living artfully

week in the life daily opener

It's been an off couple of days. I woke up on Monday morning, reaching for my camera to document another day. Then I remembered Week in the Life is over. I didn't take a single picture Monday and couldn't shake the weird nagging feeling that I was supposed to be taking pictures. It wasn't until Tuesday evening that I remembered Project 365. Oops!! After last week's intense picture taking, I can't get back in the groove. Hopefully I will settle back into the routine soon!

Right now I'm working on putting together our Week in the Life album, which has been fun but sloooow. I'm creating a series of pages for Monday. Then once I have everything set the way I'd like it to look, I'll be repeating for Tuesday-Sunday. I'm close to finishing up Monday and hope to share it soon. For now the only part that's totally done is my daily opening template.

 
  
Every day will start with a page like this, with my journaling notes on the left and the hubby's journaling notes on the right.  I started with Ali's Story of Today overlays from 2008, but then tweaked them with some of her newer products.  I'm using Ali's hand drawn days + months brushes to mark the day of the week. I used her April overlays for the date stamp at the bottom. And for the title, I picked up a really cool set of everyday phrases brushes from Ali that I know will be great for other projects, too.

This will be a hybrid album, so the opening pages are going to be printed out and I'll be adding a bit of embellishment for texture. This page is by far the most advanced thing I've ever done in Photoshop. I've enjoyed stretching myself to try and make things I don't know how to make. It can be frustrating, but very rewarding in the end!

Besides Week in the Life being over, I think the other thing that's throwing me off is that Something from Almost Nothing also wrapped up. And I have no classes lined up next. I think I've become used to having a class or two going at a time to keep me inspired. Must figure out what class to take next! It look like there are some new Big Picture Scrapbooking classes starting soon. And I'm excited to hear what Shimelle has in the works next.

Are you signed up for any classes for the next few months? I'd love to hear what you're taking and any recommendations!

 

iron cupcake milwaukee - cheese

There is something special about a cupcake that is both delicious and perfectly decorated. We love cupcakes around here and were super excited yesterday to attend our favorite local baking competition, Iron Cupcake Milwaukee.

Yesterday, the bakers had to focus on adding cheese to their cupcakes. From the more common dessert choices like cream cheese and cheesecake, to the more unique like bleu cheese and cheddar, we were blown away by the artistry and creativity. And we ate some pretty darn good cupcakes in the process. I could photograph cupcakes for hours, but here are just a few of my favorites...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite cupcake combined port wine, bleu cheese and pear. Isn't it amazing what some bakers can come up with?!

 

what's in your bag

I just came across a fun photo project called "What's in your Bag?" If you haven't taken a shot like this recently, it would make a great picture for your Week in the Life or Project 365. This one is definitely going to make it into our album.

Thanks, Kelly, for the inspiration! And if you'd like to see more, check out the What's in your Bag Pool on Flickr.

 

review: city of thieves

The book club I participate in just finished reading a wonderful book, City of Thieves by David Benioff. What is at once a dark and grim tale is also a charming and uplifting story. It was a book loved by our entire book club group and I think part of the appeal is that it is one of those novels that has a little bit of everything: part historical fiction, part "coming-of-age" tale, part war novel, with witty humor and themes of friendship and love.

City of Thieves tells the story of two young men on an impossible mission during the siege of Leningrad. Both have been imprisoned for separate crimes, but are offered their freedom if they can return to the Colonel in one week's time with a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake. With no food in the city and the Germans advancing toward Leningrad, the men set out on a journey to save their lives. What they see and experience is at times gruesome. But their journey is truly remarkable.

The story is very engaging and I found the book to be a page turner. I was not surprised to learn after the fact that Benioff is also a screenwriter (he adapted Kite Runner for the screen), as I could picture this novel being easily adapted into a movie. And therein lies my only complaint. In all the plot and suspense, perhaps some of the historical accuracies are lost for the sake of the story.

