Goals recap: July 2013

I had a pretty short list of goals for July…

• Floss each night this month. Done.  This is a downright habit now!
• Maintain the garden (and write an update post or two!).  The garden is booming.  At least, the cucumbers are!  In July, we got 20 cucumbers from the Burpee plant alone!  Wow.  We also got our first tomato.  
  
• Exercise at least 2 times per week.  I didn’t state it specifically on my blog, but I challenged myself (inspired by a friend) to log 50 miles walking and/or running this month.  I thought it might be a stretch, but I surprised myself by blowing that goal out of the water and logging a whopping 60.83 miles this month!  Wow.  I’ve really been pushing myself, and I have been running–and walking– longer and longer distances.  I think all of my walking/jogging with my daughter in her stroller has been a great conditioning technique.  In fact, in mid-July, I ran (no stroller) 3.72 miles with an average pace of 8:59!!  Average pace!  I never thought I’d ever run that fast.  I’m pretty proud of myself 🙂
• Make some new recipes from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.  We ate well in July!  Glazed pork chops, oven fried chicken and classic mashed potatoes, cucumber salad, pizza bianca, and creamless creamy tomato soup.  
  
• Make (at least) one new recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  The gooey cinnamon bars were a hit!
  
• Do some scrapbooking, if it fits my schedule.  I made a bunch of cards with a friend.  I even started a 2-page layout, but it is not quite finished–I need to figure out how to add the journaling**.  I don’t have as much time (nap schedules are changing…dum dum dum…), and my creative pendulum was swinging to the sewing side this month!
  
• Do some sewing.  This month, I was super-excited to sew!!  I started the hand-stitched reverse-applique pillows, and have been taking my time (on purpose) with them.  I refashioned a T-shirt (and now I want to refashion a few others that are languishing in my closet…).  I created a lining/sewn-in slip for a sundress I had purchased (it was too sheer to wear without it).  I hemmed a maxi dress that I purchased.  And I made baby shoes!
• finish the Project 366 album.  YES!!!!  I am so happy with the result!!

It was a great month.  I’m glad that I kept my goals list minimal so that I could enjoy the summer fun as it came along!

**side note: I don’t often get to this point any more with my scrapbook pages.  I tend to plan my layouts with the journaling in mind, since the story behind the pictures is the reason I actually make scrapbook layouts (rather than photo albums).  This time, the photos (there are a ton of them) took up more room than I expected and my original plan may not work.  I’ve been procrastinating figuring it out!

Read Full Post »

Happy

So, this album project was intended as a baby book of sorts for my little girl…  I had no idea she would be enjoying it so much so soon.

It totally melts my heart to see her paging through these albums.  Pretty much every day since I put them on the shelves, she has asked me to pull them down for her.  In fact, yesterday, she even managed to pull one off the shelf and lay it on the floor herself!!

I am so glad that I finished this project.

Read Full Post »

2012 Project 366 : finished!

At long last, I am delighted to announce that my 2012 Project 366 is officially FINISHED!!!

The albums are residing in their new home: the bookshelf in our living room.

In a previous post, I detailed the last items that I had left to do to finish up this project, and as of the 16th of July, they are all checked off.  Let me share some images with you.

Since I had to split the project into two binders, I ended up having to make two cover pages and one-and-a-half end pages (December 31 was a Monday, so half of my last page protector was filled with two daily photos and two journaling cards already).

Here is the cover page of the first album.

I had already printed the photos and figured out the general design of this page, so to make the cards for this page, I picked out my favorite embellished cards from throughout the album and imitated their styles.

The “2012” numbers were handwritten by me, scanned, and then traced into my Silhouette software for die-cutting.

This card contains a little “letter” I’d written on the first of January.  I copied it onto the white cardstock with the border-punched edge and slipped it into a pocket I stitched to the card.

