been doing the MotherLOAD and using it every day...well we'll see.
My studio is Beautiful, when it's neat & tidy, but there's only space for one to work & I like to scrap with my friends too.  It's also frequently in a state of chaos.  I think perhaps my system is so complicated that I don't want to put things away, Or maybe I'm just lazy in that way because I'd rather be creating, but who wouldn't right?
Well here are some pictures.  Let me know what you think!

A PSE panorama of the South end of the Room

PSE Panorama of the Counter area

The Walk in Closet

My Themed Embellie Binders & Acrylic Stamps

 Now you might be thinking it looks great what's the problem?  The problem is that it never looks this good, in fact right now I can barely walk in there.  So Anyway I've blogged about it so next time yo see me ask if it's clean. Okay? Maybe then it will be.

LOAD Again Finally, Hooray!

So it's been  a crazy summer, and I don't know about you but I'm sad it's over (although glad that school has started yay!). I've been so busy that I haven't posted in a while. Instead of continuing to Suffer from LOAD withdrawal (ever since May), I've been taking the MotherLOAD at Big Picture classes-(Lain has never let me down yet) and yesterday being the first of September it was the first day of the LOAD portion.  ScrapHappy is doing an informal LOAD in October (If you don't know about ScrapHappy, you really should check it out), so I am going to get a whole lot of Scrapbooking done in the next 2 months.  Here is my Layout for today (Click on it for a bigger image):

I thought I'd share the journaling on here since it's the only way anyone will be able to read it:

So here's the story:

Since we have been learning Nepali for a few years now we decided while we were in New Jersey to visit the Hindi congregation in Edison.  (Hindi & Nepali being very similar so the Nepalese can often understand Hindi. And we got to wear our Sarees-Bonus!). So we went to the English meeting in Middletown in the morning and Dad came with Rebecca Lynn & I to the Hindi meeting in the Afternoon. (Ryan stayed with Grandma & Aunt Linda to can tomatoes).  After the meeting we met so many warm, loving brothers and sisters.  They even put us in touch with some who were at Bethel, & in the Hindi Congregation in Brooklyn. We also asked some sisters where the best places were to do some shopping.  I wanted a Kurta Sunwal- (aka Salwar Kameez) because, not being built like a woman from India, I never can find one in Colorado that fits me, And Rebecca Lynn was hoping to find a new one as well. We also mentioned this to a very helpful brother named Jay.

Apparently after we left Jay told his wife Olive.  So while we were standing looking at a menu in a restaurant, Olive called Rebecca Lynn.  When she found out where we were and that we had not ordered yet she said “come outside and wait there…we will come get you.” When they got there they told me to leave my car where it was.  Olive said that if we went shopping by ourselves “You are foreigners here, they will rip you off.” They first took us to a different restaurant. After speaking in Hindi to the woman behind the counter he told us-“Two meat entrees with rice are $10 and 2 vegetables with rice are $7.  Drinks are in a cooler over there.” After a few conversations with other customers, Olive found us a nice table. Once we had our food & beverages & were sitting, Jay said “We are going to a return visit and will be back for you soon.  If there is anything else you need they will take good care of you here.” And boy did they! For one thing they refused to take our money! Several times we tried to pay and they would not let us. We wondered if Jay had sneakily paid for us, but we found out that he had not. The entire staff came out to talk to us at some point or other.  They brought us dessert too. I felt like a celebrity.  I suppose they all wanted to know what these two white women were doing there, and in sarees no less.  Near the end of our visit a man from Nepal, who it turns out cooks the Chinese food (Wish we’d known about that sooner, sorry Dad), came out and talked to us. So we were able to practice our Nepali, and we went back later and gave him the What Does The Bible Really Teach Book and an invite to the Hindi Convention.  He gave us his number & address, and we gave it to Jay & Olive. Oh and the food was delicious, but too spicy for Dad so he couldn’t eat very much.

Olive came back without Jay (Their call had turned into a study & she left him & another sister there). She took us to several shops.  In,  walk around, look a bit “You don’t see anything you like-lets go” On to the next one…The last place she took us was a little shopping center that had 3 different shops, so she dropped us there & went back for Jay.  When they came back We found what we wanted.  Rebecca Lynn’s was marked $130 and the 2 I liked had no price at all on the tags.  Olive told us to let Jay negotiate the price. So Jay starts the negotiation.  He asks her to give them to us for $50 each.  The lady shakes her head no vigorously & says “I honest lady, give you bottom price see (pointing to a sign advertising a 14^th anniversary sale) my shop here 14 years” She shows us how good the material is and talks about that it is quality work, and the embroidery & pattern woven in make us agree. But she would not go low enough for Jay.  They start talking (sometimes almost shouting) in Hindi.  (Rebecca Lynn understands a bit because it is similar to Nepali) This is approximately what was said:

He says “Don’t rip them off”

She tells him “They are Americans they have lots of money”

“They are servants of God, they don’t have any money”

“They can’t afford that they have no money”

 “God will bless you if you give them a good deal”

We are starting to think it’s too much & she won’t go low enough, not to mention being somewhat embarrassed, okay mortified, by what he is saying about us, so Olive & I start to walk out the door.  She calls us back and shows a price on her calculator (so her other customers can’t see what a good price she’s giving us I suppose) of $75 each.  Now that we could manage, since we really did like the outfits very much. 

After all of that Jay gave her an invitation to the Hindi District Convention in Brooklyn and she says she might come.So I guess it was friendly after all.

When we got home and told this story to Mom & Aunt Linda we were laughing so hard by the end we could hardly stand up.  All in all it was a wonderful experience and I hope we can go back next summer.

And here is yesterday's page:

 And a Closeup:

Hope You enjoy.  More soon Including a new Challenge at Clear It Out on Tuesday.