Category: crafty

crafting update

I haven’t been doing quite as much crafting as in the past, but I have been doing some! I am trying to stick to one project at a time these days, and I just finished one. :)

I’m sharing the pictures with you now because I have no idea when I’ll get around to ironing it, stretching it, and framing it. So here it is, the My Sweetiepie ABC’s Sampler by Alicia Paulson. It was a blast to stitch, and I can’t wait to see it hung up in the kids’ room. I don’t know what color frame to go with though. What would you choose? It’ll probably be on white walls.

So what’s next?

Well, I had so much fun participating in Ali Edwards’ Week in the Life last year that I pre-ordered her kit for this year and yesterday it came in the mail! This makes me so excited to do some papercrafting again, since I switched over to using the app for Project Life. Ali’s kits are amazing and inspiring (and you can still pre-order one here). I’ll be capturing my week with the community from August 17-23 and then hopefully it won’t take me months to create the album like last year. :)

In the meantime, I’ve started preparations for a quilt for Meredith! I’ve had this idea since the completion of my first quilt, and I bought the fabric quite awhile ago. The fabric was all bought at Joann’s which I know isn’t the best but it’s what I have and we are working on a budget here. I also have plenty of cream fabric, and my intention is to make a strip quilt that will not need any sort of math and will be forgiving. Inspiration here, here, here, and here.

If I fall in love with my sewing machine again, I think I would like to learn to refashion clothes or sew simple dresses and tops. That makes me kind of nervous, but everyone has to start somewhere right?

July 23, 2015
around here

The biggest news around here is that we adopted two kittens! Ziggy and River joined our family this week and we are pretty darn excited. Ziggy is the black one and is so named because his tail is crooked like a zig-zag. River’s full name is River Run so I’m assuming his former owners were Game of Thrones fans. They are both boys and are making us happy. More on this soon!

Around here Liam went through another two ear infections so we finally took him to the ENT. Currently his ears look pretty good and so far no serious damage has been done by his recurring infections, so we are going to do an antibiotic prophylaxis trial. He’ll get antibiotics daily for a month and if he gets an infection despite that, he’ll need tubes.

Around here I have my December album out so I can add to it little by little. I’ve also joined in on a stitchalong for the My Sweetiepie ABC sampler and am really enjoying getting back to cross stitch after a long break.

Around here Meredith is still sleeping in our bed even though we had two successful nights. Her tantrums are kind of bad at the moment so when we get them back under control we’ll try again. We are still really struggling with age 3 (understatement) and for all of you who keep telling me that it gets better at age 4…if I don’t see immediate improvement this July I’m coming for you. ;) Really though, I am holding onto that hope and counting the days, and hoping I don’t do permanent damage to her psyche in the meantime.

Around here I’ve been kept busy by doctor’s appointments, vet appointments, learning about kitten care, keeping my family fed, intense childcare, and frantically trying to make it through our book club book. I haven’t had much time to work on the blog lately (so posts might be totally random), am a bit behind on Project Life, and have hardly made any progress on my monthly goals.

This weekend I have a family reunion, my nephew’s birthday party, and book club. Around here life is a little too full, and I’m struggling to deal in some areas, so I’m evaluating my priorities and hoping to let some things go.

April 24, 2015
project life 2015 : january

Welcome to my first Project Life post of 2015! Before I share my pages I have a couple things to share about how I’m structuring my album and how the process will go for me.

I know I said I was going to keep everything basically the same as last year, but I wanted to change up the title cards. When I saw these monthly calendar templates I knew they would be perfect, and I decided to add a picture of the kids in the same basic pose for each month. But these were monthly title cards and I usually complete a spread every two weeks. Sooo…I’m doing a mixture.

What I mean is, I’m only going to have a title card each month, and looks like I’ll only be blogging my pages once a month. But I am still going to keep up my habit of ordering photos and completing spreads every two weeks. I am also still using the week in review cards.

Am I worried about the times when the weeks won’t line up exactly with the months? Yeah it’s kind of bugging me right now…but I’ll deal with that when I get there.

So here is my first spread, which roughly encompasses January 1 – 18. Let me tell you, when I first printed my photos for this and laid them out, I hated the way it looked. There were a lot of bright colors and no white space and it was just ugh. January is also a suuuuper busy month for us so there was a lot to pack in.

