Over a month ago, I took a day-long class where Danelle Johnson introduced her
new Creative
Cafe line. The lectures were so profound, so life changing, that I
didn’t end up scrapping much at all. So I brought the directions home
and the materials at home and didn’t complete the albums until today. I
still haven’t journaled them but I have done all the prep work. In my
minimalist style, of course.

Trust me that Danelle’s designs were much prettier. Also, she has hard
plastic see-through covers for the albums but I wanted to use those
elsewhere so I took them out. It was three albums of 12 pages each, so I
used them to commemorate David’s first three years since he will be
three in five weeks.

This is year one, when he was a teeny-weeny baby. Each page has a
chipboard that comes out and there is one photo on each side. I didn’t
photograph the photos since they are not new.

I’ve wanted to keep an art journal for a few years. I’ve even attempted
starting one several times but I never fully did it. So this is my year.

This is also the year I want to concentrate on the journey and not the
destination. As this is the pensive time of year for me, I’ve also been
reading the Tao
Te Ching and I will be incorporating a lot of its quotes to my
journal this year. This year, it’s about slowing down, letting things
go, stopping trying to control, taking what I get, and being present.
It’s all about the journey. Enjoying every moment of life and not trying
to cram everything in.

I picked a Rusty Pickle minibook to do my journal in. Its size spoke to
me. It’s 6.75″ by 11″ or so. Big enough canvas to give me space but not
so big as to be intimidating. I hope to do a page a week or so. It’s a
“gated” journal so it opens from the middle. Here’s the back cover.

Of course, I also picked journey as my one
little word. Here’s to a fantastic journey in 2008.

This prompt was about your weaknesses during this season. Mine is being
lazy… journaling is inside the folder.

I adore this photo beyond words. It makes me happy inside. I love you,
so much, my son.

Another layout with the Zoe
Line by KI Memories Love, Elsie thanks to the wonderful ladies at A Million Memories.

David’s been really into having his photo taken lately and playing with
the camera. The other day, he grabbed his little toy and click clicked
like it was a camera. He even pulled it back to “look” at the “photo.”

Another layout with the Zoe
Line by KI Memories Love, Elsie thanks to the wonderful ladies at A Million Memories.

AMM sent me some of these
beautiful Autumn Leaves papers. The line is called Manhattan
so I thought it was only fitting that I made an album about how much I
loved NYC.