It's All In My Head

I've just had a bit of a light switch go on.  When I scrapbook, or even quilt, I spend major amounts of time just thinking about what I plan to do.  I'm not quite sure if this is a waste of time or not...

I know there are people out there who sketch out the layout they want to have before they physically scrapbook. 

I don't do that.

I know other people who can just grab some photos, find some paper they like and then just start cutting and sticking and it comes out just beautiful.

I don't do that.

Then there are those who will find a layout in a magazine or online and copy it exactly (although with different photos and papers). 

I don't really do that either.

( I do find elements of a layout in a magazine or online and incorporate those, but I've only scraplifted an exact design a few times in my life).

When I want to scrapbook something, it starts in my head.  Like days... sometimes weeks... before I ever get to the projects.  And yet, I don't know what the end product will look like.  I plan on colors and photos and papers and embellishments and even sizes of photos.  But I have no idea what the end will look like until I get to, well, the end.  For example, the All About Me  blog hop I participated in earlier this year.  I said I would participate, and had no time to actually scrap... but in the meantime, I knew what chipboard book I was going to use, and what papers that I was hoarding that would be perfect for the project.  Then, since I knew how many pages I had to fill, I started thinking about topics for each page, and once I came up with the appropriate number of topics, I started thinking of photos to fit the topics.  Once I found all of my photos I had to find appropriate sizes for them to print them in, since the book was a "mini" 6x6 album.  Then, as I mentioned to Mel, I threw it all together last-minute.  I love the outcome of it, but I had spent a week or more just planning it in my head, with no real layout thoughts, sketches or ideas... just the elements. 

I find myself sitting, even while reading a book, and coming up with thoughts like that... a certain photo will pop into the eye of my memory and I will think, Oh, that would go well with this paper, or this title, or this [fill in the blank].  Or, I think of a topic I want to explore, in the good ol' "explore your inner world" way of SFTIO... and I'll even remember a photo that I'll have to seek out that would fit the topic perfectly. 

Sometimes I write these ideas down.  Most times I don't.  Those that I do, I often lose where I wrote it.

But I never, ever, ever have the end product, the outcome of the layout or project, as a clear picture in my mind.

Does anyone else do this?  Or am I just weird? 

That's okay, really... I'm okay with weird. 

Discover Within...

This month's emotion at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out is Discovery.  Check out the kit:

This topic really calls to me because I'm always looking to discover Me.  I mean, I know me, but sometimes I feel like I'm really missing out on large pieces of Me.  Or, maybe not missing out but just haven't found those pieces.  So I'm excited to explore this month's emotion over at SFTIO. 

One of the things I love are quotes and inspirational sayings.  As it so happens, SFTIO puts up an inspiration page every month with quotes, music and more, and I love taking time to peruse it.  Here are some quotes that are listed out on SFTIO's inspiration that struck a cord in me tonight...

We discover in others what others hide from us, and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves. Marquis de Vauvenargues

Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do. Lyn Yutang

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge. Daniel J. Boorstin

Mistakes are the portals of discovery. James Joyce

When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves. Dogen

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates. Thomas Szasz

Seriously, go check it out!  There are so many more things to think about (and scrap about)!  What do you want to discover?

Enslaved!

There's only one thing worse than a good book... a series of good books.  Because once I finish the first, I must read the next, and once I finish that one, the other one must be read, and so on, and so on.  The only saving grace is if the series is still "in progress" in which case I get majorly annoyed that I can't continue and then "stalk" the release of the next book.  If the series goes on long enough, and I have to wait too many times, only then can I sometimes "quit" the series and move on. 

Book series truly enslave me.

I'm caught up in one now. If you look to my sidebar to see the books I've been reading, you'll see it's the series of the "Black Dagger Brotherhood".    I looked the first one up, months ago, and borrowed it from the library. My son discovered that I was reading it and said a friend of his at work had the books, so ever since then, she has been my... uh... supplier.   I have read books 2 & 3 last week and over the weekend and currently am enmeshed in book #4 when the Boy walked into my room last night with books 5, 6, and 7. 

I'm a slave!  A slave to these books!

I have been asked for recommendations on books that I like, so I thought I'd address that here.

First, I am a "fluff" reader.  What that means to me is, the less real-to-life it is, the happier I am.  This means I stick with "fantasy" types of topics - fairy tales, folklore, vampires, and the like.  In addition, I'm a lover of "smut"... you know, that crude romance with a lot of graphic...uh...details.  Yeah, details.  Sex in books does not bother me one bit (although I think it shocked the Boy that I was reading these particular books, as he had read them and his eyebrows raised when he saw what I was reading... does he think I don't know about S-E-X?)  On occasion, I love a good mystery or action type book, like James Patterson, and occasionally a good horror book by Stephen King.  But mostly, fantasy.

