Project Life: Week 7

I never thought our life was so busy! Well, I knew it was busy but not notable. Wondering if this is an unusual year or just an unusual perspective. Our kids are older too. That means they get personal agendas. LOL. It's exciting, but I'm not so sure this is going to be a 2 book kind of year, if you know what I mean. On to week 7!

With Valentines, there was extra that I wanted to capture for sure. Add in a Valentine's dance, a play, and time spent with friends and family and you've got a full week. With all the flip flaps, instagrams, and collages, I think I've got 23 pictures! Wowzers! So much for a pic a day (which I'm not abiding by anyway)! Here's the overview:



I added flip flaps from Close to My Heart to the 3 picture slots on the left side this week. It was just too much! Sunday, we had a visit from my brother and Sis-in-law and their kids, so I added a group of the kids, a group of the adults, and one of their baby, Miss Paisley, as an instagram. She was so tired! Monday, a dear friend came over and we started cleaning out our garage to convert it into a temporary school room. There was a pic of one of her daughters that was just my favorite photo of the week, though, so I had to add it! Tuesday, of course, was Valentines, so I squeezed gifts in using instagrams and a collage from these tiny templates. We also took our load to a consignment sale we participate in in the area. Whew.





My first insert this week is of my oldest at her Ballroom class Valentine Dance. She was crowned queen, so that added some extra excitement to the night. I shaved off 2/3 of the Design B page protector and made my horizontal pics 3x4.



On the back side I used 2 instagrams, a blank grid journaling card, and some Martha Stewart labels.



The second insert is a play program that goes with the first pic on the right side. A friend of mine and her husband were cast as the lead roles in a play. She asked me to photograph the dress rehearsal for her so they would have some pictures of the event. It was so fun and great to see them on stage! It's just 3 hole punched.



The third, yes third, insert is a letter from my niece to Graycen after visiting on Sunday. It was just too sweet to pass up. It could move to Graycen's album later, but for now, it will live here for safe keeping. I just slipped it in an 8.5x11 page protector. I've thought about adding a pic of the two of them. They are 3 months apart in age.



On the right side, I have a very traditional Design A spread. It includes, my friend (with a black eye from a fight scene!) and me after the play, a new dish rack my dad built for me over my sink, me lounging on a friend's HUGE new countertops, and Jason's aunt baking cookies with Grayce and her granddaughter. They came for dinner and a play visit on Saturday.



What's missing from this week - can you believe something is missing?! - is the invitation to the dance (it's around here somewhere) and pictures from Disciple Now at our church. Bree wasn't interested in taking a camera (Grrr), but one of her friends had one, so if I end up with some pics, I may slip them in next week since it ended on Sunday. I also may slip my Valentine card from Hun in there. We'll see. Love it!

Linking up with Jessica at The Mom Creative.

Project Life: Week 6

I'm happy to be getting to post this week actually in this week. Don't want to break the streak! Week 6 was jam packed full for us at the D Den. I still have a few things floating around out there, but at least when it finds it's way to me, it will have a home! That is one of the things I love most about this project. It gives me a home for all that memorabilia. I don't have a box full of it where it doesn't mean anything. This gives it an appointed place and puts it in the context of the time it happened to our family. That is why I stick with paper for this project. It gives me the freedom of inserting papers, receipts, tickets, programs, and all that stuff I would otherwise have to find a home for. The digital format is so appealing to me, but this way really completes our family picture more easily for me. That being said, on to week 6!



First off, I had to work with that funky page protector that I used last week. It was a great week to do it though, because my baby turned 6 this week and it made the week special! We had birthday celebrations, Super Bowl with friends, making valentines, 2 skate parties, visits from family, a 4H meeting, and a lunch date, among a myriad of other "events"!

The left side shows highlights of Graycen's birthday week on that 4x12 strip. I also used more of the "supplement" paper that I had gotten to go with my clementine kit. I really loved mixing that in this week. It also had little elements to cut out and add in. I put 5 2x2 instagrams across the top - Graycen being measured, her birthday ribbon from Memaw, her Snoopy cake, a visit from Gigi (her great grandmother), and a visit from Mimi and Mr. Roy. The other highlights of the page are from Sunday and Monday. Sunday we hung out with our friends the Firths all afternoon and watched the Super Bowl together that night. In the afternoon, Katie and I got this picture on our phones. The guys had taken the kids out on 4 wheelers and this was Jason with Graycen and Ella Kate. The funny part is that Ella Kate is usually so shy around Jason, almost scared of him. We couldn't believe she was riding the 4 wheeler with him! The 3.5x3.5 instagram is Jadon in church reading along in his Bible, and the other one for Monday is Caitlyn's beautiful marshmallow valentines.



