Jess Be Happy

Project Life 2013: Week Six

Here is week six.

This was the week my mama came to town to visit.  It was so nice to have here here!  We spent Saturday at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame.  It was really fun, even more fun than I expected.  If you ever get to Cleveland, you have to check it out if you're a fan of music.

And no trip to Canton is complete without a visit to the winery in town.  Man is their food delicious.  I love that quote card from the Studio Calico project life kit and I love the quote I printed on it even more...its so true.

Project Life 2013: Week Five?

Hi there.  Its been so long since I've been posting here.  I wanted to get back to posting my project life layouts regularly so here I am!

Without further ado...week five.

We spent the weekend in Matt's hometown visiting with friends and family.  Matt lost a bet to his best friend's wife so he had to pay up by taking the four of us out to eat at the Melting Pot in Dayton.  I hadn't been to that place in years.  I forgot how fun...and filling it is!

I just love these Paislee Press woodgrain journaling cards.  I have to talk myself out of using them on every layout.  They are just so simple, classic, and versatile!

Most of the supplies I used in this layout were either from the Studio Calico kits, Seafoam Project Life Edition, or Paislee Press's shop.  The Sunday journaling card is an Ali Edwards download.  The striped journaling cards are from Paislee Press.  You can see them here.

I'm hoping to post a couple more layouts later in the week.  Thanks for looking!


 

2012 Project Life Cover Page

Here is my 2012 Project Life Title Page.  It was completely inspired by Liz Tamanaha of Paislee Press.  She did something similar for a previous year's title page and I think its genius.  Click the link above to see her title page.

I had the plan all last year to do this but never got around to it until now.  I LOVE the way it turned out.

It is just one 12 x 12 front and back.  Pretty simple.  But I think it sums up the year pretty nicely.

I went through all my pictures from 2012 and picked out favorites or highlights for each month and then summarized the main events of the month on the journal cards.  I actually referenced my project life albums to figure out what we did each month.  It was fun to look back on already, less than a year ago!  Can't wait to look at these in five or ten years!

Project Life 2013: Week Four

Rocking right through week 4!  I got A LOT of scrapbooking done this weekend and it was a lot of fun.  I love being caught up on Project Life!  I didn't have a lot of photos for this week, which is another reason why I am loving having a core kit to use...there is an endless supply of filler cards that match each other.  I'm loving it.  It makes putting together these pages so much easier for me.

It snowed a lot here last week.  Well, a lot for an Arizona girl!  It was fun and pretty the first day, but I'm ready for it to melt and ready for Spring!  9 degrees is just too cold for me, thank you.

I ended up journaling on the blue striped paper about our day on Sunday, but wanted to take these pictures before I ran out of day light.  Thanks for looking!

December Daily 2012: Part Two

Part Two of December Daily 2012.

That's my adorable niece and nephew.  We had such a good time watching their Christmas pageant.

Inside that envelope is a card with all the gifts I gave out this year.  I thought it would be fun to look back on in a few years.

Loved carrying on the tradition of handing out Chex Mix during the holidays to friends & family.  This was the first year I've ever had to make it myself since I am not living near home.  It was fun to make on my own.

That photo is not very clear but this layout is about Sandy Hook and the 26 Acts of Kindness project I started in December.

So good to be home!

That is the Bible reading I read at the Christmas Eve Church service every year.  My favorite week at church all year long!

The end!  So happy to have this finished and documented!  Thanks for looking.

 

 

December Daily 2012 Part One

I am SO happy to have this album done!  I did December Daily back in 2010 and never finished it.  And I can't seem to get inspired to finish it.  So the fact that I finished this, and only one month late makes me beyond happy!

I love the way it turned out.  The only thing I would change was that there aren't a lot of "people" photos.  There are more pictures of "things" or stuff we did.  But oh well, at least it is done and wrapped up in a pretty little bow to look at.  Yay!is 

I shared some of these pages last month but decided to post them all in order again now that it is completed.

