Paws to Scrap

What the Flock?

Seriously! Is anybody home? Where is the woman who is supposed to "paws to scrap." Lately, she has not been "pawsing" or pausing at all. Not even a little tiny bit. It has seriously been a lot of running and running and running. My Monday to Friday job has been insanely busy. The stress of "changes to come" has left me feeling less than excited about doing much when I get home each night. There have been some added "volunteer" roles that required me to get up extremely early and yet didn't allow me to leave the office any earlier. The lack of sunshine has got me into my winter "I don't want to do a thing" mode.

I've been to the Big Apple twice in the last fifteen days . . . saw "Wicked" and caught a Rangers game just before the NHL had their Olympic break. I also saw the Lion King at the Bushnell. So while I've not been scrapbooking too much, I have been doing some other great things.

And I can't say that I haven't been creative, because I still have managed some class layouts for NESC, and have been working each month on the page challenge! Are you in on the page challenge? It is a great opportunity to get a page done using your own stash (you know, all those things you've bought and not used). And my idea flow has not stopped. So much to do . . . so little time!

My most creative venture in the last couple of weeks is flocking (that's flocking, folks . . . keep it clean). I flocked Oscar the Grouch for a class at NESC. If you've not flocked, you must consider it. What is flocking? Flocking is this great material that comes in little jars that makes your paper look like velvet or a little plush. It comes in great colors (NESC has Doodlebug Flock that comes in a great set of little jars). Trust me on this one folks . . . a little flock goes a long, long way.

Now . . . a little story! When I was a kid growing up in Ohio in the 60's (yes . . . the 60's) my mother wanted to flock her Christmas tree. I remember that she had the tree in the garage and bought a flocking kit. Some family friends came over and they flocked the tree. There was raucous laughter over the flocking of the tree. All of us kids were in watching Rudolph on television. We were young. We didn't understand. In my opinion, it was just a bunch of adults in the garage spraying all this chunky white stuff on the tree and waiting for it to dry. They talked about flocking a lot . . . and there was a great deal of laughter. I didn't see the humor. Fast forward to me at 48 years of age. I get it now. It was actually at some point this past holiday at a crop that I understood the laughter. My mother saying, "Norm is flocking our tree." takes on a whole new meaning when you're not in the first grade.

You can flock your paper, and while doing so in a group setting it makes for great conversation. People say things like . . .

• What the flock.
• Get the flock out of here.
• What are you flocking?
• Are you flocking?
• Did you flock?
• Get your flock on.

I have never heard so many grown women using the word flock in so many ways. So I challenge you all to flock! Get some flock and some paper and go flocking crazy people!

That's flock people . . . remember . . . keep it clean.