Random Snapshots

august goals

As of August 10th I will be officially finished with school so I expect to have more free time for the last 3 weeks of August.  I'm ready to re-claim my life and get some stuff done.  In the words of Big Black, I'm going to DO WORK SON!

1.    Control my eating out and get to the gym more often:  I anticipate having more time at night to plan my meals throughout the day which will result in less eating out.  I'm giving myself 2 months to get back on track and shed a few lbs.

2.    Finish a knitting UFO:  This is ongoing for me.  I really need to begin finishing what I start.  I'm shooting for finishing the 2nd Lindsay sock and possibly my Hey Student! cardigan.

3.    Start a date-night tradition with Adam:  This has been on my mind a lot as school winds down.

4.    Get in the habit of tackling a small cleaning project in the house every week on a certain day:  For example -- Every Wednesday try and purge/organize a small portion of a room such as the "junk drawer."  I can manage something in small bits like this and think it will really add up.

5.    Do something that I haven't had time for: Edit and order a bunch of photos, learn to embroider, get back to reading, or do some home project.  Something along those lines that I haven't had time to do in the past 2.5 years.

goodbye June, hello July.

Man, June flew by fast didn't it?!  I think the closer I get to finishing school (5 weeks, 6 days) the faster the weeks, days and hours are flying by.  I haven't been able to keep up with anything lately, including this blog.

I do have some goals for July though.  Just a couple of things I'd like to accomplish without putting too much pressure on myself during this last class. 

1. Print some photos.  I don't care how many or what they are of, I just need to print some instead of letting them live on the computer!  A few months ago I purchased an Espon Artison 800 and that printer is the shit.  The quality if fantastic and I've loved the photos that I've printed so far.    
2. Update my blog banner.  I think that speaks for itself.  :)  I also am considering moving my blog to another host.  I would like to be able to post larger photos in the future and currently I can't do that on Typepad unless I upgrade my format -- aka: pay more.  I'm looking into Squarespace, but open to other options, advice, opinions.
3. Continue to work on my EliseJoy summer minibook.  I don't have a photo of my own yet, but it's turning out to be pretty cool.
4. Get my Sock Summit homework done -- this should probably up in the #1 spot since it is the most important thing I need to do in July.
5. Eat better and workout a little more.  Constant goal for me which I hope becomes easier once I'm finished with school.
6. Finish up at least one knitting UFO (unfinished object).  I'm working on a delicious pair of socks right now which I think I can finish up since the yarn is sport weight.  Here's a sneak peek:

 

That's all I have for now.  Happy July everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying your summer. :)

 

cards for heroes

While blog-hopping on Friday I came across an organization called Cards For Heroes.  They collect blank, hand-made greeting cards to send to our troops so that they can write on the cards and send them home to their families.  They also collect cards of encouragement for our troops.  

Since it's Memorial Day weekend they organized a mass blog-hop which included many people in the paper arts community.  I had not heard about this organization prior to seeing this blog-hop, but am glad to know about it now.  I only wish I had found it sooner. 

I took a couple of hours yesterday morning to make some cards to send.  Here are a few of them: 

This mission is very near and dear to my heart.  When my husband was deployed in 2003 I wrote to him 3 times per day, every day for 7 months.  Along with letters I sent a lot of cards and am pretty sure I kept Hallmark in business because I couldn't keep up with making all the cards myself!  I know to some this sounds excessive, but for me it wasn't.  I just wrote about my day, memories of us, what we'd do when he returned and general words of encouragement and appreciation.  To this day my husband thanks me for this.  He would get piles of letters and cards by the time the mail actually hit him. 

Because I knew there were a lot of people over there that would not get many, if any, cards or letters from home I decided to write to them as well.  I can't stand to think of people being left out or feeling down, especially in situations like war deployment.  On 3 or 4 occasions I made cards for every single guy in his unit.  They were all handmade and I tried to write a personal note to each of them.  When the unit returned all of the guys thanked me sincerely.  My husband told me that a few of the guys were really touched and expressed their gratitude to hime while over there.  It's a feeling I will never forget.

