Washi Tape

I always seem to be the last to get on board with the latest fads. And that holds true with the Washi Tape phenomena.  But I don't think this time I'm the last one to get with this. So anyway, I had won a $10 gift certificate from Scrapbook.com for uploading layouts to my gallery. I decided to use my gift card to buy me some Washi Tape. I seem to be drawn to the We R Memory Keepers brand. I just like the colors and styles that are offered. I've looked in stores at the tape but none really caught my eye.  So here's my first investment into Washi Tape. I got started from top left to right Pumpkin, Butter, Avocado, Aqua, Blue and Orange. The next batch I get is going to be Red, Pink, Purple, Yellow, Sea Foam and Green. Those were out of stock but I'm waiting to be notified when available. I am excited about using these tapes especially in my Project Life album. Gives me a new way to adhere my pictures and embellishments and be decorative at the same time. 

"Nevertheless" Attitude

Today my daily devotional from Joyce Meyer "Trusting God Day by Day" was about going through life with a “Nevertheless” Attitude. This way of living consists of acknowledging a difficult situation and then finding an offsetting positive thing to put the challenge into perspective. I’ve decided that from now on I am going to do my best to live by a “Nevertheless” attitude.

Catching Up

I've been behind in my writing. As much as I keep telling myself I am going to post at least every other day, it just isn't happening right now. So much is going on. My daughter has a baby on the way and I get the chance to spend time with my grandchildren when Laura needs me to watch them. I'm also trying to keep up with my school work and projects I want to do. I'm working to get caught up with my Project Life for 2014. I have Week 2 complete and am starting on Week 3. I'm not too far behind. As long as I only get a week or two behind then I'll be able to keep up.

My Week 2 of Project Life turned out to be three pages. But that's okay. Some weeks may only be one page and others may be more.

This week was my granddaughter June's third birthday so lots of pictures was taken. Then I had some things that documented what I did. I worked on June's quilt and almost got it completed. I read about an "new" way to do my hair. I gave a sock bun a try. It was so much easier than I thought it would be. 

Last year I didn't get past my Week 1 in Project Life in this format. I switched to a smash book Project Life because I was on travel and that was an easier form to carry with me. I still have to complete that but it's doable. I'll work on getting that done here and there. 

I've also been doing the Capture Your 365 challenge. Although I'm not diligent to take a picture every day I've been following the prompts and taking pictures of some of what's on the list. It will take time for me to get into the habit of taking a picture every day.

Here's more of my Capture Your 365 photos. 

January 9 - Where I Stand (Capture Where I Stand)

I've not gotten any of my January Bucket List completed yet. I still have some days in January left to complete it. I have to admit I am not too hopeful that I'll get them done so I'll just roll them over to February. February may fly by just as quickly as January. The new baby is due to arrive February 10th so free time may be at a minimum then too. I may just have to give up on sleep and get my stuff done. But with the excitement of a new baby, who can sleep anyway?!

Pound Pup

My pound pup Rosie doesn't let anything bother her. As long as she is in the middle, Rosie doesn't care.

52 List

I was doing some surfing today for Project Life stuff and came across a great blog. As I was reading the posts I realized how special this would be to incorporate into my Project 52 album. To see next year where I was this year. To see how I've changed in a year. So I am going to be adding these Weekly Lists into my album.

If you'd like to check it out for yourself, here is the link.

http://www.moorea-seal.com/

52 List for Week 1 is "Words that Touch Your Soul"
This really made me start thinking about what hits home for me. So far my list has the words:
Nevertheless
Children (my son Brian & my daughter Laura)
Grandchildren (Grayson, June & to be decided)
Rosie (my dog)
Monster (my dog I lost to cancer)
Baby, Sweet Pea & Herby (my cats)
Friends
Calm
Quiet
Content
Sunshine
Warm
Home

I know it seems odd to have the word Nevertheless as a Word that Touches My Soul but I have a reason. I was recently reading my morning devotional from Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer and the reading was about the word "Nevertheless". To go through life with a "Nevertheless" outlook. A "Nevertheless" is a positive that I can focus on to help me get through the difficult time. This way of living consists of acknowledging a difficult situation and then finding an offsetting positive to put the situation into perspective. Right now one of my "Nevertheless" statements is - "It's cold outside right now, nevertheless, in a short time Spring will be here." Since I don't care for being cold this is a great way to help me push through Winter.


