Some layouts I recently finished

L - general pics R - opening gifts
L - pool pics R - water balloons

L - Waterburger Field Hooks game R - fireworks pics from after the game

L - dinner at Friday's R - Waterburger Field Hooks game

They are a little blurry. You can click on each picture to see it larger. They are also in reverse order so start at the bottom to follow the "story." These are the layouts from Meagan's 9th birthday. We went to Corpus on her actual birthday to the movies, to dinner and to a Hooks game. On Saturday she had a pool party at our house.

I am still learning how to use my new camera obviously. If I use the flash the pictures are clear and crisp. But when I do use the flash sometimes I get a shadow or a too bright spot.

Any book or websites suggestions on learning to use the manual modes on the computer??

My newly cleaned and organized scrapbook area

Here it is!

This is in the left hand corner of our living room. Our living room is a long rectangle with four doorways. Our furniture is mostly on the right hand side of the room so that leaves room on the left for my stuff!

The table is a hand me down from my father. The blue organizer on the left is my birthday gift! (My birthday is on Jan. 8th, the same day as Elvis. Thank you, Thank you very much.) The white organizer on the right is a hand me down from my friend Elice. The green containers on the floor on the left are for my kids. I put anything in there that comes home from school, activities, etc. When I scrapbook about their school year I look through the bucket for things I want to include. I need a system for things that are too big for the scrapbook but that I still want to keep. Any ideas/suggestions??

The big black bag under the table holds all of my paper. It is sorted in various organizers/packages.

Yes, the table does block the front door but we never used it anyway.

Blue Organizer - top drawer - small punches, corner cutters, scissors, blades, adhesives

Second drawer - large and medium punches, chalk in the black bag (It is upside down so it doesn't dry out.)

Third drawer - stencils, cutting tools Fourth drawer - pens, open pages and page protectors

Fifth drawer - cutting patterns, personal trimmer

This is my ribbon drawer. Ribbon and journaling boxes/photo mats are kept in the small white organizer on the top of the table.
Here is a picture of part of my mantle. You can see all of the albums I own. The light purple one is Meagan's from birth to age 4. The red one is Meagan's for kinder to now (school stuff). The dark blue ones are family albums. The light blue one is Garrets birth to four album (I know I am behind . . . shh . . . just don't tell him!) The pinkish one is Meagan's own album. (Girl Scout trips, things she and I have done by ourselves, etc.) It doesn't make sense for Meagan to have two separate albums but I've already started them and they can't be combined so oh well.

So, what are your hobbies? (And do you have as much junk for them as I do??)

******Announcing****** Teacher Mom's Pay It Forward Contest

So, I read Swistle daily (another blog for those of you who are new to this) and a while back she decided to have a pay it forward contest, and not just a regular pay it forward contest. (You can read about it on her blog here) I entered a bunch of contests she had linked on her page hoping to win one, and well, I didn't. So, I decided to host a contest of my own.

If you are new to the Pay It Forward idea let me explain:

I am having a contest. To enter the contest you simply need to leave a comment on this entry. On July 27th, I will use a random number generator (one of my kids probably!) and pick a winner. When I send the winner his/her package that person will then hold a Pay It Forward Contest on their blog. (If you do not have a blog, don't worry. I will host your contest on my blog for you.) Each winner will then send a prize to a new winner, hence the name of the contest!

If I have totally confused you, see Swistle's blog where I linked it. She explains it much better than I can!

Now for the good part: the prize you can win! It is pictured at the top of this entry because I STILL HAVE NOT figured out how to insert my pictures in the body of my blog posts.

This is what I will send to you if you win the contest - A smorgasbord of scrap booking products including two packs of idea pages, several idea sheets, three pages of letters, a title idea book, an alphabet stencil, a pack of wintry paper (to help you think cool this summer!), a mini tape runner, a corner rounder, a mini picture sorter, 6 pens, and tons of mini packs of paper and stickers (these are enough to complete 1 -2 pages in a scrapbook).

If you were wondering, yes, I was a Creative Memories consultant once upon a time. I still love to scrapbook and still use their products, I just no longer have the time to teach full time, be a mom and wife, and run a scrapbook business.

I think everyone should scrapbook in some way to help them preserve their memories and I hope that my prize helps someone get started with that, kick starts someone who used to scrapbook, or helps keep an existing scrap booker going.

So if you would like to enter my Pay It Forward contest simply leave me a comment on this post. I would like you to answer this question: Why do you blog/read blogs? What makes you come back to a blog to read it daily/weekly?

Remember, I'll pick a winner on July 27th. Make sure and leave a link to your blog or your e-mail address so I can contact the winner.

Thanks for playing!