Project Life | Week Three

I know, I know . . . I never got last weeks (and the previous week's post) up. I did complete the Project Life pages for those weeks (and even finished 2011's album) last week, but by the time I finished, it was Wednesday and when I tried to upload images from my hard drive, my security settings shut down my internet browser and I never made it back in to finish. Does anyone else have these issues with blogger and pulling images off your hard drive? Maybe I should be uploading to flickr first and then pull the images to my blog from there. All I know is part of my issue with blogging is stemming from the fact that uploading pictures to my blogger account has become a pain in the you-know-what!

Without further delay, here is my Week 3. It was very simple and I've started using a lot of instagram images which I love including in my album.

Warm weather, quick dinner, daughter dressed up for a class debate, and my youngest at the computer and eating lunch on their holiday from school (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

Another thing I'm doing this year is leaving the 4x6 images and inserts as 90 degree angles. No corner punching for me hopefully will make this process a little quicker. PLUS, I was liking the way it looked when I viewed other layouts from other people completing the project.

 

Love the shots I'm able to include from my daughter and texts in my Project Life. I have never taken a photo of my camera until now, so I HAD to include that. Friday night was seeing Wicked. The tangled parachute guys were what I worked on for an hour after my kids had gone to bed. On top of my Project Life album that sits open on the hall table near my kitchen and laundry room and boys' bedrooms. Love that I captured that type of "event" this week.

I printed my instagram images at 2.25 inches square this week. Last week I had gone with 2.75 but that was almost to wide to fit in the smaller journaling pockets, let alone mount them on journaling cards/scrap paper. I do still use full images in the journal pockets sometimes, but I didn't this week. I took two of the smaller 2.75x3.75 images and put them together in a 4x6 pocket from our Girls Night Out to see Wicked. Paislee Press has a few 4x6 photo templates so that you can quickly drag and drop images into PSE (or Photoshop) and resize and crop them. I used these for the images that were NOT instagram photos.

There ya have it: Week Three in review! (and I got it done on Tuesday too!!)



Happy New Year!!

Hi again! I've missed you. I'm here, again. I went through many months of turmoil in my home over the past year. We planned a kitchen remodel, and about halfway through, the contractor stopped doing what he promised and we had to fire him . . . leaving me to finish the project. It was fun, but it would have been more fun if I just did it myself from the beginning. Ah, lessons learned, right? Anyhow, we now have a beautiful kitchen to show for the 5 months of chaos that enveloped our home.

We had a few friends over for New Year's Eve - and Kristen had quite a few friends over for New Year's Eve. We made good use of our new space and I REALLY do enjoy it!

Ed's Dad has taken a steady decline in his health. It's hard, and it's sad to see him like this . . . he's been helping his mom get all kinds of financial issues taken care of and her Will drawn up as well as her Power of Attorney, etc. in case anything were to happen to her.

I've not scrapbooked in well over 6 months except for Project Life. This year, I'm recommitting to participating in Project Life Tuesdays. I really should have last week done already, but I will complete it today and post again once it's done. I'm holding myself accountable. I've signed up to take Stacy's TWELVE. class - it's AMAZING! As well as Round Up Your Memories, Move More Eat Well, and One Little Word (though I still don't have my word yet . . .  it just hasn't spoken to me. There are a few I'm contemplating though. Hopefully a decision can be made in my heart before mid-month!)

Oh yes, and through the process of it all . . . we bought my daughter a brand new 2012 Civic for her first car, and because of the subcontractors using our driveway, my daughter had to park in the road one night. The next morning just before 8 am, her car is hit.

This was in early October . . . and yes, while I'm thankful no one was hurt, I was FURIOUS at the irresponsibility of this young driver (she's 18 and lives at home) and her parents (because daddy owns the car even though she's on seperate insurance). It doesn't look too bad until you realize that my daughter's car was not parked in front of our driveway. It was in fact, about 15 feet further back and the VW bug pushed it over it's car length. The driver didn't have enough insurance to cover repair or replacement, so we went through our insurance policy, which totaled our car that was less than four months old . . . and we had to find a new one for our innocent daughter. At any rate, by the end of October, we had purchased her a second car within a six month period. sigh . . .