52 List for Week 2 is "My Greatest Comforts" -
The Lord
Children
Grandchildren
Rosie
Baby
Chocolate
Popcorn
Heating pad
Sewing
Scrapbooking
Warm weather
Sunshine
Comfy PJs
Comfy bed
Flannel sheets in cold weather
Warm vehicle
Warm house on a cold day
Cool house on a hot day
Cooking & Baking
Watching a favorite show or movie
Sitting outside on a nice day
Reading a book
Taking pictures

Hot water

I'm sure before the end of the week I'll have more words that will go on these lists. I'm looking forward to next weeks.

Link to my previous blog

I had started a blog a couple of years ago decided to start a different one with a new name.  Here's the link to my previous blog. I do have some projects and pictures that I've taken on it.

http://scraponit-dj.blogspot.com/

Check it out & see what you think.

Busy Week

This has been a pretty busy week. Last Sunday was my granddaughter's birthday, I've been editing & uploading pictures to Snapfish for printing, working on my Project 52, studying and working, Last night I got my first week of Project 52 or Project Life complete. Here's what it looks like -

I'm using Becky Higgin's Project Life 5th & Frolic, Honey, Seasons and Holidays as my core kits. I'm mixing things up by adding paper from other lines as filler and background cards. I like things to flow so I tend to coordinate and match colors. At least for that week. The only reason I'm adding to the core kits is that I like to have filler card with sayings on them and background cards to put pictures on. But using Project Life Core Kits as my "jumping off" point is a big help.

I've also been doing Capture Your 365. I've not gotten everyday done but the days I miss, I'm going back and catching up on. 

Here's my pictures for 
January 2 - Goals

I hung this on my wall to remind me of what I want to do this year.

January 4 - A Little Bit (Create a Self Portrait) 

  I thought a profile would work.

January 5 - With a Fork 

 The Princess eating her personal birthday cake with a fork.

January 6 - Unique (Create a Macro Photo) 

This is a close up of the quilting pins.

 

January 8 - Blue

 A block from the Buttons & Bows quilt I'm making.

 

I still have to catch up 4 days but I've got some ideas.

 

I recently was doing some surfing and I found a new way to wear my hair. It's called a sock bun. I went out yesterday to the dollar store and picked up a sock. I cut off the foot, rolled the sock up into a "donut" then rolled my hair up in it. It took me three attempts but I think I got it. My hair is almost to my waist so it takes a little bit of maneuvering but I managed. Here's what I came up with.

 

 I'll definitely be using this trick again. The best part is that my hair doesn't feel heavy which is great. A lot of times when I put my hair up I end up with a headache by the end of the day. I'll see how things go.

Cupcakes in a Jar

My daughter asked me to bake cupcakes for my granddaughter's birthday party. June wants a tea party so cupcakes seemed to fit better than a big cake. But I did make June a mini cake so that she can blow out her candles. I decided to go a step further and make Cupcakes in a Jar. My first attempt didn't turn out too well. I filled the jars up too much and there wasn't enough space at the top for icing.

So my next set I didn't fill the jars up as much. And they turned out much better. I had plenty of room to add icing without the lid squishing the frosting.

To make them pretty for the tea party, I used my Cricut to cut circles to insert into the lids and tied ribbon around the top.

Here's the mini cake I made for June to blow out her candles. I think it turned out pretty good too.

And in the middle of all of my baking and decorating, I put up my under the cabinet can opener. I feel like I really accomplished a lot today.

I did get my pictures from Snapfish today. I managed to upload and order during the special that was offered in December. I didn't find out about it until two days before it was to end so I spent every spare moment I had editing then uploading pictures to Snapfish. I did the 300 pictures for $29. Imagine my surprise when on January 1st I went onto the website only to find that Snapfish was offering the same special again until January 15th. Lesson learned - when downloading pictures onto my computer, immediately edit and upload to Snapfish so that when another special is offered I'm not frantic to take advantage of it. The things I do to get my photos done. Lol. Now I get to go through my pictures and organize them. I have to say Snapfish really does great photos and sends them out quick. I got them in four days and that includes a holiday in there.

Starting Capture Your 365 Challenge

I sort of started doing the Capture Your 365 Photo Challenge last year put it was hit or miss. So this year I've decided to participate completely. I am going to do this challenge. I'm sure there will be days that I miss, catch up on another day or substitute with another photo. But I'm not going to beat myself up when I skip. Here is the photo list for January. 

 

  

Here are the photos I've done so far.

Celebrate --

I can't think of a better way to celebrate than a Very Berry Smoothie.

Winter Sports -- 

My grand-children's version of ice skating. 