I had 2 inserts this week! First, Ali Edwards proposed doing a day in the life for Wednesday. That was the day of Graycen's birthday, so I thought that would be a great day to play along. I'm even considering doing it for every kid's birthday. We'll see how that goes. I just added an 8x8 insert. It is a template from her Yesterday and Today class that I took last year. It was perfect for it for me. I broke down and ordered the digital Clementine papers from Jessica Sprague to use for this digital layout. The backside is a grid of pics from the template. Super easy!





Insert 2 is of the 2 skating parties we had on Friday. The front side is the Valentine party with our Homeschool Association. It is an annual event the kids look so forward to. I included Jadon and Graycen's valentines that we made with their pictures. The back side of the second insert is our Family Night at the church. We ended up taking 2 of our neighbor friends and babysitting 2 cousins! That made 7 kids (Bree was gone to a birthday slumber party.) It was a little wild on skates but we made it! The top vertical picture is reserved for a picture of me and our Childrens Director on skates! It was taken by another friend.





The right side of the week is traditional Design A and shows 2 business cards from my lunch with Jason and main errand on Tuesday, Graycen and her friend celebrating their birthdays together, a 4H meeting project, and all those youngins back at my house watching a movie after the skate party. The last pic was taken with my photosynth app and cropped. Having fun with that!



Wow! If you are still with me, bless you. This was a long post. Don't forget, for more inspiration check out The Mom Creative where I link my Project Life pages!

Valentines Sweetness

We had a sweet Valentine's Day here at the D Den. My sweet, thoughtful husband surprised me with this:



So, I in turn surprised him with this:



Not exactly the same is it? LOL. They were supposed to look like this:



Well, maybe the thought counts this time. LOL. My card rawked though, but that will remain between us! ;)

I'll be back soon with a Project Life Post and a Room of the Month post. Busy, busy!

Project Life: Week 5

Week 5! That's amazing! Loving this project and now that I am comfortable with it (only took a year!), I'm ready to branch out and start thinking outside the little white box, so to speak. ;) This week I replaced the right side page protector with a different We R Memory Keepers protector I had. It wasn't the one I originally envisioned, but I didn't own that one, so we're moving on. What this means is next week I'll have to work with it too. I'm excited though because we have some special occasions coming up next week and it will be nice to draw attention to it that way.

Here's the complete week:



I really loved what I had to add this week. Some good stories and everyday life.

The left side shows me playing photoshop with my friend Katie. This is becoming a regular habit. Lol. She is learning digital scrapbooking and it gives us a chance to put our weeks together - well, together. We did a huge lego sorting the beginning of the week for J's new trofast, and he is loving that. Building like crazy. Graycen had some sweet moments. I love that she has this pillowcase dress her Aunt Laura made her when she was 3 (we think). She is about to be 6, and it is still just as cute. Still loving playing with instagrams and all the filters and styles. The 2x2 inch size is perfect for the 3x4 journaling cards.



The right side is the different WRMK protector. It has one long 4x12 inch slot on top and 4 4x6s underneath. I downloaded a new app (thanks Gina!) called photosynth. It's said to be not quite as good as photostitch, but it was free so I wanted to try it. We had a ladies' event at our church and my homeschool momma's met to go together. This is our table at the restaurant before the show. I loved capturing everyone around the table, and the app worked pretty well unless someone really moved (Ame has no face - sorry!) This was a great spot for it. I just cropped it to the original dimensions to fit on 2 4x6s, trimmed them, and stuck them down side by side on a 4x12 piece of cardstock. (My ticket is on the date card on the other side.) I used a free template from Oscraps (Paisley Press maybe?) to drop in 2 other pics from the night on one of the 4x6s below.



The other highlight of the right side was our shopping errands on Friday. I captured the buggy because it was full of things for valentines and a birthday celebration I normally wouldn't buy. It also shows my almost 6 year old riding in the buggy. ;) I used a flip-flap from one of my favorite Close to My Heart consultants to add a pic of me and the girls that night watching Dolphin Tale. That is one of my favorite things (Friday night movie night) and it was the ending of a unusual usual day. Figure that one out. The backside of the shopping pic is my journaling card.




Hope you are loving your Project Life journey as much as I am! I'm linking up at The Mom Creative, so check out Jessica's blog too!

Remember, Don't Invent

Today "Remember" came to me. Not in a good way though. I am remembering today, but it's not things I want to remember. It feels more like haunting. This is an exercise. What part of my spirit needs the stretching? Trust? Forgiveness? Peace? I have a feeling just because I chose this word for this year, it is going to stretch me and tug and pull. Hopefully, for the better.

