WITL2016: Wednesday

May 11, 2016 documented.  I was VERY thankful for Ali's Tough Story Kit for this day!

This card, and its gray dots (when I was more interested with the flipside) and this saying with a gray background: serendipitous.

I knew when I saw the quote from Elizabeth Edwards that I would definitely have a place for it on a scrapbook page.  I am glad that I also have the digital file of this, as I can see myself using it again!  Perfect spot! Literal and figurative marriage of words.

A screenshot of our Whole 30 Pinterest board.  Makes me realize how long ago we discussed the Whole 30 journey.  Katie just finished her first 30 today, and I am inching my way forward to that adventure in July.  Sure takes me a while to decide on something when it deals with food!

The narrative: May 11, 2016: Sunlight enters the bedroom at 5:30, but it is not a welcome guest. I awake with a horrendous migraine, and, even with my eyes closed, it pains me.  Add to that the horrendous pain in my right ankle and outer thigh, and you have a “Can I Please Stay Home?” moment.  At 6:00, my eyes finally cooperate, and I realize the culprit: The Weather Channel is predicting severe storms.  This also means that I shall brace myself for my students to be affected in negative ways.  I cheer myself with a bowl of Frosted Flakes before going to school around 7:45, listening to the Beatles, yet again.  At 8:45, I am dealing with a disrespectful student (N.B. We start classes at 9.)  For lunch, I decide Jimmy John’s is needed.  At 4:30, I head to the chiropractor to begin adjustments and hopefully get some relief for my swelling and now pain.  I come home and watch a little Breaking Dawn, feeding in to my recent renewed Twilight obsession.  At 6:00, I read a bit more about Whole 30 and make a Pinterest board to share with Katie and Ashley. Then Scott decides, at that moment, that the living room needs to be dismantled.  This irritates me, as I was sitting in the rocker in the living room when he made this decision.  An argument ensues. At 8:30, I realize that tomorrow’s theme requires a grass skirt, and I do not have one, and Max needs Dimetapp.  Into a lightning storm I go.  Party City is closed.  I head to Walgreens for at least the Dimetapp.  Then, Mother Nature unleashes on me.  When I get home, I watch more Twilight.  I become inspired to make a grass skirt myself, and at 1:40 AM, it is finished.

WITL2016: Wednesday

May 11, 2016 documented.  I was VERY thankful for Ali's Tough Story Kit for this day!

This card, and its gray dots (when I was more interested with the flipside) and this saying with a gray background: serendipitous.

The narrative: May 11, 2016: Sunlight enters the bedroom at 5:30, but it is not a welcome guest. I awake with a horrendous migraine, and, even with my eyes closed, it pains me.  Add to that the horrendous pain in my right ankle and outer thigh, and you have a “Can I Please Stay Home?” moment.  At 6:00, my eyes finally cooperate, and I realize the culprit: The Weather Channel is predicting severe storms.  This also means that I shall brace myself for my students to be affected in negative ways.  I cheer myself with a bowl of Frosted Flakes before going to school around 7:45, listening to the Beatles, yet again.  At 8:45, I am dealing with a disrespectful student (N.B. We start classes at 9.)  For lunch, I decide Jimmy John’s is needed.  At 4:30, I head to the chiropractor to begin adjustments and hopefully get some relief for my swelling and now pain.  I come home and watch a little Breaking Dawn, feeding in to my recent renewed Twilight obsession.  At 6:00, I read a bit more about Whole 30 and make a Pinterest board to share with Katie and Ashley. Then Scott decides, at that moment, that the living room needs to be dismantled.  This irritates me, as I was sitting in the rocker in the living room when he made this decision.  An argument ensues. At 8:30, I realize that tomorrow’s theme requires a grass skirt, and I do not have one, and Max needs Dimetapp.  Into a lightning storm I go.  Party City is closed.  I head to Walgreens for at least the Dimetapp.  Then, Mother Nature unleashes on me.  When I get home, I watch more Twilight.  I become inspired to make a grass skirt myself, and at 1:40 AM, it is finished.

WITL2016: Tuesday

Tuesday's submission of Week in the Life:

A card to start the day that included us buying a house.  This saying seemed completely appropriate.  The card came with this month's Story Kit with the theme: Believe.