I've not gotten Day 2 - Goals done yet but I have an idea of what I want to do. To remind me of what I want to accomplish this year I am creating a "sign" that I'm going to hang up where I see often to remind me and keep me motivated. It's hard to stay on track to complete a goal if you forget what it is. Lol.  When I get my sign posted, then I'm going to take a picture and use that as my Goal photo.

 I am going to incorporate Capture Your 365 into my Project 52 that I am doing this year. I started doing Project 52 last year and only got to Week 7. This year I want to complete the whole year. I did print out pictures from last

Happy New Year!!

The last couple of days have been somewhat busy. I found out that Snapfish was having a special - 100 photos for $10 or 300 photos for $29. I have lots of photos that I want to get printed but I hadn't done anything to them but upload to my computer. I didn't find out about the special until the day before yesterday so I spent all of my extra time choosing my pictures, editing, saving and uploading them to Snapfish. But last night around 11pm I finally got them ordered. But here's the funny part, Snapfish has offered the same deal again good until January 15. So again I've been going through my picture library and choosing which photos I want to print, editing them and uploading to Snapfish. But at least I have more time to decide. The pictures that I sent to print last night were mostly for 2013 Project 52 I want to catch up on. The pictures I'm working on now are for the page kits I have done or for layouts I have planned. I think I'm going to limit myself to 100 this time around. 

I downloaded Picasa software solely for the purpose of being able to create collage prints. Then I can upload to Snapfish as a single print. If I created a collage in Snapfish it costs .15 a print. I need to save every little bit I can. I've signed up for an Adobe Photoshop Elements online class with Jessica Sprague. I'm sure that Photoshop has the ability to create collage prints to but I just don't know how. I am hoping to learn all that I can from this class. I want to be able to utilize Photoshop to its fullest. I am excited to start. 

I also signed up for a class with Zutter to learn more about my Bind-it-All. I've had it for several years and I've only created one album with it. There are so many other projects I can use this for. I just need to learn how. So this year will be a busy year for me. But a good year. 

I completed a layout today. It's a page kit from Out on a Limb Scrapbooking that I purchased a while back. I sort of got addicted to their page kits and I have more than enough. But they are so cute and great to take to a crop. I don't have to drag everything with me. Just what I need to do these page kits so I have more time to create, complete and socialize. We all know that socializing is the main reason we go to a crop. Getting pages done is a bonus. Lol. The next layout I do will be one of mine. An original. I think that I will alternate between one page kit and an original. Then I should be able to meet my scrapbooking goal of 50 this year. 

I did get my sewing room completely organized. I now will be able to start working on my sewing projects. I have a couple projects decided to complete this month. I spent a good portion of my day just sitting in there and working on my pictures. It's nice to have done. I also have my scrapbooking area organized. I put up the second shelf I had and was able to get stuff that was sitting on my desk out of my way. My daughter picked up the curtains from IKEA I needed to hang to divide my scrapbooking area from my bedroom. The bedroom has an alcove that I made into my scrabooking area. I want to be able to close that off so that my bedroom doesn't look so cluttered. I already have the curtain rod to put up just need a step ladder. Once I get that I'll be in business. 

I really am feeling good about this coming year. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways. And He keeps blessing me everyday. I praise His glorious name. The Lord is an awesome God, full of mercy and grace. Thank you Lord for the loving-kindness that your show me everyday. 

2014 New Year Resolutions and Bucket List for January

Happy New Year!! It's a new year and a new beginning. A fresh start. I do have some resolutions in place.  Here they are:

Spend time with the Lord daily
Go to church
Volunteer monthly
Exercise 3 time a week
Do 1 Personal Bucket List item a month
Complete Project 52
Complete CaptureYour365
Complete 50 layouts
Sew 12 projects


I'm starting to get the "itch" to get some projects done. I've made a short list for the month of January to get me started.  I'm hoping as I cross items off I'll start to get really motivated and get the list, plus some, done.

Here's what I'd like to accomplish each month in general -
Scrap four layouts this month
Finish sewing one project 
Exercising 3 time a week 
Getting onto a regular daily schedule 
Keep up with my Project 52

Here are specific things I want to get done this month.
Finish Americana Wall Hanging
Finish Buttons & Bows Quilt Baking page
Scrap Cake Pop Baking page
Scrap Carl's Ice Cream page
Make Spice Cake Balls
Orange Cream Cupcakes

Scrapbook Layout Completed in December

 I decided to get myself motivated and joined some challenges on Scrapbook.com. I joined Volume Scrapping 2013, Monthly Cricut Challenge, Monthly PageMaps Challenge & various other challenges. Here are layouts I got done this month. I think I did pretty good.