steph's stuff

Project Life - Week 8

Welcome to Week 8! This week was a fairly basic week for Project Life for me. The left side of my layout was a Design F page and I think I'm getting used to using that page protector. I find that I like it better when I balance out the color of the weekly title card with more of the same color on that page. This week involved a lot of red. LOL! And only one insert - an 8.5x11 Page Protector.

 

This week started with a sick day on the couch for Andrew and me so we amused ourselves with self-portraits with my iPhone. And a million photos of the dog at our feet. I persuaded Andrew that we really only needed to put 1 of each into Project Life. ;) I also included a screen shot of my receipt for our Hunger Games midnight premiere tickets, along with journaling about them. We had a two-hour fog delay this week, too, and I passed the time by cleaning out the fridge - that will be funny to look back at in a few years - what's in your fridge?!

And then there is the most horrid photo of me ever taken - Libby has been practicing her braiding skills on my hair and, while I'm happy to record the memory, I need to remember not to hold the camera (and my jaw) at that angle again. UGH.

And then that bottom photo of the crazy puppy? See that photo? Soooooo cute, right? He's sleeping on a quilt that I made a few years ago. And he loved it so much that we allowed him to keep sleeping on it. Only we didn't notice later that he had woken up until Tom discovered that he was EATING the quilt. Yep - he chewed and chewed on it until there were two gaping holes. I had to be restrained when we found out. 

One quick digi note about the photos above, too - the white overlay with text on it is what I call "digital vellum." It's super-easy to make - I quickly outline the space I want to fill in with white with the rectangular marquee tool, fill it with white, and then reduce the opacity so that part of the photo still shows through. Digital vellum!

The front of the insert is just journaling from the week. I used side B Cathy Zielske's Layered Template No. 92 for the journaling but switched around the placement of the title.

The back of the insert is a flat Andrew that Andrew had to make at the beginning of the school year and was just now allowed to bring home. I opted to turn the colored side down because I love seeing his writing on the back. :)

Page two is all photos! It's my first time not including journaling cards on a page but the kids really wanted all of these photos included so that's what we did! 

The top photos include some of the jam that I made this week (with a new Ali Edwards brush - link below) and a photo of Em and our Who-loving neighbor with their Who shirts on. They are both British Rock Band freaks. :)

We also have 3 photos from our dinner at a friends' house this week - including Em and his bff dancing and entertaining us all, a piano concert, and Tom and our neighbor enjoying their post-dinner treat.

I also have photos of Em and Andrew snuggling on the couch (LOVE that photo!), the kids playing "sleepover" with each other and giving themselves facials, and a photo of the kids and their friends with 3D glasses on after we took them to see "Journey 2" in 3D.

Any bets on how much trouble I get into with the kids by posting that photo of them with their mud masks??? Mean mommy. ;)

WEEK 8 SUPPLIES INCLUDE:

InLinkz.com

Libby's Scrapbook Albums

Here's just a quick peek into some of the layouts that went into Libby's albums. It's an interesting look back at her life and my scrapping style. Both are a bit hysterical. 

She filled up two huge albums with her layouts and it looks like I'm going to need to get some more! I took all photos with my cell phone after the layouts were in the page protectors - there's glare. Sorry! I'm in a hurry to get to project life. :)

She still does this pose! Totally cracks me up!!!

Best Halloween photo EVER!!! hahaha!!

This was my flower phase. Can you tell?

Digi layout - still love this one!

Another one of my favorite layouts! Second grade was a very rough year for her and it still amazes me how well she pulled through that year. Luckily, she has very little memory of all the epilepsy/medication issues she had that year. One of the few blessings of the horrid meds she was on. 

Her albums are stuffed!

Back later with project life!

Organizing scrapbook albums

We woke up on Sunday morning with no plans for the morning. While we missed our usual routine at the food pantry, it was also nice to have a lazy start to the day. After breakfast, Libby pulled out one of our scrapbooks and then commented that she didn't know where some layouts were. I explained that I had never really organized them, that I just put layouts in the albums either whenever I had them printed or where ever there was empty space. I confessed that I had always wanted to reorganize all of the albums so that each child had their own but that it seemed intimidating. And her response was, "Well, I can do it!" 

And it hit me - this task that appeared to be so daunting for so many years didn't have to be mine alone. The kids ARE old enough to do it. 

Woohoo!!!

