This little space of mine has been consumed by lovely scrapbooking lately, but today it will be all about the words. And my heart.

Inspired by one lovely lady.

And one cute photo [circa 2004].   This appeared in my inbox this week from the hubs.  This one tugs at my heart alot.  Alot.  I cannot even fathom how quickly my children have grown and how quickly the time has passed.  I miss those days of toddlerhood.  So many great memories. 

blog your heart

♥ The kiddos have joined gymnastics and karate the past month. I have enjoyed watching from the sidelines as they stretch, learn and grow.

♥  An incident happened yesterday on the day care van that resulted in one cute K-girl's feelings being hurt and her over-protective big brother taking up for her. I agree he shouldn't have smacked the girl bothering his sister, but she shouldn't have been picking on her either. Why can't kiddos just say nice things?

♥  The hubs and I are in dire need of a date. And a nap.

♥  I listen to stories about my husband's day at school and it makes my stomach turn and my heart cringe. School is nothing like we enjoyed as kids. The safety net is gone. Sad.

♥  I am learning to knit. While it can be very frustrating, seeing the cumbersome process come together into something feasible has been neat. The company even better.

♥  My heart aches many days that my best friend and I live so far apart. I wish those miles were fewer, but I know there isn't any distance in our hearts.

♥  I enjoy my time as the Den Leader for my son's Cub Scout den, but this whole ordeal with allowing gays into the organization is a bit out of hand. 

♥  Most days, I wish I could homeschool my children.   In my heart, I know it is best for our family. Getting there, or even thinking about how to get to that point, is scary.  

♥  I am happiest if I can create something each day. Just ask my family. My heart needs it. I am enjoying designing for scrapbook companies. So much fun to push the creative limits with some products. I am fortunate for that the friendships I've made on the teams.

♥  Our house may be a chaotic mess when we step into it this afternoon, but it is home. The son has drawing papers strung all over the house and his Beyblades are scattered about. The daughter has a jump rope out, the exercise ball is not in its place and she has blankets all over the place from practice gymnastics. Laundry is piled up. Things untidy. But, a roof over our heads and a shelter full of love.

♥  I am trying to add some exercise into my daily schedule. It is hard because after dinner, I just want to sit and create. The exercise ball will help, I hope. Though I must admit that I busted my knee the first day using that ball. I got to giggling and rolled off, whacking my knee on the metal strip between our carpet and ceramic tile. Yowza.

♥  I haven't decorated for Valentine's Day nor have I purchased supplies needed for the kids' cards to exchange. I envision heart garlands about our holiday tree and house. Arrows. Hearts. Lots of hearts.

Gosh, can you believe tomorrow is December 1st? Already.

I know journaling and posts have been sporatic, almost non-existent lately, but I really do plan to make this space more homey, more comfy and just more me. I need to write for me, for my family and for the sake of memorykeeping. I must start now.

The calendar for December is filling up quickly. We have plenty of activities planned -- some on paper and some only in my mind.

I want to capture our holiday, everyday moments and those special magical moments that happen only this time of year. I want them to remember -- in photo, on pretty papers and in my heart.

How are you going to capture your December?

project life

I am not sure when I stopped posting my Project Life pages, but I have been steadily working on them.  I am currently hung up on Spring Break week [mid-March], but hope to be back on track this weekend.  So much of life to capture.  

But, I am committed to continuing on this project as my kiddos have enjoyed looking back at the pages and what life was like in those weeks.   That is reward enough.  

Playing a little catch up in photos, no additional words.

Below is a 4x6 insert:

Project Life concept and products created by Becky Higgins.

project life : week 3

I may be a bit behind in posting project life weekly pages, but I am actively working on them.  Each week, sometimes more than once, I print photos to to the mound of cuteness I find around the house.  Little tidbits, big stories --- I want to capture it all.  

A quick explanation of the cards, starting from top and left to right.