In the end, it was a very entertaining read. And for me, all the grim scenes and foul language were worth the emotional cost. I am glad to have come across this book and it is one I hope to pass along to other friends.

Next, our book club is reading Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I would love to hear your thoughts if you've read either book!

 

happy birthday

 

Happy Birthday to the guy who lets me call him husband, hubby and husbone... instead of his name. To the guy who puts our little family to bed every night and makes breakfast every morning. To the guy who will spend hours in a scrapbook store without complaining, even trying to show an interest in whatever I *must* have. To the guy who does all the vacuuming and laundry so I don't have to. To the guy who still gives me butterflies, flowers, and foot rubs. To the guy who makes me the happiest lady ever.

I love you, Steve! Happy Birthday!!

PS - Someone is getting cookies made with his most favorite ingredient ever -- bacon! 

 

something from almost nothing - punches

Although Something from Almost Nothing is over, Shimelle has been a wonderful host and is still offering us challenges for the month of April. So I decided to play along with this week's challenge, which was to repeat a punched shape on a layout. It took all my restraint not to reach for my favorite butterfly punch; they looks so cute in multiples! But since I use it all the time, including my page protector layout for my Celebrate Life album, I decided to use heart punches instead.

 

For a twist, I punched most of the hearts out of the background paper for a tone-on-tone look, but then misted them with cherub pink glimmer mist.

 
 
Initially I was thinking this would be my last layout for the album. It's getting quite full, as I've done all the prompts, plus a few repeats and challenges. But I don't think I'll call it done until Shimelle posts the last two challenges. If I have the time and am feeling inspired, I could always squeeze in 2 more pages, right?!

 

homemade embellishment stand

In the latest special Tips & Tricks issue of Creating Keepsakes, I read that next month Simply Renee is releasing a new floor model of their popular Clip it Up. I absolutely love the floor model Clip it Up, but not the price -- the MSRP is $230. So this weekend, my brother and I put the finishing touches on our homemade multi-tiered embellishment stand.

 

There are a lot of resources and tutorials available online on how to make your own embellishment hanger. Most of the tutorials are based on the concept of using lamp shades as your rings. The video that inspired our project was from MsKoolKat007 on YouTube. To build ours, we basically followed the format in the video below.

Once we had all the necessary supplies, the project came together in about two hours. And in terms of cost, we put together the whole unit for about $70. The majority of the cost was associated with the three lamp shades. I opted to buy them from Wal-Mart for $45. It could be done less expensively if you have spare lamp shades at home or pick them up second hand. For me, it was important that they matched, so I bought new.

If you attempt this project at home, here are a couple important things to keep in mind:

- Make sure you purchase lamp shades that have a spider support system. This means it will have a washer in the center and then at least three arms that are attached to the outer ring.
 

- Besides making sure it's a "spider" lampshade, you'll also want to pay attention to the strength of the metal. If it seems thin and flimsy, it will likely bend once you hang your embellishments. Once you load it up, all those stickers and alphabets are quite heavy!

- Avoid lampshades that have metal support bars between the top and bottom outer rings. If you purchase this style, you will have to cut off the metal support bars.

- Make sure your first purchase is your lamp shades. The hole in the center washer of the shade will dictate what size of threaded rod, washers, and nuts you will need. We brought the lamp shades into the home improvement store to test and make sure it all fit before making the purchase.

- Measure the tallest package that will hang on each tier and then add a few inches to determine the height of each tier. Some of my tallest packages are over 13 inches tall, so we made the tall tiers 18 inches. The top tier for little packages is 10 inches.

- In terms of stability, we placed numerous large washers on the threaded rod along the parts that are hidden by the PVC pipe. This helped add stability and reduce the amount of bending. A larger threaded rod adds stability too, so keep this in mind when selecting your lamp shade. You could also drill through the center metal washer of your lamp shades so a larger rod fits through. My version has a 5/16 inch threaded rod but ideally I think it needs to be even larger than this.

