Laura Vegas

Happy Friday all! So you'll notice that this layout, design wise, looks a lot like the other two layouts I've shared this week. I'm sure some would say I should mix things up a bit, so all of my layouts don't end up looking the same. But I say, why reinvent the wheel. I like what I like, and it works for me. And if that somehow allows me to get more done, more power to me 😉

So this layout is about my youngest, Sarah. She's messy by nature, and it drives me insane. Because I'm the complete opposite, and I've been trying to instill good cleaning habits in her since she was a little girl. She's going to be 18 years old in a few months (crazy!), and it still hasn't sunk in.

Sure, she has her moments when she gets bitten by the cleaning bug, and before I know it, her room looks amazing! But the majority of the time, it's a disaster area, and her piles and messes spill out into other areas of the house. I had a few photos that inspired me to create this layout.

I actually started this layout almost a year ago. I had my patterned papers picked out, background and title die cut, but just never got around to making the layout. I even debated a few times not doing the layout. But every time I thought about not doing it, I would then change my mind right before putting all of the papers away and put them back in my to-do pile. 

My patterned papers are all from either Dear Lizzy or Amy Tangerine. It's kind of odd how I came up with these papers, or even these colors. My photos were pretty busy, and there weren't any distinct colors that stood out to me. I guess I went with the aqua patterned paper as the walls in Sarah's room are aqua, at the time I had an aqua valence about the kitchen window, and there's one aqua piece of clothing in the laundry pile photo. 

I actually stepped away from the circle backgrounds that I am slightly addicted too, and used a diagonal striped background from Kerri Bradford's Background Basics kit. The aqua patterned paper is actually a world map pattern, but the photos and patterned paper strips cover up the main part of the map pattern. 

This title, "oh em gee", from Kerri's Urban Dictionary kit, sums up my feelings each and every time I walk by Sarah's room. I actually get a little anxious when I peek in her room. I should just close my eyes and keep walking, but it's right by the stairs, so that might not be all that safe ;) 

I had this day of the week patterned paper, from Dear Lizzy, out as a possible paper to work into the page. I really wanted to use it, but it wasn't working out. Until I decided that instead of doing a 3×4" journaling block in between the photos, which was my original plan, I would add my journaling below the photos in a long strip (that allowed me to say more anyways). So I was able to work in a block of that patterned paper in between the photos. 

So, the messy teenager is now well documented. And hopefully, one day she will magically turn into a neat freak like her sister and me, and we can look back on this and laugh. Or when she gets older, and has messy kids of her own, I can whip this out and remind her of how she was as a child 😉