A Day in The Life-Monday

Today was day one in "A Day in the Life". It wasn't an interesting day but that's the goal of the project I suppose. To gather details on the everyday. Last night I set up my layout process for the book in advance in order to make the process a little more simple and easy. It's going to be housed in the 8*8 album I used for the 2008 Week in the Life scrapbook. There was just enough room for a title page and 7 single layouts-one for each days. Here's a shot of the cover.



And here is a shot of the pieces I'm using for each page. Right now it looks like there will be a 4*6 photo and a few 2*2 or 2*3 photos. The frame is for the day of the week and the date. On one edge of the page I used a little boarder strip. The tag will be for today's journaling.

Note: the 4*6 piece is a mat for the photo. I cut the piece out of it to use the pattern paper on the B side for the inside of each frame piece. Waste not want not right?



I'm sure i'll add some interesting aspects to the pages once I get a chance to put them all together next week when the photos are developed. All the piece i'm using for this are from the September kit from Studio Calico, Back 40.

Today also happened to be reveal day over at Studio Calico for subscribers. I picked up a few stamps and some navy jute to use on future layouts. I got:

*addy stamps

*storytime number stamps (willing to bet you will see these in the December Daily)

*navy jute

Midnight tonight "On the Easel" goes on sale for non-subscribers. Be sure to check it out. It looks fantastic!

xoxo

K

Download Cards

I did do a little scrapbooking this past weekend that I had forgotten about. M needs some download cards for his show with The Middens next week. They're playing at the Pizza Party at Nine (or XI-as it's known to some) next Thursday. They've recorded a few songs and needed something for people to pick up so they can listen to them online-hense the download cards.

So, on Friday night after cleaning the house we set out to make a download card that wasn't too colourful and wasn't too 'girly'. I think we came up with something industrial, simple and funky. It suits their blues-punk image. This is the demo.

It's embossed with a some type font stamps I had and white embossing power. The edges are inked with white craft ink from Stampin' Up and I used my cropadile to add two eyelets, one on the bottom and the other on top. On the other side will be a label with the download code and 'demos' will be written vertically.

Now I need to make 25-30 of these babies. It's like a warm up from the Christmas cards I am already mentally planning...I saw one on the Stampin' Up website which seems simple (a.k.a reproducible) enough. Now we just have to figure out what we're going to be for Halloween for our inside photo.

xoxo

K

And another one bites the dust...

Another weekend that is. It wasn't very exciting but it was somewhat productive. Friday night entailed two loads of laundry, many lysol wipes and a few hours of hard work to scour my dirty house. Everyone's house standards vary but after two weeks of being abandoned it was time for a serious clean-up here at my house. Of course cleaning means organizing and so our 'junk closet' was cleaned up and guess what I found? Halloween decor. So with lots of groaning from M the apartment got a little spooky decor. I think it's all my mom's fault that I feel the need to decorate for most monthly holidays including Halloween, Valentine's, etc.

Saturday we went for a walk downtown only to discover that Fall had arrived.

We had a delicious lunch at SteaK in the market after a visit to the Rideau Centre.

Yesterday afternoon I saw "You Again" which was funny and continued to solidify my theory that Betty White is the best actress EVER. She was hysterical as Grandma Bunny!

I continued my movie-watching last night as M went out last night. I wasn't in the mood to scrapbook but I did find this.

It's the cover of my 'Week In the Life' album from September 29th to October 4th 2008. It inspired me to start another "Week in the Life' tomorrow. Looking through the album made me realize a lot has changed since 2008. Now I don't have to feel so guilty about not following through with the layouts for my May month 'Week in the Life'.

Today was spent working-shocker. My facebook status currently reads :

"

Krista Wells

wonders why she decided to do a Masters in Education and teach full time? and why did she sign on for a technology course this term? I don't know whether to look forward to my weekends any more or dread them...December 3rd can't come soon enough.

"

That basically explains how i'm feeling today! Got a draft of my first assignment in my Tech course back. There's more red correction marks than Valentine's decor at Walmart in February. I have two weeks to 'fix it' to hand in my final draft. Somehow my professor thinks this is a good thing...i'm not so sure. It just confirms my lack of understanding and intelligence in that course.

