My girl

I took this self portrait of me and Kayleigh for fun one day. I've never had succes with these kinds of pictures - I always end up looking stupid and weird and my body looks awkward because I'm holding the camera, but I think this picture turned out okay.
And the nice thing about scrapbooking is, that even when the pictures aren't perfect you can still use them to tell at story. And for that, this picture works like a charm.
This layout is cased from Ali Edwards A designer's Eye for Scrapbooking. I have been reading her latest book A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper recently and have been inspired to use a lot of patterned papers but for this layout I reached back to the old book - but still used some patterned paper that I never would have thought of using before I read the second book. But it works - she's right!
Btw - I used the text paper from 7 Gypsies for the effect - but after finishing the layout I noticed that the quote beneath the picture fit the theme of going to miss staying home with Kayleigh: Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble there's no place like home. Nice how things sometimes work out on their own, huh?

Materials:

• Cardstock: Club Scrap To you with love
• Patterned paper: Gin-X (flowers) and 7 Gypsies (text)
• Font: American Garamond
• Ink: Versa Color Black

Journaling:

• English version: On January 5th 2007 a year had passed since we picked up Kayleigh at the kennel in Skanderbog. During that year I have been home with her almost every day. I have been working at Folkeuni a couple of days a week for part of that year and I have been away from home for other reasons of course, but for most of the time I have been home with her almost every day in this the first year we have had her - so she is a spoiled little puppy.
  But now the second year starts - and it's going to be a hard awakening for us both when I start my first full time job at Catering Engros on the 9th of January. I'm not quite sure whether she or I will take it the hardest.
  I'm going to miss our morning cuddling in bed when she jumps up as soon as Peder is out of the house and she lies on my blanket so I have to borrow some of Peder's. I'm going to miss having her follow me around the house no matter where I go and miss when I go down in the living room and she's lying asleep in the sofa, and miss when she comes into the office to me and puts her front paws on my thighs to say hello.
  And maybe not the first day but after a few days or weeks I'm going to miss how she stands on the sofa and barks of birds, cats, neighbours, the sky, the grass ... og just won't stop - and the combined energy and hysteria flips - and her growling-biting-barking periods where you just don't know what she's up to.
  Shortly said, I'm going to miss being together with her.
  
• Danish version:
  5. januar 2007 var det et år siden, vi hentede Kayleigh hos kennelen i Skanderborg. I det år har jeg stort set været hjemme hos hende hver dag. Jeg har arbejdet hos Folkeuni nogle dage om ugen noget af tiden, og jeg har selvfølgelig også været væk hjemmefra af andre grunde, men som udgangspunkt har jeg været hjemme ved hende stort set hver dag i dette det første år, vi har haft hende – så hun er en forkælet lille basse.
  Men nu starter det andet år – og det bliver en brat opvågen for os begge, når jeg starter mit første fuldtids-job den 9. januar hos Catering Engros. Jeg ved ikke helt, om det bliver hårdest for hende eller mig.
  Jeg kommer til at savne vores morgenputning i sengen, hvor hun hopper op, så snart Peder er ude af døren, og lægger sig midt på min dyne, så jeg er nødt til at låne noget af Peders. Jeg kommer til at savne at have hende til at følge mig rundt i huset, lige gyldig hvor jeg går hen og når jeg går ned i stuen og ser hende ligge og sove trygt i sofaen, og når hun kommer ind til mig på kontoret og sætter forpoterne på mit lår for at sige hej. Og måske ikke den første dag, men i løbet af få dage eller uger kommer jeg til at savne, når hun står på sofaen og gør af fugle, katte, naboer, himlen, græsset… og bare ikke vil holde op igen – og de kombinerede energi- og hysteri-flip – og knurre-bide-gø-perioderne, hvor man overhovedet ikke aner hvad hun har gang i.
  Kort sagt kommer jeg til at savne at være sammen med hende.
  (Selvportræt med Kayleigh taget 28/12-2006, journaling 6/1-2007)