Little Celebrations

Hello, Friday! I am happy to see you. It has been a roller coaster of a week around here. Monday & Tuesday I worked half days because of the snowstorm, Monday we were sent home early and on Tuesday the office didn't open until later. Wednesday and Thursday were business as usual and today is mostly business as usual, except for the Valentine's Day pizza party. There also seemed to be a lot of bad news in the air this week so it's definitely a day for celebrating the little things this week. 

{one}

Spinach and salad greens are once again readily available! There was a huge recall a couple of weeks ago and the stores were basically wiped clean of salad ingredients. Now they're back and I've resumed my salad eating ways. Greens, red onion, sunflower seeds, bacon, feta, mushrooms and balsamic = delicious. 

{two}

The days are getting longer! It's still light out at 5:30 p.m. and the sun is starting to rise before 7:30 a.m.. Even if there is 40+ cm of snow on the ground as long as the days are getting brighter and longer it feels like spring could be just around the corner! 

{three}

Pinterest

I came across this quote on Pinterest and I love the sentiment. I've always been big on the wants versus needs but I like that this quote takes that sentiment a step farther. 

{four}

I finished my first Project Life layout! I decided to start with my birthday since I knew I had a limited amount of photos for that particular event. At first I was really overwhelmed and thought I had made a huge mistake. I just couldn't get it too look cohesive and had a hard time figuring out what size photos I needed to fill all the pockets. I ended up walking away from it because I was so frustrated, a few days later when I came back to it everything clicked. I stopped overthinking and it just came together. I think for a first go I'm happy with how it turned out, I still need to add a little bit of journalling but that's a weekend project. J. is gone to a work thing this weekend so I'm planning on spending a lot of time documenting January! 

{five}

Speaking of J. we will be celebrating Valentine's Day with pizza and garlic fingers, which is exactly the what I requested. If the weather cooperates we'll add skating/snowman building and a visit to the walking trails near his house to the agenda.

Linking up here, here & here.

Weekly Faves & Weekend Plans

{one} 

Jones Soda Root Beer

This is my new obsession. About two weeks ago I got a craving for Root Beer but I knew I only wanted a taste of it and refused to buy a big bottle or a whole box of cans. Turns out root beer is rather hard to find in the kind of single serve bottles that are usually found everywhere. Then on Sunday J. and I were in the grocery store and I told him about my Root Beer struggle when he pointed out that I should have looked at the speciality soda display. And luck would have it the Jones Sodas were on buy one, get one free. Craving satisfied and I've totally found a new treat! Plus, it comes with a bonus inspirational quote under the cap. 

{two}

Camp coffee is both terrible and a necessity. So to combat the terrible I started using flavoured creamers this summer. Once I got home from camp I stopped because I know they're terribly unhealthy and generally I'm happy to drink my coffee with a little bit of cream and sugar if it's regular coffee. But the creamers were on sale this week and they called my name as I strolled through the grocery aisle, so I caved and bought one. And wouldn't you know, creamer made camp coffee tolerable but it makes regular good coffee delicious. 

{three}
Project Life App

You might recall I recently posted about my new found obsession  love for Becky Higgin's Project Life. And yesterday I wrote about upgrading my iPhone. Which means that I can now download apps again. I'm planning on doing 90-95% of Project Life using the physical product but I decided to go ahead and invest in the app as well. I figure it's an easy way to keep up if life gets busy and I can include mini-pages within my regular physical album that I make on the app. I haven't had a chance to play around with it much yet but I'm optimistic that it wasn't a waste of $2.50. I am a huge 'paper saver' if a camper or a Spark gives me a craft you better believe I'm going to keep it and all those crafts take up space but I feel so guilty throwing it away. Thanks to reading countless mommy blogs suggesting to scan or take photos of all (or at least most) of those papers and then tossing the giant popsicle stick sculpture. It was also pointed out that construction paper isn't acid free/archival, it's not going to stand the test of time so to speak so taking a photo is the way to go. 

{four}
Maybe I should save this for Wednesday but I'm confessing now that I can't get enough 'Elf on the Shelf'. I want one of those little fellas in my house to creatively move around from room to room each day. Do they make elves for cats? Would that be weird? They better still be a thing in 5-7 years when I (hopefully) have kids old enough to appreciate an elf in the house. Seeing everyone's photos of elves sipping syrup and hiding in the tree has been one of my favourites this week.

