the mini album

My mom is the queen of the mini album. For each of her grandchild she has created a "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book using all of the members of our family for the different pages. My niece, Sonna, once called and told me she could 'read' her book all by herself and then read the thing to me three times in a row.

I love these books because they reinforce family no matter how far away the family is. All of Ivar's cousins on the Harrington side live in Montana or Washington, so books like this are really, really important to me.

Mom also makes small albums for each grandchild after she visits them. She takes a ton of pictures on her trips and then comes home to develop and assemble an individual book that will be sent in the mail. She has done this since her grandkids were babies, so when you visit my brother or sister, you will find these 4x6 albums strewn all around the house. Again, it is reinforcing family and all the fun we have together, even when we live an airplane ride apart. To see these simple albums, click here.

Ivar's baby book

Yesterday I wrote about our Family Album. The plan for the Family Albums is that I will not make multiple albums for multiple children. Rather our kids, if they ever care to, can take those albums and scan or make copies of whatever pictures they want. But a baby has got to have a baby book. I found this Eric Carle baby journal at Barnes and Noble and loved it for its bright colors and tons of blank pages for special pictures. All of these pictures are duplicates from the Family Album, but these pictures pertain specifically to the topics listed in the journaling questions on the pages in between. And even though there are proper spaces for each picture, it is becoming more of a "scrapbook" on other pages...in the front cover I mounted my favorite pregnancy cards, in the back cover I mounted Ivar's baptism and dedication certificates. And on any empty area in between I have stuck in other special mementos: the napkin from Ivar's restaurant in Seattle sent from Uncle Ben and Aunt Jeanette, a picture of Ivar drawn by his cousin Mara, a little note my grandma included in with her gift. It's all in the pages of this book.

And now all that's left is the journaling. Heaven help me. That is an overwhelming task! I think I'm going to take a page a day. And I also plan on printing a lot of my blog posts and maybe add those in an envelope in front so that those stories are included within the pages of the baby book.

My final goal with this baby book is that it stays out and is read with dirty fingers by an excited little boy. I mean, not super dirty fingers, and not a super little boy, but that one day (after his ripping pages stage) Ivar can enjoy this book throughout his childhood.

another scrapbooking game plan

I have written a lot on this blog about my plans for scrapbooking. I got really excited about digital scrapbooking for a while. And then I found templates that made it super easy. I thought this style of month-by-month scrapbooking was going to be my scrapbook solution, but each month still took about 2 hours to compile, and honestly I am still stuck back in September. Once Ivar was born, I realized that if I didn't figure out a game plan quick, I'd be overwhelmingly behind. My game plan this time around had to be super, super simple. The solution: print the pictures. Stick them in an album. I waited for a deal at Walgreens and printed 400 pictures. My plan is that these albums will be family albums...not just Ivar albums. This means that when kid #2 comes, their pictures will just be added in chronological order with the rest of the pictures. This is not Ivar's baby book. It also doesn't mean that I am done scrapbooking! My hope is that if I feel so inspired, I might choose to scrapbook a vacation's worth of pictures, or some other picture-happy event. But if it just doesn't happen, those pictures can go into this album guilt-free. What I love about scrapbooking is the combination of story and pictures and mementos. So this album is going to have it all, just without the cropping, matting, trimming and embellishments of an entirely crafted scrapbook. On the page above I have included our three parking stubs from going to the hospital three times before Ivar was born, our hospital wristbands and the sheet of paper we wrote my contractions on. A friend recently introduced me to Project Life and this is sort of the same idea, just without purchasing the kit.

I have places on most pages that at this point are left empty and will be filled with journaling cards next. I have been looking around for the perfect fit, and so far I haven't found many options. I do like Amy Butler's journaling cards, but I have a feeling I may end up making my own 4 x 6 cards to write on, which will probably be a welcome reason to get out my cutter and sticky adhesive :) The other option would be to go digital for the journaling cards and print them like pictures. I'll keep you posted on what I settle on...

So there it is. My latest picture documenting game plan. Give me another few months. It may change yet again. But for now, I'm just proud to be current with Ivar's life!

I got my album from Michaels when it was on sale for $17. It holds 400 pictures and I love that there are vertical and horizontal slots on each page. Michaels also has refill pages available for this album. I can't find what brand or company created this one...it's not labeled anywhere on the album. But they came in a rainbow of colors, with this sort of textured fabric cover. I bought three albums that day and filled the other two with childhood pictures and now plan to purchase a few more so they're ready for the next batch of prints (thankfully our picture taking is slowing down a bit...)

cousins clothesline

This week on zee blog I am going to be sharing a whole lot of picture projects I have been working on. A few weeks ago I decided that I am not going to just take pictures. I am going to print pictures too. And with the printed pictures, I have decided on a game plan for scrapbooking with Ivar... a way to document his life. Just wait until you see it. It is simple, simple, simple and I love it.

This first project took me 10 minutes to assemble. Ivar has six cousins on each side and so using a picture of him with each of his cousins, I tacked up a piece of twine, found teeny tiny clothes pins at Michaels and hung up this cousins clothesline, inspired by this blog post I saw a long, long time ago.

I like this idea because as Ivar grows and I print different pictures of him with his cousins, I can easily swap them out for a quick update.

Celebrating Hildur

Rory, Ivar and I drove to St. Peter today for Hildur's memorial service. You know what is great about a memorial service for a 103-year-old? It's a lot more of a celebration of life than of sad day of grief. For a life lived as fully as Hildur's, there just isn't a whole lot to be sad about. She had a full, rich, and friend-filled 103 years and served God with joy and gladness all of her days. Her funeral was a celebration of faith and faithful friends.

There were a lot of people at her funeral which spoke clearly of how well she kept up friendships even into her 103rd year. Her sister Lois spoke and beautifully thanked every person who had loved and cared for Hildur. Hildur lived independently in her own home even up to her very last days, and though she was well and able, there was an army behind the scenes helping her to live independently. Friends who stocked her freezer with meals, friends who helped her get to appointments, others who faithfully drove her to church... And Lois named each person by name and gave them their earned praise. It was so cool to have the focus of the funeral turned on the congregation gathered. It made sense because we were gathered because of a shared love for Hildur, but it felt so inviting to hear other people's names and how we all served our friend in different ways.

Lois said that when Hildur was asked the secret for such a long and vibrant live she would answer with a list of things, but the first secret was her love for people. That was obvious today.