And so another weekend comes to a close. M went to the grocery store and got lobsters for dinner-a throwback to summer. I'll take it for tonight...

xoxo

K

5 For Fridays

1. I am currently obsessed with Kelly Purkey. Not in a creepy way. She came onto my radar in a paperclipping roundtable episode recently and she joined Studio Calico last month in a part time position which of course includes being a design team member. I stalked her blog this past week and discovered that we could be best friends if I lived in New York City. She is a fan of ice cream and cupcakes, all things NYC and she has an odd love of baseball games. I, too, love all of these things. She's also 27 and gets to be selfish and scrapbook about her travels and her friends/boys. She pretty much rocks. Go check her out. Here's one of her sneaks for this months kit.

2. This stamp looks amazing in the new studio calico kit. It might show up in my Christmas cards this year!

3. Speaking of Christmas cards, I discovered this paper by Jillibean soup this week and am obsessed with it. This will find a way into my house.

4. I want new black boots that look like Cowboy boots on bottom and normal boots up top. I have yet to find them-if you see any boots like them please tell me.

5. I love Lisa Leonards designs but I'm thinking I might make my own with a few old Making Memories charms I have left over from an old Valentines line.

Happy Friday!

xoxo

K

Today

*I have to submit my first assignment in my M.Ed course on technology.

*I am thinking about my parents as they travel to Florida for their 30th anniversary cruise

*I want a necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs

*I realized my house is a mess

*I have a great lunch-Chicken parm!

*is running club at school and I wore my gym clothes! ;)

*I decided that I won't stress out about school and i'll let it ride and stop being such a perfectionist or a speed racer.

*I will make a plan to get moving, whether i'm motivated or not.

*I need to erase my whiteboard-it's still covered in French lessons from Monday ( a few people aren't done assignments yet!)

*I'm really hoping that the supplies for my school scrapbooking project will come in!

xoxo

K

Hurricane Igor strikes!

So while I was safe and sound here in Ottawa yesterday my home (a.k.a Newfoundland) was hit by one massive storm-Hurricane Igor. The first hurricane to hit Newfoundland in a long time did severe damage to much of the province resulting in a state of emergency in a number of towns and downed trees and snapped power lines. As of this morning 30 000 residents were still without power. Rain fell at an alarming rate and by the time it stopped there had been 200mm in a number of areas. Roads were washed out and some towns were left stranded with no link to the world beyond their community. My house is fine-our little trees are literally lying on the lawn outside the house but they didn't snap off even though many trees in St. John's did. The worst is my parents have to get it all cleaned up by tomorrow morning because they are heading to Florida to take a cruise for their 30th wedding anniversary.

In other news, I made a layout on Monday night. Another sit-here-and-scrap-for-an-hour. This one is not quite done-no journaling on that manilla tag just yet. The story is pretty funny though. So we went jet skiing in Bermuda with a group of people. You have to take a tour in order to do the jet skis because some of the reefs are near the surface and they don't want you to damage any of them with the jet ski. So we get out there on the water, waiting to leave and this family shows up. Their late. It's a man and a woman and a son. They were under the impression the three of them could go on one ski together. Not so much. So the mom ended up going by herself. She was terrified. But the funniest was when we were idling just waiting to leave the dock area and I said to Matthew- "Wow! That guys look just like Everybody Loves Raymond". And he really did! It was hysterical. With his shades on he could have been Ray Ramano. We dubbed him 'everybody loves raymond' and his wife 'ma' for the one hour ride around the bay. We had quite a few giggles over it. Here's the layout.

And a close up shot...

It's a combination of a number of different kits and bits and pieces from the Documentary line of Studio Calico-shocker I know!

xoxo

K

Our Vacation

Life these days is filled with discussion postings and research articles but I snuck in some scrapbooking for an hour in the evenings. Here's one from Sunday night post-dinner. It's a quick collage of some of the Bermuda pics that were left out of the mini-album.

and a close up...

Off to do some dishes and go to bed.

xoxo
K

Want to know a secret?!

I haven't finished my 'week in the life' album yet. I took pictures in May for a week. I don't remember most of what's going on in those photos. I think that was the whole point. So now it's become a 'week in the life' layout as opposed to a 'week in the life' album. I let it go. It's not getting done. I'd rather live in the here and now. I find if I let it go too long I don't want to scrap those photos because i'm on to something more recent that means more to me now.