{five}
This weekend I have plans to decorate J.'s Christmas tree on Saturday. I will never be a fan of fake Christmas trees but I will play along. I'm using it as an excuse to try the new sugar cookie donuts that are out and I can always get on board with donuts. Sunday I'll be spending the evening at the Guider Christmas potluck, which I have mixed feelings about. On the bright side the 'theme' is Christmas pyjamas so at least I don't have to go through much trouble to get dressed.


Linking up here & here.

Project Project Life 2016

I jumped on the scrapbooking bandwagon pretty early in life, I don't remember exactly how I got started but I know that there is a stack of Scrapbooks documenting my junior high self. And yes, there are just as cringe worthy as you imagine. In high school Facebook made it's debut and I was a little more focused on making sure my Facebook albums were up to date than I was about creating scrapbooks. My high school years are documented through boxes of photos and 'stuff', maybe someday I'll feel inspired to put it all into albums but that day is not today (or tomorrow...and probably not anytime soon). In university I didn't take a whole lot of photos. I do have a Smashbook from my fourth year and I've got some traditional photo albums filled with camp photos. Post university life I pretty much stopped taking photos because I didn't feel like I had anything to take photos of, except for camp. Camp is the exception, my camp life/career is fully documented each summer has it's own album and/or box of memorabilia. A year and a half ago I got my DSLR and (re)discovered a love of photography. And now I find myself identifying as one of those people with thousands of photos on their hard drive without a purpose in life other than to pop up when my screen saver comes on.

I know I need to get a handle on the situation before it gets even more out of control but I don't necessarily want to spend hours meticulously cropping/cutting/pasting/embellishing two photos at a time. And so I've decided to hop on the Project Life bandwagon. I've happily waved as the PL Bandwagon passed by the past few years but I never felt like joining. I've even invested in some PL supplies when I've seen them discounted at Michael's. The journalling cards made a great addition to my Smashbooks, I used the bright patterns for card making and they are the perfect size to write a quote on and include in a package. They were also perfect for writing warm fuzzy notes to counsellors this past summer. I guess you can say that I had the Project Life Bandwagon on speed dial but hadn't bothered to call and make a reservation.

Until now. After a lot of in-depth research courtesy of Pinterest I've decided to jump on the Project Life wagon. At first I really liked the idea of following the Project 52 formula, a two page spread every week of the year. Then I did some more reading and realized that's not really what I'm interested in doing at this point. I'm not going to invest in a fancy printer to print my photos at home and I'm not going to order prints every week so the Project 52 formula isn't really going to work. I still want to keep life in chronological order and "document the everyday" but I know that some weeks won't really be all that action packed. So I've decided that my formula will keep Project 52 in mind, but focus more on the month than the week. I'm confident I can commit to printing photos once a month and carving out a Sunday afternoon (or two) to document them in an album. In fact, I prefer to scrapbook in large chunks, I don't think I would enjoy just doing a page at a time. And enjoying what I'm doing is very high on the priority list.

Album//Seasons Core Kit//Kraft Core Kit//Page Protectors

Like all scrapbookers I have a sizeable stash. I wasn't about to purchase a whole lot of new supplies but I did let myself buy a few new things in preparation. First up I wanted a Project Life Album, I ended up with two because they were Buy 1, Get 1 Free. I will use one for 2016 Project Life and the other I will either save for later or I'll use it as a traditional photo album for photos that I don't want to include in the Project Life album. I know it won't go to waste. I used a 50% off coupon to buy a core kit. I decided to invest in the Seasons kit because the cards are made to go through the entire year. There's a few for each holiday and I know that they all coordinate. I know I'll supplement with the cards from other kits I own and make my own cards but I like having a core kit to set the theme. And of course I needed pocket pages so I used another 50% off coupon to buy the variety pack. Which gives me everything I need to dive into Project Life in 2016. I also ended up buying the Kraft Edition Core Kit because I happened to find it at Winners for $20 and I just couldn't pass up that kind of deal. When I got it home and went through the cards I realized it would make a perfect camp album. So we'll see what happens.

I am eagerly awaiting January 1st when I can convert all my enthusiasm into creativity. Until then I'm going to stalk the Project Life blog and admire Kelly Purkey's amazing memory keeping skills. Is anyone else a Project Life convert for 2016 or a long time fan of the memory keeping system?

I was saving this post for later on in December but Becky announced this morning that on Thursday Creative Live will be broadcasting 18 hours worth of Project Life 'how to' for free! I know Thursday is Thanksgiving for those of you in the US but you might want to check it out post turkey dinner and for those of us not in the states know you have your Thursday plans!

**It's worth noting that Becky Higgins has no idea who I am and what my opinions are on her products. I bought all this stuff entirely by choice with my own money. I'm just spreading the love because I believe in documenting life. 

