I've been away from my blog for a very long time. Life and kids and life tied me up for a while... but I am back... and I hope I can be more regular in posting now.  We were away on vacation for six weeks... six blissful, relaxing, fabulous weeks - and now its time to get into action.  I've been away from doing something creative and exciting and my heart, mind and soul are itching to get wrapped up in a new project.  Before the summer, my last project was a personalised story book as a baby show gift.  These are a few of the pages.

It has been a dream of mine to write personalised story books for each of my sons - reflecting their individual personalities and my individual relationship with each of them.  I just need to find the right illustrator...  In the meantime, I shall continue scrapbooking :)  And here are a couple more samples from my archives.

Wow! I have really been off the circuit.  Its been a crazy couple of months and as much as I have wanted to, I haven't had a moment free to update my blog. Projects, girls-trips, graduations, birthdays, end of school... too many things took precedence but now I hope to be more regular.  

One of the things that has taken up most of my time over the last 2 months was a digital scrapbook project I was working on. Two albums, 100 pages each, for twin girls.  It was a huge project - I have never worked on 200 pages at a stretch before.  I think the greatest challenge was coming up with fresh, new ideas for each page... but of course, being a mom to boys, working on a girly scrapbook was super fun.  It gave me a change to pull out all the glitters and rhinestones... I got to play with all the girly colours which I otherwise don't get to do.  

These are a couple of my favorite pages from the album.  
I have always loved the lyrics of this Martina McBride song.  I have never been able to find an alternative for a son.  

I love photos of sleeping babies - they always look so peaceful and happy.

My client is a huge Instagram fan and I had to make a page devoted to IG.  And of course, I have always said that I like to create pages reflective of our times... things change so fast - it will give children an insight into what the trends were when they were growing up.

In between this I made a scrapbook to thank my boys' class teacher for his incredible work throughout the school year.  

Here is the cover page:

I made a page for each child to fill in with words of thanks to their teacher. These are the ones I made for my boys.

And I made a crossword puzzle with clues about all the kids too.

And here is a sample of a fun page

And so with all of this behind me it is time to plan for the summer vacation.  I would like to say I am switching off but I have a dozen other ideas that I want to wrap my head around... and fast... stay tuned :)

Sincerely, Jenny

"Stay hungry, stay foolish"

Last year my triplets turned 10! A full decade and so I wanted to do something special for them and I decided to make individual scrapbooks for them.  Prior to this I would combine all the pages into common scrapbooks, but I felt it was time they had something of 'their own'.  I have always been aware that it would be easy to get stuck in the rut of grouping the boys - same clothes, same friends etc and right from the beginning I wanted to try as much as possible for them to retain their individuality.  I even refrained from giving them same initial names as is common for multiples.  And so, individual scrapbooks was another step toward promoting that.  

The scrapbooks were filled with letters from all the important people in their life, advice that they need to hear now and of course lots of words of love and encouragement. (I will post some of the more fun pages in future posts.) 

One of the pages I included had the speech given by Steve Jobs at Stanford some years ago.  

This is one of my absolute favorite speeches.  I read this to the Montessori interns that I train during the Professional Development module in order to inspire them to have a passion for what they do.  I always express gratitude to be amongst those who has a passion for my work and that is one of the most important things I want for my sons - for them to LOVE what they do... because to me THAT equals success.  

So I asked my brother (who is crazy talented) to design a background page for me to insert the speech into.  I also liked that the scrapbooks would reflect the different styles of the people in our family.  

Every time I read this aloud in class (which occurs at least 3 times a year) I am always moved to tears - without fail. If you haven't already read it (because you have been living under a rock!!!) please do so.  It reappeared on the internet just after his passing and made the rounds of so many email boxes.  They are inspiring words to be read again and again.  'Stay hungry, stay foolish' are his final lines - to urge you to keep learning and growing... without fear.

I can say for sure that I am learning something new everyday... hey, navigating my way through blogging is proof enough.  And it keeps me alive and happy!  

Sincerely... Jenny

How it all began...

I am sitting here wondering how I actually got started on my scrap journey.  My mother has always told me that I have had this crazy attraction to paper right from when I was a baby.  She says I would abandon my toys and play with pieces of paper between my fingers.  I know... it sounds weird - what can I say?  At least something good came out of it.  Looking back, I would have to credit my mother for initiating me into this passion that I have for scrapbooking.  She made the cutest baby books for my brother & I when we were little. I was born in Osaka, Japan and so she bought the book from there.  