For the “in-between” pages– the last page of the first album and the cover page of the second album–I decided to simplify and treat them as one-page layouts with photo enlargements.  I’ve seen many people chop up big photos and slip them into the divided page protectors, so I jumped on the bandwagon.  I tried hard to make sure that the seams weren’t anywhere inconvenient (like through someone’s face).  I chose family photos that were taken close to the time of the album split, since our daughter changed so dramatically throughout the year!

The photo on the first album’s end page was taken in mid-June by our photographer friend, Jaime Alvarez, during a photo shoot she did with us.

Really, the photo and the specialty paper (by My Mind’s Eye) spoke for themselves, but I couldn’t help adding a bit of embellishment.

The photo on the title page of the second album was taken at my husband’s childhood home in the beginning of July.  At the bottom, I used part of a beautiful lacy die cut paper (by Making Memories) that I’d been hoarding.  These title and end pages were all about using some of my most-loved papers and techniques.

A tiny banner, because I think they’re cute…

Do you recognize that “2012?”  Yep.  It’s the same one that I used on the cover of the first album.  And would you believe, I had to go back and re-trace the shape (thankfully I hadn’t deleted the scan), because I didn’t save the cut file to my Silhouette library the first time.  You can bet that I saved it the second time around (and watch, I will probably never use it again, haha).

Last, but not least, I finished up the last page of the second album with some embellished cards.  Again, I mimicked my favorite techniques and motifs from throughout the album, especially the ones found on the other cover pages.

On the spines of the binders, there’s a little slot to add a label.  Because I’m me and I like to make every task a little bit harder, I decided to alter some free binder labels from Becky Higgins’ website.  I downloaded the Clementine version and opened the jpg in PSE7.  I liked the basic shape (the little brackety borders on a background) but wanted to use different patterns.  Basically, I took the components of the freebie label apart and made a layered file into which I could insert new digital “papers”.  I traced the brackets with the magic wand tool (not sure if it was the right tool for the job, but I got it to work) and made it into a new layer, and added a bit of a drop shadow to help it stand out.  I sampled the background polkadot paper from the original Clementine labels file and added it as the background to my new label (with reduced opacity).  I sampled a pattern from the Clementine Everyday Note Cards (also from the freebies section of Becky Higgins’ site) to use as the bracket paper.  The fonts I used are Pharmacy (serif) and HoneyScript (script), which are the fonts I used throughout the album on the weekly title cards.  I printed my labels on to matte photo paper, trimmed them out, and dropped them into my binder slots.  I am super happy with how they turned out (and pretty proud of myself for figuring out all of that digi stuff!)

Now, come on over and have a look through these albums!  They were a labor of love and I would certainly enjoy sharing them with you!

P.S.  If you want to know any detailed supply information, let me know.  There is such a lot that I decided not to try to type it out here right now, but if you’re curious, I can help you out.

Read Full Post »

Goals: July 2013

I’m not going to set very many official goals for July.  I want to focus on just enjoying my summertime with my family and friends… and doing some crafting when it fits my schedule, because I love it.  That being said, I do want to keep a few things on the “official” list:

• Floss each night this month.
• Maintain the garden (and write an update post or two!).
  
• Exercise at least 2 times per week (along with abs+arms every day, as possible/reasonable).
• Make some new recipes from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.
• Make (at least) one new recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.
• Do some scrapbooking, if it fits my schedule.
• Do some sewing.  (I’ve started a new hand-stitiching project!  Remember my skirt?  Well, I’m making some throw pillows for our living room…Hand stitching will be great for being in the car, or for something to do with my hands while I hang out with friends.)  I also have a T-shirt that I’d like to alter/refashion/refit… I might have to resort to Pinterest to get a good idea of what/how I’m going to do that.
• finish the Project 366 album.  In my June recap post, I listed my remaining “tasks,” and they should be completely manageable to accomplish this month.

That is it for now!  Happy July 🙂

Read Full Post »

Goals recap: June 2013

I think I did really well on my goals this past month! (my original goals/comments on the goals for June can be found HERE).  Not only did I accomplish everything on my list, but I also managed to fit in a few other projects, too.

