Simple Studio

Quizzes and Questions special issue

was one of our favorite special issue's ever. Remember this one?

I would like to provide you with a handful of my favorite quizzes this week and to kick it off I look to the master, miss CZ herself.

Her quiz is about your everyday life now, right now. So answer the questions and make a page, or save the journaling for a project in the near future. Share some of your answers in the comments. I will post my answers and page tomorrow.

The last person I sent a card to:

What I ate for lunch today:

Something I just learned:

My favorite song this year:

The last book I read:

What I am wearing right now:

The last phone call I made:

Inside I don't feel very different from when I was:

The last restaurant I ate at was:

My favorite TV show is:

 

 

My take on the quiz was to answer just three of the questions with journaling and photos. That is what I love about quizzes, answer one question or all. (sorry that the journaling is so fuzzy-will try to write it in later)

Monday Morning Greetings!

Hello there! My name is Margaret Scarbrough and I’ll be hosting the studio blog for this week. First off, let me tell you a little bit more about myself. I've been scrapbooking for about eight years now and for the past two years or so, I've been lucky enough to be a contributing editor for Simple Scrapbooks. The majority of my pages are about being a mom to two crazy boys, Matthew and Hoonie. You may recognize them from this cover:

Yup, those two little cover imps are mine. That picture was taken over two years ago, though, so let me share a more recent picture of the boys I took just this past weekend:

(in case you’re wondering...yes, they’re still imps!) :)

Hmm, what else can I tell you about myself? Well, I’ve been married for nearly fourteen years—our anniversary is next week, actually—to a pretty nice guy named Jack. And for the past two years, our family has been living the high life out here in the country where we do things like go swimmin' in the creek, kill rattlesnakes, set fire to things and harvest our own apples and nuts. Yup, there’s nothing like country living. That is, until you want to go shop at a decent mall in which case you have to drive nearly an hour and a half to get to one...but I digress. Now where was I? Ah yes, the idyllic country life... ;)

I would love to share a picture of Jack and I together, but like many of you, I rarely get on the other side of the camera these days. But just so you could kind of get an idea of what we look like tending to our miscellaneous tasks out here in the country, I’d like to present you with this poorly Photoshopped image of the both of us:

(my sincerest apologies to Grant Wood)

So now that you know a little bit more about me, I would love to know a little bit more about you. Make sure to stop by and say "hello" when you get the chance and don't forget to check in throughout the remainder of the week too. I'm hoping to share some serious holiday cheer while celebrating this most wonderful hobby of ours!

Happy Monday everyone! :)

It's in the details...

Hi guys! I'm looking forward to being your blog hostess this week! My name is Candice Palmer and I've been a contributing editor for Simple Scrapbooks these past couple of years. I'm the mom of three bright, super-active boys and the wife of a birdwatching electronics guru. I love to sing, bake, take lots of photographs, and read to my kids. Oh and I love to scrapbook, of course. :)

Here's a self-timer snapshot of my little family...

There are so many things I appreciate about this awesome hobby. Preserving the cute things my kids say, getting our family photos into albums (with their stories!), and enjoying the artistic outlet are just a few, but one of the coolest little perks of being an avid scrapbooker has been the opportunity to really record the details of my life.

Take the following Christmas page for instance. I have to state before I go on, that it's practically illegal in my little world to talk about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. I. love. Thanksgiving. But I am making an exception for you, people :).

For this layout, I thought it would be fun to document some of the Christmas decorations we use in my household and explain where they came from. Details. I remember that my grandmother had a plastic birdcage hidden in her Christmas tree that made bird sounds. Every year I couldn't wait to hear that sound and try to find it. I wish I had a picture of it now. Just something to think about.

So, as you make your place cards for your Thanksgiving feast or put your wreath up on the door or attach the paper pilgrim hat your first-grader made onto the fridge, be sure to snap a photo! & don't limit yourself to decor. I remember an adorable layout in a past issue of Simple (I believe it was by the talented Lisa Damrosch) that featured her full dishwasher after the turkey day meal was over. Fun, unique to her, and the details were recorded for her family. Isn't that what scrapbooking is all about?

Hello Simple Scrapbookers!

My name is Kim Morgan and I get to be the Simple Studio guest blogger for the week! By way of introduction, let me tell you a few random things about myself -

1. Besides scrapbooking, I like to spend creative time quilting, reading, baking and doing hand-embroidery. Consequently, paper, fine fabrics, and chocolate make me smile.
2. Dusting does not.
3. I live in Gilbert, AZ. That's on the east side of the Phoenix valley. It's very dusty here.
4. Until a year ago, my family lived in Utah. We are still adjusting to the summer heat, but we like it here a lot. This time of year the weather is simply beautiful!
5. I have a wonderful husband, Ron, plus 2 boys and 3 girls. They love me, so they help with the dusting.

And here they are!

Here's a little teaser to end with for today: later on in the week I'll be posting a project involving this -

Can anyone guess what in heaven's name this stuff is?

Never Underestimate what you do here

There was an article in last week's Washington Post about a new exhibit at the National Gallery of Art called "The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978." The exhibit includes a little over 200 snapshots from the collection of Robert E. Jackson, a businessman in Seattle, who has dedicated part of his free time to collecting old family photos at yard sales, attics, and online auctions. While it makes me sad to think of these lost images up for grabs for pocket change, I love to think that the photos we take because we want to remember something with exact detail really do mean something beyond their intended audience. They are an art form, a way to document reality and personality and memory and wishes.

I think in this era of digital photography, the one where we can take 300 photos in a single day without blinking an eye, it's nice to be reminded of the significance of the snapshot. I have hundreds of snapshots that aren't particularly fantastic technically, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that I have them, that I can study them, that I can tell stories about them to my children and laugh about them with my sisters.

I bet you have a few just like this, too.