:: around here ::

around here | I've caught the planner bug. I've always been and planner and list maker -- and now I get to be creative in the process.  In October I preordered a Color Crush Planner from Webster's Pages.  It arrived last week and I love it.  I will be sharing more throughout the year.

around here | I found the best weather app ever!

around here | The first snowstorm of 2015 has arrived.

around here | I purchased several toe separators from The Dollar Tree -- everything's a dollar.  In fact, they came 2 for a dollar!  Never did they (or will they) touch a toe, however! I've used them to store my bobbins.  It keeps them secure, and you can see just enough of the color when you look at it from the top that it's perfect!

around here |  organizing, organizing, organizing.

around here | Everyone is coming out with new releases for CHA. I keep buying all the things!

around here |  Making lots of things!  Gelli printing, mini book making, and oh, so much to share.

around here |  Grandma B. had a milestone birthday this week.

around here | New year, new goals, new OLW, new start to a 365, and did I mention organizing?

44 by forty-four

In April I shared this post with you. Since that post I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff!

But I'm still overwhelmed with how much I have left to tackle!  YIKES!  This is the longest I've lived in one house (11 years this fall) and I think maybe that's part of it (I'm not a hoarder, I'm not a hoarder, I'm not a hoarder, except maybe pretty papers).

So far:

• socks (see my last post) = 2 bags
• a few items from the storage closet either thrown or given away = 2 bags
• Bea's closet is now free of all items (that were hanging) that are too small (given away or sold) = 4 bags
• de-stashing my studio (and organizing my embellishments  & alphas by color!) = 4 bags
  
• the stuff hanging in my closet is free of things that I won't wear AND in proper RoyG. BIV order! = 5 bags

Total =  17 bags (nearly 40% there!)

The good/bad news is that I still have plenty of places to get the rest of that 60%, and meet my goal of 44 bags by the time I turn forty-four in October!  The storage closet is horrific, and my bedroom needs some work (to name a couple places).  With just a few weeks of summer left -- I need to get busy!  :-)

I will be sharing a bunch of Project Life posts over the next few days!  Please come back and check it out!

:: project life notebook ::

In December I shared this post, and the notebook that I would try out for the first few months of 2014.  This is my finding:

I think it would be difficult for me to do this whole project, without it!

Since the first planner went only through April, I've made my second.  The inside looks very similar to my first one -- and I used  Traci Reed's template again --  so I'll just share how I did the cover! I am super happy with it!

It all started with a bunch of random washi tape on white card stock:

You know when you are working on a project using washi tape, and there are parts that aren't used -- like you grab too much off the roll, or you change your mind or whatever?  Well, if I remember, I stick it on card stock.  When I have enough, I seal it with Matte Medium or Mod Podge or something similar (I use this).  For this project,  I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out some butterflies from this paper for my flowers.

To prep my planner, I used Matte Multi-Medium to adhere some old piano music to my covers for a background (I used a heavy chipboard for my covers). Then I went over the music with some gesso, mostly to make it a bit more subtle. I used some orange, red, and yellow tissue paper on paper torn out of a book (adhered with more Matte Medium) for the vase. I drew some lines for the "stems" and then added the butterfly flowers  ALL of that was applied to the background with more matte multi-medium to seal it all.  I went back and outlined it all with a black pen, and then distressed the edges of the book with some brown ink (StazOn) and my Tim Holtz blending tool. This was so much fun to make.  I love it when you make something and it turns out pretty much like the vision in your head!

I am in the middle of LOAD (LayOut A Day) and playing catch up with project life (I am pretty much done through April, but very behind with my sharing!). This time of year is so busy at work, so I'll only be sharing here now and again. Then I hope to be able to share more regularly again this summer!  Eighteen school days left!  :-)

I am using LOAD to work on Bea's first year of life.  Before May I had only one page of her first year!  YIKES! Here are a few sneaky sneaks.  I will share the full layouts soon!

:: project life organization for 2014 ::

I'm back with a look at how I'm organizing for Project Life  2014. Have you heard of Traci Reed? She is pretty awesome!  I found an totally rad calendar/planner that she designed to help her organize for project life (for more information, click the photo to the right and keep reading)! I downloaded her work and quickly set out to make a planner that works for me.  It took a little editing in photoshop (since my weeks are going Wed-Tues.), but it wasn't too long before I was off and running!

I decided to make three planners this year, but I started with just one -- just in case this doesn't end up working for me!  I made this very similar to how I have made some journals in the past; chip board, card stock/patterned paper, and the cinch, that magical cinch.  Best recent tool purchase. Below are a few photos of my planner (with a bit of supportive text)!

I chose to have my weeks go from Wednesday to Tuesday this year (since the first is on Wednesday). My thinking is that I will have several days to complete the week (and photograph my LOs) before my goal of posting on Sunday. Yep, I set a goal to post all my PL layouts this year. I'm hoping this will give myself some accountability to complete!  We'll see how that works (I hope it works better than New Year resolutions that involve tread mills).  

I hope this journal and goal setting thing works for me.  As I mentioned in my last post, I am totally OK with missing weeks throughout 2013. But wouldn't it be magic if I could complete 2014? I think so. I will continue to use the momento app that I talked about in this post to help me out! It is a must have!

I'll be back soon with a post that includes my title page for PL 2014 (and maybe another DD update)! Hope you all had a Magical & Merry Christmas!


UPDATE 5.12.14 -- I've now used this notebook for four months -- check out this update.