Warm and Fuzzy Friday Favourites

{one}

I got this e-mail from a parent on Monday evening and it made my day/week. Parents are often the hardest/worst part of working with kids. To a certain extent, I get it, you want your kids to be happy. Sometimes the 'helicopter' parent thing takes over and it's just not good. So getting this e-mail was the greatest. I like when parents are happy, when parents are happy their kids stay involved and that makes me happy. You know that saying "happy wife, happy life"? Well I'm a believer in "happy parents, happy program". You might not be able to please them all but life sure is easier when you can. 

{two}

Someone posted this verse on Instagram this week and it stuck with me. 

{three}

I had a bunch of photos of flowers and bees from this summer and I wasn't sure how to incorporate them into my album. They were too pretty not to use...but they also stuck out like a sore thumb next to action shots of soccer baseball and chaotic cabin photos. And then I happened to be searching my blog archives for something and came across a post from earlier in the summer when I shared the quote about the bees. And realized it worked perfectly because on the next page is a bunch of photos of people doing chores, moving furniture and working around camp. Memory keeping makes me happy. 

{four}

CBC

This article. I don't know either of these people but it's the cutest thing I've read all week. I'm rarely interested in elaborate wedding details and the process of how people begin their relationships is often kind of murky. Engagement stories are usually very clear cut, it's a moment in time when something very specific happens and is usually very unique. So this story gave me all the warm fuzzies this week. I hope they serve french fries at their wedding.  

I only have four favourites this week, I'm sure if I tried really hard I could come up with a fifth, but I don't want to and I'd rather choose four really awesome favourites opposed to four really awesome favourites and one thing that I kind of liked about this week. 

Somehow I've managed to find myself without any plans this weekend. I'm sure I'll figure out something but it's also nice to enter the weekend without any commitments! 

Linking up here & here with all of the other ladies in blogland celebrating Friday!

Corn Maze, Chicken & Cleaning

I spent Friday evening snacking on pretzels and watching Chopped. I have zero regrets about that decision.

Saturday I woke up at my usual time but lingered in bed while I read for awhile. I feel like I've been reading the same book (Americanah) for decades now but I'm trying to finish it before I post about the books I've read this month. I'm over halfway through but it's really dragging. There are chapters that are really interesting but they always seemed to be followed by chapters that are decisively not interesting. More on that later in the week (hopefully). What I really did on Saturday was shiver my way through a corn maze, pick out mini pumpkins for my Sparks to decorate tonight, admire some fish and eat fried chicken. Also, zero regrets about my Saturday.

J. and I went to a corn maze/family farm about an hour away. My main motivation was to get little pumpkins for Sparks. The weather was so weird. You can see from the photo below that the sky was full of grey clouds but the sky behind it was clear blue it almost felt like rain but it was also very cold, we didn't waste any time in the corn maze (except of course pausing for the obligatory corn maze selfie). 

The farm has a bunch of playscapes for little kids and we planned our visit during lunch time assuming we'd beat the crowds. It worked out perfectly, we got the pumpkins and did the corn maze before it got busy. And we got a chance to check out the fish without feeling bad/awkward for being the only adults who weren't accompanied by toddlers. I've always had a thing for goldfish and when I think about my dream home/yard it always involves a little koi/goldfish pond in the backyard. With lilypads and frogs. Because if you're going to dream big you may as well go all out. 

The real highlight of the day was our stop for fried chicken. It just so happens that in order to get to the farm we had to drive by my favourite (and the best) fried chicken place in all the land. We got chicken to go and I should probably be sad that my car now smells like chicken, but I'm really not. Some day I'm going to go on a ridiculous road trip in the southern U.S. that is planned around eating fried chicken. #goals

Post chicken we caught up with Jon Oliver's Last Week Tonight. J. really only watches sports on T.V. and I stick to cooking shows and the occasional reality show depending on the season. Last Week Tonight is the one show we watch together on a regular basis. I left around supper time and headed to the mall in hopes of finding a birthday present for J.. His birthday isn't until the first week in November but he's hard to shop for, luckily I found a couple of things that I'm pretty confident he'll love. I'd like to find one more thing but if not Christmas is just around the corner!

Sunday I dedicated my day to cleaning up my scrapbooking area. I'm 99% finished my camp scrapbooking so it was time to regain some order with my supplies. My newest scrapbook love is stamps, but I refuse to spend $20 on a single stamp so my collection is pretty small and mostly made up of alphabet sets. Peyton was of course eager to assist  get her paws on various ribbons and papers and not nearly as helpful as she would like you to believe. 