• card 1 : We spent the day at the park for the kids to ride their scooter even though it was a bit chilly out.  They enjoyed riding them around an empty parking lot.  white cardstock with SU and hand-carved stamps
• card 2 : I found a cute drawing of me and the K-girl one day and set it on my desk.  A few days later, when I glanced over at my craft desk to see what the K-girl was up to, she was scribbling over the drawings.  I almost fainted.  white cardstock and a strip of Doodlebug paper
• card 3 :  Daddy picked up the kids at day care and took them for a surprise visit to the park since their scooters were still on board his truck.  It was another crazy warm winter day.  some hoarded  Love, Elsie stickers and a KFD coil brad
• card 4 : Meet Snuggle.  She was born at Build-a-Bear and has been a member of our family for a few months.  She has skirt, hat, blinged out heels and quite the colorful personality.  card printed from Miss Tiina
• card 5 : you + me = awesome . Awesome.  another card by Miss Tiina, with a Aunthentique word sticker, Doodlebug patterned paper and some puffy hearts
• card 6 : The K-girl came out of the bathroom ready for school.  She was all jazzed up in alot of blingy rings.   white glitter cardstock and Doodlebug glitter hearts
• card 7 : The hubs and I had a night out sans kiddos and we chose to see Krishna Das in concert. He is not a performer that I have listened to except in bits and pieces as L tried to convince me to go to the concert.   Oh my, the performance was most excellente!  card by Marcy Penner
• card 8: This is first year that the K-boy wanted to participate in UIL competition. I was not surprised when he told me the event -- number sense.  Math.  Doodlebug and Simple Stories paper, 7Gypsies stamps
• card 9: I love this shot of K-boy anticipating the finish of that race at the Pinewood Derby, which took place almost immediately after UIL [4=4th place in division for race, 1=1st place design].  There were plenty more photos from that even, so I placed photos in a folded card and tucked behind this card

And a close-up photo:

 

I have said this once and I will say it a bazillion more times --- I love Project Life!  

Project Life concept and products created by Becky Higgins.

project life : week 2

I have feverishly and faithfully been working on my version of Project Life.  The concept is simple, but the rewards great.   I enjoy collecting the tidbits from our daily adventures and getting them into this album.  

I'm simply using a standard black school binder with baseball card protector sheets as the base of my album.  Here is a look at week one and week two, with an insert.   The insert is a pamphlet booklet picked up at a concert, inserted into a page protector sewn and trimmed to size. 

A closer look at the insert.  I added a journaling card and date to the front and then some photos to the back of it.  I also adhered a label from the handmade zebra doll the K-girl brought home.

And, now, week two: 

This week included the kiddos building a fort in the living room, the son working on his homework, warm weather, details of the K-boy's artwork, a little everyday note to the kiddos, scantron from the K-boy's math assignment, sunset on our way to the Watoto Children's Choir concert, the K-girl with her orange socks and glittery shoes and the K-girl doing what I thought was dishes, but she was bathing her dolls.   Lots of everyday moments, but I am so glad that I documented them.  

Week three and four have been completed, too, and I'll share soon.  

Are you working on documenting the everyday in your life?   Are you participating in Project Life?   How do you keep your family's memories?  

Project Life is the concept and product of Becky Higgins.  

project life : week 1

I have been working on and enjoying the process of Project Life.  I love capturing tidbits of our everday life, love playing with a hodge podge of scrapbooking goodies and love the few moments that I can steal away each night/week to document them.  

Week one was filled to the brim with celebrating the new year, remembering my dad on what would have been his 77th birthday, listening to the kiddos sing, getting back on schedule and in school mode and watching the Ks take interest in the guitar. 

I am not regretting my decision for a smaller format either.   Love the little bits of life within these first few pages.  

project life : my desk

project life : 2012 cover

I have long said that it is the little things I love most.  It is the little things that I cherish.  Those little things are the same things I like to scrapbook, to hold onto in my heart.    So, it makes perfect sense that I keep track of all those little things, recording life in a simple manner.     To do so, I've jumped on the bandwagon of Project Life, product of Becky Higgins. 

Of course, I have my own spin on the project, but still admire those that use the PL kit. 

I just knew that the larger 12x12 format would be too large of a blank canvas for me to tackle each day, each week.  It would make the project daunting and I didn't want that.  I want to enjoy this simple process of recording our days as a family, keeping track of funny things the kiddos say and just cherishing everyday life in photojournalist means.   Instead of using any of the core kit options, I decided to simply use baseball card pages for the album base with a few 4x6 pages tossed in the mix.  I am sure from time to time, I will also include an 8.5x11 or smaller insert in as well.  

I will be using journaling cards from MarcyPenner, lined index cards, graph index cards and whatever happy scrappy items I dig up in my craft area.

I will use tidbits from our family life, such as receipts, notes, artwork, bookmarks and such, but plan to leave most of the kiddos' artwork intact for our regular scrapbook.   I have been including their masterpieces into our family scrapbooks since they were babies and I always get teary-eyed looking at them.   Pieces of their hearts on paper. 

I love the PL concept, but just want this to be in my scrapbooking style and a book of memories my family will enjoy when reviewing this year.