I love that star wreath I got at Pottery Barn a few years back.

Those number stamps are part of Kelly Purkey's December Daily stamp set.  Loved incorporating those into my album this year.  I know they will be a favorite for years to come as well.

Day 6 is one of my favorites.  I love that journaling prompt inspired by Kaitlin at Ormolu and I can't get enough of those mistable stars by Studio Calico.  Although I don't own any mists so I just use them plain and white but I still love them!

Date night.  I journaled around the plates.  Getting a lot of inspiration for journaling around circles via Elise Blaha Cripe's 2013 Project Life images.  I've been incoroporating a lot of this style of journaling lately and I like it.

We hosted a Christmas party this year and it was a lot of fun!  I was most excited to try out a bunch of Pinterest recipes I've had pinned for a while.  They were all a hit!

Can't do a December Daily without talking about my favorite Christmas tunes!  Music makes the holiday season for me so much more festive!

I have a love affair with ornaments.  They are probably my favorite Christmas decoration to put up each year.  I did a little page on some of my favorites and journaled about why they have sentimental value to me.

Love getting Christmas mail around the holiday!

That was a great movie.  I love Jennifer Lawrence.  I don't usually care for Bradley Cooper but his character in this film was a little more tolerable for me.  I enjoyed it!

I will share the second half of the album tomorrow.  Thanks for looking!

 

Project Life 2013: Week Two and Three

Week Two:

This weekend was a tough one.  I met my family back in Pennsylvania to help them move my grandparents into an assisted living facility.  It was an emotional weekend for all of us.  My Grandma has been in and out of the hospital a lot this past year and my Pap Pap finally came to the conclusion that it is too hard for him to take care of her anymore.  

We moved them into a nice apartment where someone will check in on them periodically, but where they will have their own independence for as long as they need it.  They are taking it pretty well, surprisingly.  I think it may be a relief to them to downsize and have part-time caretakers.  It is still hard to see people who have taken care of you for so long need to be taken care of by you now.  Part of the cycle of life, I guess, but still not an easy change for any of us.

I am sad that in a few months they will be selling their home.  It is going to their cleaning lady, who lost her family home just before Christmas to a fire.  So something good will come out of it.  And I know they will take good care of it.  They are a young family with two girls and my Grandma is very happy that they will be moving in to it.  Its a win-win for everyone.

It is just hard to say goodbye to a place that holds so many childhood memories for me.  I can't imagine how hard it is for them.  They have lived there for 27 years. 

One awesome thing that happened was that my Grandma passed out everyone's Christmas stockings to each family.  She made each of these from scratch as every family member was born into the family.  From her own children, to their spouses, and to each of the grandchildren.  The greatest part was that she had a friend type out the story and the tradition behind these stockings.  It was so amazing to read.  She started by saying how her Grandma had started the stocking tradition and talked about how much joy it brought her over the years to hand-sew each and every one.  They are all so beautiful and uniquely shaped.  What a wonderful treasure I will have.  And I am so happy to have the story saved.  It went right into my Project Life book.  It makes me happy that I am recording my memories now for my kids and grandkids in the future.  I hope they will enjoy looking back on my life and reading all the details about what life was like before them.  It made me appreciate this memory keeping hobby I enjoy so much more than I already do.

Another highlight of the trip was going through my Grandma's teacup collection.  We used to have tea parties every summer with all the aunts and cousins, when we'd all be back there together.  It is one of my fondest memories of my Grandma and cousins.  My sister and I were in charge of dividing up the tea cups between all the granddaughters.  We each scored some of our favorite ones.  I am happy to add them to my own collection that my Grandma has been helping me build over the years, as she used to gift them for Christmas and birthdays.

The weekend ended with a fun sister road trip.  We drove from their place to Pittsburgh where Jordan flew back home from and enjoyed each other's company.  Lots of singing, laughing, goofing off...and many failed attempts at a self-portrait in the car.  Those pictures make me laugh!

