Ramblings

Nothing really cool to post right now except that December is zooming by. I am still on Day 1 of actually creating my December Daily album, and as Ali herself would say... "that is OK"!! So no berating myself, I have been working on it when I can. I have a feeling most of it will be iPhone photos with Instagrams and also a new app I found from a twitter feed-Diptic. Liking that I can play with more than 1 photo at a time and make a collage. I am hoping to get my photos and stories in order so I can work on them one day after Christmas. Like many others, with work and everything else, daily capturing + creating + uploading and sharing is just not an option for me. Truthfully I started to feel sad about it at first, like I was missing out on some big online sharing event, and you know what? There's just no point in that. I create for myself and for my family. And while it is really fun to share online and connect with others, I just have to say "Enough" and be happy with what I have captured and created for me and my family. I love what Stacy Julian calls it, the "Enough Quotient." So thank you to all who are able to create and share online. I admire all that you do and I am defnitiely inspired by your work. And to all those who create and don't share, know that there are probably lots of us in this boat, so keep on creating! And to those who think about creating I say awesome! I'm right there with ya! I really love this hobby and am thankful for realizing what I do and who I am is "Enough"

Now, back to playing on Instagram!

Move More Eat Well 2012

Okay, so I am working on December Daily. I've been taking a few photos each day and also jotting some ideas for each day on a sticky note and just putting that in my book for now.

Then today I remembered there was a One Little Word chat with Ali and luckily I was home! So I logged in and was totally inspired to get back on track and commit to a few things.

First, I have been thinking and thinking and thinking about taking Cathy Z's class Move More, Eat Well. This is an area I obviously need to improve. Is this the year? I vote yes! So I'm in. Now just need to go shopping for some new shoes!

Second, this year was very helpful with my One Little Word, Focus. I definitely needed it and have made some great changes because of it. I had put off registering for 2012 but no longer! I am in and actively pondering my 2012 word. I have a few front runners. I will probably choose one main word and maybe have a little "secret" word that is there in the background. That's kind of what I did this year. But I must say the main word had the most impact.

Happy that I am thinking about these now. I have a feeling December is going to fly! Now back to that other project!

December Daily Update

Still waiting on a few last items to put together my foundation pages. I ordered the December Daily kit from Bananafish Studio, and am so excited for it to arrive. I have quite a few pages ready to go, over the past few weeks I chose the papers I plan to use, gathered embellishments, stamped some numbers, etc. Here are a few shots of my project in the planning stages:

Choosing the papers. Definitely inspired by Elise Blaha with lots of patterned papers. I made mine 5x7 so they will be easy to make enlargements. Loved last year's 6x8 size too, especially after looking back at it.

Love the planning stages. So much fun.

Having fun gathering and stamping some numbers. The stamps are from the 7 gypsies Numero stamp set, the little cut out numbers are Teresa Collins, and the big number tags are 7 gypsies Paddington tags.

Remember I said I like storing little embellishments for projects in muffin tins? These are from Goodwill.

99 cents each!

More little items I might use. 



Stamping some tags is always fun. I love the imperfection of them! These are Ali Edwards Good Cheer stamps

Yay! I finally got my Technique Tuesday Studio AE stamp set in the mail, and I ordered the December Daily one with it. More numbers! Be still my heart! I love it!

Love December. Love December Daily. Even have our tree up; not decorated but loving having twinkle lights going on in the house. Really fun story about my daughter seeing the tree for the first time, but that's for another post.

Had to play with the new set! Love it!

How are your preparations coming along? While waiting I put the finishing touches on last year's--it was my first year and I got a late start. I think I started with the album about a week into December but had been using my phone to take photos and make notes of each day. So even if you are on the fence about it, it is still totally do-able. I did about 75% of it last year but had that last 25% unfinished. I just said "enough" and there are a few days missing. I'm still very happy with it, and it helps going into this year knowing that it is okay if I miss a few days. For me it is the whole project, missing days and all that tell the story and help capture bits of what makes December special.

If I don't have another post until after Thanksgiving, I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving! And have fun with your own preparations! Share a link if you would like!



Big Picture shout out and other cool stuff

I gotta say I really love Big Picture Classes. It all started back in 2008 when I was just getting started scrapbooking again. I say again, because really I started scrapbooking as we think of it today in probably 1994 or so, with my sister Katrina. We even went to Pebbles in my Pocket back in the day. I only did a little, but loved seeing all the layouts Katrina did. Hers rocked!

So after I got married the scrapbooking bug hit. I had my photos and wanted to do something with them. I couldn't figure out my style, until I found Stacy Julian and Cathy Zielske and the girls at Simple Scrapbooks. It just clicked. So imagine my delight when I found out about Big Picture Classes just in time to take Design Your Life, by Cathy Z! I was thrilled and signed up immediately. That class basically taught me how to scrapbook, and needless to say, I totally loved it!

Since then I have taken quite a few other classes and have enjoyed those as well. Stacy Julian's Library of Memories--now Photo Freedom--totally changed the way I organize my photos and layouts, and just goes right along with how I scrap. She is teaching a new class this year: Twelve.

And the good news? Cathy Z has since turned Design Your Life into a Self Paced class, and you can get all the content for just $59. And the even better news? BPC is celebrating 6 years and you can grab this class for HALF OFF! Totally awesome! Or you can pick one of the other self paced classes. I know I will. Click here to find out more. Code expires Nov 20th.

Also, just heard about this today: Jessica Sprague is offering a FREE Holiday class. So cool! I will definitely be signing up for that one too. Click here to find out more. I have taken classes from her site before and really liked them. Stories in Hand was a free one I took, as well as Candice Stringham's photography classes which I highly recommend.

Enjoy! And Happy 6th Birthday BPC!