first up, let’s pick a winner! this time i thought i’d use the random number generator to choose 2 numbers. and yes, you heard right … 2 numbers. there were so many nice comments that i can’t do just one! so here’s what it came up with:
Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
14 37
Timestamp: 2008-03-28 17:27:56 UTC
#14 – I love your lo’s. Pure talent. I enjoy reading your blog too. I like your happy humor. Posted by: Renee
#37 – Hi Laura. Love your blog – I check daily! You always have super-inspiring projects, love the detail shots. Your photography is awesome – wish I had some skills in that area! Always fun to see your stuff on the Making Memories blog too. Posted by: Dana
congrats girls! email me your addresses and i’ll get your making memories goodies on there way to you. and thanks everyone for playing along!
so, now a little on my album re-organizing.
see these 5 albums all stacked up? those contain all the layouts i’ve done about the daycare kids and some other kids we know … from the past 6 years or so. i also have 2 9×9 albums … but these are my 12×12 albums. that’s a ton of layouts. and i started going through them … and realized that i just had too many. it’d be different i guess if they were my own kids … i wouldn’t just toss those. lol! but the reality is … i don’t need all these. there are lots of layouts in there too from years ago … that were just plain layouts … no journaling, no special meaning, no special stories.
so i purged the albums. several times to be honest. i went through and picked out some layouts to give back to the parents. i think they’ll enjoy them … after all, it’s their kids. then i had to re-do the albums … darn post bound albums get me every time. lol! take them apart, adjust the pages, re-arrange the page protectors, condense the albums, put the albums back together. i got it down to 4 albums. then a few days later … i went back through them. and tore them all apart … completely apart … every single page out of the protectors and everything. i decided to arrange them by child. each child that i’ve watched has their own section … or if i had siblings, then they’re together. i really narrowed these down … so most of the kids have 3-5 layouts about them. of course, the kids that are still here and still big parts of our lives do have more layouts. but that way, if we want to see layouts about our good friends alison and michaela … we just flip to their section and can view layouts from over the past 6 years and not have to go through all the other pages. i plan on making simple divider pages that show their names … and probably some tabs on the sides of the albums.
so now i have it back up to 5 albums. lol! but they’re not full … so i can add to them. i have 1 album for random daycare layouts. where there are several kids together … or the daycare kids with my girls … group shots. then i have 1 album for random friends (although i need a better name for it … random doesn’t sound right!) … this would be layouts about school friends, family friends, etc. then i have 3 albums that are for the individual daycare kids … each child that has been here having their own section … and pretty much put in order that they’ve been here. and for the kids that are still here … or still in our lives … i left a few empty page protectors so that it’d be easier to add in some new layouts here and there. i pretty much know which kids might possible show up on a new layout … so i knew where to put the extra pages.
like the metal rimmed tags added on with the binder clips? genious idea that i got from stacey julian’s new book, photo freedom. i loved that idea as soon as i saw it. i just quickly wrote the album contents on the tag .. someday i’ll write it a little prettier. and i want to tie a little ribbon on them too … will get to that later. but for now … i love knowing what’s in the album … without having to take the album out! that always bugged me … having this huge row of albums that all looked the same and not knowing what was in what album.
these are the albums that i’ve completly gone through. the ones on the left side are more themed albums. i have school/sports (black), birthdays (yellow), spring holidays (pink), fall holidays (linen), and christmas (red). i have summer albums too … but i have to go through those still. these albums are seperated by year … and i have added in divider pages that i’ll add the year too … easier to seperate them since they all start to look the same when together in one album. i’ve moved these albums to my ikea shelves … and i love them there. i like how the cubes sort of divide them up.
these are the albums that have been spread out on my island all week. i started over the weekend …. when my computer was locked up. lol! the green ones are the summer albums … swimming, vacations, things like that. then the brown ones are family albums. i have 2 albums for alyssa, 2 albums for sarah … so any layout about just them goes in there. and then 2 albums that are for family … any layouts of us all together, or the girls together. i’m debating these … making a few changes. and i have actually gone through and thrown layouts away. shocked? you shouldn’t be. i realized how many layouts i had in there with the same photos over and over. some of them were class layouts that i did when i taught at the lss … i would just toss some favorite photos on when i taught it. some were samples for different design team work … or display samples for the lss. and many of them had no journaling … nothing special about them. so i threw them out … tore off the photos on some … took off the good embellishments that i could still use.
one thing i’m debating is switching some of my albums to the american crafts albums … the 3 ring binder type. i’m not a chronological scrapper … but i like to have my layouts in chronological order. and the post bound albums don’t make that easy. lol! i have a few AC albums already laying around … and i tried them out and love them. but i’m still thinking about it … i like to have everything match, so i want a system that flows.
but i thought i’d toss this idea out there to you, my cyber friends … just in case someone was looking for albums and was interested. i have a ton of THESE 12×12 albums from MM … in brown with the label holder on the front … and tons of page protectors for them. i have about 12 albums total. some of them are still packaged … and some are being used, but are in great condition. i don’t necessarily have to get rid of them … but if anyone is actually interested in any, please email me and i’m sure we can make a good deal. if not … they’ll get used, trust me!
Laura Vegas 
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