I enjoy twists on the same "theme".  Currently (and for years now) it has been vampires and/or werewolves/wereanimals.  I enjoy fairy tales that have been twisted into something new.  So... all that being said, here is a listing of books/series that I thoroughly enjoyed and if you were someone who asked for some book recommendations, take this with the understanding that I'm firmly enslaved into the "fantasy-fiction" genre of books:

Author: Tanya Huff.  Favorite Books:  Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light (a book about a young girl with mild mental retardation who 'sees' things, her friend who is a singer (and a magical bard), her social worker (who is also part of the maid, mother, crone archetype), and the battle between good an evil.  It is set in "modern" day Toronto, Canada, which was why I liked it so much... fantasy hitting present day.  It is typically only now sold combined with another Huff book which I didn't care for, and the two books are unrelated, but packaged together under the title "Of Darkness, Light and Fire".  Skip the "Fire Stone" part of that book if you find it.  I also enjoy her Blood series, which is a twist on the typical vampire/werewolf themes.  Huff is a "light" writer, so there isn't a ton of sexy additions to her books.  I also truly enjoyed her Quarters novels which encompasses the powers of earth, wind, fire, water, etc.  True fantasy genre.

Author: Laurell K. Hamilton.  Favorite Books:  The Anita Blake vampire series.  Anita Blake is a vampire executioner, because wouldn't you know, vampires are an accepted piece of society, sort-of.  Her day job, however, is raising zombies from the dead... typically for legal procedures, like clearing up last will and testament disputes or as a witness to the dead person's own murder.  As you go deeper in the series, there are a lot of werewolves, among other were-animals, vampires, and all things that go bump in the night.  Anita is a tough girl (yet, petite and beautiful, of course) but what catches me in this series is that no matter how tough she is on the outside, her mind and thoughts show her vulnerabilities and lack of confidence, which makes her real to me.  Also, the deeper you go into the series the more S-E-X there is and the more graphic, detailed and overwhelming it becomes.  And the series seems endless, so I think I stopped around book #13 or so.  I think Ms. Hamilton is up to 17 now.  She also writes another series that I did not get into, about faeries (and not how you think they'd be)... and while the concept was interesting, book #1 lept into S-E-X even faster than I could handle, so I never got past book 2 or 3. 

Let's move away from vampires for a bit... although, as I mentioned, they have been the bigger part of my reading selection of the past few years.

Author:  Anita Diamant  Book:  The Red Tent  This book was recommended to me from a friend and I was reluctant to read it at first as I'm not much for the biblical fiction genre.  But I must admit, once I got into the book, it really captured me.  A very cool concept, this book was developed off of one or two sentences in the Christian bible.  Neat concept.

Author: James Patterson  I have to admit, I am probably one of the few people who have NOT read Mr. Patterson's Alex Cross series.  I have read one book in that series - Kiss the Girls - and none others.  While I liked Kiss the Girls well enough, I just didn't want to get into another ongoing series at the time, so I only read that one because of the movie.  As usual, the movie didn't do the book justice.  In fact, I was introduced to James Patterson with When the Wind Blows.  I LOVE this book - about a group of kids who were experiemented on by a governmental agency - all of whom  have wings - when they escape and have to find a way to stay alive and out of the facility.  Again, you can see the "fantasy" part of this.  It was very reminiscent of the short lived Dark Angel series by James Cameron and featuring Jessica Alba that my family and I loved while it was on.  I'd say that When the Wind Blows borders on action/adventure with a touch of fantasy in it... in case you're not a huge fantasy lover, this really just skirts around the edges.  Mr. Patterson left this book as a stand-alone for quite some time before following up with The Lake House (unrelated to the movie)... which I didn't like much.  He should have left it a stand-alone.

Author:  Dan Brown.  Yep, The DaVinci Code was a book that I really liked.  It was not truly fantasy unless you take into consideration the extreme stretches to biblical interpretation... but more adventure/mystery.  I thought this was a great book until I read his first book Angels & Demons.  That book was excellent and way better than The DaVinci Code.  I haven't read any others by him though, although I know he recently released a new book.

