Week in the Life

I started a new project. It's called Week in the Life. I follow Ali Edwards' blog and I love how she has developed these systems that are easy to work into daily life. I used to be a 12x12 scrapbooker, but I just couldn't find the time to think about design, layout, etc. It was just a lot to think about so I was more than excited to find Ali in the blogosphere. :)

Week in the Life carries the Project Life concept of simply filling in pockets with pre-sized photos, journaling cards or filler cards except it looks at the more routine-ish stuff in your day. In my case, you will probably see a lot of photos of my craft room, the projects I am working on, photos of my hand while I sew, or paint swatches because this is me, and this is how my days go. I spend most of my days creating or imagining or planning if I am not with my Aunt Betty.  [the beauty of not having children... yet! is there is a lot of time to spend on creativity and such!]

I started last week. I downloaded and printed the daily sheets pdf. It's free so print away. And I went to town with all the information and snapped photos like I always do. I have been using my phone a lot lately since it is the most accessible, it is always with me. Even the photos in this blog post are from my phone [I have the Samsung Galaxy S3]. I use Camera+ and Camera Zoom fx. I love both apps. I know you can get Camera+ for the iPhone and the iPad and Android phones but I am not too sure about Camera Zoom fx for the iPhone. I edit my photos with Snapseed, it's what I use all the time and I highly recommend it.

The binder I'm using is from Sn@p Studios by Simple Stories. It is 6x8. Much smaller than my Project Life album, which makes it very manageable and less time consuming given there aren't as much spaces to fill. As for the jounraling cards, I just used the leftovers of the free printables I downloaded and printed at home. All the rest of the elements are either applied to the photos digitally using supplies from my digital stash, or manually stamped. I own a good amount of Studio AE stamps thanks to all the coupons from my favorite craft stores both online and in-store. I get most of mine from Archivers.

 

My husband, John and I send text messages and/or emails back and forth during the day... Everyday. Before he quit smoking, he used to call me at lunch but when he quit [seven months ago], we stuck to just texting and emailing since he has no reason to go outside anymore. It's like second nature to us. We have been doing this even before we got married. So I had to include screenshots of our SMS conversations or emails especially that we had the most interesting conversations last week.

 

A part of me is enjoying this creative clutter that I have going on [on top of my desk] and a part of me is just cringing and wanting to just clean it all up! But it has been almost two weeks of creativity around here. I like a good balance of activity, I hate monotony. So I change things up every so often and it has done me good so far. I am never without anything to do. Even when I watch TV I'm either crocheting or journaling or working on an art journal spread... thus the accumulation on my desktop.

Up there in the photo is Asta, he is the family dog. My Mom and Dad-in-law live just a few blocks away from us, we see them quite often. But last Saturday we had to be there especially for a birthday party and because I had promised Mom I would help her with her coffee-table-into-ottoman-transformation since I had done it before here. Soon as I sat the cushion down into the coffee table, Asta jumps in and never leaves! And then the next day my Mom-In-Law sends me a photo of him laying on it again as she was watching TV.  He is such a doll!

 

I still have a couple of photos to add for Sunday but this is what Sunday looked like around here. It snowed early that morning. I made red velvet cupcakes with a chocolate ganache filling and cream cheese frosting for the superbowl party we hosted. We have been hosting it for the past 3 years if memory serves me right. It's always a great time and the food is always good. The women hang out in the kitchen and gab while the men watch the ball game. This year was spent planning what our friend, Tina is doing to her kitchen. She is a DIY enthusiast and she has an eye for design.

All in all, the whole week has been great and I love that I started Week In the Life. I love looking through the pages a few weeks/months later. Maybe this week I will be able to clear my desk of all the "creative clutter" and start making a new mess.

Laterz gatorz,

Project Life {Week 4} and then some photos...

Hey all! :) I am on Week 4 of Project Life and so far I am doing well... by that I mean, I haven't fallen back into procrastination, yet! And that really really makes me so happy because I have been  enjoying looking at what I have in my book so far.

 

This week I did use my Cricut to cut my title and you can tell how I need to re-learn how to work my Sure-Cuts-A-Lot and my machine because all the edges in some parts of my title are jagged and seems like I have forgotten how to cut paper. LOL As you all can tell I didn't put too much work on my title card this week. I used the Echo Park Playground collection.

