Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Project Life 2014: Week 17

Today I am sharing another oldie spread from 2014. This one took awhile for me to plan and orchestrate because it was the week Andrew and I were in Hawaii. It was hard whittling down which photos to use out of hundreds to choose and how to also incorporate what was going on in Liam's life back in Milwaukee.

So here is a look at the full spread with inserts. The left side and both sides of the 6-photo insert are all Hawaii. The right side of the spread is all Liam in Milwaukee and then the smaller 7x5 insert contains my weekly recap on one side and a Hawaii postcard on the other side. I also included a couple Hawaii brochures using Attach Me tags but they are hiding behind the insert here.

Here's the full spread again but with the small 7x5 insert flipped so you can see the postcard and the front of 6-photo insert.

And here's the full spread again with the 6-photo insert flipped so you can see the back of the insert and one of the brochures I included.

And here is the full spread with the brochures flipped, exposing the full right side.

And in case you haven't looked at it enough, here's the full spread without inserts or brochures...

...and then again with the inserts placed.

And now for some closeups of each spread starting with the left side. I decided to keep it simple and tried to marry this spread and the two sides of the insert together by treating each Hawaii photo the same - with a cardstock border and a photo caption. I wish I could say I took the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park photo but it's a postcard. The geotag on the lower left photo acts as a frame around Andrew swimming in the pool.

Here is the right side of the spread. I know I said the whole thing was devoted to Liam in Milwaukee but that's not exactly true. The photo in the upper left was taken during the one day I spent in Portland after returning from Hawaii before flying back to Milwaukee.

Here is the front of the 6-photo insert. The plastic palm trees on my filler card are actually drink stirs!

Then, here is the back of the insert. The photo in the upper left of sunset from the summit of Mauna Kea is probably my favorite from the entire trip.

And there you have it! It was a jam-packed week 17 in 2014!

Saturday, November 26, 2016

My 2015 December Daily

So, I never shared last year's December Daily. The truth is, I didn't finish it until well into February. By that point, Valentine's Day had already come and gone and it just didn't seem like a real good time to share it. So, I put it on the back burner and added a task to my To Do List to come here and share it after Thanksgiving this year. I figured now that the next holiday coming up is actually Christmas and everyone is probably decorating, putting up the tree and listening to Christmas music, now is the time to share this. I hope it helps get you in the festive mood and maybe inspires any of you out there who are planning to do a December Daily this year. I am! I used Simple Stories Claus & Co. for my 2015 December Daily below and this year I will again be using Simple Stories current Christmas collection, Classic Christmas. So here you go - my 2015 December Daily!

Title Page: I love the way this title page turned out. I hardly ever use calendar background paper but it of course worked well here. The photo is from a mini shoot I did with my boys to obtain a December photo for the grandma's 2016 calendars!

Day #1: This year was the first year we did an "Advent Calendar" for Liam. I read somewhere about wrapping a Christmas book and opening one each year and absolutely loved it. So his big present this year was that I purchased a bunch of Christmas books, wrapped them up and numbered them for each day.

Day #2: Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas - a true classic!

Day #3: Decorating the tree the way I like to do it - completely alone to ease my anal-retentive brain, Christmas music playing and a glass of wine.

Day #4: Jensen completely enamored with the tree, or more appropriately, the lights.

Day #5: We had to celebrate St. Nick's Day one day early because Andrew and I were heading out of town for a couple days.

Day #6: Andrew and I were so lucky that we were able to arrange a very last-minute trip to Columbus to see the Portland Timbers take on the Crew in the MLS Finals. And the Timbers won!!

Day #7: We had a spare mini-tree so Andrew came up with the idea of putting in Liam's room. He loved it!

Day #8: I thought it was appropriate to swap out Thomas with Winter Wonderland Thomas, use red and green coal cars and finish with the Christmas caboose to make a Christmas train on Liam's toy track.

Day #9: I was a little behind this year on addressing and mailing Christmas cards. I usually have them out within the first week of December.

Day #10: Liam was very excited to eat his Santa Twix that he in his stocking for St. Nick's.

Day #11: Andrew and Liam looking through my 2014 December Daily album.

Day #12: Andrew and Liam enjoying the fire!

Day #13: It's hard to see him but Liam disappeared one day and I found him just sitting in one of the dining room chairs, admiring the Christmas tree.

Day #14: I always like to include a photo of some sort of seasonal beverage in my December Daily and this year I went with a Deschutes Jubelale.

Day #15: Andrew had some extra Christmas lights so he decorated Liam's swing set which he was super excited about.

Day #16: This was our first year having four stockings hang from the mantle. All of our stockings are handmade by a close family friend.

Day #17: Despite being hit with the horrendous stomach flu that had been going around town, we still made it to the theater to see The Force Awakens on opening night.

Day #18: Liam's last casting session of three for stretching his leg muscles was today and he decided to be festive and do one green and one red.

Day #19: All the gifts were wrapped with days to spare this year!

Day #20: We went to see Santa and both boys were pretty good despite the long line. And neither one cried!

Day #21: I started to make cookies for Christmas and Liam helped with some of the mixing!

