A Pocketful of Licorice

Europe 2012 part 3: France

Good morning! The last section of this album covers our time in France. We were mainly in Paris, with part of a day at Versailles. 

The France section has a lot of blue, aqua, and pink, with a little red thrown in, too. 

I added a pocket here to hold some leftover Euros I had at the end of the trip. 

And that's it. Once I got all the pictures printed, the album came together pretty quickly. I worked on it for 2 or 3 evenings. I really enjoyed working with this size. It ended up being perfect for a travel album. I have another Simple Stories album all ready to go for this year's April trip - Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Thanks for taking the time to look at my album!

 

 

Europe 2012 part 2: UK

Hi again. I'm back today to share the UK section of my Europe 2012 album. We had a couple stops in Wales - we were only there for part of a day - then moved on to England. In England, we were in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Oxford, and London. 

 

Throughout the album, I used a mix of Instagram pictures, and pictures from my digital camera. 

An overarching theme of the album is that there wasn't enough time for all I wanted to do. The tours we take the kids on are packed full of tons of stuff, but you tend to only get an hour or two in places where you could easily spend a day or two. 

Throughout the album, I used gold glittery embossing powder and my good old Educational Insights alpha stamps to do some of the title work. 

I mentioned yesterday that each section has a color scheme. The UK section has a lot of blue and red. 

If you're ever in London and in need of a tour guide, I highly recommend Justin. He was really knowledgeable and engaging. And cute. We all had a crush on him. 

And some memorabilia to finish off the UK section - Underground ticket and map. Back tomorrow with part 3. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Europe 2012 part 1: Ireland

Hi there. Over the next three days I'll be sharing an album I made to document my trip to Ireland, Wales, England and France with the school a couple years ago. Over April vacation every year, we take a group of students on a tour. Sometimes I get picked to chaperone. This year, I'll be heading to Italy, Greece, and Turkey with the kids. I can't wait. 

Anyway, for this project, I used a 6x8 Simple Stories album with a couple different styles of page protector. 

The album is divided into three sections, labeled Ireland, UK, and France. I had to renew my passprt recently, and since this was the last trip I took with my old passport, I stuck it in the album. 

There are paper pages inserted in a couple spots to hold extra journaling. 

Each section of the album has its own color scheme. I used a lot of orange and green in the Ireland section. 

The album is fairly simple, because I had so many pictures to include. I used a lot of labels, stamping, washi tape, and printable elements, and did a lot of writing directly on photos. 

Dublin might be one of my favorite places in the whole world. I'm dying to go back. 

Some of the cards I used are from Studio Calico Project Life kits, some are from the Midnight Edition Project Life core kit, some are MAMBI Pocket Pages journaling cards, and some I made myself.

There are bits of memorabilia tucked in here and there. And I used wood veneer, clips, and page tabs from my stash. 

And that's the end of the Ireland section. Tomorrow I'll show you the UK section. Thanks for looking!

on turning 40

I turn 40 tomorrow. I'm more or less ok with it. Turning 40 is better than not turning 40, right? A few days ago, I put this layout together. This makes only the 4th full size 12x12 layout of 2013. One of my goals for 2014 is to return to 12x12. I'm currently working on a gift album in that size that I'll share when I'm finished with. But I'd like to start doing them for myself again, too. Seems like it might be time. 

By the way, I didn't finish checking off all the items on my 40 by 40 list, so it might have to become a 40 while 40 list. :)

kicking off 2014

My intro page for 2014 is fairly simple. The lyrics I included this year are from Cloudbusting by Kate Bush, although I'm not sure how strongly I believe the sentiment at the moment. I wrote out a list of goals and intentions for the year. And I used a picture of the Orion Nebula. 

At the end of my 2013 pages, I added an insert with some odds and ends to finish off the year. 

My best/worst list is tucked into the pocket. It's been a year. Nothing spectacularly bad or good happened. But somehow I feel stuck, and kind of sad. Tomorrow is another day, though. One thing I've learned in life is that sad seasons come and go. Right now I'm sad. But I won't be sad forever. So it goes.

December 2013

No December Daily, here. I don't do enough Holiday-related stuff to warrant a separate album to contain it. In fact, I didn't decorate my house at all this year. I must try to do better next year, because I really do like decorating. I decorated my classroom, anyway. Or rather, Steph did. My lab assistant is the best. 

I have two whole layouts covering Holiday Fun. We went roller skating, which was the best. I love it so much. You really never forget how. It takes me back to middle school. I really needed the rink to be playing, like, Let the Music Play by Shannon, or something. But alas, it was all contemporary pop. 

Here's the rest of HF. Good times in Middletown. 