• Make (at least) TWO layouts this month. I made three!  See them here, here, and here.  I had a lot of fun with them and I’m excited to feel like I”m back into the swing of things with my scrapbooking.  I’m also learning to work on my paper projects only when I’m feeling inspired.  I have enough other hobbies to work on in between that I don’t need to “force” my creativity–and I’m much happier with the results. 
• Sew fabric napkins (three sets).  Well, I only made two sets, because I liked my third fabric enough that I might make something else with it, rather than just napkins. 
• Finish an altered photo board book for my daughter.  See it HERE.  It has been so fun to watch her connect the people in the pictures with the people she sees in “real life” or on Skype 🙂
• Floss each night this month. Done!
• Maintain the garden.  I owe an update post…It’s a jungle out there!
  
• Exercise at least 2 times per week (along with abs+arms every day, as possible/reasonable). I logged just over 43 miles in June!  wooo hoooo!  A little over 8.5 of those miles were jogging by myself (avg. pace 9:15/mile, wow!  never thought I’d be that fast…), but the rest were walking/jogging with Vivian in her stroller.  
• Make (at least) three new recipes from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.  We made Slow-Roasted Beef, Rice Salad, Steak Fajitas, and Nut Crusted Chicken Breasts.
• Make (at least) one new recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. We made the S’more Layer Cake. 
  
• “Sort” my computer.  I made some good progress on this.  My surprisingly-vast digital scrapbooking supply collection (considering I don’t really make digital layouts) is almost transferred to an external hard drive for storage, which definitely cleared some space.  I also took care of some redundant files and sorted some photos that were “lying around loose” in my pictures folder.  The conclusion after all of this is that I still need more storage space, though!  I need to figure out how to divide my Lightroom catalog and keep part on an external hard drive. 

And the unofficial item:

• finish the Project 366 album. I did end up working on it this month!  I have decided to split it into two binders.  I’ve purchased a second binder and hope that it comes in the mail soon!  I’ve finished all of the inserts, and I have made the two cover pages and finished the last page in the first album.  I have half of the last page in the second album to finish, plus one journal card needs to be written out (I’ve already written the text, it just needs to be copied onto the card).  I also have the backside of one insert to fill with photos.  But that is it!!  I will share my cover and last pages on the blog soon, probably.  

Read Full Post »

Weekly title cards for my 2012 Project 366 album

A (long) while ago, I mentioned that I’d spent a ridiculously long time on making weekly title cards (and filler cards) for my Project 366 album.  Well, here they are!

Inspired by lots of people’s beautiful albums, especially the ones made using Silhouette cut files, I decided that I’d design weekly title cards myself.  I made rectangle frames with rounded corners, used the fonts Pharmacy (the serif font) and HoneyScript (the script font) and added a few swirls and shapes to some of them. Then I used the handy-dandy weld feature (which, by the way, I LOVE).

 

 

For the actual cards, I “constrained” myself to use my scraps.  (I put “constrained” in quotes, because really, it made me a little crazy :))  I used the positives and the negatives of my cuts, and supplemented by using up as many of my alphas as possible!  I also included a little calendar that a friend of my mom’s made.  The pages were so pretty and carefully made that I thought it would be a neat way to save it.

So, without further ado, here are the cards.

In the end, I’m really happy with the way these turned out.  The die-cut titles became a theme throughout the rest of the album, which makes me happy!  It was a lot of work to do all of the title cards at once, but I’m also glad that I did them all at the end, because it gives them a sort of unified look, even in the midst of the mix of papers and supplies.

Read Full Post »

Goals: June 2013

June is going to be a busy month (for everyone else, too, I’m sure!).  I’m going to keep my “official” goals list short so that it is manageable, while still leaving lots of time for having fun with my family!

