Summer Progress & Project Life Process

Hi there!! Well Surprisingly, I managed to finish some of the things I had on my list...

My Clean-Up List

1. Clean and Organize pantry

2. Finish organizing lower kitchen cabinets

3.Clean and organize laundry area

4. Start cleaning spare room.

The only thing that I really wasn't able to do was to start cleaning the spare room, that will be a big task. But i'm hoping I'll get to it this weekend. My other list-" the fun one", I was not as productive. I did about 3 weeks of project life, and I created the printables for my Christmas planner, and that's about it. I'm hoping to start working on my niece's senior album again and finally finish it. And..of course I'll show you the finished product.
I have been doing project life for the last year and a half. I  attempted to start in 2010, but that was a very hard year and so many things got in the way.. as a matter a fact I stopped scrapbooking all together and my scrapbooks all stop in 2009. I'm slowly catching up or finding ways to document that year in my life that I "missed". My biggest problem is that I procrastinate in buying the project life core kit, as a matter a fact, I have yet to buy one for this year, I am patiently waiting for the kits to come back in stock.  But technically I am doing project life- I am taking photos, saving memorabilia, and journaling. First I made a calendar for each month of the year, this has served as a mini journal where I write notes and talk about my day.

 I took an idea from the Library of memories and used a photo storage album to corral all  my printed photos and memorabilia.

 After I collected and sorted all my stuff, I wanted to organize everything and see how it would work together. I had a small notebook from Wal-mart  and decided to use it as a guide to put together my pages when I finally get my Becky Higgins core kit.

I draw out the design A  page protector and each week, I sit down and design my pages including inserts where I use different size/ design page protectors. It might seem  a bit daunting, but honestly it works for me and keeps me on track. I have been on pinterest, and other blogs and some people are using planning sheets by Marci Penner- Genius!! I'll probably do that next year- since I don't wanna switch gears in the middle of the year. I have found blogs and YouTube channels of scrapbookers doing project life and man  did I have an A-HA moment. Here I am, waiting for the core kits to become available and people are mixing things up and using supplies they already have and making these albums truly their own. I had a few cards, journaling cards, and card stock left over from the AMBER EDITION kit, I bought last year and gathered some of my other supplies and started putting some layouts together..

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I'm kinda of proud of them and liked how fast they came together. You'll notice that the pages are in a beautiful orange clementine album- this will not be their permanent home. This will be a working binder after I have enough pages, they will move into a black leather We r Memory Keepers album, just like the 2011 editions.

I am still planning on buying both the clementine and cobalt core kits. My hope is that I'll have left over supplies to start my 2013 project life. I love this project and I hope to do it for many years to come...


Michelle


*Project Life is a product created by Becky Higgins. It can be as elaborate or as simple as you want. The project is yours to make documenting life simple, easy, beautiful, and fun. If you want to learn more click on the Project Life button on the right. 

CORRECTION!!! This one's for you hubby.....

I usually have my hubby- The grammar/ spelling cop proofread my posts, but today he was feeling a little under the weather so I decided not to bother him. He just finished reading my blog and noticed I had put that I was going to do a major kitchen cabinet/ PANTY overhaul....oops!!! I meant to say pantry, although my underwear drawer is serious need organization.... hehehehe!!!! Sorry for the mistake... I promise my panties will not make an appearance on this or any other blog..

Hello... Is anybody out there???

Just writing a little post for myself and my faithful blog reader, my husband Marc... lol!  This weekend we spent some time just enjoying the company of family and friends. On Friday, I wrote out a "organization/clean" to-do list  & a "crafty" to-do list for the week. My goal was to hit the ground running this Monday morning and start scratching off those tasks... HA!! 
My wonderful hubby felt sick this morning and stayed home from work today, so we've spend the day just being lazy....updating our itunes music, reading blogs, I installed my photoshop on my new laptop, and of course eating. Do I feel guilty.. NOT- AT- ALL. I loved that after spending the weekend with so many people, my hubby and I got this downtime to spend together.
My goal for Friday is to at least start, but hopefully finish some of the things I have on my to- do lists.

The Organization/Clean-up List

1. Clean and organize pantry
2. Finish organizing lower kitchen cabinets
3. Clean and organize laundry area
4. Start cleaning spare room

My plan is to do a major organization/cleaning overhaul in the kitchen cabinets/ panty- at this point it is desperately needed. I still need to get some more baskets, organizational items, and some planning to really make this happen. So I'll post some pics when it's completely done. The hubby (that's you, Marc ) and I added some shelving from Ikea to our little corner laundry area last summer. So now it has great shelving, along with a rod to hang our clothes to dry. I want to organize it a bit more with baskets and decorate it a bit more... looking for some cute ideas on pinterest.  Also our spare bedroom is a catch-all, junk room.. we've had some guests lately and no guest room, our goal is to clean it out and finally use it as a guestroom.

