steph's stuff

{Some of} the weekend in photos

Our weekend started with a family dance on Friday night at Andrew's elementary school. It was the first of its kind and I sure hope that they have more of them. What a great time! Of course, I have no pictures of Andrew and it's his school because he has suddenly decided that he won't acknowledge his parents in public. And it happened overnight. The last school function I was at with him, he sat on my lap and hugged me. But we all had fun regardless. Emily was attacked all evening by the wonderful kids that she babysits for and she loved it. Libby found a lot of friends to hang out with. And Tom and I learned how to take duck-face selfies like all the cool kids.

I spent much of Saturday making strawberry jam - one of our absolute staples. 

The kids were very busy with speech team (Emily), guitar lessons (Libby), and football practice (Andrew) and Tom was able to spend some time planning what we'll do with 8 wooden pallets that his client gave us (more on this later!!!) so it was a great day to be home and chained to the stove.

And then on Sunday morning, my honey made us Jordan Pond popovers to go with the jam. There is no better combination in this world!

And Sunday was spent in the car, as it always seems to be these days. Football games and Academic Super Bowl practice consume our Sundays these days. And homework. As Harry Potter. :)

And now onto another very busy week! Happy Monday!

 

Project Life 2013 | January

If you'd like to know more about why I'm doing Project Life on a monthly basis rather than a weekly basis, you might want to read this first: Project Life 2013 | By the month.

And since I explained it all in that post, I'm going to cut right to the chase and post the pages. *with one small apology for the glare - it has been dark and dreary here for months and that makes it incredibly hard to photograph this project without putting it directly under a window - next month, i'll photograph the pages outside of the page protectors.*

You may be wondering why there are 3 1/2 pages and multiple two-page spreads. Because yes, I said yesterday that one of the main reasons I wanted to use a monthly format was so that it look up less space - which leads to the obvious conclusion that I would use fewer pages. And I have. In January of 2012, I used 4 two-page spreads and 8 inserts for a total of 12 pages of thickness in that album.

I don't expect every month to use this many two-page spreads. But this month, we had two new kittens, a presidential inauguration, Emily's first high school dance, Emily's first high school speech meet, and Emily's birthday. It made for an unusually busy and photo-heavy month. I'm sure that other months won't be this full. And regardless, this is still far fewer pages than I would have otherwise used. Last year, the norm was for me to do a two-page spread plus two inserts every single week. So follow me for a second with some math. When you're talking about taking up space in an album, that's 4 pages every week. On a slow week, it might be 3 pages/week. Times 4 times/month = 12 - 16 pages every month. For January of this year, I used 3 1/2 two-page spreads and 2 inserts. Which = 6 pages/month and exactly half of the space used in January of 2012. So even if I keep using this many pages for every month, I should still fit my pages in one album for the year and that's my primary goal with space-saving.  

Here's the individual pages up close. You'll see that I didn't have a weekly or monthly journaling card - I simply journaled the stories beside each photo or directly on each photo. 

I also embellished a lot less and left a lot of white space. It feels less cluttered and much more my style than what I did last year.

When I did want to add an embellishment, I stuck with small arrows, some heart stickers, and some word stickers. Many of them are digital supplies that I used from Designer Digitals and some are traditional supplies that I found at Target.

My two inserts are trimmed down page protectors and I put them at the end of the month - one for the inauguration and one for Emily's birthday and extra-cute kitten photos that I just couldn't leave out. :)

And there you go! If you have any questions about my supplies, leave me a comment and check back later - I answer all the questions in the comment section. :) 

Project Life 2013 | By the month

I decided to do Project Life by the month this year instead of by the week. For many reasons, organizing by the week just didn't work for me. I really enjoyed it for a while and I got excited about it week after week but there was always something a bit off about how that schedule flowed for my family. Here are the primary reasons that I switched to monthly documenting for 2013. 

