Good god, she scrapbooked! In an effort to keep myself occupied while being sick (when we came back from Granite Mountain I had a fever, all sorts of stuffy head cavities, and a sore throat. Lame.), I decided to tackle our Enchantments photos.

I’ve come to three conclusions about my scrapbooking lately:

1) I want to get back to making really simple layouts. I want the photos to take center stage, especially on the hiking pages. I just have this vision of looking through my album ten years from now and thinking that all the embellishments and frilly things are ugly (my perfectionism and general self-loathing will combine to ensure that this will happen). Less is more and all that.

2) Even though my pages will be simple, they need some sort of finishing touch. I really need to work on this. Maybe I’ll use this depressive downtime to learn how to use my sewing machine on paper; I love that look. Maybe I should learn to use my sewing machine in general. Hm.

3) There are way too many photos I want to include in my album (and limits to how many layouts one can make from one event), so I’ll jump on the bandwagon and use different sizes of page protectors and even divided protectors to add regular 4×6 photos.

On to the layouts!

I bought different sizes of page protectors to use in Cathy Zielske’s class, so I made a 6×6 collage of extra photos that I wanted to add - I really like the look of the different sizes together. Might add more, especially of the beautiful Upper Enchantments…*sigh*

For this one I wasn’t going to add a title at all (it’s kind of an extension of the other layout), but then I realized that this transparent title from the September CK KOTM fit perfectly over the journaling. Destination doesn’t really make sense as a title here, but it kind of works anyway. And it’s so cool and transparent. I mean, come on!

I have officially reached a new level of rambleness. Speaking of rambling and not being able to construct simple sentences, everyone must remember to watch the Vice Presidential debate tonight - it’s bound to be hilarious (in a sad, sad, really scary way)…

Sometimes there is so much you want to say but you just can’t seem to find words that will do your adventure justice. Last week we spent four days backpacking in the Enchantments, and I have no idea how to describe it. The word perfect comes to mind…In lieu of words, I’ll let our photos do the talking:

Conclusion #1: the Enchantments = heaven on earth

Conclusion #2: I love multi-day backpacking and want to go on some longer trips next year

Conclusion #3: I have a slightly disturbing love (fetish?) for alpine lakes

The weather this weekend was fantastic. We celebrated by going on my favorite dayhike so far - to beautiful Colchuck Lake (near the creepy faux-Bavarian town of Leavenworth):

See that pass on the left side of Dragontail Peak? That’s Aasgard Pass, and we have to hike up that thing in order to get to the Enchantments in September. JK could probably run up it right now if he wanted to; I have yet to see him winded on a hike. I, on the other hand, will have to devise some sort of evil, rigorous training plan in order to even entertain the thought of making it to the top (with energy to spare to explore the Enchantments and, horror of horrors, get back down again - all without coughing up a lung).

(By the way, the reason this hike was snow-free (even though it is over 2,000 feet higher than where we went last weekend) is because it is located on the magical, happy, sunny eastern side of the Cascades. But since they also have rattlesnakes and ticks galore, so I would rather live here on the we(s)tside.)

Nothing more exciting to share. I’ve been feeling under the weather and what was left of my scrapbooking mojo has disappeared. Methinks a trip to Norway without access to paper, photos or glue might be just what I need…