December Daily 2016 - Putting foundation pages together

So, I'm starting to get my head around my December Daily album.

I am disappointed with myself, with my lack of Halloween flair this year. [I knew I would be] I had such good intentions, to make this final elementary school year full of memories, but feel like I crashed and burned. First off, let me start by saying, that it's totally easy to feel inadequate, when you have perfect seeming bloggers and pinners out there. Everywhere. Pinning and posting and blogging their things. Their layouts are perfect. Their mini albums are perfect. Their house is perfect...

It's easy to feel this way, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I couldn't get sugar cookies made and decorated for Halloween this year. Or last year. Or probably, the year before that. I want to, but I just can't seem to get it together.

I can't to do it all. And, I have to be okay with that. And I sort of am. Until I start seeing the perfect christmas decorations. And cookies. And crafts. And mini albums, showing up the day after Halloween.

I'm working p/t, which makes things even more hectic than they were before. I can't give enough accolades to parents that are working full time. I don't know how you do it. My calendar hardly has an open day on it, from the beginning of September, until the end of March, when hockey and ringette are over. 

It would seem my ability to multi-task, is more of a 'multi-lack'. But I do what I can. 

Last year, I flew by the seat of my pants when it came to my December daily book.

Now, having gone back and looked at it, it's better than I thought. If you're interested, you can go check out this post here: December Daily 2015

This year my plan so far is to have a little bit more of the foundation put together before December hits. I don't print stuff off at home, even if I did print from home, for some reason, we can't get our printer set up properly for this new computer. I send my stuff to be printed at Costco. You just can't beat the price.

As far as my album goes, I don't know what's going to happen, on what days. However,  I like to have the date pages ready to go, at the very least. So when I have to work on pages/photos and then send them off to be printed, it adds another step. Another busy step, which has me going to Costco... Multiple times, during the holiday season. If you've ever been to Costco, I know you know what I'm talking about. Get in when the doors open and GET OUT....

This year, in anticipation of not having a working computer, I'd actually been excited to do a more hands on approach. More playing with paper, and less, digital stuff.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I finally got brave enough to download the new PSE15, and fiddle around with it. Then, a week or so ago, Sahlin Studio released 'Oh What Fun'.

There's no way you can look at this stuff, and not have DECEMBER DAILY ringing in your ears. I just love it. So, I'm going to try to do a bit of digital, and a bit of paper... The truth is, I just love the digital aspect of creating layouts... But I also love working with paper too. So, I hope to have a perfect  combination of them both. You have to go check out these products, they're awesome. [All products are listed and linked below]

This year, I decided to go with a 6x4 sized format. I purchased one of last years mini albums from  Ali Edwards. Last year I used a 6x6 size, and made a lot of my own page protector sheets that I cut down to size and used my We Are Memory Keepers Fuse Tool on. I have seen a few DD albums this 6x4 size, and was eager to try it this year.

Like I mentioned, these are not at all set in stone, and could change. But here are my first few foundation pages.

I was trying to get fancy with my sewing machine and make a round loop. I love that it looks like a misshapen heart, and I didn't even mean for it to. LOVE stitching in my albums. I like the look of the digital stitch too, but there's nothing like actually running the sewing machine across the page.

I backed all my 3x4 cards, with festive paper on the backs. I just didn't show them all. I also love this monthly calendar card, that I adhered to paper, and it's on it's own in the book.

These numbered 'day' pages, will be more of a guideline than anything else. I'm looking forward to seeing what December brings, in the way of stories.  And I plan to take a lot more photos this year, so that after Christmas, I'm not disappointed.

The following Sahlin Studio Products used:

Oh What Fun kit
Oh What Fun - Journal Cards
December Days No. 2
Number Journal Cards 

Halloween 2016

Halloween was on a Monday this year. Bummer.

We had the smallest amount of kids we've ever had, come to our house, only 27. Needless to say, we had left overs. For the first time though, I didn't run out and buy more candy 'just in case'.

It was a nice mild night. I'm not sure why our numbers dwindled so much...

Mason had a hockey practice, so he didn't go out. Though he did go to a friends house after hockey, under the premise that he was helping to hand out candy. 

For the first time ever, Madelyn went out with a friend. Her uncle came and took them out. It might have been her best haul of candy yet. 

Here are a few photos:

We carved pumpkins on Sunday night. I did the mummy pumpkin on the far right. Love how it turned out. Madelyn carved the 'gentleman walrus' on the far left. Mason got his done quickly, easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. He tried to get out of doing one at all, but his mean mum wouldn't let him. Barry's is the 3rd from the left.

Little miss had all sorts of ideas, of what she wanted to be. But, as usual, we waited until the last possible moment to put ideas and costumes together. We came up with the idea of a veterinarian, and as luck would have it, even found scrubs with paw print on it. [Many thanks to Ama, who promised she was headed to Value Village any way... ]

All the stars aligned this year. Not only did Madelyn get to go out trick or treating with a  friend, but she got to collect her loot in a pillow case. She finally wore me down this year, and I muttered "I don't care what you take" under my breath. Elated, she grabbed a pillow case, and they set off.

So grateful when we have a Halloween with no wind or snow. We totally lucked out this year.

Exciting News

So, I've taken a huge leap forward.

I downloaded PSE15 and I've been spending time familiarizing myself with the program. Some things are the same, some things are different. 

Plus, this time around I'm working on a Mac, which is different than the PC version I was used to. But... I'm getting it! [insert squeal here]

I started off by working on a template, it's actually free for the month of November only, on Sahlin Studio. Check it out here: free template for November.

But here is the final product!

I'm so excited. 

Just a super quick layout of our recent trip to the west coast. 

I also finally got the courage to plug in our external hard drive, and was rewarded with the fact that I do have access to all my photos, since switching over to a digital camera, in May 2005. Phew, that was a relief. I was so scared to do that, because 'what if' the pictures weren't there. 

So, I'm only missing stuff from January through August of this year, and I have all my iPhone photos since April, so I can breath a huge sigh of relief. 

And once I started tinkering around a little bit, it got less and less scary. [Though, my right arm and hand are most definitely feeling the after affects of too much mousing after a nearly 3 month hiatus]

I am fiddling with my project life pages again. I need to do a enormous 'catch up'. But I think I'm going to take a lot of stress off myself, and do a few months at a time, rather than weeks. 

Any way, to say I'm pleased, is an understatement. And naturally, I wish I'd gotten braver sooner. But I got brave when I had to. Looking forward to getting back to this method of memory keeping once again.

Sahlin Studio Product Used was: 

Pause Kit