Actually I am not remembering as much as I am inventing. I think about things that haven't happened, but are related to what has. That's really not fair - to me or anyone else. Matthew 6:34, "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." That should probably apply to the past also. Making up "scenes" in my head is probably worrying about tomorrow - as if it is to come. Today. Be present today. Plan school. Love these tired kids from a long Super Bowl Sunday. Love this house. Take care of it remembering to be grateful for what I have to take care of.

From my beloved Psalms (55:22): "Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken."

I Peter 5:7 - "Casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you."

He cares for me. How humbling. I'm blessed that I have physical people around me that care too. My husband cares for me. He tells me. Other family and friends care too. I am truly grateful. I am so aware of the fact that we cannot follow our emotions. Mine used to be much more even keel and reasonable. Now that I am crazy, I will follow you Lord. ;)

Project Life : Week 4

I got to add my first insert this week! I was beginning to get paranoid that my life was lame and uneventful when I kept seeing everyone else's inserts of events of the week. ;) Just kidding. I love that I have weeks of simplicity and 1 or 2 focuses and then weeks of crazy, not enough room, excitement.

This week started with parties and ended with parties. I have some around the house shots and then some school and art shots. My inserts are our Annual International Festival with our Homeschool Association.



On the left side I highlighted the weather on my date card. It has been so mild and crazy here in Georgia this year. I love being able to use screen captures and print them as pictures. Sunday was a surprise 30th birthday for my friend Katie. We were in kahootz with her hubby to keep her away from the house, so my pics are from behind her! This was my favorite though. I also included a new drawer for that kitchen organization project I keep hemming around about. There is a shot of above Caitlyn's desk, that I love. It was full of color and animals and life, just like her!



On the right side I got to highlight Graycen doing Foot Math. I put the instagram on Facebook and I loved the comments I got. She is well loved. The other event was Breana trying some crayon art from Pinterest. I'm really glad she can explore creativity and try things that she likes. The bottom picture is Jason doing some P90x with his workout buddy. She hung with him the whole time. LOL.



This week my 2 inserts are about our International Festival. We studied China with our friends the Rockers. On one side is our preparation of our board and food. The second side is our display and the fun at the festival. Insert 2 is Caitlyn's painting on rice paper of a panda that was included on the display board and on the back is Graycen's scavenger hunt. I wanted to capture her handwriting and the fact that she answered most of the questions on her own! I used a Design B page protector with the 3rd row cut off and a regular 8.5x11 page protector.









Link up at The Mom Creative!

One Little Word 2012: REMEMBER

I'm afraid that the inspiration for my little word this year is going to wear off, so without putting it off any longer, I am ready to commit and elaborate. This year's word came to me during an Explorer's Bible Study lecture. I don't know why, but things started to just pour into my brain on how applicable this word can be this year. This year I want to...



It struck me so powerfully that I knew that this was it. I hope to just have "remember posts" ever so often to exercise this word this year. This fall we were encouraged to be purposeful, to resolve in one of the lectures. I found myself strongly yearning to remember everything I was hearing and thinking. Now, I know that's not possible, but I feel if I am purposeful in remembering, I will just create better habits of observation and application. On the notes that day I knew areas of "remembrance" needed to be remembering memories (Project Life, scrapbooking in general, blogging, journaling, scrapbooking moments and stories and not just events), remembering scripture (memorizing it, writing it, posting it on my desk cabinet door, bookmarking it, putting it on the wall), remember my priorities (my husband's needs, my children's hearts, my church service, my home, my friendships), remember myself (my physical wellbeing - go to the dr., exercise, eat well; my spiritual wellbeing - communication with God, regular study, reading through the Bible; my mental wellbeing - reading, hobbies), remember to slow down and take time (for thinking, for organizing, for resting, for creating, for all these things).

I want a calmness and an order to this crazy life. I feel some big changes coming and some maturing coming. It may be painful. It may be uncomfortable, but I'm ready for the outcome.

I've also thought about this in a different way. I want to remember the past this year. Some of that is good. Revisiting what my babies sounded like at 2 (and preserving that) is a sweet piece of the past. I want to remember the hard struggles. I want that to make me thankful and thoughtful and purposeful in moving forward. I don't want to remember the hurtful things, but I never want to forget the lessons learned from that. I want to remember the present. The daily happenings, the lessons now, the age cuteness of all of my children now. BE PRESENT. I want to remember what is promised for my future. In obedience to Him, I want to trust God's sovereignty to provide my future whatever that looks like. Remember His promises. Remember who He is.