Space

Last year's weekly layouts took up a lot of space - I filled two albums. Plus, I still do my normal digital layouts and those go into either our family album or each child's individual album. That's a lot of scrapbooking and takes up a lot of physical space. And there were many weeks when I didn't have enough photos to fill up a week's slots and I hated that I just used fillers - it felt like a waste of paper and bookshelves.

Pressure

It also felt like too much documentation. I was on overload - both because of space and also because of the pressure it put on me to constantly be documenting. Every week that rolled by where I didn't finish my Project Life spread felt horrid and I felt behind. I stopped chronological scrapping 7 years ago because I hated that feeling and that part really took the fun out of the project for me. I stopped documenting my pages here on the blog after week 32 because I just wasn't having fun with it anymore and the last thing I wanted to do was to photograph each spread and and spend even more time posting it and linking to supplies. 

Family Calendars

Another reason that monthly spreads make more sense to me is that we organize our schedules here at home by the month. All of the kids have activities at school on monthly schedules and Tom and I have monthly deadlines. We put them on our shared calendar and in my iPhone calendar by the month. Breaking down events by the week didn't gel with either the schedule I have in my head or on my wall. And breaking my weekends up the way I did by using a Sunday - Saturday weekly spread made even less sense. 

Photo Organization

Yet another reason is that I organize my photos by the month. That alone is a great reason to organize my albums by the month. I used to spend way too much time going through all my photos and reorganizing by the week before I could even decide what to print. And I loved that this format freed me up to organize by subject matter, not by a date. So I could choose to put all of the kitten photos together, all of Emily's events together, our weekends together, and so on. LOVE that!

Time

Obviously, I've only documented one month so far in 2013 but I spent far less time on those spreads than I did last year for sure. I didn't worry that photos were in perfect chronological order, I didn't worry about whether I had the exact amount of photos needed to fill up the slots and how many inserts did I need. I simply printed out the photos I wanted to use and then just filled up the slots until I was out of photos. It just felt right to me. 

So that's what I'm doing and why. I'm sure that weekly documentation works just fine for many, many other people but I'm so glad that I chose another approach this year. 

I'll be back with the layouts in a bit!

Schedule? What schedule?

Just when I think I've got a blogging schedule heck a life schedule all set to go, another kid gets sick and then we had winter break and they were all home. Everyone is back at school now (sooooo hoping I didn't just jinx us) and I'm hoping to get back to blogging project life and photos. 

Libby is now struggling with getting back to her own schedule after having missed a week of school due to a prolonged sinus infection. I think the reality of middle-school really hit her when she saw all the make-up work she had to do. My favorite moment of having her home was this photo - she always had at least one animal with her when she was home but bring out the ice cream and they swarmed her. The only reason the dog isn't begging, too, is because he got in trouble for chasing the cats and had to be put in a time out beside her. He's not sleeping - just pouting and trying not to meet my eyes. LOL.

I am LOVING doing project life by the month, instead of the week, by the way! It is so much less pressure and has renewed my energy and love for the process. I will bring you January's pages ASAP.

So much better

After posting the photo of Sawyer last week getting bathed, I got a lot of kind inquiries about the crazy puppy. So I'm happy to report that he is so much better! The new antihistamines, new shampoo and new lotion for this back have made a world of difference and I think the hair loss has stopped. I even think he has new fur growing back. He certainly is less itchy and much more content. 

Now if I could convince him that the kittens don't really need to be chased all around the house....

Project Life 2013 | Introduction Page

Welcome to Project Life 2013! I'm so happy that I decided to do this again. I finished last year's album a couple of weeks ago and really considered not doing it again. But in the end, I decided that I would miss it too much. 

Here are my previous intro pages - I had two albums last year so I had two intro pages- one in January and one in July.

January 2012

July 2012

And so here's this year's intro page. It took me forever to complete it because I was really hoping to find time to get a family shoot done. But it just wasn't happening. Tom's January was the month from hell and Emily is simply never home, except to eat and sleep. And Andrew and I have been sick for 6 weeks. So in the end, I took everyone outside - in the middle of a snow storm because I was that desperate to get pictures taken (see the snow all over Tom?!) - and just snapped photos. It took less than 5 minutes and it's done. There's a lesson in that. 