This week I have my usual Sparks meeting, a weekday lunch date with J. and an old friend has moved back to town so hopefully we'll be able to coordinate our schedules to catch up. I've also got a full list of blog posts planned with Shay's What's Up Wednesday, The Blogging Elite's monthly link up, an update about about what I read this month and another round of monthly goals! 

linking up here & here. 

October Weekending

Friday night I laid  low. I watched the first part of Human. The cinematography/photography and music is out of this world. It's stunningly beautiful. The movie itself though is a little disappointing (I watched Part 2 Sunday afternoon. I'll watch Part 3 eventually.) I was expecting it to be similar to BBC's Human Planet doc-series that aired a few years back but it wasn't like that at all. I was left wanting more information about what exactly was going on during all those amazing shots.

Saturday morning I drank my coffee and replied to e-mails. I met J. at three and we went to the afternoon showing of The Intern. I'm not a huge movie go-er but this movie was worth seeing! I thought it was wonderful and J. liked it just as much as I did. It was funny and sweet and I would highly recommend it for a date night! After the movie we went out to supper at a local restaurant and had a delicious meal. J. had ribs and I had an amazing Cajun chicken sandwich with avocado, chipotle mayo, hot peppers on a homemade bun. It was so good. I can't wait to go back and have it again. After we ate we went on a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a cord for my printer and then headed back to J.'s, he watched the Blue Jays game while I read because baseball is boring. #realtalk

Sunday I got sucked into a 90 Day Finance marathon on TLC which took up most of my morning. When I finally pulled myself away from that train wreck I got to work on prepping some things for Sparks tonight. We're making rainbows with cotton ball clouds and playing a rainbow toss game. I do as much prep as I can before hand and I make sure that I can do the craft in about 5 minutes. If I can do it in five they will be able to complete it in 10-15 minutes. When I had that straightened away I spend some time scrapbooking. I'm really making more of an effort to include journalling and better explanations about what's going on in all the pictures. Yesterday I got out my favourite black pen and wrote on some of the journalling cards I've been sticking in along side the pictures. It's also motivated me to learn to love my handwriting and get better at calligraphy.

I spent some of the afternoon updated my MacBook to El Captain, which seemed like a good choice but this morning I'm having an awful time getting edited photos to save to my computer.

While my computer was updating I made Sunday supper. Steak, roasted potatoes & carrots (fresh from the farmers market) and broccoli. There are photos but every time I try to join them together and save them Safari freezes. My frustrations are mounting and I really hope I can get it figured out, otherwise I'm going to really regret updating. Has anyone else updated and experiencing similar?

Blogtember 2015: Creative Memory Keeping

Blogtember is asking us to share our creativity. Lately I've been channelling all my creativity into memory keeping. I've been organizing my camp photos from this summer using a hodge lodge of Smash Book-ing, traditional scrapbooking and Project Life journalling. Sharing this creativity is a little challenging since I adhere to pretty strict confidentiality guidelines when it comes to camp. I tried to choose pages that didn't have a whole lot of people photos, but the ones that need I had to use my superb (haha) editing skills to make the faces go away. 

Part of my job involves doing Cabin Inspection each morning at camp. A few mornings each week the cabins do the usual tidying routine (making beds, cleaning bathrooms, sweeping floor) and create a theme. This year the theme for the themes seemed to be 'in space'. It was weird and wonderful so I devoted a page to some of the cabin inspection photos. The pocket on the next page is full of cards and pictures that campers (and counsellors) had drawn and given to me during cabin inspection. 

When I went through my photos I realized I had quite a few photos of campers doing crafts so I put them all together and added a few little drawings that had been given to me. 

These pages are a work in progress and still need journalling added. One page documents a typical break spent at N.'s cottage. A candle lit supper, an evening stroll, (not pictured a Friends episode or three). The next morning breakfast was a priority and then usually a trip to town to window shop and a coffee and donut stop before heading back to the cottage. The next page is photos from the night R. & I picked H. up at the airport and the three of us were reunited for the first time in almost a year!

There are a couple of blue chairs at camp that in past years have always managed to creep their way into photos that would otherwise be great for promotional use. So this summer I made a game out of photographing the blue chairs in all the crazy spots I saw them around camp. Overall I have over 100 photos, these 8 are just some of my favourites. This page needs some more journalling as well.

Everything is still a work in progress. I've blogged about my style of memory keeping more back here. 

