Wishing

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

So in the style of Currents, here is my wish list right now:

wishing for my bags to be magically packed overnight. where did those house elves go?
wishing I could finish some little gifts for my family, and realizing only one of my siblings is actually going to get them this year.
wishing I could just relax and let it go.
wishing I was a better friend. so thankful to those who have gone out of their way to think of me.
wishing that I could re-live a few priceless childhood Christmas memories. like my sisters and I making funky cookies to pixie our friends and neighbors.
wishing I had a pensieve so I could do that!
wishing I had more time and energy to do Christmas activities with my family.
wishing I could create and blog more. trying to be okay with that too.
wishing for a present mind, to be mindful and awake, to enjoy the moments I have now.
wishing for peace, comfort and healing to those in need.
wishing for joy to you and yours

May your hearts be filled with light and wonder this season. See you next year!

December Daily 2012 | Days One & Two

Hello December!

We started December 1st with everything from breakfast tacos, a Christmas Parade and Stroll (downtown street celebration), being with friends and meeting Santa! It was her first time meeting Santa and she did great. I was so proud of her. A little shy, but she gave him high fives and hook 'em horns. And she remembered to ask for what she wanted with a small cue. (she wants a sheep and something pink--have I mentioned how much I love this girl?) 

Last night we came home to meet our Elf on the Shelf. She quickly named her Cookie. Maybe we were all hungry, but I love it. She loves her Cookie the Elf and we found her this morning eating little Christmas cookies! So cute.

Not surprising, we all needed a lot of rest today. And I got some pages done during her nap.

Here's a look at my day one. Hard to choose just one story, so I decided to highlight the photo of meeting Santa and write down our bucket list, since we accomplished two of them and got started on three others! I traced some cookie cutters I have to make the stars. I'm thinking I'll try something like this inside the cover of my bucket list album. I also did a light spray of Mister Huey's Shine and the silver pen is a little bit glittery which is fun.

December 1: Hello Santa!
Excited to meet Santa and start of our bucket list.

Day 2: Just a little bit of magic. Wanted to highlight little Cookie the Elf. I started with the hearts and then added a few stars and a bit more. A little messy but I don't want the pressure for this journal to be perfect. Just having fun and adding a little magic here and there. (love that Kelly Purkey stamp too)

December 2: December Magic
Excited to find Cookie the Elf eating cookies

Also got a chance to work on a little bit of my Project Life for December. I had already printed these journal cards from Ali Edwards and added them in a Design F page protector from Becky Higgins. I just added the photos and journaling, along with the title, which is a download from Ali Edwards in the 25 Days class at Studio Calico. I recolored it red and printed it on vellum. Also added the mini stars with a little glue dot on the back. I may add some tiny confetti stars too when I finally dare to try my new sewing machine! (printing on vellum or transparencies is a fun way to add a see-through element, especially if you don't have a die-cut machine)

I'm kind of liking the Design F lately. I'm thinking of using it more in 2013. We'll see. For December I think I'll end up with a Design A on the left of this, then there are three Design F pages, and another Design A. I've already started a Design G as an insert about yesterday's adventures.

December Daily in Project Life using Ali Edwards journal cards

Finally, I wanted to share a peek of my other project, the bucket list mini album in a 6x8 Studio Calico Handbook. I'm doing 12 things here, and probably Christmas Eve and Day. Really loving Liz Tamanaha's templates (Paislee Press). I'm using a mix of hers and Ali's 6x8 templates from this year, as well as various journal cards, etc. Hope to do a post about it soon.

It's awesome to see everyone's pages and albums and I'm excited to be able to share a bit today. Thanks so much for stopping by!

InLinkz.com

This December | A Bucket List Album

Hello December!

I wanted to share a bit more of the plans I have for this December. I'm excited.

I'm carrying on the idea from the summer that Ali Edwards had to do a Summer Manifesto. I did it during the summer and absolutely loved it. Like she said, it was about living with intention, and I was so happy I did it, that I didn't miss out on those roadside peaches. Awesome stuff.

Bring on the bucket list! 

My husband and I have come up with 12 items for our bucket list/manifesto. We may not get to all 12 but I'm really hoping we can. I wanted to call it "this Christmas" but I ended up losing a letter s and actually "this December" works better, as all our items are not necessarily Christmas related.

