minibook accomplished

I have several projects from last year and the year before that I've been trying to finish in order to make "crafty room" for Project Life and other things crafty.  The one that has been dogging me the most is the first year mini book of my niece, Ms. H.  She will be two in May, and I may or may not have been working on it since she was a couple months old.  (Yeah, you do the math, it's embarrassing.)

I finally put the finishing touches on it a couple weekends while I half watched/listened to Super Bowl 46, but only got around to editing the pictures a couple nights ago.  The majority of the products are from an old Cocoa Daisy kit of which I don't remember the name; the rest are from my stash that I am more than happy to deplete.

Overall, I really love how it turned out, so much so that I may tackle a second year mini book.  I think it is totally do-able as long as I stick to the same formula throughout the book.

Since I had been working on the mini book for so long, when I finally snapped in the last ring, my shoulders felt instantly lighter.  There are still a couple more projects on my list that I feel compelled to complete sooner rather than later.  Among them is my Sugar Maple Shawl (I'm so close) and Abalone sweater (not so much).  I hope I can share those with you soon too!

xo

friday faves | lovin'

With a new year underway, one of my goals is to just scrap!  Last year scrapping was an afterthought.  I can count on my two hands the number of pages I completed.  Sad!  The truly sad part was that I had so many ideas, but lacked the discipline to sit down and create.

Not surprisingly there already is a lot of inspiration which I will admit to needing.

• Love this beautiful minibook to capture 2012.  If I weren't already doing Project Life I would definitely do this instead.
• January Creative Jumpstart hosted by Natalie Kalbach
• Nothing like sneaks for Winter CHA to get the creative juices flowing or at least the enabling juices anyway.

I'm looking forward to another long weekend, hoping it will be a productive one spent hunkered down in my craft room.  Thankfully I won't be lacking in the inspiration department.

Have a great weekend!

proof

Evidence that my scrapping mojo has so graciously made an appearance.  And I'm so deliriously happy.  (Please excuse the state of my scrap table.)

The past couple weeks or so I've been happily making some headway (finally) on the mini book of my niece, Ms. H.  I've been working with an older Cocoa Daisy kit that contained lots of pinks and blues. Fun mix of stuff for a little girl.  I pre-made the first five of so pages, but I ran into a bit of a problem: 4 x 6 photos are not ideal for an 5 x 7 mini book. I've made adjustments and it's coming along really well.  You can see a couple of the pages in the picture. I am hoping to order a couple more pictures before the weekend.

week in the life | saturday + sunday

Saturday  8:30 am wake-up.  Morning view from upstairs.  The pups. Steak + roasted cauliflower dinner.  Chilling after dinner.

Sunday  8:30 am wake-up.  Sunday morning coffee.  Pizza dinner.

I'm really going to miss taking pictures everyday.  This was a really great experience!  Can't wait to do it again!

week in the life | thursday + friday

Thursday  5:45 am wake-up.  Always have the bed made on weekdays.  Take the dogs out.  Quick breakfast of toast.  Waiting for the train.  Best salad EVER.

Friday  For whatever reason Friday was an absolute FAIL!  I took no pictures until late in the evening.  And this was it.

week in the life | wednesday

My morning lupus affirmation.  Views from my office.  Getting dinner ready, or at least part of it.

week in the life | tuesday

Packing lunches in the morning.  Afternoon tea.  Waiting for the train home. Waiting for my running partner.  Well deserved dinner after a great run.

week in the life | monday

I'll admit that I didn't do so well on the first day of a Week in the Life.  I was only able to take a few pictures.  Here are some of my favorites

Getting ready. First cup of coffee. Mid-morning snack of yogurt. Evening workout with Jay. Max getting his chew on.

I am realizing that Week in the Life does require a lot of commitment especially for someone like me who works.  But I'm completely up for the challenge!

it's a miracle

Happy Sunday!  Hope the weekend treated you well!  All in all it was a great weekend; I did a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

This weekend gets 100 points because I actually scrapped!  (Somewhere pigs are flying, lots of them.)  As I've mentioned before, this layout has been on my desk for several weeks now, but it just wasn't clicking for me until this weekend.  I'm glad it finally did because it was getting really frustrating.

I'm really happy how this turned out!  Working on a card using the scraps, hopefully I'll be able to share it sometime later this week.

Have an  awesome week!
xo

pretty paper

I was hoping to post a layout that has been languishing on my desk now for maybe three or four weeks.  But that ain't gonna happen today.  As you can see it is still on my desk, unfinished, in a state of limbo that is particularly excruciating for me.

Let's face it, scrapbooking has not been high on my list of priorities these days.  Okay, there, I said it.  Whew!  It feels good to get that out in the open.  Blame it on too many priorities, but not enough hours in the day.  But just because I haven't been playing with paper much doesn't mean that I have lost my love for pretty paper.  With CHA in a couple days a week, I've been drooling, swooning over all the sneaks online.  And I think I'm in love.

Anything from Studio Calico is simply amazing.

Vintagey goodness from October Afternoon.

Gorgeousness from my longtime favorite, Crate Paper.

Deliciousness from Lily Bee.

This is enough to get a girl scrapping again.  I guess this means I need to start spending some quality time in my craft room. . . the sooner, the better.  All I have to say is "Hide the credit card, honey!"