That's all for now...I hope there's more...a whole year's worth.

Project Life: Week 3

On to week 3. I so love this project. I feel very peaceful in doing it. It has taken away that "caught up" anxiety. I am by no means caught up, but I don't feel like I'm losing ground anymore. Thanks to this process I've figured out how to catch up and keep up with my kids personal albums too. I want them to have their own albums that showcase a little more their personal experiences. Anyway, for now, week 3 makes me happy! Here's the whole view:



I really played with the instagrams this week and tried the 2x2 inch size for the journaling cards. Love that addition! The left side includes new recipes, Dairy Queen treats, Carnivorous plants, and Studying about china. I got to include a cone wrapper from dairy queen and an instagram of my favorite recipe from the week and the Chinese lanterns the kids made.



On the right side are memories of a visit from Mimi, a family baby shower, a Sunday School social, wreckage of spend the night parties, and an individual instagram of my niece Reagan at the family shower. She is 4 months old now and the happiest "rock princess" I know! I love being able to add extra stories with those 2x2s!



I am linking up to The Mom Creative where she posts her Project Life on Tuesdays and provides a place for others to link to there's. I LUV seeing other project life projects, so please consider adding yours if you are participating.

Project Life: Week 2

I got behind on posting - yes, on the second week - because I didn't print my Saturday picture until week 3. I'm catching up today. Here is an overview of Week 2.



I'm trying to try some scrappy stuff in my book to make it mine and original. Guess where I get those ideas? LOL. From everyone else! Michelle Wooderson is so fun to me. She is not afraid to never use a 4x6. I'm playing with different sizes thanks to my iPhone.

The left side includes proof of my kitchen organization projects, the crazy fog on Monday afternoon, Breana "schoolin", a phone pic from Bree at dance class, a Maya Angelou quote I wanted to remember. I wrote it down on a scrap of paper when I saw it online and I just took a pic of it with my phone. I love the way it turned out. I also tried to pay attention to what I heard this week. On the title card I put some "sweet sounds" from the week.



The right side shows homework and crafts from our Explorers Bible Study, Graycen's disaster of a room when some friends came to visit, building a fire and the weather screen shot from my phone (that was a fun addition), and an instagram of our date afternoon at Joe's Crab Shack and our movie ticket stubs. I played with the different size sharpies this week and playing with collages on my phone.



Thanks for checking me out and I'll be back with week 3 soon. Oh! More kitchen project underway too!

Room of the Month: January - Kitchen

One of my goals is to work through my house to "cleanse" it so to speak. It's inevitable that with a family and especially 4 children things begin to pile up and overtake the people living in the things. Also, I realized that I never really "moved in" my kitchen. LOL. We've been here for 8 years! I had a 2 week old at the time and things got put in my kitchen in the most logical place at the time and stayed there. Well, after you add pantry space, and more appliances, and more spoons, and dishes, and lived there a while, some things aren't as logical as they once were. This hit me hard during the holidays. All of the sudden, nothing made sense in my kitchen!

This spurred a reorganizing, cleaning out bug in me and I was ready to go after Christmas. My friend Kim and I hit Ikea and started the process. Jason and I went back the next week to bat clean up (as shared in my Project Life Post). I don't have before pictures, but I do have a few afters:



This cabinet had a spinning organizer that wouldn't spin because the space was so tight. Our vitamins and medicines were on the top shelf, and inconvenient to reach and return. The basket of utensils was on the counter. It didn't bother me there as I love baskets, but for a change and a cleaner look, I moved it.



This was my silverware drawer. My silverware is now in a wire caddy with mason jars in it, and it sits on the counter. I like that it's movable. I like that something so used is out in the open. That's practical to me and this particular thing is not an eyesore.
I got 2 dividers from the Container Store and put other cooking, food prep utensils in there. My ultimate vision includes getting rid of all the stained, melted, old utensils and replacing them with 1 set that is clean, matched, and nesting..Priorities.



My "other" drawer in the kitchen. More food prep utensils. The odd size version. I have an electric knife. Never has it been used on food, so soon, it will go out to my sewing closet (in the garage) to live with the stuff I do use it with. LOL. I have only used it to cut foam for bench cushions and such.



My improved laundry room pantry. I love these red bins from Ikea. Still working on this project, but this is already better!