- Lastly, keep in mind that spray paint could transform the look of your stand.  There are some great colored and metallic spray paints on the market, which you could use to personalize the color to match your space.

 

I definitely owe my brother a HUGE thank you for his help with this project. I am always amazed by his ability to build things from scratch and to brilliantly improvise as he goes. Power saws and wrenches are not my forte; I could not have made this without his help!

If you have any questions on how to make your own embellishment stand, please feel welcome to leave a comment and I will get back to you!

 

shimelle's crop party: sketch challenge

There's a huge party going on over at Shimelle's this weekend! If you find yourself with some free time this weekend, stop by! The main detail to know  is that even numbered hours have challenges and chances to win prizes; and some odd numbered hours have inspiration posts to keep you creative.

So far I had time to play along with the woodgrain sketch challenge. Shimelle posted a lovely page and asked us to use it as a sketch, including the title. And since the title is so fabulous, I knew I wanted to play along.  Here's my take, another page for my Celebrate Life album...

 

I'm still revisiting some of the prompts from Something from Almost Nothing, so I was also keeping the patterned paper challenge in mind for this layout. I tried to use up some little scraps by creating my own paper flowers at the top and bottom of the layout.

The grouping at the top of the layout is inspired by Alissa Fast and one of her amazing layouts for Something from Almost Nothing. Thanks, Alissa!!

 

 

I hope to have time this weekend to play along with more of Shimelle's challenges! And I hope you are having a lovely weekend!

week in the life journaling ideas

As I pull together elements for the upcoming Week in the Life project, I've been thinking a lot about what kind of information I want to record. I'd like to make this decision up-front, so that I can be consistent each day in what types of notes I take.

When I participated in this project in 2008, I journaled about three things:
- A recap of the day's events
- A list of what food we ate
- 3+ things we were grateful for each day

When I spend time with our 2008 Week in the Life album, I find myself drawn into the lists more  than the lengthy detailed recap of the day.

 

So instead of summarizing each day in paragraph format, I'm thinking of doing a play on a daily appointment calendar. I'm envisioning the calendar printed onto kraft cardstock, then filled in with handwriting and maybe a few embellishments. I think I will decorate the right-hand side with things like photos and papers from the day.

 
 
The other thing I learned from reviewing the 2008 album is that I wish I documented more about what was going on in the world around us. What were the gas prices? the top news stories of the day? the songs on repeat on our iPods? I don't want to go too deeply into the world around us, but I do think it will help to give the album more context and will definitely be the type of thing we will find fascinating in years to come.

So for this year, I'm working to develop a daily questionnaire that touches on the various things I want to remember. Two great starting points to develop your own list are the simple woman's daybook and Ali Edwards' post about planning for your album. Here's what our list looks like so far:

I am thinking...
I am thankful for...
I am eating…
I am learning…
I am wearing...
I am creating...
I am going...
I am reading...
I am hoping...
I am hearing...
I am buying…
I am blogging/tweeting…
I am texting…
I am watching…
Outside my window...
Around the house...
On the news…
On my Facebook page...
One of my favorite things...

I think this list touches on all the big things and little things I want to include in this year's album. It should be convenient to print copies of this questionnaire and the calendar pages to make notes throughout each day.

Now I'm just waiting for this weekend to see Ali's newly released templates at Designer Digitals before finalizing my design. The beauty of this project is you don't necessarily have to scrapbook your pages during the week you are documenting. As long as you take the time that week to take photos and notes on your activities, you can create your album at your own pace in the weeks following. So I am comfortable that my album design is not fully set. Just can't wait until the 19th to start!

 

spring

I came home from work tonight, greeted by flowers in our yard. It seems in the last day everything has started to bloom. Such a lovely sight, especially compared to snow!

 

 



  

And I think this is going to bloom next...
 

Happy Spring!!