2014 Scrapbooking Kickoff ... joining Challenges | update 2

If you've been reading my blog for the past few weeks, you know I'm doing the Month of Challenges over at The Lilypad.

Here's the original Blog Post.

Super excited to report that I am all caught up once again! Today is Day 20 ... yes, that means I have completed 20 pages this month. (actually I've done a few more because I've also finished up the monthly January challenges as well... 7 challenges that run each & every month. but more on that another day.)

Here's Day 13 Shadow Technique

Valorie Wibbens & Lauren Reid | Twinkle PP

Valorie Wibbens & Karla Dudley | The Good Stuff

Valorie Wibbens | Sprinkles V 17, Project Care

Just Jaimee | Dec StoryTeller 13

Laurie Ann HGD | Baked With Love, Happy Camper (Alpha)

One Little Bird | Memory Collector

Pink Reptile Designs | Our Life

Rachel Young | Daycation

Designs by Lili | Template Pack 2

 Day 14 | List: 14 Things in 2014

Amy Martin | Topography Freebie 1 Template

The Lilypad Designers | Blessed & Lucky Collab (all the papers are from this kit)

Kaye Winiecki | H is for Happy

Laurie Ann HGD | Fortitude Basics, Stardust Basics, Capturing Fall, Baked With Love

CD Muckosky | Markerific Alpha

Valorie Wibbens | Project Care

Little Butterfly Wings | Twenty Four Seven, Destination Adventure

Pink Reptile Designs | Cleaning Bug, Dinner Date, Stamp It

Just Jaimee | FB Painted Border

After 5 Designers | Optimistic Collab

 Day 15 | Paper to Digi

 Here's the card by Adrienne over at Studio Calico that I used as my inspiration for my digi LO.

Valorie Wibbens | Sprinkles V14

Allison Pennington | Capturing Fall

Amy Wolff | Our Life, That\'s Life

Amy Martin | That\'s Life, Blanc Stitches

Paislee Press | Outdoorsy JCs, Capturing Fall

Pink Reptile Designs | Capturing Fall, True to Yourself, I Kissed a Frog, Boho Bliss (staple), Cleaning BUg, Lucky in Love, Falala Elements, Simple Things

Rachel Young | Where Love Is Solids, Ultimate Vacation, Take a Walk

Just Jaimee | Dec \'13 Storyteller

Jaque Larsen | Hoppy Birthday

Valorie Wibbens & Lauren Reid |Twinkle Papers, Project Care

 Day 16 | Inspiration #2 (I took the color scheme as my inspiration for my page below)

The Lilypad Designers | Blessed & Lucky Collab, Together Collab

Pink Reptile Designs | Destination Adventure, Boho Bliss, Falala

Pink Reptile Designs & River Rose | Scraparazzi

Little Butterfly Wings | Destination Adventure, Twenty Four Seven

Amy Wolff | Destination Adventure, Messy Edges 1

Valorie Wibbens & Lauren Reid | Twinkle Papers

Sara Gleason | Our Life Template

Day 17 | Recent Photo

Amy Martin | Capturing Fall Collab Template

Valorie Wibbens | Capturing Fall, Sprinkles V17

CD Muckosky | Makerific

Just Jaimee | FB Painted Border

Day 18 | Year in Review

 Valorie Wibbens | My Gallery, Sprinkles V 14 & 17, Project Care

CD Muckosky | Markerific

The Lilypad Designers | Blessed & Lucky Collab

 Day 19 | Flowers

Paislee Press | Press Plate No 30

The Lilypad Designers | Blessed & Lucky Collab

Pink Reptile Designs | I Believe in Miracles

Day 20 | Pimp my Page (quickpage)

MOC Pimp My Page Template

Rachel Young | Take  a Walk

Allison Pennington | Deestination Adventure

Amy Martin | DSD Messy Edges

A lot of these pages were fun, because I don't usually do such busy & bright chaotic pages. Can't wait to see what new challenges lie ahead! TFL. 

