Tuesday, January 31, 2012

PROJECT LIFE WEEK 4

Welcome to week 4 of Project Life, can you believe it's been a month!!! Thankful for starting another year with this amazing kit. This week I am using some downloads from Sugarhilltree that my friend Aimee told me about. I love the bright colors and the designs. I didn't write down the link so let me know if you want it and I will go back and get it.
So far this week on the left side top photo is 2 collages of my art work for this past week. LOVE LOVE that I can include this without adding bulk to my album. Included a little scrap paper that I used also. On the right hand side is the front of an extra page protector showing the girls painting their room. They will love having these to look back on.
In the bottom photo on the left side is the back of the extra pp showing the girls room all done and BLUE. We still love how the room looks now, so bright. Can't wait to decorate in there. On the right hand side are some sweet things. A little scrap of paper that we all used to help Sam with a homework problem, so great to include this. I have some adorable pictures of Sienna and Colt "playing nice" together. She was so good to him and shared and talked with him, HAPPY to have these photos of those two. Sienna loves to wear my hat and gloves so this is a fun moment to remember, she gets so silly when she does this.
Thanks for visiting and if you want to see more Project Life albums click on the Project Tuesday button on the right side of my blog. Have a great week.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

PROJECT LIFE UPDATE...... HOORAY!!!!

WOW it's working, looks good so far let's hope it posts. I kept it pretty simple this week and my favorite thing again is the collage on the bottom right hand corner on the right side. Love these pictures and going to frame this and remind myself to look for the beauty and fun in the cold winter snow. I actually had 15 photos from that day but didn't want to get a large collage, keeping it simple which makes me HAPPY!!  Hope everyone is having a good weekend. STILL LOVE LOVE MY PROJECT LIFE!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU EVERYONE

Thank you everybody for you comments on the girls's new room color!!!  I'm glad the pictures posted but they went in the wrong order, lol  at least they posted though. I'm still working on how to text with the picture I want so for now I may just do some pictures only and they should tell the story enough or I will just do some happy writing posts.

The girls both agreed pretty happily on having blue on the walls and we will accent it with green. They need new lamps and curtains and dressers. I would like to do something fun with their headboards also and then get some new bedding.

They did a great job and I'm so proud of them for doing this together and getting along during the process. When the walls were done they rearranged their stuff and cleaned and vacummed the room as well. Yes you can see the mess under the beds but it's a neat mess and we will work more on it. But just seeing this makes me happy we finally got it done. I'm going to buy some canvas and have them each paint a picture of their own to hang on the walls also. All the brown trim is going to be painted white and that will really lighten it up more. This will all take time as we will do a little over time.

I will be posting pictures tonight of  last week's Project Life pages if I can get it to work. It's not letting me post the whole pages of them. Something about the size of it, just might have to do a left side and right side only. Have a great weekend everyone and THANK YOU THANK YOU for stopping by and leaving your comments that MAKE MY DAY AND TODAY MADE MY GIRLS DAY!!!!!!

Friday, January 27, 2012

A paint over for the girls room ( let's see if it works)

I'm hoping this works, trying to upload again and it's so different then what it was before. If it works please cheer and jump up and down because I will be too. I have no patience for working with computers and this really was a downer for me all week but I'm giving it a shot again. Hoping these pictures go in the right order.

So here is the beginning of our room paintover, not a makeover just a paint over!!! See the little sample colors on the purple wall those were the ones to pick from. The girls did an amazing job with all of this adventure. They moved everything and piled it up high all on their own. Rich was the one in charge as I took care of Sam and his basketball schedule for the day so not tons of pictures but here's the ones I got.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

testing to see if working, my blogger and comments and uploading has changed since I was playing around figuring things out. hope this works!!
I'm having difficulties with my blog and have been trying to figure out the new blogger/comment section  and while doing that have changed everything without realizing it. I hate not knowing more about these things. I was going to post pictures of the painting job we did in the girls room this weekend. It looks so nice and wanted to share. I don't know how to post the pictures now and I'm not even sure if this is going to work, let's hope so!!

