Project Life 2013 Week One

Drawing out the weeks I have done in an effort to have more to blog about.  Makes sense right??

Last year, I kept my weeks more to one page protector.  Using mostly Iphone pics & printing things wallet size or Instagram size in the hopes that my album would be manageable.  Not a chance.  I had so many inserts (especially of our Disney vacation) that I ended up with 2 albums.  This year I'm just winging it.  If I have lots of pics I'll just do two pages.  Go with the flow, I say.  With that said, you know this week was a two pager, right??

I had the hardest time taking pics with both my iphone and regular camera so this is as good as it's gonna get. 

I think my favorite part is doing the week card.  I like having fun with it.  I make the card using whatever catches my eye at the moment.  I don't plan my pages either and often have extra pics from printing too many. This week I didn't have a ton of extra pics but I had more than would fit in one page protector so I went with it and used some filler cards. 

I find myself drawn to hot pink & aqua colors more.  Not sure why but I like it.  Even chose the aqua albums from WRMK for this year.  So pretty!

I guess you might say that I'm taking a more relaxed approach to Project Life this year.  Have fun with it and do what makes you happy!  I may chant this over and over when I over think things...just sayin!

Project Life 2013

I wasn't sure when I decided to do Project Life again for the new year...but I realized I had fun doing it, so I just did it. When the new kits were announced, I feel in love with the Seafoam kit.  I wanted it, but I also realized how little I used of the Cherry Edition.  I often found the designs in the way of how I wanted to use the kit so I held off on buying a new kit.  As I thought about it, I found myself reaching for papers in my stash & trimming it to fit what I needed.  That's when I decided to have fun and use what I have.  One night I pulled out a stack of papers and trimmed them down to 4x6.  I figure if I need some 3x4 I could just cut them in half.  Easy peasy!  I bought some of the Echo Park papers that caught my eye & downloaded some free printables over time.  My stash is pretty set....especially in the washi department, but that's another story!

As I scoured Pinterest, randomly of course, I came across THIS storage system for Project Life. On my next Target run I found the organizer & it works almost perfectly.  I say almost perfectly since I tend to over stuff it, but that's just me.

The next issue I had was sharing.  Not that I didn't want to share, but just how I wanted to share my pages.  Last year I shared my pages by month.  Waiting until the month was complete to share.  This year I'm hoping to get them blogged as I have them done...starting now.  I am caught up and just have to do this week!  So in the interest of having something more current on the blog I'll be sharing my pages more often.

With that all said, here is my cover page.....It was heavily influenced by THIS page & THIS page I saw on Pinterest.

This is my favorite part.

The sad part of doing Project Life for me has been since I've been caught up, I have no ideas on how to scrapbook "normal" again.  I started a page three times before I was slightly happy with it.  THREE TIMES PEOPLE!!  I'm sure my mojo will come but I've felt like I'm wasting time.  I even cleaned the house hoping the lack of feeling guilty would help the ideas flow.  Go figure.  Wish me luck!

January 365 TWENTY13

January seems to have started out quickly, but towards the end it took forever to be over.

                                 

 
So long January!  I'm ready for some warmer weather!!  

Project Life December 2012

After starting Project Life in March, almost 3 months late, I sometimes thought I'd never catch up.  Slowly, but surely, I did.  It took a long while, but I managed.  Of course, as things go around here, once the holidays started with Thanksgiving, I basically closed up shop.  I hardly set foot in my scraproom, though I missed it. 

Looking back, the first year I did Project Life, way back when Becky Higgins came out with the very first kit, I somehow fell behind at some point and practically gave up.  Only to tackle it at one point, several months later & complete it.  I did it then, and I did it now.  Only this time, it was just a few weeks later instead of months. 

I'm glad I did the album.  Though to be truthful, at times it took up a lot of time & didn't leave me with a lot of "real" scrapbooking time.  I miss doing 12x12 pages.  I've done a few here & there, but not enough.  I need to find a good groove to do both.

With that all said, here are my December pages.  Used my iPhone to take these pics, since I've been having loading issues with blogger....

I had bought a few different 6x6 Christmas paper pads from Michael's & used them throughout the month.  They made it very festive!  I also hit my stash of embellies a lot for this month.

Had a lot of new ornaments that I wanted to include so I made a flip up card using the instructions from Barbara.

This is my last 12 on 12 insert.  I think this was a fun project to do for 2012.  So happy that I managed to keep it up for the year.  Wish I had done it separately instead of with my PL album but it's done.  I won't be doing it for 2013 though.

I had a lot of pics to include this month, obviously, and used the Design F pages.  It was perfect for them all.

This page I shrunk the week to just a few days since I had a lot to include from Christmas Eve.  I narrowed it all down but still had so many.

I finished the week with Christmas & kept to just a page full of pics.

Since I had a lot of red, white & green the past few weeks I went blue & white for the days afterward. 

