My blog has moved!  Don’t worry…all the content moved with me to www.lawrencoope.typepad.com 

I’ve moved everything GREEN over to the Green Guys and Gals blog at www.greenguysandgals.wordpress.com

…you’ll have to click here to hear more…

Although I am not at liberty to reveal my One Little Word for 2008 (the word unveiling is happening this Saturday at our Word Up! party, hosted by our dear friends Mark and Steph C.), I do have words to share from two of my readers…

Patience - chosen by my Aunt Robbie and Uncle Jack, who have been dealing with countless health issues this past year and have been forced to be “patient” patients for far too long now…

and

Try – chosen by Marianne over at Practice Living.  Great word!

I’ve talked to several of you who are still working on finding your word.  Think about what your goals, ambitions, resolutions, etc. are for this new year — maybe there is a word lurking amongst that list…and remember, it’s OK to pick a word that someone else is using as long as it has meaning for YOU.

My new word is definitely in the same vein as last year’s word RELAX…and I’ll be posting my word and others from the party on Sunday…

OK, I have to share a few Christmas photos, just so I can show off my Christmas present, a new lens for my Canon Digital Rebel XT.  I’m in love with it!

This first picture was taken with my old lens on Christmas morning, indoors with the blinds wide open to let in enough light (f/5.6, ISO 1600, 1/30 sec, 55.0mm) — I cleaned up the grainy quality by using a filtering software called Noiseware (awesome program, and the community version is free)…

This next one is with my new 50mm fixed lens indoors and in the evening…(f/1.8, ISO 800, 1/30 sec, 50.0mm)

I am in love with this light…even if R only has half a head of hair in the picture.

Here are a few more…

Thanks again Tammy for recommending this new lens.  I am addicted to it!

Yes, you read that right.  Our big Christmas present this year was Ripley getting a hold of a pair of scissors on Christmas afternoon and whacking off a good portion of her own hair.  It’s pretty drastic but it could have been worse.  Luckily, James walked in on her, with scissors and dixie cups in hand.  She was busily cutting up the cups, and James didn’t notice the missing hair right away.  He yelled, “Ripley, what have you done?  Where did you get a pair of scissors?  What are you DOING?”  She replied, “I’m having a recycling party!”

So I guess it’s all Mother Earth’s fault.

She really didn’t know what she had done to herself until I put her in front of a mirror and showed her how most of her hair on the left side of her head was gone, and how her bangs are just little half-inch spiky things.  She started bawling, and with her hands out in front of her, palms up (for most dramatic effect) she yelled, “WHY did I do this?”

Well, what do you say to that?

I think we’ve determined that there is very little a hairdresser can do to remedy the situation, unless we are willing to have the rest of her pretty head of hair whacked off to match the left side (which we are not).  For now, we’ll be wearing a lot of headbands.

Other than the Scissor Incident of Christmas 07, it’s been pretty quiet around here.  We took Ripley to ski for the first time last weekend and she LOVED it.  When asked what her favorite part was, she replied, “I like to go FAST.”  It in fact is true — she scooted out in front of her dad at one point, and she was going so fast he had a hard time catching up to her to get her to stop.  He had to ski in front of her so that they’d crash into each other and avoid hitting a pole.  I guess that’s why we bought the cool pink helmet.

Her dad is thrilled to have a ski buddy.  I’m thrilled that I might have a few Saturdays to myself in the near future…

OK, here’s something silly I worked on this past month — I cooked up some hairbrained idea that I should make “twirly skirts” for Ripley and her girlfriends from school (Lauren, Ava, and Caroline).  What a misguided notion!  I sew blankets and Fuzzies (little fleece baby loveys), but this was my first stab at clothing…

Oh my!  Well, at least they are “twirly”!  Every girl needs a little twirl in her life, right?

(invitation by Stephanie Clouatre)

Well, it’s that time of year again… 

Time to start thinking about your One Little Word for 2008.

If you’ve been following my blog this year, you know about the One Little Word project (taken from Ali Edwards’ AEzine).  In Ali’s words, it’s about finding one word that “sums up what you want for yourself in 2008″.  Several of you have played along this year, with words as diverse (and funny) as laugh, cherish, empire, simplify, reconnect, and whimsy.  You can see these words and others listed down the right-hand side of my blog – each word has quotes and sometimes other thoughts on the attached page. 

Before jumping ahead to 2008, I thought I’d take some time to reflect on my 2007 word, RELAX - I picked this word moments after reading about the One Little Word concept.  I’ve always had a hard time settling down, just enjoying the moment, not being uptight.  RELAX was a perfect word for me to focus on… 

So here’s the real Question:  Did focusing on RELAX “change my life”?

Answer:  A little bit.  Honest!

