..:: currently ::..

 

Currently, I am...

appreciating the geese that fly over every evening.

thankful for my mother.  She is wise and kind.

excited about the rug she made for my literacy room at school.  I cannot wait until I get it (you know I will share pictures).  She made it to match my awesome table.  :-)

frustrated with pacifiers, potty training, and sleeping issues. We think B. is going through a growth spurt.  It actually looks like she has grown the last few weeks, but also her sleeping and eating patterns are changing.  Those changes are causing growing pains around here (and circles under our eyes).  Will she figure out care about this potty training thing...EVER?  She can...but she doesn't.  Argh.

amazed that we will be registering B. for four-year-old preschool soon.  YIKES.  Not ready for that.

remembering when my older daughter, H. was three and a half, seems like just yesterday, but it was twenty-one years ago.  She didn't have the pacifier or potty training problems...but oh the sleeping! :-)

spending way too much time getting to know my bathroom lately (but feeling better now).

appreciating snow days with B.

anticipating spring, but thankful for right now. Snow. If it has to be cold, I love the snow.  I love B. in the snow. I love the magic of a new snow. My One True Love doesn't really like the shoveling part.  I appreciate his shoveling.

loving my Soul Mate more than ever.

wishing we could figure out this moving thing.

experimenting with my camera and Photoshop again.  I'm feeling like I'm getting in the groove with my 365 project!

playing with a new iPhone app (Vine).

satisfied with my progress toward my Pinterest Challenge and Layout Mission.

finishing the January prompt for Ali Edward's One Little Word class.

enjoying this prompt. So. Much.

excited for the OLW blog hop tomorrow!  Join us!

project life :: week 3

Week 3 spread without insert

Holy catbirds, Batman! The weeks just keep flying by!

with insert, front

with insert back

Another insert this week!  This time I used an American Crafts 12x6 page protector, and stitched it a bit so I had an 8x6 spot and 4x6 spot.  Mainly I wanted to add this awesome drawing of my daughter's, along with a photograph that I snapped while she was drawing it.  :-)  Journaling reads: "I love that she draws in her art journal.  I love that she drew Africa.  I didn't even know she knew the word Africa." (and then on the photo at the bottom) "Why does she keep growing?"  For this journaling I used some fun striped washi (that I'm pretty sure is Recollections), and then cut some white strips of paper to write on.  For a little added fun, I trimmed the white strips so that one end looked like a banner.  Journaling this way is my favorite because I can mess up and easily fix it!

I needed something for the other side of the insert. I had taken several photographs of B. taking photos with her pink camera.  I had a difficult time deciding on which one to add to the book, so I grabbed a second one and cropped it 12x6.  I don't have a printer that prints that size, so cropped that photo into two photos (8x6 and 4x6) so I could print them (and I needed to use them as that size anyway). FUN!  The related photo is right beside the insert, so I put some fun arrow Washi that I got in my January Scrapbook Circle kit, across the top of the big photo, pointing toward the second photo.  I felt like that tied it together a bit.

This week I also wanted to add just ONE MORE photo for Saturday, so I made an extra pocket using these self-stick photo flip pockets.  I did need to alter it a little bit, but mostly it worked really well, and you may see that technique pop up in future weeks!

flip pocket closed

flip pocket inside

This is such an enjoyable project. It is so awesome that I now have a place to put the photos that I take and I love being able to stick in things like her art work! So far, I think that is one of the best parts of this project.  I was recently cleaning out some "stuff" and I just kept thinking, "Wow, I wish I had done project life [insert year here] because this would have gone in the book, now what am I going to do with it?" Plus, there have already been stories that I've documented that may or may not have made it in to a traditional scrapbook layout. Awesome.

Coming soon : OLW Blog Hop on Friday (yay) and 'Week Four of Project Life (guess what?...there's an insert)!

:: layout mission | January ::

Last week I told you about My Pinterest Challenge to myself, this week I'd like to let you in on another one of my goals.  I hope to do at least two layouts a month, not counting Project Life or One Little Word prompts.  For those of you that do two or more a day (or an hour), I know that you are thinking, "Uhh...loser!"  LOL, but I am afraid that I will no longer do layouts because of Project Life, so I had to start with a goal and go from there.  If I surpass it, no problem!  

My layout mission :  In addition to OLW prompts and weekly PL spreads, I challenge myself to complete at least two traditional layouts per month.

Both of these layouts I'm going to share with you today were made almost exclusively with January's Scrapbook Circle kit -- Only You (as you will see there's a bunch of Crate Paper's Fourteen Collection included in this kit!).  I added some washi, some flair from A Flair for Buttons (and one from American Crafts, I think), and of course some alphas.  This first one was a photograph that I took when I woke up one morning.  My phone is always right beside my bed so I grabbed it when I saw felt this:

I kept this one pretty simple (didn't even use my sewing machine or any washi on this one), but I like the way it turned out.  Journaling reads : "On Mother's Day I woke up to this hug and a little voice saying Come Here You".  It's a true story, yo -- she is that awesome!

I raised the "YOU" (Fancy Pants) with foam squares and placed a card from my Seafoam PL kit behind it (actually, I think this is one that I printed out from the digital kit, but didn't use...until now).  I traced around the inside of the card to add a bit of depth.  I used Ashley Horton's sketch for the Sketch It Out Challenge at ClubCK, and the twist for this month is "Outlining" (just another reason to trace around the inside of that card)!  Here's the sketch:

For my second layout, still using Scrapbook Circle's great January kit, I chose a couple of photos from June 2011.  I take TONS of photos of my daughter B. (if you follow me on instagram or facebook, heck, or even this blog, you already know this), but I don't take nearly as many of my best friend, and even fewer of myself.  The day that I took these photos (also my iPhone) he had brought one of his electric guitars outside, but still plugged in (you can see that the door to the house is behind him) and was playing.  It was nice out, B. was playing, and apparently needed an electric guitar as background music.  I so love these moments.  

I decided that I would scraplift myself for this one. I started out with this layout as inspiration, but then it kinda morphed into using this one.  I love the colors in this one!  I like the pop of yellow, and how it brings out the gold guitar.

I used arrows for the Scrapbook Circle "Make your Point" Challenge (Studio Calico Vellum ones -- from the kit -- and also some Amy Tan from my stash).

My favorite alphas right now are pretty much any of the 12x12 abc stickers from Lily Bee Design.  I believe these come from the Picket Fence Collection, but I've purchased about as many of these different sheets as possible, I love them!  I've used them a lot for PL, they are the perfect size.  I used DIY Thickers for "Soul Mate", and misted them with Mister Huey's "taxi" mist and then secured them with a little stitching, just in case).

I think the camera flair is American Crafts I think, and the arrow fair (as well as the one in the top left corner) is from A Flair for Buttons (love Shelley's flair).  The "inspired" sticker is Amy Tangerine (also love).

I must be into foam squares this month.  I decided that one of the photos needed to be lifted for a little dimension.

January Layout Mission: Accomplished!

Peace, love and understanding to ya!
:-) o.g.