I will be back with new posts when I figure it out. Hope everyone had a good weekend. I also am having a hard time leaving comments on other blogs which is driving me crazy too.

Thanks and have a good week!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND HAPPENINGS

I haven't done one of these in a long time and miss them. Here is some random thoughts and happenings in my world!! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

1. The month is going slow for me and that makes me happy.
2. I'm craving fast food all the time now, not sure why because this never happens.
3. Renee will be 15 just over 2 weeks, WOW WOW WOW!!
4. Summer was 131/2 yesterday, that is way to fast for me
5. We are painting the girls room this weekend "POOL PARTY BLUE" I think that's the name
6. I've been enjoying the new show JANE BY DESIGN with the girls on Tues. nights
7. My dear friend Bonita has a birthday tomorrow, Happy Birthday !!!
8. Rich has already been getting gardening magazines in the mail, he is so ready for spring
9. Summer will be getting braces very soon and is verrrrry excited
10. Kristin my oldest just got to witness the miracle of life when her good friend had her baby last week. A sweet baby girl for her to spoil and love. She was there for the delivery and is the baby's godmother.
11. Sam has been having an awesome basketball season and we have been reading almost every night and love it.
12. Little Colt will be one in 3 days already, that really makes me sad. I want him to stay little
13. I'm still working on some 2012 ideas and will be sharing them soon.
14. Project Life is making me very happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15. I'm reading a good book right now by Danielle Steele, love her books !!!
16. I have been doing more with the art pages from the last post and hope to finish this weekend and share them with you, loving them!!

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave me your random happenings in the comments or post on your blog for me to see !!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

ART JOURNALS, DOODLING, COLOR CRAZY #2

This was my weekly art journal page from week 1, don't think I shared the final pages with you. I like how it turned out, busy and colorful which was what the week was for us. I always worry if about squeezing in a whole week but it fit. So glad I'm doing this journal for the year, just that 10mts a day makes me happy.
Remember the pretty pink journal page I showed you last week, well this is how it turned out. I had so much fun playing with it and using my fave colors at that time. I will have to use these colors again next month. So this was my daily art journal for week 2.


I have been doodling in pen now, never tried it before since I'm a Sharpie girl. Was very surprised how fun it is. Just trying a little bit of anything that pops into mind, no stress just fun.
I love love taking pictures of my creative mess, all kinds of different projects going on right here. My art book on the left, art journal under it, my newest tags, little mini canvas art to. Look at that paper plate with mixed colors on it, so colorful and fun isn't it. My table has looked like this for 3 days now and I just cleaned it up tonight. The photos below are what my fave colors are right now AQUA, purple, pink, WHITE, also working on another color combo that I will show later on.







Monday, January 16, 2012

Project Life...... Week 2

This was a full week of story's for me, I included 2 extra page protectors. It's always fun to add these and think it really tells our week better and makes it easier for me not to just choose 7 photos. The left side is the start of the week and the right side is an added page protector. Love love these photos and glad they are recorded here to remember. I'm so excited to have another week filled and worked on this in little bits during the week. Usually Sunday nights are when I get them ready but I knew it was going to be busy so it helped to keep on it every couple days.
The left side is a page protector from Becky Higgins new ones, this one is all about Renee. On the right side is a 81/2x11 page protector and I did a collage on baby Colt. Every month I will be doing a 12 pictures on the 12th with 365 days of Inspiration. So I picked my 12 favorites of him and ordered the collage from Walgreens, love how it turned out.
The right side is the back of page protector, Summer made this beautiful drawing for me. The right side has my first little 4x6 collages that I will be doing this year. It will really help me keep my binder from filling up to much. The snow collage in the bottom right is about the HUGE HUGE SNOW FALL we woke up to on Saturday. It was so hard to just pick 4 but I narrowed it down to my 4 faves of the day. I also included a little collage about all the art work I did over the week, want to squeeze this into the album without filling it up also. The top two are blurry photos but very important about Sam's interest in GEMS right now. So happy I got all these stories again this week.
Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading.