I have always thought anything Japanese is just so beautiful in a way that I cannot describe.  It was this book covered in some kind of embossed silk, in the softest, prettiest pink you can imagine.  I say was because the book is no more (will get to that later).  She filled the book with photographs and information and stories... even my first lock of hair - these precious nuggets of my past which I would read over and over and over.  I can remember reading through it all the way back to when I must have been 7 years old.  And I continued to go through it even after I was married and would come to Jakarta for vacations.  I couldn't wait to be able to share it with my own children someday.  Unfortunately, somewhere in the many moves, it got misplaced about 12 years ago.  I can't tell you how heart-broken I was - so many memories lost.  And of course - this was waaaaaay before anything digital so definitely no back ups.  Still hurts. So that I guess is what gave me my start.  It helped of course that having two very creative parents I was always surrounded by 'things being made'.  What I mean by that is whether it was carpentry or painting or sewing - for as long as I can remember there was always something being 'created' around me. My father used to sew me the most magnificent dresses when I was a little girl.  How could I not get my hands into something creative myself?

That is a dress my father made for me.  Lousy photo I know... but the picture with my mother and I both wearing these matching dresses stitched by my father is lost with the book :( 

It was my Aunt Lakshmi who actually introduced me to all the beautiful, wonderful things available in the world of scrapbooking when we were on vacation together in Ottawa.  And that was it - I was like a kid in a candy store.  I was fresh from a holiday in Hawaii with an amazing stash of photos to be scrapped.  That was my first real scrapbook.  Very amateur but its still beautiful to me.  That was about 15 years ago and I have come a long way since then.  What I love most is that I am STILL learning new things - it hasn't gotten old yet!  Just like with all good things... the best is yet to come. Right?

Sincerely... Jenny

One down... some more to go!

Next month is my nephew's birthday and his scrapbook has been pending for a while now.  So I put aside some time to get it done and just managed to put it together last week.  He is such a little poser that I was lucky to have some amazing snapshots of him.  Having beautiful, hi-res photos makes it much easier and fun to work with.Here are a few sample pages from his book.  

I made a mock Wikipedia page about his birth.  Just like in my previous post I have a Twitter page, I like to include things that are reflective of this time in history.  Perhaps when these babies are older it will give them an insight into the time and place in history when they were born.  Things are moving at such a fast pace - I can't even imagine what their world will be like.  For my own sons I had collected newspaper clippings from Accra (my hometown) and Jakarta (where they were born) to include in the album. Even now, just 10 years later its fun for them them to look at those pages.

As we get caught up in the hustle-bustle of everyday life, there are so many things we forget to say to our children.  I know almost every parent looks back and thinks to themselves: "I never said 'I love you' enough." And trust me - no child tires of hearing it.  Scrapbooks are an avenue for us to remind them in different way just how much they are loved.  Many times we just aren't eloquent enough to express aptly in words what is in our heart.  I've found that scrapbooks allow me that.  And its there, in print for my child to pick up and read again and again and again.  One day they will be far from us but I know my words and sentiments are there for them. 

For babies my messages are about loving and being loved... and as they get older I like to slip in messages and bits of advice.  Things that they may read some day and reflect on. Little nuggets that keep them on the right road, that nourish their spirits, that let them know how incredibly magnificent they are.

Sincerely... Jenny

The Montessori Elevator Speech #34

Trevor Eissler of Montessori Madness (brilliant book) is hosting a Montessori elevator competition.  If you had just a single minute to tell someone about Montessori - what would you say.  I really want to put a video together but I am extremely camera shy... so I am thinking of another way to get my entry in.  But then... explain Montessori in a single minute? 60 seconds? How am I ever going to do that?  All you Montessorians out there - come on... give this a shot.  Here is one of my favorites so far...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRSBmkC1fgs

Sincerely... Jenny

My Hobby... my therapy

Scrapbooking has been a hobby of mine since the early nineties and I'd like to say I have improved a great deal from the days I started scrapping with the meagre supplies I could pull together in Accra.  I had to make do with wrapping paper mostly and even though my old scrapbooks pale in comparison with more recent ones, they are still so precious because of the memories they contain.  Flipping through them transports me to that time, that place, that feeling...  I've progressed now to hybrid scrapping - digital scrapbooking decorated with elements.  I believe scrapbooks are the best gifts. Over and over I see the boys pick up their scrapbooks. They love the little momentos and messages sprinkled through the pages.  I've made so many scrapbooks - for nieces, nephews, friends, cousins and there isn't anyone who doesn't cherish this gift.  More than anything - I feel lucky to be able to give the people I love something that will last forever.  I have family in every corner of the world - literally - which means that I don't get to see all of my nieces/nephews as often as I would like to.  I miss out on watching them grow up.  But putting a scrapbook together for someone, whether near or far puts me in touch with them in a beautifully special way.  I collect little tidbits of information about them, I spend hours, days, months going through their photos putting all of this together and to me - it feels like I am getting to spend time with them and know them... just a little bit more that I already do.  
My current project is a scrapbook for my niece in Kenya.  I'm on a deadline to get it done before the end of May and it is shaping up well.  
If you would like to have a look at some of my scrapbook pages click on the Scrapbook Gallery.  I have put up just a few samples for now but I will continue to upload more pictures regularly. I must admit, my pages will reflect the inspiration I have collected from fellow scrappers.

Sincerely... Jenny