My next bunch of cards will be encouragement and gratitude for their service.  If you have some handmade cards laying around or an hour to make some I encourage you to do so.  It doesn't take long and I used all scraps to make mine.  I can promise you, from firsthand experience, the time and effort will be appreciated.  Please visit the website and familiarize yourself with the rules first as well. 

friday favorites.

Last night Adam and I stopped at Target on the way home from work to get some wrapping paper for our Christmas gifts.  I love picking out wrapping paper -- Target has the prettiest designs and I always have to take a few minutes to decide.  It's our tradition that we pick out our own papers and wrap each other's gifts in only that paper.  I also bought some pretty ribbon because I like to really do it up even though I know it will get torn apart!  I am one of those people that enjoys wrapping gifts!

I got to the gift tag section and decided we didn't really *need* tags since we weren't wrapping for others.  Since I'm weird I knew I'd miss putting a tag on there so I decided to scour the internet for free printable tags.  I have plenty of cardstock at home and I was sure I could find something cute.

Here are my favorites from my search.  Click on the links in the title to access the tags.

Martha Stewart Tags: These are my favorites of the bunch. 

Christmas Tags from Piece of Work: Second favorite!.

 

Holiday Gift Tags from Paperseed: Love these too. 

 

Polka Dot Elves:  These are just too cute! 

Why not save some money this year and print your own tags?  

I have also been getting some wrapping ideas from Martha Stewart's website.  Here is a link to the section I've been browsing -- Gift and Wrapping Ideas.  

If you have any more printable tag links or gift and wrapping ideas I'd love to see them.  Post a link in the comments.

Happy Friday!

affordable Christmas decorations

I've been noticing a lot of inexpensive Christmas decorations on the 'net lately and I thought I would share three of my favorites here.  I especially like the ones that reuse items and don't involve any purchases. 

Recycled Christmas Tree by Lilly: I love this little tree and the endless decorating opportunities.  I think I'll make a few up with the Christmas catalogs I've been getting in the mail. 

 

Christmas Card Tree:  Martha used inexpensive store-bought branches, but I've seen many variations with braches from your yard.  Either would be good.   I haven't gotten any Christmas cards yet, but I think I can expect a few.  Maybe I'll make this up to display them with.  Last night at knitting we decided you could also display tiny knit mittens, socks, or sweater ornaments. 

 

Glitter candles:  It's no secret that I love glitter and shimmer.  Aren't these gorgeous?  I've done this with pumpkins before -- as a project with my Grandma.  I would suggest that you buy the most super fine glitter you can find.  It will adhere much better.  

  

My little trees are up and I'm hoping to decorate them tonight.  I also want to decorate my floating shelves above the couch and the cutout above my fireplace.  Maybe I'll have time to make up some of these decorations this weekend. 

Paper and glue and good thoughts

Adam's grandmother had to be admitted to the hospital again.  She's been having various issues lately.  This time they've discovered she has congestive heart failure and diabetes.  She's doing ok now, but still retaining some fluid.  She needs to have surgery for some stents to be put in.  At this point they are trying to build her up a bit for the surgery.

We spoke with her on the phone yesterday, but it was a very short conversation.  She can't talk for very long because she gets out of breath easily.  I guess that comes from the fluid build up in the lungs which they are working on now. 

If you're the praying kind I know she would appreciate the prayers and good thoughts. 

It's been a while since I've spent time with my paper and glue.  It felt good to complete a quick project last night.  I decided to make her this little board frame as a get well gift. 

Simple stuff here - paper, stickers, flowers and buttons.  All supplies are from Making Memories except for the board - I've had that forever.  I covered the entire project in Gel Matte Medium (except the photos) to protect it.

Here are a couple of detail shots:

     

Christmas cards

My Christmas cards are done!  ;)

Actually they have been done since Saturday.  I had a few friends over, crammed them in my room and we made our Christmas cards. 