Friday, January 13, 2012

VALENTINE IDEA ...... SHOWING SOME LOVE

I thought I'd share what we do to show some LOVE in February!!! It's like what we do for our thankful leaves in November but we use hearts instead. I cut out a bunch of hearts and leave in a jar on the table thru the month. The idea is to show your family how much you love them and things you like about them. The original name is called "HEART ATTACK" which is to attack your family members with lots of love and hearts. I don't like that title so we just call it SHOWING SOME LOVE. We try to write out hearts everyday for each family member (just the ones here so 5 of us) and write something nice they did that day, congratulate them on a test, just say I LOVE YOU, anything goes as long as it's nice and friendly. The first year we did this we would put the hearts somewhere around the house and we'd have to find them. The best times were when we really hid them, under pillows, toys, shower, in my wallet, in the cars it was a great family activity. Just a few words to show some love is all we had to do. It made the kids feel special reading what their siblings would say and of course us parents loved it to.
With all the squabbling that goes on some days it's nice that this month we remember to show some love for one another. I could do this all year but I will settle for just a month of kind words from my kids.
So who wants to join in and share some love at your house or if you do something else in your family let me know!!! I plan on cutting out some hearts this weekend, it is a time consuming job and I will have to bribe the kids to help me but it is soooo worth it. I will also save these hearts and put them in an envelope for my Project Life. We actually have some hearts still on the walls that I love seeing and have left up. Not sure if we will hang them on the door again this year or do the fun one of putting them everywhere, will ask the kids.

I ALSO WANT TO SAY A BIG THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL, SWEET COMMENTS FOR MY LAST POST ON PROJECT LIFE 2012. I LOVED READING THEM AND LOVE SHARING IT WITH YOU. I AM SO LUCKY TO HAVE THE BEST READERS!!
Have a great weekend.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Project Life 2012..... week one

Hello and welcome to my first Project Life 2012!!!!! I'm a little late with this due to some uploading issues, thankfully the pictures went thru and I could finish my first week. This is will be my 4th year doing PL and I love it just as much now as I did the first year. I can't tell you how wonderful and treasured these albums are at the end of the year. All our years story in one place. It makes me happy!!! The way I do project life is picking my favorite picture or story for the week instead of doing a daily photo. This makes it easier for me and helps me stay caught up. On the busier weeks I will have added page protectors to show more of our week. My other added fun is the paper goodies in our lives, ticket stubs, receipts, tags, art work anything I see that will fit and tell our story will be placed inside the little pockets.
I want to thank Becky Higgins and team for coming up with this amazing kit and to Jessica Turner for letting us link up at her blog so we share with other Project Life families.
On this side the important story is the one of mine and my son's feet, we are starting to read at bedtime together and this was our first night for it. He loves it and reminds me each night when it's time. I didn't expect him to love it this much so this makes me very happy. I also love that my OLW for the year "BELIEVE" is already on the designer cards that come in the kit. I hope to incorporate more of my OLW thru the year in this album to.
This side has some new things for me that I'm excited about. First is our family photo, the last two years I've wanted to do this and it never happened. I'm hoping the first Sat. of each month we do this and make it as much fun as this one was. The second new thing is the little tag I made using my favorite colors right now. This was my first time playing with tags and enjoyed it. So these will be popping up in some weeks. The last thing was writing on a photo, pretty sure I didn't do this last year. In the bottom right hand corner is the picture I wrote on due to all the white space on it. It's a blurry photo but a cool story for it.
So that's it for my first week, a whole week of our family story told and half way thru the second week already. LOVE LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!! Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoyed my pictures.