I'm using the Seafoam Edition plus supplies I've printed from Designer Digitals. My goal is to stay within a fairly neutral palette and to keep it simple. 

Another decision I've made about this project is to remember that it is just for me. And because of that, I may not take the time to list and link all of the supplies I'm using. If you have any questions about any supplies, please just leave me a comment and I will reply to your comment as soon as I can so that everyone can see the answer. 

I'll post my January pages later this week. I'm finishing them right now.

So excited to keep this going for 2013! 

Line Art Quilt Pattern

Over the past couple of years, I have gotten more hits and questions and comments about this quilt than any other quilting or scrapbooking project I've ever done. My blog was recently linked in a couple of forums and I've gotten a lot more emails about it so I decided to re-blog some of the photos and answer all of the questions here so everything's in one place. 

I made the quilt above from a pattern called Line Art designed by Holly Hickman. I found the pattern in a 2010 Quilts and More magazine and saw that the Fat Quarter Shop was selling a quilt with Moda's Dream On line. 

I blogged about the quilt a few times and you can see all of my blog posts and photos about it by following these links:

Line Art Quilt Pattern Fabrics 

Line Art Quilt in Progress

Line Art Quilt Finished

Line Art Quilt with Vintage Patchwork Pillows

You can also see all of my flickr photos of it here - SVetne on flickr.

Other bloggers have also made this quilt and/or blogged about it and even nicely linked to my flickr photos of my quilt. You can visit their posts here:

Buttontree Lane

s.o.t.a.k. handmade

GnomeAngel

Sewing Sandy

One of the most commonly asked questions I receive is "Where is the pattern?" 

Well, the Fat Quarter Shop no longer sells it and I can't find my copy. Honestly, I wouldn't feel comfortable posting a copy of the pattern anyway since it's not my copyright. 

But here's the good news. All People Quilt (a Better Homes and Gardens site - the parent company of Quilts and More) has posted the original pattern on their website as a freebie under another name! It is called the Skinny Strips Quilt and the pattern is here:

Line Art Quilt Pattern by Holly Hickman (aka Skinny Strips Quilt)

As you'll see, I did not use the backing fabric for my quilt. I pieced my own with leftover bits of strips from the jelly roll that I didn't use.

Enjoy! And let me know if you have any more questions. :) 

Related links:

Line Art Quilt Pattern College Quilt Blue Belle 9-Patch Quilt Colorbrick Quilt Colorbrick Pillow Shams My First Quilt Wonky Log Cabin Quilt Pink Lemonade Quilt Emily's Patchwork Quilt

InLinkz.com

Five Photo Friday

1. I have the intro page and most of January done for Project Life - hope to have it ready to share by Monday. My goal this year is S.I.M.P.L.E. The hardest part was finding time when we were all home to get a family photo. I finally gave up and just grabbed everyone - during a snowstorm - and threw them outside I really kind of dragged them out there on the driveway and shot them individually with a camera, of course.

2. I've had sick kids all week long. And I'm totally losing my mind. Save me. Andrew missed two days of school and Libby missed four. We've been to the doc's and Andrew has yet another virus and Libby has a sinus infection. This makes six straight weeks that some of us have been sick. It is absolutely crazy. 

3. The poor crazy puppy has had a lot of itching and thinning fur for months. He's always had eye allergies and has been on crazy-expensive food and meds for years. But this skin allergy is new and we finally realized that he's actually balding in places. So the vet put him on two new meds and had us bathe him with a prescription shampoo and supplement that with a prescription lotion. My husband's actually almost naked in this photo so I had to crop him out. As we were bathing him, he lost even more fur. He's a sad sight in this photo but he's doing fantastic on his new meds/lotions and isn't itching at all. At all. It's kind of unbelievable how well he's doing. Please, please don't let me have just jinxed him by saying that.

