PL2017 - October

For the month of October, I created a simple two page layout. This includes weeks 40 through 43.

A closer look at the left side: 

• Lefsa making in preparation for thanksgiving and Christmas. 
• My incredibly brave girl, who had to have an ultra sound done, on her eyeball. 
• A glimpse of Peru, thanks to my Mum and Dad.
• Date night at the pub with my honey.
• Thanksgiving.

A look at the right side:

• Impromptu photo I acquired of my boy during a school day.
• Photo of my girl during school. 
• Shot of Madelyn in the Engineering wing at the university. 
• Girls night at a fashion show.
• Halloween costume, pumpkins, sugar cookies and friends.

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

Left side:

Gather Digital Stamps   http://the-lilypad.com/store/gather-digital-stamps.html

Gather Journal Cards = http://the-lilypad.com/store/gather-journal-cards.html

Right side: 

Project Mouse - Halloween Bundle - http://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Halloween-Kit.html

PL2017 - Weeks 38 & 39

I have been working on my December Daily album, but it has been slow going. I'm hoping to have some pages to share in the next few days. 

I don't know where the days in December go. Admittedly, we've been busy so far. We started the month off in a ringette tournament in Medicine Hat [Dec 1-3rd] We had another ringette tournament the next weekend as well. Thankfully this one, the Jingle Ring was held in Calgary [Dec 8-10th]. There's much to be said about sleeping in your own bed, and knowing with certainty the way to the rink. Mason was in a tournament last week too, the Christmas Clash. His tourney was played during the week, rather than on the weekend. This freed up our weekend, but we were at the rink Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. 

Today is my last day before the kids are home for Christmas vacation. We all get to rest up and turn off our 6 am alarm clock for the next few weeks. Today I'm going to wrap up a few presents, and make sure I have everything in order for Christmas. I feel pretty confident that I have finished my Christmas shopping. But there's always something that gets forgotten or is last minute. 

Yesterday and last night, we were under a snowfall warming. It snowed and snowed and snowed. Sometimes they're right with their weather predictions. We went from no snow to be found, to quite an impressive accumulation. It absolutely makes it feel more Christmas-y. That feeling has been missing. I think it's partly because we've been enjoying such nice weather. Today is all about coffee drinking, gift wrapping, maybe even cookie baking. I am even going to have the Christmas carols playing. Because NOW even if it didn't feel like Christmas, it certainly looks like Christmas. 

I've got to power through as well, and get my last few weeks of project life for 2017 finished up. 

For October and November, I'm just doing a 2 page monthly layout. Last year, I was a little behind, so I followed the same format then. I don't stress about what I have or have not done. I'm simply happy to get some stories and memories recorded. 

This project life album can be whatever you want it to be. There are no rules. 

With my December Daily album, the month is documented, but on a daily story-by-story basis. I haven't decided how I'll document my December in my project life album yet. And whatever I decide to do, I'm okay with. Remember what I said? There are no rules.  

Week 38:

• High school hallways
• Enjoying the scenery
• Happy Anniversary photo
• Our little hat girl. Always wearing a hat.
• Our first miserable day in September.
• Celebrating Barry's birthday.

Week 39:

• The colours are spectacular right now, Nose Hill looks amazing. 
• Found a woodshed in Jasper. 
• Mum and I got last minute tickets to see The Sound of Music, our seats were AH-maz-ing. 
• Jasper trip with Madelyn's Trex group. 

The following Sahlin Studio product was used: 

Week 38

Photo Journal no.1 Templates : http://the-lilypad.com/store/photo-journal-no.1-templates.html

Number Journal Cards : http://the-lilypad.com/store/Numbers-Soft-Journal-Cards.html

For week 39, I used the following Paislee Press product:

4x6 templates - volume 6.

All the Feels 

PL2017 - Week 37

Here is week 37 of my project life album. 

This week I used templates for all the photos. 

I actually love the clean look of it.

• A certain grade 7 girl, just got her first phone, the look of delight. 
• Morning walks with Libby. I've been walking to the bus with Mason in the mornings. 
• Our home grown pumpkin. [it never turned orange, but it was super cute]
• Bathroom 'before' photo.
• Couch shenanigans.
• Half day cheese biscuits. I get this request weekly.
• Bus pick up.
• Beets I tried to grow in the garden, note to self, start earlier next spring. 
• Walk in the park with my guy. 

The following Sahlin Studio product was used: 

Project Mouse Classic Elements

4x6 Templates - Vol. 1

3x4 Templates - Vol. 1

December Daily - 2017

Can you believe tomorrow is already December 1st? I can't.

This holiday season, I feel very settled and content. Last holiday season was an absolute blur... 

I was working, and the closer Christmas got, the busier I was. The days were busy, the nights were busy [with extra curricular kid stuff] I wasn't in an overly happy space. In fact, I'm pretty sure looking back, I was pretty miserable. 

Last year I was totally rushed. Shopping was last minute and stressful. I did absolutely NO baking, much to my kids horror. 

This year is a different story. 

I actually have a good chunk of my Christmas shopping done. Already. And it's November 29th. Yay me. 

I've already made my first batch of Gingersnaps. They didn't stand a chance. They were mostly consumed. But this year is looking pretty promising compared to last year. 

I have also put my foundation pages together for this years December Daily album. This year I went back to Ali Edwards December Daily album, though I didn't order the entire kit. 

I ordered this year and last years Paislee Press mini kits. I love them. 

