project life: week 44

i'm wrapping up my 2013 project life album and looking back, i can't even begin to tell you how much i love this project.  it's definitely a work in progress. always. and that drives me nuts sometimes. i am very much a planner and list "marker-off-er", so always having a project life week "to-do" seems overwhelming some weeks.  i guess that's why i love the end of the year.  i can finish my weeks, close these books and admire them in their completion.  

i am still trying to work out my plan for 2014.  i will definitely do some sort of "project life", but the size and format is still up for grabs right now.  i have a lot of projects on my agenda for next year and i'm so looking forward to starting new things with new ideas!

but first…
week 44 of my album.  i put this one together using a variety of the december kits from gossamer blue.  the kits are just amazing. every.single.month.  




how is your album coming?  are you on track to finish in a few weeks??  what about your plans for next year?  please please share and give me some ideas!!  

happy tuesday!
xoxo

Around Here


the smell and feel of christmas is in the air.  lots of holiday crafts, christmas shopping, elf moving and more. anna and drew are beyond excited about everything and it's just so magical. christmas with children is pure joy. trying to remember to cherish these little moments because they are far too fleeting. trying to slow down and enjoy more and worry less.  the clean house can wait.  the laundry can wait. the to-do list can wait.  

hoping you are enjoying this magical time.  hugs from our family to yours!
xoxo

(ps…hoping to include more posts like this in the new year.  what do you think??)

december daily days 1-7

i shared my first pages from my december album on the chic tags blog this weekend, but i wanted to post them here so i could keep them all together and easy to find.

these photos include my title page/folder and days 1-7.  i'm not necessarily working on them each day.  i usually do a few days at a time.  i think i'm better doing several at once rather than one at a time. :)

















i'll be back next week with another december daily post!  stay tuned!




week in review...

a crafty kind of weekend...

we had a crafty little weekend at our house.  we needed some good family time.  i have the "christmas" bug for sure, so we just had to throw in a few fun christmas crafts!  oh…and i obviously have a little obsession with deer this year.  who knew??

i also spent some time watching the lovely wilna furstenburg at art class 2 over at two peas in a bucket.  so totally awesome.  seriously.  go buy the class now.  lesson 12 alone is worth the $25.  :)

here's a little glimpse of our weekend...






what about you??  did you have a crafty weekend??

happy monday!
xoxo





diy christmas gifts

i love handmade gifts.  i love making them and love giving them.  i've made my children lots of "special" gifts over the years and i'm looking for some ideas for this year!!

today, i thought i would share some of our favorite handmade gifts.  these are still used frequently in our house, and surprisingly….they are some of my children's favorites.  i've included links to most of these projects, but please let me know if you have any questions!!

family matching and memory game


i spy christmas ornament


fairy garden


felt abc book


do you have any handmade gifts on your "to-do" list??  please link up your ideas here!!  i'd love to see what you are planning to make!!

xoxo

happy little moments



i participated in the happy little moments class at studio calico a few months ago.  it was amazing.  i have made my fair share of mini albums over the years, but i had never altered an older book.  i loved every bit of it.  and it's one of my favorite books to date.  it's just so pretty.

i finished the book during the class, but i struggled with the cover.  i think i always struggle with the covers for some reason.  it's just so "permanent" if that makes any sense???  finally i took the plunge and decided simpler is better.  i covered it with some of my favorite dear lizzy paper, a doily and a title.  i used some canvas along the spine to make it look more "book" like.












have you ever altered a book?  my favorite part is all of the little bits and pieces sticking out of the sides!!  

fingers crossed that studio calico will have another happy little moments class in the future!!  :)



week in the life: project life edition


yesterday i shared my completed week in the life album that i had printed through artifact uprising.  you can a quick video of the album, as well as a few photos here.

today, i am sharing how i incorporated this week into my project life album.  originally i was just going to skip this week, but then i loved the photos from the week and i couldn't pass up putting them in my album.  i did keep it very simple for completion sake....  

i picked my favorite photo from each day and then printed them 4x6 with a white border.  i added ali edwards days of the week brushes onto my photos prior to printing.