I also have two boxes of photos from Black's waiting to be scraped. Some are left overs from my recent mini-albums which will make their way into a large two-page spread I imagine. I love a good collage from one event like camp or Bermuda. Others are enlargements which will inevitably grace my hallway with their presence on my scrapbooking rod when finished.

Then maybe i'll work on that 'week in the life' album. In theory it's a good idea but I guess I got side-tracked this year...opps.

xoxo

K

Today I was a Pioneering Woman

So I have a new obsession. Her name is Ree Drummond and she's the Pioneer Woman and if you don't know who that is go here-Pioneer Woman- right NOW! She is fantastic. She's jack of all trades-photography, cooking, life and she's just plain hysterical. I recently sent a recipe M's way while he was at work back in August and he is now also obsessed with the cooking section. Of course I found her through scrapbooking websites but she's truly the ubber-blogger making/living her life through blogging. She's been a guest speaker at multiple blogger conferences and she just plains rocks my socks!

So in all hero worship I decided to cook like a Pioneer Woman today. I've been a little down lately because my M. Ed courses are more work than I originally thought they would be this term. I spent 10+ hours this weekend working on papers and discussion postings and needed a little cooking therapy. So I made some delicious dinner and subsequent desert for M and I today. So I hauled out the new food processor and Black Betty (my beautiful Kitchenaid Mixer and got down to business.

I made this recipe for dinner: Penne A La Betsy and I made Blackberry cheesecake for desert. We have yet to dive into it so I thought I would showcase the deliciousness before it disappears which won't take long. We've been salivating since early this afternoon when it was baking in the oven. The smells were tantalizing.

Bottom line is: check out The Pioneer Woman. If you ever have the chance and want some humorous romance find her story of how she met her Marlboro man-or husband. It's hysterically funny and heartfelt. She's a wonderful writer and I often find myself laughing out loud at her stories. Check her out! She's really that great!

xoxo

K

Bermuda Bound

So I stayed true to my promise and focused heavily on journaling in my 'Bermuda Bound' mini-album. It's 6*12 which i've never done before and presented some challenges here and then. It's an accordion album made with Studio Calico's Documentary line. I love the planes and the cameras on the patterned paper. For most of the journaling I used Ali's journaling blocks which i'm sure are available at designer digitals.

I think the biggest challenge in this album was the journaling itself. I love creating and putting the pieces together but I have a hard time stopping to write and print my feelings. I persevered and finished it complete with many stories and details from our trip.

So this is the front side of the accordion with an up close shot of the cover.




This is the other side-note on the far right there I have to add a journaling block which I'll do today.



There's one of those huge journaling blocks I used to tell our 'beach stories'. I like the little pics because you can get a whole bunch on a small page. It's a nice way to include a bunch of pics of one event if you have them. I used picasa to make a collage and then just had them printed on a 4*6 (cost effective too ;)).



I love this one-it's two pages. On the left is another journaling block. On the right I used Noah stamps from Studio Calico which I love love love!



Another one-this one's about the lighthouse.



I used Tim Holtz Blue Distress ink to get that effect on the thickers letters on the left because they were too plain!



And last but not least two of my favourite pics. On the left is a photo of us on our anniversary right before we went to dinner. The other is our shadows on Horseshoe Bay beach the night before we had to leave.

I still have a number of larger layouts that I want to include in our 12*12 albums but for now this is a great reminder of our memories to add to my mini-album bucket for friends to see when they come over.

xoxo

K

A Summery of Camp

So I've officially finished my summer album about camp. For anyone who doesn't know, each summer I head to camp in the Catskills of New York state for 7 weeks. This summer was my 9th at camp and it was a good one. Here are a few photos of some of my favourite pages of the album. Unfortunately, I can't include all pages because they have some photos of the campers and that wouldn't be fair to publish without parental permission.

The album is an 8*8 American Crafts album. This first page is an 8*8 about one of my favourite nights at camp: the Staff Talent Show.



This one is the night the campers had a spa night with their 'big and little sisters'. I'm wearing a face mask in this photo with my best friend Daniela-my rock at camp!