Friday Celebrations

I'm going to pass on the Blogtember prompt for today because I'm not a vlogger and I have no interest in becoming a vlogger. #keepingitreal

It's been a weirdly depressing week around these parts, not necessarily in my personal life, but every evening when I turned on the news I was met with stories of a missing toddler, missing woman and a handful of heart wrenching court cases. And that was just the local news. It puts things into perspective though and serves as a gentle reminder to take time to enjoy the present, be thankful for the now and celebrate the ordinary. Plus, although I'm excited about my participation in Blogtember it is more tiring than I thought it would be to follow the prompts each day. I have discovered some fantastic new blogs to follow so that's a welcome bonus!

I ended up having a unexpectedly busy week. Monday I had a few errands to run and then Tuesday I had a quick breakfast date with J. before he left (he'll be away until the first of October). Wednesday I spent the day catching up with e-mails and blogging and Thursday I had an info night for Girl Guides. In between all that I've been making carving out the fringe hours and getting some post-camp scrapbooking done. Scrapbooking the photos and mementos from the summer is incredibly therapeutic. It helps me to reflect and grown and really put an end to the summer. Tonight I'm headed to a family birthday party but right now I am sipping my coffee, eating a chocolate chip muffin and blogging while I listen to Canada AM.

I've been having a really difficult time uploading photos to my blog lately and it's driving me crazy!!!

Moving on to happier things, which is supposedly the whole point of this post...

After a tortuously long winter it seems like Mother Nature is trying to make up for things by making sure summer doesn't leave us too soon. We've had a couple fall-ish days but for the most part the temperature has remained in the mid-twenties, the sun is shining and I'm still spending time near the water and on the beach.

It's almost the season for new shows! I've fallen behind in a lot of the shows I used to watch but I'm planning to watch the new seasons of Survivor and Amazing Race that start this week. The Middle also starts up again this week. I'm not as obsessed with Grey's Anatomy as I used to be but I probably will watch the premier just to see how Meredith is doing.

I've been reading! So far this month I've finished two books and I'm half way through my third. My goal was to read four, which I think is attainable. Right now I'm reading Rescuing Julia Twice. It has some pretty negative reviews on Goodreads, and I don't foresee it becoming my favourite book, but it is interesting. And having time to read is always worth celebrating!

I'm forbidding myself to buy anymore scrapbooking supplies until Christmas when I can invest in a Project Life album, inserts and maybe a core kit. I'm using all of my currently existing supplies for my camp album and it's actually been fun to challenging my creativity by eliminating the option to run off to Michael's and buy perfect matching paper and stickers.

If you haven't seen this commercial yet (and it's possible it's only being aired in Canada) you need to watch. Every time it airs I stop what I'm doing and my heart melts just a little bit.

On that note of adorable-ness I'm off to get my bathing suit on and head to the river for the afternoon!

Linking up with Karli and Andrea.

Blogtember 2015: Obsessions

It's an open invitation to talk about our most recent obsessions today for Blogtember, this was one prompt I didn't have to give much thought about. I knew immediately that right now I have two major obsessions: Becky Higgins  and jigsaw puzzles!

First off, let's talk Becky Higgins. For those of you who are unfamiliar with her, Becky Higgins is the master mind behind Project Life. Beyond that she is passionate about preserving memories, especially the everyday moments. She often uses the phrase "cultivate a good life" and her Pinterest page is full of inspirational quotes related to that idea. Outside of all that creativity and inspiration based on her blog and videos and social media she just seems like a genuinely awesome individual. I just want to spend the day at the Project Life headquarters and help to design PL products and meet the team. And then I want her to take me home with her so I can snoop she can show me all of her personal Project Life folders. We can have coffee and talk about memory keeping and how to document the every day. Since she lives in Arizona (which is a place I've always wanted to visit) I'd have to spend the night. We'd take a break to change into pyjamas and then dig deeper into what it means to cultivate a good life. Moral of the story is, I love this lady and I just really want to be like her.

Moving on to less crazy stalker obsessions...

I've developed a love for jigsaw puzzles. The one pictured above is the one I'm currently working on and let me tell you, it's a challenge. And it's giant, 2000 pieces is a lot of pieces. I also love it. I love that it challenges my brain, forces me to go slow and take my time. Pay close attention to details and know my limits. I'm Type A. I like to have everything organized and finished. You don't put together a 2000 piece puzzle in one sitting. I'm learning to identify when it's time to step away and take a break and I'm always surprised that when I go back to my puzzle hours later I do see pieces that fit together that I didn't notice before. I love that it forces me to celebrate the small victories, finally filling in the missing piece or figuring out a particularly challenging section. 

