I treated Abbey this weekend to a bit of pampering before prom. We did her nails, she got a pedicure, I took her to get a cool up-do and then to Sephora to get her makeup done. Fun fun day. I didn't have a whole lot of girly-girl time with her growing up as she would rather have been playing in the mud so these girly-girl moments are so much fun.
And she looked beautiful. She is beautiful. I don't know what happened to my mud-playing child. Actually, I do know. She's very much still there but tonight she looked like a princess. And I think she felt like a princess too. So gorgeous. So smart. And I'm so proud of her. And her date/boyfriend looked pretty dang sharp as well.
They are SO cute. And just loved posing for pictures. Ok, not really, but they did it.
And looked at me like I was crazy trying to get them to do anything other than just stand there.
And also looking at me with the I can't believe you're not done yet face.
But I wasn't. Because the dog wanted to join in.
So, of course, we let him...and got one more final posed shot. I think the dog actually wanted his picture taken.
And off they went. To prom for a few hours and an after-prom (chapperoned of course) until 5am. Fun fun fun.
I think they should have more proms for grown-ups. I'd take a day full of pampering and dressing up like a princess any day.
Trying to playing catch up this week. I used very few emblellishments and did most of it on the computer before printing. Loving those jessica*bree journaling cards. And since this was the first of the month (decided to only do monthly), I added in one of rukristin's currently journaling cards as well.
Week 14 Supplies | Becky Higgins Project Life Design A Photo Pocket Pages; Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper; Title/Date Card designed/created by me; Jessica*Bree journaling cards; rukristin papercrafts currently journaling card; Queen & Co. washi tape; Jenni Bowlin stickers (stars); Snap Studio by Simple Stories sticker (smile); Lily Bee Designs alphas; Amy Tangerine/American Crafts sticker letters/thickers.
I did a two-pager for this week since we had so much going on. Totally love the change of pace and the spacing worked out perfectly in my album. I found two things this week that I just loved and used A LOT in my spread.
1. Jessica*Bree's My Busy LIfe journaling cards - I love Bree's fun and quirky style so much and the colors fit Abbey's prom dress selection perfectly. I used four of the cards in my spread this week. Love, love, love. You can find Bree's cards for sale in the rukristin papercrafts shop. AND she is currently doing a giveaway on her blog so be sure to check it out for a chance to win one of five fabulous sets.
2. Snap Studio by Simple Storiessticker letters and embellishments - Picked these up at Michael's over the weekend. Seriously cute. I don't really purchase scrappy stuff that often lately unless I can really get some mileage out of it. There's a lot of mileage here. Those letters are fab. Love them. And probably used way too many but I just couldn't stop! Will definitely be picking up some more of those soon.
Week 13 Supplies | Becky Higgins Project Life Design A Photo Pocket Pages; Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper; Title/Date Card designed/created by me; Jessica*Bree journaling cards; Snap Studio by Simple Stories sticker letters and embellishments; Lily Bee Designs alphas; American Crafts Thickers; Jillibean Soup Alphabeans; Prima alpha stickers; Fancy Pants Good Life alpha/stickers; Queen & Co. washi tape; Sakura Identi-pen.
I think I love this project more and more every week. Someone asked recently about the process so I wanted to explain how I go about putting my week together. I've got a good flow down and it takes me about an hour (maybe two) to get the week done.
1. I use Momento to keep track of my weekly activities. It pulls in Facebook and Instagram statuses/pictures for each day as well as lets you make notes of different things that happen throughout the day. I usually just spend a few minutes with it before bedtime making notes of what I've done that day. This helps tremendously when I'm working a few weeks behind. All of this information goes into my Week in Review card that I create and print from PSE.
2. I take most of my photos with my iphone. Probably 99.9% of them. Although I'm trying to get better about using my big camera. Then usually on Sunday nights (the end of my week), I upload all my photos to Dropbox. I'm pretty good about deleting the crappy pics or the duplicates throughout the week as I'm taking them so this is relatively quick. Once they are all in Dropbox, I make a folder for the week on my computer, move them over and file under an existing Project Life folder. I then pull the photos I want to use into PSE, resize and print. I rarely do any editing other than resizing. Lately I've just been resizing to 2.5" x 2.5" squares or 3" x 4" images depending on the photo. I print all my photos on an Epson Artisan 800 typcially sharing two images on a 4" x 6" sheet of photo paper.
As a side note, if there are any photos from the week that I want to use later for a traditional scrapbook layout, I make that decision during this process and copy those pictures over to another folder to use later so I don't forget about them or have to go through my weekly folders to find them later. I don't spend any time tagging my photos. I just file everything by date and event (i.e. 3-18-13 Abbey Batman Obsession).