Day #22: Andrew wanted to teach Liam about the spirit of giving so the two of them went shopping and picked up a special gift for Liam to give to Jensen.

Day #23: Christmas cookies baked! This year we did peanut butter-M&M-pretzel cookies, egg nog cookies, red velvet cookies and chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies.

Day #24: This Milwaukee Christmas Eve was very traditional with a group of family heading to Solly's for lunch, several of us attending Mass and then dinner at Bonnie's house.

Day #25: Each year I do a two-page spread in my December Daily for Christmas Day that way I can include lots of photos. Beth, Paul, Peter and Steph came over in the morning to open gifts, have brunch and celebrate Liam's birthday. The poor child is a true Christmas baby. Then that evening we headed over to my in-laws' for Christmas dinner with the whole family. 

Day #26: A bunch of the cousins drove out to Madison to see The Force Awakens in I-MAX 3D.

Day #27: Liam playing with some of his new toys!

Day #28: We had a pretty mild December weather-wise and finally saw some real snow at this time.

Day #29: Andrew took one of the big boxes a gift came in and an extra strand of Christmas lights to build the boys a fort!

Day #30: I love getting Christmas cards each year and I always take a photo of the stack we receive to include in my album.

Day #31: We had a low-key New Year's Eve at home as usual and cracked open a nice bottle of champagne we had received as a gift when Jensen was born.

Closing Page: I think that our Christmas card is going to be the standard closing page from this point forward.

And there you have it! My 2015 December Daily in its entirety. Now here's hoping this year's is completed in a more timely manner. Enjoy the upcoming holiday season and working on your December Daily!

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Project Life 2014: Week 16

Oops! I've had this draft saved here for awhile and completely forgot to post it! I am jumping waaaaaay back to 2014 here. I am still trying to finish both my 2013 and 2014 album. I completely skipped 2015 but have the supplies with the intention to go back to it. And I'm behind in 2016 too. It's just the story of my life. But, that's okay.

So, anyways, here's a look back at 2014 Week 16. This was Easter week and I also got to spend a few days back in Portland visiting Andrew and friends before we headed out for our Hawaii vacation. It was so wonderful being back in Portland so soon after leaving. 

Here is the left side of the layout. I kept this side focused on the first days of the week when I was still in Milwaukee with Liam and also Liam's Easter Sunday (which I spent in Hawaii with Andrew).

And now a closer look at the right side. The top two rows are of my time back in Portland and then the bottom row represents our first couple days in Hawaii.

This was a pretty simple spread which is good because Week 17 took me a lot of time to put together. I'll be sharing it with you soon. I have no problem keeping things simple one week and going all out the next. It's all part of the creative process!

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Project Life 2016: Week 6

Welcome to Project Life 2016 Week 6! This was a fun week to scrap because I had lots of photos to choose from. And shockingly, Scout makes an appearance three times this week which I am pretty sure hasn't happened since she was a puppy! Here's a look at the spread in its entirety. 

Here's a better look at the left side. I love the photo of the boys on the slide with Andrew in the upper left. The cork embellishments are super fun too! The selfie I took with Scout is definitely a favorite photo and spent some time as my FaceBook profile picture. I took several photos of Liam holding the bowl of Valentine's we put together for his class and in so many photos he had that "forced" four-year-old smile. I happened to grab this one of him smiling down at the bowl and I knew this was the real winning shot.

And here's the right side. The upper left is a postcard from our new favorite Tap Room, Draft and Vessel. Then, I placed the photo of Andrew and I at Draft and Vessel below the postcard. I made sure to include a photo about the Super Bowl on this spread as well; I always like to include current events in my Project Life albums. They play such a big part in our lives and I fell Project Life is the prefect place to document them.

And there you go - 2016 Week 6. I'll be back soon to share some spreads from way back in 2014!

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Project Life 2016: Week 5

I'm here to share another Project Life 2016 layout with you! I am currently bouncing back and forth between 2014 and 2016. One day I'll catch up on all my albums...ha! All that matters is I am still having fun scrapping, right?

So here is 2016 Week 5 in all its glory. I am pretty happy with how it turned out with one glaring issue - there is no photo of me. Well, unless you count the photo of my feet on the BOSU ball. 

Here's a look at the left side. Poor Jensen was teething and had a bad cold the day I took his 11 month photos, hence the red nose and cheeks. Poor li'l guy! I still think this photo turned out pretty cute though! On our double date with Cassie and Kevin, I completely spaced to get a photo. So I did a Google search for Morel and managed to scrounge up a photo of both the charcuterie platter with one of the entrees we ordered. So I printed that and added letter stickers with the name of the restaurant on it. Viola! Our double-date is represented photographically in my album!

And here's the right side. I seriously don't know what part of this side if the spread is my favorite. I love how the "Dream" chipboard sentiment fit perfectly between Scout in Jensen in the photo in the bottom left. I love the photo of Liam watching Toy Story with his popcorn and all his Toy Story guys represented. I also of course love the photo of my three guys and the fact that I finally remember to grab a screenshot of my "to do" list on my phone one night. I am just so happy with how this page turned out!

So there's Week 5! Week 6 will be up soon! Good night all!