Weekly Journal

Rule one for manga in this house: Read the last page first! Just kidding. But, as you will see below, I added the list of topics for a reading challenge. I have a reading partner for this. My youngest discovered it and saw it as a reason to finish more books. She handed me her one manga for the series prompt. Approximately one book a week should be manageable.

So, I thought when I first was looking at forms of scrapbooking that the whole Project Life format looked interesting. But, that rabbit hole started to panic me when I saw how people were going about how much work it was and how quickly they were falling behind on it. That made me decide not to go that route. But, I really liked the idea of documenting overviews of every week with scrapbooking. So, I wasn't sure how to go about it. In the end, I realised that I am really liking making different layouts and can use them to do the documenting. So, with a basic binder and sheet protectors, I'm off. Now, I get to make layouts in two different sizes! At least this one is completely for my use. I will use it at times for challenges, but more just to get the good things from each day in the specific week.

In the layout, I used part of a patterned paper from one of the pads from Michael's. I lined the bottom with part of a planner banner sticker from Dollar General. The week was printed out on my computer with a free font I picked up. Yes, I love finding fonts to use that are not the basic ones from the respective programs/OS. The main paper was the remainder of the watercolor paper I used to make the background on the previous layout. I liked how it looked and fit with the snowflakes. The white on the gray background for the images is actually from when I cut out a page of hexagons. I still have a couple more sections of it I have plans to use on larger layouts. The art in the background of the bottom picture was done by my oldest. All three are artistic.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch

I'm submitting the layout to the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge because it gave me the inspiration to start. It was funny my mind was arguing about how to start as in should I just go Day 1-7 or add in the end of the previous year. Honestly, I wanted to have this as just this year. Seeing the sketch, my mind immediately said this would make it work. Three rows for pictures means a full week wouldn't work. But, I could do it for a partial week to document. If not for them, I don't think I would have started. So, thank you ladies.

I thought I'd show the entire week. This is the sketch layout with a companion page just having some extra documentation of things about the week. I put a picture of the book I'm working on first along with the list. I also put the goals I have that I see are achievable. I tied the pages together by using a scrap of the snowflake paper in the corner and the rest of the banner strip on top. Just for why I used that paper. We had snow New Year's Day and no way would I take a picture of that. So, what type of journaling do you do, if any?

Carlisle Reservation Holiday Lights

I got home from the trip and slept most of the day away. Total round trip for me riding was twelve hours. He had three more AND did all the driving. I informed him that I had no problem with him being so worn out from the drive down. So, I ended up taking almost no pictures. It didn't help that we had to leave in the morning earlier than planned because of the snow and we weren't sure how the roads would be. I discoved that as I got older, my ears pop worse from the altitude changes while driving. But, I also thought the drive itself was very pretty, especially with distant fog. He agreed about the view by trying to point it out. It's made us start a list of vacations we want to do in the future. So far, we have the Mohican, one of the state parks in Kentucky, and the Civil War fort in Kentucky. Three places for travel. We also are planning on future trips to the local zoo to see the holiday lights, possibly a yearly tradition.
There is now snow on the ground out here. The boy and I were discussing about going to the holiday lights again this year. We went with the girls once already, see layout below, and didn't take the pictures I wanted due to the cold and the people bunches on the photo stops. Yes, we all have varying degrees of issues with public groups and space. He said if the snow was still down, he didn't want to drive there. But, we may go to another set of holiday lights nearby and I will push a little harder for family pictures. The other place I have never been to either. So, this may end up something nice to start.

So, here is the layout I made of the event. Yes, I took a bad picture of it. It actually ended up being the best one I could do. I had a few challenges with this layout and it helped me make some decisions for future ideas. The entire page is laid out on that gold paper. It was a pain to stick the other papers on it. Another big challenge was the sewing. I did that by hand and found making the holes an issue and more time consuming than I wanted it to be. I played with more on Draw and printing on different paper with this layout. I ripped the ornament topper sections enough times I decided to cut my losses on that image. I also pulled some free clipart that I used with this layout. I need to grab some free fonts to do what I want for titles since I find that I like being able to print them up and stick them on. I just need my preferred ones to use. 

#FF0049

So, this challenge actually helped me very much with getting the layout down. I knew the images I had and the triangles I wanted to use, but was stumped elsewhere. So, with this I decided on the metallic background paper. It goes with both the gold and blue stripes on the smaller triangles, which I was originally having the issue with. Then, I couldn't figure what journaling I wanted to do. So, this helped by making each triangle interactive. The purple piece that is seen sticking out holds where and when the pictures were taken. The other three hold a hexagon cut out with favorite moment of the evening per girl and me. I backed the photo with a snowflake clipart background. I also added the snowflakes to hold the title. Along with my three pink snowflake ornaments, there is a sticker of a donut ornament. They had cookies instead of donuts at this event. Oh well.