3. Once everything is printed, I lay it all out and embellish mostly with title words and a few hand-written comments. Sometimes I add journaling in PSE before printing if I know I have more than just a few words (i.e. Abbey's Batman photo above). The embellishing part is actually the most time-consuming part for me as I don't have a great deal of supplies to pull from. I don't have the luxury of shopping for supplies very often these days so a few rolls of washi tape, a few label type stickers and patterned papers (both actual and digi) are what I lean towards most often.
And that's it. The key to making this work for me is keeping the process simple and relatively quick. And as time goes on, it's gets even easier. Less time spent searching for supplies. I know what I have and what I like and can just do it.
Week 12 Supplies | Becky Higgins Project Life Design A Photo Pocket Pages; Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper; Title/Date Card designed/created by me; Fancy Pants alphas-sticker; My Happy Everything washi tape; Freckled Fawn wood chip; American Crafts patterned paper; Jillibean Soup alphas; Studio Calico patterned paper; Lily Bee Designs alphas; rukristin Papercrafts digital element; Prima alphas; My Minds Eye label sticker; Scenic Route chipboard (I think); At You Spica black pen.
I always see these lovely Around Here posts on some of the blogs I visit with these beautiful views of life...pretty flowers, spring weather, clean houses, etc. That is SO not my life. Right now, my house has stacks and stacks of boxes that have been cleaned out of closets. And the attic. And my scraproom. And filled with new boxes from my mother's apartment. It's a mess. And real life.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with most of it. Garage sale it? Donate it? Craigslist it? I have no idea. But it's going to take some time to get it all wherever it needs to go.
But it will get there. Hopefully starting with this stack.
That stack is supposedly going back into Ab's room on her new shelves.
So Ab's working on her new room. My mom is working on her new room. Jason and I are working on our new room. And the rest of the house is kind of being left to just take on the clutter until we're ready to deal with it. Which we will. Eventually.
I took a break this week from the day to day documenting and just did a quick recap in paragraph form for my week in review card. For those weeks where I literally work, eat and sleep and not much else, I think that will work out well.
I opted out of my daily walk card with Kaya. While I love that perspective, it was difficult on those days with snow on the ground, when the wind is howling, when I really just want to walk and not think about picture taking. I'm still walking, just not photographing it in that way.
A pretty simple week for me this week. Easy to document. Easy to put together. Love that.
Week 11 Supplies | Becky Higgins Project Life Design A Photo Pocket Pages; Core'dinations textured cardstock; Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper; Title/Date Card designed/created by me; Jillibean Soup alphas; Elle's Studio cutout tag; Recollections washi tape; Lily Bee Designs alphas; AC Digitals Project Life Midnight digital paper; Queen & Co. washi tape; Imaginisce stamp; Stazon ink; American Crafts Thicker alphas; Webster Pages alphas; Pebbles label; Amy Tangerine sticker; At You Spica black pen
Some weeks really surprise me when I sit down to put them together. This was one of them. I looked at my pictures from the week and thought blah, blah, blah. Same old things. But that's my life. Very routine. Very much the same day in and day out. Especially in the winter. And I like it that way. But that doesn't alway make for the most exciting pages. Most of my pictures this week were taken on the same day. I haven't really noticed that in the past but because this was a Saturday they stood out to me for some reason. Since I work during the week, weekends are usually when I leave the house. But this week we had a lot of snow and I spent the whole day doing me things. And while they seemed at first to be pictures of the usual things...snow, dog, chai, etc., it was a Saturday at home. A rare treat. So I wanted to include that perspective and make it obvious. Which I think I did. And I love how it turned out.
I also tried to do just polaroid type photos this week. I print at home and the photos turned out a little larger than I wanted. But I went with it anyway. Photo paper and ink ain't cheap! And yes, I said ain't. I'm from the South.
One other thing you might notice is that I didn't include a Currently list this week. I kind of feel like I'm saying the same things there too from week to week. But I still love that concept so I'm going to probably include it just once or month from here on out.
Week 11 is almost done too so hopefully I'll have it finished and up on the blog tomorrow evening.
Week 10 Supplies | Becky Higgins Project Life Design A Photo Pocket Pages, Core'dinations textured cardstock, Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper, Title/Date Card designed/created by me; Freckled Fawn washi tape; Fancy Pants sticker and alphas; October Afternoon alphas; American Crafts Thickers; Amy Tangerine sticker; Pebbles lable; At You Spica black pen
We still have snow (that picture was taken about 30 minutes ago). But yesterday was gorgeous. So gorgeous that our neighbors were sunbathing. In thongs. They're about 60 if you need a visual. And hopefully it will be gorgeous again in a couple of days with only a few snow days this month. Or at least much better weather in between. My mom will be here in about 10 days for good and my grandmother will be here by the end of the month. So lots of revamping, reorganizing, cleaning and traveling planned.