My inspiration for this project comes from 2 sources. One is an article my mom saved from Womans Day in January of 2001. It was called "Room of the Month." It encourages you to take 1 room a month to focus on extra projects. That makes sense in my brain and if I did half the stuff listed, things here would be much improved! Here is the kitchen list:

DECLUTTER
*Empty cupboards, drawers, and other storage units and group similar items, making piles for things to keep, donate, toss or store elsewhere. Check for bugs. Ew.
*Strip bulletin boards and fridge doors, tossing the outdated and finding a proper home for the rest
*Cull recipe boxes or rarely used cookbooks to toss or store elsewhere.
CLEAN
*Vacuum and clean shelves, walls, baseboards, ceiling, cupboards, light fixtures, windows, screens, and curtains. Whew!
*Clean microwave, kitchen fans, stovetop, and oven
*Empty refrigerator. Clean gaskets, shelves, storage bins, and freezer compartment; vacuum coils.
MAINTAIN
*Rearrange cupboards so items are closest to where you use them.
*Store duplicate utensils or seldom-used items in a labeled box in the basement or give away.
*Divide the bulletin board to give each family member a special section to check for messages and reminders.
*Clean out the fridge before shopping
*Quick clean a drawer once a month while you are talking on the phone.
*Restock fridge and pantry shelves by grouping food in categories (vegetables, condiments, dairy). Freezer too!
*Label and date canned goods as they are stored. Use old before new.
*Use ziptop bags or canisters to seal out bugs from flour rice and pasta.

Okay, some of this I am not going to do. Some things I need to do are not on here. It's a great start though! Because I'm rearranging cabinets and drawers they are naturally getting cleaned as I go.

The other source is a declutter and organizing calendar from . She uses one month to declutter and one month to organize with an action a day. It has some great suggestions too.

This gave me a game plan. I figure if I do things on these pages, I'll be better off than I was before even if I don't get finished! I have more pics and more to do, so there is more to come!

Project Life 2012 Week 1

Here goes! I am so excited about Project Life this year. Last year was my first PL experience, and I loved it. I took the picture a day format for 2011, but this year, I am going to try a weekly approach. I loved it for the first week. It gave me a little more freedom for what went where. I want to embellish a little more this year. That's hard for me. I really struggle on what to add to make it personal without "messing it up." I have a cover page in the works, but that post will have to come later.

January 1-7



This week was a nonschool week. We were still celebrating Christmas, but eventually got it taken down. Lots of shopping trips for Christmas money and gift cards. Jason and I got to have a date to Ikea. Family friends I haven't seen in over a year got to visit. I'm in love with instagrams, so I had to include a couple of them. Oh, and Breana's self portrait. She was trying out a new hairstyle.

The left side:



I'm not totally thrilled with that date card. I do want to layer them up a little, but that one just doesn't do it for me. Moving on.

The right side:



What I'm using:

American Crafts 12x12 linen album in black
The Clementine Core kit
Design A page protectors
Zig Photo Signature pen - Love this little find!
Ali Edwards Days and Months handdrawn brushes
Elements from Story Teller-Captured Kitty Designs

Post of the Year?

That's the way it looks right now. One post a year. LOL. I've never been good at the consistency part of journaling. I want to do it. That just doesn't make it happen. That being said, I am going to give it a go again. This is one reason:



This is what my desk looks like. This is what my brain looks like. I need a place to dump and file all this stuff. My confession and drawback is, hold on, I love paper. I like paper things. Calendars, to-do lists, forms, charts, all that stuff. I love it. However, I've got to let go of some hangups to stay sane. Currently on my desk I have notes from a time management ecourse I listened to, a graph pad with thoughts on my 2012 One Little Word, a room of the month schedule for cleaning and organizing, more lists for decluttering and organizing the kitchen, a Southern Living, school planning charts, and probably more on the bottom layer. I love all this stuff, but it has to find a home and it can't be on my desk. If I put it in a file drawer, yep, you guessed it, out of site out of mind. So here I am again. Last post 2009, sheesh. I learned something though. I loved going back and reading it, and I need this for just that reason. I am inspired by Ali Edwards, that she pulls stories for scrapbook pages from her blog. I want the record there. I want to be able to catalog and file my thoughts. So this is a selfish blog. It is about me for me. For reflection and recording. For REMEMBERING. If I can share something out of it, great. If it bores you, I'm not shocked or offended. ;)

I want to utilize this blog for some special things. I am in year 2 of Project Life. I love, love, love it. I have several friends that love, love, love it. I want to share mine and hopefully they may enjoy it and do the same so I can stalk theirs. :) The second thing is to process my one little word this year. Last year I chose gratitude. It was fitting. I enjoyed thinking about it. I enjoyed Ali's class to scrapbook it. I don't feel I used it. This year I want to interact with my word more. More on that to come.

That's it for now. Eggs are calling. My next post should be Week 1 Project Life and hopefully today!