I did have a mix up however. I thought I'd ordered an Ali Edward 6x8 binder. When the box arrived, no binder.  I checked out my bill, and no binder. So, I had to scramble a little bit. I did manage to find a 6x8 binder on Scrapbook.com. I love the ones Ali offers, because they are 6 rings [check out page protectors you can see this new binder is only 2 rings] The 6 rings definitely gives you a bit more stability. However, I'm using what I've got. 

I have created a title page, and my intention page. [I attempted to write out my intentions in my own hand writing. But I hated it. So I typed it instead. Now, to figure out how to run journal cards manually through our new printer] Wish me luck! 

Here is my title page. Loving it. 

On the back side of the title page, I printed off this calendar. For now, it's just printed off blank and included in the album pocket for now, but I plan to include everything that happens in our month. [Which will be a lot, I know that already]

This calendar is a freebie that can be downloaded, along with a few other styles, to download, click here: Stitch in Time. So generous, and I love the van with the tree on top. It's my favourite. 

This years colour combination is going to be a mixture of red/black/white. 

I will try my best to keep up with pages here. 

[Of course, the first 3 days of December, I'm out of town in a ringette tourney] I'll have some catching up to do when I get home. 

I'm really looking forward to putting this album together this year. 

Looking Back

This past week I went back to my very first blog post. It was November of 2008. Nine years ago. Nine. Years. Ago.

My, how different our lives look 9 years later.

Nine years ago my now 15 and 12 year old kids were 6 and 3. One was in grade one, the other a year away from starting preschool.

Today they are in high school and junior high school. It truly seems unbelievable to me.  

I first started to blog, because I wanted to document and capture our 'every day'. When you're 'in it', the days often sometimes seem monotonous. 

When you have the ability to step away and look back at the every days... 

To see how far you've come. 

How things have changed. 

How your kids have grown... 

I actually had my posts from 2008 through 2012 printed and bound in a soft covered book. I have no idea what company I went through to do this. Believe it or not, there is no company information anywhere on the books.  

With the start of my project life albums, I cut down on my blogging considerably. 

Once I was creating PL albums, I was capturing the 'every days' that I'd previously blogged about. It seemed redundant to blog about it, or have books printed. Especially since I basically had all the hard copies of the photos and stories, in albums in the living room.

I have never wavered on this documenting thing. 

I still love it. As much now, as much as when I first began. 

My kids still sit and look through albums. They have memories of things, that have stayed with them, because they can read about them. The little stories that have made up our days. 

I love working with paper.  

I love working in PSE on the computer. 

I love capturing our stories. Still. 

And, if anyone out there, who's reading this, can tell me how on earth, I created this photo... I would love to know. Because I can't for the life of me, figure it out again... 

All I know is that it was saved as a .gif. But really, how did I get it to look like it was snowing?

I researched everything. All I did was end up with a virus on my computer. [Thanks to Mason, that situation has been rectified]

That's all I've got. Just a little bit of rambling for a friday.

PL2017 - Weeks 35 and 36

I'm constantly taking pictures. Drives my kids crazy. But every so often, I look back at the weeks, and  as shocking as it may sound, I hardly have any photos. So, I just make do with what I have. 

Sometimes when that happens, I look at what I've got, and then I cut a page protector down to accommodate them. I actually like that the page protector is cut down, it gives the album a bit more visual interest, to have something a little different. I should actually do it more often.

Week 35:

• Epic back yard water fight between Barry and the kids. So fun. The hose is now totally involved, and everyone gets SOAKED. The best part, there are no tears...
• Barry rented a sheet of ice for the kids, so they could get their rink legs back.
• Madelyn was nervous about starting at a new school. We drove to it, and walked around the neighbourhood to familiarize her with the area a little bit. 
• Crazy hazy sky sunsets.

Week 36:

• Annual parade, and totally ready to catch ANY candy that comes her way [Having candy thrown out is definitely a small town bonus]
• First day of school. Grades 7 and 10. 

I had to honour Mason's request for privacy. This nifty product was a freebie from CZ a few years back. I have used it a couple of times. I absolutely don't want to embarrass my kids. [If I did, they'd never let me take another picture]

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

Week 35

Photo Overlay - Love 

Hello Kit Sampler

Number Journal Cards

Week 36

Apple Orchard

Number Journal Cards

PL2017 - Week 34

I know back in my PL2017 - Week 29, I talked at length about seeing the milky way and the rings of Saturn. It was truly one of the highlights of summer for me. Another much anticipated event was the eclipse that was happening on August 21st. Some parts of North America were going to experience a total eclipse. 

I did a blog post on our eclipse experience. You can go back and read it here. 

Spoiler alert. It was a little disappointing. For us any way. The change in light was so subtle, that if you hadn't known this was happening, you would have totally missed it. Having said that, watching the moon move across the sun with our special eclipse glasses and home made eclipse viewers, was very cool. It shows you just how strong our sun is. It does tend to leave you in awe. 

We'd all like to be somewhere to check out a true full eclipse. Who knows, maybe we'll plan all our vacations and trips around seeing eclipses... 

Probably not, but it would be fun to do, if money were no object. 

Here is week 34:

• Our little eclipse party. 
• Starting our plumbing project. The first cut was definitely the hardest. 
• Our orange sunsets because of forest fires throughout Alberta.
• Madelyn still eager to play at the playground. [Please stay little forever]
• Trip to the trampoline park before school heads back. 

The following Sahlin Studio product was used:

Pause Kit - http://the-lilypad.com/store/pause-kit.html

Pause Journal cards - http://the-lilypad.com/store/pause-journal-cards.html.