The Crafty List- this is the fun one!!

1. Finish my niece's senior album
2. Make a Christmas planner
3. Work on 2-3 scrapbook pages
4. Work on project life

# 3 and #4 will probably be on my list every.. single...week. But I really want to finish my niece's senior album and the Christmas planner this week. I need to put together some pages and print out some pictures for my niece's album and I'll be done, can't wait to give it to her. Why a Christmas planner? Cause Christmas is exactly 6 months away and every December I find myself scrambling putting together lists of things to do, gifts to buy, etc. I just want to have it ready, plus the hubby and I want to start buying gifts- two a month and I want to have an ongoing list to keep track of what  we are buying. I know they seem like VERY BIG plans, but I'm at least willing to try.... sigh.... Here I go....

Michelle

Back to REALITY.........

Hello, again ! My sweetie and I just came back from a 3-day cruise to the BAHAMAS!!! For the last 4 days and 3 nights this was our home away from home: The Norwegian Sky!!

I had never been on a cruise, so I was a bit nervous...well alot nervous. But everything went well and we loved it and hope to do it again someday. But I'm glad to be back- there's really no place like home, even if it involves cleaning and laundry. What's really making me super happy is all the memorabilia we got for our Project Life album. From the airplane flight, our overnight stay in Miami, the cruise itself, and the airplane flight back, I have ticket stubs, maps, itineraries, etc..  I loved that the crew took pictures of the passengers as they boarded  the ship, and throughout the cruise and were available for purchase. We have great souvenir pictures of us boarding the ship, arriving at the Great Stirrup Cay, and all dressed up at dinner. I love that I have them, all the memorabilia, and all the other pictures we took with our camera, my iPhone, and the hubby's cell phone. I'm hoping to put them together within the next few days of so... I'll let you know how that goes. I also want to go over my Project Life process. It's a little weird, but it's worked for me. It's especially for those who are on a budget and are buying things little by little.

It was truly a memorable and well deserved vacation. But now we are back to our regular schedules- or trying to at least! Lots of laundry to do, to-do lists to make, and restock our house with food and necessities. I miss you Bahamas... hope to see you again one day....

Michelle

Finally.... My first blog post!!!

 Hola !! I'm finally getting around to writing my first blog post, like the title of my blog suggests.. I have have a nice, full, busy, crazy, but happy life, and I wanted to find the perfect time to write my first blog post. With all craziness, I just kept putting it off and putting it off.. But, there's no better time than the present so here it goes...

First of all, let me start by introducing myself, in case someone who doesn't know me stumbles onto this little blog.  My name is Michelle, I've been married for 11 years to my high school sweetheart, Marc. We've been together since we were 14!! We don't have any kids.... but one day ( God willing), it will happen for us. We live in a small , but wonderful town in South Texas.  For the past 6 years, I've worked as a pre-k teacher in a neighboring town. I love my job, it's the most rewarding job in the world.. I love working with the little ones and I don't see myself doing anything else.  I love crafting.. I come from a pretty crafty family. My mom and one of my aunts are awesome quilt makers, and both my sister and I made our own bouquets and flowers for our weddings. Although I like flower arranging, and I would love to learn how to quilt, my favorite craft is scrap booking. I have been  scrap booking since I was 18, when I got a scrapbook kit as a graduation gift. My scrap booking has evolved over the years, and I'm currently doing my own condensed version of Stacy Julian's Library of memories. And of course I'm also doing project life & I LOVE IT!! Aside from my parents and my husband... BECKY HIGGINS is my hero, lol!  I've always loved to take pictures and recently, I've become interested in learning more about photography. One day, I'd like to be able to take really good pictures and start some kind of photography business.

We live in a little 3-bedroom house we bought about 10 years ago, slowly, very slowly we've been making changes it to it. And when money and time permits, I love to decorate and organize our little castle. I have a very loooooong list of ideas and to-do's around the house. I love to read blogs like
YOUNG HOUSE LOVE, I HEART ORGANIZING, BOWER POWER, and others that have definitely inspired me.

With all the stuff going on in my life.... Why a blog ? Just another thing to take up my time ? Another chore? Over the past 2 years, or so I discovered blogs and I loved reading them.. so I decided that one day I would start my own...just a place where I can categorize my projects, gather ideas, and even maybe bounce ideas and feedback from other people.  I just started my summer vacation, I'll be doing some traveling, lots of scrap booking projects, organizing/decorating projects around the house, and of course some school-related stuff. I'm looking forward to working on the blog and seeing where it goes..


Michelle