NYE

currents

Time: 6:08pm
Location: on the couch
Mood: relieved it's Friday
Watching: 30 rock
Feeling: inspired
Thinking: about 2012
Hoping: it'll be waaay better than 2011
Thankful: for Mark, my half orange that always turns my frown upside down 
 

One Little Word 2012

This is the first year I've decided to participate in Ali Edward's one little word concept. I love the idea that one little word can have such a powerful impact on the upcoming year. And I've already decided that 2012 is going to be a fabulous year. I really thought my OLW would just magically come to me - kinda like a light bulb...a-ha! But rather, every time I stumbled across a word that I liked, I wrote it on a post-it and put it on my planner. It came down to four major contenders: 'be', 'joy', 'present', and 'today'. 

'Joy' was a tad too generic, 'present' didn't seem quite right, and 'today' didn't capture the 'in the moment' word I was aiming for. So...'be' seemed like the perfect fit for my OLW for 2012. For me, 'be' equates to being present and enjoying life's little moments. For whatever reason, (I blame my discipline strength), I'm constantly planning/scheduling/thinking about the future. I'm very much a type A personality which works for me but sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on the everyday moments that make life so special.

What's your one little word?

A scrapbooker's dream

I truly had a great Christmas weekend. It was full of spending invaluable time with family + friends, making special memories, eating food and yummy sweets, and many hours playing Oregon Trail with Mark, Oli, & Clemmy. 
Another highlight, getting tons of amazing scrapbooking supplies. After spending a great deal of time drooling over Amy Tangerine's fujifilm pivi MP-300 printer, I *briefly* mentioned to Mark how awesome this little device would be to own. And guess what Santa brought me? 

It was love at first print. Can't wait to start incorporating these pictures into my projects (especially PL and mini-albums). 
Other items Mark got me...

Yeah, he's a keeper. 


Hope your holidays were full of laughter and merriment!

Holiday Place Settings

While in graduate school, I collected a multitude of large binder clips and I finally found a purpose for them...holiday place settings!

Using random Christmas supplies, I covered the binder clips with paper and used stickers, embellishments, ribbon, and whatever else I could find to jazz them up. With my fuji instax camera, I put a picture of myself inside the clip. Seriously, how cute is that? 

 I plan on bringing my camera to the holiday party I'm attending, snap a few shots of the guests, and put the place settings around the table. I think these will be a huge hit at the party!




 

Project Life Update (November + December)

Getting the kit for next year has inspired and motivated me to get up to date on my current PL. I'm still trying to decided if I want to do a POTD for 2012 but I still have some time to think about that...

 I even persuaded Mark to do a journaling card on his new iPhone 4S. That's definitely something I want to incorporate more in 2012. 

 

Project Life 2012

Eeek! Guess what arrived on my door step? PROJECT LIFE!

 I decided to go with the cobalt edition - I really like the bright colors and the cute messages on the journaling cards. 

The best part of all?? No more taupe colored arrows! Can't wait to continue Project Life into 2012.
 

It's amazing what a hot glue gun can do...

It's that time of year again - ugly xmas sweater season! I found a snowman vest a couple of years ago at Walgreens but it wasn't quite ugly enough. So, I decided to add a few "embellishments"...

This was the vest before adding anything to it. 

I picked up a few essential items at Hobby Lobby - different colored pom poms, bells, and fabric glitter. 

Using my hot glue gun, I made a Christmas tree on the back and put jingle bells around the bottom of the vest. Lastly, I (heavily) misted the vest with gold fabric glitter. And... voila!

 

I was runner up in the ugly holiday sweater contest at my work. (I was robbed!)

color mist, cheeseburgers + margaritas, and archiver's!

The day started with a fabulous delivery: 

I've been dying to get my hands on Mister Huey's color mist. It seems like everyone was sold out but mine finally arrived. (And after using this product once, I want all the colors! It's A-mazing!) 

After a loooong week, my friends and I traveled to Omaha for some Cheeseburger in Paradise and scrapbooking at Archiver's. 

We all made tremendous progress on PL and I created a layout utilizing my new mister! I'm kinda in love with it:

Overall, a very productive evening with friends.

DIY

I came across a sad, white frame while cleaning my craft area on Saturday. So, I decided to spruce it up! 

 I used some scraps of paper from a previous layout and added some chipboard letters. Not bad for a 5 minute project...

Feeling Inspired...

Here are some layouts I'd like to create in the very near future:

Especially the last one.

oh, the weather outside is frightful...

This snowy & chilly day provided the perfect opportunity to finally clean my craft area. (Perfect meaning I had no excuses not to because I certainly wasn't going outside in this snow storm!) The room desperately needed a good vacuuming and a tad bit of organizing. I always drag my feet about cleaning/organizing it but when it's all said and done, it looks fabulous AND I'm more creative and inspired. 

  Even Oli approves. 

 

Happy Thursday!

Amidst all the black, gray, and navy, I spy a little Oli.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

I’ve been doing some a lot of Christmas preparation the past couple of days. And it’s not even December yet! For a number of years, I’ve been making my own Christmas tags – I love doing it, it puts me in the Christmas spirit, and it adds a personalized touch to each gift.  This year I got an early start on the tags by using these free journaling cards.  They are the perfect size! I covered up some of the numbers with embellishments and paper but you could leave the cards as they are. I’m also going to incorporate some into Project Life.

 

I’ve also made some progress on holiday shopping. And gift wrapped some of the packages! Couldn’t be happier with my Christmas progress. It makes for a lot less hectic December!