I helped her but mainly just to give advice. We started by pulling out all the layouts that were just about her from all of the albums. We probably have 15-20 scrapbook albums but it took no time at all to pull the layouts out. (We decided that we'll have a family album where we'll keep those layouts that are about multiple kids.)

Once we had all of her layouts, we moved to the dining room table and she stacked her layouts in a very loose chronological order. I didn't start scrapbooking until she was 4 and I rarely went back in time so she chose to organize her layouts into these piles: toddler and preschool, kindergarten and first grade, second grade, and third and fourth grade. Much to her chagrin, I haven't printed layouts in a while so there are no current or fifth grade layouts. Oops. 

And then we just put the layouts into two D-ring albums. From start to finish, it took under two hours. I was so impressed with her motivation and also a bit moved by how much she loved having all of "just her" layouts to look at. These scrapbooks really do mean a lot to my kids and that means the world to me. While we were sorting her layouts, Emily and Tom kept wandering in and looking at them. We laughed so hard at so many memories and exclaimed over and over again, "Oh, I remember that!" and "Oh my gosh, you were sooooo cute!" 

It was such a wonderful way to spend the morning. 

And now Emily is working on hers. Libby is our little motivator! Thanks, Libby!!!

Two at the same time?!

 

 Do you know what those are? They are recorders. Every child has to learn how to play them at some point. I understand that and there is a tremendous value in learning how to play instruments. 

But two kids at once?! 

I'm off to buy industrial-strength earplugs. 

Happy Saturday!

Project Life - Week 7

 

A very busy week led to very few photos taken and just a wee bit of journaling this week. Not exactly how I normally do it, but that's okay. It's a true reflection of our busy week and that's what Project Life is all about. 

It was simple to put it all together - a two-page spread, using a Design F page on the right because all I had was cell phone photos. Design F pages are absolutely perfect for cell phone pictures! 

Page 1 includes a photo of Daddy and Libby - Daddy is wearing Libby's Egyptian headdress that her Nanny brought her. It also includes photos from our Sunday morning at the food pantry and Emily's journaling about it, a photo of Daddy, Andrew and the crazy puppy, a weekly journaling card, and a photo of the cast of Downton Abbey that I pulled off the internet.  

This was the first week I didn't include any inserts at all. I didn't really have much journaling this week so I used one of Cathy Zielske's 4 x 6 Layered Journaling Cards. I simply switched out the title to the dates I wanted.  

Downton Abbey - we have been so obsessed with it that I had to include a photo of the cast that I found online. Tom and I watched multiple episodes every night last week just to catch up in time for the season finale. Boo. :(

Page two includes a photo of a friend (that we blurred for privacy), Libby and Em sleeping together, photos from Nanny's visit last week, photos from Andrew and Libby at school, and a photo from a family birthday party that we hosted.  

I wanted to add in some journaling specific to Nanny's visit so I used one of Katie's Labeled Journalers. For those of you who remember these cards from my article at Scrapbook Update, I printed this one on cardstock. I love the texture of cardstock added in beside the photos.  

And that's it! Very simple this week. Simple, easy, and done. And I love that! In the past when a crazy-busy week would hit, I would never have found the time to document the week. But Project Life is just so easy to keep up with - and how cool that I was able to document this week with Nanny for the kids. :)

SUPPLIES FOR WEEK 7:

InLinkz.com

How To Make Strawberry Jam

 

I am not a food blogger and don't aspire to be one but here's a quick and easy way to make strawberry jam. I learned how to make it this past summer and we haven't bought jam since. We are all totally addicted to this and my kids think I'm a super-star for knowing how to make it myself. I've even heard them bragging about it and there's not a better feeling in the world than hearing your kids brag about you. :)

(I've tried to make sure I put in all the steps and haven't forgotten anything. As I said above, I am not a food blogger and I just hope that this makes sense. If not, feel free to let me know!)

Ingredients:

5 cups crushed strawberries
1/4 cup lemon juice
7 cups sugar
1 1.75 oz package fruit pectin (or 1/3 cup if you have a larger package)
1/2 tsp. butter *see photo and note at the bottom

Canning Supplies:

Large covered canner with inside rack
Canning jars (pint or half-pint)
Canning lids and bands
Jar lifter
Magnetic wand 

This recipe makes 5 - 6 pints of jam or 10 - 12 half-pints.

How To Make Strawberry Jam:

1. Wash and hull strawberries. Either crush the berries with a masher or put them in a food processor. Most recipes say not to puree the berries because jam should have fruit pieces in it. However, my kids like very smooth jam so I throw the berries into the blender and puree the heck out of them. :) It takes about 3 pounds of strawberries to make 5 cups of crushed strawberries. 