So here's our list:

1. A Downtown Christmas Celebration
2. Meet Santa (this will be her first time so I hope it goes good!)
3. 25 Days of Books (M really loves books and I thought it would be a great way to get some Christmas books + be a bit of a countdown to Christmas. I've heard it's a really great activity so we are hoping it will turn out to be fun).
4. Watch Elf, make (or decorate) cookies and snuggle. (I really want to bake my sister's awesome sugar cookies but being realistic here).
5. Elf on the Shelf! (thanks to my husband for surprising us today with it!)
6. Gingerbread houses. (This is one my husband put down and really wants to do with M).
7. Relax and enjoy the lights and some Christmas music. (with a busy schedule we really need to make this one a priority).
8. Decorate the tree. 
9. Do some art with Maggie. (take time to do some hand painting with her--she loves it).
10. Date night. 
11. Travel (road trip) to visit relatives out of state (a visit long over-due). 
12. Watch a bowl game with my Mom. (both my husband and I put this one on here--she really loves football). Also in this category will be a possible fishing trip with my Dad. (depends on the weather, etc but we are hoping it happens).

I'm also thinking I'll include Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in this album as I think there will be room. I'm planning on making an intro page about why we are doing it, what our regular schedules and routines are in order to give an overall view of us right now. I have a feeling this season is going to fly by, and I'm hoping we can make some magic this year. I loved that as a child my parents did things to make it magical. I hope to carry on that idea.

I'll update with pics of the album when I can--check out my Instagram feed for some sneaks!

Hope you are having a great December 1! If you are looking for more inspiration as to how to approach December Daily and other projects, check out Ali's blog today. Awesome stuff! Click here to see her list of stories she has told over the years of doing this project. Did I mention it's awesome?

Happy December to you!!

updated: here are a few pictures of my album so far. I'm planning on doing another post with how I did the album and hopefully more of my foundation pages. Thanks for looking!

Project Dig Deep | a few extras and a book party

Thanks everyone for the support for the eBook! It's my first time ever being published, so it's pretty exciting for me :)

As part of the launch for the eBook, Big Picture Classes will be hosting an eBook Party next week, and I'll be doing a chat in the Project Life Community (it's free to join). I'll be hosting a chat in the community there on Friday 11-30-12 at 8 pm central time. I would love to have you join me!

You can join the community here.

You can get your own copy of Project Dig Deep here (clicking this link is an affiliate link-no extra cost to you).

I really loved these layouts I did. In fact, I created a bit more than there was room to show in the eBook, so I got permission to share the extras here! yay!!

Here are the pages from the personality "bonus" or "insight" pages I did (which you see above). The 6x12 striped page is just to set it apart from the other spread. If you flip that 6x12 grid page over, this is the title page. It's hard to see, but it's a little metal flair button from Amy Tangerine that says, "Let's Go" which I thought was perfect for pages highlighting her on the go personality. The paper is from Studio Calico.

In the eBook you can see quite a bit actually. On the back of the 8x10 large photo is a page where I talk about her and why I'm doing this layout, kind of an introduction. I'll admit I cried mama tears as I wrote it. Those are good tears, but just shows how much heart I put into this project. Then the parts you see peeking through are her just getting going at under a year old (she started walking at 10 months).

Also in the eBook you can see the next two page spread, where I highlighted her at 1 year and at 2 years old and showed her personality and growth during that time. (see why the mama tears, hello they grow up too fast!!)

This is the last page of the project, which I made with the Design G page protectors from Becky Higgins. I think I might add a right side to finish her at 2 years old, then do her when she is 3 as a left and right side, and repeat each year. I'm not sure if I said it in the eBook, but what I ended up doing was creating a mini-book within a book, which I totally love. If I do that I will eventually move this into her own "All About Maggie" book within my Library of Memories albums.

Here is a glimpse at another "insight" or "bonus" layout I made to celebrate our tradition of going to Rudy's for breakfast tacos. This is part of the right side of the layout (which is a Design A page protector). In the eBook you can see most of it but the 6x12 insert covers this part. 

I wanted to include it here because it shows how I capture the story of the clean hands. They have a really fun handwashing station and you get a sticker that says, "I have clean hands." Needless to say, this is always a highlight of the trip! :) To keep the layout from getting overwhelming I just used the sticker on a 3x4 piece of patterned paper and wrote the journaling on a shipping tag and slipped it in behind it. This technique works really well on the right side layouts because it's easy to pull things on that side.

I also used a Design I page protector as another insert for some Instagrams I had. That one of her in the elephant pajamas has to be one of my favorite photos from the whole time we've been going.

And on the back of that page are just some more Instagrams (these are 4x4 pocket pages).

Thanks for looking! I'm still pinching myself at being a part of this eBook. I've been a fan of the crew from Ella Publishing and Big Picture Classes since the days of Simple Scrapbooks. Finding them, along with Cathy Z and Ali Edwards are some of the reasons I got back into scrapbooking and I'm so thankful to be a part of this. Let me know if you have any questions! And I'll hope to be chatting soon with you this Friday! 

Products used: (for full list see the eBook). Here are a just a few of the items used. If you have any questions just let me know.