Blogtember 2015: What's In My Bag

This Blogtember prompt came at the perfect time because it was just the motivation I needed to finally get my purse cleaned out after the summer. I picked up my photos yesterday, which means that I can start Smash Booking/Scrapbooking/Project Life-ing this summer. In addition to photos I love including other little souvenirs in my memory books, many of those little souvenirs get stuck in my purse and forgotten about until September when I finally get around to cleaning out my purse. So this purse clean was productivity all around...blog post, scrapbooking supplies, clean bag...win, win, win!

I kind of hate that the photo turned out blurry, but I snapped it on my phone mid-clean and I didn't realize how bad it was until I uploaded it and I'm not willing to empty everything out again, so this will just have to do, I promise you're not missing out on anything super exciting!

I think the official name for my purse is something along the lines of the "Bedford Medium Satchel" I'm a big fan of it because I can use it the way it's pictured in the photo or I can pop the buttons on the side to extend it and attached the longer strap and use it as a larger cross body bag. I have the matching wallet which is also great because of all it's pockets and slots. I really like that it has a full zipper around it so everything stays put and if I'm running somewhere quick I can just grab my wallet and go! Enough about the vessels, let's move on to what I always keep on hand and what surprised I found during my cleaning spree.

My essentials are hand cream, lip balm, tylenol, bandaids, gum, a wet wipe and my spare keys. I always have a notebook in my bag. The green one was my failed attempted at using the Bullet Journal System and the gold glittery one was were I kept all my town lists for camp. Along with sticky notes, two pens, a mini sharpie, a binder clip and a couple of paper clips. Heaven forbid I find myself without a stash of office supplies. 

I discovered a baggie full of change and a nearly empty change purse, which was a little bit of a confusing moment. I had a pile of receipts that I tossed once I took a photo and a pile of mementos from the summer. That pile got moved to the box of things to scrapbooking and consisted of a few recipes that I wanted to save, a napkin for our favourite frozen yogurt place, a movie ticket stub, a parking pass from a day at the beach and a few little notes. I also found some coupons that I had forgotten about, which is always a win.

I thought about unpacking my wallet but there isn't much of interest in there the usual cards, cash, change and loyalty stamp cards. All in all I try to 'travel light' this is my running errands and out and about bag. When I'm going shopping or doing anything active I switch out this purse for a smaller cross body bag that keeps my hands free. I also want to be prepared though, so I never leave home without the basics, I'll never be one of those ladies that exits the house with just my keys, debit card and phone. 

Coffee & Blogging

It's been rainy and windy out so my Fall Picture Practice consists of my new red mug being filled with coffee. Because when it's cold and rainy and fall like outside it's time for hot coffee and jogging pants inside.

I spent a huge portion of this weekend sitting on my bedroom floor surrounded by photos and scraps of paper and stickers. There is something exceptionally therapeutic about condensing the summer into one book of photos and papers. I can lose myself for hours cutting & gluing & sticking and just putting it all in one place. 

Today's Blog-tember prompt is to share 5 blogs I read on a regular basis

71 Toes
Shawni is my favourite. She is so genuine and honest and if I'm lucky enough to become a wife & mom someday I want to be like her. Shawni and her husband recently moved themselves and their kids to China for a semester so her recent posts have been about navigating the new normal. Plus, she takes beautiful photos!

Kelly's Korner
I think everyone "knows" Kelly and her adorable family. I love that Kelly isn't afraid to share her beliefs with others and is just so darn sweet.

The Grand Adventures of Me
Nina is hilarious. Her blog is the best balance of posts that make you almost pee your pants laughing and posts that really make you think about and reflect on  your spirituality.

34 Magnolia Street
Lauren talks a lot about her faith, her involvement with church and her recent move from the south to the north. Reading her posts feels like I'm chatting with a friend over coffee instead of reading some stranger on the internet.

Mix & Match Mama
This a fairly recent addition to my daily reads, but I love reading Shay's recipes, following her adoption journey and being inspired by her out of this world organization.

Coffee and blogging seem to go together like salt & pepper so with that I'm off to finish my coffee as I scroll though my Bloglovin' feed. Happy Monday!

Stress Free Scrapbooking

I mentioned SMASH* books a few days ago in this post and since then I've gotten quite a few comments and questions about them. Since they are one of my favourite things I decided to make a post to share some pages from the books I've completed. 

I used the Pink "Pretty Style" book to keep things from my last year of university. To be honest I wouldn't even say it's 100% full. I keep meaning to take some time to stick in a few more things I have kicking around my room but I never seem to actually get around to doing it. There aren't very many photos in this book. It's full of ticket stubs, random things I cut out of magazines, quotes, notes and cards from friends. 