 2. After the berries are crushed or pureed, put aside for a few minutes while you prepare the canning supplies.

3. Put the rack in the canner and fill the canner with hot water, cover it, and put on high heat. You want the water to be boiling or close to boiling when you put the jars in it. 

4. Wash and dry the canning jars and place aside. 

5. Boil the canning lids for 30 seconds and then turn off the heat. Leave the lids in the hot water until you use them. 

6. After your supplies are ready and the water in the canner is heating up, put the berries and the lemon juice in a large pot and stir together over medium heat. 

7. As the berries and lemon juice are heating up, add the pectin and stir until completely combined. Stir constantly as it heats to a boil and add the butter to reduce foaming.

8. When the mixture reaches a full, rolling boil, add the sugar all at once and stir rapidly until the sugar is completely mixed in.

9. Stir the mixture often as it heats up. Bring it back to a full, rolling boil and allow it to boil for one minute only. 

10. Remove from the heat and ladle it immediately into the jars. 

11. Do not fill each jar all the way to the top - leave at least 1/2" of space in each jar.

12. Gently put a wooden spoon (never metal) into each jar, through the jam and run it around the inside edges to remove air bubbles.

13. Wipe the jar rims with a warm, wet cloth to remove all traces of jam. 

14. Using the magnetic wand, take the canning lids out of the pan and place them on the jars. 

15. Put the bands on the jars and screw them on but do NOT over-tighten them. 

16. Using the jar lifter, gently lower the jars onto the rack in the canner. 

17. Put the lid on the canner and bring back to a full boil. 

18. Continue to boil for 10 minutes.

19. After 10 minutes, turn off the heat and, using the jar lifter, move the jars onto a dish towel. Allow to sit for 18 - 24 hours. 

20. And the best part - listen for the pop! As you're moving the jars onto the dish towel, you should hear the lids pop. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for them to pop and that's just fine. Once they've popped, you know they are sealed!

21. If they don't pop, it's not a huge problem. Those jars will still keep in the refrigerator. The popped jars can be stored in a pantry until they have been opened. 

And enjoy! 

And in case you've never seen canning supplies (as I had never seen them), here is a canner: 

 Here is the jar lifter and the magnetic wand. I bought my canner and all my canning supplies in a kit at Target. I've also seen them at Walmart and Kohl's. 

 

 Here are two different brands of pectin - it can be found in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. 

 This is the jar lid. The band is the part that goes over the lid and screws on. 

 

*Note about using butter: I made one batch with butter added to reduce the foaming and one batch without butter. You can clearly see the difference in appearance here. However, they taste exactly the same. The only difference is that you will need to stir the foam into the jam once you open the jar in the butterless version. There is no reason why I chose to leave out the butter, except perhaps laziness. ;) 

Pardon the Interruption

Pardon this interruption to my regular blog posting. But Libby informed me that we are "on our last jar of strawberry jam!!! Please, please make some, Mommy!"

This is truly an emergency at our house so that's what I'll be doing today. ;)

Back with Project Life tomorrow!

A digi trend article

Pocket Pages Layered Template No. 05 from Designer Digitals

My latest article is up at Scrapbook Update - Digital Trends: Weekly Life-Based Projects. Check it out!

It's a dreary, gloomy day here - perfect for scrapping and getting some house chores done. :)

All it takes is one day

My house was spotless on Saturday. And then I spent Sunday on the couch sick. All it takes is one day of Mommy being sick for it to all fall apart, right?

Even my Project Life desk is a mess. I tried to work on it yesterday and gave up after about 10 minutes. I shoved everything back into the cubbies thinking that would be okay. But I can't stand it. Today will be about putting it all back together. 

In the meantime, is anyone else totally hooked on Downton Abbey?!?! I can't believe we have to wait almost another year for Season 3! I need to find another show to watch in the meantime. LOVE that show!

It never fails

We had company here all week with lots of extra activities, plans with friends on Friday and then hosted a family party last night. I kept crazy hours all week long and never sat down to relax.

And it never fails - after a week like that where I go, go, go - I crash and get sick. I'm spending today on the couch in hopes of kicking this horrible cold. In the meantime, it's a great time to go through photos of this past week and work on organizing Project Life. This one above I just adore! Tom wearing Libby's egyptian headdress and Libby just grinning that huge grin of her as Daddy kisses her. It doesn't get better than that. :)