obstacles...

I ran a couple errands today at lunch (well, tried to, anyway) but ran into a few obstacles. This was one of them:

 a roadblock and a detour, on my way to the library. So much for returning the overdue books! (no, not really-- the detour was only a block or so out of the way. And I only had one overdue book.)

 This pic shows the actual reason for the roadblock- tonight's Republican Presidential debate was being held at the local Performing Arts Center, and they were setting up for it. (I gotta say, that was kind of surreal to think about, that a nationally-televised political event was being held just a few blocks away from where I work!) After making my way past the trafficade and dropping my books in the bookdrop, I headed for here:

 Another sort of surreal place- I believe this is the only typewriter store in the entire Valley area. Even just reading the name, "Mesa Typewriter Exchange," seems so odd... With the prevalence of so many mega-huge, big-box stores that sell everything from tube socks to an oil change in the same place, it's almost refreshing to find a place that specializes in such a niche product.

 I need a new ribbon for the typewriter I picked up at the estate sale a few weeks ago... the black ink is getting pretty faint and the red ribbon won't type at all... they certainly should have it here! Along with alot of other cool typewriters and stuff to look at, by what I can see from outside. Aren't the typewriters in the window cool? I can't wait to see what all they have inside!

 But, then, I saw this. Another obstacle!! Oh, well; I'll have to go back. (Tomorrow, after the debate is over. And after work, so I can look as long as I want-- I hope the owner doesn't mind my taking pictures!)

project life- the first 2 weeks of January

okay, so I'm getting a bit behind in putting together my Project Life pages, already. But, I need to keep it do-able for me, so if working on them a couple weeks at a time is what it takes to keep up, then that's okay with me. I can't stress about "every Sunday afternoon at 2 pm, I need to do my PL pages" or anything like that, because that is precisely the sort of thing that would make me quit this project. Whew! I'm glad I got that off my chest! That said, here's another two Project Life spreads; not the best photos, but it took me at least 3 times to get decent photos of them, so I finally quit trying. 

This is the entire 2-page spread for Jan 2-8.  The week included a trip to the movies, a trip to an estate sale (where I found a vintage electric typewriter!! score!!), and photos from a lunch-break trip to the library (along with a photo of my lunch, LOL!), and a photo of one of our favorite dinners, Mexican Spaghetti (yum!). 

a close-up of the right-hand page. The upper left photo is two 3x4 photos collaged together and printed as one 4x6 photo; I added the piece of velvet ribbon (attached with my Tiny Attacher- love that thing!) to separate the photos a bit. I used a few random pieces of scrapbook paper, a manila shipping tag, etc. in addition to pre-printed pieces from the Project Life kit.

This is a closeup of the journaling space above the typewriter photo- it's nothing fancy; I just wanted to save the piece of paper that was the first thing I typed with the typewriter. I stapled the scrap of paper to a tan piece of cardstock. (and what I typed on that piece of paper is true; it IS difficult to type without a delete key- lol!!)

I didn't have 'stuff' to fill up all the spaces, so I added in a quote, stamped on cardstock, with a couple pieces of scrapbook paper decorating the edges. It reads "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss something."  Fitting, I thought- plus, it's from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which is one of my favorite 1980s movies.

This is Jan 9 - Jan 15th... random photos, including a few I posted here already (my haircut, the sad-looking flattened angel food cake, and the 10 lb box of oatmeal). The week also included a trip to Walmart (thankfully, a big grocery trip like that is only necessary once every few weeks), a Dr's appointment for me (I attached the business card to the outside of the page protector), and an estate sale on the weekend (photos posted here previously).

This is a closer look at the left-hand page for that week; I finally started using some of the label stickers included with the Project Life kit (the arrow above, and a clear day-of-the-week sticker on the laundry photo), and I really like the way they look. The bottom left photo is a picture I snapped of a gorgeous sunrise I saw on my way to work; the bottom right side is a story Tom told me about something that happened one afternoon before I got home... Tom was flying his model helicopter in our back yard, got it up too high to control, the wind caught it, and it drifted over the wall and through the neighbors' yard onto the next block!! He found it, thank goodness (lodged up in a tree one street over), but the story was so funny I didn't want to forget it. A design mention: I didn't like the decoration on the journaling card I typed that story on, so I cut up another decorated card (the green and gold design) and used it as a border. I added an extra detail with mini rick-rack (stapled on with the tiny attacher).