This page is full of movie stubs, a favourite quote, a random dinosaur that I liked and an "autograph" from a friend. (Just in case he ever gets famous.)

On these pages I taped in a friendship bracelet after it had fallen off, a list of the songs that we listened to on our drive to school each day, a post it note from my roommate and a letter from a friend that she wrote me to read while on the plane for a visit home at the end of the summer.

The second book I did was "Eco Style" it was perfect for camp! I had planned on using it during the 2012 summer but in the end I just put all those photos in a photo album. I knew I had to use it for the summer of 2013. I was much more intentional about taking photos and saving things. I brought the book and a rubbermaid container full of scrapbooking supplies with me to camp with the idea to do complete the book as I went, working on it during breaks and pasting notes at the end of each day. I should have known better than to attempt that though, I didn't do a single page over the summer. Instead once I got home from camp I printed all my pictures and spent almost a month working on the book.

In the end I'm really happy I waited until the summer was over to build the SMASH book. It was a wonderful way to reflect on the summer, remember the good times, move on from the not-so great times and I had time to really make the book what I wanted! I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

These pages are extremely simple, but I love them. I glued in my favourite pictures of sunsets and the moon over the river and added in a pocket where I put a particularly special note. On the side is a clue that was part of a scavenger hunt my secret friend made me one day. The clue is about a romantic spot to stargaze so it fit in with these pictures perfectly.

Back in my scrapbooking days these pictures would have all been cropped into straight lines, backed with coordinating card stock and arranged in parallel lines on a 12x12 piece of paper. Now they just got cropped into whatever shape made the most sense and allowed them to fit on the page. I threw in some dinosaur stickers as part of an inside joke and a particularly hilarious quote from the summer and that was it! 

I had originally planned on including more pages but I had a really hard time taking good photos. And some of the pages I took photos of lost a lot of their splendour once I very unsophisticatedly edited out people's faces. 

I've always been into scrapbooking but stressed about making everything "perfect" with the SMASH* books the point is literally just to smash it all in. Sometimes I organize my thoughts and create pages that do have layouts like you would see in a traditional scrapbook. Most of the time I just create a pile of things I want to include and stick it in where ever it fits! I have two more blank books that I'm not quite sure how to use. I really like the red one and have been saving it for "something special". (Saving nice things for special occasions is a habit I really need to lose.) And the purple one I bought during a really good sale and I was looking through the pages the other night and decided it would be perfect to use if my whole Texas plan happens. 

If you're someone who is a "saver" like me and hangs on to little notes and ticket stubs but has no idea what to do with them I really recommend this method. You can stick pictures along side your "stuff" and at the end of the day you create something totally unique that gives you just as much satisfaction as a scrapbook without the stress. 

**I was in no way, shape or form compensated for sharing this product on my blog. It's just something I happened to learn about, buy and totally love!

Things To Do

I already blogged about my Blog Goals for 2014 back here and shared my tips for how to set goals on Hayley's blog over here, which means it's now time to share some more general goals for the upcoming year. I'm not much for "New Years Resolutions". I work better with short term goals but I do have a few projects that I want to work on all year long.

The first one is The Empty Shelf Challenge since my bookshelf is already pretty full and I do occasionally read ebooks I decided to make an empty shelf on Goodreads to keep track of my 2014 reading. I'm hoping to read at least one book a month. It doesn't sound like a lot, and it's not but I want to be realistic and lately my reading has been lacking. I either race through a book in under a day or it takes me six months to get through two chapters, there's no happy medium. I definitely want to read more than 12 books this year but making it so I read at least one a month should motivate me to read at a steadier pace. If you're curious about what I'm reading you can check out my empty shelf here.

I also want to journal everyday. I'm going to take a Smash Book sort of approach to this and rather than worry about filling pages with daily ramblings I want to focus on recording prayers, quick thoughts and little momentos from each day. I've kept a prayer journal before and I've kept a classic journal/diary before I want to some how combine the two and make a point to write or doodle or glue in something every day this year.

Complete a Photo A Day Challenge. I've decided to follow through with the Delight and Be 365 Challenge. I've only recently gotten involved with the Delight group but I am so excited about it and I plan on blogging more about it in the new year!

I try and set some sort of goal that falls under each category of physical, mental, spiritual, social and emotional but this year there seems to be a lot of overlap about which category my goals would fall under. So I will just say that I'm going to make a conscious effort to read books from all different genres  and journal about Jesus, Vanilla Coke and finding a job in a somewhat equal balance.