So, again, I have missed YOU. I will be back TODAY! I need to do a December 2011 Monthly Roundup as well as share my Week 1 Project Life 2012 with you!!

My Wish for You

Registration for the "new" Library of Memories from Stacy Julian - FINDING PHOTO FREEDOM - is now live. Go now - quickly - and register for the updated class!

Stacy has a little information here and a lot of information here. All in all, this has the same content, just given to you a little (okay, maybe a lot) differently than previous LOM sessions, for about $20 less than previous LOM sessions!

I can honestly say if it weren't for adapting my own Library of Memories system from the 2007 class, I would not be scrapbooking today. I was worn out with the time-wasting of looking for the right photos, of having big gaps in my chronological albums, and struggling to "keep up" when my kids were younger. With Library of Memories, I'm now stress-free in my scrapbooking. I'm always able to find a photo that will work for the story I want to tell, and I have FUN! I have a system and processes that keep me on the right track even when I've let those systems slide every once in a while.

My wish for you, if you are feeling overwhelmed with all the projects you want to complete, photos you want to scrapbook, and all the stories you want to tell, is that you'll sign up for this class and experience the freedom with your photos that this class can bring! Give this gift to yourself and to your family! :)

And the really fabulous thing? Stacy is allowing ALL alumni to register for this class for FREE using a code based on the year you first took LOM. Everyone who has ever signed up for LOM - even if it was in 2006 - can take this class for FREE and have it in your "forever access" account! You should have received an email from BPC by now with the link and codes. If you haven't received this email yet (and you've checked your spam folder) you should get in touch with BPC through admin (at) bigpictureclasses (dot) com.

I can't wait to see you all there in another month!

The Little Things

have been playing a really big role in my life right now.
I'm sorry I didn't give you, my loyal readers, a heads up before taking a blogging break, but I felt the need to get some things re-prioritized in my life and blogging took a back seat.

This picture cracked me up and tugged at my heartstrings at the same time. The dolphins had all been away from the window, looking at the people who had a private tour on the other side (by the far wall) and my son went up to the class and started rubbing it. A dolphin (this dolphin) saw him I guess and left the other group and came over to the window. Next thing I know, he's swimming by and it looks like my son was giving him a rub-down. Then another one or two cam over to visit.

I've been:

• cleaning and decluttering - paper files, my closet, our home
• scrapbooking
• helping my daughter work on "campaign" goodies for her Jr. Class officer elections
• going on trips and hanging out with my kids over their spring break
• shopping for a new car
• teaching my daughter more driving skills before she takes her test (taken on April 15 and passed)
• completing taxes
• driving the kids to soccer practices
• going to the gym a few days a week, working with my personal trainer two of those days (and she kicks my butt)
• keeping up with Project Life

Thank you so much for hanging in there with me . . . I think I'll be back for a while, so I hope you'll come back and visit soon. And see over to the top right column? There's a google friend connection if you want to click on that and you'll be able to see any of my new posts in your reader or when you log into your blogger account.

I hope you're having a glorious spring if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, and that you're enjoying all Fall has to offer you if you're in the Southern! :)

~a

Close To My Heart Blog Sale *Updated with Pictures*

Hi everyone!!

Many of you may know that I was once a Close To My Heart Consultant. I had been a consultant since 2002, and over those last eight years, accumulated quite a stash of product. However, I rarely stamped and that's part of the reason I'm no longer a consultant. I'm passing along to you an opportunity to get some very gently used (if ever used) acrylic stamps and other CTMH accessories at about 40% off retail.
 
Below is a slideshow that will take you to my Flickr Set of CTMH stamps for sale. The price is listed in the description and we can combine shipping. Shipping will be figured once we know what you're purchasing and where it's going, but I've found that shipping Flat Rate Priority usually makes the most sense. Please email me at (april290 at gmail dot com) or leave a comment here on this post with your contact information if you'd like to chat further.

I also have many sheets of cardstock that I'm willing to let go at .25 a sheet. If there are specific colors you'd like me to look for, just ask. I had just about all colors with the new additions of Tulip, Creme Brulee, and the other two - NOT the most recent new colors just released this past fall (2010) but I'm only getting rid of what I feel I have a surplus of (a lot of fall and spring colors) and only a handful of the others.


