project life//2014

so here's the thing. i figure if i'm going to attempt to be more intentional with my blogging, i better start posting more frequently. seems obvious right? 

although i promise nothing (cause we all know how that works out), i am going to be more conscious of how often i am sharing. i love sharing. that's never been a problem. i'm probably an over-sharer. i'm also likely not nearly as funny here as i am in my own head. 

whatev. i'm going with it. 

today i'm going to share my pages from april.

april was hard. 

april was full of lows, and lower lows. 

i was having a hard time even snapping pictures. 

i really just wanted to be in bed sleeping. 

ALL THE TIME. 

i suppose that's the way grief works, right? 

april//

opening spread, nothing too fancy. (triangles: kiwi core kit, currently: aqua core kit)

oh yes. this was the beginning of the bad month. rance decided it was a good idea to put money in his mouth, and then he accidentally swallowed. couldn't NOT include that one. the tab is attached to the X-ray report that tucks in between the two 6x8 pictures. that studio calico 'yummy' flair seemed fitting. (week card: studio calico) 

orange and red and pink would not be my pick of a color combo, but i was really digging how this came out. maybe it's the combo of new strappy sandals that i'm still in love with, dunkin donuts, starbucks & target? probably. i'm also totally obsessed with not only the sandals, but these MAMBI stickers. (coffee: studio calico, orange: kiwi core kit)

i think i already said this, but i'm obsessed with confetti/floating pockets. family fun night. pictures are less than stellar cell phone pictures (again) but i decided after the first year to chuck the DSLR camera toting & just have fun. (red stripe: sunshine core kit)

more family fun night pictures & some journaling. (yellow journaling: boys theme kit)

this text still makes my heart sink when i look at it. obviously a text is the absolute worse way to find out that your grandmother just passed, but the flurry of activity over my oma as the medical staff worked to revive her had my dad kinda in shock, and my mom didn't want to leave my dad long enough to call me, so, text it was. it was an agonizing 1/2 hour after she sent that text that she finally called. the dude had an awards ceremony the monday following, and while rance & i were there, i just sort of sat & stared, so the journaling card got put in to commemorate his achievement. since we somehow misplaced his report card to be able to include it in there. my aunt was kind enough to snag a bunch of papers, and she cut out & laminated my grandmothers obituary. i didn't want to staple it for fear of ruining it, so it's adhered with a tape runner to a cut up page protector, and then inserted into the sleeve. (green chevron: aqua core kit, red stripe: studio calico)

i didn't really have anything to stick on the backside to cover the ads on the paper, so i just found this piece of october afternoon paper & cut it as close to size as i could & put the date my oma passed on it. the quote is from maurice sendak. it seemed fitting. (khaki card: midnight core kit)

birthday for my best friend's son, who is mason's best bud as well. (happy: amy tangerine plus one mini-kit, khaki card: midnight core kit)

some last minute diy projects to get our house ready to host easter. & a little boy that's insanely perceptive about his mama's sadness. & has a smile that can cheer me up in an instant. (for the record: sea foam core kit)

this was one of those times where looking back i wish that i had taken more pictures. and i'm sitting here just now, realizing i have no pictures of the boys with their baskets. doh! i guess i'm NOT done with april. ::sigh:: (khaki card: midnight core kit)

i couldn't narrow down my favorite picture of the re-done pink hair, so they all went in. it feels vain, but i figure i'm not in the book often enough, so there ya go. (pink card: studio calico)

some currents from the blog & a water gun fight in the front yard with the boys. (mason pouted the first 1/2 hour inside over something silly, which i can't recall, so i didn't get pictures of him) (green card: recollections brand, pink stripe: amy tangerine plus one mini kit)

and rounding out april.. few more pictures of rance, hanging off the back of the couch for the 100x & getting in trouble (#butfirstletmegrabapicture) & lining up stamps in my friend's scrapbook store. then some of me, during various walks, which did my heart a whole heap of good in april. (cloud, take a deep breath: studio calico kit)

now i need time, paper, & inspiration to get may-august done! 

xo-k

project life//2014

i did it! 

i finished my first album for 2014, that holds january through april. 

that feels like a GIANT accomplishment. HUGE. 

we aren't going to talk about the fact that it's october, and i technically have less than half the year scrapped. we are going to pretend like i can finish may-november by the END of november, and be ready to rock a december daily album like never before. 