I kind of like the idea of keeping things really simple.  I am pretty certain I will go back and add some embellishments (I really like word stickers), but getting the basics of the stories of the week down makes me happy.  On this day, I used a couple phone screen shots of songs I was playing.  The cool thing about that is that they show the time AND the charge of my phone.  It all parallels with my day.  It's interesting. I have been listening to "Hey Jude" a lot.  Two lines: "Take a sad song and make it better," and "you were born to go out and get her."  I may add those lines in some way later.

The final page of the day that includes the narrative.  It reads: 

May 10, 2016: Awakened at 6:00 AM after hitting the snooze button a few times.  I iron my outfit for the day, unable to participate in “Crazy Hair Day” because, after school, I need to be with adults.  Breakfast pictures are included to understand the chaos included in the start of a fairly typical day in the Plato abode.  While trying to eat, we also needed to be sure Max had studied and was ready for his day.  My typical breakfast of cereal, milk, juice, water and my Shaklee vitamins accompanied the madness.  The counter joins in the insanity with lingering materials from small group as well as other items it decides to “catch” along the way.  At 8:00, I head to work, listening to the Beatles as well as Weezer.  Lasagna, one of my favorite school lunches, is a happy part of the school day. From 3:30-5:30, I get some after school business finished at the 602.  At 6, I get to enjoy a delicious dinner at Anju Above honoring and thanking me for my work for the Bloomington Education Association.  Around 8 PM, I drive by my big compromise on the way home: the “Sold” sign at 114 S. Mercer.  Scott has wanted to move for some time.  I finally stop the tension and say yes to a new direction.  However, pictures of the kitchen counter linger in my mind as I think of attempting to sell ours. After stopping at Walgreens for some refined sugar to put in my body, I end my day propping my ankle up in a bath.

WITL2016: Tuesday

Tuesday's submission of Week in the Life:

A card to start the day that included us buying a house.  This saying seemed completely appropriate.  The card came with this month's Story Kit with the theme: Believe.

I kind of like the idea of keeping things really simple.  I am pretty certain I will go back and add some embellishments (I really like word stickers), but getting the basics of the stories of the week down makes me happy.  On this day, I used a couple phone screen shots of songs I was playing.  The cool thing about that is that they show the time AND the charge of my phone.  It all parallels with my day.  It's interesting. I have been listening to "Hey Jude" a lot.  Two lines: "Take a sad song and make it better," and "you were born to go out and get her."  I may add those lines in some way later.

The final page of the day that includes the narrative.

WITL2016: Title and Monday

This evening, I decided to work on what I thought would be an easy start.  I found myself printing, and reprinting, and redoing, but it's all part of the process.

I remember getting out of my car at work and going directly to this blooming, lovely lilac bush and taking a picture.  I knew it had to be part of my album.  I decided it would make an excellent title page.  I used a slightly edited .png from Ali and left the title clean and simple.

On the flipside of the 6 x 8 title page, I decided on the use of another .png of Ali's.  This one was a freebie from her Pinterest Passport series that she is generously offering this summer.  Good thing I waited to compile my album, eh?

On my page divider, I had adhered one of the cards that would itemize happenings of the day.  When I wrote that out and the card on the last page, I realized it was redundant, so I decided that the dividers will, instead, include a 3 x 4 card that works for the day.  This card is from Ali's January Story Kit with the "Heart" theme.  If she has this kit available when she opens her kits up again, I highly recommend it.  I have used the contents for cards and scrapbooking alike.

My first page, of course, has a text message, as that's how most of my days begin.  I would be remiss not to include one.  I also snagged a photo of my breakfast table as well as the "Hey Jude" marathon I was having in my car that night.

This double-page spread had pics of my afternoon as well as the dinner I chose at about 9:30 that night (it was a doozy of a day!).  I really liked the snip I took of my Facebook page on my phone.  I thought it was funny that it stated "Describe Who You Are," and I knew I could incorporate that into my scrapbook this week.

Lastly, a shot of my right ankle, which had, at that point, been swollen for a little over a month.  I was proceeding to a new chiropractor to see if I needed some adjustment, as my doctor indicated it was not broken, yet I could not seem to control the swelling.  (NOTE: I have since seen a podiatrist after 2 months of walking/working out/biking/teaching on it.  I did, indeed, have a fractured fibula!)  I decided that I would type instead of write the Story of Today card, which is where the digital version of the WITL kit came in handy.  I typed it in Photoshop, printed it out, and adhere it where it fit on the back of the "Mon" card.