11 months ago, when I settled on RELAX, I was hopeful that this could alter my life for the better.  I can say that there were times I really paid attention to my word and the meaning it held for me.  I would think relaxing thoughts, work on settling down my nervous energy, and take time to enjoy things a bit more.  At times, it really was a focus for me.

The majority of the time though, I found myself forgetting about my commitment to RELAX.  Even with my word plastered across my scrap space, I forgot the importance of the word 90% of the time.  Why?  I’m not completely sure, but I’m guessing that a few things were at work…

• I’m usually pretty darned relaxed when sitting at my scrap table, so why would I need reminders while sitting there?  Yet I had no reminders of my word where I find myself getting most aggravated, stressed, high-strung…at my work desk, in my kitchen/living space, and in my car. 
• Another factor:  that “old dog, new trick” saying seems to play a role.  I’ve been this person all of my life!  It’s improbable to expect an old dog like me to completely change her ways, right?  So a little more RELAX in my life is an improvement, but I’m not likely to become some laid-back slacker type, or at least not in this lifetime!

How did YOU do on your word this year?  What did it end up meaning for you?  Did you really put a focus on it?  Did it make you think twice about things?  I’d love to hear — feel free to post a comment below or on your word page to the right of this post.

You’re probably wondering what my word will be for 2008…I’ll be posting my word and at least 7 more after our Word Up! party on January 5th.  Steph Clouatre is hosting the event and she made the most darling invitations (see above picture).  We are all required to reveal our word at the party by wearing it somewhere on our person, and we must bring a corresponding quote for our new word.  I can’t wait!

I don’t have my word picked yet, but I’ve got a list brewing…

This is Ripley’s “Thankful Book” that the 3 of us (James, Ripley, me) assembled on Thanksgiving Day.  Sorry it took me so long to post.  We had to add one more picture to make it complete before I took the photos of the book. 

Yes, Ostrich is still rated number 1 in our house.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  I am lucky enough to NOT host Thanksgiving at my house, but inevitably there seems a need to cook a few things this week.  I am baking banana bread muffins to take to our (very early) tailgate in Boulder on Friday and my recipe calls for buttermilk.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually keep the stuff on hand, and I have no intentions of going to the grocery on Thanksgiving.  Here is a recipe for making your own buttermilk – fast and easy.  I’ll never buy buttermilk again!

I also have a bunch of pumpkin seeds left from our pumpkin-gutting a few weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to toast them but haven’t had a recipe.   I toasted them this morning using this recipe and they turned out (I just used the salt, paprika, and oil). 

 James, Rip and I had the opportunity to make an “I am thankful” book this morning — yes, James was required to scrapbook with us.  He was a good sport about it.  It was a group effort — assembling pages, cutting out pictures, inking edges (James is good at this), etc.  It turned out really cute and I hope to post a picture of it this weekend.  In case you were wondering, Ripley is most thankful for her ostrich (this little stuffed toy that she’d paid no mind until 2 weeks ago).  Go figure. 

Ripley is INTO HALLOWEEN.  I think it runs in the family.  Ever since we put up the Halloween decorations, it’s been Halloween every day here.  I guess that’s why it’s not a big deal to write a post about Halloween 4 days late…

Ripley is the monkey (a wonderful eBay purchase), Ava is the patriotic cheerleader, and Lauren is Sleeping Beauty (originally slated to be Dee Dee DoodleBop, but a last minute substitution was made).  Creig and James took the girls on a whirlwind trick-or-treating expedition around the Veldhuizen neighboorhood. 

The week before Halloween, we got together with our dinner group

 We had a pirate, a monkey, Darth Vader, a veterinarian, and a CU cheerleader.

 On a GREEN note, the latest Green Guys and Gals Update is up, so please check it out.  A friend of mine request some help for her Eco Mama’s group (cool, huh?) and it inspired me to finally get off the dime and write the next issue.  Sorry it’s been so long!

By the way, happy early birthday to my mother-in-law, who we spent a lovely morning with today, and to Caroline (the CU cheerleader in the above picture).

Made this little miniBOOK last night for my grandmother’s birthday — it’s of her little doggie Millie.  My grandma (we call her Meme) is the “orginal artist” in the family.  There are several of us “wanna be” artists, but she’s the real deal.  She was also the reason I was able to go to CKU (thanks Meme!).

I’ve got a few more projects that have to get done this week, and then I’m going to be busy preparing for our scrapbook retreat, which is a week from tomorrow…can’t wait to just scrap and hang out with the girls!

I just returned from 4 amazing days of scrapbooking in Orlando at Creating Keepsakes University.  What a unique opportunity to meet other people who are passionate about scrapbooking, photography, and creating!  I went solo, and I immediately met up with three great gals (Liz, Pauline, and Anna) who were also traveling alone.  The 4 of us met for meals and crops at night, and for make-and-takes and classes during the day.  I don’t know how I could have found better companions — these girls were such a delight.  We’ve already emailed with each other and I hope to join up with them at CKU Houston (?) next June. 