In April, I'm looking forward to:
1. My mom and grandmother being here and settling in to a new routine.
2. More walks. The nicer weather makes me want to get outside so much more.
3. A new bedroom. We're all flipping around to create more functional space and anything new in the chaos feels good.
4. A new scrapbook space. I moved my scrap stuff over the weekend back to our living/dining space. I think I'll enjoy it more as I took over more space than I used last time. Now to find the time to scrapbook to test it out.
5. Road trip! Even though this will be surrounded by helping my mom move and I know it will be tiring, I always enjoy a good road trip. Change of scenery is never a bad thing.
So, here's to a busy April. Hope everyone has a great month.
Week 8 was hard for me. This was pretty much the week I was going to give up Project Life. I was sick. It was snowing. I just had no energy whatsoever. And no pictures. And I really truly believed that I would never have the desire to scrapbook (or do anything) ever again.
But thankfully, I started feeling better and saw the light again. So I did what I could with what little I had. It's not my favorite week but it's done. Of course the advice I would give anyone doing Project Life is to not even worry about such a week and just move on. But my OCD tendencies just didn't allow it. I'm working on that one by the way.
Week 8 Supplies | Becky Higgins Project Life Design A Photo Pocket Pages, Core'dinations textured cardstock, Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper, Title/Date Card designed/created by me; rukristin Papercrafts Currently card and Candy Shop Collection piece; Queen & Co. washi tape; Target brand washi tape; Project Life Seafoam Edition Digital Paper; White Sharpie pen; American Crafts Thickers; Lily Bee Design alphas; Fancy Pants alphas
Week 9 was better. I was still sick a few days in the beginning of the week but I managed a couple of photos. And this is really one of my favorites for some reason. I love the semi polaroid look. My plan for one of my future weeks is to do everything in that look. We'll see how that pans out when I get there.
My whole approach to Project Life is not to capture every event but just a couple of highlights through the week or even month. Chances are if I miss that trip to Starbucks this week, I'll go to Starbucks again in the future. At least I hope that's not my last trip! But if it is, c'est la vie.
Week 9 Supplies | Becky Higgins Project Life Design A Photo Pocket Pages, Core'dinations textured cardstock, Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper, Title/Date Card designed/created by me; rukristin Papercrafts Currently card and Candy Shop Collection piece; Fancy Pants stickers and alphas; Amy Tangerine alphas; Crate Paper sticker; Jillibean Soup alphas; Misc. paper heart; Right Here Right Now and Polka Dot patterned paper are unknown...if you recognize it, let me know and I'll gladly give credit!; At You Spica black pen
I just moved all of my scrap stuff back to my scraproom and now I'm getting ready to move it all back out. I started using this space when we moved into our house three years ago. And I enjoyed it for about two years. Then I started getting itchy for something different that would keep me closer to whatever else was happening in the house. So I downsized into a couple of rolling totes and kept them in a hall closet. The thought was that I would just roll them out whenever I wanted to scrap. And I did. And I enjoyed scrapping at the dining room table smack in the middle of anything going on in the house. But I quickly tired of that whole process. I could do it but not sure I was totally sold on the idea. So I moved everything to a small area I had in the bedroom. The plan was to create a space close enough to the main living areas but a place I could still get away and concentrate on scrapping. That lasted about 2 days. I'm just not a bedroom scrapper. I hadn't made any decision on what to do with the old space yet so I decided to just move back. The only real issue was that the room felt secluded. I just needed something to make it feel more inviting. I wasn't sure what that was going to be but back in I went to figure it out.
Enter my mother and grandmother.
I can't even tell you how hard it is to live so far away from them. My mom is really starting to need more help than I can give her from here. Not necessarily physical help, just day to day stuff. Advice, moving a chair, fixing computer issues, phone issues, etc. There's just no one there to help her with any of that. And my grandmother recently moved into a nursing home and I really can't stand the thought of not being there if anything should happen. I think she has a lot of time left but she can't physically do some of the things she needs to do any longer. I want as much time with her as I can have while I have it. And same with my mom.
We've considered moving back but it's just not possible right now with a kiddo that has only her senior year left in high school. So we're here for at least another year and a half. And who knows where we'll go from there. But my mom has decided that she doesn't want to waste any more time away from her babies so she's going to move here too. Along with my grandmother. And for the first time in years, I didn't argue. It just makes sense right now.
So we've been rearranging, trying to find new spaces for scrap stuff and candles, creating a space for my mother and finding a new nursing home for my grandmother.
Lots to do.
But it's exciting.
I still don't know where my scrap stuff or the candles will end up but I know we'll figure it out.