Monday, January 9, 2012

COLOR HAPPY #1 ..... COME PEEK

WELCOME TO THE FIRST COLOR HAPPY POST OF 2012!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited to be sharing this and hope you will be to. The picture above is what my side of our kitchen table looks like daily. I have all my faves right here so I can play thru out the day and not always take things out and clean up. I do occasionally clean it but 90% of the time it's like this. So here is a look at I've been doing with the colors making me happy at the moment. Can you guess what they are???? Notice the color I'm using??? Yes PINK ON MY BlOG !!! Not only is pink on my mind but really it's PINK AND GRAY!!! I've been using them for a couple weeks now and still haven't gotten quite over them yet, lol.. Go ahead and peek at what I've been drawing and making with these awesome colors. Remember this is just me playing around, I AM NOT MAKING MASTERPIECES OR ANYTHING OUTRAGEOUS!!!!! The rules for me is to just have fun and try new things and not go for perfection or with a plan. I just sit and do whatever comes to mind NO OVERTHINKING IT, this has been a bad habit of mine and it really creates roadblocks for creating so NO THINKING JUST PLAY AND ENJOY!!! This is making me happy now and that's what I want. OK NOW YOU CAN LOOK!!!!c



This is my new ART EVERYTHING BOOK, WHERE I WILL PLAY AND TRY NEW THINGS AND ENJOY MY COLORS AND WHATEVER ELSE MAKES ME HAPPY.
TAGS TAGS TAGS!!!!!!!!!!! I love tags and finally bought some and made them pretty!! It was so much fun and I can't stop making them now. Look for two ideas for these coming up soon. Summer my daughter loved these so much but I DO TO AND WOULDN"T PART WITH ANY, LOL will make one for her later on.



Here is the start to this weeks art journal page. Look at that soft pretty pink color, it's making me happy and not wanting to write on it. It was a dark pink at first but while it was wet I used a paper towel and wiped it down and it came out just how I wanted it. HAPPY HAPPY !!
Thank you for visiting and hope you enjoyed my first post of what I hope will be many COLOR HAPPY POSTS!!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Project Life December 2011 DONE !!!!!!!

I am sharing the first 3 weeks leading up to Christmas which is a lot of pages already and so are the Christmas/New Years eve one so I will post those another day. I like seeing the end of November here and start of December. On the right is my Thankful Leaves project all done for the month, love seeing this. I saved all the leaves and put them in an envelope. My monthly menu is here also, will continue to include that. The kids made a cute welcome home sign for Rich. The right side is all December, my mom and nieces in the bottom right, so CUTE!! The BELIEVE art is something I made for my OLW. The sunset photo is to remind me how gorgeous and lucky I am to see this almost daily, I never get tired of seeing this. Hope you enjoy these and the following weeks. It is a lot to see but I love it and am happy to have all these little memories.
Just a little bit of everything here and I love it. The extra paper stuff I put in makes me happy.
I always include a few photos of our decorations. This was the first snow we had I think. Just a little to make Sam happy and the trees look pretty.
I included a lot of snow photos, sorry if you get tired of seeing them. In the bottom right hand corner I saved the xmas lists for the family members we had to buy for, kinda cool to look back and see these. Love the twinkling light and snow covered bushes.
I would say my fave photo from the whole month is the one of Colt right here in the window, love this so much. He was so excited to be standing and looking at the cars going by. He'd have a little grin on his face each time. My other top favorite is the bottom left ones, THE BIG AHA moment for me using the macro button on my camera, love the results. The stickers you see thru all my pages this month are from my sweet friend Bonita, she sent me them as surprise. My other surprise was the package from Tracey, filled with paper goodies and ornaments. I'm lucky to have such sweet and thoughtful friends!!
This is one of Becky Higgins new page protectors, gonna love having choices now!! I always include a photo when my new PL items arrive, love the white boxes.
These were the last days up till Christmas. I do like having the variety of Becky Higgins page protectors. I finally got a picture of the White House Christmas special, the bottom right hand corner and that big beautiful flag and blue sky another favorite of mine!!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Project life update and exciting plans for 2012

I've been writing list after list ( I love lists) on plans for Project Life and other projects for the new year. My thoughts are to take them slow and not just jump in all at once this month. I want to really make this year count and hopefully have a good schedule in motion to work with me when the kids are home on summer break, that way I still get ME time and CREATIVE TIME in even with them home. Last summer not much creative or me time happened so going to make it work this year.