We had our annual family Christmas party at my house this year & there were no shortage of pics.  There were so many of us so I included the pics using the Design H pages.  I have to say I had fun with this insert & my favorite part is having everyone listed that was there.  I'm sure as time goes on the details of who's who won't be remembered as well.

Like I said I ended up with a ton of pics so I just labeled them & called it a day.  Very easy!

My last page.  I didn't take a lot of pics New Years Eve.  We basically crash at home just the four of us & relax.  We did go out to eat them came home, watched TV & hung out.  I manged to get everyone to take profile pics & a family shot using my new tripod I got for Christmas.  I think that's going to be a tradition that we'll do every year. 

Kept it pretty simple, over all.  The best part is having it done.  The girls have looked through the books again today which makes me happy.  Now to catch up on January! 

Closing the book on 2012

Today I officially finished my 2012 Project Life album.  Say it with me:  WOO-HOOOO!!

For something that I started almost 3 months late, I have it finished just 3 weeks into the new year.  I say that's pretty awesome. **patting myself on the back.

I started out the album using the original Cherry edition Project Life kit, then more than halfway through it decided to not use much of the kit anymore.  I just wasn't loving the designs & it wasn't working with how I was doing my album.  I usually stuck one week on one page protector instead of two & the small journaling cards with the designs made it harder for me to include both my journaling & my pics.  When I gave myself permission to stop the project became fun again. 

I have seen the new editions that came out & LOVE the Seafoam kit (as well as the kraft), BUT have decided to NOT use a kit this year. I cut up a stack of papers that I haven't used but still love as 4x6 (which can quickly be trimmed down to 3x4 if needed) & bought just the 3x4 & 4x6 grid journaling cards to use with "my kit".  I have also decided to NOT round my corners, which makes life easier too....going to ignore that the grid cards are rounded, as best as I can.

As I was completing my last page today I mentioned it to both the girls and they were both eager to look through the albums. 

Gianna pulled out the first album (I ended up with two).  Lots of comments made, but all good.  She enjoyed the memories.

When I mentioned it to Marissa she was happy to be able to look through the second album (thinking she couldn't do it before then). 

Hope to catch up quick on 2013.  Especially now that I have somewhat of a groove to it.  What I'd really like to do is set up my PL supplies on one end of the island so I can work on it weekly & leave the other end free so I can do regular LO's again.  However, Marissa has pretty much "taken over" the other end of the island so I'm going to have to figure something else out. :)

Packing It Up

It's that time of year that we say goodbye to Christmas. I would have liked to have had this done by now but got a late start.

I never know where to start. The task seems so overwhelming. I start by filling the storage containers that are downstairs in the basement, by picking the one on top. Finishing that box then moving to the next. I leave the tree for last since it takes the longest. All those delicate ornaments go back in their boxes carefully wrapped.

These are almost all the boxes of decorations.  We have several more that I didn't use this year so obviously there's no need to pack them & they stay in the crawl space.

The easiest boxes to start with are the plush.  It's a little but definite difference.

I like using a tray to carry things downstairs making things easier for me.

On a warmer day I'll take down the outside decorations.  I've got this down to a science & it comes down in about 20 mins.

So far I've filled this tray twice with ornaments and the tree still has lots! Though I'm finally seeing progress.

Still lots to go, but I'll bang it up by tomorrow.  The tree is 9ft and holds a lot!

 

And yes, I'm blogging about it because I'm a procrastinator. I've got family coming over for dinner to celebrate my sister's birthday and need to clean. So I do what other normal people do...BLOG!

Project Life November 2012

Since the last time I shared my Project Life album, I've pretty much closed up shop around here.  After Thanksgiving, I was in full on "Christmas mode".  It was non-stop.  I've finally managed some play time around New Year's.  The best part?  I had a lot of mojo flowing and finished up my November pages and started December.  I am feeling good about starting PL 2013!

I ended October with the beginning to November so this is the insert that belongs to both that last week and the beginning of November.  It's a lot of "extras" from the hurricane.  Nothing happened to our house thankfully, so there aren't pics of damage, just randomness of what we did while we were without power for 9 days.
 
Insert Front:

Insert Back:

I even included the newspaper and the People magazine with coverage of the storm.  I liked the idea of having it there and got to use a pocket protector.  I stamped the title for the pocket using Studio Calico alpha stamps. 

I kept things pretty simple like always: Stamps, alpha stickers, & washi.

November's 12 on 12. Almost done with the year!

On this I included the receipt to my Thanksgiving food shopping trip behind the pic with a paper clip.  I knew I'd have more pics that I wanted to include for Thanksgiving so I made a simple fill in card.

Thanksgiving insert front

back

Plowed through this in no time just wanting to get it done & ready to start December while it was still fresh in my mind.  Pretty basic stuff, really.