I'm linking up again this month  this year with Erica to share my goals and blog about my successes (and failures). 

I know that as the year goes on I'll have smaller goals and already I know that some of them will be to try new recipes, complete a Bible study and save money. They don't feel like "New Years Resolutions" to me though so I will save them for when they're more relevant.

'Twas The Day After Christmas

I had such a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. God is good. 

Christmas Eve we had supper at my aunt & uncle's before church then we went to church where my cousin's baby was baptized. Afterwards we all went back to my aunt & uncle's and just enjoyed each other's company. Watching the excitement of my three year old cousin A. was the absolute best. We had given baby M. a present for her baptism and didn't want A. to feel left out so we brought a little something for her too. (And by little something I mean a single Christmas ornament that we found at Wal-Mart for under $5.) When she found out she was allowed to open it then she carefully but enthusiastically tore off the pink paper and squealed with delight and yelled "A decoration!" then she ran around the room to show everyone her new "decornation" and simultaneously offering up a "sank you". I also loved watching her in church as she proudly stood up on the pew, hymn book in hand and sang her heart out. I am so thankful for her and pray with every fibre of my being someday it's my little girl keeping everyone entertained Christmas.

Christmas Day we opened presents and I was seriously blessed. My biggest surprise present was a Magic Bullet Deluxe set with a bunch of different blades and attachments for the cups! I haven't gotten a change to try it out yet but I see A LOT of smoothies in my future. And homemade salsa. And iced coffee. I may even attempt to recreate Second Cup's Frozen Hot Chocolate! 

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I also got an amazing gift from my friend who I met through church back when I was in university. We send each other a Christmas package and I was so excited when I opened this on Christmas morning. At this point you all know how much I love words of affirmation and I love how much thought went into this gift. I'm using a lot of willpower not to read all those little notes right away but I really do want to save them and read one each day in 2014. I've also been thinking about how I need to get back into journalling with a real pen & paper. The next time I'm in town I'm going to pick up a notebook and for each day of 2014 I will glue in the quote I pick from the jar each day and scribble down a few words about the day, draw a few doodles, and by the end of the year I'll have an amazing scrapbook. I think I even have a blank Smash* Book that might be perfect for this project. That's a post for another time though...back to Christmas!

I got some great new clothes including this hoodie that has been on my wish list for months! 

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I also got some new make up, a supply of body washes & lotions to last well into the new year and a few gift cards to spend once things quiet down a little. 

And of course the kitties got some new toys too. 

We enjoyed Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then spent the evening with my mom's side. I can't put into words how thankful I am to have so many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. And that family really is a priority. I can't imagine growing up without cousins and aunts and grandparents, but I know that for so many it's hard to imagine growing up with that kind of extended family. Mine certainly isn't perfect and there was the usual arguments about how many chairs we need and the uncles probably had one too many glasses of homemade wine but that's life. 

I'm off to spend the rest of the day enjoying the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives marathon on the Food Network making homemade pizzas for supper and visiting with a family friend this evening. I hope everyone is enjoying time with family & friends! 

Five on Friday!

Now that I'm home from camp I'm working on getting back into a routine, which includes regular blogging! Today I'm liking up with Five on Friday

{one} I came across this quote a while ago but recently rediscovered it and I love it to bits.

 “I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a “living” is not the same thing as making a “life.” I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

{two} Today is my first full day back in the real world. Instead of being productive by working on my end of summer report or unpacking I made the executive decision to take the day off. So I'm going to sit on my couch with my laptop, watching TV and only leaving to visit the fridge. Tomorrow I will return to productivity!

{three} I got an e-mail this morning asking me to be a Brownie leader again this year. This is a tough one because I love being involved with Girl Guides but the unit I was with last year is a 45 minute drive away. I spent more time driving to the meetings and events than I did at the actual events. I'm hoping there is a unit closer to my house that needs a leader. There's also the possibility that a job opportunity is going to mean I will be moving to the city in a few weeks. The job is dependent on funding though so nothing is set in stone.

{four} I have over 300 pictures from this summer and I can't wait to get back into scrapbooking! Scrapbooking is going to be one of my fall goals, I have so many pictures just sitting in boxes and drawers overflowing with scrapbooking supplies begging to be used. More on that goal tomorrow though!

{five} I am obsessed with www.thoughtcatalog.com I could spend hours reading through articles and thinking about the words, situations and the people who wrote them. If you happen to have some spare time in your day or need something to scroll through while you enjoy coffee at your desk be sure to check it out!