Posted by karooch on
May 26, 2008
A Page Out of Life
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A Scrapbooking Novel by Kathleen Reid
Well with a headline like that you’d just have to try it out, wouldn’t you?
So I got my copy and started reading it late Friday evening.
By the time I’d finished it on Sunday afternoon I realised I’d just blown the whole weekend!
Who knew a scrapbooking novel could be that interesting?
Here’s the blurb synopsis of the story:
A frazzled mother of four, Ashley lets her best friend drag her to a meeting of the local scrapbook club, and she’s amazed at the way old photos and mementos can bring vivid color to sepia-toned memories.
Among the surprisingly diverse group is Tara, a single grad student whose search for love, like her relationship with her absentee father, has only brought her heartache — and some funny dating stories.
Then there’s Libby, a semi-retired teacher who thought she’d spend her golden years taking cooking and photography classes — not as a town pariah after her son is charged in a corporate scandal.
As Ashley copes with a husband whose love for her fluctuates with her wieght, she comes to depend more and more on her scrapbooking sisters. For only together can they face earthshattering revelations and emotionally unavailable men — and figure out their futures while artfully commemorating their pasts.
I truly wasn’t expecting it to be a page turner from that synopsis but it absolutely is.
The Scrapbooking theme is more like a background thread which is woven through the stories of three women.
You really get involved with their lives and as each chapter ends with a bit of a cliff-hanger before jumping to what’s happening with another of the three, you really want to keep reading to find out what happens.
Kathleen Reid’s style is fast paced and easy to read and I found myself able to identify with so many of the aspects of these women’s lives.
The scrapbooking group which runs in the background forms a solid base of friendship and personal support for a diverse group of women.
It is woven into the fabric of the stories of the three women that the book focuses on but it’s not what their stories are about.
Much like in real life, scrapbooking plays its part in helping us to keep balance in our lives and sometimes a bit of therapy to get through the tough times.
So if you like stories that are about people and their lives, and if you like a book that is fast paced whilst still taking time to draw strong word pictures of its characters, have a read of A Page Out of Life
Oh, and the Scrapbooking theme is cool too.
Other Articles you might enjoy:
Black and White Scrapbook Layouts
Posted by karooch on
May 24, 2008
It’s Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival time again
Yep. It’s time for a fresh new edition of the Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival again.
This round it’s being hosted over at The Digital Celt
And as always it’s got plenty of great links to all the news views and scrapbooking hues (I know it doesn’t make sense but I had to go with the poetic flow, if you know what I mean).
So click on over and check out all the digital scrapbooking ideas on offer.
And be a player, not just a spectator. Submit some digital scrapbooking articles to the next blog carnival. They can be your own or someone else’s. It all helps to spread the digital scrapbooking love around.
Make sure you spread the news (and the links) of the Digital Scrapbooking Carnival to your scrapbooking friends. A post like this on your blog helps to spread the word and make the Carnival even better.
Other related Articles:
The Digital Scrapbooking Blog Carnival is Back!!
Posted by karooch on
May 23, 2008
Five Freebies on Friday - 23 May 2008
It’s time for this week’s Five Freebies on Friday round up. Enjoy these great Scrapbooking Freebie goodies I’ve found for you over the last week.
And remember to leave some love when you download your freebie. Just a simple thank you comment makes all the difference to the designer who will have put a lot of time and effort into creating your freebie.
- Stone Accents is having a little contest to name a kit. and there’s a beautiful mini-kit from the collection offered as a freebie.
- Philsboo has some very cute frames at Our Little Scrap World. Just click on the graphic to download.
- Scrappable have a great kit called Bonjour. It’s just packed with digital goodies.
- Nicolette from Green Elephant Designs has a freebie grab bag for you of three quick pages and a flower cluster.
- For all the Template fans out there, click over to Les Scrapfolies and pick up this offering from Timounette.
Other related posts:
Five Freebies on Friday 9 May 2008
Five Freebies on Friday 16 May 2008
Five Freebies on Friday 3 May 2008
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Posted by karooch on
May 22, 2008
What Do You Do with Your Scrapbook Layouts?
So once you’ve finished your scrapbook layout what do you do with it?
Do you have lots of different albums; maybe based on themes like vacations and Christmas etc. or perhaps individual album for each member of the family?
I know the journey of creating the layout is often more important that the end result. But I like to have my layouts displayed in some format.
Usually I will print my scrapbook layouts out, if they are digital layouts and I keep the latest on displayed on a little easel on a shelf above my desk. Then when I make the next one I store the layout in one of my albums and replace it on the easel with the new one.
I have an album dedicated to my daughter’s life which I add to every so often and a fledgling Book of Me album which I confess doesn’t have many layouts in it. I also make themed albums for my overseas trips. Everything else goes into a sort of Miscellaneous album.
I rarely post my layouts in on-line galleries these days. I guess my on-line gallery is Scraps of Mind, as many of my layouts end up illustrating my articles here.
But I do love to sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and browse through my albums. It’s a great feeling on a number of levels. I enjoy the memories that browsing through the albums spark for me. And I also like to look at all the different scrapbooking styles and scrapbook ideas I’ve tried and evaluate them more objectively with the distance of time.
I rarely would actually change a layout unless it really really bugged me. But I do like to see how my scrapbooking has evolved.
So back to the question at hand.
What do you do with your scrapbook layouts.
Share with us in the comments below. Who knows, we might even get some new ideas from reading what other Scraps of Minders do.
Other Articles You Might Like:
Does Size Matter…in Scrapbooking?
Posted by karooch on
May 21, 2008
Kirtsy with your Sk*rt
Well the big news in Women’s Social Media is that Sk*rt has changed its name to Kirtsy
The ladies over at Kirtsy (nee Sk*rt) were looking to give the site a refresh (must be a Spring thing). And one of the areas they decided to update was the name.
Now as any of you who have done this with your own blogs will know, changing the name of your site is a very tricky thing. The technical side is easy — just make a new banner and do a search and replace for all the instances of your old name on the site.
It’s the Internet links that are the tricky things. People have linked to your old site and they will often not think to change those links. So your new site gets starved of all that linky goodness. People who thought they knew where you were on the Net suddenly can’t find you and confusion reigns.
So Kirtsy have asked all their members to let people know about their changes so that they can try to prevent any confusion.
And by the way, if you decide to join and help them spread the word about their name change, you’ll be entered into a giant contest to win over $1000 worth of prizes. Not bad eh?
And what is Kirtsy you ask?
Well Kirtsy is like Digg but for Women.
It covers a huge spectrum of topics but it’s populated by women so the focus is obviously on stuff that is of greater interest to women. It’s actually a cool place for finding interesting things to read.
And like Digg, you can vote them up (or down) to get them to more people’s attention. But unlike Digg you don’t just blindly vote. Your vote is activated when you click on the link to the post from the Kirtsy site. This means that voters actually get to see your post, rather than just clicking on a vote button and never even visiting your site.
I like that. It’s more what voting should be about I think. And I like that you the reader, play a part in what becomes popular.
So if you haven’t checked out Kirtsy why not click over and have a look. And once you’re registered with them, please feel free to give some Kirtsy love to any of the Scraps of Mind articles that you like by clicking on the link at the bottom of the posts. I would certainly appreciate it.
Other related Articles:
Where do you Hang out on the Net?
Let Your Blog Stumble…it won’t hurt.
Learn how to digital scrapbook the easy way.
Step by Step Digital Scrapbook will show you how to get started