• Make (at least) TWO layouts this month. Woo!  I’m getting ambitious 😉
• Sew fabric napkins (three sets).
• Finish an altered photo board book for my daughter.  (I started this project in May.)
• Floss each night this month.
• Maintain the garden.
• Exercise at least 2 times per week (along with abs+arms every day, as possible/reasonable).
• Make (at least) three new recipes from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.  At the rate we’ve been going, this shouldn’t be too hard, haha!
• Make (at least) one new recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.
• “Sort” my computer.  I am running low on hard drive space and I need to reorganize.  It’s always at the bottom of my mental list… and here it is at the bottom of my “official” goals list– but at least it’s on a “real” list now!

If possible, but not on the “official” list:

• finish the Project 366 album.  But I’m not putting any pressure on myself for this.  Whenever it seems fun again, I will work on it.

Read Full Post »

Goals recap: May 2013

It was a good month!!

• Finish the Project 366 album.  Nope!  I didn’t even try.  And it felt great.  After a great comment that I received from Christine, I started thinking about how, right now, this album is not fun for me.  I like my crafting time to be fun.  The important parts of the album are finished, so I decided to just let this goal go in May.  So for the whole month, I didn’t touch the album (other than to take some photos–see below–and move it off of my craft table!).  And I am a lot happier for it.  Perhaps I will finish it up in June, we’ll see.
  • write a blog post about one or two of my favorite inserts.  DONE.  Not sure if I will post more, yet.
  • write a blog post about the weekly title cards.  Photos are taken and awaiting editing.  Still need to write this post!  It will happen in June!
• Make ONE layout this month and/or finish the Iowa mini album.   I made two!!  Niagara Falls and Wharton Escherick/Valley Forge.  Man, it felt good.  I can’t wait to make more!  I also made two cards.  PLUS, I am thisclose to finishing the Iowa album [edited 6/4/2013 to add: the Iowa mini is finished! I will have a post about it soon].
• Floss each night this month. Done!
• Maintain the garden. Done!  See an update post HERE.  We also added a compost bin.  
  
• Exercise at least 2 times per week (along with abs+arms every day, as possible/reasonable).  Done.  I logged 33.75 total miles in May, and over 5 of those miles were jogging… and using the MapMyRun app, I discovered that my average jogging pace was <10 min/mile!  Incredible.  I never thought I’d jog that fast.
• Make (at least) one new recipe from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.  oooooh, we had some good food again this month!  Baked Ziti.  Beef Stroganoff.  Arroz con Pollo.  Creamy Tomato Sauce.  Looks like we’re averaging about one new recipe per week!
• Make (at least) one new recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  I loved these Whole Lemon Bars!
• Finish the fabric alphabet magnets for Vivian.  DONE!  (6/6/2013: I even made some extra letters, including two more “E”s, yesterday)
• Hem and hang the Ikea Lenda curtains for the living room.  Done!  It totally changed the look of the room, and I LOVE THEM.

Aside from the (purposeful) fail on the Project 366 goal, May was an incredibly productive month!  It looks like the Project 366 was damming up my creative juices.  I am so glad that I put it off for now.  I know it will get finished eventually, so I’m not going to worry about it.

Read Full Post »

Zoo insert

Most of the inserts for my Project 366 album are fairly simple.  To give myself some limits, all of the inserts are smaller than 12×12 (I wanted to make sure that it was clear that they were not part of the daily-photo weekly spreads).   I also challenged myself to only use scraps from my scrap drawer (including 6×6 paper pads that I’d already broken into) and embellishment packages and sheets that I’ve already started using.

For this insert, however, I felt inspired to be a little bit more detailed and embellish-y.  I found that to be really easy and enjoyable when I used supplies from a collection pack (Jillibean Soup’s Blossom Soup) that I’ve had on hand for a while now.  Usually these divided/pocket page protectors exhaust me creatively, but this time, I love the results!

front

back

Throughout my album, I have made title cards with my Silhouette software…  For this insert, I mistakenly cut the title card for the size of a baseball card protector (oops… I had been on a roll for some of the other inserts’ title cards), but I like how it turned out, matted on green cardstock to match the patterned papers.  Some little banner shapes layered on top gave me room to add the date.

