Project Life: So far.

I have a few blog posts coming up, a serial if you like, about project life and my thoughts and feelings about it. Also I want to share some of my ideas about how to do it. When I started, I devoured information to help me and so if that is you I hope it will help.

I changed my mind twice about how I was going to do project life this year, one of which I shared with you here about simplifying as I got started on the new year. It was an ok plan, but only ok. I was not as thrilled with it as I was last year. Now I guess that was to be expected, new things are shiny, new ways of working can be invigorating and when you repeat something it can feel stale.

So I was thinking about it a lot in early february and as I was contemplating it a couple of things happened to add to my need/want to change things. 

1. The online store where I buy my albums sold out of the colour album I was using for project life. 
I was using WRMK Albums in Aqua for project life and in Vanilla for my 12x12's. (I can wholeheartedly recommend The Craftz Boutique for speed and service. They totally don't know I am posting this, I am in no way affiliated with them, I just love their service) 
So I did a very dramatic thing that had me battling all my ocd tendencies and I put. it. in. the. 12 x 12 layout album. which. is. a. different. colour. Well, I quite liked it.

2. Shimelle posted this Glitter Girl video about using fabric and I was so drawn to the fact she made a double spread using one side in a divided page protector. So I thought about it a lot more.

So, I thought I would put all sizes of scrapping that is current and chronological (pretty much all the scrapping I like to do) and put it together in one project life album. That got me thinking about how to do it and I spent a lovely evening putting it together in a fashion that I could work with.

The last thing that happened was watching my friend Laura on our scrapbooking retreat a few weeks ago and her super-scrapper style. She is more planned and organised than me, that made me sit up. 
What? "I am not the most planned and organised scrapper", my competitive side thought, I can do that, why didn't I think of that? And...
What? I can plan my future scrapping the same way I plan any other project, well duh. I mean, duh, duh, du-duh.
I mean I think about my future scrapping, I buy Ali's outer clothes in mainly navy-blue so he is easy to scrap with. Of course, remember the red body-warmer disaster of autumn/spring 2010? No? Well I was just a beginner ;)

But, I could also plan out pages in the album as I do any individual pockets of divided page protectors for a weekly spread. 
I went back to Shimelle again, I took her Cover to Cover class a while ago to overcome my fear of putting layouts in albums (what? How could I be that same person? I adore putting them away now nice and safely) and I found it really helpful, but at the point that I took the class it just didn't click (obviously getting work in an album was a stretch at that point!). I didn't get any further with my own ideas and just plodded on with project life in one album and everything else in another.

So now it will be pre-2012 in one set of albums in as near chronological order as I can get. I was a scatter-scrapper then. Then 2012 in 4 albums, 2 x project life and 2 x 12x12s (which I might go back and amalgamate, but probably not, it is what it is). Then 2013 all together going forward. Phew, did you get all that?

So, what next? I have a blog post with a video that I am preparing to show you looking through the album for the first quarter of the year. I am also preparing a post with some detail as to how I record our life and then how I transfer that to the album. There is so much inspiration out there as to how to do this project and I love looking at their projects and take some of their ideas and make them my own. I thought I would share how I have taken it for anyone thinking of doing it and not quite sure how to start.

I would love to hear any questions you have about this and also any suggestions for me to include about the whole process. Please leave them in the comments or if it is easier please email me at jenniedothart@medotcom :)

Can't wait :)

Beat The Christmas Rush.

I am beating the Christmas rush by making 5 cards a month with Creative Craft World.

I think it is great that I have so many already. If you haven't joined in yet then you can at any time and still have made a great start. 

I have used up more of my christmas stash, I think another month or two and I will be out and then I will have to think out of the box until the new collections arrive!

Thanks for showing us what you made when you joined in, I liked Phil's very much and I think my favourite was lindschicks here.

Please pop over and see all the fantastic design team contributions.

Lucky Snapping: Five Things.

Over at Lucky Snapping this week, Kathi has prompted us to think of five things to share that others may not know about me. Apologies if you know any of this already. 

1. I have webbed toes, I know, eurgggh yuckety-yuck right? Well it is only the second and third toe of each foot up to the joint and no I won't show you a photo up close :) I am ok at swimming too.

Have you gone? No, well done, you are made of stern stuff indeed.

2. I lived on Lundy Island from the age of 6 weeks. You can see some posts about it here and here.

Wiki have it here too. 

3. I can barely do any basic maths in my head at all, yet I can do quadratic equations. Guess which one would have come in more useful on a daily basis?

4. I can speak backslang, according to wiki, along with victorian greengrocers, prisoners and modern day female tennis players. My friend and I learned it to have private conversations on the telephone back in the day when you had to sit in a communal area to have a telephone call. 

5. I worked a night shift last night to see my night managers and do some planning with them. I don't get to do whole shifts with them very often and so it was really nice although I feel a bit tired now! Off to bed for a bit, I have to go in again later so I better had.

Night/Morning All!

Laugh much?