And here is Week Three.  I already shared it on Instagram but thought I'd share it here as well.

Nothing special, just a recap of the weekend and all the movies Matt and I went to see that week.  Thanks for looking!

 

Project Life 2013: Week One

Project Life Week One!  Here we go!

I love all the colors in this week's spread.  All the inserts this week are from the Studio Calico January Project Life kit.  I feel like my pages are so much more cohesive this year already.  I don't know if that has something to do with the fact that I am using a core kit and the Studio Calico kit or not, but I am liking the results.

Not a lot happened this week.  This was the first week we were back from our holiday trip to Arizona to visit our families.  We did a lot of unpacking, laundry, putting away Christmas, and movie watching.  It was pretty much a lazy/catch-up weekend and I loved every minute of it.  As much as I love to go go go, visit new places, see friends, etc. etc. etc., I love being home and being lazy just as much.  It's all about the balance, right?

It's always so depressing for me to have to put the Christmas decorations away.  The house looks so bare and it makes me sad that Christmas is over.  I put it off for as long as we could, but it was time to pack it up.  

That self-timer shot was taken using the TimerCam Pro app.  I have been using it a lot lately and am always inspired by the way Elise Blaha Cripe uses it for her #dailyyoga shots.  I am trying to incorporate more of these types of pictures.  I like the different angle.

There has been lots and lots of movie watching lately around here.  And I am loving it.  Nothing makes me happier than a quiet night at home, curled up on the couch with my man, my kitties, and a good movie.  

I loved every movie we watched this weekend.  Not a bad one in the bunch.  The Hurt Locker is one of Matt's favorite movies and when he heard I had never seen it, he was on a mission to make sure that I did.  It did not disappoint.  The rest we rented from iTunes.  We just bought an AppleTV and we are loving it.  We sync up our iPads so we can watch the movies on our TV.  It is so convenient and definitely worth the buy.  We have been getting a lot of use out of it.

Thanks for looking!  Check back tomorrow for Week Two!

 

Project Life 2013: Title Page

Hello!  It's been a while since I've been back here to post.  I was enjoying the holidays as well as getting back into a routine at the start of the year.  I finally was able to catch up on Project Life last night.  

Here is a look at my 2013 Title Page.  

I am very  happy with the way it turned out.  I love blues, grays, and blacks together so this page was very fun for me to put together.  I still need to go back to 2012 and finish my Title Page.  Hoping to tackle that this weekend!

Here are a couple close-up shots.

I just have to say that I am loving working with a core kit this year.  It is making this process so much easier, simpler and faster!  Can't get enough of the Seafoam colors, either.  I also subscribed to the Studio Calico Project Life kit and can honestly say I've used about everything that came in the kit for the first few weeks' spreads.  I am thinking of cancelling my scrapbook kit and only ordering the project life kit from now on.  I just don't "scrapbook" as much as I used to and can't seem to use all the paper that comes with that kit.  Can't wait to see what February's PL kit looks like tomorrow at reveal!

Come back tomorrow for a post on what Week One looks like.  I am hoping to have an update posted for the next couple days with my progress so far.  I am working on Week Four today.  

I am also hoping to finish my December Daily album this weekend.  I want to finish that before I lose interest and inspiration.  Sounds like I have a lot of scrapping to do this weekend.  :)  Better get to it.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.  Thanks for looking!

December Daily Progress

Here is a look at some of my December Daily pages so far.  They aren't all finished, so I'm just posting the ones for now that feel "done."  There are a few pages that I think need that "little extra touch."  They don't feel complete yet so I am going to wait to post those.

I am having so much fun with this year's DD.  Much more enjoyable and much less stressful than DD 2010.  The pages are coming together very easily and I am actually taking enough pictures to the point where I have choices in which ones to use, rather than being stuck with the only photo I took that day.

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 7:

Day 8:

Day 10:

 

Day 11:

Day 17:

How's your December Daily coming along?!