I'm hoping to take pictures of my PL for December today, kinda cloudy so not sure how good the lighting will be. I just got back our New Year's Eve pictures and have to put them in and do some writing and take the pictures that means 2011 Project Life is DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So happy about it this year and love looking at it.

First up then is plans for Project Life, which I plan on do as a weekly not daily spread. So much easier and more fun this way. Going to add paper and goodies again, even some paper only weeks. Here are my other ideas:
1. I say it every time but this year it's going to happen!! MONTHLY FAMILY PHOTO, on the first Sat. of the month. This will be so cool at the end of the year and I'm determined to do it!!

2. Adding in my own tags, doodle cards, anything art and small that will fit.
3. On weeks that have a lot of photos, will make them into 4x6 collage photos to save room in the binder and I like the idea of them all together.
4. working on getting better pictures, more focused and learning more about my camera
5. hoping the kids and Rich will do more with it this year, would love to see ALL of our thoughts in it this year.
6. Some weeks I was lazy and just threw whatever pictures in it just to fill it up, this time I want to really take pictures that matter and finding the stories for them.
7.I am getting ideas from other blogs about what pictures, like a prompt and going to use these ideas for my photos.
8. I will still be posting them on Tuesday just like always, even if it's just the pictures but will try and print out weekly and have it in the album for you to see.
So I think that's it for now. Looking forward to my 4th year of this project and love it so much.

Some of the new ideas I have to share are:

COLOR HAPPY!! some days it seems like colors are all I think about and I grab the sharpies and go to town with them. I doodle in them, scrap in them, paint in them and might last for a few days before I feel happy with it and move onto the next color or a break from them.
Right now it's been gray/pink like crazy!! Hoping to start making projects and and just seeing where these color obsessions take me. Will keep you posted thru the month.

HAPPY THINGS!!! I've been doing this one and love taking the time to remember what's making me happy, even want to make a journal/ album about this. I do this a few times a month and will continue to do so.

RANDOMS!! Kinda like the happy one but more of just what's going on around here. This is a couple times a month too.

THANKFUL DIARY!! I've thought about this one almost daily since doing the 30days of Gratitude in November. This really slows me down and finds more meaning in my life and my heart feels happy doing it. So this I've already started and will share during the month. For now it's a little journal and I write at least 3 things for each day to be thankful for and because I loooovee trees on each page I draw a tree or more so that at the end of the year I'll have a book of trees and this makes me verrrry happy. Nothing fancy just crayons/pencil keeping it fun.

RIGHT NOW!! I love reading these on other blogs and this is one I want you to join in with me on. Once or twice a month I will post what I'm doing right now and you can share yours in the comments or a link back to your blog if you want to post it also. This is always fun to do and reading others.

COLLAGE CRAZY!! I miss doing my collages and want to make time to try this again, not sure what yet but will post more when I know.

FAVE PICTURE!! I've seen that Wordless Wednesday around a lot and want to do that. Just one picture that is my fave of the week, that's it no writing, just a photo

WRITING BETTER!! I love to write but not fond of my writing so I'm going to start writing daily, practicing all kinds of writing and thinking of doing something with it using the alphabet. Might do letter A for a week and use it on everything then go to letter B, something like that. Will keep you posted.

I am a home body, BIG TIME, love being home and never feel like going out to much. Well, I need to get out and explore and find new things to inspire me and have fun. So I am challenging myself to get out twice a month OUT OF MY HOME TOWN and exploring some new stores and might make this into a project. Like a video of me going out and seeing where I go and what I discover, or buying something that inspires me and come home and do some art with it. Totally not sure and any ideas you want to give me on this please do so!!