2014 Scrapbooking Kickoff ... joining Challenges | update 1

So last week, I mentioned the Month of Challenges over at The Lilypad.

Here's the Blog Post. And here's a little excerpt from that post (with the links & some details):

I think the mother of all challenges right now is The Lilypad's Month Of Challenges. Each day in January, there is a new challenge posted. If you complete the challenges (all challenges are due Feb 2, so you do not have to have them completed the day they are posted) you earn $20 credit to the TLP store. Plus you'll have 31 pages done once Feb rolls around! Pretty cool. GO HERE to see the challenge information.

I'm happy to report I'm caught up ... through Day 12. That's almost half-way! 

Day 7 | Word Art as Title

'Tis The Season

Gina Miller | Snippies V1: Winter Wishes

Valorie Wibbens | Project Care, Capturing Fall

Little Butterfly Wings | Black & White JC Add on

Paislee Press | Capturing Fall

Laurie Ann HGD | Stardust Basics

Allison Pennington | Destination Adventure

Kaye Winiecki | H is for Happy

Jacque Larsen | Very Merry

Day 8 | Watercolor Technique

Simple Life

Pink Reptile Designs & Lynn Marie | BohoBliss Collab

Pink Reptile Designs | Lucky in Love, I Believe in Miracles, Capturing Fall, Simple Things, True to Yourself

Rachel Young | Love You Good, Capturing Fall, Love and Grace

*Watercolor Brush Set 2 by Fudge Graphics

Day 9 | Do-Over  (re-do an old layout)

Sweet Girl

Pink Reptile Designs & Lynn Marie | Boho Bliss Collab

Pink Reptile Designs | I Believe in Miracles, Lucky in Love

Amy Wolff | Destination Adventure

Allison Pennington | Capturing Fall, Our Life

Day 10 | Word of the Year ( One Little Word, #OLW )

One Little Word 2014 | Present

Just Jaimee | Dec StoryTeller, iNSD Doodleborder

One Little Bird | Going Places, Memory Collector

Valorie Wibbens | Sunkissed

Day 11 | Simple Template

MOC Day 11 | Simple Template

 Valorie Wibbens | Sprinkles V17 & V14, Legacy 

Valorie Wibbens & Karla Dudley | The Good Stuff Collab 

Valorie Wibbens &  Jenn Barrett | SunKissed Collab 

One Little Bird | Rise & Shine 

Racheal Young | Where Love is Solids, Love You Good Solids 

Pink Reptile Design & RIver Rose | Scraparazzi Collab 

Pink Reptile Designs | I Believe in Miracles 

Valorie Wibbens | Topography MOC Freebie Template

Day 12 | Combine 2 Templates

The Fedora

Pink Reptile Designs & River Rose | Scraparazzi Collab

Amy Martin | MOC 2014 Challenge Freebie

I'm thrilled that I have 12 layouts done already for the year! Are you participating? If so, leave me a comment ... I'd love to go see your pages too! 

 

twenty thirteen ... Back to Basics?

So, yesterday I mentioned that I was working on my list of goals for 2013. The Mister and I actually sat down and talked about what we want for our family for this year for a few hours (that hasn't really happened on such a broad scale for quite a while ... we've been sort of on autopilot & tend to focus on bits and pieces as need be).  As we wrapped up our talk, I felt invigorated and excited, but a little nervous too. So much to take on. Can we really do it? All we can do is try, right? And with both of us investing our hearts into it, both of us truly on the same page ... well, that has to make it a little easier.

And then I also felt a little nostalgic.

I know life brings us along a twisty, winding little road of a journey with hills, steeps mountains,
valleys and canons, but when did life get so incredibly busy? I feel like I accomplish less, while my list of "needs to get done" grows more... while I am aggressively being sucked into social media or the lastest email, advertising some sale that cannot be missed.

I affectionately remember a time (about 7 years back), when the kids were in preschool, the weather was near perfect most days, as we lived in California, and things were ... well relaxed.