for the middle journaling cards, i mainly added pretty cards, a calendar and some quick journaling about documenting our week.  the beautiful journaling cards are from dearest someday.

here is a look at the finished spread...





simple and easy.  and it's done.  that's what matters most to me.  sometimes i let these projects percolate in my head for a while and then lose steam to actually finish them in a timely manner.  not this time.  i made my plan and stuck to it.  i definitely think that having the book printed gave me enough energy to finish up my PL spread.

i will definitely be completing this project again.  maybe in 2-3 years.  looking back through our three albums, i can definitely see how we've changed but since i keep up with project life, i feel like that is documented.  i do want to try to take more "everyday" photos (but those cute kids always steal the scene!!).  

what about you?  how is your week in the life album coming??  did you document in PL?


thanks so much for visiting today!!  let me know if you have any questions!

xoxo


week in the life 2013 album & a video

i am so excited to share my 2013 week in the life album with you.  this is my third year doing week in the life, but my first year making a digital photo book with all of my photos.  i went back and forth about what i wanted to do and in the end i decided that digital was best for me.  right now, i'm overflowing in books and layouts and i love every.single.one.  but i wanted to do something different.

i looked around at all of the different options of digital photo books and i fell in love with artifact uprising as soon as i clicked on their main page.

the site is so clean and so inviting.  it took me about 45 minutes to upload and send my book to print (and nope...not being compensated with product for this review...just my honest to goodness opinions). i chose the 8.5x8.5 inch softcover book and i went with a very simple approach.  pictures and words. pictures and words.

i did a daily recap of each day and then followed that with my daily pictures.  using ali edwards daily sheets was a true lifesaver.  i left one page blank at the end of each day to go back and write notes and thoughts.  (but...knowing me and my OCD tendencies...it is highly unlikely that a pen, or even my children, will ever touch this book)

i put together a little video to show you a quick look at the book.  i felt like still photos didn't do it justice...you just have to look at to pretty music!  and just so you know...this is my very first video.  please don't judge me.  i'm apparently video-challenged.




here are a few photos of some of my favorite pages....


this photo was hands down my favorite photo of our week.  it's my week in a nut shell.  it's my week with a four-year old and a (very messy) two-year old.  it's my week as a momma.  it's what i do.  it's my life.  














so...what do you think??  i just love it!  and i love that it's all done and safely sitting waaaay up high on a shelf (i know, i know...i'm supposed to share).

tomorrow i will share how i incorporated this week into my project life album.  i originally just planned to skip over this week, but.....i just couldn't do it.  i kept it pretty simple, though!!  

thanks so much for stopping by!! 
see you tomorrow!


rosemary bread...

i posted this picture on instagram a few weeks ago and i thought i would post the recipe here in case anyone was interested in baking the best bread ever.  :)

seriously...it's that good. 
i've made this so many times.  i found the recipe via the creative place a few years ago.  it really is so simple, but oh so yummy.  it makes two loaves so i always bring one over to my neighbor (otherwise i would eat both loaves!)


here's the recipe...

rosemary bread
1 packet yeast
2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
4 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp. fresh rosemary, divided
2 Tbsp. butter, melted

combine the yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl. let it stand for about 5 minutes. in a larger bowl, combine flour, salt and 1 tsp. fresh rosemary.  add yeast mixture and stir to combine.  you don't need to knead this bread, but just make sure all of the wet ingredients are incorporated into the dry ingredients.  as ashley suggested, I will sometimes use my hands to finish combining everything.  

now, cover your bowl with a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place in your house for about an hour.  

now...divide dough into two equal mounds and place onto a greased cookie sheet. cover with kitchen towel and let it rise again in a warm place for another hour.

melt the butter and add the remaining 1/2 tsp. of rosemary.  brush onto the top of your loaves.

bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes and then lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for 10-15 more minutes.

i highly recommend mixing a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil for a dipping sauce.

i swear this is the easiest and best bread. ever.

glitz design: bling bling & a cut file freebie

it's all about the giant rhinestones at glitz design this week.  their sparkle and shine can really make a project pop!!