WOW this looks like a lot after typing it but not to much that it should hold me back. I HOPE!! In the next weeks there will be more ideas that I will share but this is the most of them. Also will be improving and changing things in our family and really hope we can grow and be stronger this year. For me 2011 was tough and I shared a little bit of it here and might again. So hoping for better this year.

I BELIEVE WE CAN CHANGE AND MAKE US STRONGER AND BELIEVE IN MAKING A DIFFERENCE AND BELIEVE THAT I'M A GOOD PERSON AND MOM AND BELIEVE THAT GOD HAS WONDERFUL PLANS FOR US THIS YEAR.

I will be sharing more of word (BELIEVE) also thru the months and in my Project Life.

So did anyone read thru all that, sorry for such a long post but had to share so much. If you hung in there thank you!!
Any and all feedback on these topics would make me happy and would love to hear about. If you want to know more or want to join in on any of them THAT WOULD BE AWESOME, LET ME KNOW!!
Have a great day!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

SOME OF MY GOALS/PLANS FOR 2012

ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE KIDS WITH WHATEVER PROJECT THEY CHOOSE. SAM AND I ARE DOING NIGHTLY READING AT BEDTIME. SOOO GLAD HE WANTED THIS ONE. SADLY HE DIDN'T GET MUCH OF THIS GROWING UP. THE GIRLS AND I DID THIS ALL THE TIME. NOT SURE WHY WE DIDN'T WITH SAM, THINK HE JUST WASN'T THAT INTERESTED. TONIGHT WAS OUR FIRST NIGHT AND HE WAS HAPPY ABOUT IT.
NEW TRADITIONS... LIKE NEW YEARS EVE COSMIC BOWLING..... WAS SOOO MUCH FUN AND WE WANT TO DO IT AGAIN.....FAMILY FUN IS ON THE LIST
KEEPING MY ART CLOSE BY AND DAILY PROJECTS AND IDEAS. BRINGING MY OLW INTO IT AND IN EVERY PROJECT I HAVE. THIS IS MY NEW WEEKLY JOURNAL.
MAKING TIME TO PLAY WITH THE KIDS, SLOW DOWN AND PLAY WHAT THEY WANT. HERE SAM HAD BEEN ASKING ALL DAY TO PLAY RESTRAUNT AND WE DID. HIS AND SUMMER IDEA WAS THAT WE WERE ON OUR ANNIVERSARY DATE AND THEY TOOK OUR PICTURE AND PRETEND COOK FOR US AND EVEN SANG A SONG LIKE THEY DO FOR YOUR BDAYS AT OUTBACK. I LOOOOOVE THIS MEMORY AND WANT MORE OF THEM.
ENJOYING RICH'S NEW CAR, FINALLY A CAR JUST FOR HIM. THE KIDS LOVE IT AND WANT TO KEEP RIDING IN IT. MAKE TIME FOR CAR TRIPS THIS YEAR
A BOX OF PRECIOUS MEMORIES FOR ME FROM MY MOM. IT WAS THE BEST GIFT FOR ME THIS CHRISTMAS. ALL KINDS OF SWEET THINGS THAT I KEEP LOOKING AT. MORE ON THIS LATER. THANK YOU MOM
FINDING A WAY TO HELP THESE TWO GET ALONG MORE AND SHARE FUN TIMES AND LOVE FOR ANOTHER. THEY COULD BE SOOOO GOOD FOR EACH OTHER IF ONLY THEY COULD SEE IT. LOVING THIS DAY AND HOW SHE HELPED HIM ON THE ICE AND WAS A BUDDY TO HIM. SMALL STEPS IS WHAT I NEED TO DO.
ENJOYING MORE OF THEM AND REALLY LOOKING AND LISTENING TO WHAT THEY NEED AND WANT. BEING THANKFUL FOR THEM AND THE LOVE I HAVE FOR THEM. REMEMBERING THE GOOD MOMENTS AND LETTING THEM STAY IN MY HEART.
FINDING NEW THING/ACTIVITIES/PLACES TO GO AND DO LIKE ICE SKATING