Project Life weeks 5-8

And into February we go..
Week 5:
Snow, snow and a bit more snow! Some playgroup shots, a few favourites from myself and some writing from Jack. I did an insert for the snow day alongside a page showing the story of how the snow came down following our afternoon tobagganing.

Week 6:

A few 'looking up' & 'looking down' shots to show the difference in the weather plus some photos to show the thermometer showing negative readings. A work photo, a funny story about my two superheroes and some writing taken from an envelope my son wrote on as well as my nephews birthday insert.

Week 7:

More superhero behaviour as well as another half term cold (any other teachers always get poorly at holiday time?), some photos of my crocheting progress, my little cook in the kitchen plus his first (not very successful) trip to the cinema (both on inserts). In hindsight, I should have done these as one 12x12 insert (a side per topic) rather than two 6x12s. I would change it now but I've been thrifty and scrapped on both sides of the paper so it won't work. :( There's also the story of us buying our house alongside a few smaller details of our life plus our first envelope page with artwork and valentines cards inside.

Week 8:
Some lovenotes from my H and my bestie plus a self portrait and a sunset shot I took on my walk home from work. I've also included the story of what happened with our landlord as I don't want this album to be completely 'glass always full'. Another insert of our daily life with Em plus her horrible illness which went on for over a week. :(

And onwards to March....

Project Life weeks 1-4

So here goes! A series of posts detailing my Project Life album so far...
Front cover:
Being completely unorganised I didn't take a beautiful self portrait or family shot at the start of the year, unlike most other project lifers. In fact, in the end all I had were some instagram shots of my trainers documenting my new resolve to pull them on a bit more in 2012!

Week one:

A birthday party, a new top and a date night were most of what I captured in this single sided week.

Week 2:

Another birthday party, some fabric crafting and 'a sick note' all appeared in week 2.

Week 3:

I was starting to think more like a Project Lifer by now and really think about what I wanted to document hence the first of the two page weeks. I really like these pages because of the mixture of journalling (some facts, some quotes, not just a diary of what we did). I typed most of the journalling for these pages using a typewriter font. This was part of my catching up process initially as I'd decide which photos I was using and then do the journalling in bulk. Print, cut and add to the photo pages before embellishing.

Week 4:

More fabric crafting and my first insert pages to document Jacks first football match experience- via the executive box! I also included the first pieces of artwork from the children both as an insert and as an inclusion within the page protector.

And onwards to Feb. Pop by tomorrow to see the album evolve...

Engagement shoot

My brother and his fiancee got engaged last October and as part of their wedding photo package had the opportunity to do an engagement shoot in Cambridge in February. These photos were lying in my crop bag on Friday night and seemed just perfect for the challenge that Shimelle set out in the online crop. I took inspiration from the colours, the placement and the scattered embellishments to make this.

Long Distance Friend

Wow! 2 months since my last post! We have been very busy though:

• Our biggest news is that we've finally bought a house- yay! Although the downside to this is having to move back in with my mum after 10 years away, as our landlord won't extend our contract. Lots of packing going on here and decisions as to what can go into storage and what is going to mums. The upside is that it should only be for a month and not paying rent means more money to spend on the new place. Plus Kev and I see this as 2 live in babysitters.... (Just joking mum!)




• I increased my hours on a temporary basis from Feb- April to 80% which was just something else to re-timetable into our week childcare wise etc. However, the money was much appreciated especially with the imminent house move.




• Kev also accepted a new job offer and a promotion so he's feeling really positive workwise too.




• As a trade off to being so busy though my project life took a bit of a back burner. I've spent much of Easter holidays catching up with this so I can share it on here soon. Keep checking back.

Doing so much PL though meant that I haven't done any traditional scrapping for ages so at our crop this week I sat and did two LO's, one of which I'll post today as it's my favourite.

I just love all the monochrome neutrals together using different papers from some old Studio Calico kits. The design was from a Sarahs Cards Retreat class created by Jen Nualls (find her blog here or over at the Sarahs cards blog). I didn't go on the retreat but someone else did and showed me how to recreate the look. Really, really love it and will be doing a similar technique soon I'm sure.

This LO is all about how I met my friend Suz who is part of my Creative Army (if you get the Ali Edwards newsletters you should get what I mean by that!). Her blog is here. Drop by and leave her a message, I'm sure she'll love it!

Snow day 2012

What a great weekend we've had here in the East of England.

Yesterday Jack had a toboganning party at Tallington Lakes which he thoroughly enjoyed. He was slightly disappointed that he couldn't be pushed down the ski run too. I think I might have unleashed a dare devil! The only downside from my point of view was that adults were restricted to pushing duties only. Next time, I want a go!
Just as we arrived home, the snow started falling and laying-our timing couldn't have been better. All night, Kev and I kept watching to see the inches rising!

This morning the snow didn't disappoint!

We were all eager to get wrapped up and head outside as soon as possible.

There were snowball fights:

and smiles:

Emma wasn't so keen on the snow. She literally didn't move from this spot for nearly the whole time we were outside!

My snowman building skills aren't too bad either!

The cold weather had another advantage which involved being able to upload a large order of photos to finish my Project Life album for 2011 and start on Januarys pages as it was too cold for me to do anything else! Hopefully, that'll arrive mid week and I can get on with that during the week. :)

One Little Word 2012: Calm

Almost the last day of January and I finally deal with my One Little Word prompt for this month!

I've chosen the word 'Calm' this year as it was a word that kept popping into my mind. In the same way that I chose Balance as my word for last year (you can read about that here), I continue to be incredibly busy and sometimes it feels that inviting some Calm into my life would be very useful.

For me, this encompasses the need to find ways to relax and unwind as well as responding carefully to stressful situations including dealing with two young children.

I've also tagged the word 'patience' onto this year as it seems to go hand in hand with my OLW. As I explained in the last post, our current housing situation is far from ideal and the house doesn't always lend itself to being calm- after all, it's hard to feel like that if you're worrying about your 2 year old scribbling on the wall or living half out of boxes! I do feel though, that I need to practice calm and patience in waiting our time out whilst we find a new home.

I really enjoyed embracing my OLW last year and can't wait to see what possibilities this years word will open up for me this year.

Home (for now)

Ok, I'm gonna admit it! I love this LO! I know I probably shouldn't admit this outloud but I do!

As soon as I saw that hexagon patterned paper in my Studio Calico kit I knew that I wanted to use it for these instagram photos that I took of the area I live.

One October afternoon, I walked through the village with my phone snapping away at local landmarks or areas of interest that just make me smile.

All the map patterns were just perfect and I'm so please this turned out as I wanted.

We moved house in Autumn into a neighbourhood we've always dreamed of living in. Events that unfolded weren't ideal and the house we wanted to buy didn't come through but renting for now will help us meet our aims with regards to Jacks school choices. We really hope that given the current economic situation too, that having no chain will pay off when a house we want does come up. The only issue is that this area is so lovely houses rarely come on the market- it really is a patience game for us at the moment.

In the meanwhile I plan to really enjoy the village atmosphere and that all our friends live locally.

Home for now anyway. With luck, 2012 has bigger and better property opportunities opening up for us.