Project Life 2013: Week Eight

WEEK EIGHT:

Absolutely LOVING Olive in spite of living in a land of boys. The blues and greens are my comfort colors, my go-to’s almost every week. The flowers and butterflies add a little touch of girly to my otherwise boy-filled world:

Not a super crazy week, but a lot of “everyday” things: playing out front with cozy coupes- there is something so magical and timeless about their not-so-little feet peeking out of the bottom of the cars. A special “me” time treat: run + coffee date- hoping to make that a more  regular weekend occurrence. Bubble fun and speech prep at work…

With the gorgeous weather, we spent nearly every afternoon out front. I found myself grabbing our picnic blanket and lying by the boys as they played…heaven. More basketball for Ty, my first Crossfit injury…OUCH, and a sweet moment I wanted to capture and remember:

I had a lot of fun with the journal cards this week. LOOOOOOVE the super easy washi tape speech bubble:

Can’t get enough of these colors:

Linking up with The Mom Creative…

Project Life 2013: Weeks Six and Seven

WEEK SIX

Jake’s birthday…FOUR years old. In the blink of an eye…

Left side. The date card dictated this week’s color scheme. I wanted to use the Studio Calico February wood grain card. After embellishing, layering, and stitching…it was a brown, teal, kraft week.

I am still working on his “all about him” insert, but wanted to include a few of my favorite things that Jake says. Mostly because I know he’ll be saying them all correctly far too soon. It’s a little sad when the boys’ finally get words right. I already miss Ty’s “likes” instead of lights and “magazints” instead of magazine.

Managed to get cupcake candle pics of both boys this year…love how he scrunches up his face and closes his eyes. He’s done that every year so far…

LOTS of washi tape fun this week. LOVE the simple little birthday cake:

Lots of outdoor play this week, the weather was gorgeous. I survived debate team judging. Snuck in a few miles. And most importantly, was reunited with my latte maker carafe…heh.

WEEK SEVEN

Valentine’s week…

Jake’s first attempt at a family portrait and HIS NAME…swoon:

Super simple way to incorporate the boys’ class valentines. Simple doily layering and wood veneer letter:

Ty’s basketball picture makes me smile every time I see it. The boys’ loved their Green Kids Craft box this month. A low-key, uneventful Valentine’s day for us:

I actually struggled a lot with this week’s layout. It just wasn’t coming together- mostly, because of the Studio Calico speech bubble card. The color was slightly off, more orange than red. And it was driving me crazy. It occurred to me to try and layer washi tape over…and voila, problem SOLVED:

And inspiration started. Grid cards + washi = DIY speech bubble journal cards. LOVE these to keep track of the funny things the boys say:

And I also discovered that washi tape fits perfectly inside the back of Ali Edward’s Technique Tuesday cards…

Project Life 2013: Weeks Four and Five

WEEK FOUR

Had a lot of fun experimenting with red and hand stitching this week…red plus teal plus kraft is one of my favorite color combinations:

The boys enjoyed playing with all of Ty’s new birthday presents this week. The Hexbug Habitat was a huuuuuuuge hit. The boys were enthralled with it for hours. LOVE seeing the two of them in awe of something together. So sweet. I also stepped up my running this week. After taking much of the winter off, “starting over” is always incredibly humbling. And hard.

I added an insert this week. I really wanted to include a blog post. If I had an ounce more internet-y knowhow I would have typed it up all pretty. There is something so timeless about a handwritten story though…I am happy I invested the time to write it out.

Right side without the insert: packaging from our new snack subscription box, a snapshot of Daddy on TV, a latte machine tragedy, and people watching at the Target Bux. All in a week’s work, heh:

Backside of insert: our power went out for just over 2.5 hours. Once the boys’ fear wore down, we had fun playing in the dark. Of course, it happened on a night when Mark was working late…the boys still talk about it.

WEEK FIVE

Otherwise known as the week I FELL IN LOVE WITH THE OLIVE EDITION:

Living in the land of boys, I feared Olive would be too girly. I was so so wrong. I LOVE it. The greens and blues are so pretty and work so well with all that is boy-ish in my life:

The boys were absolutely hilarious outside showing me their “intimidation” look. More basketball, a weekday afternoon birthday party, fancy coffee, and a TV night all to myself:

I am so so so in love with the colors…and the butterfly:

Added a little dimension with a punch + washi + word sticker…the colors and textures of this week are making this one of my favorite layouts to date. So much fun.