Let's Get Sketchy

This is the other challenge I am submitting this to. I originally thought it looked simple to do. No. It was not. This now reminds me a lot of quilting. My youngest does that and gets frustrated over the imperfections. But, it is teaching me even more. I am really learning a lot with the sketch layouts as much as I am the inspiration ones. I'd even say that using them both together is teaching me a lot.
The pictures were from the one spot where it had an empty stop. It was setup as a Sant's workshop. The girls were laughing over the Ouija board being there. They were willing to camp it up for the shots. As soon as I got a couple, everyone started crowding in so we all went out as fast as we could. I couldn't get the boy to join in the picture to begin with. But, at least I got in one stop. It was a good start.

Band caroling and some rambling

I'm working on this post in a waiting room. Mom is getting regular blood work appointment right now. She made the comment before she went in of me being one of the youngest people in here who weren't in the pediatric area. Yes, I quietly rolled my eyes. But, the majority were around her age. Of course, yesterday I saw a cardiologist for the first time who was surprised at my age and that I was young to be there, especially with what I was experiencing. So far, everything looks good, so we are waiting on tests. I have to be honest and don't like going to doctors if I can avoid it, which is why I ignored it this long. Finally, it scared my kids enough that I am doing something about it.
On a fun note, my boyfriend and I get to have an overnight getaway coming up. I am looking forward to it. Mostly we will be driving, but it is time just the two of us and hopefully not much stress. Other weekend plans look like they are being cancelled because the older girl is busy with being a junior in band. The banquet is ran by them for the seniors. I want to figure another time to get a family picture at the holiday lights. I have until New Year's to get it done. Was wanting a picture of them with Santa also, but suspecting that won't happen. I have a Santa and Me picture frame with a picture of my oldest as a baby. That is the last time anyone got Santa pictures. Easter bunny, more because I had a family friend who dressed as one professionally, there are more of. But, this also is the first year I have tried to push for more family holiday events. We will see how it goes.
Last week, the band had their annual caroling in town. Both girls are in band, but only the youngest went. My older girl is known, even by the band, as the freeze baby. She decided it would be too cold to play. Hot chocolate and pizza would not change her mind. This is the same child who got out of marching the last few games because of how cold she got. Of course, people after were surprised just how cold she physically was even with hand warmers. Luckily, this performance was volunteer only. The social butterfly jumped at the chance, of course.
She tried to get both her brother and me to join in, but we declined. Towards the end, he was ready to. They quit at that point. It's been too many years for me, so I had no intention of playing. Instead, I took a few pics of them playing and hanging out. The boy took some videos on his fancy, special ipad. It was fun, cold, and not snowy.

This is another layout I am submitting for a challenge site. For me, these are teaching me new ways to build pages. It also is getting me to make reasons to take pictures and make it possible for me to document the stories behind the stories. I've discovered that as the family pictures get older, the kids don't recognise people or know why the picture was taken. This is a double page layout. I'm not certain which layout I like making most yet. I could see the benefits to both, though I also can see myself possibly doing more single because I feel nervous taking pictures at events. To explain, I feel like I am paying less attention when I am taking pictures than just observing. 

 This is the right side of the layout. This has the photos of the entire band, my youngest getting one of her THREE slices of pizza, a picture of some of the town lights, and one of the other band members dressing up as Santa. The paper in the background came from my paper pads. I also used more dollar store stickers. The black stars and the outer phrases were from my Tim Holtz rub ons. My outlines on some of the pictures are Elmer's glitter glue. The last set are commentary, statements made and a couple songs they played as outline on the pictures.

This is the left side. I used more of all of the same on this side. With this side, I put the title of Hot Cocoa in Dollar Tree lettering. For the purple cardstock, I rubbed the edges with my silver stamp pad, which made a smoky look. I drew silver on the one tree and added an attempt at a mercury glass tree topper. On the other purple tree, I put lines of red glitter dots. My middle tree had a hand drawn star topper. The top picture was from when she was trying to get her brother to play by sticking the first reed in his mouth that wasn't chipped. He had multiple that were chipped and was pointing out that those were from the last purge we made him do: in high school. The bottom picture is her with both the hot chocolate and her last piece of pizza. After that, everybody who was performing went back out for a last round of songs.

Stick It Down

This is the sketch layout that I went from. Once again, all constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. This site has multiple sketches running, and I plan on making another layout for this month for them. I so greatly appreciate all these people who run them because I am learning so much.