<insert laughter> 

yeah right. 

here's to dreams of mythical proportions, and the reality that i will likely be wrapping up a christmas album this time next year. 

but for now.. YEAH.. WOOHOO...YIPEE.. i finished an album. :) 

here are a few pages from february & march: 

february//

that 1 year card holds some journaling about completing my first year of school. it was a little wordy for a 3x4 card so i used a bifold card from the coral core kit & journaled my little heart out. (green card: sc kit, asterisk: amy tangerine plus one mini kit)

 sometimes i have really crappy photos to work of semi-important things. i have learned to roll with it. to me, it's more important to get the memory/story down than it is to have pro quality pictures. my kids could really care less about grain & lighting. seriously. (star card: sunshine core kit)

i really really really love ghostbusters. like really really. i was sad to hear harold ramis had passed. i don't often include pop culture news, but the ghostbuster geek in me couldn't not include this comic i saw posted all over instagram. too perfect. (khaki card: midnight core kit, polka dot card: sc kit)

march//

opening page for march with my vellum month divider that i am still really really loving. nothing special here. (khaki card: midnight core kit, navy stripe: aqua core kit?)

i wanted to hoard that triangle card, but i'm really trying to use what i love instead of hoarding. loving that when a spread is all b&w photos i can squeeze in those multi colored cards i seem to have a hard time using otherwise. (triangle: sc kit, aqua stripe: sunshine core kit, yellow quote: kiwi core kit)

squeezed in a GIANT 12x16 painting the dude did in school by snapping a picture of it & putting it in a 4x6 square. (no way that baby was going to fold down into a 6x8 album) (today, good story card: kiwi core kit ?)

missing the 12x12 photos,  but LOVING the 6x8 photos. (red & yellow cards: sc kit) 

the stamping on the salad didn't work out quite as i'd hope, but sometimes you just gotta roll with it &  move on. (orange card: sc kit)

i'm 110% addicted to confetti/floating pockets. they are just so much fun! the following page wraps up the rest of one of my best friends weddings, but i'm waiting on a picture to fill in a gap before sharing! 

that's it for february & march.. 

ahh. that feels good :) 

xo-k

Project Life//2014

i said it before, & i'll probably say it again & again until you're totally tired of hearing it. 

i love project life, and i am IN LOVE with this 6x8 size. 

it's so great to pick my favorite stories, quotes, & pictures & keep going until i hit the next month, without paying attention to a weekly format. 

i made a vellum overlay to separate the end of one month & 

the beginning of another. mostly because i have 4 'month in review' cards

one for each of us... 

& because i just wanted to :) 

nothing really special about any of it. 

almost 100% of the pictures are from my iPhone & edited in pictapgo. 

(the spreads were shot with my nikon, which sounds like it's on it's way out :( ) 

i have this post in mind, about the way we approach scrapbooking... 

but i think i'm going to leave that for another day.. 

xo-k

Project Life//2014

before i get into the whole project life thing.. i just wanted to vent?

share?

type away endlessly & dump my brain? ya. maybe that's a better description.

i've been blogging since 2006. that's 8 years. not consistently by any means. but that's a lot of blogging. i've run the gambit of blogging material... random thoughts, notes to my kids, vacation recaps, recipes, crafts, movie suggestions, scrapbooking, you name it.

i'm not short on words. i never really have been. blogging was always therapeutic in a way. i'm not afraid to announce my shortcomings. i'm not proud of them, but acknowledging them out loud has always helped me find some sort of accountability to myself. i'm not afraid to talk about the bad stuff. it's life. i don't need anyone to think i live it a castle in the clouds. i'm down here in the trenches just like the rest of you.

but somewhere, somehow, along the way, i lost my voice. i fell out of love with blogging. i'm almost certain it's when i tried to turn myself into a "crafting-mommy-blogger". i'm not a crafty mommy blogger. i'm lucky to get one project done a year. i'm sarcastic, i'm sappy, and i'm far from being able to crank out regular new, exciting, highly photographic recipes. it's not me. i found myself needing something to focus on the other 4 hours of the day i was juggling household duties & managing care of a newborn & 6 year old, and somehow, that became it.

that's when i started the downward spiral into the blackhole that has now become my blog. add into that i started back to school, and we have the current state of a once monthly update. i wrote a thing for my grandmother's funeral service in may, and i wanted to share it here in this space, but not before i talked about this feeling of losing my voice.

ya see, writing that little bit for her, it brought back all those memories of how much i loved to write, and share, even if no one was really reading. so anyways, you may see more of me around here, those of you that are still out there, anyways.

right now though, i just want to share pretty pictures & my approach to project life for 2014. i'm practically done with 2013. just 2 weeks left, & just pictures to print out at that. it's a dump & run situation at this point, i just can't manage the interest to be all crafty with the christmas pictures. get them in, get the story down, and move on.