We had a great time and all ended up with the cutest cards.  I'm not going to share mine (even though I want to!) until after they are mailed out.  Much of my blog readership is on my Christmas list and I don't want to spoil it.  I've got a good one this year.  :)

There were also a few little crafters that joined us:

Cuties, huh?!  Kieron (I hope I spelled that right!) and Autumn came with their mommies to hang out (and maybe chew on a little paper - ha!)

It's a good feeling to have my cards done already...ahead of the curve for once.  :)

A little paper art

I've been scrapbooking a little this weekend.  Just some simple layouts and I wanted to share.

I've scrapped this photo before, but I wanted to use it again.  I love the market.

Adam and Rob (of Allison & Rob) waiting for a bus after the Ferry ride:

B24j - some photos taken last summer:

Photos from the pumpkin patch visit this past October:

View of Seattle from the Bainbridge Island ferry last summer:

I also decided to practice my crocheting this weekend.  A few hours here and there and I completed the One Skein Scarf from SnB's Happy Hooker.  I used some stash yarn in pink.  Since I don't really wear pink I think I will send it to one of my little cousins.  I like the design a lot though and will probably make another in a more appropriate color.

I'm still working on Wicked.  I'm close to putting the pocket on.  I just have to try it on tonight and see if it's long enough.  I'm hoping to finish it by next weekend so that I can start on Rusted Root.  :)

Have a great week!

 

Sharing some art...

It's been a while since I've scrapbooked.  A looooong while.  I think the last time was in October, before we moved.  So last weekend I went to a friend's house with another friend and the 3 of us scrapped for a few hours.  I'm a pretty speedy scrapper so I ended up getting 5 layouts done and man, it felt good!! 

I thought I would share them today with you.  =)

Camryn and Uncle Adam over Thanksgiving vacation:

Camryn eating her Thanksgiving dinner:

My DML friends at our wedding:

A snowy morning at work:

My brother and I on Thanksgiving:

And just for fun - here is a birthday card and some coasters I made for Adam for Christmas:

That's all for now.  I need to get back to studying.  =)  Adam's the homework cop and will ask me 15 times tonight if I did my homework.  Nice.  I'm in the middle of Week 4 which means only 1 and a 1/2 weeks left.  I can't believe this first class is almost over.

Have a great rest of the week!

Our First Married Christmas...

as told in a mini tag book.

I've never really been one to scrapbook Christmas photos.  I'm not sure why...it's just not something I do.  I usually don't take many photos to begin with so there's not much to work with.  Being that this past Christmas was our first together as a married couple, I felt that I wanted to do something.  I was thinking a minibook and it just so happened that I got the perfect minibook and embellishments from our secret stocking exchange this year.  I really haven't scrapbooked since August, but I didn't have any excuse now.  Everything was right in front of me.  This took me only a few days and I really enjoyed the process.  Each tag has a little layout on the front and the journaling on the back.  I took my time with the journaling and hopefully this will be something nice to look at in the future.  I actually finished this on New Year's Eve weekend, but have just gotten around to photographing it now.

You can see the whole album here :: First Married Christmas MiniBook

I kept it simple with the product and if you're interested, here's a list:

• 7 Gypsies Mini Tag Book
• Heidi Swapp Chipboard Alphas, Bling Frames, Journaling Spots, Alpha Stickers
• Making Memories Tiny Alphas
• SU, Technique Tuesday & Impress Rubber Stamps
• Tim Holtz Ink
• Basic Grey Paper, Tags & RubOns

I started my next project last night and finished just the cover.

Another MiniBook, but not quite as mini.  I think this one is 6x6.  I'm going to make it similar to the tag book above - mini layout on the front with journaling on the back.  Maybe I'll just make MiniBooks for a while...it seems to be what I enjoy right now.  =)

I need to go work on some knitting projects now and finish teaching Adam how to make sauce.  Maybe it will help him recover emotionally from the poor showing by the Seahawks today.  Boo!  The good thing about the game was that we got treated to a delicious breakfast over at Allison & Rob's house and also got to meet another couple they've been friends with for a while.  Can't beat a morning like that.  =)