Grapes, Coffee, Lazy Day

Grapes, yes! It is grape season in California and Cal brought some home from the market yesterday. They've been in the fridge - cold, crisp, delicious. Love them. I've always liked grapes. I need to scrap a page about being on the wooden swing in my Grandmere's back yard and plucking those tangy Concord grapes off the vine that grew up over the swing. Great memory. i have wonderful memories of both grandparent's houses. I figure those type of memories are common for folk but mine of course are specific to my grandparents. Concord grapes, raspberries and strawberries, high bush cranberries for jelly and of course my grandpere's homemade bread. Baba made perogies and holuppchi and I remember picking beans and cucumbers and all her jars of canned food near the coal bins in the cellar.

Today is National coffee day and I do love good coffee. I've had my Kreuig coffee maker break down but the company is very good about replacements. The taste of my fresh brewed Columbian is delicious. I have devoted a few scrap pages to this love of mine in the past so no more for now.

Still in my jammies. Cal is off golfing. Slept in and having a slow start to my day. Love late summer, early fall, not a fan of winter but spring comes early here and maybe I can take a trip down to South America for Carnivale!

I wrote a reply to the recent PRT episode http://www.paperclipping.com/prt085-the-many-faces-of-neutral/ about neutrals. (If you came here from there I guess you can stop reading now, LOL!)

Funny how I opened my Martha Stewart Living for September to page 150 randomly to page 150 and there is a decorating article on painting the edges of doors a bright accent color. "A vivid pink or citrus stripe is also easily tempered by a neutral base color such as gray, or a deep shade such as indigo." So, it is a trend to use a base of something low key with more vibrant in home decor and fashion as well as scrapbook pages. You'll note that Martha did not refer to navy (deep indigo) as a neutral. I agree with May (Flaum) - a staple, a classic, not a neutral. Love the color combos that went with this magazine article a magenta (hot lips by Benjamin Moore) paired with a medium warm gray (cement gray, MS); Mimosa by MS paired with Navy (Hudson Bay by Benjamin Moore) and a luscious gold called Melon from MS paired with a light cool gray (Elephant's breath by Farrow-Ball). All great inspiration for pages. 

Kayleigh Wiles often uses a gray base to her scrapbook pages. (Beautiful!)

I think that stores are getting more tuned into what their individual market really is, basically what sells in their store. After all, the economy is bad and the LSS that are surviving are the ones who have figured out what works in their market. My LSS (local scrap book store) has a large altered arts section and they do have a card section but still carry a huge amount of traditional scrap products (very up-to-date merchandise) in beautifully arranged displays. Product moves at Green Tangerines, you cannot count on some things being re-ordered. They know their customers like the latest and greatest.

As to white, it looks fresh and modern without the sticker sneeze. It's popular among fans of Karen Grunberg, who almost doesn't use anything but white card stock as her base.

I think scrapbooking follows color and fashion trends. Indigo and denim blues and black are emerging as basics.There is a trend to realism in color, a lot of talk of authenticity and soft romantic realism. Tree and grass green, rustic red and earthy oranges, earth colored neutrals like sediment grey, camel, and khaki. Yellows tend to be gold or mimosa. It will be interesting to see how these trends get interpreted in scrapbook products. Honest is a word I've seen a lot in fashion and design. Interesting! (at least to me). I think there is always a place for themed patterned papers. I just think as scrappers get more into the art of their hobby they are not always used quite like in the past. Those papers do help reinforce themes. Sugartree makes a huge line of just themed papers. They are available at a lot of places on-line (just not at the store that the Sugartree site links to, interestingly enough).

Of course, one has to find the style one is comfortable with. Like Christine (Urias), I'm rather into patterned paper and more patterned paper. And texture, texture is important to me. We are influenced by trends, though. After all, trends determine the products available to us. Maybe why I like Canvas Corp products. The trend is the authentic neutrals like the canvas and chalkboard. Of course, those have the texture I love.

I did like Nancy's (Nally) comment about using anything and Christine's about making things your own. Of course, with stamps and mediums we can transform so much. I think the recent pairing of companies like the Color Connection with Prima, Tattered Angels and Pink Paislee speak to manufacturers recognizing our interest in making our products more useful for any project.

I laughed about the discussion about the Eiffel tower. Now, I HAVE been to Paris so I adore the abundance of this theme that helps me scrap in a "thematic" manner, LOL!

As always, adore the picks. Some like the Heat Tool and the Mistables that I use already and the digi papers and buttons that I will surely buy!

Thanks for PRT, always a fun spot to my week!

So, off to take photos after I get presentable and check up on Joe. Funny ("peculiar, not Ha Ha" -yes, I loved Enid Blyton when I was a child), I was at Pilates and my trainer, Robyn, noted how the tension in my neck increased dramatically as I spoke of my frustrations with him. Oops, I'm trying to NOT have my neuropathy progress. Oh, well, being a Mom is hard!