At first, I did a lot of writing on the cards and pictures.  After some smearing, and generally not liking how it was coming out, I decided to type using the Hello Typewriter font.  It just looks much cleaner and more unified.

Week In The Life 2016

During the Week of May 9 - May 15, 2016, I documented a week in my life in conjunction with Ali Edwards and hundreds of scrapbookers throughout the world.  You may recall that I partook in this adventure in August as well.

Some might think about this type of scrapbooking and believe it is just nuts.  And sometimes, I wonder about my own sanity when I decide to do things like this.  Then I realize that I really do like miniscrapbooks.  I like the feeling of "done" that I get with them.  I have other books that are for my "occasional" pages, but these books let me focus on one snapshot (pardon the pun) of my life and capture it in detail.

But JoLynn, you may be thinking, it's almost the end of June and the week you "documented" was at the beginning of May.  Yes, I know.  Many, many things (not all bad) got in the way of my putting my album together. Today, I decided it was time to leap.  I thought I would take a moment for anyone who is hesitant of this process to see what I used to make it all come together.  NOTE: It is NOT together yet.  I am sharing process tonight.  I am much more confident in the "coming together" part now that I have a skeleton of what I want to happen.

First, I bought several items from Ali Edwards.  Required?  No.  Do they make things easier?  Hell, yes.

What did I buy?

• The Week in the Life 2016 Kit and Stories album (album is not available; kit included various page protectors)

• The Week in the Life 2016 Digital Bundle (has all images, including the stamps)
• Days of the Week Chipboard Dividers (they were free with the kit at the time)
• Chipboard Gold Shapes (I really liked them; not sure how/if I will incorporate them yet)
• 3x8 Layered Templates (because I tried to print on the real deal last time and it was an epic fail)

Will I use all of this stuff?  Probably not, but you just never know what you will want to toy with in other albums.

Ali's video of her completed album will give you a great idea of where I am getting layout inspiration.  Although we won't be completely "matchy-matchy," you will see many similarities.  I also belong to the Week in the Life Facebook group where support and ideas abound.

During Documentation Week, my phone was my bestie.  I used the Notes app to job my daily goings-on.  I took pictures with my phone (although I think I also have some on my Nikon...gotta check that out).  I also used the Collect app to jot small ideas of what was happening with the photos I snapped.  Notice it shows how many shots you have for the days listed,

Today, I set up my "base pages" while revisiting my pictures and stories.

I cut the dividers, as Ali did.  My main reason is that they did not turn very smoothly, so when I saw she had cut them, I was all over it.

I used stamps from a variety of sets that I had for the backs of the tabs, as Ali had done in hers.  For example, this stamp (the Beginning) is from her "Read" Stamp Kit. I also attached the 3 x 4 card from the kit to the back of each divider, as she had shown.  I used my Crop a Dile to repunch the holes.

As shown by Ali, I used her adhesive chipboard circles in the lower right of a 4 x 4 pocket page.  On the back, I added some patterned paper just small enough that the adhesive from the chipboard piece could hold them in place.  I tried to choose paper that "went" with the day, if applicable.

One of the reasons I bought the kit were these gold-foiled day-of-the-week cards.  On one side, they have the day in Ali's writing...

...on the other, it says "Story of Today,"  I plan to include journaling for the day in that space. 

I have this set up ready for each day.  I also stamped this on the front inside cover:

I want to be sure I write a little note about this album and/or this time in my life.

What's next?  

• Title page (probably a 6 x 8 of the lilacs at my school)
• Get pics in
• Decide on a daily meme (I did that last album and I loved it...I dig memes)

I will probably go day-by-day, completely finishing a day before going on to the next.  It's ready to receive, though, and that is huge.  Considering I was motivationless yesterday, I am pretty excited to be at this point!  Stay tuned!

Happy Father's Day

This installment of Father's Day cards was inspired by the pin found here: http://pin.it/tP9YiK8

Lawn Fawn patterned paper was used as well as the Happy Everything set.  The fence was embossed with the Stampin Up Wood embossing folder.  All else was pieced together using the original as a guide.  

The card suits my husband to a T.

Simple Happy Birthday

Some Prismas, some Kraft paper, some Tim Holtz, an edge distresser.  Dude birthday card complete and enjoyed.