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!

Brave

Happy New Year Friends! I am can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for me and my blog. 

I'm starting off 2014 with another edition of The Girl Between the Lines link up with Hayley & Lauren. The prompt for this week is the question, "What is one thing you will do differently in 2014? Why do you want to change that one thing?" 

My answer to this question is simple. I want to be brave. 

It sounds simple enough. But even just typing the word brave increases my anxiety. Being brave means taking risks, stepping outside my comfort zone, trying new things, saying yes, not making excuses. Being brave is everything I am not. I like to play safe, I know the boundaries of my comfort zone, I'm happy with routines and sometimes declining a social event because "I have family stuff" really means "I would rather watch DVDs in my sweat pants because I don't really know anyone else who will be there." 

I've been thinking a lot about Texas over the past week and the more I think about it the more I am able to talk myself into the idea of going. And if it the camp in Texas doesn't work out, I'm opening up more and more to taking the plunge and moving somewhere exciting for a few months or a year. And the more I open up to it the more panicked I get, because moving is stressful. And there are so many logistical things to figure out, working visas, making enough money to live in wherever place plus pay student loans and other bills, making new friends, not getting murdered...

In the middle of it all I also remind myself that not so long ago an 18 year old me went off to university hundreds of miles away from home without knowing anybody. And that worked out pretty well. I have no idea why 23 (almost 24) year old me can't seem to make a similar leap of faith. If I did it then I can do it now. 

In the past five years my faith in God has only gotten stronger, I'm certainly more mature than I was at 18, in some ways I'm a lot more comfortable in my own skin, I have a much better understand of what I want in life and yet I'm so scared to make any major changes. Which when I think about it is a waste. I fully admit to being  unhappy with my single-ness. If life was going according to my plan at this point in my life I would either be a newly wed with plans to become a mom very soon or I would at least be in a very serious/committed relationship and making plans to spend the rest of our lives together. That's not where I am though. I'm single. And being single means that right now in this moment, in this big picture my only real responsibility is myself. When I make decisions I don't have to consider how it will affect my husband, I don't have to turn down opportunities because I want my children to go to a certain school or be near their grandparents. I am one. 

So in 2014 I'm going to be brave. I'm going to choose adventure, step outside my comfort zone and use this season of singleness to its fullest potential because someday (hopefully) I'll be a wife and mother with responsibilities that don't allow me to pick up and move to Texas if I so desire. And I'll be happy then, but I also need to be truly happy now. And in order for me to be happy I need to make some changes and all of those changes require me to be brave. 

Show Love

Long before I started blogging myself I read blogs so I know that this time of year it's pretty common for bloggers to choose a word for the upcoming year. Focus on that word and make it a theme for the 12 months ahead. I knew it was something I wanted to do in 2014 and I've been thinking about which word to choose for over a month now. I narrowed it down to five and carefully considered each one before making a decision. 

Humility 

Grace

Joy

Love

Peace

Humility. For awhile this was the word I was stuck on, but then I also wanted to be more confident. That led me down a very confusing train of thought about balancing being confident and being humble. For a few days I thought that I'd made a decision and in 2014 I would spend time discerning how to improve my humility and also improve my confidence. Then I thought about it some more and decided that challenge may be a little advanced so I moved on to the next option.

Grace. It's part of my blog name, it's one of my favourite words, I would totally use it as a name for if it wasn't for every third kid being named Grace/Gracie. It seemed like a good choice, until it seemed too easy. Not challenging enough. Still one of my favourite words and concepts but I wasn't sure how to really make it into a theme for the whole year.

Joy. Focus on finding joy in the little things, being joyful in all situations and circumstances. It's pretty straight forward. I wasn't feeling it though, it seemed like a word I had to consider because it "make sense" but when I really thought about it I couldn't get myself excited about making it my word.

Love. There aren't many things in this world that are better than love. God's love, romantic love, love between friends, family, loving the little things. Lots of options for love. But again, it just didn't feel right. Somehow declaring that my word of the year would be Love felt flat and boring. 

Peace. I'm a worrier by nature. Anxiety is something I am extremely familiar with. I could use some more peace in my life. I couldn't sell myself on it though, like love, it felt like a word I was only considering because it I should be, so I moved on.