Various Authors:  I love twists on fairy tales and folklore type stories.  So while I'm particularly fond of Cinderella stories and all things having to do with Alice in Wonderland, these books were fun to read.  I only have 3 or 4 of t hem, and I see there are so many more.  It's "adult fairy tales", each book a collection of stories, that are darker than the typical popular Walt Disney fare.  I took a course in folklore and fairy tales in college and have had an affinity of seeking them out since.  Original "fairy tales" were dark, and have been cleaned up in modern times so as not to offend or give children of delicate senses nightmares.  If you like fairy tales, check 'em out.  Snow White, Blood Red; Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears;  Black Heart, Ivory Bones (and more). 

Author:  Stephenie Meyer - yes that woman who wrote the Twilight series.  Now, I am a fan of the books, but I'm not a Twi-hard.  Her other book that I read, The Host was simply awesome.  I hear she's coming out with another book along the same topic.  It has NOTHING to do with vampires.  Instead, it's plot runs more along the lines of  "invasion of the body snatchers" but very cool.  Check it out!

Okay, so there you go.  I could keep going, but this post is already miles long.  Please... leave a comment with your favorite books.  As long as they're not "learning" books (I can't read things that teach me something, only fiction stuff), I'd love to hear your suggestions and add to my list.

You know... so I can prolong my slavery...  :)

PHAT LEWT!

Oh!  Sorry 'bout my title there.  That was my inner gamer geektress speaking out. Only one reader that I know of will get that reference. It just kinda spilled out of me. Wait one sec while I tuck her back in her corner.  Here's something to look at while I take care of business.

Okeydokey… she’s contained now.

I promised back here that I’d come back and share my “guilt” from my quilt spree, but then I just never got photos taken.  Then, as you know, over the weekend, I lost my wireless and, well, got kidnapped by a couple of books. But, I did finally make time to get the photos taken.  So… now I’m back to share my “quilt guilt”.

Let’s start with the end.

I ended up with these two bags STUFFED full, plus two plastic bags that I later incorporated (squashed and stuffed) into these bags for the photo. The water bottle in front was one of the giveaways that some of the stores did as we either entered or exited their store.  Also in the red bag is a little pillow.  I think I mentioned before that quilters use their scraps to make pillow cases.  Who'dathunk?  So there is a little pillow there waiting for me to make my first little pillowcase. 

Like I don't already have enough fabric plans! 

Moving on...

Inside these bags were these books and patterns…

This ruler (and another not pictured)…

And all of this fabric!

I've got plans for all of it, truly I do.  Not a single thing was bought without a purpose.  Well, maybe ONE thing.  Or two.  But it'll all get used!  Just wait and see...

...and some of it might even end up on my scrappy pages!

Unplugged

Did you see that? It was fast… but look! Quick! See? Did you miss it? OMG, it was crazy! I can’t believe it! Amazing. Whew… oh well, if you missed it, I’m sorry. I barely saw it myself.

Yeah… it was the weekend. And… July. In one fell swoop - *poof* and gone. Kinda like my presence lately. *poof*

I have spent the weekend mostly “unplugged” from the world. Friday night I spent in my bed, reading. Saturday I worked all day at the store and then had a wonderful evening watching (unremarkable) movies with the family on the Hubs' new (to us), very large TV.

Anyone out there want a working console TV? It’s in my basement. Probably forever.

I rolled over this morning and picked up another book. And read it the entire day. I just finished it, actually. Oh, I broke away long enough to shower, eat and go to the grocery store, just not all at the same time. Heh. And my family was taken care of… I did cook dinner.

Housecleaning? Nope. Laundry? Nuh-uh. Clearing out the clutter? Not a chance. Tend to the yard? Nope, weeds still winning the war. SCRAPBOOKING? Nada! I really did want to scrap this weekend; I really, really did. But getting involved in a book is more time-sucking for me than TV, movies and World of Warcraft (when I played) combined. Seriously. I love to read and never make time for it. And this is why.

And I have to say, it has felt really good to just laze about on the couch (or in bed) and read.

How was this all possible? Well, my laptop… my breath, my heart, my passion… Has. No. Wireless. *Gasp* Yes, when I would typically be on the laptop surfing around the Net, blogging and hunkering down to contribute on or for the SFTIO site, instead I was reading. The Hubs, bless him, tried to fix it on Saturday so I did have internet briefly, but this morning it was gone again (it’s our router) and frankly, I wanted him to not worry about computers for a day or so. Plus, I had a book to read!

So unplugged, I still am. In fact, I’m writing this on my laptop and then will have to save it to a flash drive in order to get it on my blog using the Hubs’ computer downstairs. And so it shall be for another few days until payday swings around and we can solve this daggone router issue. The withdrawal is just beginning to show its effects…

…I believe I just found another book…