I should be asleep right now...

...because I haven't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep the last couple nights-- this weekend I stayed at the Phoenix Scrapbook Cottage, and who can sleep when there's scrapping to be done and Diet Mt. Dew to drink?? (you think one thing had anything to do with the other? haha!!) Anyway, I didn't take many pictures, and most of the ones that I did take turned out crappy, so they will be re-taken tomorrow afternoon. But, here's a little of what I worked on:

 this is an addition to the Christmas week spread in my Project Life album... I wanted a way to save a few of the Christmas cards we got, so added them in a couple different ways- above I've used a 6x12 page protector; below I added a couple cards into the album just by punching holes right in the cards.

 I also added in an 8x8 page protector, and made a collage-style page with snips and pieces from all the cards we received. I've seen Ali Edwards do something similar before, and really liked it.

 (please excuse the slippers I'm wearing in the photo above- but you gotta be comfortable when you're crafting all day and all night, right?!?)

and as a refresher, above is the spread before adding in the extra page protectors. I really like this approach; it's a good way to add in more 'things' without feeling like I have to stretch the week into two entire 12x12 2-page spreads. It's probably just a psychological thing, because I know there's more than just the 2 12x12 pages of stuff there, but they're smaller-- so it works, in my brain.

This is a horrible photo, but it's a still photo from the movie Mona Lisa Smile. I was watching it on my laptop during a break from scrapping. The movie is decent (free-spirited Californian takes on the conservative mid-century view of 'the woman's place in society' at 1953 Wellesley College), but I absolutely LOVE the clothes in this movie. Every outfit-- I want to have the entire wardrobe in my closet! I really like her shirt-dress and sweater combo here, and I believe she's wearing a squash blossom silver and turquoise belt here, as well. I started noticing small things about people's outfits, like the fact that all the earrings are clip-ons, and the fact that Julia Roberts' character wore this super-cool silver and turquoise jewelry throughout the entire movie. Love it, love it, love it!! (I also found another piece of silver and turquoise jewelry to add to my own collection, at another local estate sale- I'll take a photo of that tomorrow, too!)

Project Life- Spread 2: Christmas!

A couple other things I want to mention regarding my approach to Project Life (a couple 'philosophy' type things I'm embracing to make this work for me): the photos aren't necessarily in any kind of 'order' in the page protector (other than the fact that the pics are from that week) because I don't want to have to worry that much about making them 'fit' into the page protector. They also aren't necessarily 'stellar' photography; I figure any decent photo that documents something is better than no photo at all. And, since the Project Life materials are all color-coordinated, I'm not worrying too much about coordinating anything 'with' the colors in the photos, or getting all 'scrapbook design-ish' over these pages. I want to make doing this as easy as possible so I can keep up with it!

This is the second week in my album: Christmas week. I jazzed up the title card a little (yes, right after I said I didn't want to go all 'scrapbooky' with this album, I did it after all... lol!) with a felt holly sprig that was a gift tag from Mom's package. I also made some photo collages in Picasa so I could include a few more photos.

The left-hand page includes a photo collage of the Christmas tree, the presents under the tree, and the Yule log on television (we watched a crackling fire and listened to Christmas carols while we opened presents!), the row of journaling cards with a couple extras- small photos of vintage books (from my childhood) that Mom sent me for Christmas, a business card from my Doctor's office, journaling with a 3-D sticker, a fortune from the Chinese dinner we had on Christmas Eve... The bottom row is two photos I took during the week: the left one on my way home from work one afternoon, and the right one was taken at my Dr's office during my yearly physical. (the office tech mentioned she was a scrapper, so I knew she'd understand when I whipped out my camera!) 

a close-up of the title block: I covered up the design on the card with a piece of die-cut scrapbook paper.

Here, I stuck some file folder labels to the photo for journaling space.

For this photo collage, I separated the small pictures using rick-rack stapled to the photo using my new Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher- I finally bought it (using a 40% off coupon!) after wanting it for months! (I think those teeny tiny staples are just the cutest!!)

another close-up- the lower right part of the page. I attached the fortune cookie fortune to a patterned tag from the Project Life kit.

Above is the right-hand page: more photos of Christmas day, including a 2-photo collage of opening presents in the top right corner: The left picture is Tom opening one of his present, and the right picture is Bisbee and Prescott opening one of theirs! (I love watching them do that!) The center strip is journaling (I included a couple Christmas stamps from cards on one of them), a photo of Tom messing with Ariel, and a grocery shopping list I saved.   

and, here are a couple more close-ups: the dogs enjoying their Christmas chewies (journaling on a vintage ticket stapled to the photo) and below, a pocket made using one of the photographs. 

