There Goes My Life...

May Memories.

I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday. And I was on such a roll! I worked in the office most of the day, and then snuggled with my little guy on the couch after school. It was a rainy afternoon and was just right for a little nap.

Since I last posted I did manage to get May done for our 2011 Family Memory Book. Love that I have almost half of the year done! Here is the month highlight page.

And here is a layout for Mother’s Day.  This photo makes me smile. :-)

Everything for these layouts are by my friend, Heather.

I just finished a cute Valentine’s Day pennant banner that I will share next week.  Right now I have to run to the office to meet a client.  Have a great weekend!

Scraping away.

I am so happy with the progress I’ve been making on our family’s 2011 album. It’s so nice to be motivated.  The pages are coming together so easily. Love that.  April is now complete.

(layout credits here)

I also put together another page for April.  I wanted to highlight this favorite photo of the kiddos and their cousins.

(layout credit here)

I’m planning to just mix in the regular scrapbook layouts I have done with the month recap pages. Otherwise I might not ever see them in print.

Making progress.

Since I mentioned it a couple posts back, I have put together a couple more pages in our 2011 Family Memories book.  I love how quickly these are coming together by keeping it simple.  This weekend I put together February’s page.

(layout credits here)

This morning I put together March’s page.

(layout credits here)

I’m just keeping it simple and concentrating on getting the pages done.  Right now that is hat is most important to me.  I can’t wait to see it finished and in print!

My Little Eskimo.

No snow here so far this winter.  Just rain, rain and more rain.  I’ve been enjoying the mild winter as far as running goes, but it would be nice to have some snow like last January.

Today I put together a page with one of my all-time favorite photos of Stewart.  Love, love, love his red Kool-aid mustache.

A little scrap time was my reward for cleaning the upstairs today. Supper is in the crock pot, and I have a little time to play. Good times.

Doing it my way.

I tried the Project Life thing last year.  I will be the first to say that I was a major failure at it.  Sure, I started out great, but somewhere mid-February I fell behind and never attempted to catch back up. So many of my friends are doing it again this year.  When I open Pinterest that is about all I see these days.  My Twitter feed is full of tweets to inspire.  Inspire me it does not.

I was reading my friend, Robin’s blog the other day and I noticed where she had posted her family’s 2011 book.  Robin says she doesn’t scrapbook anymore, but I would have to disagree.  She has started putting together a memory (some of us would call is scrapbook) book of her family each year.  She does a page from each month with a collage of photos from the events of that month.  Then she mixes in a few special pages. It’s a simple approach that documents their family life. Inspire me it did.

I opened one of Heather’s old quick fill pages and started putting together a page about last January.  As I started picking out photos, I knew that there were way too many of our snow storm last January to not dedicate on spread to it.  So,  I quickly put together a page about the big snow on Chris’ 40th birthday.

 

So this is my plan.  I am going to do at least one page highlighting each month.

Simple.

Quick.

Templates.

I will also include any scrapbook pages I might have done.  I’m going to try to get 2011 done, and keep up with each month through 2012.  At least that is my plan.  We shall see how well I do.

This year his birthday was a little different.  No snow, but we had fun anyway.

(photo taken with my phone)

This one will have to make it to the January page for sure. :-)

Christmas Card Mini-album

I have wanted to do one of these albums ever since I saw Martha Stewart create one on her show a few years ago.  That episode may even still be saved on the DVR.  I saw it again on Pinterest and then Gina created an awesome album.  I was wanting a quick craft project for this afternoon to reward my self for cleaning the house (well most of it…my office is still pretty much a mess).  We’re just going to overlook that right now though.

Back to the project! 

First I measured my largest Christmas card.  The largest one I have is 6x7.5 inches.  So I cut my front and back covers the same dimension.  For the front I used a patterned paper, and for the back I just used a coordinating green cardstock.

Next I punched two holes in the covers and then used those as a guide for my cards.  After I had punched holes in all the cards I put them on binding rings.

