Lists of Me

So, a couple of weeks ago, I introduced the plan I had to make a Lists of Me album this year. At the same time, I also talked about wanting to do a 2009 Weekly album. And. I babbled a bit about my word of the year and trying to incorporate that into the 2009 Weekly album. :) Well, I ended up swapping that around and am now using the word "BE" in my Lists of Me album.

Yeah. I'll stop babbling again and just get to the point, lol. :) I decided to go with a 6x12 format for this, having not tried that size before. Here's the title page:

For the first week, then, I brought my word of the year (BE) into the picture:

(Note, this is a two page layout in my fun little album. Not all of my lists will be two pages, but apparently, at least to start, I just have a lot to say, LOL!) So, this first list is about using "BE" in conjunction with another word each week. I've made myself a list to help organize the year (52 words chosen to use this year). For my second week, I chose to use the "Be Driven" combination off my list and, from that, decided to make a list of vehicles in my life to date:

Fun, eh? (You'll notice, too, the first use of my new Silhouette for cutting out the car shape and the "driven" letters...yay! Oh, and this doesn't look as weird in the album, itself, since there's space between the pages when they're in page protectors.) Sorry you can't really read my remarks and thoughts about each vehicle, but that's what's there on the second page. :)

I'm working on my list for this week and will try to be more consistent and regular in posting them from here out. :) In the meantime, I'm just really happy with how this little album is coming along and am looking forward to the weeks ahead! Have you done any "lists" layouts lately?

(Stay tuned for pics of my 2009 Weekly album...probably this weekend-ish...)

Quick brain dump...

Oy. It's been more than a week already (since I last posted) but feels much longer. ;) Lots continually going on here and at least two more posts that I'll do separately...hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a quick brain dump of stuff I felt somehow compelled to share:

ASHER ATE CHICKEN!! Okay, that may seem trivial or unexciting to some, but let me explain. Asher, now 6.5 years old, lives on dairy and carbs. The boy ate pretty much just yogurt and cheese and crackers from the time he started eating solids until a little over a year ago. Then he started, ever so slowly, adding a few other things to the mix...waffles, cheerios in milk, the occasional apple, toast with peanut butter. Other than a very few tentative, tiny bites (which he promptly threw up in almost every case), the boy has never eaten meat. In a family of lactose-intolerant carnivores, this has been interesting, to say the least.

Oh. You wanted to know why he suddenly decided to eat chicken (and I suppose I'll fess up here and say that they were chicken nuggets, but hey...I'll take what I can get! lol!)? Well, both his brothers still had some Christmas money to spend. True to his own history and fashion, Asher had spent all of his in short order. But yesterday we were out and the other two found these cool Hot Wheels cars that change color and were planning to buy one each. Asher so did not want to be left out that I took pity on him and told him, as a one time deal, I'd be willing to loan him the money...if he tried and ate three different, new foods that I asked him to over the course of the next few days. (Feeling pretty dang proud of myself for coming up with that one on the spot!) He agreed and, wanting to take advantage of the opportunity, I told him the first food would be chicken. He ate five nuggets. Five! (And I only said he had to finish two for it to count as one of the three foods.) Dude. You honestly have no idea how big that is. :)

SHOPPING. Yeah, I've been doing my share of post-holiday shopping, too. :) Three buys in particular make me so happy I'm going to tell you about them...

First, I finally joined the world of scrapbookers who own a die cut system! Strange but true, I've never owned any of the die cut tools. While I did lust after the cute dies and all, I just never caved before. Last week, though, I bought the Silhouette (by Quickutz). I've only used it a few times, but I can already see that this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. :) Unlike some of the other systems, the Silhouette works with my existing fonts and such on my computer...doesn't rely on the dies that have to be purchased (though, of course, I can purchase them, lol). Totally better for my style of scrapping. I'm looking forward to using it more and will share as I can. (BTW, yes, I know that the Cricut with certain software does the same thing and some have argued in its favor. I'm not ruling that out, but the Silhouette will do...for now, lol.)