NOT PICTURED:
Eyelet Case Organizer $10.00

Z4200 Accessories Organizer $5.00
Hole Punch (long reach (6") $3.00





Again, please don't hesitate to ask any questions!

And We Have a Winner!!!

Thanks to random.org and their random number generator, I entered numbers 1-22 and ended up with LUCKY number 13!! HEATHER at Artist-in-Residence!! Heather, please send me an email with your mailing address to april290 at gmail dot com and I'll get your package of goodies in the mail to you!

If any of you happen to be fans of Close To My Heart products (or acrylic stamps in general), feel free to come by tomorrow as I'll be starting to clear some stash as a former consultant. Mainly stamps, but some other items as well . . . things that I'm just not going to use and I've finally accepted. Everything will be at least 40% off retail!! The best way to know when it's been posted is to either follow my blog over to the side or subscribe to the RSS feed in something like Google Reader; or follow me on Twitter as I have my blog set to post updates there too!

Happy Friday everyone!! May you have a crafty weekend!!

Project Life Tuesday (on Tuesday this time!) Week 4

***PLEASE NOTE: If you're looking for the One Little Word BLOG HOP, it's the next post down*** 

This week I kept to more photos then journaling. I enjoy the ability to go with the flow and do what I want each week. This week, you find a few pictures from the same day, and instead of feeling like I had to have a seperate journal spot for each day of the week, I just put multiple days on a tag. There were some things I left out, I'm afraid, but I did get the highlights. My daughter became quickly overwhelmed by Ikea. I was in heaven . . . the little things like that got left out . . . but maybe that should signal to me to do a seperate layout on that topic. I am not one who wants this scrapbook to become my only scrapbook this year, so I'm not adding a bunch of pages in. I figure if I want to expand on something, then I should make a layout and put it in our family album. I want Project Life to be one part of the great big whole. Now, if I could just find that time I keep talking about . . . so I CAN do those stories. Hopefully PL will serve as a springboard of ideas when I have some down time; and if nothing else, if I can keep up blogging about Project Life every Tuesday, maybe the stories will at least be here.


Here's Week 4:

Saturday, my daughter headed out to a friend's 16 birthday party. We finally took down the Christmas tree and then headed out to dinner with the boys to O'Charleys. Matthew got the usual chicken tenders with fries, Lance got the usual Mac and Cheese with Baked Cheetos. Sunday consisted of Monkey Bread for breakfast, building Star Wars lego ships and hanging out watching a few movies. Monday found everyone ready to go back to school., Tuesday Matthew finally sat down to get busy on his homework on the back patio, and Wednesday Lance ended up sick. Soccer (3v3) for Matthew was cancelled because of the nasty field conditions brought on by all the rain (on Monday and Tuesday). Maybe that's why there's not many photos of those two days? Wednesday I also missed the gym since Lance was home (and would be through Friday). Kristen was a huge help with getting Matthew ready for more Academy evaluations. On Friday, Matthew decided he'd show me how pleased he was with my choice to pick up some Extreme Pizza flavored Goldfish. What I didn't get a picture of on Friday was the fact that we ended up with two hours notice that Gavin's birthday party would be celebrated that evening . . . so off to Target all of us went (we were under the impression that his party would not be until February 5th) and barely made it home by 5 to get the boys there. Ed and I then went to Kirklands and grabbed pizza on the way home for everyone. 

I didn't even add any pull-out journaling this week and as you can see, many details were left out. I do have a receipt stuffed behind one spot, and in another pocket is the slideshow printout from the Open House FCAT presentation I went to on Monday night. I'm very sad that I have virtually no pictures of my husband in this album (except for Week 1 when he was working from home). At this point in the year, he is barely here, and his busy month just finished. We have some time together at home for a bit (unless some great big project for him pops up) and I need to be sure and grab some pictures of him - alone, with the kids, or the whole family. SO SO grateful that Project Life helps me to see that NOW, instead of six months from now when this time has already gone and things may have changed.