for my project this week, i decided to add quite a few of them onto my layout....as well as a few baby photos.  (i think i'm obsessed with baby photos right now!)

i used my silhouette to cut out the background circle shape to add a little depth to my page.  i backed a few of the open circles with patterned paper from the finnley collection for a few color pops here and there.  then i finished the layout off with a quick title and the gorgeous giant rhinestones!






write.click.scrapbook: october gallery

well hello, october... 
so nice to see you!
(where did september go??)

it's the first of the month and that means that there is a new gallery up at write.click.scrapbook!!  this month's theme was "a day in the life".

instead of creating a layout, i decided to document a day in my son's life.  we spend a lot of time together since he is still so young, and i thought it would be fun to get a glimpse of his everyday.

i kept it pretty simple and stuck with photos and words, as well as a few fun embellishments here and there!

i cropped my images to square and trimmed them out to 2"x2".  then i slipped them into a coin sleeve page protector leaving the first column blank so i could add my title.  

here's a look at a "day in my son's life"....





i added this insert right into my project life album!!

i'm planning on completing one for my daughter as well later this fall.  and i guess i should do one for myself and my husband too, huh??  

have you documented a day in your life?  if not, you totally should!!

thanks so much for stopping by today.  be sure to stop by the write.click.scrapbook blog to check out how everyone else interpreted this fun challenge.



a girls day...


my sweet girl and i had a nice girls afternoon this weekend.  it isn't often that i get good quality time with her out of the house so it was so nice to wander around just the two of us.  we ended up finding this fun little park over behind our house that had a lake and a playground.  she sang and talked and talked and talked.  the girl loves to talk.

the weather was beautiful and the company was even better.  hoping to plan more girls adventures this fall!! 





write.click.scrapbook october sneak...

the october gallery at write.click.scrapbook will go live on october 1st!!  it's a fun one this month!  here's a little sneak peek of what i've been working on....


can you guess this month's theme??  i kind of branched out and did something a little different than my normal!!  can't wait to show you!!




gossamer blue: project life week 34

today i'm sharing my week 34 of project life using the september kits from gossamer blue.  you can see my week 33, which used the life pages kit from september here.

the colors of the september kit were perfect to document our summer day!!  this week was the second week of august so we were still in the swing of summer!! 




i'm still a big fan of typing or writing directly onto my photos!  i love how i can add little notes or stories so quickly!!



and i'm still keeping with our "week in review" card.  even though the photos tell most of the stories from our week, it's still nice to have a little "blurb" about what we did.  



the stamps in the september kit are awesome!!  i love the "take NOTE" stamp!!





and what's not to love about this carta bella paper??  it was perfect to add our concert ticket and a few little notes.

thanks so much for stopping by today!!  i'm officially all caught up with project life (except for my week in the life week last week....still deciding if i'm going to add that in or what...).  how is your project life?  are you all caught up?

happy wednesday!

xoxo



week in the life...sunday

yay!!  i've officially documented our week.  i totally slacked off on sunday.  i think i have reached my "picture taking capacity".....and that's saying a lot since i always have my camera with me.

i did love using my DSLR this week.  the iphone takes awesome photos, and i typically find myself using that primarily for convenience, but boy can you tell a difference with my "big camera".  hoping to keep it close by more.

here are our pictures and words from sunday...

waking and making pancakes...


reading and relaxing...


playing...


coloring and playing and making messes


resting...


crafting...


eating freezie pops...


watching football and eating yummy chili

thanks to everyone who stopped this week!!  i love all of the new visitors and hope you will stop by often!!

i'm still trying to figure out my plan for these photos and i will definitely post here when i do decide.

xoxo

week in the life...saturday

saturday was a busy one for us.  i definitely didn't pick up my camera as much, but i do love what i captured.  the weekends are always full of fun for us, so i hate that i didn't capture every moment, but it is what it is.

here are our saturday picture and words...

waking...


his & her morning relaxing...


cuddling with daddy...


running...


enjoying the lake...


baking...


cleaning...


showering...


eating...


playing...


hanging with neighbors...