 

I journaled on my photos again. I love doing this!!! I wish I can do it on all of them, but that's what the 3x4 journaling cards are for also, the smaller photos only have so much space for stuff.

 

Obviously I have a lot of photos this week that I had to get creative and split the 6x4 slots so I can put in journaling too. :) We have been having a wonderful time whipping our new backyard back into shape and I have been taking pics at the same time... So... yeah!

 

That's all for Project Life this week. :) I have a couple photos to share with you about what has been going on here, and this waterfall I keep tweeting about. Yard work makes me happy, and I love digging into the ground and planting flowers and adding colors outdoors, so this new house totally is an enabler! 

 

This {above} is one of the pretty corners in our backyard. :) I am loving this one in particular because this is where the pond and the waterfall is. This is right across from our bedroom window, and in the past week, it has been so pretty we have been leaving our window up all night and it is an added bonus that we can listen to the waterfall. It is the most relaxing thing, but not as relaxing as soaking in the pool, which we are going to open in a couple of weeks depending on how the temps are in the coming weeks.

 

Here's the pond and the waterfall. My husband and I are thinking about adding some height to the waterfall... but it is fine as is. It would just be nice to give a river-like look and feel. :) This pond used to have fish in it, but last fall John forgot to turn off the water as he was filling it up and it overflowed and killed all the fish that was in it. That was a very sad day but we are keeping it without fish for now to see how we do with just the pond. We have never had a pond before so we are yet trying to get used to having to take care of it and keeping it all problem-free.

 

Lastly, that is Voodoo in our bedroom window... He is an inside cat but he is an outdoor cat by heart. He loves being outside except that he can't be outside because he has been de-clawed. I wouldn't let him be outside if he wasn't de-clawed anyway, because I would worry myself to death if my pets are outside all the time.

 Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you!!! :)

Project Life Week 2 and 3

Hello all! Just wanted to say that I am still alive. :) It has been another busy couple of weeks for us. We have been getting our house ready for showing {for prospective buyers} We finally got done Sunday evening so this is gonna be our first week NOT busy... We are kind of taking it easy but not doing nothing entirely because we do have a new house we are trying to make ours and since it has gotten warmer, we have been hanging out in the back yard and whipping it up to shape.

So this is gonna be a post of Week 2 and 3. Week 2 has a lot of journaling while Week 3 has more photos. :)

I journaled in my photos this time. :) I think I will start doing this more often... I kindda like it. Hope you all have a great week ahead!!!

Hugs,

New Year... New Book

You all have seen my junque journal. I have been journaling and scrapbooking in it since June and it's getting too beat up. It travels with me, it is in my purse with the gazillion other stuff I carry around.

 

 

So for the new year since I don't have any resolutions, I have decided to commit to Project Life so I can give my junque journal a break. It doesn't have enough room for my thoughts. A lot of things have happened in my/our life/lives in the past six months it's crazy! And I have tried to shove all events in my junque journal like a mad woman, now it's starting to fall apart.  I have put recipes, magazine/paper clippings, pictures, french fry boxes, store/restaurant receipts, paint watches, fabric samples, etc in this thing. I journaled in it every day when we went to Daytona Beach for a week last summer.

This book is populated mostly of my husband's pictures... I have a little bit of obsession for him. Just a little bit. There's also some photos of our house and the ideas I have gathered for projects and a whole lot of other things from hotel keys, boarding passes, cinema tickets, bottle caps, Starbucks cup holder things etc.

I have always been a memory keeper. Always. I have used white gel pens way before they became a trend here. My friends and I [in high school] skipped school and hung out at a bookstore either to read books, or spend money on pens and markers! Although it was different the way I did my scrapbook/junque journal [because we used planners and notebooks and a limited number of supplies] it was as much fun as it is for me now given that I have every tool available to mankind and a beautiful craft room to make stuff in.

This is why I need to start Project Life. I want more room for my thoughts, more space for my crazy ideas and a more detailed description for everything. I love journaling, and i love taking pictures, I  take photos every day either with my DSLR camera or my phone camera. I also love printing them out... I print so much, my husband John bought me a Continuous Ink System {CIS} online because all the printing I have been doing is costing so much money on OEM ink catridges. LOL I know it's not funny but it kind of is. I don't take pictures just to look at them on my computer, part of the joy of taking them is being able to touch them and being able to show them off.

So come March, I am going to start Project Life... and I'll find out how i do with it. :)