Linking up with The Mom Creative:

Project Life 2013: Week Three

Week Three: COLD weather, a birthday, happy mail, and basketball…

Trying to incorporate more of my story this year. Enjoyed looking back at last year’s Project Life and seeing some of our favorite family recipes. I plan to continue including them this year. Our newest discovery: roasted chickpeas. SO YUMMY!! And I realize I am a totally wimpy California girl, but I MISSSSSSS my flip flop weather. A lot. I had to breakdown and buy real coats for our family this year, heh.

Two additional inserts this month featuring the birthday boy:

Back side of 6 x 12 includes an annual birthday letter. I cut down the design F page by one fourth and highlighted Ty’s birthday day…

Back side will be an “All About You” type page. I want him to draw me a couple more pictures and I need to take some photos of his current favorite toys/outfits:

He is having so much fun with basketball this year. It is really amazing how quickly they are all learning to dribble and picking up the game. Poor Jakey wants to play so so bad

Funny things the boys say are one of my favorite things to include…I still laugh when I read their interaction about birthday presents:

Linking up with The Mom Creative this week:

And make sure to check out a super fun Project Life blog hop…extremely honored to have been featured:

Project Life 2013: Week 2

Some weeks come together easier than others, I really struggled with week two…a week of one icky sicky and one stir crazy mama:

My first working mama sick kiddo moment, I felt awful. Awful. I thought he was just tired from waking up super early, turns out poor kiddo had a bad ear and sinus infection. I didn’t take enough photos this week but loved that his prescription happened to fit the color scheme:

Happy mail in the form of the Studio Calico and Citrus Twist PL kits arrived. The boys colored and mazed…ended the week with a family dinner date:

Yes, I love my water bottle enough to feature it in my project life…heh:

My favorite layouts always have a kid-made something. Love that Ty has started to draw “his family”:

Linking up with The Mom Creative:

Project Life 2013: Week One

Week one finally in the books. I used a combination of the Studio Calico Project Life kit and the SeaFoam core kit. Loving the teal/blue, kraft, gray, white color combination…

I decided to keep a Sunday-Satruday layout, to keep this year consistent with last. I like that it begins where last year’s Project Life ended, even though that meant having two days of December in this album…

Right side with insert. 2012 was the year of the Instagram for me. I love that so much of our day-to-day story was captured:

New year, new shoes…new stories to be told:

The deets: if you have kids and have as much “fun” taking them shoe shopping as I once did…trace their feet, cut, and take the cut outs shoe shopping. It’s life changing. And blissful. And you get fun remarks from the peeps in the shoe department. On this particular occasion, I offered to throw myself on the floor, scream, whine, and cry to make it an authentic experience. My humor was not appreciated. I immediately assumed the young guy didn’t have any children…

I love looking at this collage of 2012 pictures. It’s amazing how quickly the boys are growing and how far they’ve come. Jake’s growth is extraordinary: from a binky loving two-year old to super spicy three year…in the blink of an eye.

I have learned from last year’s failed attempt at separate big projects. They don’t get done. I get frustrated. This year, I will incorporate the “One Little Word” idea into my overall project life…

Thank you for visiting!!

Linking up with The Mom Creative this week:

Project Life 2013: Cover Page

Finally put together my 2013 cover page. LOVING the goodies in the Studio Calico and Citrus Twist Project Life kits. I have been unmotivated while I await the arrival of the BH Seafoam kit and am so glad I took the chance on the monthly subscriptions. I am now questioning the need for an actual core kit. The family photo serves as a reminder of how desperately we need new ones. It is a GOAL to have new photos taken this year in order to replace this extraordinarily outdated one:

I wanted to include family goals for 2013 and the Whisker Graphics itty bitty bag was the perfect solution. I included a tag for each member of our family:

Having fun with some of the goodies in the CT kit:

I don’t usually include black and white photos but love how it keeps the overall look very simple and clean. This is another copy of an older photograph. I plan to replace both this year at some point…

Happy 2013!!