Second, I found some fan-flippin-tastic deals at Ann Taylor Loft last weekend! I was so excited just thinking about it still makes me smile. :) See, I was in search of a few things to wear for CHA (a scrapbooking/crafting industry trade show that happens twice a year that I'll be going to for the first time in a week and a half!!!) since I was told that attire in the booth would be business casual. Turns out, I pretty much just wear jeans. ;) Pretty much all of my dress pants and suits and such from my pre-kids years have since been sold or donated or just don't fit. Armed with this excuse to shop, you can imagine my delight when I found pants that actually fit (amazing in and of itself!) and that were on sale for $7!!! Yes, $7...regularly $70! I bought both colors and then found similarly great deals on a couple tops and am thrilled.

Third, you may remember my mounted rubber stamp storage find that I've posted about before and that is featured in this February's Creating Keepsakes as part of my scrap room. Well, I found another one at my local gently used kids store yesterday! Even though I wasn't particularly looking for another, I was just so amazed to find one again, I snatched it up right quick! Can't wait to fill it up...

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM. The boys had their belated holiday program for Options on Monday (the original date having been post-poned due to illness of the teacher and numerous student absences). I was so proud of them marching right up there on stage and singing with their classmates. Sniff. They're growing up on me again, aren't they? :) (I'd post a pic but I don't have any that don't have other kids in them and didn't ask permission from those parents...) Anyhow...yay!

FEBRUARY MBM CHALLENGE. Yes, it was just last week that I was posting about January's Month by Month challenge being up over at CK. Let's just say that January's was a bit late getting posted. Regardless, February's issue is now online, so February's challenge is there, too! Please check it out. And don't forget that you still have until January 31 to finish the January challenge...so plenty of time for both!

RESOLUTIONS. Technically I haven't written any official ones out for the year. But, I did post about the two albums I want to keep up weekly throughout 2009. And I have actually been doing that. But I still haven't shared any pics. I know. Honest. Tomorrow I'll try to post the first two weeks of my Lists of Me album, okay? Promise!

Whew. Okay, I need to go work on about three different assignments now...wish me luck! :)

January MBM challenge is up!

Just wanted to let everyone know that the January MBM challenge is now going on! Check out the online article here (there's another sneak peek at a layout in the book) and then go to the most recent post at my MBM Scrapbooking group at CK for more details, okay? Thanks and happy day to you all!

ETA: Sorry. I lose track of where I post what sometimes. :) MBM is short for "Month By Month"...as in, my book. Hee hee.

101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking

So, I'm pretty much just going to copy what Ali Davis said today in her post, lol. :) 101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking is now available for pre-order! It's a special issue bursting with ideas/solutions for common scrapbooking problems...with layouts from the 2008 Dream Team, Hall of Fame and Scrapbooker of the Year. In a nutshell, it rocks. :) Here's what it looks like:

There's an online group over at CK this week with challenges and sneak peeks and all that, so get on over and join, okay? In the meantime, here's a little sneak peek of one of my contributions:

I love this layout! It's definitely one of my favorites that I made in 2008 (though, obviously, I didn't include it in my top 12 because I wasn't supposed to share until now, lol). In particular, I love that not only was I able to get a good picture of me and all of my siblings (not common since we live in two different states) but I found a fun way to include bits and pieces of information about each of us at this moment in time. Yay!

Oh. Okay. Yes. I know I still haven't posted visuals on my two weekly albums I'm tackling this year. I'm working on it. Promise. This weekend kinda got consumed with putting the house back in order after the holidays and two weeks of houseguests, LOL! Not that it was bad or anything at all...just trying to get back in the swing of things. I'm sure you understand. :) On the plus side, I'm still totally excited about both projects and have them both started...just haven't gotten around to the photographing and posting part of things.

