Articles : Featured Guests

Meet ArmyWife95/Robin

January's Featured Guest

This month's featured guest is Robin (aka ArmyWife95) .  She is a regular on the message boards and in the galleries so I am sure most of you are already familiar with her.  Join me in getting to know her a little bit better and welcoming her as our featured guest for the month of January.

Here's a gorgeous layout all about her:

Tell us about yourself.

As you can see, from the All About Me layout, I am Robin Renee' Zajac and I currently reside in Maryland.  I am 38 years old.  I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend.  I consider myself to be very loyal and generous.

I love, love, love coffee, chocolate (especially with peanut butter), junk food, scrappin', visiting with friends & family, watching romantic comedies and reading.  I didn't include it on the All About Me layout, but I watch a lot of TV too.  I can tell you the time just by when things come on in the evening.  This is sad, I know, and this is why I can't get all the scrappin' done that I would like.  However, part of goals for this year, don't watch so much TV!

I am married to a wonderful man, most of the time, Tim.  We have been married 13 1/2 years.  He is from Chicago, where he would like to move back some day (will see), Irish Catholic and an Army officer, which I am very proud of, thus my screen name.  He is the most happy-go-lucky person I know.

How long have you been scrapbooking and what got you started?

I've been scrapbooking for about 10 years and what really got me started was the birth of my son.  It's a novel in itself, but let's just say, I wanted to capture all the moments of his birth, especially since we didn't know if he would make it or not.

He did make it and now Aaron is a happy, healthy, high-functioning autistic kid that is 10 1/2 years old!  He enjoys all the same things as other kids his age, soccer, chess club, boy scouts, catholic classes, homework club and some sort of TV crew thing at school.  He is in regular education classes and he makes mostly A's, with some B's and C's.  Tim and I are very proud of him.  He has really come a long way.

What inspires you?

I have always been inspired by the layouts, cards and crafts that I see in our gallery.  Fabulous works in our gallery and just so much talent here.  Really it's just incredible!  However, lately I have seen inspiration in other things, such as ads in a magazine or just the way the magazine has placed a certain item.  Of course, I'm inspired to scrapbook because I want my son to be able to see what things were like or what activities we did when he was growing up.  Hopefully, I'll get to scrapbook my childhood stuff too!

How do your family and friends feel about your scrapbooking?

My immediate family, Tim and Aaron, know that I love to scrapbook and they accept that is my hobby.  Tim even bought me an ACOT gift card for Christmas.  I'm so excited!  Even though he says the scrapbook room is a fire hazard!  He has gotten past it, I think.  The rest of my family, well, some know and don't care and some just don't know.  Although, I did find out at a family reunion that one of my second cousins scrapbooks as well!  I haven't had a chance to compare notes, and styles and all that stuff, but I'll get to it eventually.

How long have you been a member of the ACOT community and how did you find the site?

I have been here at ACOT since March of 2006.  I can't really remember how I stumbled across the site, but I think I was looking for others that scrapbooked, so that I could socialize with fellow scrapbookers and go to fun crops!  We've been here in Maryland since July of 2005 and I have only my friends here at ACOT and the only crops I've been to are the online crops here at A Cherry On Top.  I hope people here know how much they mean to me and this is a great outlet for me to socialize.  I consider A Cherry On Top message board participants like family!

Do you have a favorite manufacturer/product line?

Man, I feel like I've already written a novel!  (ha ha)  OK, for the favorite manufacturer, I would have to say that I love Rusty Pickle.  I have no clue what attracts me this manufacturer, but I just love it.  I also love Dream Street!  They really have some beautiful papers. 

What scrapbooking item can’t you live without?

As for my favorite scrapbooking item, I'd have to say, I love chipboard, rhinestones, ribbons and lots of letters for titles, but it really comes down to basics...I have to have my trimmer, whether to use for cropping pictures or cutting strips of paper for layering.

How would you define your style?

My style is, I don't know, whatever to takes to get the look and feel I want.  I love to try to layer, but this technique is certainly not as easy as it looks.  I also have tried to use floral type paper and cut certain areas, but that too is not as easy as it looks.  I just try my best and try to always remember, it only matters that you like it and not everyone else.

Thanks so much, Robin, for sharing so much with us and for being such a great memeber of the ACOT community. 

Published on 01/14/2009.