 

Department Social is my favorite. 

I really need to work on taking more pictures. I think the median number of pictures per page this year was four. I'd like to improve my (decidedly amateur) photography and also take more pictures. I'd like my albums to have a lot more of them. 

I included a pocket here for cards and notes, and another one with my calendar from December and some highlights. I've been getting the screenprint and letterpress calendar from Ilee Papergoods (on etsy) since about 2008. And I've saved all the pages because they're so pretty. I may start using them for a monthly highlights insert at the end of each month. 

Not quite finished here. My December playlist is going to go on the other side of my monthly highlights. I use post-its to remind myself of things that need to be added. 

My niece is hilarious and a little bit nuts and really entertaining. So Christmas Day with her was a blast. 

And this recap is officially over. Whew. All caught up. 

I'm not starting a new album for 2014 because I still have room in this one, but I made a 2014 intro page and I'll be posting it soon, along with a couple other projects I've been working on. 

Thanks for taking a look at my pages!

November 2013

So, I missed the first week of November, too. This layout is from a weekend in Vermont. My pages seem to alternate between typical project life pages doumenting the bits and pieces of daily life, and pages covering events, like the one above. In the past, I would have put this weekend on a 12x12 layout. Pocket pages have become such a habit for me, though, that it seems like I reach for them for everything. Maybe one of my goals this year will be to try to rediscover my 12x12 love. I pin zillions of gorgeous layouts (here) and I find them really inspiring, but it seems I've nearly abandoned that format. 

 

I added an insert here for my November playlist and a note about Friendsgiving, which I forgot to take pictures of, like a dummy.

And Thanksgiving is the end of November, since it was so late this year. 

Almost done with this recap. December is coming tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

October 2013

Back again. Looks like I missed everything in October that happened before Columbus Day Weekend. Oops. Well, here's a layout that covers that weekend. Rita and I ran a half-marathon in Newport. Next year, I'm planning to do at least four of them. 

I added a couple things here - a zippered pouch (Target dollar spot) with some thoughts, and a small page protector to hold some notes I received from students so far this year. I've started incorporating those into my albums, too. 

October went by in a busy, school-filled blur and didn't get a whole lot of documentation. It's hard for me to explain how stressed I get during the school year. There are many nights when I'm at school until 7 or 8. The kids leave at 2:10 and teachers are allowed to leave at 2:30. Apparently I'm not very good at that. 

Anyway, I'll post November tomorrow. 

Thanks for looking!

September 2013

Photographing and posting all my layouts from the second half of 2013 at once has been interesting. It's helping me to recognize what I like and what I want to change. I've decided that I like the look of my layouts most when I use cards I made myself. I also tend to like it best when there are about 6 photos on a layout. 

Clearly that didn't happen here. School starts and everything else kind of goes out the window. Very little picture-taking happened this week, apparently.

I've also noticed that I've been more into neutrals lately. I love that diamond pattern craft paper (I think it's Studio Calico) and I don't have much left and I'm sad about it. 

September didn't get a layout a week. But I don't really stress about that too much. 

Tomorrow, October. 

And thanks for stopping by and checking out my pages. 

August 2013

Hey again. Continuing with my Project Life pages from 2013 with August today. August technically started during nerd camp. I don't necessarily do a layout every week. Sometimes I combine a couple weeks into one layout if there isn't much beyond the routine going on. So for August, I think that's what happened. 

I'm still hiding a fair amount of my journaling in pockets, too. For one thing, pockets are cute. And if people flip through my books (or I post my pages on the internet, as I am wont to do), there are some thoughts I like to keep to myself. They're like mini-journal entries.

My albums, since I've started using the Project Life format, are pretty much completely integrated, except for the occasional mini-album. I used to have separate albums (filled with 12x12 layouts) for family, friends, and personal pages. That's a lot of albums to store and keep track of. Now I just work on one album at a time, and everything (family stuff, friend stuff, personal stuff) goes into it, mainly in pocket pages. 

In 2013, I think I did a grand total of four 12x12 layouts. Those layouts get thrown into the same album as the Project Life layouts. I used to scrap exclusively in 12x12. It's been a pretty drastic change, but one that I needed to make, and one that I've enjoyed. Anyway, the above is one of the 12x12's I did this year. 

I've started incorporated my playlists in my albums. I use Spotify, and start a new playlist at the beginning of each month. Then I add to it over the course of the month. I like being able to go back and see what I was listening to at a certain moment in time. Music has always had the power to bring me back to times and places from the past. I also have a penchant for sad bastard music. Sometimes my musical nostalgia borders on the maudlin, really. Anyway, I think 2013 was the year of Kurt Vile. 

See you tomorrow with September.