Which left me with all the words on my list crossed off for one reason or another. So I looked at all the words I had originally written down and tried to find a commonality between everything. After a few minutes something jumped out at me and I knew almost instantly without having to spend days mulling it over that my 'word' for 2014 would be a (short) phrase.

What I like about this phrase is that it's short enough to be easily remembered, vague enough that it can apply to all situations and yet specific enough that there's no questions about the focus. Show Love. I think it does a good job of encompassing a lot of the aspects I was trying to focus on with each of the words I was originally considering. I can show love by bringing joy to others, by being gracious, by being peaceful, praising God, by being humble, there are so many ways to show love. To myself, God, friends, strangers, the planet. I'm really looking forward to challenging myself to showing love over the next twelve months. 

How will you 'Show Love' in 2014? I'd love to know what word you chose for this year!

Monday Musings

I was originally planning on posting my "Word of the Year" post today but then I realized that today is one of those days where I just need to share my random thoughts about life and its happenings opposed to anything even remotely thought out with lots of pictures and (mostly) grammatically correct sentences. So bare with me and tune in tomorrow for my word of the year reveal. 

I have my word all ready to go but then I started thinking I should have a verse too? Does anybody else choose a verse for the year? I'm obviously familiar with choosing a word. And I know of people who choose life verses for their children or a verse for their marriage but I've never been exposed to a verse for the year. I like the idea, but it's also overwhelming to try and choose a verse for the entire year in a day or two. 

Last night I was totally on top of things and portioned out a bunch of fruit and spinach to make a smoothie this morning to sip on while I read through blogs. This morning I got up and was magnetically drawn to the Keurig where I brewed myself a cup of French Vanilla coffee and have yet to make myself truly regret said decision. Points for trying right?

I was supposed to hang out with one of my best and oldest friends last night while he's home from university. Then his parents decided to head to the city a day early because of the impending snow storm so he wouldn't miss his flight back to school.

Speaking of snow. There are 160 cm of snow down. That's over 5 feet for those of you on the imperial measurement system. There's another snow storm in the forecast for tomorrow. We are 30 cm away from beating the previous snowfall record in December that was set back in the 60s. I know Canadians are supposed to be snow-loving people of the north riding around on our polar bears, but I'm done. Summer please come soon. (And for those who are curious summer means June, because it still snows in May.)

On the flip side all this snow makes everything absolutely beautiful. Which is great because I've been taking lots of pictures. Come May I will be an expert at taking photos in the snow. Saturday I was at my grandparents and took some great ones of my Papa's boat and the warf all covered with snow. (My Papa is a lobster fisherman and my grandparents live in a tiny little fishing village.) 

The internet at my house has really sucked the past few days. It makes it difficult to do all my important Tweeting, Snapchatting and Instagramming. #firstworldproblems

I just read through this post and feel a little embarrassed to push publish because it's just ridiculous. But I'm doing it anyway. I promise my posts for the rest of the week will be much more interesting. Or at least less all over the place. 

I'm sharing all this randomness with the lovely ladies participating in Mingle Monday at the Life of Meg.

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.

Blogging Goals 2014

Continue posting 20-25 times a month. Everyone has a different "schedule" blogging MWF, M-F, ect. I've discovered the best method for me is not to commit to blogging specific days but just to posting 20- 25 times during each month. The exception is going to be May-August. If I'm at camp this summer I know I won't be able to post multiple times a week. So during those months my goal will be to post 2-3 times a week.

Sponsor 6-8 Blogs over the year. I sponsored my very first blog this month and had such a great experience working with Hayley that I want to do it again! That being said I definitely do not have any sort of budget for blogging, so spending even $10 a month on advertising is out of the question right now. I figure I can budget to buy some advertising every second month.

New Blog Button. My sad little blog button is just that, sad. I used my very limited photo editing skills to whip it up on PicMonkey but when I compare it to others, well...I need a new one. 

Participate in a Giveaway. I'll be honest, I don't like the idea of "buying" followers and I would much rather have two readers that read my posts, comment regularly and who I have connections with than 10000 followers who just pressed follow because they wanted to win something. But I also want to experience everything in the bloggy world and I know it can be a great way to make connections with other bloggers so I figure there isn't any harm in trying it once! 