Love this because it's funny. Daniela is eating pudding (her fav camp snack) out of the industrial size can and the other side is one of my favourite activities "Clue" that runs like a board game. This year's theme was TWILIGHT. The kids LOVED it!



I like the layout on the left. I used those K & Company frames for the two photos and I love how it turned out-very cinema-like and appropriate for a crazy day off in NYC.



I used the Jenni Bowlin 'July' calendar for one of my days. I structured this album much like a 'December Daily' album with bits and pieces built into it for added dminension and interest.



These are some of my favourite people at camp. Camp is my second home and therefore my second family!



The final page is like the final night-the last thing I want to remember. We have a burning of the year and some speeches. We sang a beautiful song and there were lots of tears.



Here's to another wonderful summer at camp. Summer 2010 was amazing!

xoxo
K

p.s: working on the 'Bermuda Bound' album today. Look for some pictures of that one soon!

Confessions of a...

..terrible journaler. I confess I don't really write much to accompany my photos. I'm bad at the story part of words+photos despite being a serious follow of Ali Edwards. But sometimes I just want to play with the bits and pieces of the creative process. I don't mind my own handwriting-I not-so-secretly like it actually. But, it always seems like a lot of work and an afterthought to me to include journaling. After listening to a Paperclipping Roundtable podcast this afternoon on journaling I really thought about my process. Someone suggested that using blogs are a great way to improve your journaling process. So that's my plan. This blog has always been for scrapbooking related material but i'm taking a turn toward more 'life' stuff so don't be surprised if 'real' stuff shows up here from time to time.

Also, as a part of my never-ending improvement plan I am going to work toward having my 12*6 Bermuda "mini" (I use THAT term loosely) album be heavily focused on journaling and telling the stories. There are some really good ones I don't want to forget.

In other news...my Summery of Camp album is finished so stay tuned for some photos of that. Note to self: Take photos of album!

xoxo

Krista

Yearly Goals-An Update

So in January I made some goals for myself. A lofty 12 goals appeared here on my blog and I thought the Fall would be a great time to update everyone on my progress. It's also a good way to keep me honest and get moving on those that haven't been accomplished yet.

So these are the goals I've managed to meet:

Create and maintain a blog. I took a short hiatus there for the summer but i've been okay at the blogging thing. I would like to make myself a schedule to blog three times a week. I read a great post on blogging recently on the Pioneer Woman's blog. (She's amazing by the way if you haven't checked her out yet!)

Run a 1/2 marathon. DONE. Matthew & I trained our butts off this past spring and managed to complete our half marathon in May in under 2:30 which I was pleased as punch about. We took a break over the summer and are gearing up for some fall runs now.

Complete Ali Edwards course I started last September. I'm happy to say what has been a work in progress is done. It was eye-opening for me to recognize that I have a very hard time keeping up with online scrapbooking classes.

Learn to sew. This was so exciting for me. It was an addition to my crafty repertoire. I took a private leason at Yarn Forward Sew On here in Ottawa and it was awesome. Then I made a quilt...in one night.

Take a photography course. This was also awesome. I took two courses-part 1 & 2 of the Rebel series at Henry's. The first course was good but the second was awesome. I was the only one in the class so had a private lesson.

Make a creative submission. I did submit to Scrapbook & Cards Today in March. I haven't heard anything since. I'm not really expecting to either. Maybe one day...

Save enough money to look for a home of our own...maybe. Well we're on our way but not willing to commit to anything in Ottawa just yet so i'm considering this one DONE.

Be halfway through my M.Ed. Courses 5 & 6 started on Tuesday. All I can say is it's going to be a busy fall people.

Still in progress:

Attack Technology aka irun, Macbook & smartboard. I've discovered some seriously cool stuff but there's still room for a little more before I can say i'm finished with this goal.

Do a layout a day. Yeah that's never happened in March. It felt too 'necessary' or something. So i'm not sure this is going to get done.

Conquer photo shop. I've made it through a number of Scott Kelby's chapters.

Read 12 serious books. I've got 11 read. Last one is on the night stand/in the gym bag.

It's very satisfying looking at the progress you've made in 10 short months. Encouraging even. I hope I haven't bored you to death yet...if you've made it this far I feel you should be rewarded with a photo. So here's a sweaty photo of me post-race in May. Enjoy.

xoxo

K