4. This is Becky sleeping on the couch. The same kitten who wouldn't come downstairs until last week because she was so timid. It might just be my imagination but she looks like she's relaxing a bit now. What do you think? I really wish I was a cat.

5. Tom was out of town and came home last night with a box of huge gourmet chocolate cupcakes for us. Best.husband.ever. (No strikethroughs here - he seriously is the best thing that ever happened to me.)

Have a good weekend!

December Daily 2012

I was going back through photos and realized that I never posted my December Daily album. It might have had something to do with us being sick for over a month but for whatever reason, it's February and I'm going to post it. Maybe it can be the inspiration for a Valentine's Day album. ;)

I wasn't going to do an album this year but Libby begged me to. She loves my past acrylic albums but I didn't have any left and this wasn't something I wanted to spend money on since I really don't do paper scrapping anymore. So I bought a 9 x 9 red album at Target and made my own 8 x 8 kraft pages. It's a super-simple album comprised of kraft paper for the bases, a few old alphabets, colored sharpies, and a couple of tags and embellishments. Some of my pages include photo collages and those were all made with Ali Edwards' December Daily 6x8 Layered Templates at Designer Digitals. I reduced them in size to fit on an 8 x 8 page. 

I haven't included all of the pages - just enough to give you a feel for the album.

The cover:

The intro page:

Libby's birthday is December 1st so that's always the first page:

I also included some decorative page dividers for no reason other than Libby likes the embellishments. Used a lot of very, very old supplies - probably pre-2006. The glittery snowflakes (silver and red) are the only new things I added to the dividers. They are actually ornaments that I found at Bath & Body Works for $1.

We do a lot of non-Christmas activities during December and I never hesitate to include those photos - it's real life.

I chose to acknowledge the Sandy Hook tragedy with a simple photo of Andrew sitting on my lap that day after school and journaled about how grateful I was. This was not the place for an in-depth retrospective of my feelings. I added more of those in my Project Life album for that week. 

I have multiple pages for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but those photos include a lot of extended family photos that I want to keep private.

I ended the album by simply adhering our Christmas card to the back of the last page.

 

Five Photo Friday

1. We were driving Emily to a school activity last Sunday and we screeched to a halt when we saw this street sign. My husband bleeds burnt orange for the Texas Longhorns (crazed alum) and started yelling when he saw the sign for Longhorn Drive. It took everything I had to convince him that we were NOT going to move there just because of the street name. He might have also blurted out that were he in a another stage of his life, he would steal the sign.

2. Little Scout took a nap in the office with me this week. I was finishing Project Life and he curled up in front of the window on a quilt I made a few years ago. The cuteness almost killed me. I'm still recovering. 

3. Speaking of cuteness, Becky is getting braver and is gaining weight and is so adorable with her big, round kitten belly and super-fluffy fur. Yes, I know I've already posted this photo earlier this week but oh well. I'm a new kitten mother - I deserve a little slack. I adore this baby. :)

4. My hubby invited me downtown earlier this week to join him for an afternoon cup of coffee. Snuggling on the couch at the Chocolate Cafe in front of a roaring fireplace was about the best part of my week. :)

5. I took this quick shot at my neighbor's house yesterday afternoon. Love this part of winter. :)

A couple of quick notes: 

Kids of the human type: Yes, I do still have children. But I have no pictures of them because I only see them either a) in the car as I drive them all around town, or b) at night when they're doing homework. And as I'm not allowed to photograph them very much anymore anyway, you will be seeing a lot more cat photos. You're welcome.

Project Life: Going to get moving on 2013 and can't wait!!! I've gotten a lot of emails about the Project Life organizing box I posted earlier this week. I bought it at Target (or maybe Michael's) over a year ago and I've been told that it's no longer available. I'm going to check myself this weekend and will let you know what I find out. 

Comments: I've been replying to most comments in the comment section instead of replying via email. So if you asked a question or want more information, just check back in the comment section. I'll try to be fairly diligent about answering things that way. 

Have a great weekend! I have snow to shovel, groceries to buy, and fur babies to pet today!