We did what we wanted, when we wanted. 

School was only a few hours a day, a few days out of the week. We had one of the top ten children’s museums in the country, a small local zoo and amusement park,  literally 5 different community parks to walk to, all within about five minutes form our home.

 

We could even walk into our sweet little town for a frozen yogurt, Starbucks, or margaritas in the evening. Our community centers (like 7 or 8 of them!) offered every class imaginable for kids and we signed up
for a few interesting afternoon courses each season.

The weekends were ours ... to hit Santa Cruz, visit Monterey Aquarium, hike the redwoods, drive along the coast, bike the day away at the most amazing rail trails, explore hidden unpopulated beaches, spend a day in wine country.

Gosh i miss it.

We were always doing something, going somewhere but it wasn't busy. It wasn't stressful. It was fun and relaxing.

We were explorers and we did it together.

We were so active, so fit, so healthy. sigh.

Snapping back to reality ...
I realize that with two middle schoolers ... in all day classes, with piles of homework with honors classes, foreign language and exploratory classes, after school sports, activities, violin practice, school dances, birthday parties and sleepovers ... that twisty, winding road is meant to be very different today due to the life stage that my children are presently in. (Plus the cold weather at least 5 months out of the year, doesn't help!)

But darn it, can’t I get a little of those sweet toddler & preschool years back... or at least a small, teensy taste of that lifestyle back?

I want the family connections, the getting up and moving more together ... a chance to explore again.  I want to enjoy, really enjoy, some small part of each and every day together. And truthfully, most week days feel like a giant, stressful race to the finish line ... to get everything done, be everywhere we need to be, complete with me nagging every step of the way to beat that dreaded clock.


Hurry up, let's go, 5 more minutes, faster. We're gonna be late.


Seriously ... I need to count how many times a day I say these words between the hours of 3pm and 10 pm. It's not pretty!

To answer my own question, "Can’t I get a little taste of that lifestyle back?":   YES!

But I have to make it happen.

With our crammed schedules, it isn't going to be easy, but I do believe it can be done, even Monday through Friday!

 I want that feeling of everyday simple, back to basics, pleasures out of our life ... every day, not just on the weekends. Because, honestly, two days out of seven simply is not enough!

And to finish off the list of goals and wants for 2013 (after talking with the Mister yesterday), I want to:

-Exercise regularly (and lose the 15 lbs or so I gained since moving to NY)

-Make healthy meals, stick to a weekly meal planner, and limit take out to 2x per month

-Waste less Food by buying less but shopping more often if need be

-Stick to a Budget and track spending

-Make time for more meaningful family moments (like baking/cooking together, exercising together, etc)

-Get the kids to unplug more (TV and video games)

-Seriously limit online social media time (such a big time waster, imagine if I could get back all those minutes wasted and put them to good use. don't get me wrong, i like social media, but it really must be limited. that is the key.)

-Tackle something on my Home Project List every week. (even the smallest simplest project counts)

-Spend less time on laptop and more time with a book

-Become as comfortable with Illustrator as I am with Photoshop

-Actually complete the two classes on Surface Pattern Design that I signed up for last year (there are enough hours in the day, I just choose to waste them in frivolous ways... see four lines up, ahem!)

-Design more! (a long time personal goal that i have been neglecting)

-Purge! (basement/closets/storage areas/kitchen and my studio!)


So my WORD(s) for 2013 is Back to Basics. I know it's supposed to be ONE LITTLE WORD, but it's my year and my goals and I can use THREE LITTLE WORDS if I choose.

It's about paying attention to the things that really matter. Simplifying. Finding little pleasures in a rushed and hurried life. Remembering a time when life was relaxed, carefree and striving to bring that back in small, meaningful ways. It's about family connections. It's about home cooking, moving our bodies, and spending time in more gratifying ways. It's about doing the work to reach my own personal goals. It's about leaving out the unnecessary, saying NO to the frivolous.

Back to Basics.


Yeah, I think I like the sound of that.