Write A Sponsored Review Post. I've signed up for quite a few of the blogging review program sites (I am positive that is not the correct term, but I have no idea what it is) like Influenser and BzzAgent but I haven't been offered any freebies or product reviews yet. I have no plans on turning this into a review blog but again, experience everything, try things at least once!

Reach 50 Followers on GFC & Bloglovin'. This is pretty self explanatory. I'm going to keep writing whether I have 5 or 50 followers but it's nice to have readers and the more the merrier! 

Plan. I invested in a 2014 planner specifically for blogging, now I just need to use it. I want to sit down at the beginning of each week and have a rough idea of what I'm going to blog about each day, which link ups I want to participate in ect. I'm not going to force myself to stick to a really tight schedule as far as posts go but I do want to take some of the "last minute-ness" out of blogging. 

*New Layout. This is a lower priority goal because even though I don't LOVE my current layout like I did in the beginning I don't dislike it, I just would like to have something new. Again though, blogging budget is pretty much non-existent so we'll see.

What are your blogging goals this year? Anything I missed?!

If you're curious about how I went about setting these goals head on over to Hayley's blog A Beautiful Exchange where I'm guest posting today!

Two Thousand and Thirteen

I'm linking up with Shane & Whitney to share my 2013 Year in Review!

 I didn't start blogging until February of 2013, and I didn't really "get serious" about it until the fall.  I don't have any links to past posts in my look back on 2013, because for the most part they aren't things I blogged about! Hopefully this time next year my 2014 review will be full of photos and posts, but for for this year I chose a photo for each month and a sentence or two about life way back then. 

January// I celebrated my 23rd birthday by going to the city for a camp reunion with some of my favourite people. We drank lots of wine, laughed until our sides hurt and began the process of creeping the potential new staff on various social media accounts. 

February// I finally got a passport! I still haven't actually used my passport to go anywhere but I think 2014 will be the year I venture out of the country. 

March// I officially signed my contract to return to camp. There was never any real doubt it was just made official in March. I spent lots of time working on Staff Training, coming up with ways to recruit new counsellors and pinning up a storm of arts & crafts projects and games to try. 

April// I spent a lot of April watching the Big Brother Canada live feeds. I'm almost too embarrassed to even admit to my addiction, but it was ridiculous. At one point my best friend suggested I need an intervention and I don't think they were joking. Emmett & Jillian have more or less replaced Boston Rob & Amber as my favourite Realty TV Love Story. 

May// I bought my first car! I also went camping with a bunch of Girl Guides and spent a lot of time packing for camp, preparing materials for staff training and then heading to camp for the summer!

June// I celebrated the end of the first two weeks of camp (both training weeks) by going to a concert with H. & R. and discussing all the new recruits over some fancy drinks. June seems like a blur of teaching, learning and figuring out how all the personalities of the counsellors would work together.

July// Camp was in full swing which means that in the office I drank a lot of caffeine while dealing with the craziness of the job and outside the office I tie-dyed a lot of things and enjoyed being at camp!

August// I spent a lot of time under the moon and stars with someone who will always have a special place in my heart. And that's all I'll say about that. 

September// I moved home from camp and recovered from the post-camp hangover while trying to navigate all the paper work to make my job into something full time. Was ridiculously optimistic that things would happen pretty quickly and I would find myself moving to the City before the end of October.

October// I went on an autumn adventure to visit R. where we went for long strolls with seasonally flavoured lattes and spent the afternoon at an apple orchard. I also spent a week apartment & cat sitting in the City which involved hanging out with some of my favourite people. 

November// I bought my first DSLR camera and really discovered how much I love blogging and being part of this community! Over the past few weeks I've participated in my first swap, sponsored my first blog and tomorrow I will be doing my first guest post! 

Looking back I have mixed feelings about 2013. I was incredibly blessed to meet some amazing people who I hope will be in my life for a long time to come. There were also some things I didn't accomplish that I am disappointed about. December still has a few more days left but and 2014 is still a few days away but I have a feeling that things are starting to happen. I mentioned a little bit about Texas back here and I don't want to go into details yet but things are kind of starting to happen there (much faster than I ever would have anticipated!) so if you wouldn't mind praying for that opportunity. I have no idea if it's the right thing yet, or even if things will align to really make it happen. I just know that I feel like I'm being led there for some reason or another.

Also linking up here!