So glad to have the time again to be able to play again.  I missed the creativity & I don't like being so behind.  Hoping to catch up quickly so I can start the new year soon!

My First Rambling Post of the Year

I am starting 2013 with great intentions.  I refuse to use the word "resolution", since I haven't been the best at keeping them. 

I am not jumping on the "exercise bandwagon", since I have been working out in some way throughout the year....just not consistently enough.  I'll do good for a few weeks, a couple months then WHAM! Life gets in the way and my routine becomes a memory.  The little progress I've made vanishes.  I would like to see more consistency and progress.  I refuse to get discouraged when I don't have time to workout since that's always been a problem for me in the past.  I would like to workout an hour a day but some days (like today) I only have time for a 1/2 hour session.  That's OK, just got to make it count.

I am also going to eat more salads on the days when I've havent' been good during the day.  Like today.  I stopped at Dunkin Donuts after going food shopping and had a Bacon, Egg & Cheese Croissant, with hash browns.  **GUILTY**  But I also didn't eat again until 3:30.  Then had a salad at dinner.

Like I said I'm not perfect.

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On a completely different note, I've decided to do Project Life again this year.  There will be a few changes to my approach but nothing that crazy.  

My weeks will go Monday to Sunday, instead of Sunday to Saturday.  I found that I had a hard time breaking up the weekend.  I'm just OCD with that. ;)

Another change is using papers from my stash to make my own kit (along with some 3x4 & 4x6 grid journaling cards from Becky Higgins). I haven't got it put together yet, but I've got a few ideas.  This mostly happened when I was going through some papers that needed to be purged but I still liked them enough in small bits.

 

I often wasn't thrilled with the original "Cherry" edition that I have been working with and often looked to my stash for something more inspiring.  So why not??  I always feel guilty when I don't use my supplies so this kills two birds with one stone.

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Last but not least, I would like to be a better blogger again.  I had a slow start to it this year but lately I find my self enjoying it again.  I'm not as dedicated to it as I was a few years ago or the one year that I had 300+ posts, but I know I can do better than the last two years.  I'm not promising a daily post nor will it always be something crafty.  I also want to remember the daily happenings that I see when I randomly read my older posts.  Everybody does that right?  Not just me?? 

With that I am off to squeeze in my half hour on the exercise bike. I need to feel the burn! (trying to pump myself up. bleh!)

My Wish For 2013

H A P P Y  N E W  Y E A R!!

Twenty-twelve was an OK year. For the most part it was great actually.

We celebrated Birthdays, Anniversaries, Gianna's Communion, Marissa moving up to Middle School, enjoyed a wonderful Disney vacation, had fun in the sand Down the Jersey Shore, visited the Bronx Zoo, it was all good!

The latter part of 2012 was pretty crappy with Hurricane Sandy leaving thousands without homes and power. Living in the dark for 9 days bothered me a lot (ETA- Thankfully our house is fine and didn't have any damage, since we are in the North Jersey area and not near the shore.  Though plenty of houses in our area had tree damage.). The tragedy for Sandy Hook was gut wrenching. Other people that are greedy beyond words that are only looking out for themselves despite calling themselves "friends".

So my wish for TWENTY-THIRTEEN is peace. Peace and happiness. Freedom. Fun. LOVE always. Good Health.

Lets make 2013 a kick-ass year! What's your wish?

New Years Eve 2012

I was determined to end the year with a nice family pic so I threatened gathered everyone together after we came home from a nice dinner out.

I first took single pics of each of us for my opening page for Project Life 2013, then got us together for the money shot.

I managed to do this without tears & got this in the second shot.  YAY!

Now we'll gather together to watch the ball drop & hit the sack.  We party hard around here. ;)

Wishing everyone (that still reads this) a HAPPY & HEALTHY NEW YEAR!!!  2013, BRING IT!!

December 365

It's hard to believe the year is over! Using this Photo 365 app I took a pic a day for the year. It's been great when catching up on Project Life. And I plan on using it this year too.

2012, it's been real!

Benigno Family Christmas Party 2012

Every year my side of the family gets together for a Christmas party.  We are all spread out but from each other, but we always manage to get together.  This year was my turn to host and we numbered around 25-ish people.
This is my cousin Maria, my sister Maria, me & my sister Connie.  We have a LOT of Maria's in our family.  My father was the oldest of 4 boys, three of them had a daughter named Maria after their mother AND my mom is a Maria!  Like I said LOTS of Maria's.

Out of 4 brothers, there were 12 cousins and NOW there are A LOT of little ones running around. 

All the ladies, 4 original, 2 additional, all family.

My Aunt corralled all the families into family group shots.  Mine (on my camera) came out a bit blurry, but I hope to re-take some before the tree comes down.

We got all the kids together for a group shot before they opened their Secret Santa gifts.

The kids were all happy being together.  They did a lot of this during the night.....but we all had fun.