2009 Weekly & Lists of Me

2009. A new year, a new list of goals, right? I have a list going but haven't put it all down on my somewhat annual layout for the new year yet. I'll try to get to that soon. In the meantime, I have two specific scrappy goals for 2009 that I wanted to share with you...

Before I get to those, though, let me share with you my Word for 2009. Last year's was small, and I think I did a fairly good job of keeping that in mind throughout 2008. For 2009, I'm going with BE. I want to BE in the moment more, rather than putting things off while I wait for something else to happen. A prime example here is waiting to "decorate" my home more whilst I wait for a time (still in the future) when we'll be able to make more of the improvements we want. I want it all to BE more homey now, though. :)

I like how BE is short and sweet, yet can mean so much (to me). :) Another benefit of BE is that it's flexible. I'm going to use BE and add other words to it all year long. I actually got a jump start with my mantle this holiday season:

(Sorry the picture's not the greatest.) Right now, I'm thinking I'll change the mantle decor every few months...with the seasons. I'm going to start with BE driven...because I'm feeling pretty focused and inspired to make real progress on some of these house projects and scrappy projects that have been on my to do list for too long. :) (And partly because we're still just so happy about our new minivan, LOL!) Now, on to my two goals...

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First, I'm going to do a 2009 Weekly album this year. For 2007 and 2008, I followed my Album in a Year column format and did monthly layouts. I also kept calendar pages for each month where I jotted down highlights when they happened. I love having that quick reference to look at in addition to all of my other layouts that showcase the year.

For 2009, I know a number of people are tackling Project 365 (a picture or journaling each day). I don't know about you, but I know myself well enough to know that a daily something might well become more of a chore. So, I'm taking bits and pieces from Ali Edwards' Word of the Year and December Daily ideas and putting my own twist on that to create a 2009 Weekly album this year.

My plan is to pre-make the bare bones of 52 pages now (well, hopefully this weekend...should have started last week probably, lol). On each of these pages, I'll want to document the highlights of that week as well as focus on a specific word. I plan to utilize my word of the year (BE) and incorporate other words that didn't quite make the cut as "the" word. I have a list already...composed of 52 words that just caught my attention and words from the titles of this awesome kids' book series I had as a kid...Value Tales. They're out of print now (though they're making new ones), but I found a good size lot of them on ebay awhile back and snagged them for the boys. I'll read the corresponding book each week to the boys. Right now, I have 30 of these books and will supplement the remaining weeks with other tales and words. :)

So, confusing though I make this all sound, I'll make 52 pages and then pick which one strikes my fancy each week to complete. I may add pictures or just journaling or maybe throw in a few memorabilia...no set rules. At the end of the year, I'll have a fun album that will not only document my year, but will share my thoughts in a more directed way. Right now I'm thinking the pre-made pages will be 8.5x11 but we'll see...6x6 sounds nice, too. Once I get going, I'll try to share those each week. Hopefully, this will make more sense once I have visuals. ;)

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The second scrappy goal I have is inspired by a book I spotted in my local independent bookstore the other day...Listography. I fell in love instantly but couldn't quite bring myself to buy the book, knowing I could make my own. So. In 2009, I will make my own Lists of Me album. Since weekly seems like a good target, I'm aiming to create a list each week about any random thing I want. It may be a list of childhood pets or a list of things I need at the grocery store. The plan is to keep it simple yet fun. After all, a quick list is totally do-able and not nearly as intimidating as trying to journal about childhood vacations, right? Through these lists, I hope to capture snapshots of me that might otherwise get missed in my scrapbooks. I haven't decided on a format for this album yet. Part of me thinks I might do this one digitally to get more experience with all that. Part of me can't imagine not using my beloved paper. Either way, I'll share those as I go as well. Yay!

So. Those are two of my goals. I'd LOVE if you decide to join me in these. I promise to post soon with visuals. :) Woohoo!