Thursday at CKU was jam packed with make-and-take projects — I think we did 24 projects in 8 hours!  I learned a few new tricks, played with products that I’ve never seen before, and came away with enough 6×6 pages to fill a little album.  It was very liberating to just CREATE for an entire day, without the worry of what to do or how to do it — no thinking, just creating. 

Friday I attended 5 classes — one of my favorites was Candice Stringham’s “Shooting Through the Ages”, about portrait photography.  After taking my digital photography course this summer, I expected this class might be repetitive, but it wasn’t.  I am SO glad I took it – Candice is down to earth, and her lecture was so pertinent to where I am in learning about photography.  I got the chance to chat with her a bit about lenses and I now know what I’m going to ask Santa Claus to bring me this year.  The last night of CKU they announced that Candice will be doing a Creative Photography Retreat sometime next fall, and I’m thinking that might be a good birthday gift for me from my sweet husband?  We’ll see!

The other Friday class that was such a blast was Tim Holtz’ “Paint Outside the Lines” — just a fun 90 minutes of playing with acrylic paint and trying new techniques.  Tim is hysterical — if you ever get a chance to take his class, DO. 

Saturday was my all-day album track class, taught by Ali Edwards (yes, my scrapbooking IDOL).  I know you are all wondering how big of a “fan” I was during my day in her class.  Well, for the full story you’d have to ask my friend Liz who was in class with me, but I thought I showed a good deal of self restraint and only had Ali sign three things for me   No, really, Ali was just a cool, normal gal.  Her story is a great one — she’s only been scrapbooking for the past 5 years, but things really took off for her and her THIRD book just came out this month.  Talk about talented. 

I COULD post the picture of me with Ali, where I look like a TOTAL STALKER because we are both wearing the exact same oddly orange/red t-shirt and almost matching necklace (very strange! and I didn’t even notice until the next day when I was going through the pictures), but then she’d have to take out a restraining order and I wouldn’t be allowed to go to her class next year.  Instead, I’ll share this one…

Yes, that’s me jumping for joy (actually, we are jumping for a photo that Candice was taking for the CKU slideshow) with Ali and two random girls who were trying to steal my moment in the sun.  Just kidding, well, kind of just kidding.

I thoroughly enjoyed the album track — we created an entire 12×12 album about a week in our lives.  Such a different thing than you normally scrapbook but SO cool.  I’ve got tons of work still to do on it, but it’s shaping up and I’ll be sure to post it online when I’m done.  This was the last time she’s going to teach that class, and next year it will be something completely new.  I am absolutely compelled to be there next year to see what it is…

OK, so for the final highlight: 

During commencement, they announced the winners of the contests for the week, and when it came time to announce the Album Cover contest, Ali did the announcing.  It went a little something like this….

“And honorable mention goes to Lawren with a W Coope from Littleton, Colorado!” 

Fun, huh?  Not just to win for my work (and get really cool free stuff — a big leather Making Memories shoulder case FILLED with goodies) but to have my favorite scrapbooker (I mean, Life Artist) announce my name.  (By the way, the album cover I entered was the neat little 4×6 clear album from Cocoa Daisy that I posted a few weeks ago — click here to see it).

These are my new buddies — Pauline, Liz, and Anna.  Aren’t they cute?

GREEN STUFF.

For all you green beans out there that were hoping I’d finally post something related to the environment, here are two quick green stories from the trip.

1. I made the gal at the Starbucks in the Wyndham Orlando laugh each day when I’d bring in my little travel mug for a fill-up.  She’d start giggling as soon as she saw me coming!  I suppose she doesn’t see too many of those at her location.  I wanted to say to her, You mean to tell me EVERYONE who travels doesn’t carry a reuseable mug with them?  That’s CRAZY.
2. For those of you have been reading my blog regularly, you know that I have some unusual travel habits in addition to BYOMug.  At the end of a trip, I normally carry home all of my recyclables in my suitcase (if I can’t find a recycling receptacle somewhere during my visit).  This time I was really feeling stressed about this because a) there was no recycling to be found anywhere on the property and b) we were given so many freebies during the event that my suitcases (yes, suitcases plural) were busting at the seams.  I finally asked Pauline, a local CKU buddy from the week, if she recycled at home and would be willing to take my things for recycling.  She was so gracious to take my items — thank you Pauline!  And it became a great opportunity to discuss recycling and being green amongst my new-found friends.  Believe it or not, my new girlfriends were still willing to hang out with me, even after I let my true green color show! 

That’s all for now.  I’m still riding on a creative high, so I better get scrappin’!