Well I didn't laugh much when I heard about the demise of Google Reader. I love Google Reader for it's simplicity and it's time saving quality; having had a few days to think about it though, all change presents an opportunity. A few scrappers have talked about this and I have been carefully taking note of what their plans are to compensate, such as Sian here. My thoughts so far are that I shall clear off the official scrapping company blogs and only visit them when I am looking for something particular.  I have already bookmarked my favourite blogs in a folder on my browser bar and I will schedule some time each week to pop over to them all and see what is new. Maybe in the long run I will save myself some time. 

I have had a funny couple of weeks. I have had to go back to work full-time unfortunately due to money and the workload on my planner for the next 15 weeks. I have faced it with a smile on my face (most days ;)), and I am trying to find ways to still keep the better connections I have built with the kids and find time to scrap and the decorating that we have embarked on here at Hart Towers.

(Dulux Muddy Puddle)

I have been writing and editing some blog posts to try and get ahead as I haven't been blogging as much as I enjoy. I have painted my bedroom...fed up of waiting for the quotes and timelines from local professionals for the lounge and hall so we have been watching youtube and researching and bought some really good tools to supplement what Dad left us and had a practice on my room. I am absolutely thrilled with how it came out, those of you well-versed and phenomenal at DIY already, I honestly didn't know how fulfilling it can be!
The other colour for the lighter walls is Dulux First Frost which is a pale aqua, massive shock that I chose that colour I know.
This is how it looks in my room against the muddy puddle.

I am seriously considering decorating the notice board with Simple Stories Vintage Bliss 12x12s and 4x6s. 

So yesterday and today we stripped and primed and prepped the bathroom, I have just been in and painted the ceiling and it has come up fabulously. Before I go to work later we will cut out the wallpaper, a textured roll for some parts of the walls (my scrapping know-how coming to help out!) and get that ready to paste on so we can paint over the next couple of days.

Anyway I did laugh at the retreat, which tragically seems a hundred years ago already. But the laughs are still working their magic. I scrapped about it for Project Life, (more on that later in the week) and this is one of the 12x12's. 

 In a new twist I have made an accompanying journaling card to put into a divided page protector. 

 As I say more on my new process for Project Life later in the week.

Ok, back to the decorating.
Before you go, if you have any other ways that you keep up with your favourite blogs, please let me know won't you?
Have a lovely Saturday.

Lucky Snapping: March brings breezes...

...loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil.

It's been lovely taking photos specifically for this challenge, really taking note of the monthly changes. I have taken a little latitude in the times that I have taken the photos, they are all within a few days of each other and the first week of the month and I am happy with that.

These are my three from this month:

The main view, I am taking from vantage points around the South West Coast Path.

Mum out at the point between Croyde and Saunton.

The view from the kitchen window.

Not my kitchen window, this is the lovely kitchen window where I was retreating this week, in Olney, Bucks.

and one I took at home today with the beautiful tulips I had.

and finally, my neighbourhood photo.

You can just see the daffs on the right.

Now, did anything happen on retreat that needs scrapping? Well of course there is, I need to get on it.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Storytelling Sunday: Pick Your Precious|Tree Of Life

First Sunday in the month? It is time for Storytelling Sunday hosted by Sian over at High In The Sky. Everyone is welcome with short or long stories, photos, layouts or simply words. Always such good stories and blogs to find and spend time reading. Sian has suggested that we pick our precious things to tell stories about this year which is a wonderful idea and I am enjoying having the layouts in my album.

My Granny again this month, last month I shared her crochet hooks that I have and the crochet I managed. I have been practicing and dreaming of the lovely things I will hopefully be able to make. I am currently having a ham-fisted attempt at a daffodil for an easter wreath from a lovely tutorial from Lucy at Attic 24.

So this month I wanted to show you the embroidery she made me for my thirteenth birthday. I remember going to Okehampton to see her on my birthday and standing in her room as she gave it to me, it was wrapped in brown paper and I was so excited. I just loved it then and I just love it now. The only place I have slept for any length of time without it was when I was at sea.

I always see something different even though I think I know it off by heart. I do always remember the owl and the blue birds.

 I am away on our annual scrapbooking retreat and I remembered to bring the photos and had a lovely afternoon catching up on all the news and scrapping them. 

I especially enjoyed tucking into the new (to me) paper lines from Dear Lizzy, Amy Tangerine and Maggie Holmes :D

And the lovely Karen is cooking Roast Sunday Lunch, insists she doesn't want any help so I might just go and have a read of some stories :)
Happy Storytelling Sunday everyone.

Am I Allowed To Have This?

It's time for a blog hop at Creative Craft World, you might have arrived from Ali's fab blog Alipeeps-art. 

This is Minty.

She likes cuddly toys.

She likes to snuggle them up under her chin.

She likes to look at me when she is in full kidnap mode knowing full well the answer to the question.

Am I allowed to have this?

(apologies for the poor photo) 

No, Minty, you are not allowed because when you have finished snuggling them, you start to nibble them!

OK, so hop on if you can to Lou's blog here.