Usually when I don’t love the photos I’ve printed I just throw them in the pockets anyway just to get it done, but I had such strong negative feelings this time, which made me sad because I loved the title card so much! So instead I turned several of the photos to black and white, then combined them in collages and re-printed them at home using my Canon Selphy. I was so much happier then. :)

Another trick that helped the layout feel less “busy” was that I cropped several of the photos down and adhered them to paper (like the two above).

Now onto the second spread, which is for January 19 – 31. I totally neglected my camera for a couple of weeks! I really had to think creatively to fill these pockets. Instead of shoving them all on one page, though, I was glad for the extra space to journal. It allowed me to include some tidbits that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have written about, like the books I read that month and a family outing that was especially fun.

The above is a classic “dad photo.” Anytime our family gets together he always takes group shots. I love that he does this but he is never in the photos and also they are usually dark, blurry, and/or far away. ;)

So that’s that! I am still having a lot of fun with this project and I love that there is room for experimentation but I can keep it super simple and still be in love. Next week I’ll be sharing more about my entire memory-keeping framework. Thanks for reading!

February 6, 2015
LIGHT : january

Necklace from this Etsy shop and I love it.

I am one month into the year of living with the word “light,” and I wanted to share a bit about how this process is going for me. In our prompts this month (for the class run by Ali Edwards) we set intentions and there were some suggested categories to focus on, so that’s how I’m going to structure these update posts.

spiritual

what’s been going well : so far I have been keeping up with my scripture memory challenge (one verse every other week), volunteering to help out at church, being involved in our life group and my own personal Bible study.

still weighing on me : here’s the thing. Being a light and being filled with the light aren’t items you can tick off a to-do list. This is a lifelong pursuit and all I can do is try to be obedient and do better. The one thing that I really want to do better with is praying. I want praying to be such a part of my life that I do it like breathing.

physical

what’s been going well : running has definitely been a positive part of my life. I have one more half marathon to run on February 7 and then I’m going to stick to shorter races. I hope to incorporate other forms of exercise at that time.

still weighing on me : I haven’t been curbing my sugar intake lately and I’d like to clean that up.

emotional

what’s been going well : I started personal journaling again on a private blog. I still hand write in my prayer journal sometimes, but this is much more effective for me on a daily basis. I also conquered a few nagging tasks this month.

still weighing on me : the weather wasn’t good for most of the month and it got kind of depressing. I overbooked myself for a few weeks (granted, we have six close family birthdays in January that had to be celebrated, sometimes in multiple ways). We haven’t made any progress toward paying off debt, and I am very low on PTO at work because of sicknesses.

relationships

what’s been going well : several times when I felt my patience running thin with the kids, and I could tell I was about to lose my cool, I thought to myself light light light and took a deep breath and was able to stay calm.

still weighing on me : I definitely still struggle to stay gentle with the kids, especially Meredith, since she can be so intense. David and I haven’t had a date night in quite awhile, and I am working on not taking out on him any grumpiness I may feel.

creative

what’s been going well : I have a memory-keeping framework set in place now that makes me feel confident (will share soon) and keeping up with editing/ordering photos relieves a lot of stress. I am happy with where this blog is. I am excited about getting knitting supplies & lessons for my birthday.

still weighing on me : just being behind on projects and trying to let go of that self-imposed pressure.

Here is how my album is shaping up:

It’s an 8.5 x 11 album, and I plan to use it every year until it gets full. I’m hoping I can get 3-5 years in here.

This project is a little bit creative but mostly reflective. The album isn’t the focus but I appreciate having a place to keep all my thoughts gathered, and working on the prompts – creative or reflective – will help me keep my word in mind throughout the year.

January 30, 2015
project life 2014 : weeks 51 – 52

Finished up 2014! Even though this time period included Christmas I didn’t even do an insert because I will be putting together a holiday minibook (eventually). I really just wanted to get this done, and I did.

I definitely didn’t feel like doing an end page but I hated the look of the empty page protectors, so I did this. And now I’m thinking I might do something similar for my 2015 title page because I really don’t have time to get creative or take additional photos just for that. We’ll see!

January 8, 2015