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.

 

2014 Resolutions

With the coming of a new year I've been thinking of my resolutions. Every year everyone makes their New Year Resolutions which usually consists of dieting, exercise, eat right, work less, play more, etc. Some of us keep our resolutions but most of us don't. I think it's because we have great ideas but life gets in our way as time goes on. So my thought is maybe if I break down my Resolutions to a month by month "bucket list" I may stay on track for my resolutions. 

My overall Resolutions for Year 2014 is to finish projects I have started, complete 50 scrapbook layouts, exercise three time a week, eat healthier; keep up with my household chores (I sometimes put chores aside to do fun stuff), getting into a regular daily schedule and get out and do more things. My Monthly Bucket will be more detailed. So I'm going to go work on my January Bucket List as the New Year will be here in less than a week.