last year, keeping up with a 12x12 album during school was tough. trying to get enough pictures, in the right orientation, and planning out the pages was a daunting task. i saw a lot of 6x8 albums circulating around, and while most of them were being compiled by people who were without kiddos, i was interested. 

i had my friend order me 3 studio calico handbooks (because we all know EVERYTHING studio calico eventually sells out, and i didn't want to end up half way through the year without matching albums) & started stock piling page protectors. 

two weeks ago i finally got the chance to start printing out january 2014 & playing. 

i was instantly in love. the size was much more manageable, i could have the whole thing on the table in front of me while i worked, and not feel cramped. 

not only that, but as someone who can't seem to move past the scrapping-to-match-my-pictures phase, it was much easier to pull together spreads with cards & embellishments. 

i'm in the habit of using title cards to pull out & feature words that rance says, or phrases on repeat around the house. it's a fun way to get in those details that i don't always have a picture to go along with. 

this year, i lost the white borders as well. don't get me wrong. i like the white borders, and will probably find myself going back to them. but i needed a break. prepping my pictures for each month takes a heck of a lot less time now, and i really needed that chunk of time back to be productive in getting the album compiled. in a book is better than on a hard drive. 

something else i noticed as i was pulling together the first half of january, is that i felt better about using up pockets for play's sake. the past few years i've held every pocket as an opportunity to tell a story within the week. if i used that pocket for decoration, i missed a chance to tell a story. now, i can just push a story to another spread, & still play. it's making scrapbooking playful for me again. 

i've given myself permission to drop a photo or two from the month, because really, leaving out a picture of the dude on top of a swing set is not like leaving out some integral part of his story. (and there are plenty of photos from him as a toddler up on the roof with papa that will serve as a better reminder he had no fear!) 

the other fun thing is that, so often i've left out personal details from MY life, because i wanted this to be 'OUR' story, but it's hard when i live in a house full of boys who are not necessarily interested in contributing.. and now, i'm putting them back in, because really, this is my story to, and this is me telling our story.. and i have unlimited monthly space, so why not?!

(these are the last photos i took of my grandmother. her birthday, january, before she passed in april)

so there you have it. 

6x8

no rules

just fun. 

& i''m loving it. 

xo-k

currently// 7.18.14

loving// bamboo paper for iPad. i downloaded it a few days ago, picked up a stylus, and spent 4 hours last night (like 10-2am), and another 2 this morning (shh!), just doodling. it reminded me of the crayola color studio i had when i was about 11 or 12 that used to hook up to the tv & let you draw on it. i sat on that thing for hours.

(i think my friend nita was ready to stage an intervention this morning if i didn't stop doodling!)

& also the babe (who i guess really needs a new nickname, since he's almost 4) has been coloring up a storm. i picked him up one of those color wonder travel kits when we took a weekend road trip, and he's been coloring up a storm since. went through the first pack, had to pick up a second for the ride home.. he made me print out a ton of coloring pages monday, and then made his dad do the same tuesday. i love it, because the dude never really liked coloring...

loathing// cooking. i'm just so over it right now. i don't even want to think about food. i just want someone to fix a plate & put it in front of me. i'm bored with food for the most part...i guess?

drinking// water. not enough, but a lot. & yes. iced. freaking. coffee. i give up.

eating// about the only thing that looks appetizing these days is avocado. on my burger, in my chicken salad, on a sub, in a car, in a plane, on a train.. oh, wait.. that's green eggs & ham.... just generally eating it on everything that sounds like it would go well with it. and i want some salsa from this restaurant in town, latinos, so badly, i have half a mind to make the 20 minute drive just for a jar of it!

watching// investigation discovery!!! due to a rather sad & tired computer chair, and a requirement of many hours in front of the computer for school, i've been rotating my time between the bed (where there is a tv, and no kids) & the computer room (where there is no tv, and often 2 noisy kids). it's no secret i'm a big true crime tv junkie. i'm a die hard city confidential, & forensic files fan, and seek out reruns often.. well somehow i landed on investigation discovery & was hooked. it's all day everyday of csi type shows. warning: it will make you terrified to leave your house, question everyone you come into contact with, and make you worried that the most bizarre things could quite possibly be happening inside your very private next door neighbors house.

SO GOOD.... BUT YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

listening// i don't have anything i'm particularly attached to at the moment. except maybe this paramore song..


catching up on// project life.. i have 4, that's right FOUR more spreads until 2013 is finished & i can move onto 2014. so so so excited about this.

until next month..

xo-k