Here’s a view of the inside.

My first thought was to just include my photo cards, but as I went through our cards from this year I decided to include all of them.  A lot of the traditional cards had personal handwritten notes in them and I wanted to keep those as well.

Here’s another view of the inside.

I plan to make albums for previous years, also.  I have several years worth stacked in a cabinet.  Next year they will be part of our Christmas decor. Love that.

The last day of 2011.

This last day of 2011 I…

…watched a movie with Stewart.

…went for a run alone in shorts and short-sleeves.  It is a gorgeous, warm day.

…scrapped a Christmas layout.  At least one is done if I don’t get around to doing any others.

(layout credits here)

…am planning to read a little of the book I just started.

…am planning to spend a quiet night at home with the family.

In all honestly, I cannot say that I am sad to see 2011 go.  This year to quote a friend “has been a roller coaster ride.”  I love roller coasters, but I am ready to get off of this one. To paraphrase another friend, God got us through 2011, and He will get us through 2012. 

I’m not making a lot of goals for 2012.  I did last year, and I don’t think I fully completed any of them. 

I set a goal to read 50 books in 2011, and I think I am finishing the year with around 36 read.  I didn’t mark that one off, but that is a lot more than I read in 2010.  I enjoyed each and every one, and I am glad to have read the ones I did.

I planned to read a classic each month of 2011.  I think I read 10.  I started on the other two, but I haven’t finished them yet. So another failure you might say, but there are 10 less classics on my list of books to read.

I planned to lose weight.  A lot of weight.  10-20 pounds.  I started off great (as I do most years), but soon fell off the wagon.  I am not 20 pounds lighter or even 10 pounds lighter for that matter, but I am ending 2011 with a slightly smaller number on the scaled than I ended 2010.  I guess that is something.

I was committed to 2011 being the year that I took a photo each and every day.  I made it farther than I ever have before – some time in February I believe.  I don’t think that is a goal I will ever complete.  I think I need a different approach all together.

So here I am on the last day of 2011.  I’m not making a lot of lofty goals.  There are a few things I would like to accomplish.  I would like for 2012 to be the year of my second marathon.  I would like to scrapbook more, sew more and just craft more.  I have lots of new ideas for my business, and I am excited about those.  Chris and I are entering a new chapter in our lives, and while it’s a little scary, I know that we can make it successful.  I have all faith in him, in us and above all in our God.

So with that I say good-bye to 2011. I am so ready for a new year and new beginnings!

Jasper and Jingle Belle.

This hasn’t been the scrapbooking, paper crafting December that I had planned. Work-wise, I am pretty much finished for the holiday season, so I took a few minutes yesterday and put together a quick page about your elves, Jasper and Jingle Belle. 

(layout credits here)

Love their scarves?  The girls made those for them last year and left them for them to take back to the North Pole with them on Christmas Eve. When they came back this year, they were wearing them.  They get into a lot of mischief, but I have to say I am always sad to see them go.

Visiting Santa

I think using this photo on my last post made me want to scrap it. 

(layout credit here)

Nothing fancy, but so glad to have it documented.  That means a lot these days when I don’t scrap near as much as I would like.

I am planning to look for an album to start my December Daily tomorrow though.  Very excited about that!

Our Good Witch

I know, I know.  Long time no post.  It is so crazy hectic around here.  We just finished Hansel & Gretel in which the girls and I were villagers.  That’s a topic for another post. Add to that the hectic schedule of a photographer in the Holiday season.  Just not a lot of extra time. However, I did take a few minutes and I do mean FEW to put together a Halloween layout of Molly.

(layout credits here)

Gina came out with this “Good Witch” collection while i was in the middle of sewing Molly’s costume, so I had to do a layout using it.  It was just meant to be!  Almost like magic. :-)

So since I can’t twitch my nose and my work be done, I need to get back to it.  See you next time!