Project Life 2013: Organization

One of my big goals this year is balance. The word in and of itself means many different things; however, in terms of my approach to Project Life, it means streamlining my workspace, purging an extraordinary amount of unused or unwanted goods, and keeping only the products and items I will really USE. I went through YEARS of collected papers, embellishments, and items narrowing down the keepers to most of what you see here:

I wanted to make the space pretty as it is very visible. One of the key factors in completing Project Life 2012 was moving my workspace inside from the garage to the dining room. As I sit and craft, I can see the boys right upstairs in the playroom. Embellishments, adhesive, stamps, and goodies:

Wire silverware caddy used for journal/title card storage. I plan to buy the Seafoam kit; however, I tend to use the white grid cards the most and wanted them easily visible and accessible. Ordered THESE cute little berry baskets for my loose paper embellies (to replace plastic ones):

Four little baskets house the remaining PL ingredients. Twine, stamps, mistables, chipboard…

6 x 6 paper pads. I need to completely change the way I shop for scrapbook goods. I just don’t use all the paper in a 12 x 12 pad and donated a huge stack to the boys’ preschool. I plan to be a lot more picky about what I buy as much of it goes unused…

Washi tape:

Alpha stickers and punches:

Four little baskets down from…a LOT more than that:

My little workspace with a view of the boys’ train table in the background. I look forward to spending many hours sitting here…my happy place in the house:

Project Life 2012: Weeks 51 and 52

WEEK 51

One of those weekly layouts I actually had to walk away from…and come back. It wasn’t coming together. I couldn’t make the title card work…and now, it’s one of my favorites. I love the red, blue, silver color combination. It was a crazy week: husband out of town, grading to be done and handed back to my students before the break, and general pre-holiday crazies:

Made sugar scrubs, I am slightly obsessed with them these days, for all the boys’ teachers:

And conquered the rope climb. Three times. Ridiculously proud of myself and LOVE that I am constantly being challenged and pushed. I am grateful for those who pushed me and inspired me to try Crossfit. I love it.

WEEK 52:

Christmas week: so much magic with the boys. The title card is another Whisker Graphics bag and houses the sweet little note Tyson snuck onto Santa’s cookie plate:

I apparently had a lot to say this week, super heavy journaling week…

Christmas Day is a mad rush for us, the majority of which is spent on the road. FOUR Christmas celebrations later, we were all exhausted but thoroughly loved and very grateful for our families. I used the Whisker Graphics bag to house four tags that detail each celebration:

THE DEETS:

I am so happy that I stuck with it and am looking forward to completing 2013. A few lessons learned this year, not much will change for next year.

* staying current with photos really helped me. I often ran about a month behind in terms of journaling and embellishing but was always current with photos.

* I learned to adhere and move on, versus constantly fussing and trying to get things to look perfect.

* I let the photos tell the story in a lot of cases versus journaling, this worked for me and allowed me to still journal a little (or a lot) depending on the situation.

* I love the attention Project Life places on the day to day, everyday moments that are often overlooked or forgotten…they, are in fact, a big part of our story.

Project Life 2012 is officially in the books…

Project Life 2012: Weeks 48, 49, and 50

WEEK 48

Last day at Disney, basketball games…and adjusting back to our daily school/work routine. So hard after a few days off. Thank goodness for a stock pile of crafty sub boxes to keep the boys busy:

I am in between gyms at the moment, which is really hard for me. GYM TIME is me time. And much needed. For now, I have discovered and LOVE the Nike Training Club app on my iPhone. TOUGH workout. All you need are weights and motivation. The app will guide you through a workout of your choice depending upon what you want to work on…LOVE it:

WEEK 49

Getting back into the swing of things after our whirlwind Turkey Day festivities. First step, bust out the holiday decor. The boys helped me decorate the tree, Victor our Elf on the Shelf made his appearance, and we discovered and LOVED our new Kiwi Crate:

Right side and back of insert:

WEEK 50:

More holiday crafty fun with the boys during a super cold and rainy week. Also the week my life was forever changed…by a latte maker. Seriously, LOOOOOOOVE this thing. I haven’t bought fancy coffee in weeks (I am certain my favorite coffee spot thinks I have fallen off the face of the Earth):

Friends of ours hosted their third annual Christmas party where they invite the local Santa to make an appearance, such a magical, fun way to expose the boys to Santa. Finally ordered my Whisker Graphic goodies after winning a Facebook contest, LOVE them. The little lined bag was perfect for capturing 12-12-12:

Annnnnnd I finally bit the bullet and tried Crossfit…holy hard workout. I am in love. Jakey was my cheering section this week and was completely enthralled watching everyone do their thing: