LOAD 514 Week One Layouts (Part 2)

I have to admit I am loving this class. I love getting a new prompt every day and I love the fact that I have completed 15 layouts so far this month.

I have kept these layouts super simple so that I can complete them within an hour. I have absolutely stuck to using photos and supplies that I have in hand. I have found sourcing photos for some of the topics a little tricky but it is quite a good challenge to find a work around on those occasions. The only thing I am kicking myself about is that I have have not made note of the exact topics but most of the layouts are reasonably close this week.

I think the topic for this was board games and as luck would have it I had snapped a picture of Poppy lounging in the middle of one of the games we play most often, Monster Bingo.Poppy loves to be involved when we play games and she is very careful not to knock things over. I was pleased to have a try with the Amy Tangerine letters on this layout.

This layout was based on a Christmas theme. I had these photos taken from a couple of years ago that didn't make it into an album so I am glad I recorded the process of how tree decorating takes place for us. I don't usually play a major role. Miss Four and Tet love decorating it together and my role is to take photos as they do.

I love these photos of Miss Four that were taken when she was about 10 months old. I know I have scrapped some photos from this session before but I just love how her personality is so apparent even then. The theme for today was when you believed your life would begin. I twisted this a little to be when I truly felt like an adult which was with the arrival of Miss Four. I grabbed a random piece of patterned paper from an old kit and added some journalling cards from the most recent Amy Tangerine Project Life mini kit and some random cards from either Studio Calico or Citrus Twist PL kits.

I haven't made a lot of progress with Miss Four's baby album journalling but I am really glad I have finally recorded her early words somewhere other than in her baby book.

I had forgotten so many of her early words. I am so pleased her father wrote everything down!

The seventh topic was the most wonderful time of the year. A lot of people went with seasons, but for us it is always whenever we go on holiday together. We all adore travelling and getting to spend a lot of time together. I am all too aware that in a matter of years Miss Four would rather not spend her free time with us so I am most certainly going to enjoy this while it lasts. All the images in this layout are from Miss Four's first 14 months of life. The top centre photo was our first trip (moving internationally aside) to Indonesia. It was perfect, lots of sun, delicious food and hotel staff who loved our daughter. The bottom right photo was from our post Christmas trip to Phuket. Miss Four loves the beach and she had a wonderful time splashing in the waves, eating sand and her own body weight in pineapple rice. The final image is from our first trip to Japan. This shows my two loves on a ferry in Tokyo Bay. That ergo carrier made trains and sightseeing so much easier.

I am really looking forward to sharing the next seven layouts with you over the next week. I am so excited that I have managed to keep up and that I am finally doing something with my supplies and photos instead of feeling guilty about it.

In between working on these layouts and the normal day to day adventures I have watched the first series of Scandal and a big chunk of series two. I love it! My husband is not that interested so I watch it while he is at work and we are both happy. We have been hooked on The Blacklist and are looking forward to watching the final episode tonight. I love James Spader in this show.

Thanks so much for reading if you have made it to the end. Are there any other shows you could suggest based on the ones mentioned above? I love finding a really good series to watch!

Layouts and Learning

You may recognise the photo in the layout I am sharing with you today. It was my Wordless Wednesday image from last week. Sharing the photo prompted me to actually print it out and create a layout using the photo. I love it when my creative urges work in tandem like that!

I just love this Amy Tangerine paper. I keep saying I don't use much pink which is starting to suggest to me that I use a lot more than I think I do. The pink does match one of the colours in Miss S's leggings so that was enough for me. I used some scraps from a previous layout to layer under the photo. I also added a couple of journalling cards - the ampersand is from the SC Project Life kit and the hidden page clipped under it is a Creative Bubble printable.  I then threw in some vellum die cuts from Studio Calico and a glittery title from the Christmas Add On and called it pretty much done.

I have just started a blogging course to help me organise my blogging process a little better. It is run by Melissa at Momcomm. I do have a vague plan of how things work here but I think the time has come to be a little more focused. I have even set up a twitter account for the blog and when I figure how that all works I will be sharing it with you. 

To be honest, I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the course as some of the people taking part are serious bloggers with huge followings. I am not sure if my little spot in the blogging community is grand enough to be taking part. I have learnt a huge amount already though and I can see some ways that I can improve the blog.

As always I would love to hear from you, my kind readers. Are there things you love or loathe about this blog? I really would value your feedback.

By the way, Geralyn has some gorgeous new printables up this week. I especially love her new neutral set but the Valentines ones are also very cute.

Happy Wednesday!

Summer Holiday Starting Point

Good morning. We are on Day Two of Miss Nearly Three going to school four days a week. She was full of the joys of school when she got home yesterday and couldn't wait to go and see her teacher this morning so so far so good! She will be making the switch to five days in a couple of weeks provided she isn't totally exhausted. At that point I guess this mother needs to start thinking about a proper job.

Being in denial about the future is one of my favourite mind spaces and what better way to ignore stress than by looking back on a recent summer holiday. Shimelle has been on fire lately with loads of wonderful sketches and a starting point. I couldn't help myself and pulled out one of the few photos I had printed from our recent trip to Phuket to give the starting point treatment.

This starting point was simple and I wanted to make the most of the patterned papers I had already cut into from my December Studio Calico kit so it looked like a good way to do it.

Here is my take on the starting point: 

I forgot to take a picture until after I had adhered my photo to the layout but you get the general idea. The background paper and all the blocks and strips are from 34th Street kit and the Murray Hill and Kris Kringle add ons with the exception of the shorter green strip which used up a last scrap from the older Central High kit. The picture is of my daughter and sister at our morning banana pancake hang out right on  Bang Tao Beach in Phuket.

I have been looking for a layout to use the Smile tag from Dear Lizzy for quite some time and this photo seemed to be the right fit. Once I added my title and journalling there really was not much need for a lot of additional adornment. I am still not entirely happy with the Just Add Water sticker and it may disappear from the layout before I file it. I will give it a few days before I decide.

This photo makes me want to plan a beach getaway pronto. I will I think, as soon as we know where we are going to be!

I hope to have two further weeks of Project Life up on Thursday. Week 4 has turned into a 3 page spread so it is taking a bit longer than I intended.

I am off to have a first attempt at making Chia Pudding. It sounds delicious so I hope it turns out OK for me! If anyone has a favourite chia recipe I would love to see it.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Stuck Sketches January First Sketch

I am working hard to get through my Sock Hop kit. I discovered this Stuck sketch site on a Studio Calico thread about Australasian blogs. The challenge closes today so I grabbed a photo and some scraps and got stuck in.

Here is the sketch

 

And here is my take...

This photo is from our recent holiday in Phuket. Scarlett was desperate to make sand angels as she has never played in snow and figured this was the next best thing! I love her delighted expression in the photo.

I used scraps from my SC Sock Hop kit and a handful of arrow and star veneer along with some flair from a variety of sources. A simple take on the sketch but it lets the photo take a starring role.

Wordless Wednesday: Where I would like to be