The photo is of one of my Christmas presents to Tom: a radio-controlled mini helicopter. (he's been having fun with it so far!) I trimmed the photo to about 3x6, and taped down the edges of the photo to create a pocket. I added a journaling tag with details of our Christmas presents, and stapled a punched, stamped circle to the top edge.  Two weeks down, 50 (?) more to go!!

Project Life- or, what have I been up to?

So, what have I (we) been up to, anyway?? Well, the regular stuff-- and some holiday stuff-- just not blogging about it, I guess... but, part of what I've been up to is a new-to-me idea for scrapbooking the 'everyday' stuff that comprises our life, using a concept (and cool products!) from Becky Higgins called Project Life. From Becky's website: "Project Life is designed to be an easier-than-ever scrapbooking system. Simply pair your photos and journaling with pre-designed title cards and journaling cards. Your photos, these cards, and even your memorabilia slip into the Photo Pocket Pages and that’s it. The result is a stylish masterpiece that represents your life or whatever occasion you choose to record. With Project Life’s beautifully simple format, deciding what supplies to use or how to design layouts becomes obsolete, leaving you more time to experience life." Project Life can be used to document a photo-a-day, a week-at-a-glance, a monthly roundup, random photos and stories- however the user decides.

I started out seeing Ali Edwards post Project Life layouts on her blog all throughout last year, and the more I saw, the more it grew on me- the idea of recording the details of daily life as well as the bigger, 'usual topics' for scrapbooking layouts such as holidays, birthdays, trips, or other special occasions. Making regular "designed" layouts is fun, but only doing those leaves out a lot of what happens in our life. (plus, I rarely get the uninterrupted time or creative inclination anymore to spend a couple hours on just one layout.) I decided to try out Project Life using a weekly approach, and see how it goes-- without further ado, here is my first 2-page spread:

Project Life is made to be used with divided page protectors (also designed by Becky Higgins, to go with the papers); you can slip the date / title card and 4x6 photos right into the larger slots, and the journaling tags (or smaller photos) slide into the smaller spaces. The kit comes with tons pre-cut, pre-designed cards, so you have plenty of room for journaling (some of the cards are folded, too, so you have even more room to write). Lots of people do this as a yearly thing, so they start on Jan 1, but I was so excited about it, I started as soon as I got the materials- haha!! (There will be a title or 'cover' page that goes with this album, but I need to take a couple more pet pics first, so I'll show that later.)

Above is the left-hand page, which covers Dec. 10 - Dec. 18th. We attended a performance of Handel's Messiah and ate lunch at a new-to-us Persian restaurant (which was tasty); I received my Project Life materials from Amazon (see the photos, at the bottom?? LOL! I was so excited about this package I tracked it all the way to my door!) The next weekend, we drove to the Queen Creek Olive Mill, and ate at a new-to-us Indian restaurant (also very tasty). I didn't take pictures of that, but I did save the business cards.

Above is the right-hand page, with more photos of the week's activities- Bisbee snuggling with Tom on the couch while we watched TV on Friday night (she very rarely does that, so I'm glad I got a photo of it, even if it wasn't the best quality); addressing the Christmas cards; a photo taken off of the Food Network website from the final Next Iron Chef episode (I still need to write more journaling, there); and photos documenting a couple movies we watched. (FYI, I got images for the movies from the Internet, cropped and printed them, then attached them to cardstock. The red "Take-and Bake Revolution" is a sticker from the grand opening of our local Papa Murphy's pizza; I just stuck it to a journaling card and folded the overhang to the back. (it's very good pizza, by the way- we've gotten it 3x already!)

This is a detail of the business cards from the left page: I cut a piece of coordinating cardstock to 4x6, rounded the edges, and attached the business cards to the cardstock. And, I wanted to mention something you can hopefully see on the right-hand page: some of the photos have labels on them. They are simply office file folder labels with extra journaling on, and I think I'll be doing this a lot to keep track of more details. Some labels are stuck to the photo itself, and some are stuck to the page protector. Thanks for looking, and reading about my new project, Project Life!! I'm excited for this to continue-- I have a couple more weeks (mostly) completed already, so I'll show you those soon.