I added lots of little layered embellishments using the die cuts and stickers that came with the collection.

P.S. There isn’t much journaling on the page, besides a few little labels, because the journaling card in the photo-a-day portion of the album gives a pretty thorough description of our day.

Read Full Post »

Goals recap: April 2013

Here’s how I did.

First, the “official” goals:

• Finish all the extra inserts for the Project 366 album.  I am sooooooo close to finishing them.  I don’t even know how many photos I edited and printed for the inserts that I had left to do, but I do know that I ordered a set of 80 4×6 prints (some with multiple photos collaged onto them) in order to finish them.  I still have some title cards to cut out with my Silhouette and some journaling cards to print (but we ran out of printer ink.  Wop wop.)  It turns out that each one of these inserts was like a scrapbook layout (or two).  If I’ve put this much effort into the album thus far, I am certainly not going to cut corners now.  I might actually post about one or two of the inserts because I’m very pleased with how they turned out.
  • write a blog post about the weekly title cards: Nope.  Not yet.  I was too busy working on the inserts!  But I still would like to do one.
• Make ONE layout this month.  Sadly, this did not happen (those inserts again…but I did make a tag!), but see below.
• Floss each night this month.  Done!
• Plant the garden!  Done!!
• Exercise at least 2 times per week (along with abs+arms every day, as possible/reasonable). Done.  I logged 38.74 total miles in April (I use the MapMyRun app), and of those miles, 12.86 miles were me jogging/running.  I’m kinda proud of myself for getting back into running a bit!
• New recipes from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.  We made asparagus pasta, oven-BBQ chicken, sauteed spinach, and lemon layer cake. 
  
• New recipe from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  We made asparagus pizza and broccoli slaw. 
  
• Finish all the PhD ornaments for people on my waiting list.  Done.  And now I have more requests coming in.  Must be graduation season!
• Work on (and hopefully finish??) fabric alphabet magnets for Vivian.  I did stitch together at least five letters per week– until I ran out of magnets–and I’m at the letter “O.”  I recently got another big package of magnets, so hopefully I”ll be able to finish them up in May.
• Try to find fabric for living room curtains/Decide on what style curtains I will make.  After looking into fabrics and discussing things with Husband, we decided that we really just want plain white curtains after all.  I loved the curtains we had in (and left with) our previous house, so we decided to get the same ones for this house.  A trip to Ikea was part of my birthday festivities, and we picked up three pairs of Lenda curtains.  I love them!  We also scored some clearance curtain rods at Home Depot (on a trip for garden supplies!), so our living room window treatment makeover has been a lot less expensive than I expected.  Hurray!

Unofficial/next-in-line goals:

• Think about purchasing the Clean Color for Lightroom class.  I would love to take this class, I just need to figure out whether I realistically have time for it right now.
• Work on the mini-album from our trip to Iowa in 2012.  One Saturday in April, there was a gathering of ladies at our church to work on crafts together, and I decided that this would be a great project to bring, since it was pretty self-contained.  I spent a few hours ahead of time writing out all of the journaling onto the journaling tags I’d stamped and sorting the photos into the proper order.  I was able to adhere the majority of the photos and journaling into the mini book (and make quite a few extra pages– I have a LOT of photos!!) that afternoon.  There’s still quite a bit of work to go, but I made some really good progress on the album.

In summary:  I think I did pretty well with my goals.  I have to admit that I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get any “real” scrapbooking done (where “real”= 12×12 layouts).  I really, really miss scrapbooking.  I am not fond of pocket scrapbooking, and I am really looking forward to finishing the Project 366 album so that I can get it off my mind.  I’m one of those people who has a hard time moving onto a new project when there’s an unfinished one lingering in the background.  Hopefully May is the month the album finally gets done!

Read Full Post »